water’ failed, but because their faith in it was not strong enough,

you see. And so fearsome was their appearance, and so unnerving

was their chanting as they charged, that trained troops of the

Congolese Army simply threw down their weapons and ran at the

mere sight of them. Psychological warfare had defeated them before

there was even an engagement.

“We mercenaries knew it was all a lot of nonsense, of course, ” he

continued, “and so we stood our ground and engaged them. But

they simply kept on coining, straight into our gunfire. Many of

them fell, mortally wounded, and continued chanting till they died.

Others simply stopped and stood there, staring at us like zombies,

what they called ‘throwing their eyes’ at the enemy. They were

doped up and entranced with killer frenzy. Psyched, as we used to

say. It was really quite unnerving. We eventually beat them, but

only because we did not allow them to frighten us. And they were

easily some of the most frightening warriors I’ve ever faced in all

my life.

“My point is that psychological warfare is a sword that cuts both

ways, ” he concluded. “You can get yourself psyched and allow it to

work for you, or you can allow the enemy to psych you, in which

case you’ve already given him—or, in this case, her—half the

battle. Leila knows that she’s no match against the combined power

of the runestones, but separately, she’s more than a match for any

of us. And she will play upon our weaknesses—our human

weaknesses. Always remember that that is her advantage. She is

not human. To her, we are an inferior species. I am only part

Immortal myself, and it’s the human part of me that has the

greatest vulnerability. The part that is capable of feeling pity and

compassion.”

“Can you feel pity and compassion?” Kira said bitterly.

Wyrdrune kept silent. He knew, as Modred did not, that there

was more to this than the stress Kira was under from the dreams.

They were all under that stress, but Kira had other emotional

conflicts that she had never quite been able to resolve. She was in

love with Modred.

Their own relationship had been rocky right from the beginning.

From the first time that they met, on that fateful day when they