The ice drake advanced, gouts of steam rolling from its nostrils, water hissing against its bone-white scales. The monster turned its head from side to side, tendrils writhing around its mouth. Rearing up like a cobra ready to strike, its front legs, tipped with two-foot talons, dangled like the forepaws of a dog as it sat up to beg for a treat.
The prey stood transfixed. Avari looked at her weapon dubiously, wondering if it would even scratch this monstrosity. Red light glinted on the blade, drawing her attention. A red glow, obviously the ruby, seeped through a burlap sack at one troll's waist. A similar white light shone from his other hip.
He has two gems! she realized, edging nearer the troll. They drew us into a trap using the diamond as bait!
Her fingers trembled as she reached out, gripped the sack and applied the edge of her sword to cut the bag free. The troll's attention was on the great worm, but Avari was no pickpocket. The troll whirled and snatched the bag. She slashed at its wrist, but it held fast, howling in rage and raising his huge axe.
The ice drake's head snapped around at the sound and movement, the black pupils of its eyes narrowing to razor-thin lines. The towering creature struck with blinding speed.
Avari's breath left her as she and the troll were knocked to the floor, but she managed to retain her hold on the sack. A deep-throated bellow deafened her as they were both lifted, the drake's three-foot fangs embedded in the troll's backside. The great beast snapped its head, the fangs folding back as it lunged forward to swallow its prey. Avari hung on as the teeth clamped around the troll's chest.
The bag started to rip and Avari managed one more slash with her sword, but the troll was beyond feeling the tiny pain she inflicted. The drake lunged again and the bag tore, sending Avari tumbling into the water. As her eyes cleared, she saw the last protruding part of the troll, the hand holding the shreds of the bag, vanish into the worm's maw. She searched her own shredded remnants, but the ruby was gone.
"It swallowed the damned things!" she yelled to Shay, realizing that, with the troll, the drake had ingested both the diamond and the ruby. "Now we'll never get them back!"
Shay motioned for Avari to take heed. The drake appeared to be far from sated, and its eyes now focused on Avari. The beast crawled forward, rearing once again to strike.
"Doesn't this damned thing ever get full?" Avari muttered, as she watched the huge mouth open, tentacles writhing. She glanced around, but there was nowhere to go. There was only one thing she might try, though it would probably only get her killed more quickly. As the creature lunged, its fanged maw gaping to engulf her, she screamed a death cry and thrust her sword toward the back of its throat.
A flash of light blinded her, and a soft tinkling like wind chimes mingled with the echoes of her scream as a shower of red and white sparks sizzled into the now-vacant pool where forty tons of ice drake had recently stood. The glowing diamond and ruby fell into the ice melt, casting concentric circles of light that rippled across the ceiling in incongruous beauty.
Avari stumbled with the force of her intended thrust, blinked the spots from her eyes and turned around.
“Where...?"
From their expressions, her friends were equally dumbfounded by the drake’s sudden departure. The remaining ice troll dropped its hammer into the ice melt, turned and ran screaming down the corridor. The companions glanced after it, then to each other, then to the pool, which glowed with the brilliance of enchanted light. DoHeney was the first to deduce what had happened.
"Well," the dwarf said, wincing as he relaxed his injured arm, "I guess DoHurley was right about not touchin' more'n one o' them things at once. The beastie must’ve digested them bags so both gems touched its stomach. A right handy way o' gittin' rid o' unwanted pests, if ye follow me thinkin'."
They broke into fits of hysterical laughter, leaning on one another for support, then finally falling to the slippery floor. How ironic that the very gems with which Darkmist intended to destroy them had, by an incredible quirk of fate, saved them.
Ghendal stared into his scrying ice in stunned awe. What he had witnessed was beyond belief; how could such a tremendous creature simply vanish?
The power in those gems must be phenomenal! he thought, shaking his head and trying to rethink his strategies.
His force of trolls had been reduced to two. The intruders were unscathed and, from the scene still playing in his scrying ice, would soon be totally recovered. And worst of all, they now had all three of the gems!
I still have a trick or two up my sleeve, he thought. We will see if luck can keep tons of ice off of their heads. Ghendal stormed from the room, screaming for his remaining ice trolls to attend him. They were neither the bravest nor the smartest of his troops, but brawn, not brains, was required for this task.
Once they are crushed beneath the ice, all I will need is a shovel, Ghendal resolved, his stride developing a swagger as his confidence returned. Then three of the most powerful relics in the world will be mine.
More than a day's ride south of the glacier, three shrouded figures rode across a landscape of waning grasses. They pushed their lathered mounts harder than prudent, but prudence was not a high priority at this point; staying alive was.
