David Drake - The Mirror of Worlds

"For a horse… but let it pass." She followed the aegipan up the slope. Garric leaned over her shoulder to keep his weight as far forward as he could, much as he would've done if she'd really been a horse. The ogre hadn't stopped grumbling since they took leave of the barge on shore, but she'd kept going despite the added burden of food and thirty gallons of water. On the other side of the spur was a valley hollowed by the slow force of the glacier. The rock was completely sterile, scoured clean by ice and the stones which its massive weight shoved along with it. At the bottom tossed the creek.

The melt water was white with material dissolved out of the rocks.

Shin laughed merrily. "Are you ready, Garric?" he said. "Perhaps you think that the rest will be easier than what you've faced to get here?" "I'll dismount, now," Garric said. The ogre had already begun to kneel. "Shin, just lead and I'll follow you the way we've been doing. Word games were never to my taste, and this wouldn't be a good place to play them even if they were." Kore stood again and settled the cargo net. It'd be a wrench to go back to riding horses which didn't read his mind. Though that was only an issue if he survived.

The creek didn't fill the valley which the glacier'd hollowed over the years, but the steep slope to either side was complicated with the scree of loose rocks which the ice had dropped when it melted. The aegipan sprang down to the edge of the water, touching the slope three times. "He places his feet like he was thrusting with a sword," Carus said, watching in delight. "If he was very, very good with a sword, I mean. As good as me." "Hmpf!" Shin said, grinning up at Garric and the ghost in his mind. "Swords are a waste of good metal… but if they weren't, warrior, I might show you something." Carus laughed and appeared to stretch. The ghost had only the memory of a physical body, but that body had been so much of his personality that its presence remained a thousand years after he'd died. "Oh, aye, lad," Carus agreed with a wry smile. "I could take a man's head off without thinking about it. Unfortunately, I generallyshould'vethought more about it." Smiling faintly, Garric climbed into the ravine with his back and his spread arms to the rock wall. He twisted his belt so that the sword lay in front of his right leg where it was less likely to get in the way. If he'd had to jump the way the aegipan had, he'd have done it. The drop was less than twenty feet here at the mouth of the valley, though the slope was steep enough that you might not hit the side on the way down if you tripped. Carus chuckled and Garric grinned wider. Well, I'd have tried to do it. Since I don't need to, I'm not going to break a leg or my neck showing off. "I wonder, noble master…," said Kore. To Garric's amazement, the ogre executed a handstand at the edge of the ravine. "What physical act do you imagine you can perform that would impress me?" So speaking she walked down the slope on her hands, pausing with her short legs quivering in between each of her three long 'steps'. At the bottom, spattered by the stream, she curled her legs under her again and stood normally.

"Nothing, apparently," Garric said, smiling because he made a point of smiling instead of letting his face slip into the grim lines of his warrior ancestor when receiving a challenge. "Though remembering the discussion we had when we met, possibly there are a few things, eh?"

The ogre bowed. Because her torso was so long, that brought her face within a hand's-breadth of Garric's. For a mercy, she'd been eating the mixture of millet and lentils which the barge carried for its crew. "As you say, noble master," she said. "Will the noble master ride or walk now?" "I'll walk, thank you, Kore," Garric said. "Though I hope that if I slip, you'll catch me before I fall into the water."

A hundred yards ahead the creek seemed to spray out of a solid wall.

When they got closer-Shin dancing ahead while Garric picked his footing cautiously; he didn't dare glance back to see how the ogre was faring-Garric saw that the valley bent sharply to the left. There was a ledge wide enough to walk on, but it was slick with cold spray. Shin looked back and called, "It's not much farther." He disappeared behind the rock face. Garric faced outward and sidled after the aegipan with his back to the rock. At home he'd crossed many a log bridge in the rain without thinking about it, but the cost of falling into this foaming melt water could be much worse than a soaking in Pattern Creek. It was only after the ledge widened enough for him to walk normally without knocking his left elbow on the slope that Garric looked up from his feet. A thick roof of ice covered the valley a hundred yards ahead. The creek poured from the opening beneath. There was light within, dim but probably sufficient for them to walk without torches. Garric couldn't tell how far back into the valley the cave went, though. Frozen into the face of the glacier just above the opening was a monster with wings and a snake-like head. Its leathery hide was a purple-red that made Garric think of maple leaves in the fall. "A wyvern," said Kore in a speculative tone. "I don't believe I've ever seen one so big before. Have you, Master Shin?" "Yes," said the aegipan, "but not often. He'd easily be fifty feet from nose to tail if he stretched out." Any hope that the creature was dead vanished when the great head twitched. Shattered ice fell away with a roar. Some of the chunks which the creek tossed downstream were as big as a man. "I'd say our timing was fortunate, wouldn't you, Garric?"

Shin said. "Rather than a half hour later, I mean. But come along.

We're almost there, and I'm sure you're looking forward to reaching your goal." He skipped onward, pirouetting every third step. The aegipan must dance simply for fun, because by now he certainly didn't think Garric doubted his agility. Garric entered the cave. The ogre tramped along behind him. She stood upright, though not much farther ahead she'd have to duck to clear the ceiling. The creek was deafening in the enclosure, and the air was as dank as winter rain. Illumination through the thick ice had a bluish cast, and it didn't show the loose rocks well. Garric stumbled, then stumbled again. He was glad he was wearing heavy boots. Shin looked back. He seemed to be laughing, though Garric couldn't hear over the roar of icy water. They walked on. *** Rasile's chant sounded different from the words of power human wizards used, but the cadence was the same. It made goosebumps quiver on Sharina's arms the same way also. The figure Rasile'd drawn around them, this time using fine white sand rather than yarrow stalks, had twelve sides. Sharina'd had plenty of time to count them while listening to the incantation. Occasionally she let two fingers rest on the hilt of her Pewle knife. Outside the wicker screen Lord Waldron and his men fought the Last with the desperate courage of men who will die before they gave up… which meant only that theywould die. By now the most pig-stupid trooper in the royal army could predict the result of a battle in which the other side's losses were constantly replaced. "Lady," Sharina prayed under her breath, "You are the Queen of Peace and my business is war; but if it be Your will, aid me so that mankind not be destroyed." Rasile's voice rose to a shriek like that of a cat in fury. Wizardlight glared blue above the figure, then vanished. All the world vanished. Sharina was blind. "Rasile?" she said. Did she hear terror in her own voice? It was her worst fear: not being able to see, not being able to read… She reached out and touched the wizard's bony arm. The Corl was unexpectedly warm beneath the layer of fur. "Rasile, I can't-" Before Sharina could finish the sentence, sight began to return… but she was looking herself in the face. The world had a grainier texture. Reds and browns were deeper and more subtle, and her own blue irises vanished into the whites. "You have your task," the wizard said. "Carry it out as quickly as you can, Sharina, because I am not your friend Tenoctris.