The Wizardwar - Elaine Cunningham [38]
Yes.
"You're the only person I've ever known who is exactly what he seems."
She grinned fleetingly. "I'm sorry for all those times I called you boring and predictable."
No you're not, Matteo's illusion responded.
Tzigone chuckled. "Well, maybe not all those times."
She began to drift, and leaned back against the stone. "Stay with me for a while?"
Always.
Because this was the Unseelie court and because illusions had great power here, the answer Tzigone heard was what she needed to hear. As the exhausted girl sank toward sleep, she realized that truth, in its purest form, was quite different from fact. Matteo was worlds away, but he was truly with her.
The familiar warmth of her friend's presence enfolded her like a cloak.
Drawing it around her, Tzigone settled down to sleep while she could.
The dark fairies would return soon enough.
Chapter Six
Two figures strode across the swamp water surface, confident in the spells that allowed them to traverse the murky water as easily as a northman might cross a winter-frozen pond. Despite their reliance upon magic, both these travelers looked utterly at home in this wild place.
Kiva's coppery skin and jade-green hair proclaimed her a native of the jungles. The colors of her beauty blended with the lush foliage, and her movements held the subtlety of shifting shadows. The human's scaled, faintly green skin, the gills on his neck, and the webbing between his fingers suggested a creature well suited to places where air and water mingled.
The amphibious wizard halted, leaning on his staff as he rested. For several moments the only sounds were the voices of the surrounding swamp, the faint crackle of energy that surrounded the wizard's staff-a living but stiff-frozen eel, hard as mithral-and Akhlaur's labored breathing.
"The air is thin. Two hundred years in magic-rich water cannot be countered in mere days," he snapped at his companion, as if she had chided him for some weakness.
Kiva lifted her hands in a defensive gesture. "This jungle has always been difficult for humans. Surely you remember the last time you were here."
Akhlaur's thin lips curled in a sneer. "Not so difficult. The natives died as easily as those in any other place."
The wild elf bit back her outrage and kept her face calm. "When you are ready, we should move on."
They pressed deeper into the Kilmaruu Swamp, the site of Kiva's first great victory. Twilight gloom settled over the swamp as they neared a swiftrunning river bordered by deep gorges and spanned by the remains of a bridge fashioned from a single, enormous log.
Akhlaur regarded the skeleton of the three-horned creature sprawled across the blackened wood. His face took on a dreamy expression, as if he were lost in fond memory.
"Monsters from Chult-I'd almost forgotten that spell! Bringing them here was difficult but worthwhile. The wild elves had never seen such creatures before. Quite amusing."
"No doubt," Kiva said flatly. She pointed toward the opposite bank. "That way."
The necromancer eyed the apparently impenetrable forest wall. "It did not look so when last I came through. There were terraced gardens amid the trees."
"Two hundred years," the elf reminded him. "The jungle covers all and forgets nothing."
He sent her a sharp glance. "That sounds suspiciously like a warning, little Kiva."
"A proverb," she said mildly, "of a sort often spoken by the jordaini. During your exile, these sayings have infested the Halruaa language like gnats upon overripe fruit."
"So much for my gift to Halruaa," Akhlaur observed. "It is said that no good deed goes unpunished!"
Several responses came to Kiva's mind, all of which were almost guaranteed to kindle the necromancer's rage. She acknowledged his ironic proverb with a nod, then led the way across the log bridge. They crawled through the rib cage of Akhlaur's creature and passed into the forest. The wizard followed her down long-forgotten elven paths that no human, magically gifted or not, could ever see.
Night fell,