She held up her arms in one swift motion. Odris gripped them.
"Unnnhh," grunted the Storm Shepherd as she took off straight up. Milla pulled up her legs as far as they could go, just as the lead bird leaped at her. Its sharp beak stabbed empty air a hairbreadth under her feet.
Odris grunted again and stopped rising.
"Up! Up!" shouted Milla. She wished she'd kept one hand free now, to fight back. But it was too late. Odris had her in a grip that could not be broken.
"I'm trying!" shouted Odris.
The bird jumped up at Milla again and this time its beak slashed across the sole of her boot. It didn't get through, but Milla felt it. Its beak was sharp.
"You're too heavy!" said Odris, though she did rise up a little.
"Let go of my left arm," ordered Milla quickly. There were three birds below her now, all jumping up to attack. A slightly smarter one was backing up the hill to take a running leap.
Odris let go of her arm, and Milla quickly pulled one of the dead birds out of her belt. She swung it around and around and then let it fly off into the distance.
As she'd hoped, two of the big birds chased after it, including the one who'd backed up the hill.
She repeated the process with all the dead birds, and all were chased. But there were so many more huge Nanuch arriving that it didn't make much difference.
It did lighten the load a bit, so Odris was able to go higher. She also started to glide away, with the birds following underneath. Their beak-clacking was so loud that it sounded like a hailstorm.
Milla would have preferred that. She knew how to survive a hailstorm.
"I'm not sure how long I can keep you up!" puffed Odris after they had traveled a few hundred stretches, with the birds still trailing along underneath.
"Keep going!" Milla encouraged the Storm Shepherd. She could see some of the big birds turning back, obviously to go after the single file of the lesser birds. Their children, she thought. Or maybe their parents. Who knew on this strange world?
"I really can't keep going," Odris panted. "I need water."
"Just a bit farther," urged Milla. The crowd of birds chasing them was thinning out. "Can't you hit a few with your lightning?"
"Not unless you want to get hit, too," panted Odris. She dropped a stretch and several birds leaped up, beaks flashing in the sun. They only missed Milla because she swung herself violently up, her feet striking Odris under her armpit.
"Whoa!" exclaimed the Storm Shepherd. She shot up several stretches, well out of the bird's reach.
Milla didn't reply, though she noted that Odris had greater strength than she was admitting to. That was an enemy's trick, not one you expected from an ally.
"Ah, look there!" exclaimed Odris. She swung her arm forward to point, forgetting that Milla was attached, and they both went into a spin that took them dangerously close to the birds again.
For a moment all Milla saw were red beaks and blue feathers, then Odris managed to right herself and the Icecarl saw what the Storm Shepherd had been pointing at.
There was a building ahead. A strange building.
It was a tower that had been carved out of the stump of a truly mighty tree, a vast block of gray and green, with stunted branches cut clean close to the trunk. The stump was at least as tall as the mast of the Far Raiders' iceship, and forty stretches in diameter. it had many narrow windows, but there was no sign of a door or gate on the side Milla could see.
But better than that, it had a flat walkway around its crown. If Odris could get high enough, she could land Milla there.
"The top!" shouted Milla. "Take me to the top!" "I can't!" shrieked Odris. "I'm falling!"
Below them, the Nanuch jumped, clacking their beaks even louder as it looked like their enemy might escape.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It turned out that Adras didn't really know anything about Hazror, except that it wasn't the name of a place, but of a creature. A very bad and truly terrible creature.
Like the grassland before it, the desert of blue crystal trees ended suddenly. The border was once again an exact straight line. On the other side, there was soft yellow sand, piling up into dunes as far as Tal could see.
Tal walked over, and his feet sank in halfway to his ankles. The sand was still very hot, even though the sun was setting and it was long past the full heat of the day.
Wearily, Tal picked a dune that looked to be east from its opposition to the setting sun, and started to trudge.
He had gone up and down two dunes and was resting at the top of the third, wondering whether to try and camp there for the night, when he saw something flash farther along the ridge of sand.
