"Then you agree. He must have been speaking of Lord Gunthar's death, and not the death of his own father," Nalvarre persisted.
"Of course! What's more, everyone knows that Uhoh called him 'Papa.' All the gully dwarves did," Jessica said.
"Where do the draconians fit in?" Nalvarre asked.
"What draconians?" Alya asked. Valian looked up, suddenly interested. Jessica noted with some surprise that he stared hardest at Alya, not Nalvarre.
"I haven't finished the tale. Uhoh said that after Gunthar died, draconians appeared on the scene and tried to kill him. He escaped them, and they've been chasing after him ever since," Nalvarre said.
"Preposterous!" Alya snorted.
"There aren't any draconians on Sancrist," Jessica said in agreement.
Valian, however, said nothing.
"Uhoh insists that draconians are trying to kill him," Nalvarre said, and he related events of the last few days, ending with his discovery of the wounded Millisant and the disappearance of the gully dwarves. "He claims to know a big, important secret."
"What secret?" asked Valian sharply.
"I don't know," Nalvarre had to admit doubtfully.
"Well, did you see any draconians?" Alya asked.
"No, but I did see Pyrothraxus fly over the valley," he said. "It was the same day. A sure portent of evil, I'd say."
Jessica gasped.
"Not only that, but I found a pile of strange dust in front of my door. I didn't see it that night, but in the light of the next day, it was quite obvious. Millisant growled at it," Nalvarre said.
"Dust? Did it have any kind of shape?" Valian asked.
Nalvarre eyed the dark elf. "As a matter of fact, it did. The wind had disturbed it somewhat, but it had a vague humanoid outline," he said.
To everyone's surprise, Valian pounded the table in anger. "Abaaz! Damn!" he shouted.
"Let's not jump to any hasty conclusions, Sir Valian," Alya said softly, but with steel in her voice. She turned to Jessica. "There must be another explanation. I find it quite hard to credit any reason why draconians would be chasing three gully dwarves halfway across Sancrist."
"Why?" Valian asked. "That's exactly what we're doing. And what about that pile of dust? It has to be a baaz draconian. They turn to stone when slain and then to dust. I should know. I had enough of the cowards in my command during the Chaos War."
"I agree with Alya," Jessica said. "There has to be some other explanation. If draconians were roaming all over Sancrist like this, someone would have spotted them by now and raised the alarm."
"Not if they kill anyone who sees them," Valian said. "Not if some of them are sivaks who have the power to assume the form of anyone they kill."
"It just seems so improbable," Jessica said.
"There is only one way to find out. We have to go to this place you talked about," Valian said nodding to Nalvarre. "Town. We have to catch up with Uhoh before the draconians do."
"My thoughts exactly." Nalvarre said. "We can't leave those poor gully dwarves at their mercy."
Valian stared at Alya for long moments. Finally, she nodded. "We'll go to Town," she decided.
20
No trap, no matter how clever, could be this obvious, A trail of crumbs, rinds, crusts, husks, shells, and cores marked a spoor a blind gully dwarf could follow. Harj thought this statement supremely ironic, considering the quarry of his hunt. Though the quarry had a name, Harj still thought of it only as an "it," an object, a target for his knife when the time came.
That time was fast approaching, he now knew. His tongue flickered excitedly in the air at the thought of the slaying to come. At first, he'd had little enough enthusiasm for this hunt, but with weeks of failure, his anticipation of the kill sharpened. When first he picked up this newest spoor, he'd left a message on the trail-an encoded pattern of sticks in the elven fashion-giving a likely destination. He let the others know the gully dwarves were headed for Town.
So now it was with some surprise that Harj found the trail ended at the blank face of a cliff wall. He searched the surrounding area for some time without finding further signs. He began to suspect that he'd been thwarted once again. They'd obviously backtracked somewhere along the trail, but Harj never suspected gully dwarves could be so clever. Unless he got spectacularly lucky, he'd never find their trail in the dark. With night swiftly approaching, he'd have to wait until the morrow to search it out again. He began to suspect a greater mind at work, for the spoor had obviously been left on purpose for him to follow it to this dead end. Perhaps this was even…
"A trap!" he snarled, drawing his dagger as a twig snapped behind him. He spun round, only to see the rugged scrub terrain common to this area, darkened now in the shadow of the mountains. He crouched, ready to fight or flee, his long reptilian tail thrashing angrily behind him. He licked the blade of his dagger to envenom it with his poisonous saliva.
"Ssssso, Harj hasssss lossst the trail already," laughed a voice from the bushes.
Harj angrily sheathed his dagger as a figure robed all in black appeared from behind a boulder. It approached, its robes whispering over the stony trail.
"These are not mere gully dwarves," Harj asserted as he stared at the cliff face. "No gully dwarf is this smart."
"He issss not sssmart," the robed figure hissed as it pushed back its hood, revealing a draconian face. "You overthink him. He issss only a gully dwarf."
"Bozaks know everything," Harj snarled. "If you know so much, why haven't you caught him?"
"That isssss the kapaksss's job. I am here to assisssssst you, not sssssniff out sssspoor," the bozak draconian lisped.
Harj's mouth writhed into a sneer, revealing long, yellow fangs made for shredding flesh. "Bozaks let the kapaks do the work, then claim all the glory." he said.
"Let ussss not forget we are brotherssss," the bozak warned.
Harj bowed. "All praise to the Old Master who guides us," he said. "His wisdom is without measure."
"Well said, Brother Harj."
"Thank you, Brother Shaeder," Harj replied. "But now what? You said I overthink him… "
"You expect guile where there issss only ssssssimplicity, even sssstupidity. He doesssss what only an idiot , would do, and therefore you never consssssider other posssssssibilities," Shaeder said.
"Like what?" Harj asked, his impatience with his fellow draconian growing.
"They can't sssscale the cliff. It isss too sssteep," the bozak answered, looking up at the rock wall hanging well out over their heads, "and they didn't go around. So you examined the cliff face for ssssecret doorssss?"
"Not yet, I didn't think… " Harj's voice trailed off.
"Didn't think what?"
Harj spun around and quickly scanned the rock wall for any sign of a craftily hidden entrance. In short order, he spotted words carved in very small letters. They read, "Secret entrance. You no see." A little lower down, next to an all too obvious protrusion, were the words "This not latch." With a malicious grin Harj pressed the not-latch and the stone parted, revealing a dark, narrow passage into the cliff.
With a conspiratorial look at the bozak, Harj entered the passage. Shaeder, the bozak, followed close on his tail. The passage, never more than a few feet wide, wound and doubled upon itself endlessly in utter darkness. They didn't need to see to know they were on the right path, for as they walked, they stepped on the litter of rinds and crusts and husks left behind, but they did have to keep low, because the gully dwarves had strolled easily under the edges and overhangs of rock that Harj had a tendency to crash into. After one particularly painful knock on the pate, he thought he was seeing stars until he realized that he was seeing stars. High overhead, through a crack in the roof of the cave, a few stars glimmered in the black sky.