substance, threatens the Homeland? Pray it be dragon born, not God made, one a priest can dispel.”

“The Watcher is only the beginning,” Torcus warned, eyeing castle walls. “Untold terror assures hardship and woe. We must speak in chamber.”

“Quell your fears,” Ethwin said in earnest. “We shall find the shade and put an end to this madness.” The barefoot king turned to his three sons. “Dispatch the Royal Guard and the Ally’s best eyes. Search every stone, nook, niche and stair. I want that accursed spirit hunted down and destroyed.”

“Destroyed?” Kydon questioned harshly. “Have you not listened to Torcus? Do you not understand?” The River King touched the frozen welt on his left cheek. A slow fire flickered in his rabid eyes. “Did you not feel the hate emanating from the All-Seer? It watches, it taunts, it speaks to me in

haunted whispers. My doppelganger has foreseen my death in a world of eternal shadow. It speaks of a dark quest, an evil prophecy… of great destruction. Doom is upon...”
Kydon’s words trailed off. The weary king slumped backward with exhaustion. Torcus grabbed Kydon and braced him from falling. At that split second, as the Rivernaut King wobbled to his feet, Ethwin noticed something shimmer beneath Kydon’s robe… a glittering gem on a gold necklace, dangling below his neck. Ethwin realized something was terribly wrong, something odd, strangely out of place.

Not one from Athfar bore weapons.

Ethwin glanced across a courtyard of murmuring soldiers and whickering horses and mused over his startling discovery. Here and now, under the threat of a new enemy, Kydon and his Rivernauts galloped into Tharden without pike, dagger, spear or cudgel.