That was a huge mistake.

Time and time again he had learned that lesson. That anger was a weapon only to one's opponent. And for the first time, he had managed to turn that to his own advantage.

He was going to make Val pay dearly for underestimating him.

The seriousness of the situation made both of them silent and brooding all day, a day passed without incident. Jesmind was finally feeling the impending confrontation, and had become quiet and withdrawn. Tarrin had been feeling it in his bones for days now, feeling it coming. And now he only had a little more to wait.

There was no sense of anticipation, no nervousness, no anxiety when they made camp that night, a mere two leagues from the edge of Val's void. That was two hours of slow walking for them. They would get there precisely at sunrise, as he anticipated. And two hours after that, they would be standing in the presence of a god, playing a very dangerous game to reclaim their abducted daughter. He felt no worry, no fear. He felt nothing, strangely empty, as if this were yet another in a long series of exercises that had slowly numbed him to their importance. Even the worry for his daughter faded away, leaving only the knowledge that he had to get her back inside him, a feeling he knew would change when he finally laid eyes on her again.

Not even the strange things he was sensing worried him. He could feel Val's irritation, his worry, his anger that they were not there yet. Val knew that tomorrow was the day, and yet he still did not have the Firestaff in his possession. Surprisingly, though, Tarrin realized that Val had not yet panicked. Val probably knew that Tarrin was lurking very close by, and since his plan depended on him arriving before the conjunction, Val was probably content to allow that to come to pass. Though the Illusion hid them effectively from everything else, he had the feeling that Val knew exactly where he was even without having to actively search for him.

All the better for Tarrin.

He sat there, looking up into the sky, fully prepared for what was to come to pass tomorrow. By this time tomorrow, if things all went well, everyone he cared for would be alive and well and safe, and Val's army destroyed. The Firestaff would not be a problem for another five thousand years, the gods would all go home happy-all but one, anyway-and Jasana would be home safe, and nothing would ever threaten her again.

He would make sure of it.

To: Title EoF

Chapter 15

They were off exactly two hours before sunrise, and they were both absolutely silent. There was nothing more that needed to be said, though he knew that some things would have to be commanded later. He had faith that Jesmind would do exactly as she was told without question, mainly because she understood the danger involved in what they were doing. Their getting their daughter back demanded things to happen in a very specific manner, and also required exceptional timing on their part. Val probably knew the plan by now, and he would understand why it was so important as well. He would do his best to interfere with the timing of that plan, but he also could not interfere with one vital fact. The fact that Tarrin had to be there with the Firestaff before the conjunction ended. He had considered several possibilities in his mind, but that ultimate deadline meant that Val was more or less forced to accept the timing and pace that Tarrin dictated.

What Val wanted was more important to him than Jasana was to Tarrin. That didn't mean that he wouldn't do anything to recover his daughter, but Val had worked and labored and planned for five thousand years to reach this moment, and his desperation to free himself would override Tarrin's desire to regain his daughter. Tarrin understood this, Val understood this, and that gave Tarrin a powerful advantage. So the game would be played by Tarrin's rules, if only because he held the one piece on the chessboard that Val could not counter.

They walked through the cold, starlit night resolutely, without conversation. It would all be over today. Months of worry and planning were focused down to this one day, a day that the gods themselves would be here to witness. It was the day that Tarrin finally confronted Val and recovered his daughter. It was a day fraught with peril, possibly the day that marked the beginning of the end of the world, but it was a day that totally and completely belonged to Tarrin. He knew the dreadful importance of what was happening. He understood the risk involved in bringing the Firestaff to Val, but to him, they were acceptable risks. Nearly any risk was acceptable if it helped him recover Jasana unharmed.

The appearance of Domammon, the White Moon, on the southeastern horizon was like a cold rock sitting in his belly. It had begun. Vala would rise but moments after Domammon, and the Twin Moons, Duva and Kava, would rise exactly nine minutes after Vala. Domammon in the southeast, Vala in the northeast, and the Twin Moons dead east. They would rise and approach one another, and then they would join to form the conjunction in exactly four hours and six minutes. Tarrin took out the pocketwatch and studied it for a long moment, seeing that he was right on time so far.

They moved on, step after step on top of the snow, the padded feet making no sound. There was only the sound of the gentle wind and the sound of their own breathng, and the pounding of Tarrin's heart.

Two hours passed like that, with Tarrin's every thought locked onto the perils the day would present, until the sky began to lighten as the sun approached the horizon, and the edges of Val's countless army became visible in the brightening light. The edge of Val's void, which was also the boundary of the warmth that kept the arctic chill at bay, rose up before them, and the movements of the army seemed a shimmering of the darkness at the edge of his vision, as thousands of Goblinoids, humans, and other fell creatures moved around. As they got closer and closer, he saw that they were not camped. They were formed up in lines, formation after formation after formation, readied for any attack in a ring that had formations stationed at regular intervals around the perimiter, with the bulk of the force kept well back and in reserve. Tarrin understood the strategy of it. Those fringe units would serve to slow down the attack of the suddenly appearing enemy, giving the reserve forces time to rush to the site of assault and repel the invasion. Tarrin wondered grimly if the beings in those edge units understood that their lives were being thrown away. If they were the ones who were attacked, they would not make it long enough for the reserves to reach them. They were there to die, and in that dying slow down the press of the attackers to give the reserves enough time to reach them, reserves set at a distance that would allow them to respond to nearly any place in their circle of protection. It was a smart strategy, if one was willing to throw away a few thousand men, and Tarrin could appreciate the mind that had devised it. Faced with a circle that ringed the pyramid some twenty longspans away from it, unable to defend it all, the commander of the enemy was willing to give a little ground in exchange for being able to defend the internal territory from nearly any direction.

"What do we do?" Jesmind asked as she began to scan the enemy forces ahead.

"Walk right through them," he answered distantly. "If I'm right, they won't even try to stop us."

"And what if you're wrong?"

"Then we walk right through them anyway," he said grimly as he cancelled the Illusion concealing him. He wouldn't need it anymore.

Jesmind gave him a long, hard stare, then she too dropped the Illusion and stalked forward with a deadly expression on her face, the expression of a woman prepared to kill a million men if they decided to stand in her way.