At the Gates of Darkness

by Raymond E. Feist

  Sandreena said, “I can pacify your brother, Amirantha.”

  “Begin,” said Amirantha.

  “Farewell, brother,” came Belasco’s voice. Amirantha’s eyes widened slightly, for in his lifetime, his brother had never offered him the slightest wish for good fortune. As if understanding this, Belasco added, “For if you do not fare well, I most certainly perish.”

  They began their spells.

  Demons withered under the blistering attack of the magicians surrounding them. Pug could sense more than see that some of the magicians on the walls were failing, exhausted from the tremendous demand on their willpower and endurance to channel so much magic in so short a time. Only Magnus seemed unfazed by the demands placed on him.

  A massive wave of energy swept up the four towers and suddenly a figure began to appear, suspended in the air, slightly translucent in appearance.

  Twenty feet tall, Dahun’s massive torso was heavily muscled, descending into huge legs and a scaled black lizard’s tail below his spine. His black legs and tail blended to red at his stomach and turned crimson at his chest. His face was contorted in pain, as if this transition was causing agony. He bellowed and it was a distant, hollow sound. His eyes were solid black orbs, opened wide, looking, seeking something as he came into this world. His head moved side to side, the hair braided with human skulls swinging over his shoulders. His brow was adorned with a massive golden circlet, set with a dark stone pulsing with purple light. The fingers of his left hand ended in black talons and flexed slowly, restlessly, as if in anticipation of rending apart his enemies. In his right hand he held a flaming sword. His hips were girded with a metal-studded kilt, and two large leather bands crossed his chest with a massive golden emblem.

  Pug said “Now!” to Magnus, and the two of them unleashed every destructive magic they possessed.

  Two waves of sizzling light shot from their hands to strike the figure full in the chest. Dahun trembled and started to fall backward, his hands outstretched, as if in supplication, and a single word escaped his lips, “No!”

  As he fell out of the confines of the four towers, energy like purple lightning erupted from his body, striking the pillars rising above him. The Demon King screamed in outrage and pain, his arms flailing as he tried to reach for the nearest pillar and keep from falling out of the pit boundaries.

  “Destroy the towers!” Pug said to Magnus.

  Pug kept the assault focused on the demon while his son sought to topple the towers. Pug’s strikes of searing energy caused smoking welts on the demon’s body while keeping him falling off balance, until he struck the ground between two towers. A sound like a groan and a piteous cry came from Dahun as he touched the soil.

  Magnus used the power of his mind to reach out and find a keystone in the foundation of the tower closest to where his father and he floated, while noticing that most of the other magicians nearby were fleeing. One or two of the stronger were still on the wall, directing their magic at the demon in aid of Pug.

  Magnus used the power of his mind to grind the keystone to dust in moments, then he sent a massive wave of energy at the sudden void in the masonry. The entire tower shuddered and began to collapse, stones coming apart as the construction moved side to side. As it fell, massive discharges of green magic swirled upward, like mad dust devils spilling away into the night sky.

  Dahun shrieked in agony as the now unbalanced forces in the pit began to discharge massive explosions like lightning and balls of fire. Pug could feel waves of heat rising up and instinctively raised a protective shield around himself and Magnus.

  With the shield in place, they could only watch.

  Dahun lay writhing on the soil, his mouth gasping much like a landed fish. His body contorted in spasm and twitched wildly, while around him flames roared up from out of the pit.

  His legs and tail still hung over the pit and they began to smoke and blister and he screamed in pain but was unable to move. Magnus sent to his father, It’s over.

  Pug replied, “Not quite yet.”

  A second tower began to tremble and Pug used his magic to send a warning to the remaining magicians. “Get out!”

  They fled, two flying, and one just leaping from the low wall to the outside of the fortress and running south as fast as he could.

  The third and fourth towers also began to come apart and tumble inward, and another tower of flames erupted from the pit. Now all of Dahun’s lower body was consumed, and his eyes rolled up in his head and were vacant.

