Kolbe quickened his pace when he heard Serona's voice carry from beneath the glistening black shape, careening into the thing hard, enraged, and hauling it with all his strength onto its loathesome back.  Its limbs scythed the air mindlessly as the Captain's blade was driven home, yet even then the creature continued to thrash murderously on its back, its foul blood seeping into the hot, flowing dust.  Behind them, the walls of the canyon were dripping, flowing, reshaping with a terrible, thunderous noise.  Kolbe made a dry, grim noise in his parched throat.  Better though the earth was for its extinction, slaying the rod-bearing fiend had bought them far less than he had hoped.

The knight extended his bloodied, mailed hand to the Captain, hauling him up.  Supported him on one shoulder, labored breath hissing through his sand-encrusted helm as they dragged themselves toward the King over the undulating waves of terrain.

"This is no Vicenni sorcery." rasped Kolbe, "Is [i]this[/i]...  What you sought... sire?"

A noise pierced through the thunder of upheaval -- He looked back, bracing his shieldarm, expecting to see a tide of misshapen black bodies surging through the heaving earth behind them.  Instead, through the filmy orange haze, he beheld a lone horse, with two riders.  One -- incredibly -- bore the colors of Areta, the other...

[i]Hrnn. [/i]

--the other conspicuously did [i]not[/i].

Linus limped over the shaking ground to the King's side, flanking him, ready for whatever fresh ordeal the desert had in store for them this time.