Darkvision - Bruce R. Cordell [5]
She whistled, and an unseen presence ruffled her hair as it moved past.
"Carry this," Ususi said. Obediently, hidden hands lifted the pack and waited patiently for further instruction.
Back in Deep Imaskar, nearly every citizen could craft or purchase a minor uskura to act as a general, all-purpose bearer of burdens, opener of doors, and retriever of objects. For a wizard of Ususi's talent, an uskura was considered a necessity, though she'd gone long years without one since she'd left the refuge behind the Great Seal. That time was past. During her days of coach travel over the last year, she'd fashioned an invisible companion using the methods of her people. Each uskura was something like an enchantment and required a physical object to serve as its focus. Ususi had bound her uskura to her delver's orb. As long as she had her delver's orb, the uskura would never stray far.
Not unlike the simple, horselike entities she'd bonded to the travel coach's yoke, she mused. She didn't have the time, talent, or patience to see to the needs of actual living draft animals.
"Follow," said Ususi. The wizard turned and set out for the jumble of ruins visible within the cluster of brown hills. The uskura obeyed.
The edge of the first knoll was less than a hundred yards from where she'd stopped the coach last night, though the ruins were probably a half mile farther. The mounting sun touched the hilltops with gold, giving the brown grass a luster it probably didn't deserve. Many of the broad hills were crowned with dark slabs of stone, some standing lonely vigil, others clustered in small groups, and several fallen, as if lying exhausted from centuries of labor.
Ususi ascended the nearest hill. The grade was hardly noticeable-a lucky break. The rising sun and cloudless sky promised another overly warm day. She hoped the ruins would reveal structures with roofs, or perhaps subterranean pockets. She'd had enough sun for a while.
So far, so good-she saw no trails, animal or otherwise, among the hills. With even more luck, she might find the site undisturbed, though she knew that to be unlikely. In all the centuries since the outpost had been abandoned, numerous intrusions could have occurred. Looters were common, and were trained to expect ancient treasure in the bones of fallen civilizations. But no looter before her had a keystone.
She crowned the first hillock and looked down the gentle slope into a curved valley bounded by two adjacent ridges. Besides the occasional dolmen, scrub brush erupted from the earth in scattered dots. A warm breeze blew across the hilltop, and the scent of a jasmine reached the wizard's nose.
There. A central dome of faded stone. Another outpost promised by the ancient map she kept safely in her travel coach. The outpost looked like a hill itself, or perhaps a large boulder exposed by years of erosion. It was bald, cratered, and home to a colony of opportunistic lichen. In the few places where the stone of the station was visible through the covering detritus, Ususi astutely noted the faintest purplish tinge.
The wizard hastened down the slope toward the structure, a smile ghosting across her lips. Still no evidence of any recent disturbances.
When she reached the dome, the illusion of its solidity broke. Great cracks meandered across its surface, and large holes gaped where portions of the wall had collapsed. What had been the entrance-two dolmens surmounted by a third to form an arch-was similarly collapsed, and the passage was filled with solid earth, the runoff of ages.
Since taking up her quest, Ususi had investigated twelve or so lost sites of the ancient Imaskari. While only the first had harbored one of the twenty gates, she was becoming something of an expert on the styles favored by her vanished ancestors. To Ususi's eye, this dome promised a larger subterranean structure, if she could penetrate the stony cap.
She circled the dome once, slowly, taking note of every possibility. Every so often, she gave a quick glance at the tops of the surrounding hills. She'd