From our original host of fifteen volunteers, only ten souls remained. Of the survivors, only six remained capable of transporting themselves back to Tiamat. Thus, Lady An solicited volunteers from the reserve group that had suffered the least damage in the fighting. It was a much smaller group this time.
She led the stalwart group of seven to where Brian sat chatting with me and Olivier. Olivier had managed to dampen the oscillations of his dark material so that it stayed within its bounds, showing its shadowy fringes only occasionally.
“Here is your escort,” she said. “They will get you in close. Once you reach the horde, though, you’re on your own. They’ll wait for you, Brian but I don’t want any in the horde to see them. Fanatics can be dangerous.”
“Appreciate it, ma’am. With two adepts along, I’m not so worried.”
“Yes. You should be fine,” she said, although her face belied her worry. “I don’t expect much trouble from Protectors. When we routed them, they mostly fled in the other direction.”
We rose up and lifted the open palanquin, basically a tray with handles. It wasn’t heavy at all. Olivier retained only a third at most of his original body mass. Not that we couldn’t have carried his full weight without issue. Muscle fatigue simply wasn’t a factor with these bodies. There were limits to strength, but not endurance. We could have carried an intact Olivier and his brother to kingdom come.
“Take care now,” said Lady An. “And Brian … I want to emphasize … I’ve instructed the escort to wait for you to re-emerge from the horde. Make sure you link up with them. I don’t want you traveling alone.”
“Will do, ma’am.”
“And James … will we see you again? In this realm?”
“I expect not, ma’am.”
“Then Godspeed you, for whatever that’s worth.”
***
It took a while to find our rhythm. Brian had longer legs and a bouncier gait. But once we hit our stride, we covered ground quickly across the back side of the plateau. Our escort shadowed us, keeping about a hundred yards behind our left flank to perhaps divert some of the attention we might have attracted had we traveled together. That was the idea, anyhow.
We had the hardest time keeping Olivier upright. He kept sliding down and flopping over on his face. He tried his best to help prevent that by shifting his weight and wriggling back up, but he didn’t have much to work with anymore. There was only so much he could do with two stubs for arms.
His egg, however, had no trouble hanging on. It shifted its shape, becoming one with the palanquin, sinking hooks into the porous ceramic. It served its master as backrest and restraint, and once it managed to wrap an amoeboid appendage or two around Olivier’s chest to stabilize his ride.
I couldn’t look at that creature without thinking about my Billy. I wondered how much the shape of these ‘familiars’ had to do with one’s personality. I sure as hell couldn’t imagine conjuring something abstract and alien as this ‘egg.’ Cute bugs and fuzzy creatures were more my style.
Brian walked in front, his eyes constantly on the terrain ahead or the sky. As a consequence he kept stepping into crevices or stumbled over ledges. One stumble nearly sent Olivier tumbling off the palanquin. His precious egg thrust out a lobe to keep him on the platform but he ended up wheeling around, facing back.
He looked me in the eye, completely unfazed, as if he had intended to face me.
“So how is it you came to know my friend Arthur?”
