Gathering Companions
Grain packed the last of the Motaro he had brewed into a wooden case. Fifteen of the cases sat in neat rows along the shelf.
"The work here is finished."
He shook the dust from his hands and laughed, bright and unburdened.
"Ha ha ha."
Then he swept the Motaro off the shelf and into his pouch.
Chris was sick to death of the cave.
"Where do we go now?"
"The Sitta Ruins."
"At once?"
"We have to."
Grain drew out the Gold Key, and Chris took a step back.
"Please allow me time to say goodbye."
"Going to see those two?"
"Yes."
"Fine. Go, and come back."
"It doesn't occur to you that I might run off with them?"
"No."
"Why not?"
Chris looked himself over.
"You haven't laid a tracking spell on me, have you?"
"No. I only set watchers on Alice's family, and on Catherine's. If those two vanish..."
He wore a meaningful look.
"I don't have to say it, do I?"
"I understand."
Chris moved quickly, said his farewells, and returned. Then he crossed over to the Sitta Ruins at Grain's side.
The crossing felt like a vast distance. His ears were stuffed shut and his skull hummed, and Chris swallowed twice before he took in his surroundings.
Hills rolled away in curves as smooth as glazed porcelain, and along them stood stone statues ten times a man's height, row upon row — some three hundred in all.
Curiosity drew him in on a flight spell. Something had been set into the forehead before him, and from it silver lines branched outward like a spider's web. A voice at his elbow made him flinch.
"A hundred Klpandi, worked and set in place."
"Would you make a sound when you move?"
Grain grinned.
"Moving quietly turned into a habit."
"You aren't a thief. Why go about so quietly?"
"To catch anyone who wandered into the ruins."
Chris looked revolted, and Grain slung an arm over his shoulders as if to set him at ease.
"Ancient history. It's all over now."
Chris dropped to the ground.
"May I look around the ruins?"
There's a place I need to check.
Grain put on a benevolent smile.
"Do as you like."
With that, he handed over a communication orb and a map.
"The moment I call, you come running."
"Yes. I understand."
Chris unfolded the map and set out.
City Hall is to the south.
He pushed south at a hard pace, resting now and then, and about a week later he reached the city where City Hall stood. He did not stop there. He went instead to the place where he had met the troll.
"Hmm."
The underground door that had been shut fast before now stood wide open. Chris stepped inside and cleared his throat.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
The chamber was empty.
Where did she go?
He had come with things to say, and she was simply gone.
He clicked his tongue and climbed back to the surface. He was gnawing a fingernail when a faint sound rose at his feet, and he looked down to find a mole's head poking up.
Chris plucked the mole the way a man pulls a radish and set it on his palm. It gazed at him with eyes of pure innocence and cocked its head. The sight was darling enough to bite — and Chris was not fooled.
"Don't pretend you have no mind."
The mole blinked with the slow stupidity of a cow.
"And drop the innocent act."
Its mouth fell slack.
"Don't play the fool, either."
Chris closed both hands and trapped the mole between them.
"The instant things looked dangerous, you bolted. And the instant I came back, out you popped, as if you'd been waiting. What are you?"
"Hwaang."
The mole whimpered.
"If I hadn't met an ogre and a troll, you might have had me. But I did meet them, and I learned that the things I'd taken for monsters had minds of their own. Mages of tremendous attainment, even. Are you one of those?"
"Hwaang."
"Stop pretending to be a beast."
"Hwaang."
"Acting, right to the end."
"Hwaang."
"Answering every time, right on cue — that's proof you aren't a beast."
"..."
"There. See? The reaction just cut off. Proof you understand me."
"..."
"You've noticed too, I'm sure. Heaven-Opening Day is nearly here. You showed yourself because you want to go up as well. Am I wrong?"
"..."
"Keep exercising your right to remain silent, and I'll leave you behind."
Chris tightened his grip.
"I could kill you."
In that instant, lightning burst from the horn budding on the mole's forehead.
Crackle.
The bolt struck Chris full in the face.
"Agh — that burns."
He lost his hold. The mole dug into the earth at once and vanished underground.
"Lightning, too. Quite the talent."
Chris put his mouth to the hole the mole had bored and spoke into it.
Crackle.
Lightning leapt from the hole and struck him on the mouth. The bolt was small, but its force was nothing slight — enough to drop even a mage of Seed Cultivation. To Chris, who had trained Iron Body and Iron Skin, it was no more than a sting.
"That tingles."
He touched his blackened lips and went on.
"Most mages of Ring Binding and above want to reach the Middle Realm. From where I stand, you look like one of them."
A sharp snap of lightning sounded, though nothing leapt from the hole.
"This isn't what I want. Things have just gotten so wretchedly tangled that I think I have to ascend. Since I'm going anyway, I could take you up into the sky with me. I suspect dying is the likelier outcome, mind you..."
The mole's head shot up.
"Why do you think dying is likelier?"
His guess had been right — the mole was no simple beast — but Chris took no pleasure in it. He felt, somehow, betrayed.
And I was so fond of you.
He mastered the anger surging in him. Set beside what Tom and Grain had done to him, being fooled by a mole was practically cute.
"The Dimensional Wind, and the rifts."
"That carcass of yours is sturdy, isn't it? A little luck, and you ought to be able to endure it."
"There's a bastard who means to use me as a shield. Setting that aside — what are you, exactly?"
"My name is Dachi."
"I didn't ask your name. I asked your kind."
"I'm a Durap."
"A Durap... Never heard of it."
"There aren't any in this world."
"You're here, aren't you?"
