Dropping his great blade, Burel snatched bleeding Aiko up from the crimson stone, and in spite of her protests- "My swords. Get my swords"-he headed for the tunnel and the aid of the healers beyond. Just as he reached the opening, Egil One-Eye emerged, the Fjordlander clambering over the dead camel to do so.

"Wha-?" Egil started to say, but in that very instant there came a whelming blast, the shock hurling Burel and Aiko into Egil, slamming all three to the blood-slathered stone.

CHAPTER 55

In a far-off tower on the Isle of Kistan the aethyr within the sanctum rang with an unheard note. The Black Mage therein raised up his gaze from an arcane tome and cocked his head as if listening.

Ah, the demon Ubrux is no longer on this Plane, which means the geas is achieved.

Laughing to himself, Ordrune bent his will once more upon the cryptic tome.

CHAPTER 56

His ears yet ringing from the blast, Burel gained his feet and once again lifted Aiko into his cradling arms, freeing Egil to stand. As the Fjordlander scrambled up, Delon came through the tunnel, Ferret and Mayam on his heels.

"What made that bloody din?" asked Delon, clambering over the corpse of the camel, his gaze sweeping the scene of carnage. "And what in blazes happened here?"

"She is wounded," rumbled Burel.

"Here, let me see," said Mayam, now outside as well.

As the abbess lifted the slashed leathers to examine the wound, Aiko, bleeding from the gash across her chest, struggled to get down from Burel's embrace, her effort weak and ill-directed. "My swords. Get my swords."

"Where?" asked Ferret.

"Back there," said Burel, pointing with his chin.

"Let them care for you, Aiko," said Ferret, glancing down the crimson canyon, where scattered black bits of something burned. "I'll retrieve your swords."

"Shiruken," said Aiko, then she lost consciousness.

Frowning, Mayam looked up from Aiko to Burel. "I do not understand. Her wound does not look severe, yet- We've got to get her back inside, where we can tend to her. It may be poison." The abbess turned to Egil and Delon. "You men, and you, Burel, pass her across that dead animal."

Egil and Delon scrambled back across the carcass, Egil stopping halfway, Delon going completely across. Then Burel gave over the Ryodoan to Egil, the Fjordlander reaching out to receive her, and Egil in turn passed her to Delon. Burel clambered across the slain beast to take her in his arms once again, and bearing the unconscious warrior, the big man headed toward the basin beyond, Delon and Mayam at his side.

Behind, Egil and Ferret walked warily out into the canyon, Egil now with his axe in hand, Ferret gripping daggers. Parts of some black creature were scattered across the crimson stone, here and there dark pieces afire, others lying about in the scarlet shadows like shattered bits of obsidian.

"Adon," breathed Ferret, her eyes wide. She looked down at an elongated, fanged, chitinous head severed from a monster, vile eyes filming over even as she watched. "What was this thing?"

Egil squatted and looked closely. Finally he drew in a deep breath and said, "Methinks we look upon the demon that slew Burel's sire… or rather what remains of it."

Ferret glanced at Egil. "Elwydd! Are we going to have to fight one of these things every time Burel steps through the gate?"

Egil stood. "Adon's balls, I hope not."

Together, they moved on down the canyon, Ferret taking up one of Aiko's swords and four of her shiruken, Egil hefting up Burel's two-handed sword. As Ferret knelt to retrieve Aiko's last sword she said, "Lord Adon, Egil, look at this hand."

The Fjordlander stepped to her side. One of the demon's long-fingered, bony hands and part of its black-carapaced arm lay on the red stone. "How big was this thing?" asked Ferret, looking at the length of the grasp, fully three times her own.

Egil squatted at her side and slowly shook his head. "I cannot say, though given a right hand like that, it must have towered."

"Look here," said Ferret, pointing at the wrist. Four deep gouges were rent entirely through the chitin, and a black ichor oozed out. "It looks as if some roaring wild beast has clawed the demon's arm."

"Well, it's not poisoned," said Mayam, sponging away the seeping blood, "or at least I think not."

"Then why is she senseless?" rumbled Burel, the big man sitting at Aiko's bedside and holding her hand in his.

"By the grace of Ilsitt, I would say that she is merely spent."

Delon looked down at the oblivious Ryodoan. "Spent?"

"It's as if she has performed some feat of labor beyond her means."

Burel grunted, then said, "She ran the demon through with its own sword, yet that creature was strong beyond belief." He looked down at the unconscious Ryodoan. "I did not think one so small could have such power."

Mayam nodded. "Perhaps that is what drained her so."

The abbess turned to Arin, the Dylvana cinching the last of the bindings on Alos's ribs, the old man groaning and cursing stupid camels, his voice feeble as the sleeping draught took hold. As Alos's words fell to mumbles, Mayam said, "Dara, would you examine Lady Aiko?"

Arin stepped away from Alos and to Mayam's side, leaving the old man slipping into snores. With the abbess sopping up oozing blood, the Dylvana examined the long, diagonal wound. Arin then pressed her cheek to Aiko's forehead. "I sense no fever." She straightened. "Is this the only wound she took?"

"Aye."

Arin frowned and shook her head. "This will need sewing. Hast thou gut?"

Mayam motioned to one of the acolytes, and she handed a curved needle threaded with fine gut to the Dylvana. Arin eyed the needle and thread in the lantern light. "Has the wound bled sufficiently clean?"

"A candlemark, at least," replied Mayam.

"Then let us begin."

Carefully, with fine stitching, Arin closed the wound, Burel looking on and grimacing each time the needle went in and the gut was pulled through, yet he held onto Aiko's hand, his grip gentle, steady.

Egil and Ferret came into the infirmary, Ferret with Aiko's blades, Egil with Burel's. They stood beside Delon and watched as Arin closed the long cut. At last the Dylvana said, "There. 'Tis done." She turned to Mayam.

"Hast thou a poultice we can apply? Gwynthyme? Eretha? Or other such?"

"Poultice?"

Arin nodded. "She has no fever and her color is good, and so I, too, deem the weapon bore no poison, yet a poultice against such cannot harm."

Mayam nodded, and she opened a chest nearby, fetching herbs from within. "This I would use," she said, displaying a handful of yellow mint leaves.

"Gwynthyme," said Arin, approving.

"Malak waraka," said Mayam.

They prepared a poultice of gwynthyme leaves-the minty fragrance heartening-and applied the warm, wet pulp to a cloth and bound it to Aiko's wound with strips of clean linen. At last Arin stepped back and viewed her handiwork. Nodding to herself, she said, "Now we must let the tiger sleep."

With Alos drugged and Aiko unconscious, the others quietly moved out from the infirmary, all but Burel, who stayed behind holding Aiko's hand.

In the late morn, with Egil, Arin, Delon, and Ferret standing ward, the priestesses harvested the slain camel at the tunnel entrance, and the meat and hide and guts were all carried back inside, where the whole of it would be put to use: some meat to be cooked; some to be pulled into jerky and set out to dry; the viscera to be used to make spiced sausage and cooked as well; the hide to be scraped and salted and stretched in a curing frame; and the inedible and otherwise unusable parts to be tilled into the fields.