A Victory for Kregen Read Free Page A

Once one of them is dismounted we will see what his mettle is on his own two feet.”
    “Yes,” nodded Quienyin. “I fancied they did have only two legs apiece. Although, of course, you cannot be sure.”
    “Quite.”
    “I couldn’t make out what kind of diff they were,” said Tyfar. “There was something of the Chulik about them—”
    “No tusks, though,” said Quienyin.
    “No tusks. But something about the jut of the head.”
    “We shall find out when the suns are up,” I said, and that tended to end the conversation for a space.
    The Moders rose from the rubbly plain something like a dwabur apart. Walking those five miles gave us an itchy feeling up the spine, traipsing as we were across relatively open ground. The trouble was, that open ground was probably safer than the areas in the immediate vicinity of the artificial mountains, the Moders, the tombs of the ancient dead and their treasurers and magics.
    The rosy shadows of the next Moder enfolded us, and Hunch, for one, let go with a sigh of relief.
    “Still!”
    Modo’s piercing voice reached us, thrown so as to tell us the position and not to reach to the danger he had spotted ahead. We stopped stock-still. A few scrubby thorn bushes threw splotchy shadows from the Twins. In this dappled shade we stood and watched the file of Nierdriks pad past.
    They looked like ghostly silhouettes, animated dark dolls against the radiance of the moons. Silently they padded past, one after the other. They were walking. I, for one, was content to let them go. Had they been riding, now, straddling any of the magnificent assortment of Kregan riding animals — why, then, I do not think my companions would have let them go...
    When the last had gone, vanishing into the shadows of the Moder, we resumed our progress.
    And we kept even more alert, staring about even more vigilantly.
    Quienyin kept up with us, struggling along without a murmur.
    “Prince,” I whispered quietly so that the Wizard of Loh would not overhear. “I think we must rest for a moment or two—”
    “Rest, Jak? I thought the plan was to march as far as we might in the light of the moons and rest in the heat of the suns.”
    He saw my gaze fixed on Quienyin, who had not turned to stare back at us but was doggedly ploughing on over the rubbly surface.
    “Ah — yes, of course. It is thoughtless of me.”
     
    Tyfar hurried ahead and checked the Pachaks in the vanguard.
    We all rested, although of us all only Quienyin needed the break.
    Again I pondered on Prince Tyfar. Many a haughty prince would simply have gone on, ignoring anyone else’s discomfort. That Quienyin was a Wizard of Loh was now known to my companions; but that had not caused Tyfar to call a brief halt.
    We discussed the fate of our dead fellows of the expedition, and we expressed ourselves as confident that the survivors had escaped. We had seen them emerging into the sunshine before we had been trapped within the Moder, and Tyfar, it was clear, could not countenance any thoughts that his father and sister had not escaped to safety.
    “And, Jak, do not forget. Lobur the Dagger was there and he is mighty tender of my sister Thefi.”
    “As is Kov Thrangulf.”
    “Oh, yes, Kov Thrangulf.”
    That pretty little triangle had its explosion due, all in Zair’s good time.
    When we set off again Quienyin unprotestingly marched stoutly with us. Dawn was not far off. The sweet smell of the air, only faintly tinged with dust, the host of fat stars, the glistering glide of the moons, all held that special pre-dawn hollowness, that waiting silence for the new day.
    I began to spy the land with more stringency, seeking a strong place where we might rest. What I needed was precise and as we dipped down into a little groove or runnel in the ground, with thorn-ivy crowned ridges each side, I felt we had come as near as I could hope for. This was not perfect; it was as precise as we would find.
    “Here, I think, Tyfar.”
    He stared about. I