"Ten thousand years ago, when a dragon opened a passage, I got caught in it and fell through. My kind never lived in this world to begin with."
Chris's eyes went wide.
"You're more than ten thousand years old?"
"No. My ancestor fell. Durap aren't long-lived the way dragons are."
"And the other Durap?"
"Gone. All dead. Just me."
"Must have been lonely."
The mole shrugged.
"You're really going to take me up?"
"No."
For the first time in his life, Chris watched a mole scowl.
"A moment ago you were going to."
"I was. Then I thought about it again, and it's galling."
"What is?"
"I met you with nothing but affection, and you deceived me."
"You're petty."
"If I'm petty, then you're sly."
Dachi of the Durap raised a paw to scratch the back of its head, and the limb came up short. It set strength into its fingers. With a snick, the claws slid out long — keener, by the look of them, than any blade.
Dachi raked the back of its head with obvious relish, then spoke.
"Why did you come here?"
"To find the troll. Have you seen her?"
The mole nodded.
"Do you know where she went?"
"No."
"You didn't speak with her?"
"I'm not fond of trolls."
"Why?"
"Suppose you were a puppy. Would you want to keep company with a tiger?"
"You're the last Durap in this world, aren't you? And Carmin seems to be the last troll. Last survivors ought to look after one another, don't you think? Were your people on bad terms with trolls to begin with?"
"No bad blood. No fondness, either. No reason to go seeking each other out."
"You can't even guess where she went?"
"Hiding somewhere, I'd say. Watching for an opening."
"What opening?"
"When the gate in the sky opens — a chance to catch a ride through it."
"Are you waiting for that, too?"
"Yes."
"And how were you planning to catch that ride?"
"I'm cute, aren't I?"
"So you meant to hook a sucker like me."
Dachi looked abashed.
"I don't think of you as a sucker."
"Besides you and the troll, are there survivors of any other kind in the Sitta Ruins?"
"Probably not."
"How strong are you?"
"Somewhere around the lower ranks of Ring Binding."
"Any interest in joining forces with me and killing an Ultimate Mage?"
The mole's head shot back down the hole. Which was answer enough.
"Cold."
Chris grumbled, and the mole answered without showing itself.
"You're the mad one, talking about fighting an Ultimate Mage."
"Running off alone the last time I was in danger, and now this. Awfully opportunistic of you."
"I'm not an opportunist. I'm a survival-firstist."
"Do you know what level the troll is?"
"No."
"She seemed to be around Ultimate Mage. Maybe even an Absorber."
"Who knows."
Dachi's head rose again.
"You're going to recruit the troll as an ally?"
"If I can."
The mole climbed out of the hole.
"I'll find the troll for you. In exchange, take me up."
Chris thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Fine. Up on my shoulder..."
Dachi cut him off.
"The shoulder's dangerous. Tuck me inside your clothes. And even if I throw in with the troll, I won't fight an Ultimate Mage."
"Demanding terms."
"In exchange, I find you the troll."
"Feels like I'm the one losing on this... but all right."
He was in too much of a hurry to argue, and he nodded.
"Good."
Dachi rubbed its paws together, then flared its nose.
"Follow me."
Chris followed, and asked as they went.
"Where are we going?"
"The troll's new hiding place."
"You said you didn't know where it was. Keep lying and we'll have a problem."
"I don't know where it is."
Dachi's nose twitched.
"I'm only following the scent."
"Your nose is that sharp?"
"How do you think I found you?"
Chris buried his face in his own armpit and sniffed.
"Do I smell?"
"Everything alive gives off a scent."
"And you'll find the troll by scent as well?"
"Trolls smell strong, and strange. The reproductive glands, especially."
"Blech."
Chris made a show of retching.
"What?"
"The thought of you sniffing reproductive glands turns my stomach."
Following Dachi, Chris came to see that the troll's trail ran together with the very road he himself had come sprinting down. Her destination was the hill country of the statues.
Logically, it was the only conclusion. A troll who meant to rise into the sky would, quite rationally, make her hiding place near the source of that ascent.
Five days later, Dachi circled a single spot. For a long while it sniffed as though it meant to drink the soil up through its nose, then shook its head.
"The scent... hmm. I think it's around here, but I can't pin it down."
Chris set his brow to the ground where Dachi had been sniffing and released his Willpower. A little later, some hundred paces off, the earth split and the troll came surging out.
"Well. Gary."
"Please call me Chris."
"A new alias?"
"No. My real name."
"Why tell me your real name all of a sudden?"
"A name even my enemies know shouldn't be a secret from an ally."
"An ally?"
Chris rubbed his hands together.
"How about you and I take on a job together?"
"What job?"
"When the Ultimate Mage ascends, he means to use me as his shield."
"To block the rifts?"
"Yes."
"Which Ultimate Mage?"
"Grain."
The troll folded her arms.
"Hmm."
"What is it? Is that a problem?"
"Grain, I can deal with. But the ones standing behind him..."
"You mean the Last Five?"
"Five of them left, is it?"
"So I was told."
"Pardine is more than I can handle."
"We're leaping into the passage either way, aren't we?"
"True."
"When that happens, please attack Grain."
"And you think Pardine will simply stand there and watch?"
"I do."
"Why would you expect that?"
"He's a mage."
Chris smiled, as though that settled the matter.
The troll did not smile.
"And what reason, exactly, do I have to help you?"
"You owe me a debt."
"I do?"
"If I hadn't woken you, you might have died without ever waking."
The troll did not deny it.
"True enough."
"See how the moment falls. If you have anything to spare, help me a little."