Dark Sun: Prism Pentad 1 - The Verdent Passage (30 page)

They descended along the top of the muddy ridge for over an hour before it abruptly ended
in a sheer cliff. Without pausing, Anezka simply changed directions to avoid the
precipice. She moved down the side of the ridge, descending its steep slopes with the
grace of a rock leopard. The others followed more laboriously, punctuating the soft patter
of raindrops with the sounds of their passing: snapping sticks, tumbling rocks, and
occasional cries of alarm as they slipped and fell to the ground.

After some time, they heard a faint hiss coming from the gully at the bottom of the ridge.
Rikus and Neeva drew their weapons, carrying them at the ready position. Agis unsheathed
his sword, and Sadira silently considered the spells she had memorized at the moment.

Anezka laughed at them and continued down the hill. The hiss grew louder, changing into a
steady, loud sizzle that echoed off the trees. Agis tried to imagine what kind of strange
creature could be making the noise, but he had never heard anything like the sound and
failed to think of a single possibility.

At last they tame to a break in the underbrush. Rikus and Neeva stopped dead in their
tracks. Sadira and Agis quickly stepped to either side of the two gladiators, then also
stopped, their eyes wide with shock.

A twenty-foot ribbon of water blocked their path, flashing silver and white as it ran down
a narrow, rocky channel. Agis stood at the stream's edge, listening to it roar and gurgle
as it flowed down its jumbled course. Anezka waded out into the stream and began to drink.

“Where does it all come from?” Rikus asked, taking his satchel off so he could fish out
his waterskin and fill it.

“From the rain,” Agis answered, also fetching his waterskin.

“There's too much water for that,” Neeva said. “It would have to rain every day to keep
this gully full.”

“What makes you think it doesn't?” Sadira asking her hands at the dense forest around
them. “Plants need water. This many plants must need a lot of water.”

“Rain every day?” Rikus scoffed. “That's impossible. I've seen five rainstorms in my life,
and that's a lot for someone my age.”

“Perhaps the rain is attracted by magic,” Agis suggested, his mind wrestling with the
problem of how something as wondrous as a forest could exist. “If sorcerers draw their
magic from plants, maybe plants can make magic that causes it to rain.”

“There's no doubt that something magic is at work here,” Sadira said. “But who can say
what? It could be the forest itself, or it might be something else. I'm not sure we'll
ever understandÑand maybe we shouldn't.”

“No, that's where you're wrong,” Agis countered. “If the forest can exist in the
mountains, then it can exist in other parts of Athas. For that to happen, we need to
understand what makes it grow first.”

Rikus finished filling his waterskin. “The noble's soft in his head as well as his body,”
the mul mumbled.

“I don't know about that,” Neeva said. “Did you see his faro orchards? If anyone could
grow a forest,
I think if would be Agis.”

“My thanks, Neeva,” replied Agis, encouraged by her support. “If I could just five in the
forest for a yearÑ”

“Whatever Kalak has planned for Tyr would be done and over,” Sadira said. “Maybe we can
make Athas green with trees someday, but not now.” She pointed downstream. Anezka had left
them and was already far ahead, picking her way silently along the stream bank. “Let's try
not to lose her again. I'm afraid she won't come back for us.”

They quickly closed their waterskins, then crashed down the gully in pursuit of the
halfling. Eventually the ravine descended into a deep, steep-sloped canyon, and the stream
transformed into the frothing waters of a wild river. The whole canyon trembled with the
power of the mighty watercourse, and the thunder of its torrents overwhelmed every other
sound within the valley.

Although the drizzle had finally let up and the sun was baking the rocky shoreline, Anezka
continued without letting the party stop to marvel at the river. The halfling led the way
along the shore, and eventually they came to a trail overhung by mossy tree boughs.

As they stepped onto this path, Agis caught sight of a quaking branch out of the corner of
his eye, then glimpsed the silhouette of a halfling hiding behind the tree itself. The
halfling was pointing a small bow at Rikus's back.

“Rikus, down!” Agis called.

