"And where is this monastery?" - I asked.

“In the vicinity of the city of Harshuta. There are caravans going there from time to time, and you can probably join one of them.”

“Harshuta?” - I surprised. - "Caravan, whom I met in the desert, said that the way to it takes six months.”

"Yes, if you walk in the desert.” - Kerbhol agreed. – “But there all distances increase tenfold. And beyond the Great Wall, between the cities of Sanagar and Harshuta, there is a road that a man on foot traverses in four days. This is if you go without stopping day and night. And if you follow the usual pace of the caravan, and even defend yourself from the attacks of the zugs, the journey takes two weeks.”

"Then what's the point of driving caravans through the desert?" - I asked.

"This way is safe.” - The priest sighed. - "At least as long as you follow the pathways. Direct route is possible only under the protection of magicians, however, not always the entire caravan reaches its destination. Sometimes other caravans find the chewed skeletons of losers. So, many people prefer not to take risks, but just to spend more time, especially since while a person is in the desert, he does not age, does not experience hunger and thirst, does not need to sleep, and so on.”

Hmm, well then it is correct. In such conditions, long marches across the desert are not so terrible.

"I'll have to think about it.” - I frowned. If the path through the desert is safer, it may be faster to lead another caravan using the Travel Song.

"But the direct route goes near the Crystal Hills.” - Priest added. - "Perhaps they have something common with the purpose of your search."

This remark was quite valuable. The Crystal Mountains and Crystal Hills described too similar images to simply ignore such coincidence.

"Okay, thanks for the answers.” - I nodded to the priest. – “Where can I find out if caravans are going to go to Harshuta in the near future?

“All caravans are managed by the Caravan Tower. Ask any passer-by and they will show you the way. It's a ten-minute walk, don't get lost. It is a tall and wide circular building that does not exactly look like a tower, but it will be difficult to confuse it with something else.”

"Thank you again for this conversation.”

I got up from the bench and went to the door. I had nothing to pay for information, and I considered creating an image of gold coins as a bad idea. The priest didn't raise the issue either, so I considered it closed.

When I left the temple, I looked around, and then soared to the sky. As soon as I was above the roofs of the houses, I saw the structure described by the priest. It looked more like a Colosseum than a tower, but it was really hard to confuse it with any other building in the city. When I went there, a couple of minutes later, I flew through the wide doors that were open to visitors. Caravans with camels and carts went to the building through a separate entrance, and I decided that I did not need to go there yet.

Oddly enough, my appearance did not cause a stir. Moreover, no one paid any attention to me at all. Apparently, merchants were more accustomed to the appearance of non-human beings. I flew up to the counter where a young guy was making out some documents, and asked him, ignoring the queue standing nearby.

"Whom can I talk to about joining the caravan as a mage?"

The guy wrote a sentence on the paper, looked up at me with a displeased look, then started and stammered in fright.

“All issues related to magicians are dealt with by Lord Partalan. He can be found on the top floor of the tower.

Irritatingly snorting, I flew out, went up to the level of the upper floors, and then flew into one of the windows. Despite the cool weather and the breeze, the windows on the upper floor were almost empty of glass. Perhaps the reason for this was the fact that the magicians preferred to go in and out through the windows.

The floor was surprisingly empty. The rooms and corridors were furnished with luxury and pomp, but I saw no visitors or servants. I wandered around for a few minutes until I heard the voices of people. When I got closer, I stopped without entering the room. From behind the open door came the voices of two people discussing an interesting question.

“...warehouses, so we need to resolve the issue of sending the caravan.” - The dry senile voice belonged to the subordinate, who spoke respectfully, albeit with irritation

“Did you manage to find out anything about the fate of the caravan of old man Eisehariya?” - The second voice was radiant with the superiors' laziness and power.

“Nothing. As if he had fallen through the earth.”

"Don't scare me like that. In our region, such misfortunes have never happened.”

“Sorry. No trace of the caravan could be found. A group of mages went through the entire route, but found no remains of wagons or signs of destructive magic. Like through... um-huh... no trace was found.”

