"You're a pacifist," said Kayan, true wonder in her voice. "That's incredible."
"Why?"
"Because of where you come from. Most people who grow up on the streets just take it as given that they have to fight for survival. For someone like you to figure out that there might be a better way, well, that's pretty unusual."
Jedra wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not, but he decided to take it as one. "Thanks," he said.
"You're welcome," she said. She blushed, then leaned closer to him. "I'm sorry I got you mad. Kiss and make up?"
He wasn't sure if he had gotten completely over his anger yet, but he suddenly realized he was going to have to practice what he'd just preached. He supposed it could have been worse, though.
"All right," he said, and he leaned forward for the second kiss of his life.
Their rest stop lasted a little longer than they'd originally intended, but when they started out again they walked side by side. The ground was too rocky for sand cactus, and besides, it was easier to hold hands that way.
They walked at a steady pace all through the morning, their improved spirits helping even more than anger to keep them going. The harder ground underfoot helped as well. It was difficult to judge how far they'd gone, since they hadn't paid that much attention to the passing miles, so when they stopped for lunch Jedra said, "Why don't we link up and check our progress?"
"You just want to mind-merge again," Kayan said playfully.
"And you don't?"
"Of course I do, but I don't know if it's a good idea. Look what happened last time."
"Hmm."
They had stopped by the biggest boulder they could find, but it wasn't rounded enough to provide much shade with the sun straight overhead. Jedra considered the situation for a moment, then he propped the spear against the rock, took off his robe, and rucked the corners into the holes in the spear haft. Then he stretched the cloth out toward the ground and weighted the bottom corners down with rocks, making a lean-to tent big enough for both of them to fit under.
"All right," Kayan said when he'd finished. "Let's link up and see how far we've come, but that's it. No lingering this time."
"Deal."
They climbed under the makeshift tent, joined hands, and linked. At once their argument that morning seemed petty and foolish. Compared to the sense of well-being they felt now, their little differences of opinion were insignificant. Who cared who got them into trouble? They were invincible now. Once again they rose on powerful roc wings over the desert, and they immediately wheeled around to the west and flew for Tyr.
It was still a long way off. Even at the pace they'd maintained that morning it would take five days to reach it, but they wouldn't be able to keep up that pace after they ran out of food and water. They had maybe three days of good marching left, maximum, and the last one would be without food or water.
There's got to be a better solution than just heading west until we drop, Jedra's part of their mind suggested.
We've been over this before, Kayan's practical side replied. We knew it was a long way when we decided to go for it. We've done better than we thought we'd do; let's be glad of it and keep going.
Let's at least look for the oasis on our way back, Jedra thought. We might find it yet, or something else that'll help.
All right. They turned away from the city and flew eastward again, focusing their psionic senses on anything unusual. Water, food, intelligent minds, even animals that might provide a life-sustaining meal. At first they found nothing, but when they had come about two-thirds of the way back to where their bodies waited they spotted something far to the north. A scintillating beacon of some sort, like sunlight reflected off a rippling surface.
Open water? It couldn't be, not out here. But it might be something else useful, so they veered northward and with a few powerful wingbeats flew toward it.
A city slid up from behind the horizon, its buildings taller and straighter-sided than anything either of them had ever seen. Even the modest ones were larger than the pyramid under construction at Tyr, and there were dozens even bigger. What they had seen was sunlight reflecting off the flat sides of the buildings.
What could it be? Jedra asked, and Kayan answered, An ancient ruin? I've heard the desert is littered with them.
This doesn't look very ruined.
Maybe we're seeing it as it used to be.
They circled around, looking at the buildings from all sides. At their bases grew trees and green grass so thick the dirt couldn't be seen between the blades. In the middle of one open courtyard a fountain sprayed three jets of water high into the air.
And seated on a bench beside the fountain, a six-limbed, mantislike thri-kreen leaned its head back and watched them with its black, multifaceted eyes.
We've found it! Jedra said. This has to be the oasis.
It doesn't have to be anything, Kayan said.
Sure it does. And whatever it is, it's better than nothing. We should come here instead.
No, we should stick with our original course. If we start chasing mirages, we'll never make it anywhere.
This isn't a mirage.
They felt the same rending of their union that they had felt last time they had begun to argue, the same diminishing of their synergy. Kayan said, Let's unlink and talk about it.
Jedra sensed that she was going to break the link anyway, so he readied himself for the shock and said, All right.
It wasn't quite so bad as before. Their roc body and the city below flickered and vanished like a burst soap bubble, and Jedra once again found himself sitting on the hard rock with Kayan by his side. Their makeshift tent flapped softly overhead in a faint breeze.
Neither of them spoke for a minute while they tried to corral their stressed emotions. The letdown was just as intense as always, but they were getting familiar with it, and they simply waited for it to pass.
Jedra spoke first. "I still think we should go for the city. It's only another day and a half away."
"It may not be a city," Kayan said. "And if it is, I bet it's nothing but rubble now, no matter what we saw." "And the thri-kreen?"
"Who knows? Maybe it was the ghost of the king." Jedra leaned back against the rock. They had pitched their lean-to tent on the west side of it, which hadn't received sun yet today and was still a few degrees cooler than the surrounding air. "Maybe it wasn't," he said. "Maybe it was an actual, living thri-kreen. Maybe it lives out there, and the city was its mental image of home."
Kayan picked up a fist-sized rock and turned it over in her hand. "You want to go into a thri-kreen's home? They eat elves, did you know that?"
"I'm not an elf," Jedra told her. "I'm a half-elf."
"So it'll only eat half of you."
"We can defend ourselves if necessary," Jedra said, "but I'll bet we won't have to. Thri-kreen and elves get along fine in the city. I'll bet it'll sell us food and water if we offer to buy it. I've still got Dornal's money bag. And maybe the thri-kreen will know a better way across the desert than the way we're going."
" 'Maybe' is a pretty unsure thing to hang your hopes on," Kayan said to the rock.
"So is thinking we can walk all the way to Tyr on two half-empty waterskins and ten honeycakes."
Kayan took a deep breath and let it out slowly, but didn't speak.
"This is serious," Jedra said. "We could die out here. We will die if we make the wrong decision."
"I know that." Kayan flung the rock she'd been holding out into the desert, where it clacked against another rock and bounced to the side. "That's why I don't want to waste our last resources wandering off after a psionic chimera."