In the first golden rays of the sun, the small group set out. Ott and Telon riding on runner beasts that Ott had magicked up and the others flying overhead. The old wizard was quiet because he was in mental communication with the rest of the army to the northwest. The small Tekians darted in and out, flying forward as scouts and returning to circle and fly out again. Both Nafon and Quago kept their snakes at the same speed as the runners. With every step forward, Nafon felt a greater sense of dread. Something was about to happen. Nafon kept close to the wise one so that when it happened, Nafon would be there to protect him.
Quago watched the young warrior with her soft, green eyes. She couldn't understand why she felt as if she had always known him. Last night at the camp fire, she had mentioned some small incident from her past, he had said, "I know." and she had believed that he did. She knew that he was a half-breed, but she suspected that his magic was stronger for that, not weakened. She also thought that he might be the stronger of the two wizards that traveled with them, but she continued to follow Nafon's lead and honor the old one as a great power. She trusted his judgment, although she couldn't have said why.
Meib cried out softly in the quiet air of the rolling green plain. She felt the uncomfortable weight of impeding trouble, too, then. Quago had felt it as a low pain behind her eyes all morning. She had caught the Tekian warrior, Norfy, sharpening his blade earlier. She had seen his eyes and knew that he had felt it, too. Only the Teliat seemed to have absolutely no idea of trouble to come. He rode his poor beast hard with no thought to the fact that he would have to walk if he should kill it. He grumbled from time to time about everything from the heat of the sun on his back to the lack of meals. As near as Quago could figure, Teliats must eat about fifteen meals a day. She wondered why he had been added to their party. He seemed more of a hindrance than a help.
"No!" Ott screamed out suddenly. "They are all gone!"
Nafon closed his eyes for an instant and reached out toward the northwest. Ott was right. There was nothing there. Without hesitating, he turned Desiage toward the blankness and they winged off at the incredible speed that was Desiage's normal flight. They left the small party behind except for Quago and Meib, who flew slightly behind them.
"This Desiage is a powerful flier." Meib bethought to her young flier. She called into the day with her hoarse bark of a cry. "He would make a fine mate!" she informed Quago. Quago shook her head at her snake.
"How can you think of building nests when the world may be about to end?" asked her friend. The giant snake snorted.
"How can you not?" she asked peevishly. Quago laughed. Meib was a warrior and if she died in battle, so be it. But she would never consider a battle lost before it was engaged. She was right. Now was a good as time as any to plan for the future.
They crossed over miles and miles of fertile plains and then over the flat sands where the Naus River flooded annually. Then they crossed the wide river itself as it raced by under them. The serene-looking surface was riddled with white rapids. Then there was more sand bottom and plains. Off in the distance though, gray shadows of foothills smudged the sky. A ribbon of brown desert dividing the plains from the hills. The air over the desert smelled thick and foul.
As the low foot hills around the mining town of Segat came into view, Nafon had to tie a strip of his skirt around his nose and mouth. The very air here was rank. Under them, where green forests should have been, was the desert that he had encountered north of the forest. Nothing living could exist here.
As they flew on the foulness in the air increased and the giant snakes had to close their outer lids to protect their eyes. Nafon and Quago weren't so lucky, tears streamed from their unprotected eyes.
Soon the city itself came into view, ghostly walls stood encircling more dead, foul sand. Silent white flags with their bold, blue stars lay like corpses on the dry waste. Sometimes a piece of armor would catch a piece of sunlight and sparkle like a precious gem, but there was no life anywhere. Where thousands upon thousands had marched just yesterday, there was nothing but sand.
Nafon had Desiage circle the town slowly. He had no intention of asking his friend to set down in that ghost town. He found that he distrusted the sand itself. How had all these warriors been taken? He was sure that it had been a surprise attack. They would have warned Ott if they had seen an enemy coming. Nafon thought that the enemy must have come from up under them. Something deadly was there, waiting, under the sand.
He signaled Quago and Mieb to fly on to the north. The mining town rested on the side of one of the foremost mountains in the northern range. Desiage and Mieb winged up toward the crest of this first impressive giant. Below them, everything was barren rock. The air became even more thick with a darkness that was almost visible, it was so dank. It was colder here, although Nafon couldn't tell if it was from the altitude or from the fact that the air seemed to block the sun.
They reached the crest. Before them, stretching as far as the eye could see, was the famous Northern Mountains. They sat in a cloud of black dust that seared living eyes. For miles and miles there was only desolation and death. Nafon was about to order them all to return to camp when he saw the slime trails. Like greasy lines they crisscrossed the black dust down the other side to the peak where Nafon, Quago and their beasts hovered. He gestured to Quago to stay near the mountain peak. Then Nafon ordered Desiage to follow one of the trails down into the next valley.
The landscape was like nothing Nafon had ever seen before. Through his tears, he could make out rock outcroppings that jutted to the surface of the black fog. Everything was dull black and dead. The feeling that he had had when he first encountered a piece of this desert, that the life had been sucked out of it, was very strong here. It was almost as if invisible hands of black mist were trying to pull them down and drain them of life. Desiage had to work his mighty wings furiously to keep them aloft.
Then he saw it. A hideous black snail that slithered through the fog like a small ship in the ocean cutting through the waves. It wasn't as long as Desiage, but it was larger around than the winged snake. Its eyes were attached to its head by long stalks that quivered and moved restlessly as though it could sense that there was something nearby. The smell that came off of it made Nafon gag. He turned to make sure that Meib and Quago hadn't followed them. He was reassured to find that he and Desiage were alone in this valley of black death.
They followed the snail for several more yards. Suddenly, the misty landscape exploded with the horrible black snails. Desiage winged swiftly up into the dark sky thereby saving their lives. Nafon drew his short bow and shot into the pool of black bodies, but his arrow had no effect. He swallowed back his sickness as he realized the kind of death that must have overtaken the armies of his world. No weapon known to them would have been any defense against any such attack.
Desiage circled then flew back toward the peak where Quago and Meib awaited them. The winged snakes headed back for the green plains without being told by their riders. Nafon was only half conscious when they reached the flat, sandy bottom lands. The air had gradually grown fresher as they flew from the mountains and the dead mining town. Nafon swallowed in great gasps. His stomach turned itself inside out. They landed near the mighty river and he was thoroughly sick. Quago wetted a piece of her golden tunic and wiped his brow.
"There were snails that came up from the ground." he choked out. "They never saw it coming. They couldn't have fought them if they had."
"What are we going to do?" Quago asked him softly. "That desert is growing, killing everything in its path."
"We will have to ask Ott. Maybe magic can fight where knives and arrows cannot."
On to Chapter 7
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