"Where?" Tazi asked.
"Ciredor has claimed the minarets in the very heart of both the Teshyll Wastes and the Calim itself, not all that far from where we are," she told them.
"Then this is it," Tazi pronounced. "Now to decide the best way to proceed."
She pondered the question, considering both Steorf and Fannah.
"I have a suggestion," Fannah offered.
"Please," Tazi urged.
"The only path that makes any sense now is to take the Trade Way. It is mostly intact from here, and that will help us immensely."
"And announce ourselves to Ciredor," Steorf added.
Before Fannah could say anything more, Tazi told him, "I think he has always known where we were. When that worm attacked us, I was struck by the feeling that time and time again it turned to you."
She fixed Steorf with a hard look.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"The creature had more than one opportunity to kill Fannah or me, but it didn't. There wasn't a single time that thing used lethal force against us, but the same cannot be said for you.
"Ciredor sent that thing," she concluded. "Obviously, he views you as the greatest threat, perhaps because of your sorcery."
Steorf lowered his eyes.
"Yes," he said sarcastically, "my all-powerful abilities."
"Maybe there's something in this-"she held up some of the parchments-"that he didn't want us to find out. Well never know for certain, but I do know he wanted you eliminated. If he didn't have our exact location, he knew enough. He wanted me to bring Fannah to him," she said, disgusted. "He couldn't even be bothered to take her himself."
"So?" Steorf asked.
"So," Tazi replied with a steely resolve, "nothing has changed. Like I said before, let's bring this to him, and let's end it once and for all."
"The Trade Way?" Steorf asked.
"Fannah?"
The blind woman turned her head from Tazi to Steorf and included them both in her white stare.
"I think it is best. As I told you, the stones were constructed with powerful magic imbued in them. The desert worms cannot penetrate them, in case Ciredor tries to send any others. I think that the walking dunes would have the same difficulty as the worms.
"Of course," she added, "it leads directly to the minarets we seek…"
"And Ciredor," Steorf finished.
"Then that's the way," Tazi said. "We will strike at the heart."
She rose to her feet, as did Fannah.
The women reached, in unison, for Steorf. He tried to swat their hands away.
"If you're getting cranky," Tazi teased, "then you must be feeling a little better.
"Save your strength," she said seriously, disregarding his efforts to stand unaided.
She got him to his feet and pulled his left arm over her shoulder.
"Please," she asked him, as much with her soft, green eyes than with her voice.
"I never seem to be able to say no to you," he said, and for the first time in the history of their relationship, Steorf actually smiled at her.
"Which way?" Tazi turned to Fannah, all businesslike again.
"I am a little disorientated," the blind woman admitted. "Which way is the sun setting?"
Tazi and Steorf turned to find the burning orb and were suddenly very aware of a growing gloom.
Finally, Tazi said, "I believe it is toward your left."
"What's wrong?" Fannah asked but then answered her own question. "It has cooled off, but it's too soon. We're not at sunset yet."
Tazi scanned the horizon where the sun should have been and saw only a ghost of an outline. The star was obscured by a swirling haze, ever darkening. In the distance, Tazi heard a faint howl.
"There's something to the west," she announced.
Fannah stood perfectly still, with her head to the side, like a bird listening for a predator.
"Sandstorm," she whispered. "Tazi,"-she turned toward her friend-"we have got to hurry now. Time is almost up. We should be able to reach Ciredor's minarets before the storm falls on us."
Without any further preamble, Fannah took Tazi's arm and started to pull her two companions toward the west.
As she had told them, the Trade Way was not far.
The three came across what must have been a magnificent road at one point in its history. It was wide enough to accommodate three fully packed carts. Time and the desert, however, had taken its toll. Huge chunks of the pavement were broken, and sharp pieces stabbed up from the ground. A few sinkholes had erupted, and the threesome had to carefully maneuver their way around the gaping pits of sand and rubble. Not far from where they stood, though, Tazi and Steorf could see the twin minarets.
"This path is huge," Steorf marveled.
Tazi noticed he was trying not to place all his weight on her, but she tugged slightly on his arm.
"It's all right," she told him.
He looked at her, and in the fading light she could see that his gray eyes were clouded with pain and there were deep smudges under them.
"You need your strength, too," he reminded her. To Fannah, he remarked, "It looks like you could ride six abreast on this road."
"During the Way's halcyon days, I understand it was a marvelous route."
To their left, Tazi and Steorf could see that the swirling sands were getting closer and closer. What surprised Tazi was the amount of sound the storm generated even at a distance. For the most part, the desert had been a deadly, but silent enemy.
Not any longer, Tazi thought.
"The storm is nearly upon us," Fannah remarked, her sharp ears missing nothing.
"We've got to get to the towers," Steorf said, "as quickly as we can."
Tazi watched how rapidly the darkness grew.
"We've run out of time," she declared, and the maelstrom engulfed them.
CHAPTER 16
"Where are you?" Tazi screamed.
She, Steorf, and Fannah were on the Trade Way for only a short time when the sandstorm from the west reached them. At first Tazi thought it wasn't too bad. The sun hadn't set yet, and with the three of them side by side, Tazi didn't understand Fannah's extreme concern. It was not comfortable, by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't that bad, and the towers weren't that far away.
We can do this, she thought.
"I think we'll be all right," she told Fannah, raising her voice over the wind.
Fannah shook her head in disagreement.
"This is just the edge of the storm," she said. "It's only going to get worse."
As they moved forward slowly, following the track of the Trade Way, the wind picked up as Fannah had warned, and Tazi started to revise her opinion. She and Steorf had to squint to keep the scathing grains out of their eyes. Tazi was certain she was losing layers of skin to the blasts of sand that only got stronger. The three had no choice but to hang onto each other, and at one point a wild gust tore Steorf's sack off his shoulders and tossed it behind them.
Tazi turned to follow its tumbling course, one hand shielding her eyes.
"I'll get it," she yelled to Steorf.
Part of her still hoped the writings contained some clue of how to destroy Ciredor, and she didn't want to lose their last weapon against him.
"Forget it," Steorf replied.
Fannah simply shouted, "No!"
Nevertheless, Tazi broke from their grip and trotted after the sack, which turned end over end just out of her reach.
The wind pushed Tazi to the left, as though a giant hand shoved her, and she had to compensate for that as she ran. The sack, however, blew farther away. Eventually, as the sun started toward the horizon, Tazi lost sight of it. She slowed down and realized that Ciredor's writings were lost to the desert storm.