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.None of you did.It was an oversight that we didn’t tell you immediately.”“Things were happening rather fast,” Rigo said.“No one had any time for discussions.It’s bad if this is what happened, but if it is how they are getting here, then they may have only the one device.It will limit anything they want to attempt.If we can recover it, they will be blocked again.”“Unless they can duplicate it,” Nycoh noted.“What does Daim say?” Jeen asked.“Does he think they can figure out what it does?”“He went to examine the towers.I’ll ask him the moment he returns.”“What about the Hoplani?” Rigo asked.“Thousands are headed toward Lopal.We’ve allowed them to wander freely on the far side of the barrier for many years now.They couldn’t get past the barrier, and we focused our energies on the Morvane and the new tower system.Now we need every capable wizard to try and destroy the herds heading west toward Lopal, while we also need more people than are available to repair the damaged towers.We also need to warn the leaders of the Three Kingdoms that we appear to be under attack, and by people who control magic.Who knows what actions they might take? A large force of wizards is needed to guard the royal families, and others need to be available to counter any further attacks.Even with the growth in our numbers, we are going to fall short of our needs.Simply protecting Lopal will be difficult.Nycoh looked over Rigo’s shoulder and nodded at someone standing there.A young wizard Rigo knew only casually stepped into the room.“Thirty-eight towers are damaged,” he reported.“Ten are all but destroyed.”That was bad news.It would take weeks to replace those that had been destroyed.It was anyone’s guess how long repairs would take on the others without a careful examination.“Two of our people were killed,” Daim added as he stepped belatedly into the room.He had just arrived from his own examination of the southernmost towers.Jeen and Rigo had the same immediate thought.It was bad enough to lose more people, but if the enemy was increasing their stock of the travel devices, it would only get worse.“No,” Nycoh said, after hearing their concern.No one is wearing the amulets unless they are specially tasked with going to the Hoplani Farms.” She then asked Daim about the ability to duplicate the devices.“I never considered the need to protect the design,” he said slowly.“It would take someone with considerable insight to do so, but it would not be impossible for a copy to be made.Most likely, they would make something that would work on a limited basis, failing after a number of uses.The magic that offsets the Ruins is not that difficult to understand, but the special binding that holds the amulets together is rather unique.I would suggest I modify the design so all future devices are bonded to the user in a manner somewhat like Rigo’s staff, but with a built in self-destruct if taken from the owner.”“See to it,” Nycoh commanded.“It would be best to have those immediately.We still have people out in the Ruins, and will need to send more so they are protected.”“If they are indeed using the lost amulet, and relying on Orna’s knowledge to make the trip, they have to be coming via either Oasis Three or Oasis Four,” Rigo said after a moment’s thought.If we can man those locations sufficiently, we can stop them from crossing over, or from getting back home if they are already in the Three Kingdoms.”“That’s manpower we can ill afford,” Nycoh said.“It’s manpower we can’t afford not to have,” Rigo countered.“We can’t afford to allow them a foothold or to take command of those locations.We would find ourselves blocked in the event we wished to take any action against them.”Nycoh nodded, her lips in a tight line.“Let’s get started.I’ll send more people out there and the distribution of the teams going after the Hoplani, while Daim sees to making modifications to the amulets.For anyone who is wounded or killed, it is essential we make sure to recover the amulets.Rigo, you have a look at the towers, and Jeen should alert the royal families to the problem.“What if they locate another oasis to use instead of the two we are aware of?” Jeen asked.“Then we have no way to stop them from getting here,” Rigo said.“That should take time, however, and hopefully by then we can do something about this.”By the end of the day, they knew how bad it was.Tens of thousands of Hoplani were on the march toward Lopal [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]