93

Chief Kothis just waits, his eyes on Stralchus. The mystic seems ready to order an attack—one that, you suspect, would overwhelm the village. But instead he just waves, and after a moment, the elephant turns, slow as an ocean liner, and vanishes—with much crashing and devastation—back into the forest.

"Scouts," Kothis says without hesitation. Hunters vanish to follow the trail of the creature as everyone else relaxes.

"I think you could defeat and overthrow him," Therko says. "Stralchus is vain and cruel, and certainly not invincible."

"But then there is the False Icon," Vecla says. "There must be some way to let Stralchus and the gray mountain destroy each other."

Kothis keeps his people on guard for days, ready for another appearance of the Ziggurat's followers, but while news comes of more slave-taking expeditions, you do not see the reed ships or the many-tusked elephant again.

One day, Control says, "We can brook no more delays. We must replace the Specular's central refractive prism with a crystal of equal quality."