"There's something wrong with him. How could an ordinary man run that far?" Blom stared at the forest where the man had disappeared.
"Who he is doesn't matter," Annan said. "What matters is what he told us... Have the Ratfolk from the north arrived already?"
Annan was about to investigate, but Blom stopped him. "No. If the Ratfolk really are swarming over the mountains, they're bound to have Wizards."
Like the psionic users Annan had encountered long ago, the Ratfolk wielded an energy utterly different from Magic Power: Fel Energy. It brought curses and weakness, and even an Archmage would struggle to dispel it.
The curse on Old Ancestor was said to bear the mark of the Great Horned Rat.
"I'd only observe from a distance..."
But Blom would not budge. He had promised Olmedo he would keep Annan out of danger.
Annan had no choice but to send Dragon-Taming Boy Elder and the Painting Person north instead, with instructions to draw what they saw from afar.
Two White Dragons soared into the sky and headed north.
The two scattered Legions arrived in succession. Annan told them to light fires and prepare a meal.
He gazed over the fertile Grasslands as a warm breeze swept across them, sending ripples through the grass.
But soon, the Ratfolk would destroy this beautiful scene... unless they were stopped outside the Northern Great Wall and wiped out completely.
"The weather's about to turn," Blom said suddenly beside him.
Annan turned. "What makes you say that?"
"The wind."
Blom lowered his raised hand. "There's a saying in the Northern Frontier: a north wind brings Deepwinter; a south wind brings torrential rain."
Annan looked back. The Northern Great Wall, that wonder to the north, was no longer visible from here. Neither were any storm clouds.
But