Chapter 4 Part 2

Ruk was the first to hear it. Whether his minotaan physiology had superior hearing, or his excellent stamina simply was not as tired as the others', was debatable, but the low hissing sound rising from the sand was anything but natural.

Ruk immediately jumped to his feet. As a second thought, he kicked the foot of the sleeping ranger. Though only two hours had passed since daybreak, Avery was instantly awake and standing beside the warrior.

No words were necessary. The ranger heard it too. "Wake the others," he urged Ruk. "I'll climb the dune and see what there is to see."

Avery leaped onto the side of a dune with the least amount of slope. Slowly so as to not cause too many avalanches of sand, he ascended the mound. Upon reaching the summit, Avery cautiously peered over the crest.

The view was spectacular, dunes like overlapping waves on sea spread out in all directions. Ahead, however a structure rose above the sand in the distance. Like a small mountain with straight sloping sides, the building was a shadow on the horizon.

The hissing sound grew louder and after a moment's search, Avery located the source. A small dune was moving rapidly in their direction. Intrigued, Avery reared up for a better view.

As the dune approached a gully, the crest broke revealing a creature resembling large snake, about one hundred meters long. The thing was a deep burgandy in color with magenta blotches on its hide and possessed a round many toothed maw devoid of jaws.

The worm or snake had a long body about twenty to thirty meters in diameter that tapered to a long tail with what appeared to be a stinger like that of a scorpion on the end. And it was burrowing through the dunes directly towards them.

Avery spared no caution as he sprinted down the slope. "Trouble," he announced as he ran down the dune. "Grab what you can and follow me."

"What is it?" Ruk asked.

"A snake," Avery said grabbing his pack and stuffing the blanket under the shoulder strap.

Ruk loosed his battle-ax. "You want me to behead the critter?"

"A big snake," Avery added. "A very, very big snake." He sprinted around the corner of the nearest dune. The others were hot on his heels. "There’s a structure on the horizon," he explained. "I make the distance about ten kilometers."

They were rounding a dune when the ground beneath them trembled slightly. Avery froze as did the others. The purple behemoth burrowed out from the side of the dune and across their path. The it dove straight down into the sand.

"A very, very, very big snake," Ruk agreed.

They watched it disappear into the sand. "Wow," Calista muttered. "I have never seen anything like that before in my life."

"Shh," Avery hissed, then whispered, "be silent."

"What is it?" Armegon whispered.

"The thing is lying beneath us," Avery whispered back.

Almost as soon as it was said, it was no longer true. The ground beneath them erupted upwards scattering them in all directions. Avery and Armegon fell to one side with Calista while Ruk, Ganatar, and Ultrecht were thrown over the crest of a dune. The trio tumbled down the backside and came to a rest in the gully between two dunes.

Quickly they regained their feet and circumvented the barrier of sand to rejoin their companions. But the sight that greeted them was unexpected. The sand was empty. There were footprints and a piece of cloth that Ruk identified as one of Calista's sleeves, but no other sign of the missing trio was visible.

"Where was that structure?" Ultrecht asked.

"Surely you are not going to give up on them," Ganatar asked shocked.

"There’s no need," Ultrecht replied. "There’s no one who can survive in unknown territory better than Avery, and that sword of his is the only operating magic in the area. If that thing got them we certainly won't stand a chance against it."

"You don't know that it got them," Ruk objected.

"Your right," Ultrecht agreed as he began climbing a dune. "Even if it didn't they aren't likely to stick around for long. We know where they were heading and they know we know. I’ve worked with Armegon and Avery for a long time. They’ll make for that structure and wait for us there. If we don't show up, they’ll assume we’ve perished, so let's get going."

Ruk glanced at Ganatar who shook his head tossing his mane. The unicorn suggested that climbing the dunes would wear them out further than they already were, so they should not climb the dunes, instead he and Ruk followed the contour around the side.

