‘Turn your backs,’ Flute instructed.
‘Do you have to do that?’ Talen asked. ‘Is it like flying?’
‘Just turn around, Talen.’
‘Don’t forget the clothes,’ Sparhawk told her.
‘They’d just be in my way. If you don’t like it, don’t look.” Her voice was already richer. Bevier had his eyes tightly closed, and his lips were moving. He was obviously praying—very hard.
‘I’ll be right back,’ the Goddess promised. ‘Don’t go away.’
They waited for what seemed to be hours. Then they heard a faint splashing down below. The splashing was accompanied by muffled laughter.
Talen knelt at the edge of the rectangular shaft. ‘Are you all right?’ he whispered.
‘I’m fine.’
‘What’s so funny?’
‘The Cyrgai. You wouldn’t believe how stupid they are.’
‘What did they do now. ?’
‘The water comes from a large artesian spring right near the outer wall. The Cyrgai built a sort of cistern around it. Then they built a tunnel that goes under the inner wall to carry water to a very large pool that lies underneath the mountain they’ve built their main city on.’
‘What’s wrong with that?’
‘Nothing—as far as it goes. They seem to have realized the same thing that Bevier did. Their water-source is a weakness. They very carefully, built a stone lattice at the mouth of the tunnel. Nobody can get into the tunnel from the cistern.’
‘I still don’t see anything to laugh about.’
‘I’m just coming to that. This shaft that leads down to the tunnel seems to have been added later—probably so that they could get into the tunnel to clean it.’
‘That doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. It is supposed to be drinking water, after all.’
‘Yes, but when they dug the shaft, they forgot something. The other end of the tunnel—the one that’s inside their second wall—is completely open. There aren’t any bars, no lattice, no chains, nothing.’
‘You’re not serious.’
‘May muh tongue turn green iff’n I ain’t.’
‘This is going to be easier than I thought,’ Kalten said. He leaned over and peered down into the darkness. ‘Is that current very swift?’ he called down softly.
‘Swift enough,’ Aphrael replied. ‘But that’s all right. It speeds you right straight through, so you won’t have to hold your breath so long.’
‘Do what?’ his voice was choked.
‘Hold your breath. You have to swim under water.’
‘Not me,’ he said flatly.
‘You do know how to swim, don’t you?
‘I can swim in full armor if I have to.’
‘What’s the problem, then?’
‘I don’t swim under water. It sends me into a panic.’
‘He’s right, Aphrael,’ Sparhawk called down softly. ‘As soon as Kalten’s head goes under water, he starts screaming.’
‘He can’t do that. He’ll drown.’
‘Exactly. I used to have to stand on his chest to squeeze the water out of him. It happened all the time when we were boys.’
‘Oh, dear,’ she said. ‘I hadn’t counted on this.’
29
The moon was almost full, and it stained the eastern horizon before it rose in a pallid imitation of dawn. It slid slowly into view, rising ponderously above the brittle white salt-flats.
‘Good God!’ Berit exclaimed, staring at the horror all around them. What had seemed to be round white rocks by the faint light of the stars were revealed as bleached skulls, nesting in jumbles of bones and staring in mute accusation at the heavens.
‘It looks as if we’ve come to the right place,’ Khalad observed. ‘The note Sparhawk left us talked about a “Plain of Bones”.’
‘It goes on forever!’ Berit gasped, looking off toward the west.
‘Let’s hope not. We have to cross it.’ Khalad stopped, peering intently toward the west. ‘There it is,’ he said, pointing at a gleaming spot of reflected light in the center of a low range of dark hills some distance beyond the ghastly plain.
‘There what is?’
‘Our landmark. Sparhawk called it the “Pillars of Cyrgon”. Something out there’s catching the moonlight. We’re supposed to ride toward that spot.’
‘Who’s that?’ Berit hissed, pointing at a figure walking toward them out of the bone-littered desert.
Khalad loosened his sword in its sheath. ‘Another note from Kragen, maybe,’ he muttered. ‘Let’s start being a little careful, my Lord. I think we’re getting very close to the place where we’ll have outlived our usefulness.’
The figure coming out of the desert seemed to be moving at no more than a casual stroll, and as he came closer, they were able to make out his features.
‘Watch yourself, Khalad!’ Berit hissed sharply. ‘He’s not human.’
Khalad felt it as well. It was nothing really definable, just an overpowering sense of presence, an aura that no human had. The figure appeared to be that of an extraordinarily handsome young man. He had tightly-curled hair, classic features and very large, almost luminous eyes.
‘Ah, there you are, gentlemen,’ he said urbanely in flawless Elenic. ‘I’ve been looking all over for you.’ He glanced around. ‘This is a really wretched place, don’t you think? Exactly the sort of place you’d expect the Cyrgai to inhabit. Cyrgon’s terribly warped. He adores ugliness. Have you ever met him? Frightful fellow. No sense of beauty whatsoever.’
He smiled, a radiant, slightly vague smile. ‘My cousin Aphrael sent me. She’d have come herself, but she’s a little busy right now—but then, Aphrael’s always busy, isn’t she? She can’t stand to just sit quietly.’ He frowned. ‘She wanted me to tell you something.’ His frown intensified. ‘What was it now? I have the worst memory lately.’ He held up one hand. ‘No,’ he said, ‘don’t tell me. It’ll come to me in a moment. It’s terribly important, though, and we’re supposed to hurry. I’ll probably think of it as we go along.’ He looked around. ‘Do you gentlemen by any chance happen to know which way we’re supposed to go?’
‘It won’t work, Aphrael,’ Kalten said morosely. ‘I’ve tried it when I was dead drunk and the same thing happens. I go crazy when I feel the water closing over my head.’
‘Just try it, Kalten,’ the minimally dressed Goddess urged. ‘It really will relax you.’ She pushed the tankard into his hand.
He sniffed suspiciously. ‘It smells good. What is it?’
‘We drink it at parties.’
‘The beer of the Gods?’ His eyes brightened. ‘Well, now.” He took a cautious sip. ‘Well now,”he said enthusiastically. ‘That’s the way it’s supposed to taste.’
‘Drink it all.’ she instructed, watching him intently.
‘Gladly. ‘ He drained the tankard and wiped his lips. ‘That’s really good. If a man had the recipe for that, he could—’ he broke off, his eyes glazed.
‘Lay him down,’ Aphrael ordered. ‘Quickly, before he stiffens up. I don’t want him all twisted into a pretzel when I drag him through the tunnel.’
Talen was doubled over with both hands tightly over his mouth to stifle his laughter.
‘What’s your problem?’ the Goddess demanded tartly.
‘Nothing,’ he gasped.”Nothing at all.’
‘I’ve got a long way to go with that one,’ Aphrael muttered to Sparhawk.
‘Is this going to work?’ Sparhawk asked her. ‘Kalten, I mean? Can you really drag an unconscious man underwater for any distance without drowning him?’
‘I’ll stop his breathing.’ She looked around at the others. ‘I don’t want any of you to try to help me,’ she cautioned. ‘You just concentrate on getting through yourselves. I don’t have to breathe, but you do, and I don’t want to have to spend an hour fishing you out of that pool one by one after we get there. Now, does anybody else have any problems you haven’t told me about? This is the time to talk about them—before we’re all under water.
She looked pointedly at Bevier. ‘Is there something you’d like to tell me, Sir Knight? You seem to be having a crisis of some sort.