"Why should I challenge you, Lumbrilo? To each race its own magic. I
come not to offer battle." His eyes held steady with the Khatkan's.
"You have challenged me." Lumbrilo turned away and then looked back over
his shoulder. "The strength you depend upon may become a broken staff,
off-worlder. Remember my words in the time when shadows become
substance, and substance the thinnest of shadows!"
III
"You are truly a man of power!"
Tau shook his head in answer to that outburst from Asaki.
"Not so, sir. Your Lumbrilo is a man of power. I drew upon his power and
you saw the results."
"Deny it not! What we saw never walked this world."
Tau slung the strap of a trail bag over his shoulder. "Sir, once men of
your blood, men who bred your race, hunted the elephant. They took his
tusks for their treasure, feasted upon his flesh--yes, and died beneath
the trampling of his feet when they were unlucky or unwary. So there is
that within you which can even now be awakened to remember _eldama_ in
his might when he was king of the herd and need fear nothing save the
spears and cunning of small, weak men.
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