Ultrecht stood and gazed out at the dark structure in the distance. He pointed as he notified his fellows. "That way," he said. "If we climb a dune every now and then, we shouldn’t get too turned about." He slid down the back side. "It’s a large building, that’s for sure. Possibly it's the Tower we are looking for."

The trio wove their way through the dunes stopping occasionally for Ultrecht or Ruk to climb a dune and get their bearings. Truly enough, they were drawing nearer. By midday they were near enough to make out the shape. "A pyramid?" Ultrecht asked as Ruk rejoined Ganatar and himself at the foot of a tall dune.

"That is what it appears to be," Ruk assured him. "It’s very tall, though." He admitted that they were still to far to determine the number of faces the structure possessed, but the slope was too regular and no flaws could be detected for it to be a natural structure.
When night approached, Ultrecht and Ruk together climbed the nearest dune to judge their distance and progress.

"That’s odd," Ruk said as the saw the distant spire pointing skyward.

"What is it?"
The minotaan grunted. "We haven't gotten any closer than the last time I saw it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."
Ultrecht peered long at the horizon. "Let's get down," he said. "We need to rest."
Ganatar was anxious for news when the duet returned. Ruk passed on the grave news.

"Do you think we made a wrong turn?" the unicorn asked.

"No," Ruk insisted, but he also added that he could not be certain.

"I really think that we’re following a mirage," Ultrecht added. This world may be flat. If it really is an artificial world, the land may not be curved. If that’s true then a very large object at a great distance would seem closer than it really is."

"The other Towers did not seem that way," Ganatar remembered.

"We were dealing with an illusion in that situation," Ultrecht pointed out. The ice wall may actually have been much closer than we saw it as."

"Wouldn't Avery have told us?"

Ultrecht nodded. "True sight also has a drawback on occasion," he said. "Avery might have told us if he knew we were seeing the distance to the wall as something other than what it was. I think, however that my first impression is the correct one. I think the world is flat."

"I know many scholars who would mark you as insane for that last statement," Ruk remarked.

"Were they my contemporaries," Ultrecht sneered, "they would have made the same conclusion."

They finished the last of their water as dark fell. "This is going to get very uncomfortable," Ruk said as he drained his bottle. "I recommend we talk as little as possible. I once was on a ship for three days without fresh water. We lost a third of the crew. Talking was one of the problems. Every time you open your mouth water escapes your body. Avoid strenuous activity. Rapid breathing is worse than talking. Just keep a steady pace when we walk and try to avoid rough terrain. And lastly, at night sleep as much as possible. When you sleep your body slows down and conserves water."

Ultrecht and Ganatar agreed that Ruk's plan was good and when the next morning arrived, they set out across the desert again.

As planned very little was said. Ruk and Ultrecht took turns climbing the dunes to check their course, and spoke briefly to collaborate their plan. As darkness approached, Ruk mounted the dunes once more. He was certain this time that their destination was closer, yet still out of reach.

The next day came rudely. They were already beginning to feel the effects of dehydration setting in when they resumed the trek. Their legs moved noticeably slower and falls due to fatigue became more frequent. Thirsty, hungry and tired, they drove themselves onward in silence. Only the sound of the sand under their feet fell on their ears.

It was about an hour before dark when Ultrecht's turn to climb the dune came. From the top of the dune, he decided that if they hurried, they would make it before dark. The first thing he noted was that the structure was not a pyramid, as he had earlier though. Instead it was a massive cone shaped building.

Not that it was terribly important to finish the trek that day, but there near the base of the structure, was an outcropping of greenery suggesting an oasis. Water was one thing they needed badly. Already their lips were drying and they spoke very little. Ultrecht himself had gotten dizzy from dehydration several times that day already. They had long ago consumed the last of their water.

Returning to the others, he shared his view and opinion with them. They all agreed to try to quit the open desert before night. The promise of water was a strong incentive.

