Berlina's Quest (10 page)

For a number of miles past the river, there was almost nothing. The soil was sandy—not likely to be good for farming—and what vegetation was present was scrawny and stunted. There was no sign of anyone living in the area. There were a few deserted tumbledown shacks. If the three travelers happened to see one when it was close to night, they took advantage of the shelter instead of sleeping on the ground. They checked a few of the shacks for items of value, but there was never anything worth taking.

They did from time–to-time see fresh garbage and trash along the road. “There must have been someone traveling along this road, to have left this mess,” said Felistia.

Berlina cast a few quick spells, then replied, “Yes, the debris was left by Prince Drailsen and his men, and from the amount, I'd guess that the prince is now traveling with a dozen or more of his troops rather than the two we heard of earlier.”

Felistia changed into her cat form and sniffed at the garbage, eventually concluding that Drailsen's party was about five days ride ahead of them. Berlina's magic seemed to agree with this.

Eventually, they spotted something ahead of them, and as they approached, they saw it was a horribly run-down little town. The road branched here, with the second road heading off to the north. A few stores and buildings were clustered about the place where it split. A handful of houses lay scattered further out from the center of this decrepit village.

Berlina halted them in front of something that might have called a general store in a more civilized location. This building was not much different from the others—gray wood that hadn't seen paint in a decade. The door was open, and some sort of sound was issuing from inside. “Sounds like this one might be inhabited,” said Berlina. “We'll try it first.”

They hitched the horses and went in. The inside of the store was almost worse than the outside. There were barrels of unidentifiable grain and racks of half-dried, half-rotted vegetables. Flies buzzed around the exposed food in a slow and desultory manner, as if even they were lacking in energy. Boxes crowded shelves along the back wall. In the midst of this, a little, old man in a ragged shirt sat snoring in a rocking chair. He had a long, white beard…white except for the food stains, which matched the food stains on his shirt.

Berlina went over to the man and said, “Hello, can you help us?”

The man made no response, but went on snoring.

“Excuse me,” said Berlina again, “can you help us?”

The man kept on snoring and gave no indication that he had heard her.

Berlina grabbed the man's shoulder and shook him vigorously. His eyes popped open, and he exclaimed, “Wha, wha, wha, wha?”

“Excuse me for waking you, good sir,” said Berlina, “but we need information.”

“Damn intrusive. You're the second one to ask in just a few days. Before that, I could sleep for a month and never have my nap interrupted. Say,” the man looked at Berlina, “ain't you a purty little thing? Last one, he was ugly, had a terrible scar on his left cheek and another on his throat. Must have been some kind of noble from the silks he wore. They were ugly, too. Maroon and orange, horr'ble colors.”

“Yes, that was the evil renegade prince we are chasing. We see that the road divides here, one road continuing east and one swinging north. Tell us about the two roads and which one this prince took.”

“Aye, aye, ma'am…the two roads. Straight east the road crosses the Sucking Desert. Sand, soft sand, quicksand. Except at one or two oases, ye get a rod or two away from the road, and likely a sinkhole will suck you in. On the road ye'll be safe, except in wyrm season. The little wyrms can't make it over the shoulder to the center of the road. But in season, the big'uns will come out. Let me think. The season is coming up in a few days, no more than a week. It'll take you two or three days to cross the desert. So, you might run into some early big wyrms out there.”

Berlina looked at Felistia, but she just shook her head. Berlina turned back to the man and said, “What are these wyrms you speak of? We know naught of them.”

“Aye, fearsome creatures they be. Long and slender, the largest three or four cloth-yards across, and half a furlong in length. Lives in the quicksand, they does. Huge teeth. Don't know what they eat down under the sand, but they pop up quick enough to eat anything on top if they gets the chance.”

“What about the other road—the one that branches off to the north?” asked Berlina.

“Longer, much longer, and over a spur of mountain that comes right down to the edge of the desert. Take you a week, ten days, maybe even two weeks, to get to where the roads join again on the other side. That's the way that prince and sorcerer went, and all but a couple of his men.”

“All but a couple?” asked Berlina.

“Yup. He sent them out on the desert road, told them to catch anyone tryin' to make quick time goin' that way. I was watchin'. None of them wanted to do it. Had to cast lots, and the losers were stuck with it. Pretty sad. Back in my day, a prince givin' orders woulda been obeyed, no questions. I don't think those troops got much respect for their prince, I don't.”

“When were they here? When did they start out on the northern road?”

“Let me think…I reckon it was three days ago. They come into town two days before that, camped here, and rested before they went on. I didn't see they'd been ridin' that hard. The soldiers didn't look wore out, but that prince…a real wimp, I tell you. Just had ta take some time out. The sorcerer was raggin' on him about bein' in a hurry, but he didn't pay no never mind. Back in the day, a prince woulda been urging his troops on, but not this one. No sir-ree-bob. A real wimp.”

Berlina turned to her companions and said, “We really ought to try to get ahead of Drailsen and Zatarra, and we've gained two days due to Drailsen's slothfulness. I think we have to take the desert road. It will get us to the place where the roads join again ahead of their party. Two men waiting to ambush us shouldn't be much of a problem. We've overcome worse already. Let's go.” She turned to the ragged man and said, “Thanks for your help and advice.”

They got back on their horses and headed out along the desert road. The man watched them go and shook his head. Then, he went back into his store, sat down in the rocking chair, and promptly fell asleep again.

* * * *

As the three proceeded down the road into the desert, plant life became sparser and sparser, and eventually nonexistent. The road—rough and little traveled—had two sets of fresh hoof prints, left by the two troopers forced to come this way by the prince. Everything was very flat, and it was possible to see for miles, but there was no sign of the troopers ahead of them.

