there would be consequences.
Consequences? What of it? Let us not worry. We do what is right, no matter. Too much thinking is an excuse to avoid doing what must be done! Damn it, consequences matter! Grunting with effort against her own misfiring muscles, she feinted with the blade at a sigil, but at the last moment deflected her thrust so that the shining length of steel sliced deeply into the creature. The Blade Cerulean found solid, yielding flesh in what had seemed a completely immaterial foe. The creature screeched. Angul had hurt it-the blade's blessed hunger found vulnerable flesh even in ghostly tissue. The intruder trained its fiery eyes on her, forgetting its goal of reaching the dwarf. All but one of the sigils shot at her, and flensed her skin like tiny knives.
Kiril knew pain, then pain redoubled. The shock jerked Kiril back to her right mind, even as smoke curled up from her skin in numerous spots where she'd been struck. Angul's unwavering holy conviction kept her on her feet, barely. The sword was only as effective as his wielder-he spent some of his hoarded power to send a healing current through her limbs. The intruding creature turned and flowed back toward the bluff top, where inviolate darkness remained. With only a single floating glyph, which looked more like a chunk of purple crystal than a glyph, it was defenseless and declawed. Kiril stormed up behind it and plunged Angul down upon the trailing edges of the creature's filmy flesh. The blade pierced ectoplasm and earth and pinned the creature in place. Before she could think any more about it, she pulled her hands away from the hilt, breaking contact. As always, the withdrawal was instant and retributive. When the spastic pain had eased, Kiril rolled into a sitting position. The intruder was gone. The darkness that had crowned the bluff's summit was gone, too.
The last undestroyed glyph that had orbited the creature lay in the earth, a dead piece of crystal. Angul was still stuck in the earth, tip down, a few yards from the dead crystal. Angul smoldered, sending a tendril of pure white smoke skyward-she could imagine his fury at being sheathed in unconsecrated soil, like any common blade. Kiril allowed herself a small smile of satisfaction. Thormud snored nearby.
His color had returned to his face. Xet, the coward, was curled up like a cat on the dwarf's chest. The destrier, without anyone to command it, had not moved. The plain before them was otherwise empty.
Kiril stood and dusted herself off. She moved to the dwarf's side and shook him. Thormud's eyes shuttered open immediately. His expression was a question. Kiril helped the dwarf to his feet. The geomancer pointed at Angul. 'What is wrong with your sword? I've never seen it smoke like that.' He paused, then asked, 'What happened?' 'That ghost-bastard you summoned…' 'I didn't summon it! It followed me.'
'It came because of you, right? It knocked you cold, but I nicked it with Angul. It turned on me and tried to do the same.' Thormud said, his voice low, 'It bested me as if I were nothing. Thank you for banishing it where I could not.' 'You know how it is when I have my sword drawn. Nothing that sheet-wearing bastard threw at me mattered.'
'How exactly did you dispatch it?' Thormud picked up his selenite rod as he spoke. Kiril shrugged. 'Once it expended all its little floating friends, I pinned it to the dirt with Angul.' The elf pointed to the simmering sword. 'After that, it faded, I guess.' 'You guess?' The elf turned without answering and withdrew a pair of black silk gloves she kept folded in her belt. She pulled on the gloves while studying Angul. With her hands covered, she grasped the sword's hilt and jerked him free of the earth. Kiril studied Angul's inlay-'Keeper of the Cerulean Sign' in star elf script-then jammed him into his white leather sheath. Kiril didn't like being questioned by Thormud-she didn't know the answers. When she was one with the righteous blade, she was not tormented or put upon. Why not pull him out again and tell Thormud what she thought of his stupid stunt of luring the creature out of the netherworld in the first place? Her hand reached, but instead of grasping Angul's hilt, she pulled out her flask, spun off the cap, and knocked one back. Better.
Sighing, the dwarf bent to study the ground where Kiril had pinned their attacker. He ran his fingers through the dirt, scooped up a palmful of grains, and let them fall, one at a time, his expression intent. Thormud shook his head. 'The attack was too quick for the earth to recall.' He ascended to the bluff top and repeated his actions, but they proved no more fruitful. Kiril watched, scowling at Xet, who flew intricate, probably meaningless patterns in the air above its master's head. Thormud paused, scratching his beard. A new thought struck him. 'Xet! Bring me the big map!' 'Find something?'
