01 The Parched Sea by Forgotten Realms

Author:Forgotten Realms [Realms, Forgotten]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-04-10T14:43:45.131000+00:00

Lander and Ruha crested the last of a seemingly endless chain of thousand-foot knolls. The Harper did not need to ask to know they had reached Elah'zad. The hill sloped down to a small basin encircled by grayish ridges similar to the one upon which they sat. Over a hundred small springs opened on the hillsides and trickled down the gentle slopes. Crimson-leafed shrubs with blue stems and twiggy trees with copper and silver sprigs bordered each stream. From the ridge, the vividly colored shrubs resembled magic fires and the metallic-hued trees looked like billows of enchanted smoke. The colorful bands of vegetation-were spread over the basin like an immense spider web. Each strand followed a life-giving stream down the hill to a sapphire nucleus of water, a lake covering fully a square mile of the bottom of the basin. In the center of the lake sat a small, grassy island. On the island stood an alabaster palace built in the shape of a three-quarters moon. Along a band of lush grass girding the lake, fifteen khowwans had pitched their tents in tribal clusters. Men were gathered in small groups in the areas between the tribes, but the women and children remained steadfastly within their own camps. Lander saw no sign of any camels. "It's magnificent!" Lander gasped. "Elah'zad was the home of the moon goddess," Ruha explaified, forcing her camel to kneel. "But At'ar drove her away and made it a prison for the Mother of the Waters:' "Why?" the Harper asked. Ruha gave Lander an alluring, mocking glance. "The usual reason women quarrel. At'ar was jealous of Eldath's beauty." Lander was surprised to hear Ruha use a familiar name for the goddess of the singing waters. "Eldath is free;" he objected. "She is worshiped all over Faerun:" The widow looked over her shoulder. In the distance, just beyond the farthest set of hills, the white salts of the Shoals of Thirst still gleamed in the sun. "Perhaps Eldath is free in Sembia;' she said, "but in Anauroch, she is At'ar's prisoner." The young widow slipped off her camel, then motioned for Lander to do the same. They led their mounts down the hill as far as the first spring. Ruha carefully tethered the beasts to a smoketwigged tree, well out of reach of the water. "Camels are not allowed to drink of the sacred waters;' she explained. "Some boys are coming to take them to the camel well:" Lander raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?" "By now the sentries have relayed word of our arrival to Sa'ar and Utaiba. One of them will send some boys from his tribe to tend our camels:' "That makes sense," the Sembian replied. He had given no thought to the sentries surely posted around the oasis, for he had not heard them sound any alarm. "Why didn't we hear any amarats?" "I don't know, and it worries me. But rest assured that we have been seen:' "Should we take their silence as a warning?" he asked.

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