The Desert Spear

uncover them. The ward for rock demons is similar to the one for sand. The walls of the Maze should serve as a pit until the dawn.”
    Jardir took the wardstones and examined them. Indeed, they contained wards similar to those for sand, but larger and angled differently, with a break in one of the lines. He traced them with a finger.
    “There is a dead end two turns into the tenth,” he said.
    “I know it, First Warrior,” the Warder said, bowing.
    Jardir turned to Hasik and Shanjat. “Keep watch on the demon. Do nothing unless there is a sign that the wards on the gate are weakening. If that should happen, I want every man in the Maze on that monster.”
    The two warriors punched their chests and bowed. Jardir selected his three best Warders, and they escorted the greenlander to the alcove. When all five of them agreed the wards on the walls and at the entrance would hold, they staked the wardstones in place and covered them with a sand-colored tarp that could be quickly removed.
    Again Jardir found himself impressed with the Northerner. Warding was an elite skill in Krasia, reserved only for
dama
and a few warriors they handselected.
    “Who are you?” he asked, but the greenlander only shrugged, not understanding.
    They returned to the front of the lines, where the demon continued to systematically attack every inch of the gate, searching for a weakness.
    Jardir looked at the gigantic
alagai
and felt a stab of fear, but he was the First Warrior. He would ask no other to lure the beast.
    Either I am the Deliverer, or I am not,
he told himself, struggling to believe. But he knew Inevera lied freely about other things, so why not this?
    He steeled himself, drawing a ward in the air, and took a step forward.
    “No, Sharum Ka!” Hasik shouted. “I am your bodyguard! Let me lure the demon!”
    Jardir shook his head. “Your courage does you great honor, but this task is for me alone.”
    The greenlander said something, making a chopping motion with his arm, but the time for deciphering his cryptic messages was past. Jardir embraced his fears and strode out to the demon, shouting and clattering his spear against his shield.
    The demon ignored him, continuing its assault on the gate.
    Jardir charged, stabbing hard at the joint in the demon’s armor at the back of its knee, but the creature only flicked its massive tail at him, as a horse would a fly.
    Jardir danced out of the way, ducking as the spiked appendage whooshed over his head. He looked at his spear and found that the tip had broken off.
    “Camel’s piss,” he muttered, going back to the lines to take a fresh spear from Hasik.
    “First Warrior, look!” his bodyguard cried, pointing. Jardir turned to see the greenlander striding out to the demon.
    “Fool!” he cried. “What are you doing?” But the greenlander gave no indication that he had even heard, much less understood. He stopped just outside the creature’s reach and gave a shout.
    The demon ceased its assault at the sound, tilting its head and sniffing at the air. It turned to regard the greenlander, and there was a flare of recognition in its alien eyes.
    “Nie’s blood,” Hasik breathed. “It knows him.”
    The beast gave a great roar and charged, swiping with the claws of its good arm, but the greenlander was quick to leap aside, turning to run for the trapped alcove.
    “Clear the way!” Jardir shouted, and his warriors moved as one to flow out of their path. As the demon passed, Jardir darted after them, followed by all the gathered warriors.
    The Maze shook with the pounding of the demon’s feet, and it kicked up great clouds of dust in its wake that made it difficult to see the greenlander. But the demon kept howling and running, so Jardir could only assume the
chin
maintained his lead.
    They made two sharp turns, and in the dim light of the oil lamps Jardir saw the greenlander turn into the alcove. The demon followed, and the Pit Warders sprang from concealment to reveal the wards.
    The rock demon roared in triumph seeing its prey trapped, and lunged at the greenlander, who turned and darted right at the beast.
    Magic flared, and the great demon’s claws skittered off the greenlander’s shield. He was knocked over by the blow, but he rolled back to his feet like a cat, springing past the demon before it could draw back to attack him again.
    The wards were revealed, but Jardir saw immediately that the rock demon had stepped on one of the central wardstones as it stomped