Azure bonds - Kate Novak [19]
Instincts took over. She didn't have time to think and plan. Only react. Like a guardian golem. She remembered Dimswart saying the sigils were alive the way a golem was. Are the brands making me fight, like they made me try to kill Winefiddle? Should I be giving them credit for my ability? She shook off this notion instantly and angrily. I was a good swordswoman before I got these things, she thought, and I'll be a good one long after I've gotten rid of them.
Then the most disturbing idea of all occurred to her. Perhaps I died and was resurrected by someone who decided to take his price out of my hide. Literally. Don't those newly raised from Death's Dominions feel uneasy and disquieted?
More than a few of her companions, after their first visit to the afterlife, chose to retire-to live as farmers, smiths, greengrocers. Speaking of which, she thought with annoyance, where is that damned mage, anyway?
Alias was beginning to consider retreating through the passage back to the outside. Something must have gone wrong for Akabar to take so long to return.
Before she'd made up her mind, the downward passageway brightened and a glowing orb floated up into her cavern. The size of a melon and radiating an orange light, the orb held the image of the merchant-mage's head.
"What kept you, Turmite?" she asked with a sniff.
"I had to wait until the dragon bedded down," replied the mage. His voice was muffled by the effects of his spell, a meld of wizard eye-so he could spy out the territory from the entrance to the tunnel in relative safety-and a special phantasmal force-so he could report his findings back to Alias. "It wouldn't do to have Her Evilness awake when you tried to sneak in. It would spoil our surprise.
"My spell is almost exhausted, and I must leave our mission's completion to you, swordslady. Ahead of you lie a few gentle curves, no serious drops. The ceiling is low about fifty yards ahead, then the passage narrows to shoulder width. It lets out on a ledge above the main cavern floor. Our bard is in a small cage atop a dais on the far side of the cavern." The mage's image began blurring, as if a snow-storm had erupted within the orange sphere. "Spell's wearing off. Anything I should do with your pet?"
"He's not my pe-" Alias began, but Akabar's spell was breaking up too quickly to waste time arguing. "Just keep him from entering the cavern," she ordered. "And don't get him mad at you. The last spell-caster who did didn't live long enough to regret it."
"Gods' luck to you." Akabar's voice sounded a long way off. His image was gone, and the orange sphere was shrinking. "I hope you know what you're doing. You have fought dragons before?"
"This will be my first," she answered quietly, but the sphere was gone and there was no reply from Akabar. I wonder if he heard me, she thought. Better if he didn't.
*****
Five hundred yards behind and somewhat above her, at the cavern entrance overlooking the road from Waymoot to Suzail, Akabar the Turmishman came out of his trance. Dragonbait was still crouched at the mage's feet, watching the cavern entrance intently. The air about them was warm, humming with large bumblebees dotting, diving, and dodging about the mountain daisies.
Akabar sat down and leaned against a rock. He made quick thanks to his southern gods that he was not the one about to face a dragon in its lair. He pulled an apple from his backpack and bit into it. Dragonbait twitched at the sound of the crunch, but the creature did not takes his eyes off the cavern mouth that had swallowed Alias.
*****
Alias continued cautiously along the tunnel Akabar had scouted out for her. The Turmish mage's report had been reasonably accurate in so far as there were no hairpin curves and none of the drops were impassable, but the passage was not so smooth that she looked forward to a possible hasty retreat. The low ceiling didn't bother her, but she was a trifle alarmed