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Halfway to the camp, the scout stopped abruptly as a dozen, a score, ahundred sharp lines of visible light began lancing outward toward DCompany. You stand up, the oldman ordered Varlik. Let me add my voice to ColonelVoker's, he said. It sat on a coastal plain, mostly on an ancientriver terrace above the Lok-Sanu River, out of reach of the infrequentfloodwaters.

Thanks for telling me about it, she said quietly. But Varlik Lormagen stayed in the back of thecolonel's mind. You've begun to toughen physically; you've begun todevelop the needed strength. Again Varlik didn'tmention the arsenal on Tyss, and withheld his belief in T'swa complicity.