cities to provide all necessary assistance. Safar and the priest said their final farewells at the main gate. Outside the walls they could hear the caravan master cry his last warning that he was ready to depart.
'There's one other thing I should tell you, my lord,' Talane said. 'Forgive me for withholding it, but I wasn't clear on the Oracle's meaning. I was already ladened with so many confusing things to relate to you that I feared it would only make explanations more difficult.'
'Tell me now then, holy one,' Safar said.
'The Oracle said to tell you this: 'He who seeks the way to Hadin must first travel through Caluz.''
Talane scratched his head. 'It still doesn't make any sense to me, lord,' he said. 'Do you know what she means?'
Safar shook his head. 'No. But I hope to find out one day.'
Palimak stirred in his lap and Safar looked down to see if the boy had wearied of his story. Instead, Palimak's eyes were huge and glowing with interest.
'Imagine that!' he said. 'Making two whole rivers change which way they go.' Outside a volcano rumbled with pent up gases and his elfin face turned serious. 'I guess it didn't work,' he said. 'The machine's still going.'
'Actually, it did work,' Safar said. 'They labored for several years building dams and digging an alternate bed for both rivers to flow into. The wheel stopped and the bad magic with it. The people of Caluz sent me many proclamations of thanks and praise. I even had a note from Talane saying the city was going to honor me by naming a day after me. I don't know if they did, because not much later I was fleeing Zanzair with you and Leiria. And I haven't heard anything since.'
'Something must have happened, father,' Palimak said, 'because the machine's going again.'
'Apparently,' Safar said, 'all that work turned out to be just a temporary fix. We'll find out what happened when we get to Caluz.'
Palimak was alarmed. 'But what about the Oracle's warning?' he asked. 'If the wheel's going, you might get hurt. Or even … you know … killed or something!'
Ever since Asper's ghost had bade him to travel to Caluz Safar had considered that point himself. But he smiled at the boy, saying, 'Don't worry. I know a lot more about such things then I did in Zanzair. A wizard gets stronger as he ages. Why, think about how much more powerful you are now then when we left Kyrania. You've made storms from small clouds, saving my life, I might add.
'And that trick you played on Iraj was masterful. It gave us valuable time to get away.'
Palimak frowned. 'That's what everybody says. And I guess maybe I'm a hero, like I wanted to be.
They're all saying, 'Oh, Palimak, you're such a brave boy! And 'How can we ever thank you enough.'
Things like that. But, I don't know. I don't feel very good about it.'
He gave Safar a look of great frustration. 'I was trying to kill him, father!' he said. 'That's how it was supposed to work. But it didn't. It was sort of like the rivers. A temporary fix.'
Safar ruffled his hair. 'That's all we needed,' he said. 'So it doesn't matter.'
Actually it did matter to Safar, but not the way Palimak might have thought. He was secretly glad the boy had failed. Evil as Iraj might be, Safar thought his murder would be too much for a child's soul to bear.
There would be plenty of opportunity in the years ahead for such scars to accumulate.
'Will you let me help you in Caluz, father?' Palimak asked. 'I'm really strong, just like you said. See?'
He flexed one of his little arms by way of demonstration. Safar smiled and felt the small lump of muscle.
To his surprise it was hard and sinewy and quite unchildlike.
'You certainly are,' Safar said. 'I was nowhere near as strong when I was your age.'
Palimak shrugged as if indifferent but he was secretly pleased. 'I think it's because I'm part demon,' he said matter of factly. 'They get stronger faster, right?'
'Right,' Safar answered.
'Stronger in magic, too, right?'
'Right.'
Palimak's face turned sly. 'Then you'll let me help you, right?'
'Right again,' Safar said.
The boy looked startled. Had his trick worked? Then he became concerned.
'Do you really mean that, father?' he asked. 'Or are you just saying it and then you'll make up a reason later why I can't?'
'Yes, I really do meant it, son,' Safar said. 'To tell the truth, I was sort of counting on it. That's why I told you the story, so you'd be ready when we got there.'
Palimak's face lit up with supreme pleasure. 'Will it be dangerous?' he asked.
Safar turned serious. 'Very dangerous, son. So you have to pay close attention to everything I say. No more little tricks and experiments on your own, right?'
'Right!' Palimak said. 'Right, right, right. And three times right makes it so!'
Sergeant Dario eyed the road ahead. The old Kyranian fighting master was not pleased with what he saw, or actually, what he couldn't see. They'd been traveling for weeks on the barren plains of the Black Lands, but as forbidding as they were, he thought, at least a man had an uninterrupted view of any danger he might face.
Here, however, the great caravan road narrowed to accommodate a passage hewn straight through a mountain. Dario figured it had once been a natural ravine which was widened by gangs of slaves working for some greedy king determined to bring the caravans to his realm.
Whatever the origins, Dario definitely didn't like the way the road snaked into the dim passage, then vanished entirely beyond the first bend.
'If I was thinkin' of settin' up an ambush,' he said to Leiria, 'I'd pick somewhere's in there. You could trap the whole damn caravan.'
'I was thinking the same thing,' she replied. She looked up at the towering, blank-faced mountain. 'I wish there were a route around it, or over it,' she said.
Dario leaned away from his saddle and spit, which Leiria had learned over many miles was a signal that he was thinking. His leathery old face, which drooped like a jowly dog's, was a permanent, emotionless mask he kept for the world. But Leiria could see a glint of worry in his eyes as they darted this way and that, probing the depths of the passage.
Finally he settled back in his saddle. 'Had a cap'n once't,' he said, 'who knew all there was to know
'bout ambushes, 'cept for one thing. And that killed him so I never did find out what he was missin'.
Make a long story short, he taught me what he know'd afore he ate that arrow, so I'm a pretty fair hand at ambushes.'
Leiria laughed. 'Except for the kind that got the captain,' she said.
Dario grimaced, which was his way of smiling. 'Hells,' he said, 'there's always one more for a soldier.
One more hill to climb. One more meal you ain't gonna eat. One more sword lookin' for your guts. Same with ambushes. There's always one more waitin' somewhere's that's gonna get you.'
Leiria laughed. 'Isn't that the truth! What's the old barracks' saying? No matter how bad the shit gets, it's only the second worst thing that's going to happen to you.'
Dario grunted his enjoyment. Then he gestured at the pass, saying, 'Why'nt I slip on in there, Cap'n, and see what's what? Maybe you could sorta linger a bit behind me to guard my back.'
Leiria nodded agreement. 'Wait up a minute,' she said, 'until I talk to the boys.'
She trotted back to where the other scouts, including Renor and his friend, Seth, waited. She told them the plan and then said, 'In all likelihood we're worrying about nothing. But if we should trigger an ambush the last thing I want is for any of you to come running to our rescue. Leave one man here to watch and the rest of you ride to the main column for help. Renor, you're in charge, so you choose who's going to stay and who's going to ride. Got it?'
'Yes, Captain,' Renor said, squaring his shoulders as if suddenly feeling the weight of command settle on to them. 'But, how about if I send somebody back now, so Lord Timura and the others will know what's going on up here?'
'Good idea,' Leiria said, feeling a flash of pride at how far Renor had come since Kyrania. He was going to make one fine soldier someday-assuming he lived long enough. 'In fact, instead of waiting to see if we need help,