That last hour was very difficult. Ganatar fell twice to his knees and had to be helped up. If not for the unshakable stamina of the minotaan, they might have all perished within a few steps of relief, but Ruk emerged from the desert carrying Ultrecht and over half of the remaining baggage. Ganatar staggered slowly behind him.

The promised oasis glistened with flowing water. Nestled among a grove of palm trees, a fountain bubbled from an outcropping of sandstone and flowed down onto sand saturated by the wetness. The minotaan gently set his burdens down on the wet sand so that the cool wetness would draw some of the heat from his comrade.

Cautiously he tasted the beckoning liquid. Ruk offered a silent prayer of thanks that it was fresh water. He then drank a few sips. Being a sailor, he knew the dangers of drinking too much while dehydrated.

Encouraged, he retrieved Ultrecht and wiped his face and lips with water as well. For a human who was close to death from dehydration, Ultrecht showed considerable strength as he tried to put his mouth to the flood of life giving water. Fortunately, Ruk was stronger. "Later," he promised. "Just a little for now." Ganatar, too staggered forward and Ruk repeated his advice. The unicorn complied.

As darkness settled about them, Ruk filled the water bottles and huddled his charges together. In the fading light he slowly let them drink in larger and larger amounts over the next two hours. "No fire tonight," he muttered. "I have neither the strength nor the desire to move again until morning."

When morning arrived, the trio felt much better, but they were still weak. Ruk forced himself and the other two to drink all the water that they could hold. "Keep drinking until you have to relieve yourself often," he urged. "That’s how you will know your body has had enough water."

They spent the morning drinking water. By midday, they did not care if they never saw another drop, but they were much better off. They all were mobile again, if not weakly so. Another good sign manifested near dark, hunger returned. Ultrecht broke out some dried bread. He soaked it in water and munched slowly at first then greedily while Ganatar nibbled on fallen dates from a nearby tree.

Another night in the darkness, and when the second morning at the oasis arrived, they were strong enough to resume their mission, which Ultrecht pointed out was finding a way inside the tall conical structure.

A reconnaissance of the Tower revealed that it was featureless all along the base with no apparent entrances anywhere. What might be an opening near the top could be seen, but that was far too high to climb. The area about the Tower was that of a slow moving sea of sand. The Tower stood like a tide break with the sand of the desert waves breaking about it creating a calm shadow in its wake. It was in this area where the oasis had formed.

"I see no doors," Ganatar observed. "It is going to be very difficult to get inside without one."

"There has to be some way in," Ruk insisted. "It wouldn’t make sense for the thing to be here at all unless there was a way in."

"That may be it," Ultrecht added. "So far each time we’ve entered a Tower, there’s been some barrier or task that we had to complete first."

"I would think the desert was this Tower's task like the ice was the last one's," Ganatar offered.

Ultrecht agreed. "I’m sure it was," he said. "The first time there was the lake. Then inside the volcano was a trap. Once we got inside the Tower there were some things we had to fight and get around."

"The second Tower had a barrier of ice," Ruk recalled. "The trap was undoubtedly the spider web. The spiders sure didn’t go out of their way to help us."

"Then we can consider the desert as the first barrier," Ganatar deduced. "Then the trap or puzzle would be to gain entrance?"

"That would be my guess," Ultrecht agreed. "Then we’ll have to deal with whatever is inside. A dollar will get you ten that it won't be friendly."

Ganatar snorted then swung his head next to Ruk. "What is a 'dollar?'"

Ruk patted the unicorn's neck. "Don't worry about it," he said. "Ultrecht and the elves talk like that all the time. Calista insists that it’s some private joke from their distant pasts. It hasn’t got anything to do with us. He’s right, though. Whatever’s inside, it’s not going to be very hospitable."

"So how do we get inside?" Ultrecht asked more to himself than anyone else.

"Knock?" Both Ruk and Ultrecht frowned. Ganatar personally thought his joke was funny.