The mul obeyed just before a twang sounded from the small man's hiding place. A tiny,
foot-long arrow sailed over Rikus's head and lodged in the bulbous trunk of a frond tree.
When Agis looked back to the attacker's hiding place, the halfling was no longer in sight.
Neeva and Sadira swung around with their weapons ready. When Agis drew his sword, Anezka
disappeared into the forest on the opposite side of the trail.

“Where are they?” Rikus demanded, returning to his feet.

“I only saw one, and he disappeared,” Agis reported.

“You lost sight of him?” the mul snapped angrily.

“You didn't even see him,” Agis pointed out, his eyes still searching the trees.

Neeva plucked the arrow from the white bark. “They're not going to do much damage with
this thing.”

Rikus snatched the arrow from her hand and peered at the tip. “It was coated with
something,” he said. “There are still traces above the tip.”

The other three spoke at the same time. “Poison!”

Another twang sounded from the side of the trail. This time, the arrow struck Neeva in the
thigh. She let out a frightened scream and slapped it off her leg. With her other hand,
she pointed her trikal at a clump of trembling conifer boughs. “There he is,” she said,
stepping in the direction she pointed.

Her knees buckled on the second step, and she pitched face-first onto the ground. Sadira
kneeled at her side. Screaming in anger, Rikus leaped over the two women. Ignoring Agis's
and Sadira's panicked cries to be cautious, he disappeared into the shadowy forest.

Agis started to follow, but almost immediately Rikus yelled, “Got the little varl!”

A sharp smack sounded, then the mul stepped back into the trail with the halfling's
unconscious body in one hand. “Maybe a hostage will discourageÑ”

Another twang sounded from the other side of the trail. An arrow lodged in the mul's bare
chest. Rikus brushed it away with a quick swipe, then hurled the unconscious halfling at
his attacker. He charged toward the underbrush again, cursing and growling, but collapsed
before he left the trail.

Sadira pointed her cane over the mul's head, but Agis called, “No!”

Without explaining further, he pointed a hand to each side of the trail and closed his
eyes. Opening an energy path from his nexus to both of his arms, the noble imagined an
invisible cord that ran from deep inside him to his fingers. An instant later, his hands
tingled with psionic power.

Remembering the halfling taste for giant spiders, Agis decided to use a pair of mental
constructs to seek vengeance in Singer's name. He visualized each of his hands changing
into a huge spider, but not the chirping kind Anezka and her fellows liked to eat. These
were black and shiny, with great bulbous bodies and carapaces as hard as rock.

The spiders had no physical existence, for they lived only in the noble's thoughts. After
the halflings turned their attention on Agis, however, the spiders would seem as real to
the little warriors as anything else in the forest.

Assuming that the warriors were watching him by now, Agis visualized the illusionary
spiders leaping off he ends of his arms. When they landed, each was as large as Rikus.
They scurried into the forest on eight sturdy legs equipped with claws as sharp as a rock
leopard's nails and as long as a dagger.

By fixing their attention on Agis, the halflings created a faint mental contact between
themselves and the noble. The enormous spiders located two of these tenuous threads and
followed them like silky strands of web back to their sources. Through his spiders' eyes,
the noble saw the two halflings who were watching lift their bows, They each nocked a
black-tipped arrow into the bowstring.

As the halflings took aim, Agis's hunters entered their minds. Both halflings screamed and
released their bowstrings, shooting their tiny arrows into the ground. They dropped their
weapons and reached for their daggers, totally convinced that the psionic creatures were
real. Agis visualized the spiders' fangs dripping black poison, then the two beasts
struck. The astonished halflings cried out and clutched at the enormous fangs they
believed to be piercing their bodies. They struggled briefly, arms flailing wildly as they
tried to free themselves. Finally the warriors grew lethargic and fell silent, convinced
that they had been killed.

That belief would not last, Agis knew, for he had not penetrated his targets' minds deeply
enough to persuade them that they were truly dead. Doing so would have taken valuable time
and energy. Besides, killing the small warriors hardly seemed wise, considering that the
halflings were the ones who possessed the spear he and his friends needed.

After the two halflings stopped struggling, the noble allowed his hunters to roam the
forest a little longer, waiting for more ambushers to focus their thoughts on him. After a
moment, he felt reasonably sure that he had eliminated the remaining ambushers.

