Rothen blinked in surprise at Lorlen's mental voice.
'Well,' Dannyl said after a moment. 'I hate to say it, considering what you've set out to do, but every day I grow more worried.'
'Of what?'
'That what Akkarin told us is the truth.'
As Cery refilled Savara's glass, she stiffened and stared into the distance.
'What is it?' he asked.
She blinked. 'Your Guild has made its first good decision.'
'Oh?'
She smiled. 'Orders to stop speaking mind to mind.'
Cery topped up his glass. 'Will that do them much good?'
'It might have, had they done it a week ago.' She shrugged and picked up her glass. 'But it is good the Ichani won't learn about the Guild's plans now.'
'You won't either.'
She shrugged. 'No. But that does not matter any more.'
Cery considered her. She had found a gloriously well-fitted dress somewhere, made of fine, soft material dyed a rich purple. The color complemented her skin. Her eyes, when she looked at him, seemed to glow with a rich golden warmth.
But those eyes were downcast now, and her expressive mouth set in a thin line.
'Savara—'
'Do not ask me to stay.' She looked up and fixed him with a direct stare. 'I must go. I must obey my people.'
'I just—'
'I cannot stay.' She rose and began pacing the room. 'I wish I could. Would you leave and go to my land with me, knowing what your country will face? No. You have your own people to protect. I have—'
'Hai! Let me get a word in!'
She stopped and gave him a rueful smile. 'I am sorry. Go on, then.'
'I was just going to tell you that I get what you're saying. I'd rather you stayed, but I won't stop you going.' He smiled wryly. 'I'd wager I'd never have a chance of stopping you anyway.'
Her eyebrows rose. She gestured to the table. 'But you invited me to dinner so you could try to talk me into it.'
He shook his head. 'I just wanted to thank you for your help - and I had to make up for not giving you the chance to do one of these slaves.'
She gave a little pout. 'That would take more than a meal.'
He chuckled. 'Really? Hmmm, we Thieves don't like to break a deal, you know. Would you forgive me if I made up for it another way?'
Her eyes flashed and her smile became sly. 'Oh, I will think of something.' She walked to him, bent forward and kissed him. 'Hmmm, that gives me an idea or two.'
He smiled, caught her waist and pulled her down so she was sitting across his knees. 'Are you sure I can't talk you into staying?' he asked quietly.
She tilted her head to the side and considered. 'Perhaps just one more night.'
The road into Sachaka was dark and silent. Akkarin had spoken only once, to caution Sonea against making a light or speaking any louder than a murmur. Since then the only sound had been the echo of their footsteps, and the distant howl of the wind somewhere far above.
She looked down at her boots, the only items left of her novice uniform. Would the Ichani recognize them? She considered asking Akkarin if she should discard them, but the idea of walking without any shoes in this cold and rocky terrain was unappealing.
As her eyes had adjusted to the dark, she had begun to make out more of the road ahead. Two vertical walls of rock hung on either side, curving and folding like heavy drapes. Looking up, she saw that they stretched several hundred paces toward the sky, but were growing steadily shorter.
After several turns, the wall on the left ended abruptly. A great dark expanse came into view. They stopped and stared at the land below.
A black, endless darkness spread from the foot of the mountains to a glow at the horizon. As Sonea watched, the glow began to brighten. A sliver of white appeared and began to swell upward. Light flooded across the land as the moon - no longer quite full - slowly escaped the horizon. Sonea sucked in a breath. The mountains now shone like jagged lumps of silver. Ridges clawed down into the plain below like thick tree roots. Where rock ended, a treeless, desolate land began. In places, water from the mountain had eroded the soil, creating branched and twisted fissures that stretched toward the horizon. Farther away, she could see strange crescent-shaped hills, like the ripples in a pond frozen in time.
This was the wasteland of Sachaka.
She felt a hand grasp her arm. Surprised, she let Akkarin pull her back into the shadow of the wall.
'We might be seen,' he murmured. 'We must leave the road.'
Looking ahead, she could not see how that was possible. The road curved to the right, cut into the face of the mountain. Steep, almost vertical walls of rock rose on either side.
Akkarin's hand was still around her arm. She realized her heart was beating quickly, and not entirely from fear. His attention was on the cliff above, however.
'We can only hope there aren't watchers up there,' he said.
He let her go, and strode back up the road. Sonea followed. When they had reached a point where the left- hand wall shadowed most of the right, he spun about and took hold of her shoulders.
Guessing what he was going to do, Sonea braced her legs. Sure enough, they began to rise upward, supported by a disk of magic below their feet. She made herself look away, suddenly too conscious of how close Akkarin was.
He stopped their ascent near the top so he could peer over the lip of the wall. Satisfied that the area was safe, he levitated them over the edge and set them down on the stony surface.
Sonea looked around in dismay. The slope was not as precipitous as the rock wall below, but it was still frighteningly steep. Cracks and jagged outcrops broke the surface, and in other places the ground was so smooth she could not see how they could walk across it without sliding off the mountain. How could they navigate this, when all they had to light the way was the moon?
Akkarin started forward and began picking his way across the slope. Sonea drew in a deep breath, then followed. From then on, climbing over or around outcrops, leaping over crevasses and keeping her balance on the treacherous slope occupied her mind. She lost all sense of the time passing. It was easier to just follow Akkarin, and think only of making it past the next obstruction.
The moon had risen much higher in the sky, and she had Healed the weary muscles in her legs several times, when Akkarin finally stopped at the crest of a ridge. She assumed at first that he had encountered a particularly large crevasse or some other difficulty on the other side, but when she looked up at him, he was staring back over her shoulder.
Abruptly, he grabbed her arms and pulled her into a crouch. Her heart skipped.
'Keep low,' he said urgently. He glanced behind. 'We might be visible against the sky.'
She squatted beside him, her pulse racing. He stared back the way they had come, then pointed back across the rugged slope they had crossed. She searched for something new. Finding nothing, she shook her head.
'Where?'
'He's behind that rock shaped like a mullook,' he murmured. 'Wait a moment... there.'
She saw a movement perhaps five or six hundred paces away - a shifting shadow. It leapt and strode along the mountain slope with practiced surety.
'Who is he?'
