Kiril asked him. "I remember a detail from my divination." The crystal dragonet winged over to the destrier and dived headfirst into one of Thormud's packs. It emerged several heartbeats later with a leather tube clamped in its mouth. Kiril recognized it as one of the map cases that the dwarf referenced from time to time. She recalled this map as having recognizable names and political borders inscribed on it. Many of the dwarf's other maps depicted topography meaningless to her.
Meanwhile, the dwarf approached the destrier. Xet craned its neck to deliver the map to Thormud's outstretched hand. Kiril ambled over, too. Might as well see what the old dwarf was up to. Better to get the explanation as it developed, rather than ask Thormud to recap later, after he thought too much about it-the dwarf would one day kill her with his mind-numbing explanations. Or, in order to prevent that, she'd stick her dagger in him. If only, she mused, grinning. Thormud looked at her enigmatic grin, smiled without understanding the reason for his bodyguard's expression, and unrolled the map on the destrier's back. He grabbed Xet and placed the creature on one side of the curling parchment to hold its edge down, and weighted the other edge with his moon rod. The dwarf had to study it for only a few moments before his finger stabbed down into the lower right corner. "The Golden Water!" he said, exultant. Kiril cocked an eyebrow. "This was in my vision-a swath of water that shone like molten gold. I thought it seemed familiar. North of it was a singular spire, like a wolf's…" the dwarf's voice trailed off as his finger traced north across a wide bay labeled "The Golden Water," to the coast near a city called Huorm. Standing just a few miles from the water was some sort of natural rise called Adama's… "… tooth," finished the dwarf.
His finger tapped the landmark. "Adama's Tooth. That's the place the earth first showed me, before I became lost." Kiril asked him, "So what?" "We shall discover 'what' when we get there." Kiril studied the parchment. The map didn't show elevations, but Adama's Tooth looked suspiciously solitary. She rubbed the scar on her hand where lava had burned her during a previous expedition planned by Thormud. "You're certain it's not a volcano?" The dwarf brightened. "Oh, wouldn't that be just delightful?" "Right," Kiril said. "Hey, our friend left a small piece of himself behind-see that? One of his sigils." Thormud stared at the tiny piece of purplish crystal. He produced a leather scarf, dashed over, and quickly wrapped the crystal, completely hiding it. "Why'd you do that?" "Whatever sent that creature might be able to see out of the crystal, as if it were a window," murmured the dwarf.
"Is that so?" The hair stood up a little on Kiril's neck. "Maybe we should bury that little package here and now." Thormud shook his head.
"No, I think we can learn more from it before we do that." Kiril looked at the dwarf and said, "I had better not see that crystal again, understand?" "We'll see, Kiril. It is for me to decide."
CHAPTER NINE
"Why did you follow me?" The vengeance taker hung in the chamber, his prison a blaze of slowly churning light. "Release me, and I'll tell you all you want to know, and more." Ususi shook her head.
"Wrong. Tell me, then I decide your fate. I know your kind doesn't like to be dictated to, but you're in no position to insist. Tell me why I shouldn't just leave you to rot." The man shrugged, unfazed by Ususi's threat. "Then listen. Crisis has reached Deep Imaskar. If you do not return immediately, our hidden stronghold may fall. It may have fallen already." Ususi blinked. A plea for help was the last thing she anticipated from her tracker. "By the Purple Throne, what are you trying at? You can't trick me with crazy yarns! Why have you come after me now, after so many years? Why can't the Hidden City let me go? You know I'll not betray its secrets!" The man tried to wipe his brow, but the magical trap prevented him from completing the action.
He shrugged instead, and said, "You expect reprisal for bypassing the Great Seal without permission and leaving behind Deep Imaskar? At any other time, you would be right to fear punishment. But think. You said it yourself-if it had been deemed a worthwhile expenditure of our resources, we would have had you back long ago, Ususi Manaallin." He fixed her with his large eyes, whose depths were as bleak and colorless as a winter sky. Despite his helplessness, Ususi shivered under that ruthless gaze. Could such eyes even consider lies? She cleared her throat. Despite his abilities, he was her prisoner now and couldn't hurt her. "What is your name?" "I am Iahn Qoyllor, and I first heard the Voice of Damos fifteen years ago." Ususi's eyes flicked to the relic strapped to the man's right hand. She suppressed a shiver. "All right, Iahn. Tell me your disaster story and why you were sent to find me." "Darkness hammers against the Great Seal, a supernatural force that we cannot identify. Horror stalks the streets, and even the Hidden City's most stalwart defenders fall before its onslaught. The lord apprehender says we have but one hope: Ususi Manaallin. To this end, I was dispatched." Ususi couldn't suppress a yelp of protest. "Huh? That's gibberish! What hope? And what do you mean, darkness?" "The lord apprehender bid me tell you this.
'Retribution seeks the descendants of ancient Imaskar. Something old has awakened, something with no love for the long dead god kings.
Since they are long gone, it comes for us. It reaches forth from the lost Celestial Nadir.'" Ususi felt as if she'd been punched in the stomach. "The Celestial Nadir?" "The lord apprehender said more. 'This threat arises from where we cannot go-we cannot find access to the Celestial Nadir. We have no knowledge of how the great Imaskari of elder days entered their legendary place behind the world. We can't find our foe. No one can, except Ususi Manaallin. Her life's study is the Celestial Nadir, and she defied the edicts of the Great Seal to expand her research on it. For the sake of all surviving Imaskari, we pray her search has yielded fruit all these years since we let her go.'" "Riiiiiight." Equal parts praise and threat, mixed with a call for help. It might just be a message from the lord apprehender. Iahn slowly spun in his prison. Then again, this was a vengeance taker's story. Ususi knew countless tales of vengeance taker guile. This man's words were no doubt a ploy calculated to make her release him.
Vengeance taker deviousness was legendary. "Here's what I think," offered Ususi. "I think you finally did decide to track me down, and here you are. But you got a little too eager when you caught sight of me. And here you linger, caught. A fly in amber." The man narrowed his eyes. Anger? Probably not the wisest choice, taunting a vengeance taker. But his talk of darkness reminded her of her unsettling dream.
And of the darkness growing at the heart of her keystone, and of the Celestial Nadir crystal she'd found in Two Stars. She reached into her purse and brought out the crystal. Ususi gasped. The darkness at its heart had grown threefold since she gazed at it last night. The keystone, on the other hand, seemed unchanged. Seeing the crystal, Iahn drew in his breath quickly, almost hissing. "Where did you get that?" "Why do you care?" "The creatures that I dispatched near your travel coach all wore pendants of the same crystal. They were hunting you." "Creatures hunting me?" Ususi laughed, almost relieved. "All right, you're really off the cliff edge. Nothing is hunting me-I haven't seen a soul for tendays. I can't believe a word you are saying, can I?" "Why don't you go out and see for yourself? Perhaps then you'll cut me down from this confinement and apologize for doubting I spoke the truth." "Why don't I, indeed?" What she would actually do, she told herself as she slipped carefully beneath the floating form, careful not to become entangled in the snaring magic, would be to pack up the travel coach and drive hell-bent for the nearest big city-Assur, probably-where she could charter a ship. With any luck, the vengeance taker would never free himself. But her luck may have been pushed too far already. By all rights, the vengeance taker should have found her and dealt with her without falling afoul of a trap.