Dark Sun: Prism Pentad 1 - The Verdent Passage (25 page)

“How can he track us from up there?” Agis asked, frustrated. “It's as if he can smell us!”

“Not smell us, but feel us!” Sadira exclaimed, suddenly realizing how the templars had
tracked them both to the Drunken Giant and through the dark caverns of UnderTyr.

“What?” Agis asked. “What do you mean?”

“Magically! He can feel where we are by using magic,” Sadira answered. “Do you still have
that bronze disk you tried to give the barman?”

“Yes, right here.” He placed the token in the half-elf's hand.

Sadira smiled in the darkness. “This is what's leading them to us,” she said, reversing
their course and leading Agis back up the stairs. If she was correct about the bronze
disk, she thought it would be possible to virtually guarantee their escape.

“Caro must have slipped it into your purse before you sent him home the other day,” Sadira
whispered as they reached the top of the stairs. “The templars tracked us to the Drunken
Giant with it, then waited for Ktandeo to show up before springing their trap. With this
little trinket to help them keep track of us, they could afford to be patient.”

On the far side of the square, the commander yelled a curse, then cried, “They've reversed
directions! They're heading toward the temple doors!”

The six templars in the square turned back toward the center of the shrine. Fortunately,
the six men's little detour had delayed their progress, and they were only halfway across
the square.

“Dozens of men went in and out of the wineshop every day,” Agis objected. “How would the
templars know which one was your contact?”

“Caro again,” Sadira answered, working her way back toward the sliver of red light where
Ktandeo still held the temple door cracked open. “He was there when you bought me at
Radurak's auction. He would have been able to describe Ktandeo from that incident.”

Ahead of her, the flickering shaft of light widened as the door opened. Ktandeo stuck his
head outside. “I'll cover your escape, Sadira,” he called in a throaty rasp. In the dim
red glow shining from the doorway, the sorceress saw him point his cane at the six
templars in the square. “Run.”

“WaitÑ”

In the same instant that Sadira spoke, Ktandeo activated his cane, then called,
“Groundflame!”

A glob of fluorescing green gas spewed from the cane and wafted over the center of the
square. The templars stopped moving as the cloud descended in their midst. The stones
began to sizzle, and the glowing haze spread out across the square like a ground fog. In
the blink of an eye, it changed color to vibrant blue. There was a blinding flash, and the
templars screamed once. When Sadira's vision cleared again, the square was completely dark.

Ktandeo groaned and grasped at the door to keep from slumping to the ground. The sorceress
moved to catch him, but a tremendous thunderclap reverberated off the cavern's rocky
ceiling and floor. A bolt of lightning flashed across the courtyard and slammed into the
open door.

“Ktandeo!” Sadira shrieked, momentarily blinded.

As her vision cleared, the sorceress saw that the bolt had not even scorched the church
door. She dared to hope Ktandeo had escaped injury, then she saw the old man's crumpled
figure lying between the double doors.

Sadira rushed forward and snatched his cane from where it had fallen. As she kneeled at
the old man's side, she saw warm blood streaming from his ears and mouth. Though the
lightning bolt had not even scorched the temple's door, it had crushed Ktandeo's ribs.

The sorceress slipped the cane into her master's hand. “Will this help?” she asked. Tears
began running down her cheeks and dripping onto the old man's face.

Ktandeo pushed the cane away. “No, that wand only takes life.” He suffered a fit of
violent coughing and spewed up a gob of bright red fluid. When he could finally speak
again, he said, “Sadira, you must go to Nok.” “Nok?” she asked. “WhereÑ”

The old man grasped her wrist. “Listen! Take my cane, go to Nok in the halfling forests.
Get the spear and kill Kalak. Tithian betrayed you, but the danger he showed Agis is real.”

“What about that danger?” Sadira asked. “Tell me.”

“Nok, he willÑ” He fell into another fit of coughing, and Sadira waited patiently for him
to stop. She did not even try to suggest that the old man would survive. The lie would
have been obvious to both of them, and she would not insult the man who had taught her
magic that way.

When Ktandeo stopped coughing, he motioned her close to him. “You'll learn the answer
there,” he said. “There is one other thing I must tell you, Sadira.”

