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"The dwarves " Mikhail stroked the hilt of his great black sword and stared thoughtfully off into the distance He&039;d been only sixteen when he&039;d fought for and won the dwarf-olden caverns and carved halls of the ht in his memory as they had the day he&039;d left The ho as life lasted Unfortunately for ed to see the caverns, life didn&039;t last very long
"The dwarves, " Mikhail repeated "Yes, I knohere to find theet to a certain point they usually find you"
"What point? Where?" Crystal asked, trying not to sound i in fresh troops and supplies to continue the ga She had to wake the dragon before he turned his full attention back to her
"North of the badlands of Aliston, " Mikhail told her, snapping out of his reverie andto stand by the map "Where the northern mountains end, there&039;s a red sandstone pillar Whether it was carved by the winds or the dwarves, I have no idea, but it marks the boundary of the territory they&039;ve claier and stabbed at the map,
"as near as I can mark it, is where it stands "
The Duke of Aliston caer Rough area that " He clicked his tongue "You&039;ll need one of h the badlands "
"I have to go alone " Always alone, she thought, re from Bryon&039;s eyes as Lord Death claimed him And it was her fault he was dead She was never ainst Kraydak She should have known it froot to her feet and held out a hand to her daughter "If you can&039;t use your powers for fear Kraydak will notice what you&039;re doing, you&039;ll have to take soldiers; guards to protect you "
Crystal pushed both her dead friend and her guilt to the back of hersqueeze "Don&039;t worry, Mother, I&039;ll be fine
Besides, there&039;s nothing a guard could do to protect ic, eh?" Belkar growled "Then how do you expect to wake the dragon?" "I don&039;t know, " Crystal adet there?" Cei de just occurred to him
"Kraydak&039;s on to your wind trick and we haven&039;t the tiot to be at least ahis nearsighted gaze on the young wizard
"I don&039;t know, " Crystal ad "
"Without ic, " Aliston pointed out, "you&039;ll never uide " "That has all been taken care of " The entire council started, but it said a great deal for the tih everyone in the pavilion was are, not one weapon was drawn When they saho had spoken, jaws dropped and the coe that their heads brushed the top of the tent
Their horse halves could easily carry a man as massive as Mikhail in full are The beards flowing in nificent curls over their naked chests-only practical Cei noticed that they had no nipples-exactly lossy hides Their whiteless eyes seeled cry caused heads to turn back to Crystal The color had drained fro jewels Her breath hissed through slightly parted lips and her hands, clenched into fists, began to rise
The council edged back until the centaurs and the wizard faced each other in a circle of huainst the canvas They had seen her, in her rage, call down mountains and all of theain
"Crystal!" Tayer stepped forward, away fro council, and her voice threw up a wall between her daughter and the creatures she faced "You will not do violence These persons are guests in my tent!"
In the silence that followed, the wheeze of Cei&039;s breath could be clearly heard and a breeze against the canvas roof was a boonored their e at her furious child "You will not do violence to a guest!" she repeated
Slowly, Crystal lowered her hands and uncurled her fingers "But, Mother "
"Hush, child, I know " Tayer gently touched Crystal&039;s shoulder and together they turned to face the centaurs
"My thanks, Majesty " The black centaur inclined his head "Although we are not sure she is capable of causing us harm, the release of such poould have definitely been detrimental to those around us I am C&039;Tal " He indicated the palo here, C&039;Tal?" Crystal snapped before Tayer had a chance to speak "Haven&039;t you interfered enough?"
