“Should that frighten us?” she answered in teasing voice.
“It wasn’t a threat,” I explained, “but rather the reward you most desire.”
The Lady of the Evening Star’s eyes widened at that pronouncement, but rather than admit defeat, her mind turned to clever rebuttals. I could see the wheels turning in her head. Before she could begin another line of discussion, I cut her off, “No more wordplay. From this point forward, you will speak to me with respect and focus your will and efforts toward furthering my goals.” I repeated my command for Doron’s benefit as well.
Both of them bowed, “Yes, Master.”
I really should have been an evil villain, I thought suddenly. It could have been a lot of fun if I had gone this route from the early days. For the hundredth time, I thought of my family, reminding myself of my reasons. Too late to turn over a new leaf now, I guess.
“Before we get started, I need some information. Do any of you know anything that could tell me where Mal’goroth is?”
Doron shook his head mutely, and Millicenth replied with a simple, “No, Master.”
Karenth was more forthcoming, “We have no inkling of where he is, but we do know of a few places where he isn’t.”
“Elaborate.”
The former god of justice nodded and began to pace as he graced us with his wisdom, “We know for certain that he is not within Albamarl, and while he has committed some of his forces to causing mischief in Lancaster and Cameron, I don’t believe he is there either.”
“Your reasons?” I asked.
“Again, I think it is a simple matter of enjoyment. Mal’goroth shares something of the same temperament as I. He has been playing a game of cat and mouse with you to extend his entertainment. He is well aware that he can crush you at any moment. Why else would he send his weakened servants in to fight in the capital, to harass your allies? He could easily have spared the power to make them stronger. Just a bit more and they would have handily destroyed the Princess’s followers.”
“Speaking of which…” I began, letting my words trail off.
“They made it to Lancaster,” Karenth assured me. “Your creatures didn’t molest them, whether by pure chance or because of your instructions I do not know. Tremont did his best to trap them within the World Road, but despite his efforts, and the assistance of the weakened Dark Gods, he failed. Well… mostly failed.”
I raised an eyebrow; sometimes Karenth needed dramatic pauses and a bit of encouragement to tell his tales to their fullest.
“Your knight, Thornbear, was slain during the escape.” He said bluntly.
My eyes bulged. At least they felt as if they did. “What?!”
He relayed the basic facts quickly and without showing the slightest hint of enjoyment, although I suspected Karenth secretly reveled in the news.
“How did you learn this?”
“Second hand, my lord. I overheard some of Tremont’s servants discussing it after the fact. He was crushed by the gate stone that guards the path to Lancaster.”
The gates that I had designed. “They don’t move swiftly enough to trap someone,” I argued.
“From what I heard, he attempted to keep it from closing. The good duke decided to flood the road while your family and friends were still within,” explained Karenth.
The gate stones were immense monoliths, and if one was blocked in its course, the force of the enchantment would add extra pressure. They drew upon the God-Stone… no one, not even a Knight of Stone could hope to stop or even delay their closing. I had built them to be absolute. “You said the others escaped. Was Dorian last?”
“First, my lord, he held the gate for a short while—until it crushed him.”
How my friend had managed such a thing, I couldn’t comprehend. My emotions were a storm within me, and I found myself clutching at that disbelief to avoid facing them. This was my fault. I built those gates, and I gave their control away. I was pacing now. Anger and sorrow warred for my attention, but since my eyes no longer had the power to provide tears, I leaned toward the former.
“Someone is going to regret this,” I announced.
“Given the situation, that is more likely to be you than Mal’goroth,” advised Millicenth before adding, “Master.”
A sudden impulse to give several painful orders caught in my throat. Again, I was nearly undone by violent thoughts. This isn’t who I am. Taking a deliberate breath, I ignored her and faced Karenth, “What advice would you give me?”
“Go to Lancaster, claim your family, and disappear. The path of least suffering would be hiding for as long as possible,” he said immediately.
“You think it impossible to win?”
He nodded. It was so patently obvious that it didn’t require an explanation.
“Currently, his minions and allies are focused firmly upon my home territory and the capital, the two areas I am most closely connected to. If I move to intervene or overturn his plans, what do you think will happen?” I asked suddenly. I had an idea of my own, but I wanted an outside opinion.
Millicenth interrupted, “It depends upon your effectiveness. Fight poorly, and he will enjoy the show. Upset the apple-cart, and he will move to crush you more directly.”
Her words echoed my thoughts. “So… if I take your meaning correctly, if I seem to be winning you think he’ll intervene, otherwise, he’ll just let me flounder about indefinitely.” I paused a moment before continuing, “That being the case, I shall have to divide his attention. Draw him in one direction, while defeating his allies absolutely in the other.”
“They will have some method of summoning or communicating,” countered Karenth. “If you overwhelm his minions, he could answer their pleas for help within a very short period of time.”
I smiled, “Then I’ll make certain they cannot call him.”
