that searched out water, it would head straight for your home?”
“Yes. Yes, it would.”
“Well, then,” Boaz grinned, “easy! Tirzah, where have you stored the Goblet of the Frogs?”
It was in a pack on one of the mules, and I sent Kiamet to fetch it. When he returned I took the bundle from him, unwrapped the goblet, and handed it to Boaz.
“For this,” he said very quietly, “we must thank Tirzah, for without the magic of this goblet we would truly be lost and dead.”
The goblet sparkled in the dawn light, and Boaz wrapped his hands about it as he had the ball. He did not speak, but I felt the same strange sensation run down my back as I had the night he’d changed my father’s lock from stone back to hair. The goblet sang softly; all the Elementals in our small group relaxed and smiled at its sweet song.
Boaz covered the top of the goblet with his hand, and I felt the sensation strengthen.
Then he lifted his hand, and held the goblet up so all could see.
The most incredibly ugly creature I had ever seen popped its head over the rim of the goblet. It was so covered by warts and knobs it was almost shapeless. There were narrow slits of black eyes, and a mouth so wide it stretched across about half of its skull. Small pad-like feet appeared at the rim, and then the creature heaved itself out of the goblet and hopped away to the south-south-east.
It was a frog, but I had never seen a frog that ugly before. It was also very big, and once it was out I could not understand how it had fitted into the goblet.
About ten paces away it stopped, its great tongue slipping about its lips. It looked to the sky, shuddered, then burrowed beneath a rock.
“It doesn’t like the sun,” Boaz said, “and will only travel by night. I suggest that we rest while we can, for tonight will be a long…hop.”
And he grinned at his own joke, and sat down.
We rested that day, and in the evening, as we were eating a meal, the frog emerged from its burrow and hopped to Boaz’s side, where he fed it tidbits from his plate.
“Boaz –” began Isphet.
The frog fixed her with a beady eye and burped.
I covered my mouth with my hand and giggled, and then we were all laughing.
“If ever I regain Ashdod, and I rule in regal splendour as Chad,” Zabrze eventually managed, “I will slice the head from the first person who mentions that once I led my people across a great plain by following a frog.”
Boaz dribbled some water into the frog’s gaping mouth, and it slapped its huge tongue about happily.
Isphet tried her question again. “Boaz, how did you do that? I have never seen, or heard of, this ability before.”
“I don’t know, Isphet. It just felt right.”
She shook her head. “The Graces are going to want to take you apart and examine you, Boaz. Be prepared.”
“We have to get there yet. Fetizza will show us the way.”
We all laughed again. Fetizza was an Ashdod word meaning “lovely dancer”.
Boaz looked at his brother. “If ever you get to rule in regal splendour as Chad, Zabrze, you shall have Fetizza to thank. Perhaps you can have her dance at court.”
At that moment Fetizza decided enough was enough. She gave a great shudder, angled her head to look at the moon, then bounded off.
“After her!” cried Zabrze. “Follow that frog!”
And thus we did. Five thousand people, scores of camels and mules, all following a great, ugly frog bounding through the stony landscape. Fetizza was fast, and every so often would sit on a rock and wait for us to catch up. She would give a companionable burp as the first person reached her, then off she would bound again.
Occasionally she scurried after a beetle, but generally she kept to her purpose of leading us to the nearest water supply. She was not hard to follow at night, for the moonlight glistened off her slimy skin, and Fetizza constantly croaked in a monotonous undertone, as if telling herself stories to while away the journey.
We followed her that night, and then a second. By the third night there was still no sign of the hills, and food was running low, but spirits were high. The ground had started to rise, and on the fourth night we found ourselves walking up a constant incline.
“Soon,” Isphet said, six hours into the