Kitarak passed him within twenty feet, leaping high on his powerful back legs even with his pack weighing him down. He ran all the way to the end of the block, through the intersection, and paused in the rubble beyond where the building on the right side of the street had already collapsed. Kayan stopped next to him, and so did Jedra a moment later. They turned around to watch the last of the buildings-including the one they had been resting in only a few minutes earlier-thunder to the ground.
Jedra was horrified at the destruction they had unleashed. True, the city was abandoned and nearly ruined anyway, but to see building after building destroyed because of something he did made him want to scream in frustration. He hadn't planned it this way. He couldn't let Kitarak know that, however. When the rumbling finally stopped, they stood together in stunned silence for a moment before Jedra said, "Was that enough of a demonstration for you?"
The tohr-kreen clicked his mandibles again and again, as if having trouble speaking. Finally, his voice still full of clicks and buzzes, he said, "You didn't have to do that! Throwing a single boulder across the street would have been enough!"
Kayan, picking up Jedra's cue, said, "We wanted to make sure there was no doubt."
Kitarak looked from them to the dust cloud-now drifting eastward on the breeze-and said, " 'Be careful what you ask for; you might get it.' I did ask, didn't I?"
"You did," Jedra still felt guilty, but if Kitarak wanted to take responsibility for their mistake, let him. Maybe it would keep him from demanding any more demonstrations. "So are you ready to leave for Tyr now?"
Kitarak turned his compound eyes toward Jedra. This time there was no doubt what emotion his expressionless face was hiding. "Whether or not I am ready," he said, "we must leave in any case."
"Why?" asked Jedra.
"Because you have destroyed the well."
Chapter Five
They had arrived from the south, climbing over piles of rubble for hours to reach the heart of the city. Now Kitarak led them westward along pathways he and others had cleared, and they reached the rocky plain beyond its edge in half that time. Turning to survey the ruins behind them, Jedra felt an immense sadness sweep through him. At one time, millennia ago, this had been a thriving center of life for thousands of people. What catastrophe had put an end to it? He would probably never know. But he would always know what had finished it off. The memory of all those high towers crashing to the ground would haunt him forever.
Nothing of value had survived. They had checked to be sure, but Kitarak had been right; the wellhead had been buried under tons of stone blocks. It would take hundreds of people with levers and ropes to dig down to it, and the likelihood that any of the pumping machinery had survived was practically nil. And without a water source, not even scavengers would come anymore. The city now belonged totally to the desert.
Kitarak turned away without a word and led the way into the vast rocky plain. He took long, slow strides, covering eight or ten feet at a time. Jedra and Kayan took three or four steps for every one of his, and soon they were puffing and panting to keep up.
Jedra had refused Kayan's offer to heal his leg where it had been cut by the flying debris. It was only a surface wound over the calf muscle; he could let it heal naturally rather than tire her out. He almost wished he had let her do it, because the salt in his sweat was making it sting like crazy. His other muscles were complaining just as badly, though. "You've got to slow down," he finally gasped. "We're not going to make it another mile at this pace."
"I don't care," said Jedra. "We can't walk this fast."
The tohr-kreen rasped his arms against his thorax again. Jedra was growing certain that was his way of showing agitation. "Can't your psionic power give you more endurance?" Kitarak asked.
"No," Jedra said. "At least I don't think so. Kayan?"
She was bent over, hands on her knees. She shook her head without looking up. "No, it can't. Maybe for a little while, but we'd just tire out even faster in the long run."
"How about levitation? Can't you lift and move yourselves with the same force you used to level the city?"
"I don't think that would get us much farther either," she said, straightening up. "We can explore mentally, but we always come back to where we started. Our bodies never go anywhere in the first place."
"Hmm," Kitarak buzzed. "This power of yours doesn't seem very useful for practical things."
"That's why we're looking for a mentor," Jedra said. "Somebody who can help us learn how to... ah... do more with it." He didn't want to admit that it was out of control most times.
"Toward what end?"
The question caught Jedra by surprise. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, what do you want to use the power for?"
"I don't know," Jedra said. "How about levitation, for starters?"
"Very good," Kitarak said. "Clever." He turned away and began walking again, but more slowly.
Over his spiny shoulder, he said, "What else can you do, besides push buildings over?"
How much do we want to tell him? Jedra mindsent to Kayan.
Don't let him know we can communicate without speaking, she sent back. Or mind-merge. We may need the advantage if he's not what he seems.
I agree.
Kitarak was waiting for an answer. Apparently he could see ahead and back at the same time; he didn't stop walking, but he didn't turn his head forward again, either. Aloud, Jedra said, "I can sometimes tell when people are watching me. Especially if they're a threat."
"That sounds useful," Kitarak said. It was hard to tell when his voice carried sarcasm, but he seemed sincere this time. "Anything else?"
Kayan said, "I can heal most wounds, if they're not immediately fatal."
"That definitely sounds useful. Can you heal a tohr-kreen?"
"I don't know. You want to hurt yourself and find out?"
Kitarak actually seemed to consider it. He tilted his head from side to side and rattled his mandibles like a person clicking his tongue. "No," he said at last. "Advance knowledge might lead to foolish risk-taking. I will proceed on the assumption that you cannot, and hope to be pleasantly surprised if I need your services." "Good idea," said Kayan.
"Of course." Kitarak said nothing more for a few minutes, merely turned his head to the front again and hiked on through the rocks at his steady pace. Now that he had slowed down, Jedra was glad to follow his lead; he didn't like being first in line through unfamiliar territory. But the tohr-kreen wasn't through. He turned his head back again and said, "Do you lust for power?"
This time it was Kayan who said, "What?"
"In my experience, there are two reasons for seeking knowledge," Kitarak said. "Simple curiosity and thirst for understanding is one, and lust for the power that knowledge can bring is the other. Which is your reason for seeking a mentor?"
"I-don't think it's either one," Kayan said.
"Neither one! How can that be?"
"I've already got the power," Kayan said. "I just want to find out how to use it better."
Kitarak clicked excitedly. "Aha, you dodge the question. Why do you want to use it better?"
"Because!" Kayan said in exasperation. "I don't like being ignorant. It's frustrating and it's dangerous."
"Good," Kitarak said. "Indeed, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. You have a certain wisdom about you. It's crude and unpolished from too little introspection, but you do understand the basic issue. How about you, young Jedra? What are your reasons for seeking a mentor?"
"Power," Jedra said immediately. "Greed. I want to rule all of Athas with an iron fist."
"Do not take up gambling. You lie poorly," Kitarak said, but he turned away and left Jedra alone, which was what Jedra wanted.