They returned to the oasis and sat by the fountain of water. Food was not running dangerously low yet, but that would not last. Water, the most precious commodity in the desert was in abundance at the moment.

The day wore on, and Ultrecht gazed out at the dunes bordering the oasis. Armegon, Calista and Avery were out there somewhere. It was an unsettling thought, but Ultrecht could not help being worried. Though they had not dwelt on the possible perishment of their comrades, the possibility was real. Ultrecht simply could not accept the idea that Avery would get so lost in the desert that they would fail to make it to the Tower where Ruk, Ganatar and himself had succeeded.

The only two possibilities that Ultrecht could not eliminate was that they were killed in the monster's attack, or they had already arrived and entered the Tower. The last option was even more unlikely, because it had not taken them long to reach the oasis themselves. Surely Avery, Armegon and the girl would have waited for them.

Ultrecht had to face the very real possibility that they were dead or trapped or lost in the desert. Either way, if Armegon and Avery could not handle the situation, there was very little that Ruk, Ganatar or he could do.

Ultrecht turned his attention back to the task at hand. Somehow they needed to get inside. He kicked at the thin layer of dust and sand that covered the rocky ground. The structure obviously blocked a great deal of sand drift. It probably was much deeper than normal on the other side of the Tower.

Ultrecht froze so as not to spoil his train of thought. A large pebble that had weathered the recent storm showed a miniature version of what he had just considered. On the windward side of the pebble sand was stacked up almost burying it. The leeward side was almost bare of any sand at all. That was it!

Ultrecht leaped to his feet and rushed Ruk who was drinking from the fount. "Put a cork in it," he said excitedly. "We have work to do and the day’s half over already."

Ganatar and Ruk followed the fanatical mage back around the Tower climbing the dunes as they went. Ultrecht reached the pinnacle of one built up against the conic structure and started digging in the sand. "The door is here," he shouted excitedly. "The wind simply has covered it up with sand."

Ruk looked to the left and then to the right. The Tower was very wide. Without a working crew of dozens of men and carts to carry the sand away, it would take weeks, maybe months to excavate the site until they reached the Tower's base. Even then there was no guarantee that a door would be found.

Ruk was almost ready to write Ultrecht off as having a mental breakdown, but damned if his claim didn't make sense. If a door was there, it would have been covered by sand.

The rest of the day was spent moving sand. When the light began to gray out again, they returned to the oasis to spend the evening. The next morning held a disappointing surprise. All of the sand that had been moved the day before had cascaded back into the shallow pit they had excavated.

"I can see that this will be a very trying task," Ganatar observed. He felt more than a little guilty about not doing any of the work, but his lack of manipulative limbs necessitated it.

"So it does," Ruk agreed. "If we can't keep the sand from falling back down into the pit, it may be a lost cause."

"I’m sure that we’ll come up with something," Ultrecht replied and rolled up his sleeves. Again the two bipeds began to shovel sand away from the side of the Tower.

Ganatar, again very embarrassed that all he could do was stand and watch wandered back to the oasis. The unicorn pondered for a couple of hours about how to go about keeping the sand out of the pit. The pit would stand as it was down to a certain depth, beyond that, the sides would avalanche.

Near midday, the unicorn took the water sack in his mouth and carried it back to the excavation site. He may not be able to dig, but he could give some assistance. The pit was fairly deep. Ultrecht stood a few feet from it's rim moving sand away from the pit edge.

Ruk was in the pit tossing sand out by the hands full. The pit was fairly deep.

Ganatar approached Ultrecht and offered the sack. The mage, working harder than he had done so in many years, gratefully accepted the gift. "Thank you."

"How goes the work," the unicorn asked.

"Hot," Ruk replied.

"I have brought some water," Ganatar explained. "If Ultrecht does not drain the sack in one swallow, you will get some." Ultrecht smiled as he wiped the moisture from his mouth.

"That hit the spot," he sighed.