She leaned over to hear his final words. “Yes.”

“Be careful,” he said, gesturing toward the satchel that contained her spellbook. “If the
templars hadn't come, I wouldn't have given that back to you. You're walking too close to
the edge. Step off, and you will fall so far you'll never see the light again.”

With that, he gave one last cough and closed his eyes forever.

Asticles Wine

Rikus didn't care much for Asticles wine. The pale golden color reminded him of something
he'd rather not drink, and the tart, dry scent made his nose tingle. It had a thin, light
taste that left him with a dry mouth, and after each swallow he had a thirst for something
richer and sweeter. Still, compared to the fruit syrup doled out in Tithian's slave pits,
Asticles wine was at least drinkable, and it was a lot more potent than its watery
appearance suggested. Besides, drinking it made the gladiator feel like he was stealing
something from a nobleman, and he liked that feeling.

The big mul lifted his crystal goblet and asked, “How about some more?”

“Have all you like. My master won't care,” replied Caro, who had introduced himself as the
valet of Agis of Asticles. The wrinkled old dwarf picked up a carafe and refilled the
goblets of his guests.

Rikus, Neeva, and Caro were in the western courtyard of the Asticles mansion, sitting on a
pair of benches sheltered beneath a vine-covered bower. The bower stood upon a small
patio-island located at the center of a deep pool. A narrow bridge ran from the island to
the marble colonnade that ringed the pond, and the colonnade was in turn encircled by a
granite privacy wall.

Enormous lily pads covered the surface of the pond. Round, with upturned edges, they
resembled green serving trays set out to float on the water. Between the pads drifted
pink-hearted blossoms with pearly white petals.

Every now and then, a flower bobbed once or twice, then Anezka's wooly-haired head
appeared as she treaded water and gulped down a few lungfuls of air. The halfling had been
in the pond since they arrived, when she had astonished both Caro and her companions by
stripping off her dusty clothes and jumping into the pool.

Rikus and his companions had spent the previous four days skulking about the desert,
sneaking into faro orchards to ask directions of unguarded slaves. They had met with
little success, for most fields were deserted, having been ravaged by scavengers or burned
by marauders. On the two occasions when they had found someone the slave had mistaken them
for raiders and had run off screaming the alarm. Finally the trio of gladiators had gone
to the road, where they had ambushed a templar. He had told them what they needed to know
in exchange for a mercifully quick death. After the four-day ordeal, Rikus was so tired
and thirsty that he would have joined Anezka in the lily pond, had he known how to swim.

“How will your master feel about a halfling bathing in his pond?” Rikus asked.

Caro watched Anezka's small form slip beneath a lily pad, then smiled crookedly. “Don't
worry about my master,” the dwarf said. “If we wanted to, we could drink the last drop of
his wine and swim in his pond for days. He'd never say a word to us, I promise.”

“Then here's to Agis of Asticles. May his fortunes prosper!” Neeva said, raising her
goblet. When Caro did not match the gesture, the woman asked. “What's wrong? It's only
proper to drink to your host's health.”

“To toast him would be to toast my bondage,” the dwarf replied, his face unreadable.

“There are worse things than this sort of bondage,” Neeva said, waving her hand around the
lavish courtyard. “This is paradise!”

“Compared to our slave pits, perhaps,” Rikus allowed, rolling his crystal goblet between
two grimy fingers. “But slavery is slavery. I doubt that Caro's master views him much
differently than he does this colonnade or his house. It's all property.”

Caro nodded. “I couldn't have put it better, my friend.”

“Forget I offered that toast,” Neeva said, starting to empty her glass on the ground.

Rikus grasped her wrist. “Don't waste the wine!” he said. “Slaves get too little of it. We
just have to think of something better to toast.”

Caro lifted his glass. “To your freedom,” he said.

All three of them downed their wine in a single gulp. The dwarf refilled their glasses,
then casually tossed the empty carafe into the pool. It landed on a lily pad and came to a
rest in the center of the enormous leaf.

“Have you given thought to where you'll go from here?” Caro asked.

Rikus nodded. “After we find Sadira, we'll join a slave tribe,” the mul said.

