The Floodgate - Elaine Cunningham [27]
By now most of the tasloi had reconsidered their chances. The surviving members of the pack melted into the jungle, leaving behind a score of their dead.
The three men worked together to cut down Themo's mount and tried not to listen as the other two lizards fed noisily upon the fallen tasloi.
"Fine sport," Themo observed happily. "Of course, the green dragon would have been better, but there's something to be said for starting small."
"The tasloi ambush obscured what little trail sign Andris left behind. Any more time spent tracking would be time wasted," Iago said.
Themo looked unwilling to give up this adventure. "But if we keep traveling west, we'll find this village."
Matteo shook his head. "I wish that were true. Our only chance of finding the village was following Andris to Kiva. From what I can ascertain of wild elves, we could walk directly beneath the village, and not see it unless the elves wanted us to."
The three friends fell silent. Themo's lizard scuttled over to the battlefield and nosed aside one of its comrades. Except for a few of the less palatable bits, the feast was over. Cheated, the reptilian mount returned to its rider, dragging its tail and looking as dejected as a kicked cur.
"What now?" Themo asked in a resigned tone as he climbed back onto his disgruntled mount.
"Perhaps the answer lies in Iago's recent past," Matteo said slowly. His eyes were apologetic as he turned to the small jordain. "You were in the service of Procopio Septus. It seems likely that Zephyr, his jordaini counselor, betrayed you to Kiva, but Zephyr did not give you directly into the elf woman's hand."
Iago's olive skin paled. "That is true."
"Perhaps we should trace the path between. It led to Kiva once. It might again."
The small jordain rode in silence for several moments. "Three days I spent in the Crinti camps," Iago said softly. "By the end of that time, I was grateful to be sold as a slave."
Matteo acknowledged this with a somber nod. "Did the Crinti deal directly with Kiva?"
"Yes. They spared me the indignity of a slave market, if nothing else.
Understand this, Matteo: the rumors of the shadow amazons fall far short of the reality."
Themo cast him a disgusted look. "If you don't like the plan, just say so."
"I didn't say it wouldn't work," Iago said slowly. "If I could think of a better one, I'd be swift to speak it."
"Dangerous, is it?"
"I would rather leap naked into a pit of molten tar than return to that hell."
Iago spoke with a stillness that chilled Matteo, but Themo nodded as if this pronouncement confirmed a dearly held hope. "There'll be fighting involved?"
"I can almost guarantee it," Iago murmured. As he spoke, his eyes went cold and hard.
Themo noted the change in his friend's expression and hooted with approval.
He slapped the reins on the lizard's neck, his good spirits fully restored. "Well then, what are we sitting around here for?"
Chapter Six
A small, bedraggled figure crept through the jungle, staggering from tree to tree, clinging to each as if she took strength from it. Kiva, the once-powerful magehound, walked barefoot, clad only in the plain gray tunic of an Azuthan penitent. Long, jade-green hair hung about her face. The only magic in her hands was that which rippled through the mazganut tree she clutched for support. Kiva sensed the forest's teeming pulse, heard the soft music of the Weave, but faintly, as if from a great distance.
So frail was Kiva that she felt a disturbing kinship to her own shadow. Her strength had been stolen in battle with the laraken, her wizardly magic siphoned away. For days, only pride had kept her going. Now even that was gone. All Kiva could