“That is all the more reason to start now and place as much distance between us as possible,” Kara replied.
“I am in complete agreement with your assessment of him,” said Sorak, “but we should consider that his sword arm could come in useful in the city of the undead.”
“If it were not used against us,” the pyreen replied. “I might be willing to take that chance on my own behalf, but not where the Sage may be concerned. If Valsavis is an agent of the Shadow King, then surely he must have some means of reporting to him. The Breastplate of Argentum is a powerful talisman. The Shadow King would know that and would do anything to insure that the Sage did not acquire it.” She shook her head. “No, I shall not take the risk. We must leave at once without alerting Valsavis.”
“Then we are ready,” Sorak said, picking up his pack and shouldering it. Ryana buckled on her sword belt and shouldered her own pack. They headed, toward the door.
“No,” said Kara. “Not that way. If you are seen leaving, then someone could alert him.”
“Yes, you’re right, of course,” said Sorak. “I would not put it past him to have bribed someone to watch our comings and goings and report to him. We shall use the window, as you did, and sneak out over the garden wall. Where shall we meet you?”
“Outside the east gate of the village,” Kara replied. “Good,” said Sorak. “Our kanks are stabled there. We can pick them up and-”
“No,” said Kara, “leave them. Kanks would leave an easy trail to follow, especially for an expert tracker.”
“But if we go on foot, then he will catch us easily,” Ryana protested, not adding that she was not looking forward to crossing the southern half of the Ivory Plain and going all the way around the inland silt basins on foot.
“We are wasting precious time,” said Kara in a tone that brooked no disagreement. “Meet me outside the east gate as soon possible.”
And with that, she spun around once, twice, three times, and became a dust devil once again that whirled out through the window and over the garden wall.
“Perhaps she knows a short cut,” Sorak said.
“To Bodach?” said Ryana. She grimaced. “I have seen your map. It is an even longer journey there than it was to here from Nibenay.”
“Well, you will recall the map was not entirely accurate,” said Sorak, though he knew it was a rather lame response. “In any case, she is our guide, and we must place ourselves in her hands.”
He swung out through the window. Ryana followed, and they quickly crossed the garden, keeping well away from the main path by the entrance. They reached the wall, and Ryana made a saddle of her hands, giving Sorak a leg up. Once he reached the top of the wall, he held his hand down to her and helped her up. They dropped to the street and quickly lost themselves among the nighttime crowd.
It did not take them long to reach the east gate of the village. Ryana cast a longing glance at the stables as they passed them, thinking how much more comfortable it would have been to ride a kank than go again on foot across miles of hot salt. They had filled their waterskins at a public well on their way out of he village, but with a journey as long as they had ahead of them, Ryana knew that it would not be enough. Fortunately, however, they would be traveling with a pyreen this time. If anyone could find water in the dry wasteland between Salt View and Bodach, Kara could.
There was no sign of Kara at the gate, however. But then Sorak recalled that she had told them to meet her outside the village gate. They went through and stopped to look around, yet the pyreen was nowhere to be seen.
“Now what?” said Ryana, with a worried look. “She said that she would meet us here,” said Sorak. “So? Where is she?”
“She will be here,” Sorak replied confidently. “I certainly hope so,” said Ryana dubiously. “She is pyreen,” said Sorak with conviction. “She would never let down fellow preservers. Especially those who served the Sage. Perhaps we should continue on ahead for a short distance.”
“Only what if she comes after we’ve gone and waits for us by the gate?” Ryana asked.
“A shapeshifter will have no difficulty finding us,” said Sorak. “She will assume we must have gone on.”
“Very well, if you say so,” Ryana replied, but she had her doubts, and the prospect of the long journey ahead, on foot and without a guide, was not a pleasant one.
They started walking down the trail leading away from the village. After a few moments, they became aware of something moving off to their right. They heard the rapid pattering of small paws, and Sorak, with his superior night vision, could make out a creature running on all fours a short distance away, parallel to their course.
“What is it?” asked Ryana.
“A rasclinn,” Sorak said.
“Here?” said Ryana, with surprise. “In the flat-lands?”
“Somehow, I do not think this one is an ordinary rasclinn,” Sorak replied.
And sure enough, the creature trotted ahead of them and crossed their path, then stopped on the trail. A voice in their minds said, “This way. Follow me.”
They left the trail, following the rasclinn as it trotted off into the scrub brush. They had to run to keep after it. After a short while, in addition to the faint sounds made by the rasclinn as it trotted through the desert scrub, heading toward the foot of the lower slopes of the Mekillots, they heard other sounds, as well. Loud, rustling sounds ahead and to their left, in a small grove of pagafa trees.
“What is that strange, rustling noise?” Ryana asked.
Sorak frowned. “I do not know,” he said.
“You don’t think it’s a trap?”
“I cannot believe a pyreen would lead us into a trap,” said Sorak. “She is sworn to the preserver cause.”
The rustling sounds were growing louder as they approached.
“I do not like this, Sorak,” said Ryana apprehensively.
A moment later, Sorak said, “Antloids.”
Ryana stopped. “Antloids?” she said with some alarm.
“There is no need to fear,” he said. “The antloids are our friends, remember?”
She recalled how Screech had once summoned the antloids to help rescue her and Princess Korahna from Torian and his mercenaries, and her apprehension abated somewhat, though it did not disappear entirely. And a moment later, they reached the grove of pagafa trees, where Kara waited for them, having shapeshifted back to her natural form.
In the shelter of the grove, a dozen or more antloids were hard at work, stripping branches from the pagafa trees and bringing them to another group of antloids, who were using their mandibles to weave them together with the thick, strong, fibrous leaves of desert dagger plants, which grew to a height of ten feet or more, with long, wide, blade-shaped leaves up to five or six feet in length. Some of the antloids were gathering the leaves, picking them off the nearby plants at the foot of the slopes, and bringing them to the others, who used their mandibles and claws to tear them into long and narrow strips. These strips were then used to fasten the branches of the pagafa trees together into a sort of mat about five feet wide by eight feet long. As they approached, the antloids were finishing the task, weaving the last strips together and fastening them carefully, sealing the ends with their sticky spit, which hardened into a gumlike substance.
“This is why you did not need the kanks,” said Kara as the antloids finished their work on the mat. “And now you will see why Valsavis, however skilled a tracker he may be, will find no trail to follow.”
Ryana stared at the mat without comprehension. “I do not understand,” she said. “Surely you do not mean for us to drag that cumbersome thing behind us to obliterate our trail?”
“No,” said Kara. “I mean for you to ride upon it.”
“Drawn by the antloids, you mean?” Sorak said.
He shook his head. “That would never work. Valsavis could follow that trail as easily as he could follow the course of a well-established caravan route.”