TRC - Lord of the Glass Desert Ch. 11

"That wasn't going to happen," said the sprite as she rubbed her sex for a moment before floating off the bed again. Shedding motes of light, she shrank back to her normal size. "Something is still inside me that you were going to get rid of more than a week ago."

"I know, and I'm sorry for that. But when I told you I'd pitch Bozun out in the desert, I didn't know the last leg of the trip is where we are most likely to encounter a sandworm. If I can use his corpse to save another life, then I think the wait is worth it," he said while putting his clothes on. "If we don't run into any, I promise we will come back out on the dunes and dump it. Kashka said the poison lasts for about a half an hour before breaking down in the air, so we need to be a good distance away from anything living."

"She made it sound like Bozun would explode into a cloud of gas that would kill things for days after he popped."

"That's probably not far from what she believed at the time, but we learned a lot when working on the antidote the first weeks out here. Something you mostly missed because you were pissed off at me."

"And here I thought you spent all your time fucking those two."

"I won't say there wasn't a lot of that too, but Kashka wanted to have an antidote ready in case something went wrong while dumping Bozun's body." Kal frowned, "He must have had a stranglehold on the minds of his 'Blades'. Her knowledge of poisons is frightening if I'm honest. She not only understands how to make them but also how they react within the body to achieve different effects. That came in handy when we started researching antidotes. Between her experience with toxins and my potion-making, it didn't take long for us to figure out the composition of Bozun's poison and come up with an antidote.

"You have a counter for poisons and the like on your back. You used it to save her after you fought."

"That was a bit of luck. The gas acts in two ways. The first step is a contact sleeping potion that knocks the victim out to make sure enough of the slower-acting poison to gets into their system, shutting down their heart and lungs. The last component is a capsule containing the final agent in the toxin. When the capsule bursts and mixes with the other ingredients, the reaction turns it into a gas that pops the tooth or whatever container it's in.

"We still don't know how much time it takes to knock the victim out. But we have to assume it isn't long. Had I not heard her tooth pop or seen the gas, I could have fallen asleep before activating my rune."

"That seems unlikely," said the sprite. "You use your runes like other people breathe."

"You're probably right," said Kal as he threw his cloak over his shoulders and fastened it. Laying the piece of leather with the flight rune against his back, he tucked it into his belt and covered it with his shirt, "But I'm going to throw a body into a sandworm's mouth before it explodes in a toxic cloud. I'll take the extra insurance of Kashka nearby with an antidote. Let's get going."

After making his way to the tent's exit, the mage unsealed the door and threw the flap open. He stopped and stared at the scene outside. The sand around the tent fell away sharply in a wide ring around the Elven shelter. Something huge and worm-shaped had circled the tent repeatedly before leaving the deep depressions. He was certain if he dropped his farmhouse into the gouges left by the sandworms, the roof would still be a pace below the surrounding desert.

"That explains why the alarms were going off," said Ria. "It looks like you will get to use Bozun's corpse after all."

Kal nodded. "We have another problem, though," he said, activating the flight rune and floating above the tent. "The worms are lone hunters, so I only planned on dealing with one," said the mage, pointing at two trails of sunken sand leading in the direction of the caravan.

The tent folded itself up as he and Ria hovered nearby. Ria stored the elven shelter and gave Kal a quick kiss on the nose before returning to her bag. A few seconds later, the mage took off over the dunes, chasing after the caravan.

A short distance away, he stopped where the sandworm's trail disappeared as they dove deeper.

"Wait, hold on," he said to himself. "Ria, let me have one of the improved decoy sticks, please." Turning around, he flew back to the mound of sand where his tent had been.

The sticks he purchased in Fazal were intended to give a person the chance to escape if chased by the sandworms. Shoving a pointed end into the ground and activating it sent out rhythmic pulses the giant predators found irresistible. They only worked if there was something like an island of rock or some other safe place nearby to run to. Out here on the open sands, a person would run out of sticks long before reaching safety.

