Darkvision

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Thormud was sick, but wouldn't admit it. He could be such a witless, obstinate knob, reflected Kiril. Sometimes he acted just like a… a dwarf! She shook her head and spat. Kiril didn't share an automatic dislike of the only other populous, long-lived mortal race of Faerun, as did some elves she could name, but sometimes you had to call it like you saw it. The bitter taste of whisky from her last mouthful sustained her, but it didn't wipe away the darkening flush on her employer's face, or dry the perspiration from his brow. The jouncing stride of their mineral destrier added to the dwarf's discomfort. They ascended a winding, narrow pass between the Giant's Belt mountains on their right and the Dustwall on their left. But worse than the summoned destrier's gait was the unrelenting sun. Kiril mopped the dwarf's brow again and adjusted the impromptu shade she'd erected over his seat. Thormud was sweating so much, she could hardly keep him from dying of thirst. "Tell me again why you've decided we should travel by day instead of night as you were previously so fond of?" she asked the dwarf. "Prince Monolith thinks it best," was all the dwarf had the strength to say. "Stuff Monolith," she muttered, but acquiesced without further argument, as she had on the previous two instances when she'd brought up the same point. Because of the shadowy, voidlike power of whatever lay beyond or through the crystals, Prince Monolith thought it better to travel by day, when that influence might be weaker. Prince Monolith stalked ahead of the destrier, following the narrow rut that served as the trail over the pass. They had not yet met another traveler. Given the steepness of the trail and the sheer drops to either side of the switchbacks they zigzagged up, Kiril wasn't surprised. The rut traced a crevice between a wooded slope on their left and an open drop to their right. The drop fell away into a vast gorge-far at the bottom, a river snaked and foamed in its bed. Beyond the river valley, another mountainous rampart rose, equaling and exceeding their current height. The jagged range taunted time itself, and the slow, eroding winds and water plied their work upon it. Straight ahead, across the river valley, rose the slopes of an even taller, broader peak. Its base was hidden in forested foothills, but most of the mountain rose skyward, free of any covering of greenery. Instead, the highest portions of the peak were clothed in the white of eternal ice. The sun on the snow dazzled Kiril's eyes, and she dropped her gaze away from the miles of towering rock. She'd see it a lot closer soon enough. Despite their pledge of daylight travel, clouds blew in from the west and caught them at the highest point on the pass the next day, just as they moved beyond the last of the scattered, skeletal trunks bearing needles on only one side that hardly qualified as trees. Whiteness enveloped their vision-the belly of a cloud blanketed the world, snow swirled, and the temperature plummeted. "You can't catch a break, can you?" Kiril asked the sleeping form of her employer. She'd strapped the dwarf into his seat, and his bearded head lolled with each footstep of the destrier.

Wind lashed across the destrier's back, stinging the elf's eyes with sharp snow. She noticed that new droplets of ice caked Thormud's hair and skin, so Kiril wrapped the dwarf in another blanket, the last.

"How much farther?" she called ahead at the dark shape of Prince Monolith. The elemental thumped through the gathering snow without the least difficulty. Great furrows trailed behind Monolith on either side of his path, which made the way easier for their mineral destrier. "We must move forward until we get off the highest portion of the pass.

The cold does not concern me, but your flesh will prove less resistant." Kiril nodded, "You're quick on the uptake. Pick up the pace, will you? Thormud's almost frozen solid." Monolith didn't respond, nor did his pace vary from the steady, ground-eating lope he'd first adopted. The destrier continued to follow in the prince's trail, but even with the furrow, its gait began to deteriorate as the dwarf's health flagged. Kiril hoped their mount's ability to carry passengers wasn't contingent on Thormud's health. The swordswoman shivered, then struck her forehead with the heel of her palm as an idea occurred. What a moron! She'd had the means to warm the dwarf all along. She plucked the flask from her hip, twirled off the metal cap, and tipped the opening to Thormud's lips. He unconsciously swallowed the few tiny sips that Kiril allowed him. She had a pull herself. The warmth hit her belly and immediately spread to her extremities. That was better! She gave the dwarf another small sip. Kiril laughed. After all the times the dwarf had given her his sour look for drinking too much and too often. It was a small revenge, but necessary if the dwarf were to pull through. If he did, she'd tell him how she'd been forced to give him spirits enough to warm his blood. The elf shrugged. She knew drinking from the flask was only a temporary measure. Alcohol didn't generate warmth-it merely allowed the reservoir of warmth stored in the core to be liberated. By drinking the hard stuff, you'd warm up your fingers and toes in the short term, but freeze to death all the sooner. She hoped Prince Monolith hurried. She didn't want to have to bury the dwarf at the top of the world, under a drift of icy snow. Flakes swirled across her eyes, obscuring her vision.