At that moment a loud hiss was heard and both unicorn and human turned about to see a dust cloud hovering above the pit. As the haze cleared, they were shocked by the sight of two ebony forearms and hands emerging from the sand where the pit had caved in. The hands were reaching desperately for a hold on anything.

Dropping the water sack, Ultrecht and Ganatar ran to the rescue. Ganatar planted a strong leg next to the grasping hand and Ultrecht guided the minotaan's hand to the hand hold. The second hand immediately joined the first and Ganatar felt the pressure as Ruk struggled to pull himself upwards.

At the same time, Ultrecht urgently dug sand as fast as he could from the pit where Ruk's head must have been. The tall warrior would not survive for long without air. He quickly located one of the minotaan's horns at the expense of goring his hand on it. Ignoring the pain, he concentrated on that guide to the warrior's head.

Ruk was not giving up without a fight. With Ganatar's sure-footed anchor to pull from, Ruk inched himself upwards until exhaustion and lack of air drained the strength from his limbs.

Those inches proved to be precious, however, as Ultrecht cleared the long nose and mouth just in time to keep Ruk from losing consciousness. When the mage saw that Ruk was breathing he stopped digging.

"Don't speak," he warned. "The movement might trigger another avalanche. Just breathe. When you’re ready to keep working pull on Ganatar's leg."

Several long moments followed before the Minotaan resumed his struggle. With Ultrecht and Ganatar to help him, he soon had his shoulders free of the sand. They stopped to rest.

"This isn’t going to work," Ruk observed. "As soon as we get deep enough the sand falls in, and what’s worse is that I think we were on to something. There was an irregularity in the smooth wall emerging just before the sand fell."

"There has to be a way of getting the sand to pack together just a little more," Ultrecht insisted.

"There is," Ganatar announced triumphantly. Ruk and Ultrecht turned and were both struck by the same realization. Where Ultrecht had dropped the water sack, the contents had spilled out on the sand. There in the wet sand was a hoof print. The print was well defined and deep. The wet sand held its shape.

"Good show!" Ultrecht yelped. He experimentally pressed his fist into the wet sand. The shape held well.

"That may work after all," Ruk said. "And yet in this heat and dry air, I wonder how long the sand will remain wet? If it dries too quickly, we might find ourselves within reach of the entrance when the wall gives way."

"Then we must keep the water in the sand." Ganatar took the water sack in his mouth.

"You can carry a lot of water with each trip," Ultrecht agreed, "but you can’t effectively direct it's flow nor can you dig. Without careful distribution of the water, it may cause a cave-in as easily as if it were not there at all."

"Then let’s soak the ground over night," Ruk suggested. "That way in the morning the water will already be in place."

"There is no light at night," Ganatar complained.

"We can scout out the trip during the day," Ultrecht suggested. "We can set markers along the way, and then we can follow the markers in the darkness. All we have to do is dump water on the sand."

"You mean we set out markers between the sand and the oasis and go back and forth all night carrying water to pour on the sand?" The concept was not too difficult for Ganatar to believe, but there was a flaw. "By the next morning, won't you be too tired to dig?"

"Not really," Ultrecht assured him. "Ruk and I can fill and pour. That’s not a strenuous task. The hard part will be carrying the water overland and up the sand hill."

Ruk draped a midnight colored arm across the unicorn's neck. "Guess who gets to do the hard part?"

Ganatar snorted. "My island is beginning to look better by the minute," he remarked with a chuckle. Human and minotaan joined in on the laughter.

Together the trio returned to the oasis and managed to locate a collection of stones and dead wood from the oasis foliage. They used those to string ropes and poles the distance from the oasis top the wall of the Tower. Then from the base of the dune to the place where the water was to be administered.

The plan was to follow the rope to the Tower and then the Tower wall to the dune. Once they reached the dune, the second rope would lead them to the target area.