  Then suddenly a huge sucking sound was followed by a trembling from below and Dahun was jerked from where he lay and vanished back into the pit in an instant. All the masonry, towers, loose stones, and dead bodies nearby were sucked into the pit as if a massive vacuum had inhaled everything around the pit. Anything loose within the confines of the walls vanished into the pit, including dropped weapons and armor.

  Then it was still.

  “Now is it over?” asked Magnus.

  “I think—”

  The explosion was massive.

  A shock wave that was visible to Pug and Magnus rolled out of the pit, carrying dirt, parts of dead bodies, and debris before it. It blasted out with enough force that the small building and the outer walls of the fortress were swept before it like a child’s hands knocking away toy blocks.

  Only Pug’s shield kept his son and himself safe, but the ferocity of the blast caught him off guard.

  The speed of the shock wave had the area before them cleared in seconds, and when they looked down, there was no sign of the pit, or any construction. The blast area was also devoid of any plant life and as smooth as a patch of marble floor, but otherwise unmarked.

  “What happened?” asked Magnus.

  “The rift closed,” said Pug. “We unbalanced the magic and it…rebalanced itself.”

  “It looks as if there’s nothing down there.”

  “Well, we have some people down there, if they survived.” Lowering himself and his son down, Pug said, “We’d better start digging them out.”

  “I hope Kaspar got his men far enough away to survive that blast,” said Magnus.

  “I suspect he did,” said Pug. “I’m not so certain about poor Timothy. He was running when last I saw him.”

  Magnus said, “He’s fast.”

  “Let’s hope he’s fast enough.”

  They reached the ground and Pug said, “Now, where was that building?”

  “Somewhere over here,” said Magnus, as he closed his eyes and started probing magically for the entrance.

  Amirantha was the first to regain consciousness. It was pitch-dark in the room. The massive explosion above had momentarily sucked all the air out of this chamber, rendering all within unconscious and extinguishing the lights.

  His lungs burned and he felt his head pounding, as he reached around in the dark and felt the base of the altar. He used it to steady himself and got to his feet. Obviously the air had quickly returned to the room, but the decompression really had caused some damage.

  He reached into his belt pouch and took out a crystal, incanting a single word. The crystal began to glow, casting enough light in the room so he could see the others. Sandreena was stirring, with a groan, and he knelt next to her. Shaking her shoulder gently, he said, “You’re alive.”

  She shook her head and focused her eyes on him and said, “What?”

  “In case you were wondering; you’re alive.”

  She grunted, then said, “I was wondering.”

  He helped her to her feet as Jim and the two elves began to review. Looking at the prone figure of Belasco, Amirantha said, “Did he survive?”

  As if prodded by the question, Belasco groaned and moved slightly.

  A thump from above and a burst of dust coming down the corridor was followed by Magnus’s voice in their minds. Is everyone all right?

  Amirantha shouted, “We’re alive, if barely.”

  A moment later the two magicians entered the chamber and Pug said,
“It’s over.”

  “The demon’s gone?” asked Jim, blinking as if trying to clear his vision.

  “Everything’s gone,” said Magnus. “The pit is filled, the ground is flattened, and the stones are scattered across miles of desolation. It’s as if this place never existed.”

  “Good,” said Jim. “That means no explanations to the Keshian government.”

  Belasco stirred and groaned as he sat up. In a gravelly voice he asked, “It’s over?”

  “Yes,” said Amirantha. “And your day’s grace to find a safe haven begins this moment.”

  Moving to gingerly get down from the altar stone, the magician stood on uncertain legs for a moment, then he said, “I’ll go.”

  He began walking in a halting fashion, stopped, took a deep breath, then repeated, “I’ll go.”

  He was almost to the door when Amirantha said, “Wait.”

  Turning, Belasco said, “What?”

  “One more time, your word.”

  “You have it,” he said with a contemptuous snarl.

  “Again, say it again.”

  “What?”

  “The oath.”