"We have been informed, " C&039;Tal told her in ponderous tones, "that ere reiven all the information, " C&039;Fas continued in a voice equally as solemn "We did not feel it necessary to tell you what to do with it "
"Others, however, suggested you were ill-prepared for the conflict you found yourself in " C&039;Tal shook his head sadly "We feel you were as well-prepared as possible, considering the short tie Given a century or two and perhaps "he shrugged, sending fascinating ripples down the length of his body "What we could have done is not the point but rather e did "
"Or what they ie to his voice
"Precisely, " agreed C&039;Tal, nodding at his companion "Or what they imply we did not do "
"Who implied?" demanded Crystal, used to the considerable ti to put up with it Not now Not after Bryon
"The ha down at her "While we are firm in our contention that we did all we could in the ti in what they say You should never have faced Kraydak yourself We should have been more careful that this was made clear to you "
"I&039;er lose its edge as guilt returned to the foreground She had been told but hadn&039;t understood
"The) do not But they were htly, that had you been told of the dragon as you should have been, there would have been no need for you to go to them "
"But why, " asked Tayer, "are you here?" "We have coo, " Lorn snorted, reh his father&039;s throat and the ranks of the undead, "we could&039;ve used help then"
Both centaurs turned to look at the duke, as paring his nails with a slender knife and was not at all intilare
"Then you needed more heavy cavalry, " said C&039;Tal "Now you need centaurs, "
finished C&039;Fas Lorn looked interested but not convinced He wisely chose not to mention that the centaurs would make impressive heavy cavalry thee of the badlands " C&039;Tal stepped forward and laid a heavy hand on Crystal&039;s shoulder "While my brother will remain here "
"Well, we&039;ll be happy to have hi the creature&039;s bulk and wondering how to entertain someone as half horse,
"but there really won&039;t be much for him to do "
"He is not here to be amused, Majesty, " C&039;Tal boomed "We hope his presence will convince the enemy that the wizard is still here If he does not probe too deeply, he will not be able to tell the difference between their life forces "
Tayer looked frohter "Oh, " she said
Crystal tried to explain "Centaurs are s, Mother They don&039;t use the power so much as they are the power If Kraydak has no reason to suspect I&039;one, and doesn&039;t force his way below the surface patterns, he&039;ll think C&039;Fas is ain, only this time she felt much better about it
Mikhail stepped forward and stared belligerently up at C&039;Tal He had to crane his neck to meet the centaur&039;s eyes and that annoyed him He&039;d never had to look up at anybody before
"Can you protect her froon?" he asked
"That is not my concern, " C&039;Tal informed him "We will do no more than what I have already said " He turned to Crystal "Now co what he so obviously thought; he had never been good at hiding his anger
"As much as it hurts ht That, " a hint of steel came into her voice, "is not his concern I can take care of the dragon "
"That dragon has only one purpose, " Mikhail reave her a boost onto C&039;Tal&039;s broad back, "to kill wizards "
"To kill Kraydak, " Crystal corrected
"Waking up in the presence of a wizard after sleeping for a thousand years may cause hirimly
"I&039;m not like any of the other wizards, " Crystal ree from the Lady of the Grove will protectup to stand in the circle of her husband&039;s arain her reflection fading from Bryon&039;s eyes "That died with Bryon, " she said shortly But catching sight of Riven&039;s concerned face over C&039;Tal&039;s shoulder, she wasn&039;t as sure of that as she had been
And then, as impossibly fast and silent as the centaurs had coone
"Stop that!" snapped C&039;Fas as Hale, horse sense overcolossy haunch
To ride a centaur is like nothing else in the world Perhaps being strapped to a shooting star would give the sarace, power, and speed but Crystal doubted it, for a star would not have a convenient shoulder on which to rest your head Her hard knot of anger at the centaurs began to dissolve; surely it was unreasonable for fier to expect the in centuries, they had done the best they could when forced to ith days and s for her teachers began to resurface and for the first time since Kraydak had destroyed the palace, Crystal felt protected and safe She paid no attention to the countryside they passed over; instead she locked her arms about C&039;Tal&039;s waist, buried her face in the faloried in the ride
It ended too soon The Aliston badlands passed by in a rocky blur and they stopped before a red sandstone pillar Suddenly stiif from so round
"The dwarves are past the pillar?" she asked C&039;Tal as she s
