The Dark Lord's Demise (42 page)

The man now had both hands and one knee on the raft. Wes,
Lisa and Betty scooted away. They made slight scuffling sounds,
but the man made noise of his own, and the raft rocked and
splashed slightly as he boarded. He started to pick up a paddle.
Lisa realized she was sitting on it. She tried to lift herself up and let
the paddle slide from beneath her. The man shifted himself fully
onto the raft and called to his companions, "Farewell! I shall paddle myself back to the fortress of the Mystery. If I am not there by
dawn, do not search for me!"

Wes yanked the gold cord from his neck and leaped to his feet
with the Sword of Geburah already out of its scabbard. Blue light
shot from the blade. It illuminated a stunned face on the raft and
three shocked faces in the rowboats. A swordsman with it weapon
of lightning had come from nowhere! His young strong voice echoed off the cliff: "In the name of Gaal the Ever-Living One! In the name of the Unchanging Changer!"

The sword came down. The man on the raft cried out and toppled into the water. He floundered and thrashed about. Wes
slashed at the remaining man in the boat. The two figures in the
other boat grabbed for their oars. Suddenly the water stirred, as if
something struggled beneath the surface. The man in the water
screamed and went under.

Wes hesitated, unsure what had happened. The solitary boater
picked up an oar and shoved it against the raft to send his boat
away. He fumbled the oar and dropped it. As he reached for it, his
arm went below the surface. He shrieked and half-stood in the
boat. From his hand dangled a writhing length of greenish-black
snaky body.

"Efel spawn!" he howled. The second boat shoved off hard from
the first and sent both boats out of range of the raft. Someone
shouted, "They're climbing into the boat!" All three men now
screamed and bellowed. The water churned violently. The men
cursed and swung their oars against each other. A splash came,
then another, as the two boats spun beyond the sword's light.

"Efel spawn!" Wes said. "Head for the dock fast!" Kurt and Lisa
snatched up paddles and dug in. Wes sheathed the Sword of
Geburah and sat heavily. Betty thrust the rudder-paddle into the
water. Her voice trembled, but she was businesslike as she asked,
"The middle bonfire?"

"Yeah," Wes said. He breathed hard, more from horror than
from exertion. "Lunacy's goons will keep the efel spawn busy for a
while. But those bonfires will draw them up and over the cliff
before anybody up there knows what's happening."

Uncle John had told them about efel spawn-eel-like creatures,
two to three yards long, with it vicious poisonous bite. They began
their lives in water but swarmed out on land in slithering masses.
Fences, walls, even cliffs could not stop them. They were blind and
active only at night. Uncle John said they were not merely predators that hunted by instinct. They were evil beings, driven and controlled by the mind of evil-as though they became cells of its own
body.

An efel spawn attack was simple but deadly. They found it victim by sensing the heat of its body. Their bites did not kill outright.
Instead, their poison filled the minds of their victims with murderous, hateful lusts, so the victims destroyed one another and themselves. The only weapon effective against efel spawn was fire. They
were drawn to the heat of fire, and if you could avoid their bite,
one touch from a burning torch would kill them.

The dock came up fast in the dark. They hit it with a glancing
blow. If they had been on their feet, they would have jolted themselves off their own raft. They secured the raft and leaped onto the
dock. Betty rolled up the Mashal Stone in its thread and fastened it
to her sash belt.

The stone steps that angled across the cliff face were narrow
and damp with lake mist. With no time for caution, they raced up
the steps single file, Wes in the lead. At the top he said, "Let's hope
we get a good reception. In the name of Gaal and the Changer."

"In the name of Gaal and the Changer," Betty repeated.

Wes called out "We are friends of Gaal!" as his head popped up
over the cliff. Startled faces bathed in firelight turned toward him.
Wes himself was stunned at the crowd that filled the light and
extended into the shadows. There were far more than they had
seen passing the Gaal tree.

A familiar voice cried, "Lord Wesley!" It was Emmy. She ran
toward him, then stopped and stared as three more people came up
over the edge of the cliff. "Lady Lisa! Lord Kurt! And ... and ..."
Emmy curtsied low. "Your Highness Princess Betty!"

"Oh, cut out that princess stuff!" Betty said. "Anyway, the queen
is dead. Murdered by her real king-Lord Lunacy!" Emmy's red
face went pale with shock.

The four children brushed off her questions and the questions
of the people who crowded around. Wes shouted, "Build up these
fires! And fast! Efel spawn are about to come over the cliff!"

"Efel spawn!" The words rolled back through the crowd. Some
had never heard of them, but those who had, said the words with
horror. An old man approached. He moved quickly despite a limp,
and in his belt he wore the sword of an Anthropos soldier. Lisa
said, "Charaban!"

The man scowled, then his face lit up in a smile. "Of course! The hall of inquiry! I wondered what became of you! I was
angered that they arrested those so voting. .." Charaban stared at
Wes's side. "The Sword of Geburah! How came you to have ..."
The old soldier was too overcome to speak.

"I am from the household of the Sword Bearer. Kurt and Lisa
are my brother and sister. Betty is our. . . our friend and fellow servant of Gaal."

"Qadar attacked us," said Charaban. "They have withdrawn, but
we expect them to return. The soldiers among us made what
defense they could. Several were lost, including the brave owner of
this sword."