“I'm afraid you may have to wait for quite some time before you speak to Sadira,” Caro
replied. “She's with Lord Agis in the city, and I don't know when they'll return. Perhaps
you should leave the message with me. I'll see that she gets it.”

Rikus shook his head. “We'll have to waitÑ”

“We can't wait long,” Neeva interrupted. “The cilops are probably already on our trail. If
we're going to have any chance of escaping, we've got to keep movingÑand get to the
mountains before they catch us.”

“It's not fair to burden Caro with this particular message,” Rikus said.

Neeva met Rikus's eyes evenly. “Tithian's spy is watching Sadira. If Caro's here and
Sadira's in Tyr, then Caro can't be the spy, can he?”

“Spy?” Caro gasped, his jaw dropping. A moment later, he closed his mouth again. “How did
you find out there's a spy in my master's household?”

“That's a long story not worth the telling,” Rikus said, far from anxious to dredge up
memories of Yarig's dead: by discussing the gaj. “If you'll tell us where your master and
Sadira are, we might reach her before we go to the mountains.”

“I'm afraid it would be impossible to find them. The last time I saw my master and Sadira,
they were going to a rendezvous. They never returned,” Caro explained, a sudden frown
accentuating the deep crow's feet around his eyes. “I'm afraid something may have happened
to them.”

“We're too late!” Rikus yelled, hurling his goblet across the pool. It smashed against the
outer wall, causing a light tinkle of shattering glass to echo all around the colonnade.

Neeva reacted more calmly. “How long ago was this rendezvous?” she asked. “Where was it to
take place?” “Agis and Sadira disappeared three days ago,” Caro reported. "Neither would
say where they were going, but both were acting rather nefarious about the whole thing.

I suspect their destination was somewhere in the Elven Market."

Rikus stood. "That's where we're going.

The old dwarf slipped off the bench and dropped to the ground. “I have something in the
house that might help you.”

“What?” Neeva asked.

Caro smiled. “It's a surprise,” he said. “I'm sure you'll find it quite remarkable.”

After the dwarf left, Rikus and Neeva retrieved the weapons they had stolen during the
escape from Tithian's estate. They secured the daggers to the belts of their breechcloths,
then Rikus kneeled at the edge of the pool to catch Anezka's attention.

Just as the mul glimpsed her form gliding toward him, several sets of thudding steps
sounded outside the colonnade. Rikus looked up and saw the stout form of a half-giant
blocking the arched entrance. His brown hair hung over his ears in long greasy strings,
and he had a protruding brow set above a pair of drooping eyes. The half-giant wore a
purple tunic emblazoned with Kalak's golden star, and in one hand he carried a polished
bone club taller than a dwarf. The guard's thighs were as big around as the pillars of the
colonnade, and he had to stoop to keep from scraping his head on the ceiling.

“In the name of King Kalak, stand where you are!” the half-giant bellowed. His voice
rumbled over the still waters of the pond and echoed off the opposite wall encircling the
colonnade. As the guard lumbered toward the bridge, another half-giant, a little stockier
and shorter than the first, stepped into the entrance.

Anezka briefly stuck her head up from between a pair of
the lily pads. When she saw Rikus's shocked expression and the half-giant guards, she
slipped back beneath the water and disappeared beneath the floating leaves.

“Neeva!” called Rikus, returning to his feet. “Hand me theÑ”

The mul had spoken too late. Even as he reached for the spear, it whistled past his head.
The shaft took the first half-giant square in the rib cage and sank to half its length.
The guard dropped to his knees, then pitched forward onto his face.

The second guard began to climb over the still body of the first. A third half-giant moved
through the entrance and, upon seeing the blockage ahead, circled around the other way.

Rikus searched the area beneath the bower for something to use as a weapon. Both he and
Neeva had obsidian daggers, but the knives did not seem like effective weapons against
half-giants.

When the mul's eye fell on the bench, an idea occurred to him. He gave his dagger to
Neeva, then nodded toward the closest half-giant. Rikus did not need to say a word for his
fighting partner to know he wanted her to cover the attack he was about to make.

The second half-giant finished climbing over his dead comrade, then stepped onto the
bridge. Rikus wrapped his massive arms around the bench and picked it up, groaning with
the effort. He turned toward the bridge.