She closed the book with a snap and gave her full attention to the conversation.

“They use poison darts and poison spears,” Anders said. “They attack from ambush, and they attack by night. They won’t meet you in a fair fight unless they have overwhelming numbers. And they have other things as well, among them sorcery.”

“You’ve seen this?” Kormak asked. He surveyed the road as they rolled along. A stream cascaded down the hillside and passed through the channels under the road. He could hear it churning away below them, a faint sound that competed with the rumble of the wagon wheels on stone.

“I’ve seen any number of things that could not have been anything else. I’ve seen huge animals attack parties of men they would normally have avoided.”

“That sometimes happens when an animal is diseased or hungry,” Kormak said. Professional interest rose in him. It was not that he disbelieved Anders, he was simply trying to provoke him into saying more.

“Not like these,” Anders said. “They circled and attacked when people least expected. They picked off sentries and left the way clear for other attacks. They avoided traps that should have fallen into.”

Kormak considered this. Sometimes such things happened almost by accident. But Anders sounded as if he was certain it was something more.

“And I’m leaving the best till last. They would attack in the company of the tribesman. It wasn’t like they were trained attack dogs either. It was more like they were intelligent partners.”

Rhiana nodded. “I know how that works.”

At sea, she partnered with a dolphin with whom she was in constant mental contact. It was possible that the tribal shamans could do something similar.

“There were other strange things,” Anders said. “Shapeshifters.”

“Are you sure?” Kormak had encountered shapeshifters before. They were most often the creation of sorcery used either by the Old Ones or by powerful wizards. It took considerable skill in sorcery to create such things. Was it likely that primitive magicians such as the tribesman could do it?

“I’ve seen them,” Anders said. “I once saw a man wearing a jaguar headdress transform himself into a creature that was half man, half big cat.”

“It might have been an illusion,” Kormak said. Illusions were the easiest form of magic to work on the unprotected. They need only affect the minds of their victim, not change the basic nature of the world.

“It might have. It might have been something I ate. But there was nothing illusory about the claw marks it left in my comrade’s body.”

“It sounds like you’ve led an exciting life out here,” Rhiana said.

“Too exciting,” Anders said. “The company only did one tour against the tribes.