'Ah, I swear I am as sentimental as an old granny with a mouthful of tales of how golden the world was when she was young,' she laughed, finally, 'and none of this gets us down to the Plains. Follow me, and keep Rodi exactly in Kessira's footsteps. It's a long way down from here if you slip.'
They followed a narrow trail along the face of the drop-off, a trail that switched back and forth constantly as it dropped, so that there was never more than a length or two from one level of the trail to the next below it. This was no bad idea, since it meant that if a mount and rider were to slide off the trail, they would have a fighting chance of saving themselves one or two levels down. But it made for a long ride, and all of it in the full sun, with nowhere to rest and no shade anywhere. Kethry and her mule were tired and sweat-streaked by the time they reached the bottom, and she could see that Tarma and Kessira were in no better shape.
But there was immediate relief at the bottom of the cliff, in the form of a grove of alders and willows with a cool spring leaping out of the base of the escarpment right where the trail ended. They watered the animals first, then plunged their own heads and hands into the tinglingly cold water, washing themselves clean of the itch of sweat and dust.
Tarma looked at the lowering sun, slicking back wet hair. 'Well,' she said finally, 'We have a choice. We can go on, or we can overnight here. Which would you rather?'
'You want the truth? I'd rather overnight here. I'm tired, and I ache; I'd like the chance to rinse all of me off. But I know how anxious you are to get back to your people.'
'Some,' Tarma admitted, 'But... well, if we quit now, then made an early start of it in the morning, we wouldn't lose too much time.'
'I won't beg you, but -- '
'All right, I yield!' Tarma laughed, giving in to Kethry's pleading eyes.
Camp was quickly made; Tarma went out with bow and arrow and returned with a young hare and a pair of grass-quail.
'This -- this is strange country,' Kethry commented sleepily over the crackle of the fire. 'These grasslands shouldn't be here, and I could swear that cliff wasn't cut by nature.'
'The gods alone know,' Tarma replied, stirring the fire with a stick. 'It's possible, though. My people determined long ago that the Plains are the bowl of a huge valley that is almost perfectly circular, even though it takes weeks to ride across the diameter of it. This is the only place where the rim is that steep, though. Everywhere else it's been eroded down, though you can still see the boundaries if you know what to look for.'
'Perfectly circular -- that hardly seems possible.'
'You're a fine one to say 'hardly possible,' ' Tarma teased. 'Especially since you've just crossed through the lowest reaches of the Pelagir Hills.'
'I what?' Kethry sat bolt upright, no longer sleepy.
'The forest we just passed through -- didn't you know it was called the Pelgiris Forest? Didn't the name sound awfully familiar to you?'
'I looked at it on the map -- I guess I just never made the connection.'
'Well, keep going north long enough and you're in the Pelagirs. My people have a suspicion that the Tale'edras are Shin'a'in originally, Shin'a'in who went a bit too far north and got themselves changed. They've never said anything, though, so we keep our suspicions to ourselves.'
'The Pelagirs...' Kethry mused.
'And just what are you thinking of? You surely don't want to go in there, do you?'
'Maybe.'
'Warrior's Oath! Are you mad? Do you know the kind of things that live up there? Griffins, firebirds, colddrakes -- things without names 'cause no one who's seen 'em has lived long enough to give them any name besides 'AAAARG!' '
Kethry had to laugh at that. 'Oh, I know,' she replied, 'Better than you. But I also know how to keep us relatively safe in there -- '
'What do you mean, 'us'?'
' -- because one of my order came from the heart of the Pelagirs. The wizard Gervase.'
'Gervase?' Tarma's jaw dropped. 'The Lizard Wizard? You mean that silly song about the Wizard Lizard is
