Matherion’s very murky right now, and you know how much
mother loves politics.’
‘i’m glad she’s happy. You’ll have to tell us about it, but let’s
get past Edek and outrun that Cynesgan brigade first. I don’t
like having people snapping at my heels.’
‘Tell the others to stop, and then get Vanion’s map. Let’s be
sure we know where we’re going this time.’
I’m never going to get used to that,’ Kalten shuddered after they
had covered fifty leagues of open desert in a single gray-blurred
moment.
‘Your map’s not very precise, Vanion,’ Aphrael said critically.
‘We were trying for a spot on the other side of that peak.’ She
pointed at a jagged spire rearing up out of the desert.
‘I didn’t draw the map,’ Vanion replied a bit defensively. ‘What
difference does it make, though? We’re close enough, aren’t we?
We came to within a few miles of where we wanted to go.’
‘You’d have found out how much difference it makes if we’d
been moving around near a large body of water,’ she said tartly.
‘This is just too imprecise.’
Vanion looked back over his shoulder toward the west. “it’s
almost sunset. Why don’t we get back away from this road and
set up for the night? If we’ve got a problem with this, let’s find
a quiet place where we can work it out.’
Sparhawk smiled. Despite all his protestations that he was no
longer the Pandion Preceptor, Vanion automatically took charge
unless he was consciously thinking about what he believed to
be his changed status. Sparhawk didn’t really mind. He was
used to taking orders from Vanion, and his friend’s assumption
of authority relieved him of the nagging details of command.
They rode out into the desert a couple of miles and set up for
the night in a dry wash behind an up-thrust jumble of weathered
boulders. Unlike the Rendorish desert, which was mostly sand,
the desert here in Cynesga was sun-baked gravel, rusty-brown
and sterile. The moving sands of Render at least gave an illusion
of life. Cynesga was dead. Stark, treeless peaks clawed harshly
at the sky, and the vast emptiness of gravel and rock was broken’
only by flat, bleached white beds of alkali.
‘Ugly place,’ Ulath grunted, looking around. Ulath was used
to trees and snow-capped peaks.
‘i’m sorry you feel that way,’ Kalten grinned. “I was thinking
of selling it to you.’
‘You couldn’t give it to me.’
‘Look on the bright side. It almost never rains here.
“I think that’s part of the problem.’
‘There’s a lot of wild game, though.’
‘Really?’
‘Snakes, lizards, scorpions – that sort of thing.’
‘Have you developed a taste For baked scorpion?’
‘Ah – no, I don’t think so.’
“I wouldn’t waste any arrows on them, then.’
‘Speaking of eating… ‘
‘Were we speaking of that?’
“it’s a topic that comes up from time to time. Do you know of
a way to set fire to rocks?’
‘Not right offhand, no.’
‘Then I’ll volunteer to fix supper. I haven’t seen a stick or a
twig or even a dry leaf around here, so a fire’s sort of out of the
question. Oh, well, cold food never hurt anybody.’
‘We can get by without fire,’ Vanion said, ‘but we’re going to
have to have water for the horses.’
‘Aphrael and I can manage that, dear,’ Sephrenia assured him.
‘Good. I think we might be here for a day or so. Sparhawk
and Aphrael are going to be working with Bhelliom on this
little problem of precision.’ He looked inquiringly at the Child
Goddess. ‘is it likely to take very long?’ he asked her.
‘i’m not really positive, Vanion. When I do it, I still have the
surrounding terrain to refer to, so I know where I am, no matter
how fast I’m going. Bhelliom goes from one place to another
instantaneously without any reference points. It’s an altogether
different process. Either Sparhawk and I are going to have to
learn how Bhelliom’s technique works, or we’re going to have
to make Bhelliom understand exactly what we want.’
‘Which way would be easier?’ Kalten asked her.
‘i’m not sure. It’s possible that they’re about the same – both
very, very difficult. We’ll find out tomorrow morning.’ She
looked at Vanion. ‘Are we more or less safe where we are right
now?’
Vanion scratched at his short, silvery beard. ‘Nobody really
expects us to be here. Somebody might accidentally stumble
across us, but there won’t be any kind of organized search. They
don’t know where we are, and the rings are shielded, so
our friend out there won’t be able to pick up the sense of
their location and follow that to us. I’d say that we’re safe
here.’
