“Your story begins again,” Jith said. “Now begin with ‘I, RuuKag, of the family Hak’kaarin.’ ”
Then, each in turn, the mud gnomes stepped up to RuuKag and, taking the manticore’s paw, placed their foreheads to the back of his grip.
The gnomes were still doing so when Drakis found him the next morning.
“Keep up!” Urulani growled.
“What is your hurry?” Mala snapped. “You said it was less than half a day’s walk, and the sun has barely risen.”
“It’s dangerous out here in the open, princess.” If anything, Urulani quickened her own pace a little. “And can you see those peaks ahead of us?”
“Those hills?” Mala sniffed. “You call those peaks? I’ve climbed bigger hills just to get a good look at real peaks!”
“Really?” Urulani laughed. “Well, then, you won’t mind climbing those. We call them the Sentinels, and those ‘hills’ have kept our clan free of elven interference since before your entire family was groveling and begging for scraps from the Rhonas table.”
They had left the Hak’kaarin mud city only a short time before, just as the first hint of dawn lightened the eastern horizon. Urulani led them northward on a narrow path that occasionally vanished for long stretches. Still, the dark-skinned woman always picked up the trail again as it ran northward toward the Sentinel Peaks.
It was true, Drakis reflected, that these mountains were not as tall as the Aerian Range that they had left so far behind them to the south, but they were not that much shorter and were of a far more formidable aspect. The peaks looked like sharpened teeth that erupted from the ground at nearly vertical angles. Urulani said they would be crossing them, but from where he walked now on the savanna, even he was skeptical as to how they would manage it.
“Drakis! Did you hear that?” Mala turned to the warrior striding next to her under the early morning glow. “Did you hear what she said to me?”
Drakis drew in a deep breath as he strode next to her under the soft glow of early morning light. “Yes, Mala; I heard.”
“Well?” Mala demanded. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Yes, pray tell,” Urulani snarled. “Just what are you going to do about it?”
Drakis rolled his eyes upward in an appeal to the stars. He was no longer sure that he believed in the gods; the only gods that he knew were those of the Rhonas pantheon, which had been instilled in him by his slave masters, and now he questioned everything that they had taught him. Still, at this moment, he would have preferred some divine answers-or even an inspired lightning bolt or two-to help him find a way to keep Mala out of Urulani’s way.
Thus far this morning, the gods had wisely stayed out of the fight as well.
“Please,” Drakis urged. “We need to get into the safety of those mountains. .”
“So you’re siding with her?” Mala shouted, her voice squeaking at the end.
“No!” Drakis said quickly. “I’m not siding with anyone. .”
“She said we groveled for scraps!” Mala fumed.
“Look, Mala,” Drakis shrugged. “She just doesn’t understand how it was or she wouldn’t have. .”
“I don’t understand how it was?” Urulani had the voice of a commander that carried over everyone else when she chose to use it. This was one of those times. “Maybe I don’t understand how it is that you ‘cattle’ managed to find your way out of your pens and wander out here into the world where people actually live and die for something more than their master’s pleasure.”