"How is it possible? Old Eisehariya was a very experienced mage. And zugs have never been seen eating metal wagons.”

"Maybe someone else found the remains of the caravan and appropriated them."

"Who, for example? I spoke with Harshuta’s khan. He swore that no caravan had ever left his city in our direction. They are still sitting there waiting for someone to find out what happened to their previous caravan. So, the disappearance of two caravans in a row cannot be an accident.”

"Maybe we should send two or even three magicians with the caravan instead of just one."

"What do we do if they too disappear?"

"I heard a rumor that one of the desert caravans heard a Traveling Song and was able to reach our city in just a few minutes.”

"Minutes already? These stories have been told for thousands of years, and every year the speed of travel with the Traveling Song only increases. Soon we will hear that by singing a two-line ditto, a caravan can instantly move to the other end of the desert.”

The answer to this claim was the guilty silence. I thought this was a good time to go into the room and finally see the owners of the voices.

“Good day.” - I said, examining the two mages. The fat 'boss' was lying on the sofa, lazily eating grapes, and his thin subordinate stood at attention in front of him, eating the boss with a devoted look.

"Oh no, not good.” - The fat man didn't agree with me, taking upright position. - "Who are you?"

Considering the not-so-polite tone in his voice, I decided that keeping of etiquette in this case would be an unaffordable luxury.

"I am the greatest wizard of all time! Storm of seas and desert hurricane Freddy Krueger. I have come to your provincial village to favor you with my presence and to suppress you with my greatness.”

With these words I took off my disguise and began to put pressure on the dream world with my Ego. The two mages in front of me also tried to exert their powers, but they looked rather pale against my background.

"Oh! Wait, we can make a deal.” - The thin wizard cackled.

“So, start agree.” - I nodded benignly as I lowered the pressure and sat down in one of the chairs. There was a startled silence. The two wizards looked at each other, trying to figure out what to do next. - "Come on, I'm listening." - I hastened them.

"For what purpose does the greatest wizard come to the Tower of the Caravans?" - The thin wizard bowed before me, taking the initiative. His fat colleague pretended that everything was going 'according to plan', again lay down on the sofa and began to nibble a bunch of grapes.

“I need to get into Harshuta, so I graciously decided to accompany one of your caravans heading in that direction.”

"It seems suspicious to me that such a great wizard should have appeared out of nowhere just when we had already lost two caravans on the road between Sanagar and Harshuta.”

"Praise the Weak Gods that they have sent me in this time of trouble.”

The boss choked on grapes at the suggestion.

"Khe-Khe-Khe! No!”

"No what?" - I asked grimly.

"We will not hire you to accompany the caravan.”

"Then your city is doomed. Okay, I'll handle it without you. I don't need a caravan to get to the next town.”

"Yes, go alone." – Fat man smugly waved his hands. - "The zugs will be happy to eat you."

"What's Zug?" - I asked. I had already heard mention of them, but I still had no idea what they were.

"There, you can see it." - The magician waved his hand, pointing to the cage hanging in the corner of the room

I went to it and saw a strange cross between a mole, a bat, and a shark. The creature was a size of a rat and had oddly twisted forelegs. On its back it had an extra pair of limbs in the form of leathery wings. But the most remarkable part of its body was its huge, toothy mouth, which resembled the mouth of a shark.

"Sweet little animal.” - I complimented the pet.

"Ha, ha! When you are attacked by millions of such creatures, you can only survive by using the secret magic knowledge of hereditary magicians.” – Fat boy began to brag about it.

"Pfft! The secret tricks are needed only for the weaklings.” - I said. From such impudence, the fat wizard choked again. I didn't wait for him to clear his throat, and flew out of the window.

On the street, I dropped to the ground and flew very low, looking around. But before I had flown a hundred meters, my thoughts were interrupted by a ringing child's voice.

"What will the great wizard want?"

I turned around and saw a kid about fourteen years old looking at me with honest eyes.

"Ho-ho? Do you want to be rich?” - I asked him.

"Who doesn't? I hope the great wizard can pay me for my help.” - The boy bowed, praying with his hands up. It seems to this is a common way of expressing reverence.