The Parched sea

ground. A dark silhouette appeared on Lander's far side, lifting its foot to kick Kadumi's lifeless body off the blade.

In the same moment, apparently waking from a sound sleep, Lander twisted onto his back and slammed his fist into the figure's lower abdomen. The man doubled up, then stumbled backward, groaning in pain.

Ruha leaped over Lander and was on the assassin in an instant. He lifted his blade to defend himself, but the witch slashed at the hand holding the saber. The man screamed again and dropped his weapon. With her free hand, she grabbed the wounded arm and used it to pull the man toward her, at the same time kneeing him in the midsection. He merely gurgled in pain and threw himself at Ruha.

The widow lifted her jambiya to meet his lunge. As the assassin fell on top of her, she turned the cutting edge up. As if gutting a gazelle, she ran the blade the length of the man's belly. He went limp, then Ruha hit the ground, and he landed on top of her.

The widow slipped from beneath the eviscerated man. Leaving him to die in agony, she turned to where Kadumi had fallen. Lander was already there, cradling the boy in his lap. Kadumi's eyes were closed and there was a terrible gash across his sternum. Ruha did not need to ask to know the boy was dead, and she felt sick that the last thing he had heard from her lips was a false accusation.

'Where did he come from?' she asked, motioning at the assassin.

'Magic,' Lander replied. 'Probably the same ring that made Bhadla invisible when he was spying on Sa'ar and Utaiba's council.'

Ruha then glanced around their little camp. 'What if there are more of them?'

Lander shook his head. 'No. He was the only one to make it across the Shoal of Thirst. If there were any more, they would have attacked with him.'

The widow stared at the boy for a long time, then dropped her dagger and fell to her knees at the Harper's side. Lander laid Kadumi's body gently aside and touched Ruha's shoulders. 'I'm sorry-'

Ruha spun and buried her face on Lander's chest, then began weeping in uncontrollable waves. 'Before he died, I called him a liar,' she sobbed.

Lander held her more tightly, but said nothing.

'When Kadumi drew his jambiya, I couldn't see the assassin. I thought my vision was coming true,' she said. 'I thought he was attacking you.'

'You were sleepy. It was a natural mistake.'

The widow pushed away from Lander and looked at the ground shamefully. 'No. I was wrong to think that. Kadumi intended you no harm.'

Lander reached out and gathered her back into his arms. 'Don't blame yourself,' he whispered. 'The boy shouldn't be dead at all. I knew we were being followed, and I should have foreseen that the Zhentarim would use magic.'

'But we didn't believe you,' Ruha objected, looking up at the Harper's face.

'Which is why I should have been even more careful.' A cloud of self-reproach fell over Lander's face, and he remained silent for several moments. Finally he shook his head sadly and returned Ruha's gaze. 'We can't bring Kadumi back. The only thing we can do now is make sure he did not die in vain.'

Ruha nodded, realizing that the youth's death had affected her in a way that the slaughter of the Qahtan and the Mtair Dhafir had not. Suddenly nothing seemed more important to her than stopping the Zhentarim. 'Tomorrow, we'll wash and bury Kadumi,' she said. 'Then we'll take Qoha'dar's spellbook to Elah'zad. Yhekal will pay for what he's done.'

'Yes, but tonight you must rest,' Lander said, gently urging Ruha to lie down. 'If we're to succeed, we have a hard ride ahead.'

'Yes, we must save our strength,' Ruha agreed. She stretched out on the ground with her shoulder pressed against Lander's strong thigh. 'Tonight, there is no need to keep a watch,' she said, pulling the Harper down next to her. 'We may as well rest comfortably.'

Fourteen

Lander and Ruha crested the last of a seemingly endless chain of thousand-foot knolls. The Harper did not need to ask to know they had reached Elah'zad. The hill sloped down to a small basin encircled by grayish ridges similar to the one upon which they sat. Over a hundred small springs opened on the hillsides and trickled down the gentle slopes. Crimson-leafed shrubs with blue stems and twiggy trees with copper and silver sprigs bordered each stream. From the ridge, the vividly colored shrubs resembled magic fires and the metallic-hued trees looked like billows of enchanted smoke.

The colorful bands of vegetation were spread over the basin like an immense spider web. Each strand followed a life-giving stream down the hill to a sapphire nucleus of water, a lake covering fully a square mile of the bottom of the basin. In the center of the lake sat a small, grassy island. On the island stood an alabaster palace built in the shape of a three-quarters moon.

Along a band of lush grass girding the lake, fifteen khowwans had pitched their tents in tribal clusters. Men were gathered in small groups in the areas between the tribes, but the women and children remained steadfastly within their own camps. Lander saw no sign of any camels.

'It's magnificent!' Lander gasped.

'Elah'zad was the home of the moon goddess,' Ruha explained, forcing her camel to kneel. 'But At'ar drove her away and made it a prison for the Mother of the Waters.'

'Why?' the Harper asked.

Ruha gave Lander an alluring, mocking glance. 'The usual reason women quarrel. At'ar was jealous of Eldath's beauty.'

Lander was surprised to hear Ruha use a familiar name for the goddess of the singing waters. 'Eldath is free,' he objected. 'She is worshiped all over Faerun.'

The widow looked over her shoulder. In the distance, just beyond the farthest set of hills, the white salts of the Shoals of Thirst still gleamed in the sun. 'Perhaps Eldath is free in Sembia,' she said, 'but in Anauroch, she is At'ar's prisoner.'

The young widow slipped off her camel, then motioned for Lander to do the same.

They led their mounts down the hill as far as the first spring. Ruha carefully tethered the beasts to a smoke- twigged tree, well out of reach of the water. 'Camels are not allowed to drink of the sacred waters,' she explained. 'Some boys are coming to take them to the camel well.'

Lander raised an eyebrow. 'How do you know that?'

'By now the sentries have relayed word of our arrival to Sa'ar and Utaiba. One of them will send some boys from his tribe to tend our camels.'

'That makes sense,' the Sembian replied. He had given no thought to the sentries surely posted around the oasis, for he had not heard them sound any alarm. 'Why didn't we hear any amarats?'

'I don't know, and it worries me. But rest assured that we have been seen.'

'Should we take their silence as a warning?' he asked. 'Could Sa'ar and Utaiba have changed their minds and be planning some sort of an ambush?'

The widow shook her head. 'Most Bedine keep their word,' she said, pulling the djebiras containing Qoha'dar's spellbook off her mount's back. 'Still, there are many other sheikhs down there, and they were not a party to our agreement.'

Lander scowled, his stomach already growing knotted at the prospect of being turned away after his difficult journey.

When the Harper did not move toward the camps, Ruha said, 'Let's go. We are not going to stop the Zhentarim and kill Yhekal by standing around up here.'

She started down the hill, leaving the camels roaring in protest at not being allowed to drink. As she passed Lander's mount, it even tried to nip at her. The Harper could sympathize with the beasts' fury. The animals had not had any water since leaving the Sister of Rains three days ago.

On the morning following the assassin's attack, Lander had taken the camels to drink from the springs while