The Justicar had fought against supernatural enemies for his entire adult life. Blocking a scrying spell was far beyond him, but he could make Tielle's crystal ball almost useless to her. He kept himself in shrubs and trees, choosing nondescript terrain. He gave her no streams, no roads, no hillcrests as markers. Jus moved at a dogged run-loping relentlessly at a speed that would have soon left even cavalry behind him. These were the old skills learned in the wars against Iuz. Skills as natural to Jus as breathing air and walking earth.
He needed to find a stream, a place without rock outcrops and jagged bends-nothing a faerie might pick out from the air. The Justicar paused in the bushes above the banks, looking out over a clear rivulet with a bright stony bottom. Coming to a halt at last, the big man squatted like a troll and scanned the wilderness for dangers.
Nothing.
"Cinders?"
Birds gone. No tasty animal.
Jus nodded. Lolth's presence spread a pall of evil all over the wilderness. The sun seemed dim-colors were changing, like an old tapestry leeched and warped by time. He slithered down to the water, flipped open the portable hole, and kept his eyes on the skies as he heaved his friends out into the open air.
"Get in the stream and wash. There's soap in the equipment boxes. Use grit to scour your skins clean."
He propped Cinders over a bush, where the hell hound's senses could act as guard. Moving swiftly, Jus let Henry pass Polk up from the hole. Escalla the snake was passed gently into Jus's hands, then Enid came, out, yard after yard, loop after loop. Henry scrabbled out, still armor clad and with his empty crossbow set aside in favor of his sword. The boy looked quickly about the stream, then squatted at the Justicar's side.
"Sir?"
"We wash here. Wash all your gear. Get rid of the filth before we catch a disease. We need to kill the scent in case Tielle has hounds. Wash out the portable hole and scour it clean."
Aware that magical eyes might be watching and magical ears listening, Henry asked no questions. He threw his crossbow aside and began struggling with his damp leather belts.
"I'll wash Enid," he said.
"I'll do Escalla, then Polk."
"Sir, the women are in shock." Henry winced. "We need a fire."
"No fire." Jus carefully laid Escalla's whimpering little length out along a warm, flat rock. "We'll deal with it when we're clean. Do your own gear first. The snakes go last."
The Justicar moved fast, stripping away his dragon-scale armor, his boots, his socks, even the bone ring that shielded him against charm spells. He took them all off and plunged naked into the stream. Jus sank, perfectly at home in the water, and brutally scoured himself with gravel, silt, then soap. He quickly did the same to his sword, scabbard, armor, boots, and clothes. Benelux squawked loudly as she plunged into the stream.
Sir! Sir Justicar! The proper technique is to use an oiled silk-awwwk!
The Justicar had been caring for swords for twenty years. He scrubbed blood away with grass, then silt, then grass again. Benelux's alien metal-hard matter from the plane of positive energy-never needed sharpening. Jus briskly wiped her with an oiled cloth, dried the wolf-skull pommel that now adorned the sword, and left her standing ready to hand on the shore. The sword cursed and sputtered all the more when her hilt was used to hold Jus's underwear out to dry.
Scraped bright red and raw, Jus tenderly lifted Escalla from her bed. He took her into the cold water and washed her as gently as his big hands could. The wound was bad-big, deep, and already inflamed. Jus's spells could deal with injuries, even disease, but his small reserve of magic had been exhausted for now. For the moment, they had to rely on simpler resources. The Justicar thought on the problem as he lifted Escalla from the stream.
"Cinders? The big rock there-the red one."
With his flames run down to a low ebb, Cinders could only manage the merest lick of fire. Jus laid the hell hound beside a large red rock, and Cinders heated it slowly. Escalla's snake body was laid out on a bed of dry grass beside the rock. Down in the stream, Henry carefully finished washing Enid. Jus helped him wrestle the huge snake out of the water and laid her gently down beside the stone.
Jus's bare ribs were livid black and purple-and two of them were clearly broken. He moved carefully, the pain clawing at him. He sat beside Escalla, glad of the slowly warming rock as he cradled her head in his hand.
"Escalla?"
She had no eyelids to open or close, and her snake eyes glittered. Was she awake or unconscious? Jus slowly stroked her satin scales, trying to be tender and insistent.
"Escalla, change back. We need you back to faerie form."
The little snake shuddered and groaned. An icy bath had done nothing to cure her shock. Finally a forked tongue quivered. In a tiny voice, Escalla breathed a few painful words out into the air.
"Enid?"
"She's with us. She's still a snake."