"We do not keep watch over the dwarves, " C&039;Ta! informed her imperiously
"Your foster father says they are on the other side of the pillar We see no reason for you to distrust hihtened up and stared dubiously past the es, split and blasted into strange and forbidding shapes Everything was a dusty gray with no living green to break the hed, "if they&039;re in there, I guess I can find them "
"If they are in there, they are more likely to find you, " corrected C&039;Tal sternly "Remember, you must not use your power If Kraydak discovers what you are atte to do, it will mean not only your death but the deaths of thousands of innocent people as well I will be here when you e very close to concern in his expression "If we are truly responsible for what you have done, we are sorry"
"Sorry won&039;t raise the dead, " said Crystal softly "Nothing will raise the dead, " replied the centaur "It is therefore unproductive to hold fast to one who has died " He spun gracefully on oneBryon, " Crystal shouted after C&039;Tal "I&039; hi a deep breath, she stepped beyond the column The landscape appeared no different, the red tower of rock was a ht be soical barrier, that once passed the horay lizard, so perfectly caed she almost stepped on it, scuttled out of her way-the only life in sight
Because it see to do, she headed deeper into the badlands Five miles and a blister later, she was very dusty and very thirsty and no dwarves had appeared A fear lurked in the back of her ht have moved on since Mikhail had won his sword, on with them And if they had? She tried not to think about it
The centaur had dropped her off in the earlyand it was now midafternoon "I could have flown this far in less than a minute, " she e of a rock and e of her tunic The dust covering both became a ingly at the cool black shadow of a small cave
A cave
Dwarves lived in caves Granted they were carved and built into caverns of great beauty, but they were still caves
Crystal dropped to her knees and peered into the darkness After the bright sunlight, it took her eyes a moment to adjust, but she was certain that the cave extended back quite far and eventually opened up
Carefully, she slid forward onto her sto herself along by her elbows and toes Her body quickly blocked any light co from the entrance and the darkness beca into her elbow, drawing blood and a string of curses that would have horrified Tayer could she have heard them
Inch by torturous inch, Crystal squir why she had been so sure it would open up ahead If anything, it becaan to slope quite distinctly down Then, just as her eyes were beginning to adjust and she was able to distinguish between the denser black of the rock and the grayish black of the air, her elbows found no purchase and, scrae of a precipice
A s heavily, e to break her fall with power than by the fall itself She had just realized that, unable to use her powers, she could die in a great many ridiculous ways and this time there would be no Riven to pull her out
The sudden flaring of a lantern alht, absorbed it, and soon she could see again
She had never seen an uglier ed, barrel-chested, and had the arrizzled red beard did nothing to i face Red fires burned in the depths of his eyes Around his waist, over a patched brown tunic, he wore a belt old leaves that was so beautifully crafted and so detailed Crystal was sure she heard a breeze h the leaves He had to be a dwarf
"Narowled at last "I expect you&039;ve coon "
Crystal opened and closed her rnouth a few times, but words just wouldn&039;t co out a hand to help her up To Crystal&039;s surprise, he appeared to be sot her ords Coed at last Doan held the lantern up and she saw they were in a s was the tunnel she had fallen from and opposite it, at floor level, was an arched doorway
Doan headed for the door and she followed
She had to duck to get under the arch, but the rest of the corridor-such a work of art could not be thought of as a h for her to walk erect The dwarf moved quickly for all his squatness and she hurried to keep up There was no tih she was sure they told a story as so , there was barely tiht to the stone
"Doan, " she said, before the silence beca under almost a mile of solid rock, "who is it you think I look like?"
Doan snorted "You&039;re the ie of the Lady And you know it Even her sisters remarked on the reseain, a rude noise he seemed fond of "The Lady had more life in her than all those sticks of wood combined So do you " "Did you know her?"
"I&039;d hardly know you looked like her if I didn&039;t, noould I " His harsh voice softened slightly and though he looked no less ugly, he was, for a"Aye, I knew her She&039;d done o by mortal time, so I watched them for her-her man and her boy-and I watched her die " He looked up at Crystal; the red fire blazed in his eyes and his voice was stone