"What did you fear? Please explain!"
"There is a place near here. One may go there for knowledge or truth, but often at terrible cost — perhaps even a man's life, or his sanity. But this is why men venture into the House of Tezca, and why, sometimes, we bring them here."
Luskag fixed Poshtli with a cold stare. "And that is where your answer lies. I must take you to the Sunstone."
Erix recovered her senses slowly, first realizing that her nostrils ached from a gagging, putrid odor. Next she felt an ache in her abdomen, and finally she sensed motion — but not the gentle rocking motion of the canoe. Abruptly she understood, and the knowledge filled her with profound fear.
She lay across the back of the monster!
The pain came from a protruding shell on the beast's back, for she lay straddled across it, behind the monstrous head but in front of the human torso. She did not look, but felt certain the man was Halloran.
Looking down, she saw that they moved quickly over sand. The nearby sound of waves told her they raced along the beach.
Abruptly she twisted around and sprang away from the creature. She heard Halloran shout as she landed on the sand and sprawled full length. The pounding of the creature's heavy feet ceased instantly, and before she could scramble to her feet, the huge stranger had broken free of the beast and stood on his own feet before her.
"Why did you do that?" he asked. "I won't hurt you!"
"What — what are you?" she cried. "What kind of beings are you that kills with such abandon, such joy? And what are these monsters that…" She gestured angrily at the beast that now stood placidly on the shore. As if sensing her interest, the monster raised its head and made a soft nickering sound. Suddenly the nature of the horses became clear to her. They were animals, great creatures to be sure, but mere animals that carried these men about and were subject to their will.
She saw with her penetrating eyes that her words caused Halloran pain, and she remembered that he had fought against those of his people who would have killed her. The memory brought her anger back afresh.
"Why did you not let me die?" she demanded.
Now anger flashed in Hal's eyes. "Why? Because it was wrong, what they were doing. It was wrong for you to die there!"
"You are strange, even for a stranger, Halloran. You come here on a great journey with these people, and then when they fight, you turn against them."
Once again she caused him pain, she saw, and this time she regretted the hurt. "My people have turned against me," he explained. "They would have killed me, and so I fled." And they blamed me for the death of Martine, he added silently. He suddenly wanted to accuse her with this fact, but he held his tongue.
"When I saw you on the battlefield, there was but one thing I could do. I did it. We rode away from the field, and ever since we have been following the coast to the west."
"Am I your captive?" she asked boldly.
"What? No! Of course not! I wanted to right a wrong done before my eyes, to help you. That's all! And I thought you would be safer here with me than on the field with the legion."
"Then I am free to go?"
Suddenly Halloran felt a terrible fear, an unreasoning sense of loneliness that threatened to dwarf his earlier feelings of despair. He did not want this girl to leave him. She offered his only hope of communication, his only knowledge of this land. But he could not, would not hold her against her will.
"Yes, you can leave. You can go anywhere you want. But I hope you'll stay with me and help me. I'm alone here. I can't go back to my people." The sight and sound and smell of him filled Erixitl with amazement. But she was already growing accustomed to his bizarre appearance. He had proven himself a man of bravery and honor. She knew his companionship would be interesting. As for the smell…
"Very well. But first," she said to him pointedly, "you must take a hath."
He looked at her in puzzlement and saw that she was serious. "Then," she added, "well have to find shelter. It will be night soon."
"The treasure must be counted and assembled quickly!" Kardann urged Cordell. The captain-general noted wryly that the assessor had disappeared before the battle, presumably by returning to the fleet. Now that victory had been secured, however, he showed up with quill and parchment in hand. Nevertheless, he proposed a course of action exactly in line with Cordell's own wishes.
"We will march into this city — I understand it is called 'Ulatos' — tonight," Cordell said. "Darien has informed the chiefs, and they will be prepared to meet us." Once again, the elf's language spell had speeded understanding. Afterward, she had returned to the ship to study the spell, so that she would have it ready for the evening, in case more than one tongue was needed in subjugating Ulatos.
"And the gold?" Kardann asked anxiously.
"We will be rich men by dawn, I assure you," Cordell said as Kardann turned toward the battlefield.
"What about the bodies?" asked the assessor of Amn. "Have they been checked for ornaments, bracelets, that sort of thing?"
"Of course!" snapped Cordell. The necessity of the task did not make it any more palatable to him. "There was considerable gold. It's been gathered at the tower." He pointed to the observation tower on the battlefield, and Kardann hurried away. Cordell felt a vague sense of relief, amplified when he saw Darien coming toward him.
"Greetings, my dear!" Cordell was surprised. He had assumed she would be gone for hours, studying her spell.
Now, in the orange light of the bonfires, her pale white skin reflected the red haze of her anger. "What's the matter?" asked the captain-general.
"Your plan for Halloran backfired," she said, too softly for anyone else to hear. She took great pains to speak when the Bishou's attention, in particular, was directed elsewhere.
"You mean he didn't escape?" Cordell pursed his lips. "I'm disappointed in him. I thought I made it easy enough."
"Oh, you did that," Darien agreed, her tone biting. "He escaped… and more." Cordell raised his eyebrows, and she continued. "He stole my spellbook — perhaps not intentionally, but it was concealed in my backpack, and he took it along with him!"
Cordell winced and looked away from the elf's pale and angry eyes. They both knew the seriousness of the theft, for a wizard needed to consult her book after each spell in order to relearn the enchantment. Without her book, Darien could use each of her spells but once, then would be unable to relearn them until either the book was recovered or an alternate form of the spell was found and copied.
"There is a rumor among some of the men," Darien continued unmercifully, "that he attacked and unhorsed Alvarro, stealing his charger and fleeing the field."
"Helm curse him!" Cordell hissed his anger. "I give him a chance to redeem himself and he betrays me! I cannot allow this!"
"Obviously," agreed the wizard dryly. "But what do you propose to do about it?"
"Did he get all of your spells?"
"He got a copy of each, but I have some sheaves of notes and scrolls about that will help me relearn most of them. It will take time to copy the scrolls into a new book, though. He also stole some potions from the crate."
Cordell blinked his black eyes, his expression cold. "Very well. We can spare no effort. Halloran must be found and killed. Quickly."
"That might be accomplished more easily than you think," noted the wizard with a slow, cruel smile.
"How is that?"
"One of the potions he stole is the decoy… the poison. If he touches it to his lips, he'll be dead before he can lower the bottle."
Spirali walked among the bloody bodies on the field in amazement. As an old member of a very old race, his training had prepared him for many things. But the evidence on this battlefield left him cold and frightened, for the first time wondering if there were forces that even the Ancient Ones could not control.