Shadowgod (61 page)

There was only one option left to her. She reached into one of the packhorse's bundles and dragged out the melded sword, still in its scabbard. Crevalcar laughed at the sight but when she cast aside the scabbard, revealing the glowing, silver-green blade, the smile froze on his lips and he turned as if to run. But Suviel was faster, lunging forward to strike him in the side…

Bellowing in agony and fear, he fell back against the passage wall, wrenching the sword's hilt from her grasp. Suviel could see the vague outlines of something spectral shifting around him as he sank to his knees. But then fury twisted his face and a gout of blazing green fire burst from his mouth and flew at her. The remains of her thought-canto barrier absorbed most of the attack but some still reached her.

A web of pain lashed through her body and she cried out as she fell to the marble floor. She could not feel her right leg and her right arm was weak and trembling. Despite her dizziness she could hear someone sobbing and muttering through tears - "…so sorry, Ikarno, I'm sorry… forgive me, please… so sorry, so sorry…"

The spirit of Crevalcor of the First-Woken was gone and Coireg Mazaret had finally returned to his own body.

Suddenly, Suviel was aware of footsteps approaching.

Struggling upright on her good arm she looked up to see the Acolyte Obax coming to a halt nearby. Pale eyes in a gaunt face surveyed them both.

"To overcome one of the First-Woken, and expel his spirit from a host…" The Acolyte gave a low, throaty laugh. "That requires an unshakeable strength of purpose, not to mention cunning and an unusual weapon." A booted toe nudged the hilt of the melded sword, pushing it aside, as while his long-fingered hands took on an emerald aura. "Your only mistake was in not bringing stronger servants - "

"Torturer!" shrieked a voice quivering with fury.

It was Coireg Mazaret, his wide, unblinking eyes fixed on the Acolyte, his entire form drenched in Wellsource radiance, its glaucous potency shining from every pore in his enraged face. At first, Suviel thought he was slowly getting to his feet then she realised that he was actually rising into the air.

"You were the one!" Coireg went on. "
You
and those Shadowkings, pouring pain into my thoughts then… then putting your servants in my head -
my head
!"

"Hold your tongue,
cur
- you are in the presence of a Lord of the Nightbrothers…"

Coireg's only response was an incoherent cry as he flew across the passageway. Obax unleashed a bolt of emerald power but it was absorbed by Coireg's bright aura. Then his hands were about Obax's neck and the pair swirled and wrestled and clawed at one another for a few moments before Coireg rose higher, dragging the Acolyte up off his feet.

Suviel watched the two struggling forms diminish into the heights and sweep away out of sight, and she wondered at a fate that could remove her enemies yet leave her crippled. Powerless, she could not do what had to be done…

"Atroc," she said. "Atroc…"

"My lady," he said, crouching beside her.

"Atroc, is there anyone else?"

A pause. "No - I can feel no-one else."

"Good," she said, relieved. "First, help me over to the wall so that I can lean against something."

Once this was accomplished, Suviel could sit straighter and nurse her weakened arm in her left.

"I have a task for you," she told Atroc.

The old Mogaun gave her a narrow look. "Is there any hazard in this task?"

"It may cost you your life," she said.

"Hmm, an interesting offer - what would my part of the bargain entail?"

"On the packhorse is a bag containing two small caskets," Suviel said. "Inside them are the Crystal Eye and the Motherseed, both of which have to be carried into the Wellsource itself. The bearer will probably not survive exposure to such raw power."

"Then let me be the bearer," said Byrnak.

"Why?" she said. "Why would you want to do this?"

The big man's face was lined with fear and exhaustion yet a kind of sombre resolve lay in his gaze.

"If anyone's death should be the price for defeating the Lord of this place, that death should be mine."

Suviel sighed, silently cursing her helpless frame, then glanced at Atroc who nodded.

"He speaks truthfully, lady."

"Very well - take the talismans from their caskets and carry them in one of the saddlebags. Take the sword with you… and Atroc will accompany you…"

As the old Mogaun shrugged and Byrnak dug through the packhorse's bundles, she whispered a brief prayer to fate and the Void, seeking comfort if not intervention.