It flashed again, and he realized that it was coming toward him. "Adras!" Tal called. "Watch out!"
"I'm watching," rumbled Adras. He'd lost some of the extra water he'd taken on. It had evaporated while crossing the blue crystal desert and now the hot sands, but he was still fat and rather slow to move.
Tal raised his Sunstone. He wouldn't be caught napping this time.
As it drew closer, Tal recognized the creature. It was a thin animal, about the length of his forearm, with long, spindly legs and short forearms. It had a short tail and a long, thin snout. But its most distinctive characteristic was the silvery sheen of its skin. That skin was made up of many tiny, armored scales, but they were not like a reptile's. Under its armor, the creature was a mammal. The females even had pouches to carry their young.
It was a Samheal Semidragon.
Tal knew of it from the Beastmaker game. But he couldn't remember whether they were aggressive.
Samheal Semidragons were always played for Skin, not Temper or anything else.
He also wasn't sure if there was anything he could do to hurt it. That silver skin was protection against heat as well as weapons, though something sufficiently sharp wielded with enough strength would get through.
A two-handed ax in the hands of a Borzog might be enough. Unfortunately all Tal had was his Sunstone. And Adras.
He hoped that Samheal Semidragons were friendly. This one stopped a few paces away, skidding to a halt on its back legs. It stood upright and waved its paws at Tal, making skittering noises. "Tch-tch-tch," it said.
Tal shook his head.
"Adras. Do you know what it said?" "Tch-tch-tch," repeated Adras. "Whatever that means."
"Thanks," said Tal. He should have known better than to ask.
The Semidragon hopped forward and swept the dune clean behind it with its tail. Then it turned around and with one silver claw began to trace a line in the sand.
"The Codex!" exclaimed Tal. "I wonder if this is another messenger?"
He felt fairly sure it was the Codex using these animals somehow, a confidence reinforced when the Semidragon looked back at him and traced out the letter C. After that it drew another arrow, pointing east across the sand. Then it drew a key again, but this time it also drew another picture next to it. Something that looked like a pipe or a tube, with several holes drilled into it.
"What's that?" asked Tal.
The Semidragon didn't answer. It stared around in fright, as if it had suddenly found itself aware of its surroundings. Its muscles tensed to jump away. Before it could, a shudder went through its small body. Its eyes clouded and it settled down. A moment later it drew another symbol.
Tal stared down at the rough mark. It was a musical note, written in the notation the Chosen used to perform in the Crystal Wood, back in the Castle. But what did it mean, a single note all by itself? It was a very high one, too high for Tal or any human to sing or hum. It could only be created by light of the correct color striking the right crystal in the Wood.
The Semidragon started to draw something else, but it stopped in midmotion and shuddered again. This time it did jump away, leaving the last letter or picture unfinished.
It looked like an unfinished drawing of a human skull, Tal thought, but it was probably meant to be part of a letter. He wished that the Se
midragon had been able to finish it. Obviously the Codex could only use such animals briefly. Still, it had given him some more information.
If only he knew what it meant.
He kept thinking about it all as he trudged on, but his thoughts were beginning to wander in the direction of food and shelter for the night. Neither looked likely to appear in this sandy desert.
Yet over the next sand dune, as the last light faded from the sky, Tal did see something that might offer shelter of some kind. A few ruined walls jutted out of the sand in the hollow below him. Just four corners, with nothing between them and no roof overhead. But it would be better than trying to sleep on top of a sand dune.
He started down. Adras followed above and behind, muttering something to himself. Tal didn't even try to listen.
Closer to the ruins, it became clear that the building had not been a normal house. There were too many stones lying around it, scattered through the sand. It must have been a fortification of some kind, Tal realized. Or else there were a lot of other foundations nearby buried under the sand.
There was also something painted on one of the walls. A sign of some kind. Two rough circles, one inside the other. In the twilight it was hard to see what they were painted with, but Tal had a nasty suspicion it was blood.