Darkvision - Bruce R. Cordell [14]
The sun moved a full hand's span in the sky. Finally, Thormud said, "I have determined our route as best I can. I will try additional detailed divinations as we move along, but those must wait for proximity."
Kiril stood, sheathing her dirk and packing her oil kit. She had traveled with the dwarf long enough to know what came next.
Thormud went to his knees and lay down, facing the earth. He spread his arms and legs wide, as if seeking to embrace the land. His fingers clutched and he crooned a gravelly tune. The sound went right through Kiril. The noise was less acute in her ears than in the soles of her feet-the ground vibrated in harmony with the dwarf's call. Thormud beseeched the deep earth itself, and he was answered.
The earth convulsed beneath Thormud's spread-eagled body. As if soft mud instead of solid stone, a blister of rock grew, raising Thormud almost fifteen feet into the air. As the blister expanded, it took on a vague shape. From formlessness came a head, a torso, and six pillarlike legs. A granite destrier was revealed, a quickening of the living earth. Kiril recognized it-the dwarf called one each time travel beckoned. Nothing ate up the empty distance like a granite destrier.
Thormud perched immediately behind the destrier's vulpine head. A flat expanse of the creature's back, perfect for securing baggage or additional passengers, stretched behind the dwarf.
Xet chimed and flew up to alight on the destrier's hard snout. Thormud wiped sweat from his brow. Even for a geomancer of the dwarf's expertise, calling forth such a mighty servant was difficult.
"Are you going to sit up there taking in the view all day," queried Kiril, "or are you going to lower that thing so I can get our gear packed?"
Xet belled a protesting tone at her. The dragonet was always mindful of its master's feelings. Not that Thormud had ever risen to the bait Kiril was so fond of dishing out.
Thormud kept his position a moment longer, then patted the great head. The stone destrier grunted, almost like a living beast, and lowered itself to the ground.
Kiril loaded and secured the gear. Thormud silently rested from his exertion.
When every saddlebag, chest, and case was tied down to Kiril's satisfaction, she took her position behind the dwarf. Thormud's calling had specified the creation of two seatlike depressions in the stone of the destrier's back. They would be comfortable enough, Kiril recalled, though the conveyance took a little getting used to.
Thormud patted the head of the destrier once again, saying, "Run free, my friend, above the confines of your mother flesh."
Kiril rolled her eyes. The dwarf was fond of such purple prose. Another perk of her employment.
The destrier stretched to its full height in a surprisingly smooth motion and began to run.
As if it were a coyote after a jackrabbit, the granite destrier lit out across the open plain, dust streaming in its wake.
As fast as the fastest horse at full gallop, the six-legged earth elemental streaked southeast.
CHAPTER FIVE
Low hills, bumpy knolls, and rocky ridges broke up the afternoon light. Covered in scrub grass, the hills' color varied between brown and pale gold, while the barren ridges revealed dark purple striatums of vanished centuries. Here and there, stone slabs thrust up from the earthen hilltops, sometimes singly, other times in groups forming ancient rings of debatable purpose.
Since Iahn had ascended to the sunlit lands outside the magically sealed Deep Imaskar, he'd undergone a slow change in attitude. He was beginning to suspect he was made for wide open lands, not closely proscribed walls and corridors.
It amused him to recall that prior to his recent travels, he hadn't had the breadth of experience to think of his home as "proscribed." Before, he'd never thought of the artificially illuminated city behind the Great Seal as confining-but