The excitement builds as the release of 

Kriki's Gift, Book Two of the Geometry of Power 

draws near.

When the Valkea's scouts had brought word of Carra's presence on the road to her, she had known a surge of heady exhilaration for taking the woman and her servant would give her a supreme chance for vengeance. What fools these idiots were to think it was safe to ride forth today. Did they really think that they had closed the only entrance she had to her world? Did they really believe that all her fighters had died defending the altar? She snorted in contempt. Today she would relieve the soldiers of such foolish arrogance! When the woman and her escort came into range she knew her people would slaughter the soldiers and the two women would soon be within her hands. Then she would celebrate her victory with a sacrificial offering to the Kwetwer. She didn't need an altar to carry out her sacrifice and again she snorted - the Rangers were fools to think they had neutralized her. Today she would show them! She licked her thin lips in anticipation of the gory revels that would follow the sacrifice. The Kwetwer would be pleased.

The Valkea stood just inside a cave entrance high on the slope above the road. This cave was one of her many sentry outposts and from here she had a commanding view of the area below. Her eyes were not accustomed to the sunlight of the surface world so she wore a gray, gauzy veil over her face. Some of her best fighters were standing next to her, awaiting her command to rush down to the road to join the battle. She had already ordered her most skilled archers into position on the slope below the cave. It was littered with talus and provided good cover for her people so they were unlikely to be spotted even without her shielding illusions. With her powers protecting them, they were effectively invisible. She always enjoyed casting forth her shields to hide things for it gave her a sense of superiority knowing the fools didn't have a clue how to do this. Woe to the soldiers and the witless women they were bringing within range of her grasp!

When she was satisfied with the state of her planned ambush, the Valkea turned her thoughts in the direction of the road and the Pass Gate. Today the fools were going to learn that she was capable of doing far more than just shielding her fighters. Projecting her dark thoughts into the minds of her enemies would distract them away from their duties and eventually drive them to the brink of madness. She intended to weaken the men protecting the girl by destroying their ability to act. They would ride helplessly into her ambush like so many cattle herded to the butcher's axe. They would be easy prey for her archers.

Projecting her thoughts westward, her mind eventually touched the presence of Carra and her people. She couldn't see them, but she felt them and started to slowly channel the power of the Kwetwer towards them. It was important to be subtle for her control worked best when she kept her efforts below people's perceptions. Then, they wouldn't realize what was happening and thus couldn't defend against the lies poisoning their very thoughts.

The shadowed power of Darkness would sink to its own level and nourish the thoughts of like kind in a person's mind and renew them until they grew strong enough to gain expression. Fear, doubt, guilt, greed, and jealousy were just a few of the negative emotions and thoughts, which could be nourished by the Darkness. Once these negative thoughts took root and started to grow, the Valkea could pour more energy into her effort so the dark thoughts would throttle any possible resistance and gain mastery over the mind. Inducing madness at this stage of control took only a minor effort if she had to push that far. She had never failed in her control mind games and was smugly anticipating her victory over these fools.