Im could tell they were descending from the hills they had been traversing. Here, the soil grew sandier, the trees more scrubby.

  “We should be running into a river before long,” Xido informed them. “Off to our right somewhere. The west.” He had recognized that his fellow travelers had a quite inadequate understanding of directions, having lived all their lives in the middle of a featureless desert. “It is called the Ark, by the Ildin. That means the River of Eagles.”

  He pointed eastward. “The mountains are going to press closer on that side. They are not so high down in this part of the world.”

  “There are Ildin living in nds ahead?” asked Na.

  “There are. More so than behind us. The Ildin people are scattered thinly north of the hills and up to the River Dewak.” He swung an arm broadly in that direction. “Many like the idea of migrating there, for the soil is more fertile, but it is wild country and there are tribes of unfriendly men further north.”

  “I’ll have to hide more often,” said Qu’orthseth.

  “True,” agreed Xido. “The vilges will be closer together.” They came to the first of those ter that day but chose not remain there. No one even asked their business as they passed by, though there were friendly waves. Xido returned these. It looked much like the st one they had seen, a handful of circur wooden houses.

  The demon rejoined them when they were out of sight. An hour or so ter, in a wood of spindly pines, with patches of thick undergrowth, they came to a forking of their way. “The roads have all changed since st I was here,” admitted Xido. He pointed down the path to their right. “I suspect that will lead toward the river. It’s a bit swampy up at this end.”

  He considered but a moment. “Let’s stay to the left, if only because we’re liable to meet fewer folk that way.” That way led into more rugged territory over the next couple days, winding through the foothills of the ever-nearer mountain range. A handful of vilges y along their path; in some, they stopped, rested, heard the news. This gave Im and Na a chance to further their knowledge of the Ildin tongue, which Xido was teaching them, along with wizardry.

  “Who rules here?” asked Qu’orthseth once. “Is there a king over all these little vilges?”

  “Each is independent, led by an elected headman or woman,” responded Xido. “There is no overall ruler, though the priestly orders tend to run a lot of things simply because they are better organized. They have no actual authority over anyone.”

  “Priests?” asked Na. “Those are ones who serve a god, are they not?” There had been no priesthood — and no gods, to speak of — in Hirstel.

  “They are. We’re bound to run into some eventually. None of mine, most likely!” The god ughed rather raucously at that.

  “Surely you have some,” stated Na. “Not among these Ildin, I know, but elsewhere.” She seemed to feel it important that he did.

  “Oh, some. There are still followers and still priests to lead them. Not so many as once.” The dark deity’s sigh was barely perceptible. “Some of my people — ah, I should say the people who once followed me and those like me — have abandoned their old gods in favor of a belief in Munu, an all-encompassing force. We have become little more than old folktales to them.” He chuckled. “That makes us no less powerful.”

  “You don’t actually need believers,” conjectured Im.

  “No, but they keep us connected to the universes outside our world of the gods. It would be far too easy to forget mankind otherwise, forget time altogether and go about our immortal ways. It is my one fear.”

  There was little to say to that. The group trudged on silently for some time, following the same road. They assumed it to be the same road, although others crossed it here and there and at varied angles. At one crossroads, Xido dropped his pack, prociming, “As good a spot to camp as any.” He looked up the road to their left, leading, it seemed, into the mountains. “That way appears well traveled.”

  The statement was somewhat meaningless to Na and Im. They did not completely understand yet why roads led where they did. “What might travel it?” asked their rge crimson companion.

  “Miners, perhaps,” was Xido’s answer. “Or hunters. Possibly even cutters of timber.”

  There was not much to setting up a camp. They still had little more than packs of food — sometimes close to empty — and the clothes they wore. They dropped their loads and turned to building a fire. By now, Xido had made sure his two students had learned to make fire without any magic. He himself refused to take the easy way of borrowing a fme from another world.

  But he had also taught them how to do just that trick. The pair pretty quickly realized it took too much effort and energy for anything but emergency use — for them. For a god such as Xido, it was apparently as easy as breathing.

  “I’ll go forage,” he told them. “Keep watch, Akorzef.” He set off up the side trail.

  “Just wants an excuse to explore on his own,” rumbled the demon.

  “There might be fruit or something,” spoke Im, in the god’s defense, but he knew Qu’orthseth was right. He also didn’t much like Xido being too far away in the event of a threat. The demon was competent enough but did not have the abilities of the god.

  Of a sudden, Qu’orthseth cursed loudly. Or Im assumed it to be a curse; it was in its demon nguage but it certainly sounded like one. There were whirring sounds. Some — things went flying by. A moment ter the demon had toppled over, its legs entangled in a number of ropes. “Bolos?” it rumbled. It sounded more curious than angry.

  That changed when it found it could not remove them. “Charmed.” It sat up and regarded its bonds, nodded, and turned its attention to the group of men who surrounded them.

  Men, maybe. Or something close to it. Their heads came about to Im’s chest and those heads carried thick thatches of red or brown hair on top and simirly hued beards below. Deep-set eyes peered at the Hirstelites from beneath protruding brows.

  “Dwarfs” whispered Na. “I’ve seen them in books.”

  “I wish they’d stayed there,” came Im’s reply.

  There looked to be maybe ten of them, thick of body and holding spears and axes. Their apparent leader rubbed his exceptionally rge nose and regarded the pair.