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12 Heatblight: Bran and Fran came to the inn to see Darra and Laylah once more before their party left. They had more news: About a month ago, the campsite of a ten-man patrol was ambushed south of the border. One man, Palin, had survived but was ill and delirious when found days later. (He had only recovered enough to tell his story the previous night.) Some unknown number of "dead men" had slipped past the pickets, killed the rest of the patrol. Palin had found only one body, which had been mutilated in some kind of ritual sacrifice. Darra's guess is that the attack was Taroq's work, and that he had saved one man to sacrifice for enough magical energy to animate the other corpses.
Laylah asked the brothers about the proper protocol for crossing the border on her party's return to Krith, to avoid trouble with the border guards. Because she had no one of influence in the area, their best suggestion was that they ask to be taken to the castle, where Bran and Fran could vouch for them. Al-Zaki also knew a little about evading the patrols, from his frequent travels through the region.
The party set out south along the river. Al-Zaki showed them where to turn off to avoid a guard post on the border, and a hidden campsite he had often used. He began to give lessons in the Ranae language to his companions.
13 Heatblight: Around midday, Darra saw a broken spear in some trees a short ways from the river. She and the others investigated, and found what appeared to be the campsite of Palin's patrol. Too much time had passed to make out tracks, but they found bits of broken weapons, tattered rope, and other month-old litter. They found part of a human arm, well-gnawed by scavengers, but no other trace of the body Palin had found. Because burning the bones would take too much time, they built a small cairn for them, and marked the cairn (and the spear Darra had first seen) with bits of bright cloth, to draw the attention of future patrols.
In camp that night, Darra revealed more of her secrets to her companions. She had "a little bit of divine assistance," which had given her the ability to follow the necromancer using one of her quarrels. She demonstrated; the arrow pointed SSE. She had also had a vision of a canyon with a river in it and a volcano on the far side, and had been told that what the necromancer wanted was here. This canyon did not match what Al-Zaki knew of the Haunted Rift; however, he knew that some monster-infested badlands existed to the east of the Ranae's territory.
Laylah went a short way out of camp in order to meditate about which way to go next--south to the Ranae, (west?) to the dragon or southeast after the necromancer? She had a vision of a dragon silhouetted against the moon and flying towards her, then a frog sitting at her feet, then two shambling manlike figures in the distance.
Meanwhile, Darra answered further questions from Al-Zaki and Ruqayyah. [She had already told Laylah most of her secrets, in private a few weeks before.] She revealed that she served Kuldor, god of justice. Neither of the other two was familiar with this god, but Al-Zaki had heard of a "Klur" worshiped by the creatures in the eastern badlands. The Ranae considered those monsters to be demons and were loathe to speak of them; Al-Zaki only knew that they were man-like, but larger and horned, and that "Klur" was something of a larger, stronger version of them. Darra claimed that none of this fit in with what she knew of Kuldor [but she was unnerved by the description of Klur's followers as "horned"].
She also told them that the necromancer she was followed was named Curazal Taroq, and that she had been hunting him for the past five years. Al-Zaki didn't know the name, but thought the language was that of the southern kingdom from which the Ranae had fled persecution; he knew nothing of that land's religions, however. He speculated about Darra's connection to Taroq, but she refused to confirm or deny his guesses. Ruqayyah found all this fascinating--Darra was rarely this open, and Ruqayyah cared little what religion her friend followed.
Lastly, Darra let Al-Zaki know that she was a werehorse. He concluded that one or both of her parents must have been descended from Horse Tribesmen; only that tribe (and their hybrid kin) seemed to produce werehorses. When she showed him her horse-design charm, he thought it might be Desert Man craftsmanship.
During her watch, Naima heard something splashing about in the river. Recalling her fish dream from several nights before, she woke Darra to help her investigate. They briefly saw a man-sized creature something like a furry snake with legs enter the rushes on the far side of the river. Naima reported this to Ruqayyah at her watch time. Curious, she shifted to caracal form and investigated herself. She found one clear paw print, but no trace of where the animal had gone.
14 Heatblight: When Laylah was shown the print in the morning, she recognized it as that of an otter--but far bigger than any she had ever seen! Al-Zaki confirmed that such animals lived here, and created an illusion of one to show the others.
Laylah told the others about her vision, and Darra later told her about Al-Zaki's questions and uncomfortably close guesses. They continued their journey.
At a break in their trek, Al-Zaki tried to teach Ruqayyah his illusion spell. He demonstrated with pictures of several animals (including a miniature dragon) and explained the spell's limits.
While looking for a campsite, the women saw three more giant otters playing upriver. Laylah grew very excited, and approached them, hoping to be allowed to swim among them. Ruqayyah followed to watch, and the others found a campsite a short distance away. The otters found Laylah very interesting, and involved her in their play, but were careful not to touch this strange new animal. They swam away downstream about a half-hour later.
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This page last revised 5/5/2000. | © 2000 Timothy E. Emrick. | time@neu.edu