Soldiers! The Friesens glanced at each other in fright. Were they
the soldiers from the queen's search-and-destroy party? They
would have to worry about it later. Captain Charaban snapped out
orders: "Move quickly! Build up the fires against the efel spawn!"

When the Qadar attacked, Charaban had taken charge like the veteran army officer he was. He had designated the two officials from
the hall of inquiry as his lieutenants. Now they divided the crowd
into five companies, one for each bonfire. From each company
some would gather dead branches; others would break up the
branches; others would stack them near the fires. Those not as physically strong would tend the fires and keep them burning high.

High above, the Qadar screamed but kept their distance. Lisa
stood near the cliff edge with the Book of Wisdom in case any
came close. The fires roared larger. Intense heat rose and drew
fresh air up from the lake, feeding the flames even more.

From each woodpile Wes selected sturdy dry branches and piled
them separately. When Betty asked why, he explained, "The fires
will attract the efel spawn, but they're too smart to crawl right into
the fire. We'll have to get them with torches."

"So if they hunt by heat and not by sight, the Mashal Stone won't
help."

Wes grinned. "You learn fast! You're already a regular veteran of
Anthropos."

A high scream wailed above the roar of the fires. Lisa whispered, "Qadar." She held her breath and waited until she saw the
dark form hurtling toward her. She opened the book. Blue light
illuminated the hideous faces of the goblin and the batlike creature it rode. The Qadar raced over her head, exploded in a ball of
flame and crashed into one of the bonfires. A fountain of fiery logs
erupted. Workers scattered to escape being burned up along with
the Qadar. Lisa fled out of reach of the fire and then stood her
ground ready for the next attack.

Familiar faces appeared in the firelight as Wes, Kurt and Betty
worked: Swiftlope, some of the Matmon from the wharf at
Nephesh, Emmy's two friends, most of the abandoned children,
the two officials from the hall of inquiry, even the street vendor
who had sold food to their guards. They barely had time for quick
greetings. Wes stationed Swiftlope and two other Koach to watch
for any churning of the lake water. The wolves lay at the cliffs
edge, ears pricked, huge front paws dangling out into darkness.
Wes said, "I wish we had Vulcanus and his vulture eyesight. Wonder why he's not here? Is he loyal to the queen after all?"

Still the Qadar screamed and dived while Lisa kept them at bay
with the Book of Wisdom. The others worked frantically and tried
to ignore the screams. As Kurt dragged a heavy branch from the
forest edge, someone offered help. He looked up and almost
dropped the branch in fright. Firelight flickered across the face of
the head soldier who had searched for them in the clearing. Kurt
didn't know whether to run or reach for his sword. The soldier
made no move toward his own sword. He asked, "Do you know me,
young friend?"

"I-you-I mean-"

"I thought as much. You are one of the three we were sent to kill.
Do not fear. Here the servants of Gaal have taught me much about
the one you worship." The soldier smiled. "Most of my companions are won over also, or nearly so. Come, we'll carry the log
together."

Kurt was embarrassed that the soldier carried most of the weight as they brought the log to the fire. There they found Wes with
Charaban and two more soldiers from the search party. Charaban
said, "There are too many of us for all to be near a fire. Had we
time, we should build a ring of fires so all can come inside it. Let us
group the five companies as close to the fires as we can, then station torchmen at the perimeter of each group."

"Zorchmen can alternate with armed soldiers," Wes said.
"Though I don't think swords are much good against efel spawn."

Charaban told his lieutenants to pick the torchmen. The young
officials had learned much in their time with the Commander in
the hall of inquiry. They quickly sized up who would stand strong
and who would turn cowardly. Charaban ordered the five companies to group around the fires. Kurt found the littlest boy from the
room of abandoned children, the one who had played cat's cradle.
He led the boy to a place near the middle fire, sat him down and
told him to stay put.

Wes and Charaban urged the torchmen and soldiers into position. Kurt took up his place as a swordsman, facing the cliff. Betty
stood next to him with a torch. Lisa stood on the other side of him
with the Book of Wisdom. But the circles were still ragged and halfformed when Swiftlope sent up a hair-raising howl. The other two
Koach took up the howl. Wes ran to the head of the stone stairs. He
saw no movement in the water. Had the Koach sent up a false
alarm? He looked down along the angled stairway and nearly lost
his balance. Efel spawn were already a third of the way up the
steps! They were like a black glistening waterfall that flowed
upstream. Or like a bucket of shimmering, greenish-black paint
spilled somehow up a flight of stairs. Some slithered straight up the
cliff face, clinging in some unimaginable way to the straight rock.

The Koach did not want to retreat into the circles, but Wes
ordered them inside. "You're no good with torches!" he snapped.
He took up a position in the center circle just as the sinuous flood
broke over the edge of the cliff.

The tide of efel spawn was both "them" and "it," an uncountable multitude and a solid mass. Betty thrust her flaming torch at
the first shapeless head that came within reach. She thought it
would draw back like it startled snake. To her amazement, it inflated like a balloon, burst and vanished. She torched a second
one and a third, too fascinated to be frightened.

Kurt's sword was useless. When he struck one of the creatures,
the blade bounced off as though both the creature and the blade
were rubber. He struck again with the same results. The thing slithered forward to grab his leg. Betty jabbed her torch at it. Instantly it
ballooned, burst and disappeared.