David Drake - The Gods Return

Reaching up, she removed the fillet so that her hair swirled as she moved. Her tunic was still gold, but it belled out like diaphanous silk. "I missed the grass between my toes, Lalage," said Calixta, executing a mirror image of the same dance. Her loosened hair was noticeably longer than her partner's. Each woman-each nymph? They certainly weren't statues any more-held her silver fillet in one hand to balance the closed codex in the other. "But I knew it would be waiting for me." Tenoctris waited with her arms folded in front of her. Garric stood at her side. He noticed with wry amusement that he stood straighter than usual and sucked his belly in. The nymphs had golden skin and eyes, but they were very attractively female. "Come, Lalage," Calixta said after a final delicate swirl. She transferred her book to the same hand as the fillet so that she could touch her partner's wrist. "Our visitors asked us for help, after all."

Obediently Lalage walked with Calixta to face Garric and Tenoctris.

"How can we help you, friends?" they asked in pure, melodious voices.

"Our enemies…," Tenoctris said. "Enemies of life, really, have opened the Gate of Ivory. They're calling out the spirits of the dead to animate the bodies of monsters which they create. We have come here to ask Lord Munn to close the gate again." "He won't listen to you, lady," said Calixta. "Not a woman." "He won't listen to any woman,"

Lalage agreed. "No matter what you threaten him with." "With your help, I will raise him," Tenoctris said firmly. "And then we will see who he obeys." Lalage gave her deep chuckle again and handed her fillet to Tenoctris. "Put this on his right arm, then," she said. "And wake him." "And this on his left," Calixta said, offering her fillet also. "We'll see, just as you say." Tenoctris bowed to the nymphs, then stepped into the temple with Garric at her side. The golden women were whispering, and in Garric's mind King Carus watched with the grin he wore in battle. *** "Liane!" Cashel shouted. "Ma'am, where are you?" Something called, " Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!" in the distance. Cashel didn't suppose it had anything to do with Liane's wandering off, but he looked that way into the darkness anyhow. "Liane!" he called. With his staff crossways before him, Cashel shoved through a clump of plants whose sword-shaped leaves stuck up from a common center. He didn't think they were grass, though they might be. The edges of the leaves were light against a dark core; yellow and green, he supposed, but he couldn't tell by moonlight. He stopped. He hadn't gone far from the trough he'd dug for Rasile, but already the forest was different. Here, instead of trees with boles like snakes, there were waist-high trunks with scaly bark supporting flower heads a full arm's length across. Some of the petals were darker than others, but again he couldn't tell the real color.

"Liane?" Cashel called again, but this wasn't doing any good. He turned to go back to Rasile. He wasn't worried about getting lost himself-he didn't get lost outdoors, not even when the trees were strange and the stars were like none he'd ever seen before. He'd lost Liane, though, by not paying attention. He was responsible for Rasile too, and he'd best get back to her before something else happened. The foliage rustled. Cashel cocked the quarterstaff to slam it forward like a battering ram, but he said quietly, "Rasile?" "Yes, Cashel," the wizard said, slipping between the standing leaves instead of pushing through them the way he'd just done. "I let the elementals have the sacrifice." Cashel grimaced. "Ma'am, I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have run off like I did. I…" He'd made one mistake, and then he'd made another right on top of it. There wasn't anything he could do now except go on and try to make things right in good time. "Ma'am?" he said. "Do we need to go back and fetch another goat?" The Corl's tongue wagged her laughter. "That wouldn't do any good, I'm afraid," she said. "Had I thought that I could force the answer out of them, I would not have left the work to find you.

Desperate as they were for the blood, they would not speak against Gorand. I do not think that even Tenoctris could have dragged that from them." Cashel nodded. He was sorry that Rasile hadn't gotten the information they'd come here for, but part of him was glad that he wasn't the reason it hadn't worked. "Well," he said. "Before we go look for Gorand some more, we need to find Liane. Or I do, anyhow, because I should've been watching her while you were busy." "She left one of her shoes in the clearing," Rasile said. If she had any opinion about whether going after Liane was a good idea, she kept it to herself. "With that to work from, I believe that I can determine a direction. Or better." They went back through the glade. Cashel had intended to lead and clear the way, but Rasile didn't need help and didn't give him the chance, either one. The clearing was the same as it'd been when they arrived, except for the scar Cashel had dug in the sod. The gray hungry things were gone, the elementals; he was glad of that. Blood no longer glistened in the moonlight. He guessed that if he'd touched the bottom of the trough, he'd have found it dry as a skull in a desert. Not that he cared, or that he had any intention of checking. Rasile picked up the sandal and examined it critically, uppers and sole. She looked at Cashel and said, "I could probably get a clearer image if I placed this where the blood was to work my spell, but I don't think I will." "No, ma'am," Cashel said. "Liane wouldn't like that, so we won't do it." He was glad Rasile had decided that herself, but he'd have told her just as clear as he needed to. He figured Liane would rather die than be saved by blood magic. Cashel didn't feel that way himself, but he could see that she had an argument on her side. "We'll put it where she dropped it, then…," the wizard said as she placed the sandal back on the sod. She reached into her basket and brought out the yarrow stalks.

"Why do you want to find her anyway?" asked a woodsprite unexpectedly.

Cashel looked up. She was perched in the crotch of a sumac bush just inside the circle of trees. She rose and stretched, giving him a pixie grin. "You could domuch better, you know," she said. "A bull like you deserves the best." "Ma'am," Cashel said. "Liane's my friend, and she's the intended of my best friend. Do you know where she's gone?"

The sprite hopped to the ground and sauntered toward Cashel through the grass blades. "Then you're free?" she said. "Come with me, bull man!" "No ma'am," said Cashel, straightening up. She wasn't any taller than his ankle, but size didn't mean much here. He'd been in these places often enough before to know that. "Tell us where Liane is, please." The sprite made a face at him. Small as she was, he saw her clearly. He supposed he wasn't seeing with his eyes. "You're no fun!" she said. "Well, you can just forget about your skinny little girlfriend. Milady's servants took her, so you'llnever get her back!"

"Do you mean that Gorand took her?" said Rasile. She'd set her basket on the ground, but she still held the yarrow stalks. "Keep away from me, cat!" the sprite said, darting between Cashel's feet. "Don't let her hurt me, big man!" "Rasile isn't going to hurt you," said Cashel, wondering if that was true. Well, it shouldn't be necessary. "But ma'am, you need to tell us where Liane is." "Milady isn't Gorand," the sprite said scornfully. She moved out from cover warily, but she still kept to his other side from the Corl. "She's here, and Gorand justrules. Gorand wouldn't care about the skinny girl!" Rasile bent close to the ground and wrinkled her nose. Cashel misunderstood for a moment, then realized that the Corl was catching a scent. "The apes were here recently," she said, rising. "I should have noticed that before. While I was busy with the elementals." "Of course Milady's servants were here," the sprite sneered, bending forward to watch the cat woman while keeping Cashel's body between them. "Itold you that.