Faith of the Fallen

Then they find that their legs won't obey their wishes. Their ears are ringing with what sounds like an endless, tingling scream."

The general's gaze darted about, testing his eyesight as Zedd went on.

He. twisted a big finger in an ear as if to clean it out.

"By now, anyone bitten is too weak to stand. They lose control of their bodily functions and lie helpless in their own filth. They are within hours of death. . but those last hours will seem like a year."

"How do we counter it?" On the edge of his seat, Warren licked his lips. "What's the cure?"

"Cure? There is no cure! Now a fog is beginning to creep toward the camp. This time, the few gifted left can sense that the wide mass of seething murk is foul with dark, suffocating magic. They warn everyone.

Those too sick to stand wail in terror. They can't see, but they can hear the distant battle cries of the advancing enemy. In a panic not to be touched by the deadly fog, anyone able to rise from their bedrolls does so.

Too delirious to stand, a few manage to crawl. The rest run for their lives before the advancing fog.

"It's the last mistake they ever make," Zedd whispered. He swept a hand out before their white faces. "They run headlong into the horror of a waiting death trap.»

Everyone was wide-eyed and slack-jawed by now, sitting on the edge of their benches.

"So, General," Zedd said in a bright, cheery tone as he sat back, "what about those mass graves? Or are you planning on any of you left alive just abandoning the sick for dead and leaving the bodies to rot? Probably not a bad idea. There will be enough to worry about without the burdensome task of trying to care for the dying and burying all the dead-especially since the very act of touching their white flesh will contaminate the living with a completely unexpected sickness, and then-"

Verna shot to her feet. "But what can we do!" She could plainly see the potential for chaos all around her. "How can we counter such vile magic?"

She threw open her arms. "What do we need to do?"

Zedd shrugged. "I thought you and your Sisters had it all figured out.

I thought you knew what you were doing." He waggled his hand over his shoulder, gesturing off to the south, toward the enemy. "I thought you said you had the situation well in hand."

Verna silently sank back down to the bench beside Warren.

"Uh, Zedd. ." General Reibisch swallowed in distress. He held out the mosquito. "Zedd, I think I'm starting to feel dizzy. Isn't there anything you can do?"

"About what?"

"The fever. I think my vision is getting dimmer. Can you do nothing?"

"No, nothing."

"Nothing."

"Nothing, because there's nothing wrong with you. I just conjured a few albino mosquitoes to make a point. The point is that what I saw when I came into this camp scared the wits out of me. If the gifted among the enemy are at all diabolical, and with Jagang we have ample reason to believe they are, then this army is ill prepared for the true nature of the threat."

Sister Philippa haltingly lifted a hand like a schoolgirl with a question. "But, with all the gifted among us, surely, we would. . know.

. or something."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you: the way things are now, you won't know. It's the things you never heard of, haven't seen before, don't expect, and can't even imagine, that are going to be coming for you. The enemy will use conventional magic, to be sure, and that will be trouble enough, but it's the albino mosquitoes you must fear."

"As you said, though, you only conjured them to make a point," Warren said. "Maybe the enemy isn't as smart as you, and won't think of such things."

"The Order did not take over all of the Old World by being stupid but by being ruthless." Zedd's brow drew lower. He lifted a finger skyward to mark his words. "Besides, they have already thought of just such things.

This past spring, one of the Sisters in the hands of the enemy used magic to unleash a deadly plague that could not be detected by anyone with the gift.

Tens of thousands of people, from newborn infants to the old, suffered gruesome deaths."

Those Sisters, in the hands of the enemy, were a grave and ever-present danger. Ann had gone off alone on a mission to either rescue those Sisters or eliminate them. From what Zedd had seen when he had been down in Anderith, Ann had failed in her mission. He didn't know what had become of her, but he knew that Jagang still held Sisters captive.

"But we stopped the plague," Warren said.

"Richard stopped it, as only he could." Zedd held the gaze of the young wizard. "Did you know that in order to save us from that grim fate, he had to venture to the Temple of the Winds, hidden away beyond the veil of life in the underworld itself? Neither you nor I can imagine the toll such an experience must have taken on him. I saw a shadow of the specter in his eyes when he spoke of it.