* * *

The sword felt right in his hand as he strode down the open passage with the heavy saddlebag slung over his shoulder. At his side Atroc, the Mogaun seer, had to scurry along to keep up with him while asking a series of irritating questions.

Before them the chamber at the heart of Hewn Mountain came into view and he slowed, hesitancy creeping through his thoughts once more. He could see pale reflections of that rich viridian glow in polished marble surfaces and the hesitancy turned into fear. What if he was seized and possessed again?

"Have you given your blade a name, ser Byrnak?" asked the old seer.

He looked round, his thoughts thrown into disarray.

"Why, no…"

"All swords should have a name," Atroc said with a grin. "Especially this one, heh?"

Byrnak looked down at the weapon, considering the heavy simplicity of its hilt and the shimmering silver-green surface of its yard-long blade.

This is what freed me from illusions and domination,
he thought.
This brought me the reality of pain and suffering and made me see what I have wrought…

"I will call it 'Truth'," he said. "For it cuts through lies."

He set off again, fears gone. A dozen or more paces on he entered the chamber of the Wellsource. Huge vertical shards of rock encircled it, their looming darkness adding to the shadows, while the light of the Wellsource shone from the roughly carved fane that sat at the centre. Strange black pillars and slabs formed a square around it and as Byrnak approached one of the gaps, a voice rang out from beyond it.

"Ah, at last, brother! Not a moment too soon!"

Emerald radiance bathed all within the pillared square, the marble floor, the rough cone of the fane, and the Shadowking Kodel who stood next to a seated statue seemingly made from silver. As Byrnak went over he heard an intake of breath from Atroc, who was watching from the pillars.

"Tauric!"

Kodel gave a hawkish smile, and Byrnak noticed that the statue lacked an arm.

"My original intention was to merge my friend here and Tauric together and use him to explore the Void. But now that Besh-Darok and its allies have worked so hard to bring together the three Talismans - the three Gifts - there's no need."

" I have two of them here." Byrnak said. "Where is the third?"

"Oh, it should arrive before long," Kodel said casually. "Now, if you carry those baubles up into the Wellsource, not only will you advance our cause, you may also recover some of your powers…"

Byrnak stared at him, hand still tightly gripping the hilt of the sword he had named Truth.

"Then I had best be about it," he said, moving to the fane of the Wellsource and mounting its shallow steps, then pausing on the second. "Ah, brother, would you look after my blade?"

"Gladly."

Byrnak made to hand Truth to Kodel hilt first but as the Shadowking came within range he calmly, swiftly, drew back and ran him through with it. Kodel let out a shattering cry of agony and as he staggered backwards, Byrnak pulled the sword out of him and saw that there was not a trace of blood on the blade. But Kodel was now on his back, writhing, convulsing as a ghostly, blood red wraith struggled and fought to tear itself free of him. Byrnak turned back to the flowing, swirling brightness of the Wellsource, took the Crystal Eye and the Motherseed from the bag which he laid on the top step beside the sword Truth. Then he stepped into the emerald roar -

His mind, his ruined mind, struggled to understand: a voice, a river, a fist, a fanged jaw, a hammer, a sea of desire, a storm of blood, an army of mountains, all howling, drowning, crushing, grinding and beating him on anvil of fire -

Some linkage between mind and body failed.

Byrnak's legs went from under him and he toppled sideways onto the fane and rolled down its side. But his hands remained faithful, clutching the talismans to his chest as he fell…but he could only feel one of them as he came to rest, the Crystal Eye, round and smooth. Cracking open his eyes he looked down and saw the Motherseed, suspended within the Crystal Eye.

"You have it -
you
!"

Holding the combined talismans to his chest, he pushed himself up on his other hand. Off to one side, leaning against a pillar and breathing heavily, was one of the Daemonkind. Yet in size it was diminutive and its head was small almost humanlike.

"Where's Suviel?" the Daemonkind said plaintively.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The Daemonkind gave him a dark look and staggered across to lean over him. In one hand he noticed that the creature carried a small wrapped bundle.

"Don't you know me, Byrnak?" it said dangerously. "Don't you recognise your sweet Keren?"

* * *

Mazaret grasped Gilly's arm and clapped him on the shoulder, jubilant to see him.

