The sounds of death from the highway grew louder. They could hear splashes, people hurling themselves into the Kithni.
Roland slid from his saddle. Landing on the ground, he gazed around. “This looks as good a place to die as any.”
Slowly, Paithan climbed from his cargan and walked over to Rega. He held out his arms. She slipped into them, and he clasped her tightly.
“I can’t watch, Paithan,” she said. “Promise me I won’t have to see them!”
“You won’t,” he whispered, smoothing the dark hair. “Keep your eyes on me.”
Roland stood squarely on the path, facing the direction in which the tytans must come. His fear was gone, or perhaps he was just too tired to care anymore.
Drugar, a ghastly grin on his bearded face, put his hand to his belt and drew the bone-handle knife.
One stroke for each of them, and a final for himself.
CHAPTER 25
TREETOPS, EQUILAN
HAPLO LAY FLAT ON HIS BACK ON THE MOSS, SHIELDING HIS EYES FROM THE
the sun, counting stars.
He had come up with twenty-five bright lights that he could see clearly from this vantage point. Lenthan Quindiniar had assured him that-all told-the elves had counted ninety-seven. Not all of these were visible all the time, of course. Some of them winked out and stayed out for a number of seasons before returning. Elven astronomers had also calculated that there were Stars near the horizon that could not be seen due to the atmosphere. They had estimated, therefore, that there might be anywhere from 150 to 200 stars total in the heavens.
Which was certainly different from any stars Haplo’d ever heard about. He considered the possibility of moons. There had been a moon in the ancient world, according to his lord’s research. But there had been no moon in the Sartan rendering of this world and Haplo hadn’t seen any moonlike objects during his flight. Again, he thought it likely that moons would revolve around the world and these lights were, apparently, stationary. But then the sun was stationary. Or rather the planet of Pryan :was stationary. It didn’t revolve. There was no day or night. And then there was the strange cycle of the stars-burning brightly for long periods of time, then going dark, then reappearing.
Haplo sat up, glanced about for the dog, discovered it wandering about the yard, sniffing at the strange smells of people and other animals it didn’t recognize. The Patryn, alone in the yard, everyone else asleep, scratched at his bandaged hands. The binding always irritated his skin the first few days he wore it.
Maybe the lights are nothing more than a natural phenomenon peculiar to this planet. Which means I’m wasting my time, speculating about them and the sun. After all, I wasn’t sent here to study astronomy. I’ve got more important problems. Like what to do about this world.
Last evening, Lenthan Quindiniar had drawn Haplo a picture of the world as the elves viewed it. The drawing was similar to the drawing Haplo’d seen in the Nexus-a round globe with a ball of fire in the center. Above the world, the elf added the “stars” and the sun. He pointed out their own location on this world-or what the elven astrologers had plotted was their location-and told him how the elves had, centuries ago, crossed the Paragna Sea to the est and arrived at the Fartherness Reaches.
“It was the plague,” Lenthan had explained. ‘They were fleeing it. Otherwise they never would have left their homes.”
Once they reached the Fartherness, the elves burned their ships, severing all contact with their former life. They turned their backs on the sea and looked inland. Lenthan’s great-great grandfather had been one of the few willing to explore the new territory to the vars and, in doing so, came across ornite, the navigational stone that was to make his fortune. [25] Using the stone, he was able to return to the Fartherness. He informed the elves of his discovery, and offered jobs to those willing to venture into the wilderness.
Equilan had started out as a small mining community. It might have remained no more than that, but for the development of the human realms to the vars. The humans of what was now known as Thillia traveled there, by their own account, through a passage that led beneath the Terinthian Ocean. King George the Only-the father of the five brothers of legendary fame-led his people to this new land, supposedly running from a terror, whose name and face had been lost in the past.