"I have to… to ch-change." Escalla tried to lift her head but couldn't. She flopped back down, then stared at the injuries all over Jus's side. She lay there, panting and stiff with shock. The Justicar kissed her softly just behind the jaw.
Intelligence came back, quick and clear, into Escalla's eye. She looked at Jus's broken ribs.
"Jus?"
"I'm with you."
"Jus, where are we?"
She was hoarse. Jus's helmet served as a cup. He helped the snake to drink as he spoke.
"About twelve miles from the town."
"Is… is it the same day?"
"You've been unconscious for two hours."
With one hand, Jus threw his tunic onto the hot rock, where it sizzled and steamed. Cinders's flames had finally given out, and the hound lay exhausted, panting.
Escalla quietly regarded the Justicar. "You… you ran for two hours with… broken ribs?"
"You needed me to."
Escalla collapsed, weak with pain. She looked at Jus as she lay in his hands. "You have got to be the dumbest, most heroic bastard on the Flanaess."
The snake closed its mouth and went still-tensed-then shimmered in a magic field. An instant later its shape writhed, and Escalla turned back to her own form. The little woman lay gasping and absolutely shocked with pain. Her injuries took on a savage new life.
She had been burned by acid all over one leg, her hip, and back. Her wings hung limp and half melted. Giving her no hint of her desperate state, the Justicar carefully patted the burns dry. His healing spells had closed the deepest parts of the wounds, but the rest of the burns were livid and raw.
The burns were already badly infected. Escalla shivered, a fever starting to take her.
"Is it bad?"
Jus adoringly caressed her wet hair back from her face. "It'll do."
"Warriors for justice can't lie for crap."
Escalla reached out to Enid. Anxiously cradling the big snake, Henry moved Enid closer. Escalla shook with effort, framed a spell, and canceled the magic she had cast over Enid's body. The huge snake shimmered, then bunched and expanded to become a full grown gynosphinx.
Enid was burned across her back where she had shielded Escalla. The little faerie lay weak and shaking in Jus's arms, looking in horror at Enid's wounds.
"It was some… kind of… acid or something. It shot out of a drinking horn."
"Shhh. It's all right now." Jus carefully slid her off his lap. "Henry, keep them both warm. I need to give someone a W-A-S-H."
Cinders gave a a yelp and a wail, thrashing his tail and howling like a dog chased by a horde of scorpions. It was to no avail. With his flames run down, he had no chance to protest as he was dunked in the river, washed, scrubbed, wrung out-then sniffed, washed and dried again. Jus deposited him on the hot rock, where his fur steamed and seethed. Sulking, Cinders glared at the Justicar.
Not funny!
"Had to be done."
Cinders sneezed. His nose was stuffed with water, and his sense of smell would be muddled for hours.
W-A-S-H means bath. Cinders remember.
"Sorry, Cinders. We need you clean and dry."
Cinders forgives you. The hound ceased sulking. Help pretty faerie and nice cat-lady to be warm.
"That's the way."
Jus collected bull rush roots and pounded them in his helmet with Benelux's pommel. He crushed the juice out of the pulp with a massive squeeze of his hand, the tendons standing out as he wrung every last drop out of the mess.
"Henry, empty the portable hole and wash it out. Check the stuff we had stored in there. We should have a box of clean bandages."
Enid lay on her side, her face pale, and her eyes never leaving Henry as he worked. Jus salvaged a few sealed boxes-Escalla's wedding dress, a bag of coins, spare clothes-and found the bandages. He steeped the cloth in bull rush juice and lay bandages gently over Escalla's wounds. He tended to Enid carefully, dabbing the juice into the burns before softly covering them with cloth. Henry held Enid's paw, looking sick and worried as the big sphinx went pale with pain.
When he had finished, Jus measured out a little lotus syrup for both the girls against the pain. Escalla drank, made a face, and then relaxed slowly, looking sadly over at Henry and the sphinx. She watched them together and suddenly felt so very old and wise.
"I know something I didn't before."
Henry cradled Enid's face, looking at her with such love as he stroked her hair. Embarrassed, Jus cleared his throat and looked away.
"The lotus will make you sleep."
"Um-hmm."
"What can you tell me about crystal balls?"
Already drooping, Escalla sighed.
"Tielle has one." Escalla blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to think. "It… can see images, but can't hear. Blocked by… by shifting… to a different plane. Blocked by… thick metal. Heavy spells…"
She was falling asleep. Enid would be wilting too, and a quarter of a ton of sleeping sphinx would be impossible to move. Naked and holding his sword, Jus stood and walked over to the portable hole, levering himself down inside.