The dwarf's health improved markedly after getting down off the top of the pass. Thormud sat in his seat, blinking at the harsh sun and drinking frequently from his waterskin. The destrier's pace was steadier as it followed the thudding steps of Prince Monolith down the dry path of a prehistoric, nameless river. The mountains on this side of the pass were nearly empty of vegetation, unlike the southward face they had ascended. Ahead and below lay the flat face of Raurin. They were so high above its empty reaches that Kiril spied a distant dust storm of incredible ferocity. Swelling and towering like a genie loosed from its bottle, the gargantuan wind devil suffused with sand danced westward. It strode above the dead plain, promising stinging death to any at its feet. Kiril couldn't gauge the column's true size, but she didn't doubt it was supernaturally large. Such storms were one of the reasons travelers rarely chose to chance the briny sand seas of the Dust Desert. "I hope that storm passes before we get down to the edge," Kiril told Thormud. "Mmm." She'd been trying to engage the geomancer in conversation all morning, with limited success. Prince Monolith plodded onward and downward. They continued to follow the parched course of the ancient river down from the foothills. Day passed into midafternoon. The river's dead path wound among hills rounded and degraded by eons. Kiril saw nothing but worn boulders, pebbles, and fine rusty sand. Nothing moved on the river bottom, whose stones were bare even of dead lichen. The malignant wind devil with the sandstorm shrouding its base hadn't passed over the horizon as they'd descended the pass. Instead, it twisted and swelled toward them, as if it were a sentient guardian come to bar their passage into Raurin. Perhaps it was. "We'd better find shelter before it gets here," Kiril told Thormud as she pointed toward the approaching storm.

"Mmm." "Damn it." Kiril yelled ahead, "Monolith, Thormud's still not himself. Don't expect any direction from him, if you're waiting for it." The deep voice of the elemental noble resonated back, "Why should I? I am the guide, not he." "All right, rock head, if you're so smart, maybe you should think about that approaching wind devil. We won't survive its outskirts, let alone the column at the center." The elemental stalked down the empty path, but one of its stone arms rose and pointed ahead. Kiril followed the direction of his gesture and saw a tiny cavern mouth, perhaps five hundred paces distant, gaping from the side of the empty stream bed. She shrugged, saying nothing. Truth was, she was slightly embarrassed she hadn't descried the cave mouth herself. She was an elf, after all, and had a reputation to maintain.

The storm stifled the sun as they reached the aperture. They moved through a baleful twilight stained with bloody light. The cave opened out of the flat, eroded face of an ancient riverbank. The cave's sides were crumbled into heaps of crusted dust, but Kiril immediately noticed a suspiciously clean avenue down the center of the cavern floor. More suspicious yet-the flickering illumination of lantern light emerging from what should have been a lonely, black hole.

Someone lived in the cave-perhaps several someones. Prince Monolith reached out and touched the rock above the cave entrance. He held the position briefly, then stepped to the side of the cave entrance and ceased all movement. "Not coming in?" He replied, "I doubt I would fit. Plus, I might frighten the natives." "What kind of natives?" asked Kiril. "Environs as harsh as Raurin are extreme, but mortal flesh, for all its frailty, is surprisingly adaptable. The rock has led me to a colony of dervishes, despite an enchantment of misdirection attempting to lead me astray. But I have a closer association with the world than most." "I hope they're friendly."

"Enter and ask for shelter. I have observed that cultures perched on the edge of wastelands often prize hospitality above all other values." The storm was sweeping down upon them and beginning to sting Kiril with windblown grit. "I don't see what choice I have." Monolith stood silent as stone. The elf wrestled Thormud down from his seat and bodily carried him into the cave entrance. She'd worry about their equipment and supplies, still lashed to the destrier's back, later.

