Simon Hawke - The Nomad

“What is it?” asked Ryana.

“A rasclinn,” Sorak said.

“Here?” said Ryana, with surprise. “In the flat-lands?”

“Somehow, I do not think this one is an ordinary rasclinn,” Sorak replied.

And sure enough, the creature trotted ahead of them and crossed their path, then stopped on the trail. A voice in their minds said, “This way. Follow me.”

They left the trail, following the rasclinn as it trotted off into the scrub brush. They had to run to keep after it. After a short while, in addition to the faint sounds made by the rasclinn as it trotted through the desert scrub, heading toward the foot of the lower slopes of the Mekillots, they heard other sounds, as well. Loud, rustling sounds ahead and to their left, in a small grove of pagafa trees.

“What is that strange, rustling noise?” Ryana asked.

Sorak frowned. “I do not know,” he said.

“You don’t think it’s a trap?”

“I cannot believe a pyreen would lead us into a trap,” said Sorak. “She is sworn to the preserver cause.”

The rustling sounds were growing louder as they approached.

“I do not like this, Sorak,” said Ryana apprehensively.

A moment later, Sorak said, “Antloids.”

Ryana stopped. “Antloids?” she said with some alarm.

“There is no need to fear,” he said. “The antloids are our friends, remember?”

She recalled how Screech had once summoned the antloids to help rescue her and Princess Korahna from Torian and his mercenaries, and her apprehension abated somewhat, though it did not disappear entirely. And a moment later, they reached the grove of pagafa trees, where Kara waited for them, having shapeshifted back to her natural form.

In the shelter of the grove, a dozen or more antloids were hard at work, stripping branches from the pagafa trees and bringing them to another group of antloids, who were using their mandibles to weave them together with the thick, strong, fibrous leaves of desert dagger plants, which grew to a height of ten feet or more, with long, wide, blade-shaped leaves up to five or six feet in length. Some of the antloids were gathering the leaves, picking them off the nearby plants at the foot of the slopes, and bringing them to the others, who used their mandibles and claws to tear them into long and narrow strips. These strips were then used to fasten the branches of the pagafa trees together into a sort of mat about five feet wide by eight feet long. As they approached, the antloids were finishing the task, weaving the last strips together and fastening them carefully, sealing the ends with their sticky spit, which hardened into a gumlike substance.

“This is why you did not need the kanks,” said Kara as the antloids finished their work on the mat. “And now you will see why Valsavis, however skilled a tracker he may be, will find no trail to follow.”

Ryana stared at the mat without comprehension. “I do not understand,” she said. “Surely you do not mean for us to drag that cumbersome thing behind us to obliterate our trail?”

“No,” said Kara. “I mean for you to ride upon it.”

“Drawn by the antloids, you mean?” Sorak said.

He shook his head. “That would never work. Valsavis could follow that trail as easily as he could follow the course of a well-established caravan route.”

“Through the air?” said Kara with a smile.

“Through the air?” Ryana repeated, her eyes widening.

“Why walk when you can fly?” asked Kara.

“Fly?” Ryana said. “On that? But... how?”

“Borne up by the wind,” said Sorak, suddenly understanding what Kara planned. “The wind of an air elemental.”

“You?” said Ryana, staring at Kara with astonishment. “But... forgive me-not to doubt your powers, my lady, but to hold us up for such a distance—

Even a pyreen would surely find that taxing beyond her abilities.”

“If I were to do it by myself, no doubt I would,” said Kara. “But though a pyreen can shapeshift into the form of an elemental, a pyreen can also raise elementals. Observe....”

She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, spreading her arms out from her sides. They saw her lips moving soundlessly, and though her face bore an expression of calm serenity, they could tell that she • was concentrating intensely. They could both feel it.

A stillness descended on the pagafa grove. There was utter silence. There was no chirping of small insects, no cries of night birds, not even the faintest breeze. It was as if the entire world had suddenly stopped to draw breath. And a moment later in the distance, in the air above the mountains looming over them, there was the rumbling sound of thunder. It was the still before a desert storm. A few more moments passed, and then they felt the coolness of a strong breeze on their faces as it swept down from the heights above them. The thunder rolled once more, and dark clouds roiled in the moonlit sky. The breeze grew stronger, whipping their hair back from their faces. In the distance, they heard a whistling sound as the winds gathered.

“Now,” said Kara, beckoning them toward the mat the antloids had constructed. “Take your places.”

Ryana glanced down at the small, crudely woven platform of pagafa branches and dagger plant leaves held together, literally, with nothing but spit, and suddenly the very last thing she wanted to do was sit down upon it.

“Quickly,” Kara urged them. “Come on,” said Sorak, taking her hand and pulling her toward the platform. “Sorak... I’m afraid.”

“There is nothing to fear,” he said. “I will be with you. Kara will not let us fall.”

His calmness and his complete sense of certainty eased her apprehensions. She stepped onto the mat with him and eased herself down upon it, sitting cross-legged. She swallowed hard and held tightly onto his hand, not wanting to let go. He squeezed her hand reassuringly.

“Trust the Way,” he said. “Believe in the Path of the Preserver.”

“I do,” she whispered. “I believe.” The wind grew stronger. The thunder rolled. Sheet lightning flashed in the desert sky above them, giving off a spectacular display of natural pyrotechnics. The wind shrieked as it swept down off the mountains, plucking at their hair and clothing. Ryana closed her eyes.

“Sorak,” she cried. “I am here,” he said, squeezing her hand, his voice instilling calm.

The wind was now blowing with hurricane force. Ryana held onto Sorak’s hand and clutched at the mat with her other hand. She forced herself to open her eyes, and what she saw was so incredible that she couldn’t have closed them again even if she tried.

Kara stood several feet away from them, her head tilted back, her arms outspread, her long, silver-gray hair and her white robe billowing around her in the wind. And as Ryana watched, the wind actually became visible, took on form, swirled around and around her like a whirlpool, then coalesced into three separate funnel shapes, much larger than mere dust devils, more like the funnel clouds of desert tornados, only smaller and more dense. And in those whirling, roiling funnel clouds, gathering greater and greater force as they spun around and around and around, Ryana could suddenly make out features.

She stared with disbelief, having heard stories of natural elementals before, but never having actually seen one, much less three. Within those whirling funnel clouds of gale-force wind, she could see, indistinctly, the rough approximation of eyes, and mouths that seemed to shriek like banshees.

She tightened her grip on Sorak’s hand, holding onto it with all her might, and she felt an incredible pressure in her chest. She tried to breathe, but she couldn’t seem to draw any air into her lungs. And as Ryana watched, unable to tear her eyes away, much as she wanted to, Kara began to spin around and around and around, her arms outstretched, twirling with wild abandon, like an elven dancing girl. Her shape grew indistinct. It seemed to blur as she spun around, faster and faster. Her form became even more blurred until she completely disappeared from view and became a whirling flannel cloud herself, just like the three elementals that hovered all around her. And then those four funnel clouds all came together and twisted violently, bending underneath the woven mat they sat upon and lifting it into the air.