Free Black Jade by David Zindell

'Are we now speaking of fish?'
    'Now you are being an ass!' Master Juwain snapped out.
    'Ah, well, I must confess,' Maram said, 'that I do not remember anything about this Jaskar the Wise or his scales.'
    'Jaskar the Wise,' Master Juwain reminded him, 'was the Master Diviner and then Grandmaster of the Blue Brotherhood in the Age of Law. But never mind for right now who he was. We are concerned with the principle that he elucidated: that when faced with two or more equally logical alternatives, the simplest should be given the greatest weight.'
    'And so we are to look for an ass's ears, and so two rocks and not four, is that right?'
    'I believe that is right.'
    Maram covered his heavy brows with his hand as he scanned the great wall of the Nagarshath along our way. And he said, 'I haven't seen anything that looks like ears, those of an ass or any other beast, and we've come at least a hundred and forty miles from the Jade.'
    'And we've still another forty until we reach the Oro. And so we can deduce that we'll come across this landmark between here and there.'
    Maram looked behind at our pursuers and said, 'Closer to to here would be better than closer to there. I'm getting a bad feeling about all this. I hope we find these damn donkey's ears, and soon.'
    After that we rode even faster through the swishing grasses along the mountains, and so did the men who followed us. I, too, had a bad feeling about them, and it grew only hotter and more galling as the sun rose higher above us. I turned often to make sure that Karimah and her Manslayers covered our rear, just as I watched Bajorak and his Danladi warriors fanned out ahead of us. After brooding upon Master Juwain's and Maram's little argument and all that my friends had said to me the night before, I finally pushed Altaru forward at a gallop so that I might hold counsel with this strong-willed headman of the Tarun clan.
    After pounding across the stone-strewn turf and accidentally trampling the nest of a meadowlark, I came up to Bajorak. He held up his hand and called for a halt then. When he saw the look in my eyes, he led me away from Pirraj and the huge Kashak and his other warriors. He reined in his horse near a large boulder about fifty yards from his men. And he said to me, 'What is it, Valashu Elahad?'
    For a moment I studied this great Sarni warrior, with his limbs, neck and head encircled in gold and his face painted with blue stripes like some sort of strange tiger. Most of all I looked deeply into his dazzling blue eyes. And then I asked him: 'Do you know of two rocks, along the mountains, shaped like an ass's ears? There would be a span between them - and possibly a stream or a river.'
    His eyes grew brighter and even harder, like blue diamonds, as he stared at me. And he answered my question with a question: 'Is that where we are to escort you then?'
    'Perhaps,' I told him.
    His fine face pulled into a scowl, and he snapped his braided, black quirt against his hand. 'I know not of any ass's ears, and I care not.'
    I couldn't keep down my disappointment, and he must have felt this for his eyes softened as he said, 'But there are two great rocks like unto those you describe, about ten miles south of here. We call them the Red Shields. If that is your destination, however, you would have had a hard time finding it.'
    'Why so?'
    'Because the Shields face east, and we approach them from the northwest. From our vantage, we will see only their edges - and the rocks and trees on the slopes behind them.'
    I continued gazing at him, and I finally asked, 'Do these shields, then, guard a gorge cutting through the mountains?'
    He shrugged his shoulders. 'I know not. No Sarni would ever journey into the mountains to find out.'
    He turned to snap his quirt toward the mountain and asked me, 'What is the name of this gorge?'
    Our eyes locked together, and something inside him seemed to
    push at me, as I pushed at him. I said, 'If you've no care for gorges, you would have even less