Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [136]
"Are you all right?" she asked her companion in saurial.
"Yes," The paladin replied. With a remorseful scent of mint, he added, "I was stupid to get captured. I'm sorry."
"I'll yell at you later," Alias said, handing him his flaming sword. She grabbed the lizard's hand and pulled him back to the edge of the clearing, where Akabar was waiting.
"You might have been captured out there. What were you thinking, woman?" Akabar demanded.
"Sorry," Alias said. "Thanks for dispelling those tangle vines."
"I didn't do it," Akabar said. "It must have been Grypht."
"But he should be on the other side of the camp by now," Alias said.
"Alias, we haven't got time for discussions. Hold still so I can cast a flying spell on you," Akabar ordered.
Akabar repeated the chant for the spell he'd already cast on himself, brushing Alias's arms with a second feather. Instantly the feather burst into flame and disappeared.
"That's it?" she asked. "What do I do, flap my arms?"
"If you want to. However, it's not necessary," Akabar said. He turned to Dragonbait and explained hastily. "Olive is starting fires in the brush to the south of the clearing. Grypht will cast a wall of fire on the west side. You must use your sword to start igniting the forest on this side while Alias and I begin burning the huts. We're trying to drive the saurials out of the vale into the mountains to the east. Once the fires are all lit, Grypht and I will fly to the east to cast cones of cold at the saurials as they flee from the vale; Alias will be our lookout. You'll have to deal with any saurials who aren't panicked by the fires and are still acting on Moander's behalf."
Dragonbait nodded. He ran his finger down Alias's sword arm, whispering "Good luck" in saurial. As Alias and Akabar soared upward and off toward the huts, the paladin hurried to begin setting fires along the north edge of the vale.
*****
Grypht paused a moment in midflight to look down into the camp. The sight of all the tribe's spell-casters bursting out of their huts, catching their toes on the halfling's trip wires, and sprawling on the ground might have been amusing in other circumstances. The wizard tried not to dwell on the thought that if his plan worked, most of these people would be dead before morning. He reminded himself of all the other lives at stake. He thought, too, of the desperate cry for release Coral had made in Alias's soul song. Even if it meant Coral's death, Grypht knew the priestess would accept anything rather than serve the Darkbringer.
He could see Coral's white hide standing out in the dusk. A dark figure stood beside her. The wizard squinted, but he had trouble making out much detail in the gathering darkness. He couldn't discern which of their tribe it was. Then the dark figure disappeared in a flash of light. The sight unsettled the old wizard. Who was the spell-caster, and where had he gone? Grypht wondered.
The sight of small fires burning below brought the wizard's mind back to the task at hand. He soared to the west side of the clearing and began to chant the words of his wall of fire spell.
*****
From her vantage point high in the air, Alias saw the shimmering violet wall of flames to the west of the vale and whistled in awe. "It's nearly three hundred feet long," she breathed.
Hovering beside her, Akabar concentrated on rolling the flaming sphere beneath him into another hut before he stole a glance westward at Grypht's handiwork.
"We're fortunate to have so powerful an ally," he said, then concentrated on moving the flaming sphere once more.
Beneath Akabar and Alias, the saurial workers had begun to smell the smoke and emerge from their huts. Just as Grypht had predicted, not even the Darkbringer could control the instinct of the saurials to flee from fire. Although the small flying saurials might have fled in any direction they wanted, they followed the rest and flew east toward the mage and swordswoman.
"Fliers," Alias warned. "Ten of them, at least."
Akabar looked up and pulled