Wizards’ Worlds Read Free

away fromthat, even as she had brought him earlier out of the grasp of the sea. Only now she
     could not summon up the strength to move.
    Once more the falcon descended, to perch beside its master’s head. Three times it
     screamed harshly. He was moving, drawing himself along on his belly away from the
     danger point, by himself.
    Seeing that, Tanree clawed her way to her feet, leaning back against one of the rocky
     spires, needing its support. For it seemed that the rock under her feet was like the
     deck of the Kast-Boar, rising and falling, so she needs must summon sea-legs to deal
     with its swing.
    On crawled the Falconer. Then he, too, used his good arm for a brace and raised himself,
     his head coming high enough to look around. That he was valiantly fighting to get
     to his feet she was sure. A second later his eyes went wide as they swept past her
     to rest upon something at her own back.
    Tanree’s hand curved about the hilt of the dagger. She pushed against the rock which
     had supported her, but she could not stand away from it as yet.
    Then she, too, saw—
    These spires and outcrops of rock were not the work of nature after all. Stones were
     purposefully piled upon huge stones. There were archways, farther back what looked
     like an intact wall—somber, without a break until, farther above her head than the
     cliff had earlier reached, there showed openings, thin and narrow as a giant axe might
     have cleft. They had climbed into some ruin.
    A thrust of ice chill struck Tanree. The world she had known had many such ancient
     places and most were ill-omened, perilous for travelers. This was an old, old land
     and there had been countless races rise to rule and disappear once more into dust.
     Not all of those peoples had been human, as Tanree reckoned it. The Sulcar knew many
     such remained, and wisely avoided them—unless fortified by some power spell set by
     a Wise One.

    “Salzarat!”
    The surprise on the Falconer’s face had become something else as Tanree turned her
     head to stare. What was that faint expression? Awe—or fear? But that he knew this
     place, she had no doubt.
    He made an effort, pulling himself up to his feet, though he clung for support to
     a jumble of blocks even as she did.
    “Salzarat—” His voice was the hiss of a warning serpent, or that of a disturbed war
     bird.
    Once more Tanree glanced from him to the ruins. Perhaps a lighting of the leaden clouds
     overhead was revealing. She saw—saw enough to make her gasp.
    That farther wall, the one which appeared more intact, took on new contours. She could
     trace—
    Was it illusion, or some cunning art practiced by the unknowns who had laid those
     stones? There was no wall; it was the head of a giant falcon, the fierce eyes marked
     by slitted holes above an outthrust beak.
    While the beak—
    That closed on a mass which was too worn to do more than hint that it might once have
     been intended to represent a man.
    The more Tanree studied the stone head, the plainer it grew. It was reaching out—out—ready
     to drop the prey it had already taken, to snap at her . . . .
    “No!” Had she shouted that aloud or was the denial only in her mind? Those were stones
     (artfully fitted together, to be sure) but still only old, old stones. She shut her
     eyes, held them firmly shut, and then, after a few deep breaths, opened them again.
     No head, only stones.
    But in those moments while she had fought to defeat illusion her companion had lurched
     forward. He pulled himself from one outcrop of ruin to the next and his Falcon had
     settled on his shoulder, though he did not appear aware of the weight of the bird.
     There was bemusement on his face, smoothing away his habitual frown. He was like aman ensorceled, and Tanree drew away from him as he staggered past her, his gaze
     only for the wall.
    Stones only, she continued to tell herself firmly. There was no reason for her to
     remain here. Shelter, food (she realized then that