‘Good. We’ve got some time, then. Let’s use it to let Sparhawk
and Bhelliom get to know each other. There’s nothing all that
crucial going on right now, so a few mistakes and false starts
won’t hurt anything. They might be disastrous later on, though.’
Sephrenia did not tell them where the water came from the next
morning, but it was icy-cold and tasted of snow-melt. It sparkled
invitingly in its shaded little pool behind a rust-colored boulder,
and by its very presence it alleviated a great deal of tension
Water is a source of major concern to people in a desert.
Flute took Sparhawk, Khalad and Talen some distance out
onto a broad graveled plain to begin the instruction.
“it’s going to get hot out here before long,’ Talen complained.
‘Probably, yes,’ the little girl agreed.
‘Why do Khalad and I have to come along?’
‘Vanion needs the knights with him here in case someone
stumbles across our camp.’
‘You missed my point. Why do you two need anybody to come
along?’
‘Sparhawk has to have people and horses to carry. He’s not
going to be moving sacks of grain from place to place, you
know.’ She looked at Vanion’s map. ‘Let’s see if Bhelliom can
take us to this oasis up here, Sparhawk,’ she said, pointing at
a symbol on the map.
‘What does it look like?’ he asked her.
‘How would I know? I’ve never been there either.’
‘All you’re giving me to work with is a name, Aphrael. Why don’t we do it
the way we did when we moved from outside Jorsan up to Korvan? – and all
those other places we went to when we were jumping around to confuse the
other side? You tell Bhelliom where we want to go and then I’ll tell it tO
do it.’
‘We can’t be sure that I’ll always be available, Sparhawk. There
are times when I have to be away. The whole idea here is to train
you and Bhelliom to work together without my intervention.’
‘A name isn’t really very much to take hold of, you know.’
‘There’ll be trees,’ Sparhawk,’ Khalad told him. ‘An oasis is
kind of a pond, and anywhere you’ve got water, you’re going
to have trees.’
‘And probably houses,’ Talen added. ‘There’d almost have to
be houses, since water’s so scarce here in Cynesga.’
‘Let’s see the map,’ Sparhawk said. He studied the chart carefully
for quite some time. ‘All right,’ he said finally. ‘Let’s try it
and see what happens.’ He lifted the cap on his ring and touched
the band to the lid of the golden box. ‘Open,’ he said. Then he
put on the other ring and took out the Bhelliom. “it’s me again,’
he told the jewel.
‘Oh, that’s absurd, Sparhawk,’ Aphrael told him.
‘Formal introductions take too long,’ he replied. ‘There may
come a time when I’ll be in a hurry.’ He carefully imagined a
desert oasis – an artesian-fed pond with its surrounding palms
and flat-roofed white houses. ‘Take us there, Blue Rose,’ he
commanded.
The air blurred and faded into gray. Then the blur cleared,
and the oasis was there, just as he had imagined it.
‘You see, Sparhawk,’ Aphrael said smugly. ‘That wasn’t hard
at all, was it?’
Sparhawk even laughed out loud. ‘This might work out after
all.’
‘Talen,’ Khalad said, ‘why don’t you ride on down to one of
those houses and ask somebody the name of this place?’
“it’s Zhubay, Khalad,’ Flute told him. ‘That’s where we
wanted to go, so that’s where we are.’
‘You wouldn’t mind a bit of verification, would you?’ he asked her
innocently.
She scowled at him.
Talen rode down to the cluster of houses and returned a few
minutes later. ‘Let me see the map,’ he said to Khalad.
‘Why?’ Flute asked him. ‘We’re in Zhubay, up near the Atan
border.’
‘No, Divine One,’ the boy disagreed, ‘actually we’re not.’ He
studied the map for several minutes. ‘Ah,’ he said. ‘Here it is.’
He pointed. ‘This is where we’re at – Vigayo, down near the
southern border where Cynesga adjoins Arjuna. You missed
your mark by about three hundred leagues, Sparhawk. I think
you’d better sharpen your aim just a bit.’