The Elder Gods. David Eddings

always look the same,’ Red-Beard stopped paddling. ‘When we get to the beach, I’m supposed to lead you along at the edge of the water. Uncle White-Braid told me to be careful to keep you in plain sight all the way to the cave of Zelana so that your men won’t have any cause for concern.’

      ‘Your people seem to be very cautious, Red-Beard,’ Sorgan observed.

      ‘Uncle White-Braid seems to prefer it that way. Old men are like that sometimes.’

      ‘That might explain how they lived long enough to get old.’

      ‘You’re probably right,’ Red-Beard conceded, taking up his paddle again. ‘We’ll have to go ashore just ahead. There’s some sharp rocks just below the surface of the water farther down the beach, and I’d rather not rip the bottom out of my canoe.’

      ‘How far is it to this cave?’ Sorgan asked.

      Red-Beard pointed with his paddle. ‘It’s in the side of that hill near the end of the beach.’

      ‘It’s quite a ways from the village,’ Sorgan observed, noting that the hill was oddly dome-shaped, and its sides were mostly bare rock with scant vegetation.

      ‘The one called Zelana doesn’t seem to like the way we smell.’

      ‘Am I supposed to bow down to her or anything like that?’ Sorgan asked.

      ‘I don’t think so. Uncle White-Braid would have mentioned it. Just tell her who you are. She’ll probably know already, since she’s been describing you ever since she first got here.’ Red-Beard drove the prow of his canoe up onto the beach, and then he and Sorgan pulled it clear of the water. Then they walked down the beach, being careful to stay in plain sight of the Seagull.

      ‘Have you heard anything about some kind of trouble that might be coming this way?’ Sorgan asked.

      ‘There’s always trouble in this part of the world, Sorgan Hook-Beak,’ Red-Beard replied. ‘The tribes can go to war about almost anything. Here lately, though, we’ve heard some stories about the creatures of the Wasteland.’

      ‘Where’s that?’

      ‘Off beyond the mountains,’ Red-Beard replied vaguely.

      ‘I don’t know much about it, because the old men don’t like to talk about the Wasteland. The creatures who live there are supposed to look sort of like people, but I don’t think they are people. Zelana can probably tell you more about them. I think that’s why she wants to talk to you. There’s the mouth of her cave right over there.’ He pointed at an irregular opening in the rocky hillside. ‘My uncle told me to make some noise before we go on inside. He said that we don’t want to startle Zelana.’

      They approached the cave-mouth with a certain caution. ‘Zelana of the West,’ Red-Beard called into the echoing cave, ‘I am Red-Beard of the line of White-Braid the Chief, and I have brought an outlander named Sorgan Hook-Beak to speak with you.’

      They waited for a few moments, and then a beautiful little girl with fair hair came out of the dark cave. ‘What kept you so long, Hook-Beak?’ she asked Sorgan. ‘The Beloved was starting to worry about you. Come along, but wipe your feet before you come inside. She gets peevish when anybody tracks mud into her cave.’

      Sorgan and Red-Beard followed the little girl through the irregularly shaped opening and on through a twisting, narrow passageway into a large chamber where a small fire burned some distance back from the cave mouth. A woman with dark hair and wearing a filmy gauze garment was seated near the fire with her back to them. ‘It’s about time you got here, Hook-Beak,’ the woman said. ‘Has the Seagull gone lame?’

      ‘It is a fair distance from Longbow’s village,’ Sorgan replied, feeling more than a little offended.

      ‘That didn’t bother her very much when she was chasing down that Trogite treasure ship a little while back.’

      ‘How did you know about that?’ he demanded.

      ‘The Beloved knows everything, Hook-Beak,’ the little girl told him. ‘Everybody knows that.’

      ‘That’ll do, Eleria,’ the woman in gauze said. Then she turned to look at Sorgan.

      Sorgan’s knees went weak at that point. She was by far the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

      ‘Don’t stare, Sorgan,’ she said primly. ‘It isn’t polite.’

      ‘Forgive me,’ he said, flushing slightly. ‘Your appearance startled me. You must be used to that by now, though.’

      ‘It does happen every so often,’ she admitted. ‘At least you’re strong enough not to swoon at the sight of me. That can be so irritating. I see you’ve brought Red-Beard with you.’

      ‘Actually, he’s the one who brought me,’ Sorgan replied, his voice still trembling a bit. ‘He showed me the way.’

      ‘Then you know each other. Good. He’ll be going with us when we return to Maag. We’ll have to stop and pick up Longbow as well, but we can go into the details later. Let’s get down to business here. I need warriors, and I pay in gold. Are you interested?’

      ‘The word “gold” is very interesting,’ he replied. ‘Who do you want me to kill, and how much gold will you give me after he’s dead?’

      ‘You’re a blunt man, Sorgan,’ she said.

      ‘It saves time,’ he said with a shrug. ‘Are we talking about some kind of war here?’

      ‘Well, sort of. How much do you know about the Land of Dhrall?’

      ‘I’d never even heard of it until I met Longbow about three days ago. Red-Beard here was telling me something about some people that live over beyond the mountains. I gather that they’re the ones you’d like to have me kill. Is this some sort of tribal squabble? That sort of thing happens in Maag all the time.’

      ‘It goes a long way past “squabble”, Hook-Beak,’ she said. ‘The people of Dhrall dwell mostly along the coastline where the fishing’s good, but there are other creatures who dwell in the Wastelands of the interior. They’re starting to grow restless, and we want you and your warriors to persuade them to go back home where they belong. That’s why I sent for you. I want you to enlist your fellow Maags to come here and help us drive the creatures of the Wasteland back across the mountains. We’ll tell the Maags that I’ll give them gold if they come here and help us.’

      ‘It’s easy to say gold, Lady Zelana,’ Sorgan said, ‘but I think I’ll need to see gold before I’ll be very convincing when I talk with the other Maags.’

      ‘That sounds reasonable.’ Zelana turned to the little girl. ‘Take him back to where the gold is, Eleria,’ she said. ‘Let him see how much there is.’

      ‘Of course, Beloved,’ the little girl replied. ‘It’s back in the cave a ways, Hook-Big,’ she told Sorgan.

      ‘That’s “Hook-Beak”,’ he corrected her.

      ‘Ah,’ she said. ‘That does make a little more sense, doesn’t it? I must have misunderstood the Beloved when she told me your name. It seemed to me that it was backward, but ‘Big-Hook’ wouldn’t make sense either, would it? How much of this gold did you want to look at?’

      ‘As much as possible,’ Sorgan replied eagerly.

      ‘I don’t think we have that much time,’ Eleria said. ‘The Beloved’s in sort of a hurry.’

      Then the gauze-draped Zelana made a kind of squeaking sound, and Eleria responded in the same fashion. Sorgan gathered that it must have been some sort of foreign language.

      Then Zelana reached out and took a glowing lump of fire out of the empty air and handed it to Eleria. ‘It’s dark back in the cave,’ Eleria told Sorgan. ‘This little sun