  Belasco was silent for a long minute, then said, “Very well. By the old woman’s blood—”

  Amirantha shouted, “Kill him!”

  Pug, Magnus, the elves, and even Sandreena hesitated, looking at the Warlock, as Pug said, “What?”

  Jim Dasher didn’t hesitate. The dagger that had not left his hand since coming into this chamber now flew straight across the room, taking Belasco in the throat. The magician’s eyes grew round, and he reached up as if he would staunch the blood flow with his fingers.

  Crimson flowed from his mouth as he tried to speak, then out of his nose, then his strength gave way and he fell to his knees. With blood pouring down his face, neck, and chest, he fell over on his right side.

  “Why?” Pug asked.

  “Because that wasn’t my brother,” said Amirantha.

  “What?” asked Sandreena.

  “Belasco would never have gotten the oath wrong. It begins, ‘By the blood of the old woman of the moons,’ not ‘By the old woman’s blood—’” Pointing a finger at the prone body on the floor, he said, “That was no longer my brother. That was Dahun!”

  “The demon?” said Gulamendis.

  “Yes,” said Amirantha. “When we were being so clever, he was being much more clever. Everything we did was being manipulated. He convinced us there was a struggle—because he permitted it. Belasco remembered the oath, but when it came time to act, Dahun cast him out, into his body emerging from the demon realm. It was a foregone conclusion you two”—he pointed to Pug and Magnus—“would destroy Dahun’s body; Belasco had no ability to use the demon’s magic. He was an easy target.”

  Magnus said, “It required a lot of magic to destroy that construction, but before that, there was no real fight.”

  Pug said, “But why? Why go to all this trouble to come here, to possess your brother?”

  “I can only speculate,” said the Warlock.

  Jim said, “Well, we’re going to be back on Sorcerer’s Island soon, so let’s leave it to then.”

  Pug said, “Agreed. Now, let us leave this gods-forsaken place and go home.”

  No one in the room objected.

  AFTERMATH

  Pug motioned for everyone to sit.

  The mood in the room was slightly festive but subdued. Despite their victory over the demons, they had lost lives.

  Pug said, “With Belasco dead, I hope this means our days of conflict with your family are over, Amirantha.”

  The Warlock smiled and put his hands outward in a sign of supplication. “Assuredly. That both my brothers served some dark agency who caused so much harm is beyond my ability to amend, but I plan on doing what I can to help, Pug.”

  “It’s welcome. It’s clear we have very little understanding of the demon realm.”

  The two elven brothers were speaking softly, and Gulamendis said, “My brother is going to return to E’bar, Pug, to see if we are able to help our people,” then dryly he added, “or if we’re even welcomed back.

  “I’d like to remain here, a while, and study with Amirantha.”

  “Of course,” said Pug. “You are both welcome here at any time.” He looked at Laromendis and added, “Your task may prove difficult, if I understand what is occurring with your Lord Regent and his Meet. Still, if we must, we shall endeavor to extend our hand and offer friendship.”

  Laromendis smiled. “Remember, we are a long-lived people, Pug. Give Tomas a few more years to come to terms with the Lord Regent, then we’ll introduce you.”

  Jim laughed and drank his wine. Wiping his mouth with a dirty sleeve, he was once again dressed as the ragged head of a Krondor street gang, Jim Dasher, also known as Quick Jim, Jimmyhand, or, to a select few, the Upright Man. He had said earlier the Kingdom could do without his services for a few more days, but he doubted the Mockers, the thieves of Krondor, could. “I must be off in a few minutes, but I have a question, and this seems the perfect time to voice it, while you’re all here.”

  Pug nodded, looking around the room. Only Kaspar was missing, having returned to his responsibilities in Muboya with those soldiers who had come up for the fight. Brandos was sitting next to Sandreena, and had complained for most of the day about having missed the fight, much to Amirantha’s amusement.

  They had all returned a few hours before sunrise and had bathed and rested and were now enjoying a late breakfast or a very late supper from the night before, depending on one’s perspective.