With their plan secure and thought out, they relaxed the day away putting together water containers and eating the fruits of the palm trees. They had a long night ahead of them.
Ultrecht had dozed off and snoozed heavily for a while when Ruk woke him. In the total darkness, the Minotaan could not be seen. "What is it?" the human asked.
"The night’s half gone," the minotaan explained. "Ganatar and I have been dumping water all the while you slept."

Peering about in the void, Ultrecht could see not sign of his companions. "Where is Ganatar?"

"Over here," the unicorn replied from nearby. "I am next to the fountain."
Ultrecht followed the voice. "It’s amazing you found me in this darkness," he muttered.

"Not really," Ruk yawned in the darkness. "Your snoring told us exactly where you were at all times. In fact we hardly needed any other help to get back here."

Ultrecht responded by sticking his tongue out at the warrior. Ruk would not see it of course, but it made Ultrecht feel better.

He bumped into Ganatar as he stumbled through the night. Ganatar informed him that he already had a full load of water, and he directed Ultrecht to the guide line. Together they followed the rope. Ultrecht quickly learned to take high steps to keep sand from dragging at his feet. When they reached the Tower wall, Ultrecht almost smacked his face against the stone.

"It is about three hundred human paces to the excavation," Ganatar informed him.
Ultrecht felt the smooth edge of the Tower wall. Using that as a guide, he followed its gentle curve a terrible distance. He was almost certain that they had completely circled the base when his hand unexpectedly bumped against the heap of stones and sand that they had piled against the Tower base to mark the beginning of the second guide rope.

Running his hand down the debris, Ultrecht located the rope and with Ganatar following on the end of a third two-meter length of rope made his way up the dune. This last stage of the trip was the shortest one. Even so, the slope made the climb more difficult than the walk from the oasis to the dune. Still, When the sound of the sand beneath his feet changed, Ultrecht realized that the first trip was complete. He reached the end of the rope which was anchored to a meter long piece of deadwood sticking up from the sand anchoring the guide line.

"Now take the water sacks and empty them," Ganatar advised. "Ruk and I would spread the water out over an area as far from the stick as the two of us could reach."

Ultrecht did as he was directed and then the mage and unicorn returned to the oasis via the guide line. Ruk was breathing heavily which combined almost musically with the soft trickle of water from the fountain. The filling of the bags took several long minutes.

Ultrecht and Ruk had scavenged and thrown together every container they could find. He guessed that they were moving fifty liters or so with every trip.

At first Ultrecht tried to keep count of the trips they made, but soon lost interest. Using his heartbeat as a timer, he guessed that they were making about five trips every hour.

Ganatar disagreed slightly, but the rough estimate was accurate enough to predict from. Ganatar insisted that he and Ruk were making seven trips per hour. Ultrecht decided that at an average of six trips per hour they would have moved an awful lot of water by morning.

When morning arrived, and the graying light revealed the extent of their night's work, Ultrecht felt fairly certain that their plan would work. The water had surely penetrated the sand to an appreciable depth and the moist sand would pack and hold its shape more readily.

Finally he and Ganatar woke Ruk. The minotaan took his shield and began the excavation almost immediately. Ultrecht took a short nap and was awakened by Ganatar about two hours into the day. The unicorn then settled down for a nap of his own while Ultrecht went to join Ruk.

The results of their work was dramatic. The damp sand allowed them to dig more steeply. As a result, their pit descended rapidly. By midday the unmistakable frame of a window or doorway had emerged from beneath them.

Enthusiastically they accelerated their work until the opening was wide enough to allow Ultrecht to crawl through. The mage entered the crawl space and reported that it too was filled with sand, but a wooden door was present.

"If we open the door," Ruk suggested. The sand will flow inward and clear a lot of this away for us."

"It might also cave this pit in and trap us in there," Ultrecht pointed out.

Ganatar, who had arrived just minutes before the opening appeared suggested that should the pit cave in and the interior of the door was large enough, the sand would pour in until the top of the dune was at the same level as that of the door.