Xet fluttered around unhelpfully. The lantern hung from the ceiling some thirty feet down the cavern's throat, rusted and battered, but burning a half-full reservoir of oil that smelled pleasantly of cloves. The lantern light revealed the edge of a chamber that widened gradually toward a great wooden gate blocking the mouth of a deeper tunnel. The floor was worn smooth, as if by vanished waters… or by years of busy feet. Dust from the storm outside began to swirl across the stone surface. She set Thormud down with his back against the cavern wall. With the storm howling at the cave mouth, Kiril pounded on the wooden gate, carved with abstract designs. After a short wait, too brief for Kiril to consider pounding a second time, a small panel high on the door slid open. An amber glow and tinkling music streamed from the grilled opening. "Hello?" said Kiril. A man's voice replied from the other side of the door. "What do you want?" The language was Elvish, with something like a Yuirwood accent, but more liquid. Kiril was too surprised by the language and what it implied to immediately respond. "Well," said the voice again, in its strangely accented Elvish, "I can see you are not djinn; perhaps you were chased by a djinn to the safety of our doorstep?" "Perhaps," said Kiril, not actually sure what the voice was asking her. "A storm came, and we saw the cave. We hoped it would give shelter-we didn't know we'd find someone living here." "No? You weren't looking for the hidden city of Al Qahera or its people? But only those of elf blood could hope to locate Al Qahera-it is an ancient enchantment we preserve." "I am an elf, that's true, but I hail from the north, from…" she almost said Stardeep, but finally said, "from the Yuirwood forest. I am not of the Al Qaheran clan. Elves hidden in the Yuirwood call themselves 'people of the star.' But I am not really part of their society any longer, either. I am a traveler." "You've traveled far, and to one of the most inhospitable places in the world. I see no children with you, just a mountain carver. Are you carrying contraband?" "I don't understand." "Sometimes oathless smugglers make haddrum runs between Huorm and the oasis towns." "I don't know what haddrum is, but, no, we're not carrying dangerous substances, if that's what you're implying." "Then what?" "It's a long story. I'd be happy to tell you if you let us in. My friend here is sick." "Mmmm, hmm, yes, so I see," said the voice, and paused. "Very well. I'm a good judge of character, so I tell my sons and daughters." The sound of a bolt being drawn back momentarily drowned out the sound of the blowing sand. "Be welcome in Al Qahera! Bring with you no deceit, and you shall find none here."

The great carved door swung wide, and standing in its gap was an elf wearing a long, heavy gown of spun white cloth, over which he wore a larger, looser garment stitched with intricate script Kiril didn't recognize. His face, while certainly that of an elf, was strangely weathered. Despite his fey blood, his skin marked him as one who'd spent a lifetime in the sun. "My name," said the man, "is Essam.

Enter." He moved to the side and gestured inward. Behind him Kiril saw the heart of the dervish community of Al Qahera. The entrance, wide as it was, opened onto a far larger and deeper plaza, enclosed on all sides by stone balconies, galleries, and square tunnels leading to hidden rooms. The entire plaza was brilliantly lit by hundreds of clove oil lanterns. Great bronze plaques with calligraphic script hung from every surface that didn't sport a tapestry of intricate weave. A beautiful mosaic design was laid out in tiles that paved the entire floor of the plaza. A high-walled stone well protruded from the plaza's center. From where she stood at the entrance, Kiril scented the cool tang of deep water. People moved everywhere-men, women, and children. All were elves, and all were weathered like Essam. The adults wore flowing, colorful gowns, but the children wore loose pants and simple tunics. One edge of the wide plaza, which was well over a hundred paces in diameter, hosted a bazaar with several semipermanent stands. The elves of Al Qahera were thickly gathered there. But the appearance of strangers had apparently distracted the Qaherans from the merits of their transactions. Everyone in the subterranean, lantern-lit plaza looked in her direction. Essam clapped his hands and yelled, "Call the healer-we have visitors, and one is ill. Come! Do not stare, my friends-we shall have time to make their acquaintance when our visitors have rested and washed away the burdens of their journey." Essam paused and smiled openly at Kiril. "Perhaps we might hope for a story from our guests, describing how they found themselves on our porch, running before a gowaan storm." Several children rushed forward, curious, along with a young elf woman in a blue caftan, hardly older than a child herself. She nodded at Kiril and said, "My name is Fadheela. You and your friend can stay in our guestroom. My father is a healer." Kiril blinked, taking in the comfort of the round chamber. A covering stitched with desert stars hung from the ceiling.

Soft sheepskin lay across the floor. A fire in a tiny side alcove burned away the subterranean chill. No smoke lingered in the room-the fireplace was apparently well vented. Kiril wondered briefly how fresh air was drawn in, then shrugged. The elves of Al Qahera had obviously worked it out.

"I do feel much better, Kiril," said Thormud in an irritated tone.

The dwarf sat propped up on the small bed, his back against a wooden headboard carved with still more elaborate designs. "I'd like to go down to the plaza tonight to talk with the Qaherans." "You heard Fadheela's father. You've caught some sort of dolor, and you need bed rest if you want to shake it off." "But…" "Tonight, you sleep." The geomancer sighed. "Perhaps that would be best. I am strangely fatigued." Kiril didn't tell the dwarf the entire diagnosis.

Fadheela's father felt that the dwarf might be suffering from some sort of magical curse. It was a potential explanation for Thormud's lack of response to the healer's spell of purification. "Damn right, it's for the best. Don't worry. I'll tell you everything that happens.

