Chapter 18
"It's so dusty," whined Glinda, waving a translucent pink handkerchief futilely in front of her face.
The group had been traveling since midmorning and the day was brutally hot. Elphaba had torn a long thin strip off of the hem of her dress to tie back her multitude of raven hair, and Glinda's flaxen curls were wilting, little wisps of frizz coiling off in all directions as though determined to leave her head and fly away. Chistery had opted to ride on Elphaba's shoulder rather than waste energy flying. The donkeys were panting and walking slowly their tongues lolling groundward. Only Igitur, who seemed impervious to the harsh sun and oppressive heat remained enthusiastic, pausing now and again to mutter an incantation or sprinkle some sort of herb from the inexhaustible depths of his robe pockets.
By the time the sun had crawled across the sky and made its way toward the western horizon, they had left the Thousand Year Grasslands behind. The curtain of green ended abruptly, giving way to a sapphire sky and dark, flat land stretching out to the rise of the Great Kells, looming on the horizon several miles away. The ground here was made of dark, grainy soil, pieces of rock and small boulders scattered every few inches. Rock formations rose up all over the place, casting alien looking shadows in the late afternoon sun.
"It's like…something from another world," said Boq breathlessly.
Elphaba nodded.
"It might as well be. There are still whole portions of the Vinkus that are, as we know it, completely unexplored."
There was an eerie feeling about the landscape, a feeling of something treacherous, something that wasn't as it appeared to be. It was the feeling of air just before a storm, or a strange noise in the dark, in the dead of night. The feeling of something about to happen.
Elphaba glanced around apprehensively, wishing for a place to take shelter. It would be all too easy to hide out here, she thought uneasily, what with all the protrusions of rock and perhaps any number of hidden caves. But the sun was continuing to sink lower in the sky, a burnt orange ball, vibrant against all that brown. And they would be no safer in the Thousand Year Grasslands by night.
"Stuck between a rock and a hard place," muttered Elphaba, shaking her head.
"A bad place, this is," said Igitur ominously, agreeing with her for the first time.
"There is nowhere for us to go for tonight," said Gerema, voicing the thoughts of the entire group.
"We'll just have to camp here and make the best of it," said Fiyero.
They chose a spot at the back of a large boulder in hopes of being shielded from the wind. Glinda magicked a small fire in a circle of rocks, and they all gathered around it. A cold wind was beginning to pick up despite the time of year.
"Flame fly far," said Chistery, tucking himself under Elphaba's cloak.
"He's right, you know," said Fiyero, sitting down beside her.
Elphaba looked at him quizzically.
"He's just chattering."
Fiyero looked unconvinced.
"Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Regardless, he does have a point. Once it gets dark, our fire will be visible from far away. Especially to anyone standing on top of one of those rocks."
"Are there any native tribes out here that you know of?" asked Elphaba, alarmed.
"Not that I've ever seen. But there have always been legends, scouts that never returned. Some say this was an ancient battleground and that evil spirits live here."
"Spirits," mimicked Chistery.
Elphaba looked at him in shock.
"Chistery…you wouldn't say spirit for me before…"
"Spirits," said Chistery, louder this time. "Spirits sleep stone stir soon."
Elphaba waved the notion away, though she had to admit there was something strange looking about the dust clouds the wind was blowing up in the rapidly vanishing light. Chistery jumped from her shoulder and fluttered up to sit on top of a large sharp rock that pointed straight up to the sky like an ominous finger. He put his ear to the rock for a moment, then shook his wings out in a motion that looked alarmingly like a shudder. Igitur was uncharacteristically silent.
"We'll need to take shifts standing guard," said Elphaba, breaking the silence that had fallen.
"We have no way to keep track of time," said Boq.
"Then we'll just have to guess. Who will stand watch first?"
"I will," said Fiyero, after a moment's pause.
"And I will watch the rest of the night," said Gerema.
They got out what few blankets they had and made an uncomfortable camp on the rocky ground.
"There is a stone in the middle of my back," said Glinda loudly.
"Deal with it," said Elphaba.
Glinda sat up, looking hurt.
"I'm not used to this! All things considered, I think I've adapted glowingly well to all this…this….roughing it! I've slept in a cave, ridden a donkey, eaten unflavored meat, and walked miles in the heat. And I've hardly said anything. And now I'm expected to sleep on a pincushion and deal with it?" Glinda started to cry.
Boq sat up and went over to her. He sat down with his back to the rock and pulled her head into his lap.
"Better?" he muttered impatiently.
Glinda smiled sweetly at him.
"Much."
Finally, after more grunting and shifting and attempting to make the ground grow softer, everyone managed to fall into an uneasy sleep. As she drifted off to sleep, Elphaba had the distinct feeling that someone's eyes were on her. Someone that she couldn't see.
It was pitch-dark when Elphaba woke again. The fire had gone out, and she was entirely blind in the inky blackness. She sat up and tried to sense where the others were, but all she could feel was sand and stone and emptiness all around her.
She sensed movement just over her left shoulder and whirled toward it, but saw nothing. There was a sound of a foot slipping in the lose soil somewhere very nearby, and then the cold shock of a knife at her throat.
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