The looks on their faces quickly confirmed my guesses regarding their thoughts. Despite their dealings with me in the past, they thought I was utterly insane. This time they might be right, I thought privately.
“Give me your hands,” I said, pointing at Doron and Millicenth. Once I had them firmly in my grasp, I began siphoning away some of their strength.
“Why?” asked Doron.
“I need it more than you do,” I replied. “I will leave you both with more than enough to handle your assigned tasks, something close to half of what you have now.”
Millicenth gave me a pouty expression, “What will you do with us, my lord?”
“What you were created to do,” I stated firmly. “You will follow my family to Lancaster or Cameron, and once you find them, you will heal and support my wife and friends in whatever means they ask of you. You, Doron, will bolster the strength of their warriors. The Knights of Stone are few and scattered. You will tip the scales back in their favor.”
Their eyes widened in shock. No one still living knew their original purposes—until now.
I held up a finger, silencing them before they could ask. “What I know and how I know it, is my own business. You will do as I say, and you will follow Karenth’s direction when you are in doubt. He will coordinate and be the primary information gatherer.”
“Once you find them,” I told Karenth, “you will submit yourself to my wife’s authority. In her absence, you will defer to whoever among them is in charge, whether that be Ariadne, one of my knights, Lady Rose—you get the idea.”
He nodded, “Do you have any messages for them?”
Something ached inside, but it felt foreign, as though I had developed indigestion. I ignored it. “Nothing personal,” I answered. Tell them I love them. “They need to find the Prathions first, if they are still alive. Their skills will be most useful if my people are to survive. After that, their next course should be to take refuge in Cameron Castle. Walter knows how to operate the defenses there.”
Karenth winced, remembering his assault on me at my home. “I hate to argue, but even as formidable as your handiwork is, it won’t keep Mal’goro
th out.”
“It will be more than sufficient for his lackeys, though,” I offered. “If, or when, Mal’goroth shows up, Penny knows how to get them to safety.”
“This is also information that…”
“You don’t need to know,” I finished for him.
“And how you plan to deal with his people within the capital…”
“You’ll find out later,” I supplied. “For now, I have given you what you need. Help them, and forewarn them about my other allies.” I leaned in to whisper additional information in his ear.
He stared at me for a moment, mildly surprised. “Yet, even if you succeed here, you will almost certainly fail against him at the end.”
I grimaced. “If nothing else, I’ll make certain that he has not one remaining ally or servant before he defeats me. In that case you must take my family and hide.”
“While he commits genocide?” questioned the god of justice.
“If only a few can be saved, make sure that they are mine,” I answered with brutal honesty. “One way or another, even if he destroys my people, the She’Har will eventually either yoke him or unmake him.”
“Such cold words,” observed Millicenth. “You sound less like a mortal and more like a god than I would have expected.”
“Just make sure none of you attempt to face him directly. Retreat rather than allow him to gain even more power,” I cautioned. “Now… go!”
Chapter 32
I stared at the city in the waning afternoon light. The sunset bathed it in a deep orange that the rose granite walls transformed into a shade reminiscent of red. My imagination took it a step further, showing me a city bathed in blood. As it will be.
I was no longer within the walls. I had moved outside to meet my new allies as well as to prepare the enchantment I would use. Several were hiding close to my current position, I could feel them through the links that tied them to my enchantment. The others were gathered in various spots around the city, hiding in fields and forests. Some of them had lain quietly for days, while others had just arrived. They were patient.
One things I had failed to understand about the shiggreth previously, was their abiding patience. My former belief had been that they required aythar from living beings to maintain their bodies and while that was technically true, it was far simpler to acquire aythar than I had realized. Most of the shiggreth were nothing more than dead people, animated by magic. They moved and acted according to the orders of their master—me. Some of them retained their memories, those were the ones most similar to me, but all of them were soulless, essentially automatons of dead flesh.
None of them possessed any strong desires, not even to feed. Left to their own devices, most of them would simply lie in one place, subsisting on the aythar obtained from the tiny things that tried to consume them. Those that had arrived earliest had done just that, they lay down to wait, and drew energy only from whatever touched them.
Before my transformation, I had thought most of them destroyed. Dorian’s forays had been highly successful, and near the end we had found fewer and fewer of them. The truth had been simpler; Thillmarius had become preoccupied with me. While he spent his days and evenings quietly stalking me, they had become dormant—but they numbered in the tens of thousands.
Most were too far to reach the capital in the amount of time I had given them. Those I had left to their devices. My belief was that they would find true death after I had destroyed myself, but for now I had things to do. There were at least three thousand gathered around Albamarl now. Another three thousand had gathered in the forested foothills of the southern Elentirs, around the fortress known as Castle Tremont.
Extending my will I took direct control of nine of the closest and called them to me. I watched them approach across a farmer’s field with my magesight, while my hands drew out the enchanted diamond cubes. Tonight will be the true test. My previous uses were a proof of principle, but if things go badly tonight… Gareth is right to think me mad.
