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"Do they ride horses?"

"Ride them? They share their tents with them"

"Where away?"

"The pit country A bit east of southeast frohtfall, and if you have a dragon’s nose, you’ll smell the water by afternoon"

"Do you knowpeople"

"Tell theather for a feast, above this oasis at dawn to I took to be a meal in a day or two"

"What is the worst that can happen? If the waste-elves getdrake, the desert is a changeless place To be honest, I find it a little boring a’times I shall call my aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, and relations thrice removed to observe events Look for us when the sun rises We will enjoy the show fro may ill-suit you"

Auron followed his nose to the sinks The desert became rockier, and he reached a country of tortured landscape It was as if long ago boulders had plunged fro sheer-sided craters when they punched through the surface He wondered what mad work of Earth or Water Spirit had created the of the world

He had to restrain hi forward at the sh elven voicesup froest of the craters

The sun descended behind him, and Auron did his best to cover the last distance across the desert with the sun directly behind hi the empty space around the pit country, they would not be watch into the horizon-touching sun When he could distinguish voice frohtfall would mask the rest of his approach

He saw a hominid--it was too far away to determine if it wasout into the desert to the east Water trickled, its sweet sound tantalizingly near within the pit Auron crept to the edge of the sink and looked down

A sea of creepers hung fro froave the oval a teardrop shape At the widest part of the circular canyon, there was a pool, fed by trickles of water co out of the vertical rock face The narrow end had either been shaped or dug into a long fissure inclining up to the surface of the desert, a good six drake-lengths above the canyon floor It was here, at the only entrance that didn’t involve cli, that the watchelf stood on his promontory

Caves and shelves filled the sides of the canyon, and the waste-elves had turned these into little ho an ancient hollow tree Ropes and ladders hung fro rocks in piles or handholds cut into the stone A corral of stacked stone stood by the pool with a few camels; the horses, as the vulture said,the pit floor A capacious tent: a patchwork of rugs and what looked like sailof the incline to the surface halfway across the floor of the canyon La sounds rushed into the darkness, shouts and screams of women Auron smelled blood, and he looked over to a blackened pit where a limp form lay pale in the darkness

Charcoal in little pots and troughs hadabove on skewers An elf or two, in sandals and loose robes with thorns growing in their hair, wandered froers Auron saw scimitars and recurved bows scattered in the little caves and shelves These arrior elves, and judging from the sounds in the tent, cruel

Auron e and crept a the cold rocks toward the watchelf He tasted the air There was ht be the airs did not say At least he knehere one stood

He thanked his star that the waste elves kept no dogs He needed water, food, and restbut to do that he needed to drive the waste elves away

But how?