“What?”
That’s what sailors do when they’re out at sea. The stars don’t
move, so the sailors pick out a certain star or constellation and
steer toward it.’
There was a long silence while the swiftly receding rush of
cloud beneath them slowed and finally stopped. ‘Sometimes
you’re so clever that I can’t stand you, Sparhawk,’ the Goddess
holding his hand said tartly.
~ you mean you’ve never even thought of it?’ he asked her
incredulously.
I don’t fly at night very often.’ Her tone was defensive. ‘We’re
going down. I have to find a landmark.’
They sank downward, the clouds rushing up to meet them,
and then they were immersed in a dense, clinging mist. ‘They’re
made out of fog, aren’t they? Clouds, I mean.’ Sparhawk was
%edid you think they were?’
I doa’t know. I’ve never thought of it before. It just seems
strange for some reason.’
e bmke out of the underside of the cloud – clouds no
bathed in moonglow, now hanging close over their heads
a ly ceiling that closed off the light. The earth beneath
them was enveloped in almost total darkness. They drifted
gliding in air and veering this way and that, peering
and searching for something recognizable.
‘Over there.’ Sparhawk pointed. ‘it must be a fair-sized town.
There’s quite a lot of light.’
They moved in that direction, drawn toward the light like
mindless insects. There was a sense of unreality as Sparhawk
looked down. The town lying beneath them seemed tiny. It
huddled like a child’s toy on the edge of a large body of water.
Sparhawk scratched at his cheek, trying to remember the details
of his map. ‘it’s probably Sepal,’ he said. ‘That lake almost has
to be the Sea of Arjun.’ He stopped, his mind suddenly reeling.
‘That’s over three hundred leagues from where we started,
Aphrael!’ he exclaimed. ‘Almost a thousand miles!’
‘Yes – if that town really is Sepal.’
‘it has to be. The Sea of Arjun’s the only large body of water
on this part of the continent, and Sepal’s on the east side of it.
Arjun’s on the south side, and Tiana’s on the west.’ He stared
at her incredulously. ‘A thousand miles. and we only left Beresa
a half un hour ago. just how fast are we going?’
‘What difference does it make? We got here. That’s all that
matters.’ The young woman holding his hand looked speculatively
down at the miniature town on the lake-shore. ‘Dirgis is
off to the west a little way, so we won’t want to go straight
north.’ She shifted them around in mid-air until they were facing
in a slightly northwesterly direction. ‘That should be fairly close.
Don’t move your head, Sparhawk. Keep looking in that direction.
We’ll go back up, and you pick out a star.’
They rose swiftly through the clouds, and Sparhawk saw the
familiar constellation of the wolf lying above the misty horizon
ahead. ‘There,’ he pointed. ‘The five stars clustered in the shape
of a dog’s head.’
‘it doesn’t look like any dog I’ve ever seen.
‘You have to use your imagination. How is it you’ve never
thought of steering by the stars before?’
She shrugged. ‘Probably because I can see farther than you
can. You see the sky as a surface – a kind of overturned bowl
with the stars painted on it all at the same distance from you.
That’s why you can see that cluster of stars as a dog’s head. I
can’t, because I can see the difference in distances. Keep an eye on your
dog, Sparhawk. Let me know if we start to drift
off.” The oeu moon-bathed cloud beneath them began to flow smoothly
back again, and they flew on in silence for a while. ‘This isn’t
so bad,’ Sparhawk said. ‘At least not when you get used to it.’
‘it’s better than walking,’ the gauze-clad Goddess replied.
‘it made my hair stand on end right at first, though.’
‘Sephrenia’s never gotten past that stage. She starts gibbering
in panic as soon as her feet come up off the ground.’
Sparhawk remembered something. ‘Wait a minute,’ he
objected. ‘When we killed Ghwerig and stole the Bhelliom, you
came floating up out of that chasm in his cave, and she walked
out across the air to meet you. She wasn’t gibbering in panic
then.’
‘No. It was probably the bravest thing she’s ever done. I was
so proud of her that I almost burst.’
Was she conscious at all? When you found her, I mean?’