"When you decide to go sight-seeing, you don't do things by halves!" he said.

Gilly laughed. "When I find any sights worth seeing, I shall be quick to announce them!"

Then Gilly introduced his companion, a tall, gaunt man in long, dark robes. Mazaret's eyes widened when his friend told him that this Raal Haider was actually a prince of the Daemonkind. He considered questioning the 'man' himself, then decided to leave that to Bardow. Instead he gave Gilly a summary of events since crossing into the Realm of Dusk.

"…after leaving Suviel's party, we followed your trail along that gully for over an hour," he said. "Then some of my outriders reported a column of near a thousand horsemen riding to intercept us further along one of the gully paths leading up to the higher ground, and sent another thousand of the lighter cavalry, mostly Mogaun warriors, on ahead to catch them in a pincer."

"Did it work?" Gilly said.

Mazaret rocked his head judiciously. "We caught a lot of them in the trap, but a good number escaped. Turned out they were a spearhead force for an army led by an old friend of mine - Azurech."

Gilly swore. "And how far off is he?"

"Normally, I'd say that a spearhead rides no more than two hours ahead of the main force, but these aren't exactly normal circumstances… hold, what's this?"

A scout came riding up to the two men and threw back his brown cowl. "My lord - we've found her!"

"Where?" Mazaret said sharply.

"We followed the edge of the grey forest right to where it stops at the foot of a sheer scarp, and heard some muffled roaring from beyond it. We rode back, then up and along the scarp to where it joined a ridge. From there we looked down into a wide valley and there was... well, it looked a bit like a woman, and she was fighting monsters that came out of the ground - "

"You'll lead us there," Mazaret said, turning to beckon over his personal ostler and bawl out commands, "... and have horses brought for these two men…"

In a long column, the Besh-Darok army rode with a great thundering of hooves along the scarp to the ridge and spread itself along it while Mazaret stared at the sight below. The valley was flat and wide and desolate and its other side was a line of uneven, rocky hills. But there, on the floor of the valley, a glowing golden figure contended with three huge, lizard-like creatures which had burst up out of the ground itself. Mazaret turned to Bardow who rode by his left side, but the archmage frowned.

"That is most certainly the Earthmother, my lord," he said. "She is using the Body of Light.. but these creatures I do not know…"

"They are the stone fiends," said Yasgar from Mazaret's right. "Dread beasts from old tribal legends. I never imagined that I would see them."

Below, the Earthmother sent a spear of golden energy into the side of one of the stone fiends. It bellowed and collapsed into a long mound of rubble and dust, but then the ground erupted as another thrust itself out of the earth to do battle. Then suddenly the Earthmother uttered a piercing shriek of rage and the golden radiance of her form vanished.

"She's done it!" Bardow said. "Suviel's joined the Eye and the Seed…"

"And that's Alael down there, man!" Gilly cried. "Those things'll kill her - "

But in the next moment, the three stone fiends froze in their tracks and crumbled back into the ground amid great clouds of dust. Then gigantic, cruel laughter echoed across the valley, across the sunless, grey-blue sky.

"
Give me the Staff!"
said the towering, grinding voice. "
I will have it!"

As Mazaret despatched three of his scouts on fast horses to retrieve Alael, figures began to appear all along the crests and dips of the valley wall opposite, at first hundreds, then more and more spreading wider. Some yards to Mazaret's left there was movement as the gaunt Raal Haidar guided his horse to the front rank and held a translucent staff aloft.

"It is not yours to have!" he bellowed. "You will have to take it - if you can!"

More laughter, like low menacing thunder.

"
As you wish…"

Suddenly a group of winged figures appeared in the air above the opposite valley wall, hovering and wheeling. Behind Mazaret, gasps and fearful mutters rippled through the ranks of his army.

"Daemonkind…" Bardow whispered.

"How can we fight them?" Mazaret said, aghast at this turn of events.

"I don't…" Bardow began.

"We must try, Lord Mazaret," said Raal Haidar, holding out the translucent staff. "This is an imitation - the real Staff of the Void is being taken by Keren Asherol to the shrine at the heart of the Hewn Mountains. Combined with the Crystal Eye and the Motherseed, it may be able to destroy the Wellsource and the Lord of Twilight."