The hole was a tube ten feet deep and ten feet wide, the walls smooth, black, and slightly stretchy to the touch. Inside the hole there was a ladder, boxes waiting for equipment to fill them, and sealed tubes of scrolls for Enid's private library. Gravity always seemed stable, no matter what happened to the hole entrance outside. Wet and reeking like wet socks, Polk was busily mopping out the corners of the hole. Polk finished his work, carried his mops of dried grass out of the hole, then stuck his head back inside and frowned.
"Son, you're hurt! Did someone lay a glove on you?"
"Yes."
Jus tilted the hole back to its usual orientation, threw in grass and bracken to make beds for the ill. He jumped down, wincing as the impact jolted his broken ribs. He made a bed for Escalla, a larger one for Enid, then stowed their scanty boxes of possessions. They had no food and no water except the little that Jus and Henry could carry in their canteens. The woods were empty of animals-probably scoured clean by Lolth's own foraging parties over the last few weeks. Still, they would make do. Jus emerged from the hole, heaving himself over the rim, stonefaced with the pain from his ribs. He found Henry and Polk turning Cinders like a pancake on the hot rock, bringing great clouds of steam out of his fur. Jus squatted down beside them and retrieved his clothes.
"Let's get the girls back into the portable hole. We have to move away from the stream. It gives a landmark a crystal ball can fix on." He fetched clothes still damp and steaming hot. "We'll roll the hot rock into the hole to keep the girls warm."
Polk bustled over, long strips of bandage trailing from his mouth.
"First things first, son. We need to care for our assets. Protect the stock! Keep our ship in trim." Polk waved a paw. "Your ribs are broken, son. Henry here will tie them up."
The Justicar tried not to wince as he moved. "It's not the first priority, Polk."
I agree. This is appalling! Benelux's blade shimmered. Get him a loincloth before the sphinx sees!
Henry came to the rescue. He passed bandages around the Justicar's huge chest, bracketing the broken ribs, and pulled the straps tight. Tomorrow, there might be magic to heal the hurts, but for now, there was neither power nor time. The boy tied off the bandages, then fetched his own clothes.
"Sir, will you be all right?"
"I'll live." Jus put a hand on the injury, angry at the pain. "I can walk."
"I'll do it." Henry awkwardly pulled on his scuffed, worn boots. "You should rest inside the hole. I'll take a turn."
"I can't leave you out here alone."
"Then I'll accompany you." Henry looked stubborn. His expression was a cross between Escalla and the Justicar's. "Polk can stay in the hole."
Jus was too worn with worry to argue. He pulled out the last piece of snack coal from their baggage and stuck it inside Cinders's mouth, and the hell hound sucked avidly, trying to restore his flames. Jus allowed himself to be helped into his armor, scowling as Henry stopped to tie Jus's boots onto his feet.
"Henry, I'm fine!"
"Yes, sir."
"Just get the hot rock rolled into the portable hole and get Enid in there before she falls asleep. We have to leave!"
Henry rose to attend to it. As soon as his back was turned, Jus leaned heavily on his sword, eyes closed, feeling sick with pain.
Polk towed Cinders off the hot rock and cast a sharp glance at the Justicar. "Son, you all right?"
"I'm fine!" Jus fastened on his helmet. He turned and stared about the stream, blinking, and unsettled. "Come on, we'll get moving.
"Son, if Escalla's in the portable hole, then she can't be tracked by a crystal ball!"
"The rest of us can, Polk. We have to move into terrain that can't be recognized. Something that gives no clue as to where we are."
"Hmph!" Polk sat up, liking the idea. "Sounds easy."
Jus pulled Cinders over his helm and let the hot hell hound pelt stream down his back.
"She's not an idiot, Polk. Once the sun starts to go down, she can look at the shadows and know which direction we're walking in."
The badger thought about it. "That's clever, son! Did you think of that?"
"I was taught it, Polk. I've done it before." Jus jerked his chin at the dense bushes and trees. "We've been sticking to thick scrub between hills. Overhead cover in case she has flying spies." Jus sheathed his sword and turned away. "We keep moving, we regroup, then we attack. That's the way we get the job done."
The sword flash came hard and fast-a red streak ripping dragon scales and flesh. The Justicar spun, blood flying from his flank as a huge scarlet blade twisted from the stream. Dense clouds of mist choked the air.
Henry stared, and then a mad, hissing shape shot from the water, the ground smoking at its feet as it trod toward the Justicar, who lay fallen by the streambed.