When it started to get dark, Berlina scanned the edge of the road for a place she liked and then called a halt. “We're going to have to find some place to sleep off the road, and we need light to pick a spot where the shoulder is fairly wide. It would be dangerous to try to find a good spot in the dark. We need to be very careful not to step off into the quicksand.”

Lathan pounded a stake into the ground for tethering the horses, and they set up camp. After a simple supper, Berlina cast wards around them. “These wards won't be too effective. There's nothing here to anchor them to. However they'll give us a warning if we're attacked and slow down the attackers a little, at least.”

The three went to sleep and spent a peaceful night with no attacks. At sunup, they arose, had a quick breakfast, and got underway again. In the middle of the morning, they started to see wyrms swimming across the quicksand or diving in and out of it. “They're all small ones,” said Felistia. “Not more than a foot across. The old granther in the village back there said there might be ones ten or twelve feet across.”

“Yes,” said Berlina. “I hope we don't run into any that large, or even larger.” Her hopes went unfulfilled.

They were on a stretch that ran for several miles with almost no shoulder on either side, the quicksand coming right up to the edge of the road. Felistia suddenly perked up her ears and said, “Quiet. I think I hear something.” Berlina brought the horses to a halt and waited. “Yes, it's sort of like the noise the wyrms make going through the quicksand—I heard a couple of the little ones—but much louder, like it might be a bigger wyrm.” She turned her head, trying to pinpoint the sound, then said, “It seems to be coming up behind us and off to the right.”

All of them turned to look, and then they saw it.

“Oh, my God!” said Berlina. “The old geezer said they got up to ten or twelve feet across, but this looks like it's closer to fifty feet!”

“What do we do?” asked Felistia.

“I don't know,” said Berlina. “I never expected this. Swords ready, I guess. If it attacks, we'll have to defend ourselves.”

The giant wyrm was close, now. As it approached, it slowed down and sank until its top surface was only a foot or two above the sand. This revealed that there was something on its back, some sort of a platform with rails all the way around. It came to a halt right next to the road, and now, people were visible on the platform. A couple of men opened a gate in the rail and slid a gangplank down to where Berlina and the others were standing. One man ran down it to secure the bottom.

Once the gangplank was solidly in place, a woman in gold robes walked down it. When she reached the bottom, she said, “Welcome to our desert queendom, Berlina. We know of your quest, and we would help you, if we might. I am Sandia, the queen.”

Berlina put her sword back into its sheath. “Greetings, Sandia. We will gladly accept any help offered. How do you know my name, and how do you know about our quest?”

“Ah, that is simple. We were told about you, and your mission to rescue your brother, Crown Prince Darvid, by a mutual friend…Forsythia. Although, I suspect that in the long run, you would make a better queen than Darvid a king. Forsythia speaks very highly of you.”

“Unlikely that I should ever be a queen. Right now, I am not yet eligible. We really do need to rescue Darvid and put him on the throne. If we fail at that, the kingdom is in danger of being taken by a usurper.”

“I understand. At the very least, we can save you two days of travel. Come aboard, and you will reach the other side of the desert in an hour or two.”

“That sounds good. That would let us avoid the two troopers supposedly waiting to ambush us, too.”

“Oh, I wouldn't worry about them. Those two had a little…well, call it an accident. One of our wyrms got a little hungry, and it found two men and their horses to be a very nice snack indeed. I saved their saddlebags, though. I know you've been supplementing your finances with what you get from Drailsen's men, in retribution for his having imprisoned you. Here is what those two had.” She handed a heavy pouch to Berlina.

Berlina took it and said, “Thank you, Sandia.”

“Now come onboard, up the gangplank. Best to lead the horses rather than try to ride them.”

Felistia and Lathan, who were still mounted, got off and all of them went up the gangplank following the queen. When they reached the top, the queen sat down in a large chair, almost a throne, while others directed the three travelers to comfortable seats next to her. The anchor man freed the bottom of the gangplank and scurried up. The gangplank drew up as the gate was shut. The wyrm began to move. Soon, it skimmed across the sand many times faster than a horse could travel.

Even as fast as the giant wyrm traveled, a large raven overtook them and landed on a perch next to the queen. Once settled, the raven let loose with a stream of squawks.

The queen nodded and said to Berlina, “Do you understand what he said?”

Berlina shook her head. “No, Sandia. To me, it was just noise.”

“Not surprising. Those who understand the language of the avians are few and far between. What he told me was that Prince Drailsen and his party are not even halfway along the other road. The prince is a lazy slug-a-bed when not being pushed by another, and they are taking short days of travel and long nights of revelry and sleep. They will be another seven days, if not eight, before they reach the place where their road rejoins the one across the desert.”

Berlina looked puzzled. “It seems strange. I thought they wanted either to catch us, or to be sure of reaching the place where my brother is held before we get there.”

Sandia laughed. “The raven reports some conversation from their camp. The prince believes you are still on foot, still going slowly. He boasts that he stole your gold, so you have no way of buying or hiring horses to speed your journey. It seems the fool has no idea that you might
steal
horses.”

Berlina said, “I guess he thinks I am just a poor, innocent little girl. Well, he'll learn.”

By this time, the wyrm they were riding was approaching the far edge of the desert, and soon it pulled in next to the road. “This is about as far as we can go. The sand gets too shallow beyond this point,” said Sandia. “It will be about seven days travel until you get to Quince Castle or to Quince Village just below it. The Black Fortress of the Ultimate Wizards is about the same distance, but I seriously doubt that they would take your brother there. From what I hear, the Ultimate Wizards consider Zatarra an enemy…or perhaps pond scum.”