Kiril asked him. 'I remember a detail from my divination.' The crystal dragonet winged over to the destrier and dived headfirst into one of Thormud's packs. It emerged several heartbeats later with a leather tube clamped in its mouth. Kiril recognized it as one of the map cases that the dwarf referenced from time to time. She recalled this map as having recognizable names and political borders inscribed on it. Many of the dwarf's other maps depicted topography meaningless to her.
Meanwhile, the dwarf approached the destrier. Xet craned its neck to deliver the map to Thormud's outstretched hand. Kiril ambled over, too. Might as well see what the old dwarf was up to. Better to get the explanation as it developed, rather than ask Thormud to recap later, after he thought too much about it-the dwarf would one day kill her with his mind-numbing explanations. Or, in order to prevent that, she'd stick her dagger in him. If only, she mused, grinning. Thormud looked at her enigmatic grin, smiled without understanding the reason for his bodyguard's expression, and unrolled the map on the destrier's back. He grabbed Xet and placed the creature on one side of the curling parchment to hold its edge down, and weighted the other edge with his moon rod. The dwarf had to study it for only a few moments before his finger stabbed down into the lower right corner. 'The Golden Water!' he said, exultant. Kiril cocked an eyebrow. 'This was in my vision-a swath of water that shone like molten gold. I thought it seemed familiar. North of it was a singular spire, like a wolf's…' the dwarf's voice trailed off as his finger traced north across a wide bay labeled 'The Golden Water,' to the coast near a city called Huorm. Standing just a few miles from the water was some sort of natural rise called Adama's… '… tooth,' finished the dwarf.
His finger tapped the landmark. 'Adama's Tooth. That's the place the earth first showed me, before I became lost.' Kiril asked him, 'So what?' 'We shall discover 'what' when we get there.' Kiril studied the parchment. The map didn't show elevations, but Adama's Tooth looked suspiciously solitary. She rubbed the scar on her hand where lava had burned her during a previous expedition planned by Thormud. 'You're certain it's not a volcano?' The dwarf brightened. 'Oh, wouldn't that be just delightful?' 'Right,' Kiril said. 'Hey, our friend left a small piece of himself behind-see that? One of his sigils.' Thormud stared at the tiny piece of purplish crystal. He produced a leather scarf, dashed over, and quickly wrapped the crystal, completely hiding it. 'Why'd you do that?' 'Whatever sent that creature might be able to see out of the crystal, as if it were a window,' murmured the dwarf.
'Is that so?' The hair stood up a little on Kiril's neck. 'Maybe we should bury that little package here and now.' Thormud shook his head.
'No, I think we can learn more from it before we do that.' Kiril looked at the dwarf and said, 'I had better not see that crystal again, understand?' 'We'll see, Kiril. It is for me to decide.'
CHAPTER NINE
'Why did you follow me?' The vengeance taker hung in the chamber, his prison a blaze of slowly churning light. 'Release me, and I'll tell you all you want to know, and more.' Ususi shook her head.
'Wrong. Tell me, then I decide your fate. I know your kind doesn't like to be dictated to, but you're in no position to insist. Tell me why I shouldn't just leave you to rot.' The man shrugged, unfazed by Ususi's threat. 'Then listen. Crisis has reached Deep Imaskar. If you do not return immediately, our hidden stronghold may fall. It may have fallen already.' Ususi blinked. A plea for help was the last thing she anticipated from her tracker. 'By the Purple Throne, what are you trying at? You can't trick me with crazy yarns! Why have you come after me now, after so many years? Why can't the Hidden City let me go? You know I'll not betray its secrets!' The man tried to wipe his brow, but the magical trap prevented him from completing the action.
He shrugged instead, and said, 'You expect reprisal for bypassing the Great Seal without permission and leaving behind Deep Imaskar? At any other time, you would be right to fear punishment. But think. You said it yourself-if it had been deemed a worthwhile expenditure of our resources, we would have had you back long ago, Ususi Manaallin.' He fixed her with his large eyes, whose depths were as bleak and colorless as a winter sky. Despite his helplessness, Ususi shivered under that ruthless gaze. Could such eyes even consider lies? She cleared her throat. Despite his abilities, he was her prisoner now and couldn't hurt her. 'What is your name?' 'I am Iahn
