The King in Reserve by Michael Pryor Page A

her and pointing. 'This star?'
    Simangee nodded. 'I'd say so.'
    Adalon hissed and walked around the perimeter of the disk. 'Then the Lost Castle has one too.'
    'More,' Targesh said. 'See?'
    The dark stars were scattered across the map, high in mountains, in the middle of deserts, resting on seashores.
    And Adalon then recalled the master map in the Lost Castle. Stunned, he didn't trust himself to look. 'Tell me,' he said. 'Are the stars connected to each other? See if you can find any lines.'
    Simangee stared at him for a moment, then bent and peered at the map, hands on her knees. 'What are you talking about –' she began, then she blinked. She dropped onto all fours and swept a sleeve over the surface of the map. 'I thought they were just scratches,' she said. Her face was close to the map. She crawled slowly, nodding. She grinned and sat on her haunches. 'You're right, Adalon. Whatever gave you that idea?'
    'The master map, the one in the Room of Dreams. It's the same.'
    'Does Knobblond have a star?' Gormond asked, bustling to where Simangee was sitting.
    'There's one in Muhna,' Adalon said. 'And one in the west. See? Right against the mountains.'
    Gormond scratched his cheek. 'I don't think so. Too close to Ustung's Chasm. It's so deep that it's only in summer that the noonday sun strikes the bottom, you know.' The young king walked across the map and bent over. His head bobbed. 'You could be right. It could be a blemish, though.'
    Before anyone could move, Gormond leaned over to brush away the offending mark. As soon as his fingertips touched the star, Gormond vanished.
    Immediately, Adalon rose onto his toes, hissing. 'Simangee! What happened? Magic?'
    Simangee, too, was on her feet. She leaned from one side to the other, questing. 'Yes. A surge of power.'
    'Is he dead?'
    'No. Gone. Gone somewhere.'
    'Why? How?'
    'He touched that star,' Targesh said.
    'But you touched one and didn't disappear,' Adalon said to Simangee.
    'No. I was careful not to.'
    'Stay here,' Adalon said, but Targesh was closer. The Horned One held up a hand. 'No,' Adalon said, but Targesh strode across the map, touched Gormond's star with one foot, and vanished.
    Adalon cursed and raced around the circumference of the map, unwilling to step onto Krangor. He reached the western shore but leaped backwards, hissing, when Targesh reappeared. He was holding Gormond by the back of the neck, but the Plated One didn't look upset at all. Instead, he was grinning widely and brandishing a branch that was heavy with purple berries.
    'Stoneseed!' Gormond said as Targesh dragged him off the map face. 'Stoneseed!'
    Adalon clicked his claws together. His tail thrashed. He wanted to berate Gormond, to chastise him for putting himself in danger.
    Simangee put a hand on his shoulder. 'Stoneseed is only found on the rocky cliffs in the west of Knobblond,' she said.
    'That's right,' Gormond said. 'I've been home!'

Seventeen
    Wargrach liked dungeons. In a dungeon, there was no comfort, no refinement, none of the softness that modern saur wanted. No, in a dungeon a saur was reduced to the basic needs: food, water, a place to sleep. And survival. Wargrach liked the way that a dungeon made a saur think very hard about survival.
    He sat, propped on his tail, in one of the cells in the depths of High Battilon. He admired the ancient saur who sat cross-legged on the cold stone and glared back at him. The saur was gaunt, a Billed One with skin that sagged at his neck and arms. He didn't look at all uncomfortable, despite the cold and the fact that he was naked apart from a linen breech cloth wrapped around his loins.
    The ancient saur cleared his throat. It sounded like a landslide. 'You've been staring at me for an hour,' he said. 'I can wait another hour, or however long you like, but I don't think you can. You're cold and your knees are aching. They'll give way soon.'
    Wargrach didn't move a muscle, but he knew the old saur was right. 'Help me and you may live,' he said. It