‘Off and on. She was able to tell us who’d attacked her. I
managed to slow her heartbeat and take away the pain. She’s
very calm now.’ Aphrael’s voice quavered. ‘She expects to die,
Sparhawk. She can feel the wound in her heart, and she knows
what that means. She was giving Xanetia a last message for
Vanion when I left.’ The young Goddess choked back a sob.
‘Can we talk about something else?’
‘Of course.’ Sparhawk’s eyes flickered away from the constellation
in the night sky. ‘There are mountains sticking up out of
tHe clouds just ahead.’
“We’re almost there, then. Dirgis is in the big basin lying
beyond that first ridge.’
Their rapid flight began to slow. They passed over the snowy
peaks of the southern-most expanse of the mountains of Atan,
peaks that rose out of the clouds like frozen islands, and found
that there was only thin cloud-cover over the basin lying beyond.
They descended, drifting down like dandelion puffs toward
the forest-covered hills and valleys of the basin, a landscape
thaiply etched in the moonlight that leeched out all color. There
~ another cluster of lights some distance to the left – ruddy
torches in narrow streets and golden candlelight in little
windows. ‘That’s Dirgis,’ Aphrael said. ‘We’ll set down outside
of town. I should probably change back before we go on in.’
“either that or put on some more clothes.’
That really bothers you, doesn’t it, Sparhawk? Am I ugly or
something?’
Quite the opposite – and that bothers me all the more. I
can’t think while you’re standing around naked, Aphrael.’
‘i’m not really a woman, Sparhawk – not in the sense that
seems to bother you so much, anyway. Can’t you think of me
as a mare – or a doe?’
‘No, I can’t. Just do whatever you have to do, Aphrael. I don’t
really think we need to talk about how I think of you.’
‘Are you blushing, Sparhawk?’
‘Yes, as a matter of fact I am. Now can we drop it?’
‘That’s really rather sweet, you know.’
‘Will you stop?’
They came down in a secluded little glen about a half-mile
from the outskirts of Dirgis, and Sparhawk turned his back while
the Child Goddess once again assumed the more familiar form
of the Styric waif they all knew as Flute. ‘Better?’ she asked
when he turned around.
‘Much.’ He picked her up and started toward town, his long
legs stretching out in a rapid stride. He concentrated on that. It
seemed to help him avoid thinking.
They went directly into town, made one turn off the main
street, and came to a large, two-story building. ‘This is it,’
Aphrael said. ‘We’ll just go in and up the stairs. I’ll make the
innkeeper look the other way.’
Sparhawk pushed open the door, crossed the common-room
on the main floor and went up the stairs.
They found Xanetia all aglow and cradling Sephrenia in her
arms. The two women were on a narrow bed in a small room
with roughly squared-off log walls. It was one of those snug,
comfortable rooms such as one finds in mountain inns the world
over. It had a porcelain stove, a couple of chairs, and a nightstand
beside each bed. A pair of candles cast a golden light on
the pair on the bed. The front of Sephrenia’s robe was covered
with blood, and her face was deathly pale, tinged slightly with
that fatal grey. Sparhawk looked at her, and his mind suddenly
filled with flames. ‘I will cause hurt to Zalasta for this,’ he
growled in Trollish.
Aphrael gave him a startled look. Then she also spoke in the
guttural language of the Trolls. ‘Your thought is good, Anakha.’
she agreed fiercely. ‘Cause much hurt to him.’ The rending
sound of the Trollish word for “hurt” seemed very satisfying to
both of them. ‘His heart still belongs to me, though,’ she added.
‘Has there been any change?’ she asked Xanetia, lapsing into
e, Divine One,’ Xanetia replied in a voice near to exhaustion.
“I am lending our dear sister of mine own strength to sustain
her, but I am nearly spent. Soon both she and I will die.’
‘Nay, gentle Xanetia,’ Aphrael said. ‘I will not lose you. Fear
not, however. Anakha hath come with Bhelliom to restore ye
both.’
“but that must not be,’ Xanetia protested. ‘To do so would
put the life of Anakha’s Queen in peril. Better that thy sister