The dragon had warned me that if the cubes failed, the resulting feedback might precipitate a disaster worse than the one that had created the Gulf of Garulon. I had drawn roughly half of Millicenth and Doron’s power into myself, and combined with what I had already taken from Karenth, and the portion I had taken from the God-Stone, I was charged with roughly two and a half Celiors worth of aythar.
It was still nowhere near enough to challenge Mal’goroth, but if my plan worked, he would never receive any word of my work here until I was already finished. If my plan failed…
The Gulf of Garulon will be a lot bigger, I thought to myself.
My new ‘friends’ arrived, and I began handing out cubes along with mental descriptions of where they were to take them. Eight of them would be placed around Albamarl in a square formation, one at each corner and one midway between those. The ninth would be hidden in the center of the city, close to where the palace was located. Those would demarcate the bottom face of a giant cube. Nine more would delineate the upper face, but I would have to place those myself, since the shiggreth couldn’t fly. Of the remaining nine, eight would mark the middle and corners of the cube while the ninth would remain with me. That stone was the one that would have been placed in the exact center, but it had a special purpose.
Once the sun was below the horizon, and the light was dim enough, I placed the upper stones in their positions. Each one would lock into its place once I put it close to the spot where it belonged. It took nearly an hour, but it was a labor of love—or something.
My preparations finished, I issued my final orders. My first commands went to those who had gathered around Castle Tremont. Enter, take the castle. Leave none alive. Somewhere deep down I felt a rebellious cry, begging for the lives of the innocent, but I pushed it away with an internal snarl at my weaker side. They killed James, Ginny, and so many others. They killed Dorian! Let them die!
Dorian would not seek vengeance upon children. He would not prosecute war against the unwitting servants of even one so wicked as Andrew Tremont.
The devil’s advocate within me had gotten surprisingly eloquent. I don’t give a rotten damn! My response wasn’t as witty, but I didn’t care.
My next orders were for those near Albamarl. Clear the World Road, those guarding it are our enemies. Once you have slain those there, kill no more. Leave and return to your hiding places. I designated a smaller group of five hundred to guard the boundaries of my enchantment.
With my plans complete, I began a slow march to the eastern gate of the city. It would be a long night, and probably a long day as well.
The gate was closed when I reached it, but with the power of several gods running through me I found it to be a small impediment. I burned a man shaped whole through a foot and a half of solid oaken timber and kept walking. I was twirling the last diamond cube absently in one hand and began to whistle.
I am become death. The thought roused my sense of humor, and I laughed. It was probably my first laugh in over a year, and it came out dry and awkward, as if I had forgotten the skill. “The Shining Gods each had their domains, I suppose I should have one as well,” I told myself. “There really isn’t anything more appropriate for me now, other than death.”
A very frightened guardsman approached me, holding out a spear threateningly. No doubt he was nervous at confronting the man who had just burned his way through the gate. “Stand and declare yourself!” he stammered.
“My name is Brexus, and I have come to collect payment on behalf of Mordecai Illeniel,” I answered with a bland smile.
“This city is under the rule of King Tremont, sir. You will have to submit yourself to our arrest,” stammered the man who I now realized was a rather shabby captain. Several more of his compatriots now surrounded me.
“That’s a rather unfortunate answer on your part,” I told him. “You’ll have to make payment.”
“Payment?”
Holding out the final diamond cube I spoke the words that would empower
it. At first nothing seemed to happen; the size of my enchanted construct was so great that it took a great deal of power before it began to take hold. Pushing hard, I poured my aythar into it, watching lines stretch outward in my magesight as the cubes all connected and began to hum with a synchronous resonance.
Everything slowed and then came to a complete stop. At a guess I had used nearly two full Celiors of aythar to activate the enchantment; at least it felt like it. I didn’t worry, since that matched the rough estimate my calculations had given me. The diamond cube in my hand now was glowing so brightly that it hurt the eyes, and it was emitting a heat so intense I was forced to create a temporary spell to protect my clothing from it. Let’s hope it doesn’t shatter under the strain, I thought. Be a shame to destroy all of this.
I was standing inside the largest stasis enchantment ever created. I was pretty sure anyway. There were no memories within my considerable recall of anything approaching one of this scale. The center cube that I carried created a small area of normal time within the field, while the rest of it, which was the entire city of Albamarl, was frozen in time.
Walking forward, I approached the guard captain. His face became startled when I moved within range and the effect of my cube released him. From his perspective it must have seemed as if I had teleported to him. ”Yes, payment,” I said, answering his previous question. “Everyone serving the usurper must make this payment.”
The aura of my remaining aythar was still potent enough that it had rendered him nearly helpless just from my proximity, but he managed to croak, “What would you have of me?”
I gave him a wickedly charming smile. “Don’t worry. Anyone can pay this price. I only want your life.” My hand was at his throat so quickly that he never saw it. Pulling fiercely at the flame within him, I extinguished his life within no more than a second or two. The pleasure of it was exhilarating.