He gouged her with the point until she yelped. "Tokra be damned, and you with him!" he snarled. "Turn back."
"Why?"
"I'm going down to kindle the Blaze of the Winds."
"You're mad! The spirits of the ancients live in the vaults."
"I am going to kindle the Blaze of the Winds," he insisted stubbornly. "Now either turn back, or go down and I'll turn back alone."
After a hesitant moment, she tugged at a wing-rein and the hüffen banked majestically. They flew a mile to the south of the village, then beyond it toward the cloister where the priests of Big Joe guarded the entrance to the vaults. The cloister was marked by a patch of faint light on the ground ahead.
"Circle around it once," he ordered.
"You can't get in. They'll kill you."
He doubted it. No one ever tried to enter, except the priests who carried small animals down as sacrifices to the great Sleeper. Since no outsider ever dared go near the shaft, the guards expected no one. He doubted that they would be alert.