Page a Day: Sixty

            “Make what strategy you will," I said. "I’m only interested in killing as many as I can.”

            “Then go to the Temple and cull the beginnings of your army.”

            I looked at him. I waited again.

            “The White Swarm which protects you also changes them. The Augers are opposition only. Your enemy is not on this world.”

            I raised my eyebrows. I told him what I’d learned before my escape, about the enemy fleet that was heading toward the Earth, but was coming here to resupply. I did some mental math and added the part about what would now be one hundred days. Not being satisfied with simple disillusionment, I concluded by telling him about scorching entire worlds by the simple employment of interstellar drives.  Let ‘em feel despair, I thought. It keeps the politicians humble.

            He nodded again. “Just so,” he said. “When you reach the land once called Sepira, you will have come to the southern shore of this continent. Follow the coast west, and you’ll reach the place where these mountains run into the sea. There will be a harbor, with broad beaches all around. In sixty days I will bring to that place the greatships we need to cross the ocean between the continents.”

            There was a pause. “A question,” I said. “Did you want to know a name?”

            He looked at me.

            “We have the name of the person who started this invasion, who sent this fleet, who means to conquer this whole portion of the galaxy and infect it with the nightwind.”

            He nodded his head, once. “They never told us anything.”

            “Priest Malakan of Kalnar. He sent Earth a recorded message before he attacked. We don’t know his world, though you can bet the docs on Earth are spending a hell of a lot of time trying to locate it.”