The Great Bazaar and Other Stories by Peter V. Brett Page B

Heaven, but even
such as they deserved hallowed ground to lay to rest, that I heir spirits might
be reincarnated into a higher caste, if they were worthy.
    And there was only
one way the dal'Sharum hallowed ground. They stained it with their
blood, and the black ichor that flowed through coreling veins. They called it alagai'sharak ,
meaning "demon war," and it was a battle waged every night in Fort
Krasia, an eternal struggle that would go on until all the demons were dead, or
there were no more men to fight them. The warriors had danced one night's alagai'sharak in Baha kad'Everam, to sanctify the Bahavans' graveyard.
    Arlen rode around
the blockades and down to the riverbed, a mighty channel that now held only a
muddy, buggy trickle of water. Some thin vegetation clung stubbornly to the
water's edge, but further back the stalks of dead plants jutted, choked with
dust and too dry to rot.
    The water collected
in a few small pools, brown and stinking. Arlen filtered it through charcoal
and cloth, but still looked at the water doubtfully, and decided to boil it, as
well. Dawn Runner nibbled at the bits of weed and prickly grass while he
worked.
    It was getting
late in the day, and Arlen looked at the setting sun resentfully. "C'mon,
boy," he told the horse. "Time to lock ourselves up for the
night."
    He led Dawn Runner
back up the bank and into the main courtyard of the village. With little rain
or erosion, the demon pits, twenty feet deep and ten feet in diameter, remained
intact, but the wards that had been cut into the stones around them were dirty
and faded. Any demon thrown into one of the pits now would likely climb right
back out.
    Still, the pits
gave some security. Arlen set up his portable circles right between the adobe
walls and one pit, limiting the path of approach to his camp.
    Ten feet in
diameter, Arlen's portable warding circles were composed of lacquered wooden
plates connected by lengths of stout rope. Each plate was painted with ancient
symbols of forbiddance, enough to shield him from every known breed of
coreling. He laid them out in precise fashion, ensuring that the wards lined up
correctly to form a seamless net.
    He drove a stake
into the clay inside one circle and looped rope around Dawn Runner's legs,
hobbling the horse and tying it to the stake with a complicated knot. If the
horse struggled or tried to bolt when the demons came, the ropes would tighten
and hold it in place, but Arlen could free the knot with but a tug, dropping
the loops and freeing Dawn Runner instantly.
    In the other
circle, Arlen made his own camp. He laid a fire, but did not yet set spark to
it, for wood was precious this far out, and the desert night would grow bitter
cold.
    As he worked,
Arlen's eyes kept drifting up the stone steps lo the adobe buildings built into
the walls. Somewhere up I here was the workshop of Master Dravazi, an artisan
whose painted pottery had been worth its weight in gold while he lived, and was
priceless now. One original Dravazi, lying forgotten on the potter's wheel,
would likely finance his entire trip. More would make him a very rich man.
    Arlen even had a
good idea of where the master's workshop lay from his maps, but as much as he
wanted to go and search, the sun was setting.
    As the great orb
settled below the horizon, the heat leached from the clay flats, drifting
skyward and giving the demons a path up from the Core. An evil gray mist rose
from the ground outside the circles, coalescing slowly into demonic form.
    As the mist rose,
Arlen began to feel claustrophobic, as if his circle was surrounded by glass
walls, cutting him off from the world. It was hard to breathe in the circle,
even though the wards blocked only demon magic, and fresh air blew across his
lace even now. He looked out at his rising jailors, and bared his teeth.
    Wind demons were
the first to form, standing about the height of a tall man at the shoulder, but
with head fins that rose much higher, topping eight or nine