Maybe they know something about what we're looking for. Maybe they've seen something strange out in the desert." The dwarf nodded but was already blinking his eyes. He fell asleep a moment later. Kiril pulled up his blanket, strapped Angul to her belt, and departed the small chamber. Fadheela waited for her in the foyer of the apartment, one of many similar apartments on both sides, above, and below. The best apartments faced the central plaza of Al Qahera, and as a healer, Fadheela's father enjoyed some privilege. "How is your friend?"

Fadheela asked. "Better. He's asleep. Maybe I'll take him something to eat later." "Good-that sounds good!" Fadheela clapped happily, then reached forward to grasp one of Kiril's hands. The swordswoman, out of surprise, allowed the desert elf to complete the motion without losing a limb. Fadheela said, "Come with me, then. Everyone's down in the plaza. You'll just love meeting everyone, I promise!" The girl pulled, and Kiril consciously forced herself not to resist the tug out of the apartment. They walked onto the wide balcony two stories above the tiled floor of the central courtyard and looked down. Since she'd rested in Fadheela's rooms, answered her father's questions, and washed off several days of travel, the lamps in the courtyard had been turned down, dousing the corners of the chamber in warm shadow. A large bonfire blazed in a stone-lined firepit. Kiril traced the smoke as it rose up past their balcony and floated up a few more stories before exiting through a large cavity in the ceiling. The odor of something succulent roasting over the flames pulled her gaze back down to the fire, where young Qaherans slowly turned several spits. Others were setting up large plank tables and stools. A group of elves tuned up flutes, sitars, drums, and other instruments. Well over a hundred people gathered in the plaza-and perhaps double that number. "What's all this?" Kiril asked, an anxious note creeping into her voice. Her enthusiastic guide smiled and said, "We do this every night-don't worry, you needn't fear being singled out." Kiril nodded, still suspicious. Fadheela pulled her along the balcony toward a stairway that spiraled down to the plaza, and whispered as they neared the bottom, "But your presence is unique, and we'd all love to hear something of your journey!" Kiril muttered, "Blood, I'm sure you would." Essam met them at the bottom of the stairs. "How is your stout friend? In Mas'ud's able hands he must be doing better, yes?" "Much better," Kiril assured him. No need to discuss curses in polite company, she thought. "How joyous!" her host enthused. "Now come, I've reserved a place of honor for you by the fire. It is always cold down here in Al Qahera, despite the desert above, and you'll be glad to sit close." Kiril just nodded. She drew most of the eyes in the plaza as Essam and Fadheela led her through the throng. Her neck and cheeks warmed. She did not enjoy being the center of attention. They made their way to several stools near the fire, as Essam promised. She dropped onto her stool immediately, then saw that everyone else remained standing. She yearned for a pull from her flask. With steely determination, she kept her hands at her sides, but the flush of embarrassment blossomed visibly across her checks. The Qaherans bowed their heads in a moment of silence. Once concluded, the stillness was shattered by laughter, loud cheers, a cacophony of instruments, and a few songs. Various spirited discussions picked up where they'd left off before the hush. Most everyone sat down at the tables, Kiril was relieved to see. And so the evening progressed. Portions of burned meat, burned vegetables, and burned fungus were pulled off the spits and sent circulating around the tables. "Burned" was apparently the preferred style of cooking in Al Qahera. Between courses came musical interludes, stories, and acts of skill that included a knife juggler and a puppeteer. Large jugs of water were sent around, cold and fresh, apparently just pulled up from the central well. To Kiril's jaded throat, the water went down like the finest Sildeyuir vintage. It wasn't long before she found herself listening happily to the music, hanging on the words of the storytellers, and laughing uproariously at several extemporaneous acts put on by the desert dwellers. Essam turned to her and said loudly, "Tell us a story, Kiril!" She stood up, and with uncharacteristic openness, began to relate to the elves of Al Qahera the story of her most recent trip with her employer, Thormud Horn. Kiril spoke in generalities, without specifying what worried the geomancer so much that he had initiated a trip into the desert. Kiril wasn't even completely clear on what they were chasing. She glossed over certain details, such as Prince Monolith joining them. She didn't want to explain that an earth elemental lord was camped out in front of the dervish community. When she reached the point in her travelogue where Thormud determined that the true nexus of their quest lay in the Raurin desert, her listeners' interest intensified. Essam cleared his throat and interrupted Kiril. "Forgive me, but please allow me to ask-what is the nature of this evil that lies out in our desert?"

Kiril shrugged. "I don't know for certain. Thormud called it a 'splinter' that infected the earth. It has something to do with the purple crystal-every threat we've faced has borne a purple crystal."

Exclamations broke out among her audience. "What is it? What do you know?" demanded Kiril. Essam calmed the Qaherans' outburst and told her, "Perhaps we know something of the thing you seek in the deep desert. It is new, and it is dangerous. We call it the Storm Spike."