Never leaving well enough alone, Kal modified a few of the decoys. Since his flight rune meant they were of little use to him personally, he hoped to turn them into something more powerful that could draw sandworms from a considerable distance, not just mask the sound of a person's feet as they fled. Carefully splitting the wood open, he found a semi-precious stone that resembled turquoise but slightly greener inside with the spell etched into it. The gem-like material absorbed enough energy to power the spell for a few minutes, but Kal wanted something with more range and punch. Using geomancy, he cleaned up the rune and adjusted the limiter to accept more power. By itself, the pretty blue-green stone could power the spell's modified version for a fraction of a second if it was lucky. Carving out a small space in the wood next to the stone, he added a shard of mana crystal and sealed the stick again. He only finished a couple before getting distracted helping Kashka make antidotes. He also didn't want to waste a bunch of time on something that he couldn't properly test without putting the caravan in danger.

He plunged the improved decoy stick into the sand after charging the crystal inside, then stepped on it to bury it completely. Kal floated upward and waited to see if his idea worked or if it was all just a waste of time.

The first pulse sounded like a giant stomped its foot and collapsed the sides of the bowl created by the worms circling his tent. The pressure wave made his ears ring and left Kal feeling like someone punched him in the chest. As he tried to get his breath back, the crests of a few dunes around him crumbled, leaving smooth hills of sand behind. Flying upward to escape the second pulse while being thankful that he wasn't closer for the first, Kal watched as the ring of jumping sand particles spread out in all directions.

"I bet they heard that," he chuckled before jetting off after the caravan once again.

------

Flying over the desert, Kal noticed evenly spaced depressions in the sand along the caravan's trail. He determined from their size and similarity, they were likely the worms coming up to check they were still on the right track. He hooted in triumph when he saw four of the long teardrop-shaped indentations near one another, with two of them pointing back the way he came. The sets of four marks continued for a bit longer before vanishing completely, denoting where the sandworms turned around.

From what he had seen, the giant worms moved a little faster than the caravan itself. Getting them to backtrack might buy the caravan a few more days, but with midday and nighttime rest stops, he could only guess.

The line of camels and people had been on the move since before the sun rose, but it wasn't long after leaving the sandworm's marks behind he spotted the tail end of the caravan on the horizon. Dropping low to the ground, he oriented himself upright and began skating across the sands. He learned early in the journey that he wasted his money on the sand walker boots as his current pair did the same thing already, but better. The Boots of the Traveler used their magic to give him solid footholds in the shifting sands but had a curious side effect on slopes. If he walked down a dune normally, the sand solidified below his feet, the same as walking around normally or on upslopes. But, if he tried to purposefully slide down a dune, the boots treated the slope like ice, and he slipped down with little to no friction. The effect lasted until he tried to take a step, and the sand started acting like sand again, sending him rolling head over heels to the bottom of the dune. Kashka, Laika, and a few guards got a good chuckle when he learned that particular limitation the hard way.

The past few weeks Kal had quite a bit of fun skating across the desert from dune to dune with the help of his flight rune, flinging himself off the crests and doing all kinds of flips and spins before landing. It wasn't nearly as fun as flying, but it was close, and he wasn't comfortable with people knowing about his flight rune. Yet.

As he came upon the caravan's rearguard, a few men drew swords or leveled spears at him, unsure what threat he posed. Turam's men closer to the caravan's wealthy section were familiar with the sight of him streaking along the surface of the sand, but not those this far back.

Kal angled off to the side until he was a fair distance away before pushing the flight rune to make him go faster. He wasn't in the mood to bother explaining himself to the rearguard. He grinned at the thought of the Boots of the Traveler's maker seeing him abuse what was most certainly meant to help the wearer stay upright when sliding down a hill.

Looking back toward the caravan, he was surprised at the number of families dotted about the long trains of merchant camels. He certainly couldn't blame them. Fazal wasn't a place he would ever live if given a choice.

Within a few minutes, he caught up with the wealthier section and was tempted to check in with Kashka and Laika. Instead, he continued to the front of the camel train to find Turam. His priority right now was reporting the sandworms' presence.

The guards up here only gave him a passing glance as he skidded into a hopping jog and hailed the Caravan Leader.

