The leopard warrior continued his inspection of the battlefield with the twins clinging to him as though he might disappear again. They had not gone much farther when they heard a loud yell from between some boulders. Siba rushed forward to investigate and was surprised to discover Istavan, the Crimson Mercenary, with his back pressed up against a rock. Unmoved by the Valachian’s protests, a Lagon was about to swing his heavy cudgel down at the head of the human survivor.
Guin halted the Lagon just in time and told him who Istavan was. The Valachian roared with anger.
“What a farce! I fought so hard in this cursed battle, and after all my efforts, I nearly get killed by my own ally! What kind of an ally is that? Doal’s dung, Guin! Do you always have to bring with you monsters, nincompoops, and bloodthirsty sandworm kin?”
Rinda and Remus looked at each other. Rinda felt a spark of anger at the mercenary’s words and was about to upbraid him for his ungratefulness, but after a moment, realizing the absurdity of the situation, she burst out laughing instead. The sight of Istavan’s angry face and wide open eyes suddenly seemed downright comical. They were still alive. After all they had been through, that was enough to fill the twins with a happiness warm and sweet as sunshine.
The party continued onward with the addition of Istavan. They soon arrived at the bottom of the rocky slope, where Loto and most of the other Sem warriors who had survived the terrible battle were awaiting them.
“Hey!” Istavan called out merrily, forgetting that the wildlings did not understand his language. He gave them an exaggerated wink. “Lovely weather, eh?”
“Riyaad…” Loto lifted both his arms as if he were a legendary hermit in miniature, a giver of blessings. “And Lagon… the Sem’s friends…”
“Siba!” Guin turned to the wildling warrior who walked beside him.
“Yes, Riyaad?”
“Ask the surviving Sem to gather by tribe, and survey them to find out how much damage each tribe has suffered.”
“Yes, Riyaad.”
“Dodok.”
“Yes?”
“It is time that our little friends the Sem meet the warriors of the Lagon. Can you gather your folk here?”
“I will do that.”
Guin watched as the two hurried away, and then he went to stand beside Loto and laid his big hand softly on the old Sem’s shoulder and nodded to himself several times. Loto looked up at him in silence. A few paces away, Rinda and Remus were crying quietly with joy at their reunion. Little Suni was snuggled between the two of them, chirping away despite her painful head wound. Although the twins still struggled with her language, it was clear what she was saying.
“Aira ye em Alphetto.”
“That is right, Suni.” Rinda held the little Sem girl, who kept talking excitedly. “You are still alive—that is good. That is really good. Everything is fine now—everything is safe. The killing is over. Nospherus is protected; Guin protected it. And the Sem and the Lagon did, too.”
Remus gazed out over the desert pensively, wondering if the Mongauli had really given up. Would they not build up their strength again and bare their fangs? Not today, perhaps, but tomorrow? The young prince was careful not to mouth his thoughts—not now.
“Riyaad!”
“Guin, I have gathered them.”
Siba and Dodok had returned. Guin nodded, and with Rinda, Remus, Suni, and Istavan following close behind, went to them.
“What are the Sem’s losses?” the leopard-man inquired.
Siba’s face clouded.
“They are very great. The Tubai are almost annihilated— but I think they will be able to pull through.” A fierce light flashed in his eyes, and all at once his energy returned. “The Sem have survived through much harder years. The Sem are a very strong race. We are small, but we have big, strong hearts. The Sem will be all right.”
“Yes, I know that to be true.” Guin nodded. “The Sem are warriors. The Sem protected Nospherus.”
“And Riyaad protected the Sem.” Loto spoke very slowly as he made his way to stand at the front of the Sem throng.
Then, as the royal heirs of Parros looked on, Guin oversaw the formal meeting of the surviving Sem, led by Loto, and the giant Lagon, led by Kah the Wise; and the two wildling races of Nospherus swore friendship to each other. When Loto and Kah exchanged their oaths, the shouts of joy from the throats of the gathered wildlings echoed up to shake the very crags of Dog’s Head Mountain.
The unlikely alliance presented a fantastic spectacle: on one side, Dodok the Brave and Kah the Wise, with his paralyzed legs, at the head of a mighty battalion of giants who stood two taal in height and weighed one hundred and fifty skones; on the other, the hairy Sem with their stone axes, no taller than children, assembled behind high chieftain Loto of the Raku tribe and brave young Siba. Between these two forces loomed the enigmatic warrior Guin, his arms crossed upon his chest, looking like a figure of legend with his powerful dark body and strange feline countenance. The clear blue of the desert sky and the bright sandy waves of the dunes surrounded them; the platinum blond heads of Rinda and Remus shone in the sun.
“Riyaad,” Siba asked hesitantly, “what if the oh-mu come to attack us again?”
“With the Sem and the Lagon united together, the humans cannot win. Nospherus belongs to the tribes of Nospherus.”
Guin laughed. Then he mumbled as if he’d just remembered:
“Only, I have to bring my fight with Dodok to an end.”
“And if you beat me, you will be the next Dodok the Brave,” Dodok noted with apparent enthusiasm.
Guin shook his head.
“Riyaad, what are you going to do now?” Loto asked, speaking slowly.
“I have not decided.”
“If you would become King of Nospherus and govern both the Lagon and the Sem…”
Guin looked down at him in surprise, and then gazed around at the Sem and the Lagon. Every face was smiling and nodding. Guin started to laugh.
“That might be good. I—love this desert.”
The blue sky and the desert dunes heard the great shout of joy that greeted these words. Rinda brought her hands softly together.
Guin, the leopard-headed warrior. When he appeared in the Roodwood he was but a wanderer, utterly alone. Now he had friends, the Lagon and the Sem.