Steel and Stone

with her.'

The Valdane laughed. 'Then how about torturing a few of your lovers? My mage tells me two of them already head south, accompanied by a black stallion and a giant owl. Is not one of the men the father of your child? Certainly that must mean something, even to you.'

Lida spoke. 'You were able to scry them? And the giant owl is with them?' She seemed near tears.

Janusz nodded. 'Unfortunately for you, Kitiara and Caven left things of theirs when they fled from the Valdane's camp. That gave me the personal artifact I needed to scry them. I know more about your life in the past few months than you may think, Captain.'

Kitiara thought fast. Clearly the mage believed she had hidden the ice jewels. That information gave her some leverage-for the time being. She needed time to scheme. And she needed reinforcements. If only she had hidden the ice jewels. As it stood now, they were either lying forgotten in the clearing in Darken Wood or Tanis and Caven were unwittingly delivering them to the Valdane's stronghold.

'My friends and I are working together. They carry valuable information about the ice jewels,' she said smoothly. 'You must allow them to arrive here safely if we are to strike a deal, Valdane.'

The leader fastened his piercing gaze on her. 'Perhaps,' he said at last. 'After all, if you are lying, I can always kill them later. And you, too. At the very least, a week or two in my dungeon may change your tune, Captain.'

With that, he was gone. Kitiara heard two pairs of footsteps resounding down some upper corridor.

Chapter 16

The Dust Plains

'Xanthar, where are we?' When the giant bird didn't respond, Tanis leaned over the front of the owl's wing and shouted his question.

The owl drew up with a start. He blinked in the dazzling sunlight. The feathers around Xanthar's eyes were sticky with rheum. His night-seeing eyes hadn't stopped watering in the week they'd been flying south.

The two had long since left the Kharolis Mountains behind. They'd entered the vast wasteland, great expanses of nothing but bare rock, the day before. But now, far beneath the owl and half-elf, wheat-colored sand glittered in the harsh sunlight, appearing to undulate in the heat. The wind never seemed to let up.

Pillars of swirling dust occasionally rose upward, then collapsed under their own weight.

We are…

Tanis waited, but the bird didn't go on. 'Where are we?' he finally shouted again.

South. Far south. The Plains of Dust, west of Tarsis, or maybe southwest of Tarsis. I don't know exactly, Kai-lid.

'I am Tanis.'

Ah. Of course. Tanthalas. The half-elf.

Tanis let his gaze wander over the terrain. Sand and dust stretched far ahead.

'What did this wasteland used to be?' Tanis persisted.

An ocean, I believe-until the Cataclysm changed the face of the world. When the gods punished Krynn, some portions of Ansalon were flooded. Here the sea drained, leaving only sand and grit. Or so said my grandfather.

And where was Caven? At first the half-elf had caught occasional glimpses of the horseman, who seemed to be driving Maleficent as hard as Xanthar was pushing himself. But Tanis had not spied Caven Mackid in two days.

Tanis had lost his nervousness after soaring miles above the ground, attached to the giant owl only by the jury-rigged leather harness. Xanthar was a steady flier. Since leaving Darken Wood, the owl had allowed only short respites, in which the half-elf cooked small game, replenished his water supply, and relieved himself. Tanis could sleep on Xanthar's back as he flew, but as far as the half-elf could tell, the giant owl napped only during his brief time on the ground.

Kai-lid.

'This is Tanis,' the half-elf repeated.

The owl shook his head dazedly. He opened his eyes to their fullest, and Tanis could see, when Xanthar turned his head, that the owl's irises had dulled to a flat terra-cotta color and that the pupils no longer reacted to variations in light and shadow.

'Xanthar, how are your eyes?'

Sometimes the light grows dim. It passes, however. 1 am not accustomed to such bright daylight. Another drop of thick yellow liquid oozed from the bird's eye.

'We should stop for a while to let you rest.'

No.

'We should let Caven catch up.'

Caven will find his way. My kin escorted him to the southernmost edge of Darken Wood. Beyond that, he knows how to navigate by stars and sun. He knows to head due south, as much as these shifting sands will let him.

'Can you send your thoughts to him?'

He is too far away, and untrained in telepathy. I cannot even reach Kai-lid, and she was well tutored-by a master.

'Do you think she and Kitiara are all right?' The owl didn't answer, but all his muscles tensed. 'Xanthar?'

To the left. Do you see something? I sense a change, but I cannot see that far.

Tanis gazed in that direction. 'It's only a small cloud, Xanthar.'

No. More than that.

'What, then? Magic?'

No magic. A storm. We must find shelter.

'But…' The half-elf's words died as Xanthar, without warning, tucked his wings to his sides and arrowed toward the earth.

You must be my eyes now, half-elf. Tanis felt himself slip backward on the plummeting owl. When he reached the limit of the harness, his head snapped back with the force of the dive. The ground was rushing toward them at dizzying speed. 'Xanthar! Pull up!' Immediately the giant owl leveled out, mere feet above the ground, and zigzagged over the terrain.

Watch for shelter.

With nearness came detail. This portion of the plain, seen up close, was a warren of sand and rocky juttings of fire-colored sandstone pocked with animal dens. The dens were too small to accommodate a half-elf and an owl nearly twice his size, however.

Keep looking.

Tanis no longer protested the wisdom of the bird's actions; the small cloud was burgeoning into a blanket of dark blue and pea green. Lightning crackled as the cloud sped toward them. Below the bank hung a curtain of swirling, vanilla-colored grit. Tanis dug a rag out of the packs on the bird's back and tied it over his mouth and nose. The first blast of grit hit them from the side. The grains stung like needles. Xanthar battled to keep flying. More than once, the tips of his wings brushed the ground, sending the half-elf sprawling first one way and then the other. Tanis squinted through the blowing dirt. Tears poured down his cheeks. Xanthar's eyes were shut tight, but he kept barreling through the air.

'There!' The half-elf lunged forward with both hands, grabbed the sides of the bird's head, and pointed toward a cave, now gone from view, now visible as a shadow through the driving sandstorm, now gone again. 'Look!'

Where? I don't see…