  Jim asked, “What was really going on down there, Pug? I know what I saw, both times I visited, but what did I really see?”

  Pug looked around the room and said, “One way or another you’re all members of the Conclave, even if you don’t consider yourselves as such; you’ve all shown a stead-fastness in defending this world beyond any duty you owe to any crown or faith”—he looked at Sandreena as he said the last. “You deserve to know what I know.

  “For over a century I have been confronted by a dark agency. I have had suspicions over that time as to who the agency is, but twice now I’ve had to rethink my assumptions.” To Amirantha he said, “That your brothers were servants of that agency is, I think, a coincidence.”

  Amirantha nodded. Putting down his wine, he said, “It must be. They would never knowingly work with each other; they were as anxious to kill each other as they were to kill me. Sidi was driven quite mad, and Belasco was…less mad, but certainly not sane.”

  “Which tells me this evil agency you speak of, Father,” said Magnus, “draws to it those inclined toward dark madness.”

  “You can’t cheat an honest man,” said Jim Dasher.

  “What?” asked Gulamendis.

  “It’s an old saying among confidence tricksters. To inspire confidence in a mark—a victim—you need two things: the mark must be greedy and must think he has an edge over you.” He sipped his wine, then continued. “Your two brothers were conned, Amirantha. Whoever they worked for gulled them into thinking they were getting something more than they were giving up in service, that somehow they had the advantage.”

  Amirantha nodded. “Anything that appealed to Sidi’s need to gather power to himself, or to Belasco’s vanity, yes, that would work.”

  Pug said, “However this agency recruits its servants, it has many, and they come at us when they think they are strong enough to win.”

  “So you think they’ll come again?” asked Sandreena.

  “Almost certainly,” said Pug. Then he smiled. “We will be ready. We have resources, as you have seen. Those in high places who are in the Conclave, or who are allied.”

  “Creegan?” asked Sandreena.

  “He is in the Conclave. I recruited him when he was a young Knight-Adamant. Now he’s Grand Master of the Order. We have closer ties with your temple than any other, though we have a good relationship with some others.”

  Sandre
ena said, “I assumed as much.” She took a drink from a mug of tea, then said, “I’m not entirely sure about this Mother-Bishop role, though.”

  “Oh, that,” said Pug. He smiled as he said, “It was temporary. I think Creegan failed to mention that to you.”

  Sandreena was caught between outrage and relief. “Yes, he did. Who and why?”

  “Who is Brother Willoby, who is a loyal member of the Conclave, and an adept administrator. You are too good at what you do to coop you up in an office all day. As to why, Creegan had no idea how much you might require from the temple before we were done. Knight-Sergeant would get you a bit, but Mother-Bishop would get you anything you could ask for.”

  Sandreena considered for a moment, then laughed. “Sneaky bastards, all of you.”

  “We need to be,” said Pug. Returning to Jim’s question, he said, “Exactly what it was we witnessed, I don’t know. He looked from Gulamendis to Amirantha and said, “Have you given it consideration?”

  Gulamendis said, “We have. This was so unlike what we know about demons, we have to stop all our assumptions and build a theory based on what we saw.”

  Amirantha said, “We know there’s a civil war in the Fifth Circle. This Demon War has raged there for centuries, as far as we can judge; it spilled over into our world for the first time, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen again.”

  Gulamendis said, “I doubt that’s the last we’ve seen of the demons, but perhaps we won’t have to confront them as we did on the Taredhel worlds.

  “They seem to have sent most of those demons from the outer circle, and while it probably didn’t seem like it to those of you, my brother and I can tell you what we saw down in Kesh was nothing compared to the onslaughts we endured on those worlds.”

  “So then, why was the Demon King Dahun trying to sneak into this world?” asked Jim. “Or rather, why all the big magic, murder, and mayhem? Either take over Belasco when no one is looking or just come in like a demon and start ripping things apart?”

  “That’s the heart of the mystery,” said Gulamendis.