"Actually that is probably the best thing for us to do," Ruk agreed. "Let us open or break the door inward and let the vacant inside of the Tower catch the inflow of sand. When the flow stops we can easily make our way in."

Ultrecht studied the proposal for a moment and while there were flaws in it, it still was the best option they had, so he agreed. Ganatar, with Ultrecht's help anchored a rope about himself and the other end was tied to Ruk. The idea was for Ruk to break the door open and Ganatar would pull him out of the pit as it caved in.

Ruk, with the rope secured about his waist, lay on his stomach and pressed his massive hands on the wooden door. The thing was iron bound and would be impossible to break without a ram of some kind. Fortunately, however the door opened inward and Ruk was certain that the lock was pickable. He sent Ultrecht back to the oasis to retrieve his thieves tools from his pack.

The mage left immediately and soon returned with the tools and dragging both packs as well. "We would have had to go back and get them anyhow," he explained as he tossed the pouch of tools to the minotaan.

Ruk, tools in hand, focused his attention on the lock. It was not a complex device. A simple tumbler set was its design. All he had to do was trip the tumblers. Within minutes the task was complete.

"I’m about to open the door," he warned as he gripped the handle. "Get ready."
With a wrench, Ruk turned the handle. "Go!" he yelled.

Almost instantly he felt the rope tug him back sharply. Ganatar leaned into his task with such force, that he almost jerked the warrior out of the pit. Ruk would normally have chagrined from the abusive treatment, but the vision of a jagged blade slicing up through the sand that would have cut him in half had he still been laying at the door gave him cause to keep silent. The door had been trapped. Only blind luck and the fact that they were trying to avoid him getting caught in a cave-in had saved his life. The minotaan, with the rope to help him, climbed out of the collapsing pit.

The sand around the pit sank as the walls collapsed and the sand poured in through the doorway. Ruk reflected with some satisfaction that if there were any other traps just inside the door, the sand would trip them as well.

Several long moments went by and finally the sand slowed to a stop. The pit had widened drastically and the walls were no longer very steep. In fact the area around the door looked very much like a valley between two huge dunes. With hardly any effort at all, the trio approached the half buried door.

Kneeling, Ultrecht peered inside. "It’s pretty dark in there," he reported. "We'll need some torches."

"That shouldn’t be too difficult," Ruk said. "We have plenty of blankets to make torches with."

"There is one other question," Ganatar pointed out.

"Yes?"

"What about the others?"

"Avery, Armegon and Calista did not make it here," Ultrecht said. His voice cracked as he spoke. The apparent loss of close friends extracted a heavy toll. "We can not assume that they survived. We must continue on as best we can in spite of how we feel about it. Too much is depending on our getting you and ourselves out of this prison."

"Is it possible that they wandered out of the desert and moved on ahead?" Ruk asked.

"I doubt it," Ultrecht said. "They know this Tower has to be activated. There’s no reason for them to move on until it is." Ultrecht smiled. "Don't worry," he encouraged. "Once this Tower has magic in it I can use a spell to find out what happened to them."

They returned to the oasis and set about making torches. They also refreshed their provisions with water from the fountain and some dates. Ganatar suggested waiting until morning to start, but Ruk and Ultrecht disagreed. In spite of how they felt, they wanted to get inside the Tower before some event covered the doorway again.

With a dozen torches at their disposal, the trio returned to the Tower entrance. "It is far too small for me to squeeze through," Ganatar observed. "Does that mean I have to stay behind again?"

"I’m afraid so," Ultrecht replied with regret. "It seems the builders of these Towers didn’t take the comfort of quadrupeds into account."

"Besides," Ruk joked, "who else will stay out here to tell the others where we are?"
Ganatar agreed. There really was no other option, but he was beginning to resent being left behind.

Ultrecht and Ruk descended the slope and crouched at the entrance of the Tower. Ultrecht lighted the first torch and passed it to Ruk who crept cautiously into the gloom.