"Good to see you up and about," said the big man, smiling from the back of his camel. "I had a difficult time believing your little friend's insistence you would be safe. Those left behind only come back about half the time."

"That's no surprise. When I woke, the area around the tent was hollowed out by sandworms trying to get at me. There looked to be two of them."

"They didn't try to dig under?"

"It's possible. But neither were successful if they did."

"Interesting," said Turam, getting lost in his thoughts for a moment before focusing on Kal again. "I received news of the sandworms last night, though I did not know there were two. Thank you for that information. We should probably expect them some time tonight."

Kal smiled, "Maybe not, they turned back to check on a present I left them where my tent had been."

"Something deadly, I hope?"

"Uh... No. Though I probably should have, now that you mention it." He cursed under his breath for not thinking of leaving Bozun's body with the decoy stick. Although, by the time they arrived, Bozun's poison would have broken down, so that wouldn't have worked anyway.

The man chuckled, "No matter, pushing back their arrival until tomorrow is a great help as well. It's better to deal with them during the light of day. If you're still thinking of notching your belt with a sandworm kill, you had best plan on taking down both. Your heart is noble, but I won't let you endanger the rest of the caravan or my men's lives."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Kal, frowning.

As Kal stopped to let his litter catch up, Turam turned to look back at him. "Keep the news of the sandworms to yourself. We don't need anyone panicking," he said with a shake of his head toward those in the Lottery.

The mage nodded before deciding to walk back to his transport. Turam was a good enough person but the coldness of comments like that grated on Kal's nerves, and he wanted to put some space between him and the Caravan Leader.

His sour mood wasn't helped by the wave of tiredness that washed over him now that he was back in the safety of the camel train. However, a few days of mental exhaustion was well worth saving Perra's life. He shuddered at the thought of how close he came to losing her. A lump formed in his throat at what might have happened had he and Elta been too late. He wouldn't get lucky like with Ikuno and go fetch the newer version in a couple of years. These thoughts led to another that had kept him up many nights since setting out from Telsin. Mages and wizards had unusually long lifespans from their interactions with magic. His friend, Kelthor, was over a hundred years old but looked to be somewhere between seventy and eighty summers. Because of Kal's unique nature and the amount of magic he could wield at such a young age, Ikuno guessed he might live to two hundred years or more.

It wasn't an issue with Ikuno, the monster girls back at the Tower of Prentas, or even Gerda and Bas. But Perra, Aradelle, Bea, and Kuto would all grow old and pass away while he stayed relatively young.

Kal pushed the morbid thoughts away when he saw his litter up ahead. He needed to come up with a way to kill two sandworms instead of just one or accept that he wasn't going to be able to save any of the Lottery participants. The second option wasn't up for consideration. Failing to save at least one person would make him a hypocrite and a failure since it was the primary reason he traveled with this caravan instead of writing off the money he gave Toba and finding another means across the desert.

As he stepped around the back of the litter, Kal was met by a squeal of happiness as a scantily clad female launched herself at him. He reflexively activated the flight rune as he caught Laika, using it to keep them upright instead of sprawling in the sand.

"Not that I'm complaining," he chuckled as she wrapped her legs around his waist and locked her ankles behind his back, "but what was that for?"

"Thank you for letting me come back, Master."

"Eh? Come back?" he asked. Hoping no one was paying close attention, he hovered back to the litter with the woman and sat on the edge of the magic carpet. Laika leaned over and traced the rune to change it into its reclining shape before unlocking her heels and straddling his waist. A second later, her top came off and she began unwrapping her sheer fabric lower garment .

"She seems to think you were mad at her by the way you sent her away last night," said Kashka, making herself comfortable again once the carpet stopped moving. "I told her not to worry, but I don't think she believed me."

Kal looked at the pleasure slave. "You thought I was mad at you?"

Laika refused to meet his gaze and nodded.

"I was preparing for a fight, and you aren't a fighter. My first reaction was to remove you from danger. I suppose it didn't actually do any good as everything happened on the astral plane or far away, but I wasn't thinking about that at the time. Regardless, I wasn't mad at you."