Agis cut off the flow of energy to his spiders, then placed his hands on his knees and
gasped for breath. The attack had been one of the most powerful he knew, and it had placed
a considerable strain on has body. We're safeÑfor now," he huffed.

Sadira looked doubtful. “What do you mean?”

“The Way,” Agis explained simply. “What of Neeva and Rikus?”

“They're still breathing,” Sadira replied. “They seem to be in no danger of dying.”

"Can you wake them?

Sadira tried shaking, slapping, and yelling at them. Nothing worked. “We'll just have to
wait until they're conscious.”

“We can't,” Agis said, shaking his head. “The halflings will recover within an hour or so.”

Sadira looked at the two gladiators. “Why couldn't this have happened to us instead of
them?” she complained. “We'll never move them.”

“Can't you do something?” Agis asked, finally bringing his breath under control.

Sadira shook her head. “I don't know any spells for carrying people.”

“What good is magic?” Agis sighed, stepping toward Rikus's inert form. “See if you can
find Anezka.”

“There's no use trying,” Sadira answered. “I saw her running down the trail after Rikus
fell.”

Agis closed his eyes and let out a long breath of disappointment. “Now what are we going
to do?”

Sadira shrugged and gestured toward the pathway. “This must lead somewhere. There's as
good a chance that we'll find Nok there as anyplace.”

With Sadira's help, Agis rolled the unconscious gladiators onto their backs and laid them
side by side, securing their weapons beneath their belts. He grasped them each by the
wrist and closed his eyes, then opened a pathway from his power core into their bodies. He
pictured them becoming clouds and rising off the ground of their own accord.

Once the two gladiators began to float, Agis stood. Being careful not to lose contact with
their bodies, he looked down the trail and said, “Let's go, and fast. I don't think I'm
going to last more than a few hours. Besides, we should be as far away from here as
possible when the halflings wake.”

With Sadira in the lead, they walked until midafternoon without incident. At last, the
valley broadened into a wide basin and the trail left the edge of the roaring river.

The half-elf suddenly stopped and stared at her feet.

“It's about time we rest,” Agis gasped thankfully. “I'm so tired I can hardly tell the
trail from the forest any more.”

“I didn't stop to rest,” Sadira said, pointing at a small strand of brown string stretched
across the trail. “Our friends have set up a surprise.”

She started to step over the string, but Agis called, “Wait!” He nodded
to
Neera's trikal. “Probe the ground J on the other side,” he said. “That tripwire is too
obvious.”

The half-elf raised an eyebrow. “My, aren't you the cautious one?”

Nevertheless, she took the trikal and did as Agis suggested. A mat of woven fronds,
covered by a thin layer of dirt, collapsed and dropped into a deep pit with a muffled
crash.

Sadira swallowed, then faced Agis. “It doesn't look safe to walk the path any longer.”

Agis was about to answer when a halfling stepped onto the trail behind Sadira. “Look out!”
he cried.

The noble dropped the two gladiators' wrists and crabbed Sadira. As he pulled her aside,
he heard the wane of a bowstring. Something sharp bit into his neck.

In the same instant, the astonished sorceress stumbled over the tripwire. A loud crack
sounded overhead, then a log crashed down out of the trees and swooped toward them.

The noble stepped forward, intending to shove Sadira to safety. Instead, his knees
buckled. As he fell, he spun around in time to see the log strike the young slave girl in
the head. He reached out, but found himself falling slowly backward, almost as if the air
itself had grown thick. Agis realized that the poison had taken hold of his mind and that
he was dropping into the pit they'd uncovered. The last thing he saw before he disappeared
into the earth was Sadira's limp body collapsing into the underbrush.

The Living Bridge

Sadira's head pounded as though it contained a dozen drummers, all beating the same
primitive rhythm. Her ears ached, her temples throbbed, even her teeth hurt. Her eyes were
too sore to open, and she felt sick to her stomach. She was so dizzy that she didn't think
she should be standing, yet, to her surprise, that was exactly what it felt like she was
doing.

The sorceress tried to lift a hand to her aching head and found it an impossible task. For
some reason she did not understand, she could not move her right arm. She tried with her
left and discovered that it, too, was immobilized. There was a terrible, sharp pain in
both wrists.