"I don't understand!"

Cardinal Garnhalt silently agreed. Where were the defenders? After the disorganized defence of Mintosa—nothing. He had expected skirmishers, or at least scouts. Some, he knew, were out there. Not all priests returned, so someone was out there capturing them.

Keen's army was legendary. It was the very reason no warlord had ever attempted to capture any lands north of the Narrow Sea, so where were they?

He shrugged his discomfort away. If they were leading him into a trap it was of a kind so elaborate he couldn't even begin to understand it. The enemy had yielded a full three days forced march of territory without resistance. The narrow gorges he'd expected to pay with for an unholy cost in blood lay behind them. Passing through them unopposed he'd even accepted that he would have paid that cost in vain.

And still nothing. Not that it mattered much any longer. They controlled the passes and enough of the fields north of them not to be ousted easily.

Should the enemy yield even one days worth of land more he could order wagons through the passes with craftsmen and tools. Two days and he would be in control of the forests needed to supply the timber for fortifications.

He simply couldn't believe it, and neither could Count Friedhafen at his side.

The enemy had even been kind enough to leave a fleet of clumsy barges behind him, and each day new troops poured into Mintosa. By now the papacy, or more formally, Chach, had landed a full sized army on this side of the Narrow Sea.

Paladins scouted unopposed an eightday north of him. Missionaries were setting up churches, using shrines already built. God was great. He would forgive the use of heathen temples, even embrace it. Evil turned to the use of good.

Of course there were skirmishes, but nothing organized. Small groups of fanatic heathens sometimes defended their satanic beliefs, but they were poorly armed, if armed at all.

So why did he have this nagging suspicion that the enterprise was proceeding too easily? Did the holy chair know something he hadn't been told? A weakness Keen hadn't displayed? Plague scything through the population?

There were no answers to those questions, and he pushed them aside. Maybe it was simply a test of his faith.