"I shouldn't care," she whispered. "When the caravan turns around, I'll be assigned to another person. Caring is bad. But when you sent me away, it hurt."

"Why?"

"Something bad was happening. I felt like I belonged here with you, doing whatever I could to help."

The mage regarded her thoughtfully. Laika seemed sincere, but considering the nature of her duties, it was hard to trust his first impression. Though he hated the idea, her actions could be a ruse. If she begged him for money to, "help pay her way out of slavery," before reaching the other side of the desert, he'd have his answer. For now, he was going to take her words at face value and pulled her into a hug. Better to take a chance and be wrong than be suspicious of every word that came out of her mouth.

"Ria, please store my belt and cloak," said Kashka. As her gear vanished into motes of light, the cat-girl raised her hands over her head and arched her back in a very feline-looking stretch. "That feels better."

"You and I need to talk. Two sandworms are chasing after us. I have a plan for one but not the other. Do you have any ideas? Maybe we could make a poison like Bozun's?

Kashka shook her head, "You don't have all the ingredients. Even if you did, it takes a lot of poison to kill something as big as a sandworm. Even with the ingredients, I don't think we could get enough made in time." Looking down, her eyes flicked back and forth as she ran through different possible toxins before finally shaking her head. "Anything I could make enough of is going to be too weak or too slow for what you need.

"Ria, come out here for a moment."

After a quick greeting and 'I told you he'd be fine,' for Laika and Kashka, she turned to the mage, "What do you need?"

"How much of the sundew's fluid do we have, and do you think it might be enough to paralyze a sandworm?"

The sprite thought for a moment, "Probably not, you left most of it in the lab at Prentas's Tower, and we only have two bottles that have been refined into splash potions. Given how quickly Senshu recovered, if these things are as big as you described, I wouldn't expect them to slow down, much less stop."

He glanced over at Kashka then back to Ria, "What if we got it inside them?"

The little avatar shrugged, "I don't know the answer to that any better than you."

The mage shook his head, "That's alright, I don't think it would work anyway. They have something like a gizzard where food is ground up. I think it's a safe bet the inside of that would be just as tough as their skin."

"That means poisons are out," said Kashka, "What about acids? Do they have eyes or other vulnerable organs?"

"Something like a human mind is hidden beneath a lump of tissue next to where their lure is attached, but destroying it only stuns the worm for a few seconds. Afterward, it turns feral and has an even chance of attacking or running away. So far, that's the only weak point anyone has found," said Kal.

"Well, how do the guards kill them if they attack?" the cat-girl asked.

"When it surfaces, they run alongside it in groups of two," said Laika. "One carries a long, curved metal bar, and the other has a spear. They jam the bar between the worm's segments and pry up the top layer of skin so the other can shove the spear inside it. Sometimes they get lucky and kill it right away, but other times they only run it off. Sandworms may be slow, but they can roll easily. Of the men Turam has lost, most were crushed, not eaten."

"With my strength, I might be able to do that by myself. But unless I know where to strike, it doesn't do much good."

"Maybe you don't need to kill it? Perhaps we could scare it off some way?" offered Kashka.

"What scares a gigantic worm?" asked Ria.

"Oh... good point."

"Let me sleep on that," said Kal. "I haven't fully recovered from helping Elta save Perra, and I need a nap."

"Elta what?!" squeaked Ria. "You are not going to make me wait till you wake up for this. What happened?"

"Please?" he begged.

"No."

"Okay, I don't know exactly how this all started, but someone in Telsin attacked Perra and Kuto came to the rescue..."

------

"You bonded Elta, then let her go?!" said the astonished sprite once he finished his story.

"After she finished healing Perra, she lost her connection with the Goddess and releasing her was the only way to reverse it. She gave up being a cleric to save a woman I love. The least I could do is give her magic back."

"I'm curious about this 'bonding' you talked about," Kashka piped in.

"I'll explain it as best I can later. I need sleep now. But first," he picked Laika off his lap, where she had been since he arrived, and set her next to him on the carpet, "I need to take a little walk."