[coronatiger]

18th of Tityra, year 412

O Ashtar, Mother of Snakes, Keeper of Death’s Door, hear my confession!

When Yana woke me, she reported that Haros had wakened several times for a few moments before falling back to sleep. She asked intently that I wake her if I grew tired. I spent the rest of the night in prayer, and when Hylda – the last night watch – went inside the big tent to wake everyone else, I put a light hand on Yana’s shoulder.

Haros wasn’t fit to travel afoot, so when we left today, he’d have to ride. He was no stranger to camels, so we could let him use one of them, and Yana and I could take turns riding the other. I wouldn’t put him on Wolfram’s back unless I had to. Despite his lingering exhaustion, Haros was eager to help. I was certain he possessed much information that we’d find useful.

Xipil had visited Haros while I slept, and he returned to ask Yana if she thought it was him or what he showed to Haros that had been so frightening. Protective to our patient, Yana said she didn’t want to ask him about it. Most people we’ve met have reacted with fear when they realized what Xipil is, so it’s no wonder he usually wears a disguise, complete with a false beard. Out in the desert, Xipil discarded the disguise, but from what I’ve seen, Haros hasn’t been bothered by the sight of him. It had to be whatever he took with him tonight.

Yana was concerned how Haros would react upon seeing the big bear, but I said if we prepared him for the sight and acted as if having a giant, six-legged bear for a pack animal was nothing out of the ordinary, Haros should be all right. It might be wise to have Wolfram walk in front of the party, so Haros wouldn’t feel the need to look over his shoulder constantly, but I saw no need for him to range ahead with Xipil.

Haros was still terrified of the “dancing dead,” so I sat down with him to reassure him that we really were capable of dealing with them. Yana had to translate, but my calm and my confidence were clear for him to see, and he came to trust in our ability.

When we had settled into the pace of travel, Haros worked up his courage to ask Xipil what he was and where he came from. The two of them spoke Arani, so I wasn’t privy to their conversation save what little Yana told me. She’d certainly inform me if they talked about anything important. Her eyes were mostly on me – I could tell because my eyes wouldn’t leave her either – but her ears were open.

When we stopped for lunch, I confronted Xipil about him scaring Haros last night, and he showed me a large spike, slightly curved. It clearly came from an animal, but I couldn’t tell if this was a tooth or a horn or something else. A horn, I would say if I had to venture a guess. Xipil asked if I could question Haros about it.

“What is this?” I asked, and Yana translated. Haros claimed it came from an animal called a salaskva, a giant lizard, and the only predator of fire lizards, as it was completely immune to their flames. A salaskva had many such spikes, and it was many times larger than even the largest fire lizard.

I asked Hylda if I could borrow her drawing utensils, and I made a quick sketch of the dragon we had fought on the beach. Haros didn’t think it resembled any of the fire lizards he had seen, and he didn’t think it was a salaskva either. We explained to him that we had killed this monster a few weeks ago.

Xipil knew the word for dragon in Arani, which prompted Haros to tell us about rumors he had heard, about dragons in the north. A powerful Mog had gone up north to get hold of a dragon before the Seven Resurrected could. Haros frowned as he counted us. “Are you the Seven Resurrected?” Yana translated his question. I told him we weren’t. Grogg said we had spoken to some of them, though. “Shall I translate that?” she asked me. I answered “Yes,” but my fingers flickered, telling her that I didn’t mean it. Even Xipil might not have perceived the slight movement, but he certainly heard Yana say something completely different in Arani than what Grogg had said.

As we continued after the meal, Xipil picked up the conversation with Haros again. Yana explained that it seemed he was practicing speaking Arani. After a while, Haros wanted us to confirm that we were aware that we were headed for the place where he and Farmir had been attacked. I showed him my calm determination and he drew a sigh of relief and turned back to Xipil. Yana said he was explaining to the lizard man how his people had become nomads, driven out of their ancestral home by hostile spirits.

All day, we paralleled the cliff and the lake. To our left, the rocky ground became sandy, and would have slowed our travel. When we stopped for the night, I examined Haros. He seemed in better shape than this morning, despite a long day of travel. The trauma he had endured needed time to heal, but his injury was mental, so there was no reason he shouldn’t exert himself a little.

I explained to Yana that Haros didn’t need medical attention anymore and asked if she thought we should have him sleep in the big tent tonight. “Yes, it would be nice with a good night’s sleep,” she replied. Her finger traveling up my arm left a trail of goosebumps. “Or maybe not so much sleep?” Her suggestion almost swept my feet out from under me, and I told her to speak to Haros while I steadied myself. While I stood there, trembling slightly with anticipation, Xipil came to ask if Yana and I were going to take our turns at the night watch. I said yes.

When we had set up camp and eaten the evening meal, I ducked inside my tent to find Yana waiting in the pitch darkness. She sat on the spread-out blanket, as naked as the day she was born. I hurried inside and closed the tent flaps. “Silence!” she signed, the flexing of her index finger making it a command. I nodded. “Clothes away!” Her index finger worked overtime, and I eagerly complied, but not fast enough. Yana launched herself at me and peeled away my dress, and my cloth armor followed it to the ground.

Yana was like a wild beast, ravenous for my flesh. She followed her own command to stay silent, and no sound left our tent except the soft whisper of her skin rubbing against mine. I clamped my teeth together to stop myself from crying out and I could tell Yana had the same struggle. When she collapsed on top of me, I thought for a second she had passed out from lack of air, but she raised her head and gave me a contented smile. Cold night air seeped into the tent, and I pulled a blanket over us. Sleep came quickly to both of us.

Xipil woke us when it was my turn at the watch. I dressed and joined him outside. He pointed to the south. It was hard to tell over such a distance, but it looked like a cloud of fog. Xipil could only see it through the spirit-seeing ring, so it was obviously supernatural. Maybe that was where Pak and Groman were? Xipil thought it would take us two days to get there.

Xipil said he wanted to try the hood, and I offered to watch over him. He asked me to wake him after two minutes. When I did, he said he’d dreamed about a cry of anguish, or perhaps it was an elegy. He thought a horde of tortured souls flickered over there. “How can we handle thousands of spirits?” he asked, and I promised to bring the question to You.

When Xipil went to bed, I let Hope out of my pouch and prayed. You told me something was not as it should be, but it had been like that for so long, maybe there was nothing to be done about it. Nothing is beyond You, O Ashtar, but I understood that perhaps this task was beyond me.

I woke Yana when my watch was over and passed to her the spirit-seeing ring. I showed her the spirits in the south, but said she shouldn’t worry about them unless they suddenly moved towards us. Yana squeezed my hand and nodded. Since nobody could see us, I leaned towards her to give her a peck on the cheek. Yana seized my head and guided my lips to hers for a proper smooching.

O Ashtar! We surrender our lives to Your coils. Take us while we sleep, or grant us another day in Your service, as You will.