The stone beast wanted to be taken seriously. These Lords of the Dread Empire no longer did so. They knew the situation as well as did Ethrian. They now perceived the Deliverer and his godling as fading nuisances they would eliminate within days.
Ethrian had drifted across the river and had seen the confidence there. They knew they would break him this time. They were abiding his attack, expecting him to destroy himself.
The stone beast said, "You did well to summon me, Deliverer. You had no other hope. Together, now, we will crush them. But I ask you, how do you plan to cross the river?"
Ethrian had given that no thought. He was worried about smashing his enemies, not about getting to them. He did not have a single boat. His troops hadn't built rafts or pontoons. The legions had destroyed all local craft during their retreat.
He cursed himself for being a fool. "Not much of a general, are you, Deliverer?" The stone beast's sarcasm stung. His own accusation had come home to roost.
"What would you suggest, Great One?" He tried for sarcasm himself. He glanced to the east, where the sun was about to rise.
"Sahmanan. I'll feed you strength. Freeze the river."
Ethrian gaped. "Freeze it?"
The beast laughed. And the youth shivered, knowing he had best take care.
Sahmanan performed some lengthy, darkness-hidden ritual. After a time, she said, "Aid me, Great One."
Ethrian felt the cold grow. It taunted his burned skin. It rolled down the hill. The woods became so chill that branches snapped. He closed his eyes, drifted out of his body.
There were scums of ice on the river already. The cold swept toward the nether shore. Over there they had begun to respond, ere ever the chill reached them. Their fires grew higher. Their drums hammered rhythms of warning.
Frost formed. The air grew misty. Snowflakes trickled down. Shinsan's soldiers calmly manned their earthworks.
If I had soldiers like these... Being the best would avail them not. A man's skill meant nothing once he heard the stone beast's Word. Ethrian knew. He had seen Sahmanan's visions of the war with Nahaman.
His spirits rose. Soon he would stand on the western shore, its master. The legion dead would rise around him, ready to move on... In a flash of whimsy he flung himself westward, through the wild forests, hunting the place they would try stopping him next.
It was a venerable city, an interesting city. It would delight him. He looked forward to taking it. He loved cities.
Refugees swarmed outside this one.
Here were the hordes that had escaped him earlier. He harangued them with a silent scream: I'm coming for you! There's nowhere you can run!
His anger faded. He was too far from his flesh to sustain an emotion long. He looked within himself, and was disturbed by what he saw. He was too attached to this idea of being Deliverer.
He sped back to the river and battle that would be Shinsan's last hurrah.
Dawn had come to the Tusghus. There was ice enough for men to cross. Sahmanan was spreading it up and down the stream, providing a broader avenue for attack.
Ethrian passed among his enemies, and grew nervous as he did so. They were not afraid. Their wizard-captains had convened no panicky conferences. They had their first and second and third lines set, their pyres ready to burn, their portals ready to evacuate their dead. Their commander was taking breakfast with his legion commanders, indifferent to events on the river.
Fear me, damn you! the youth raged. But, of course, they could not hear him. And that was just as well. They might have mocked him in their arrogance.
He thought, You'll see. When the stone beast speaks, you'll see. Then you'll show a righteous fear.
He returned to his body. He found Sahmanan now seated on the earth, eyes closed, face pruny with concentration. A black box, ten by six by five inches, lay in her lap. "That's a god?" It seemed bigger in the woman's visions.
The sun was several diameters above the horizon when her eyes clicked open and she said, "It's done."
Ethrian started his forces moving to the river's edge. They would strike when the beast Spoke.
It whispered in his mind, "I can't speak without a mouth, Deliverer. Lend me yours."
Again Ethrian chastized himself for lack of foresight. And not in respect to traps. "Use Sahmanan."
"Impossible. She's no more corporeal than I."
"You could have fooled me." He summoned a soldier.
The beast said, "I can't use the dead."
"Then we're wasting our time." How stupid did the beast think he was? "Sahmanan, let the river melt."
"I forbid it."
The woman hesitated.
Ethrian knew the instant she chose her ancient master.
"Lend me your mouth, Deliverer."
"No."
The beast's rage hammered him. He endured it more easily than he endured his own.
"Don't fight," Sahmanan pleaded. "Ethrian, call an animal out of the forest. Anything large will do."
He reached out, found a she-bear immediately. He brought her shambling to the hilltop, trailed by baffled cubs.
"Send her to the river," the beast snapped. His rage continued unabated.
Ethrian drove the bear, and followed himself. Sahmanan brought the box. Deep inside him the youth felt the Great One probing, trying to insinuate a tentacle or two, trying to take over. There would be a showdown. He or this dark godlet would bend the knee...
The beast's anger boiled. It fumed and smouldered and spread. Ethrian felt it touch the baffled she-bear as she started across the ice. Her cubs skittered and whimpered behind her. She ignored their snuffling and whining.
Ethrian smiled. What were they thinking over there? All this great sorcery, the freezing of the river in summer, so a bear and her cubs could cross?
Maybe they wouldn't connect her. They might think her just a poor creature wandering on the ice...
They weren't deceived. Ethrian felt the shaft barrage screaming down the sky. He felt the beast's rage crest, then explode. The bear's mouth opened, then Spoke.
The youth reeled as the Great One shifted his attack, trying to take him by surprise.
The Word rolled across the ice. It fell on the might of Shinsan.
Ethrian's universe went dark.
He wakened to find Sahmanan leaning over him. "Are you all right?" she demanded.
He searched his mind. "Yes." He was surprised. "How long was I out? Where's the Great One?"
"Twenty minutes. I took him back uphill. He's still out. He didn't expect you to hit back."
"You left him?"
"We don't need him now, do we?"
He examined her closely. She meant it. "Then take him back to the desert."
"All right." She donned a conspiratorial smile. "He won't be happy about it."
"Do I care?" He faced the far bank of the river. They were stirring over there! He left his body, fluttered over, flew back. Distracted, the stone beast had done only half a job. "I'm wasting time," he muttered.
The army of the dead marched onto the ice. It was a pathetic assemblage of stiff-legged men, slipping and falling and rising to try again. The ice had developed a water film. The beast's strength had gone out of Sahmanan.
Will it last? Ethrian wondered. Faster! Faster!
Groggy legionnaires were at work over there. Six unconscious men into every portal every minute... They were escaping! "Faster!" he shrieked.
The first clash of arms echoed across the ice.
The least stunned of his foes responded to his attack. They rekindled their fires and remanned their breastworks. And the ice kept melting.
It was the shortest and most profitable of his battles. It lasted only an hour. He gained eight thousand recruits. The legions fell back, almost in disorder.
His gains barely replaced his losses. The ice broke up too fast. Some of his creatures were caught on floes that swifted away on the flood. They fell into the water. Fish got some. Others became entangled in the roots of trees growing along the banks. Or they raced on toward the distant sea, ever farther from his control.