King Kobold revived-Warlock-2.5 by Christopher Stasheff

wishes, good-wife.”
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    One of the guardsmen stepped into the tent. “Milords, His Majesty doth ask that thou attend upon him.”
    Brom looked up, frowning. “What coil’s this?”
    “Word hath flown from witch to witch, milord. A dragon ship doth sail to-ward Bourbon.”
    Half an hour later, while the main army was still striking its tents and pack-ing up, the Flying Legion cantered up out of the valley and struck off toward the east. Rod rode at their head, with Toby the teenage warlock beside him. “I didn’t have time for the full report, Toby. Who spotted the beastmen?”
    “Matilda, milord. She and Marion, her sister, flew to the east to dwell within a cottage on a cliff-top that Lord Hapsburg built for them—all as His Majesty commanded.”
    Rod nodded. “And they take turns just sitting and listening for strange thoughts, right?”
    Toby nodded. “Even as His Majesty did command—an hour listening, then an hour doing other things, then an hour listening again.” He glanced at Rod out of the corner of his eye. “ ‘Twas thou who didst bid His Majesty so instruct us, was it not?”
    Rod frowned and shook his head. “What would I know about hearing thoughts, Toby? It was Gwen’s idea. So, who heard the beastman-thoughts—the one who was on duty, or both of them?”
    “The one who was ‘off-duty,’ Lord Warlock. She slept, and waked scream-ing.”
    “The one who slept?” Rod stared. Then he nodded slowly. “Well, I suppose it makes sense. Maybe her telepathic sensitivity gets a boost when she’s asleep.”
    “We do seem to have dreams that are not our own,” Toby admitted.
    “Really! Hm! Wish I’d known that—might’ve come in handy.”
    “Cannot Gwendylon hear thy thoughts when she doth sleep?” Toby asked carefully. Rod shook his head. “Neither asleep nor awake. I seem to be telepathically invisible.” His tone was carefully neutral, hiding his feelings nicely. He tried not to think about it; it made him feel inferior to Gwen.
    “What did Matilda dream?”
    “She dreamt that she pulled an oar aboard a dragon ship, and heard the chief-tains speaking of old gods which they used to worship, and a new god which they worship now. Yet all of it was without words, and the new god seemed somehow monstrous, though there was no picture of it.”
    “Well, that’s not surprising. Haven’t you ever had that flash of thought, the whole concept suddenly clear, before you get around to putting it into words?”
    Toby frowned. “I have indeed, though I had not thought of it. And the thought Matilda heard lasted no longer than such a flash.”
    “Really?” Rod pricked up his mental ears. “Odd, that. Was there a strong emotion under it?”
    Toby nodded. “Very strong; a surge of fear and dread. The beastman’s soul, for a second, did clamor Page 28
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    toward the sky and the old gods. Then he realized what he did, and the thought ended. Yet it was enough to waken Matilda, and waken her screaming.”
    “Small wonder; I’d wake up halfway out of the room. But it tells us a lot.”
    “Aye. It tells us beastmen draw near the eastern coast.”
    “Well, a bit more than that. It tells us the beastmen have a religion. So far, we didn’t even have any reason to think they had souls.”
    “I had not thought of that,” Toby admitted.
    “It also tells us that they’ve just had a conversion, and at least one of the con-verts wasn’t exactly wholehearted about it. Wonder who the new god is? And what kinds of methods his missionaries use…”
    Rod was remembering Constan-tine’s baptism and a new shirt, or death. “But more importantly, it tells us the beastmen’s thoughts can be heard when there are very strong emotions behind them—and gives us some reason to think they may be able to hide their thoughts deliberately.”
    Toby