Dart glanced behind them again, scanning the scenery for evidence of pursuit. Although all looked clear, he knew he could not trust his eyes. The cat-centaurs were sly, and had breached what Dart thought adequate surveillance more than once.
The persistent game of cat and mouse had been costly for the assassins. Valuable equipment had been lost when their spare mount tumbled into a pit trap, their remaining mounts were near exhaustion, supplies were low, none of them had slept in two days, and, perhaps worst of all, they had used their last healing elixir to mend a spear wound in one of the horses.
Dart threw another glance over his shoulder; it seemed they were finally free of pursuit. Not without teaching those pussy-cats a lesson or two, he thought. He had used up most of his stock of poisons, but felt sure that several of the caltrops he had strewn in their wake would be found by an unshod paw.
They were far behind schedule, but now there was no way for them to report their delay; the onyx likeness of Lord Darkmist had been among the items lost with the extra horse.
CHAPTER 20
Well, me lad," DoHeney said, as he flexed his fingers, "ye get me vote fer the best bone mender we coulda' brung along."
Shay grunted at the compliment, but was too busy helping Avari retrieve Gaulengil to express his thanks. His prayers had not only knitted the bone in DoHeney's forearm, but also healed the broken ribs Avari had unknowingly received. He was weary from his prayers, but it was a satisfying sense of fatigue; it meant that Tem still believed in him, just as he believed in Tem.
"Oh, dragon dung!" the dwarf spat, drawing everyone's attention. "We done fergot why we come! Now them things're froze under two foot o' ice!"
DoHeney stood over a deep pool that was quickly freezing solid. The ages-old ice of the glacier robbed heat faster than the air, crystallizing the water from the bottom up. White and red light refracted upward from beneath the newly frozen ice. With cries of dismay, they sloshed their way over to the pool.
"We could chisel them free," Shay suggested.
"Yer gonna get mighty chilly splashin' in that slush." DoHeney said. "And I don't think them trolls are gonna wait fer us ta take as much time as we'd like."
Shay focused on their problem until he heard Avari's teeth chattering as she shivered in her soaked clothing. She had been submerged several times and was feeling the effects of the glacier’s chill as surely as the freezing puddles.
"First things first," he said as he turned to her and placed his holy symbol to her forehead. Avari held still during the short prayer, then shuddered with pleasure as her chills vanished.
"Ahhhhh. Now that's what I call useful magic," she said. "Can’t you use that to warm up the ice and free the gems?"
"Unfortunately, no. The prayer does not actually war
m you, but only makes you immune to the cold. I have a mage spell to summon flame, but, as you saw, I used it on the trolls."
"I don’t understand why you can't just use it again."
"The magic leaves me when the spell is cast." He patted the satchel that held his books. "To cast it again, I have to study."
DoHeney rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Well then, jist open up that there book o' yers and whip up a fire spell!"
"It is not so simple, DoHeney." Shay said, exasperated that his spells had been so ineffective against the trolls. "I will require time to regain the flame spell, but since I am fatigued, it will take longer than usual."
"I don't think we have the time to spare," Avari said as she poked the ever-thickening ice with her sword. "Maybe if I'm careful I could chip them out with a dagger."
"It'd take ferever, lass," the dwarf lamented. "Besides, the way the light from them jewels is shootin' all over inside the ice, ye can't even tell exactly where they are."
"Perhaps I could shatter a large area of ice, and we could search through the pieces." Shay rapped his hammer against the ice floor experimentally.
"That might work, but ye've still got the water ta contend with. Besides, methinks the magic in that hammer o' yers is more akin ta earth and rock. It likely won't work on ice at all."
"Well then, perhaps we could—"
"Excuse me," Lynthalsea interrupted.
Shay turned toward her, always eager to listen to what she had to say in that wonderful voice of hers. But she ducked his gaze, actually blushing as she dug into her satchel.
"I think I've got something that might help," she said, her tone contrite. "And it might clear up a misunderstanding, too."
She withdrew a small, leather-bound package from her bag and unfolded the supple wrapping to reveal a thin, ornately bound book. Old and weathered, the corners were round with use and years in the wilderness, but the deep blue of the leather was still vibrant, and the silver tracings along the binding and cover were intact. Its most astonishing quality was that, save for its size, it was an exact copy of Shay's larger spell books. Lynthalsea held it out to him as if it were a gift.
"There is an apprentice's incantation in here that I think will melt the ice. It's for heating water for tea or something. It's very simple, and should take you only a few minutes to learn."
Shay's hand trembled as he reached for the book. He looked from the book to her face and back again; his infatuation with the beautiful elf completely forgotten, his mind puzzled over the book. It sat in his hand, identical in design to his own—which was the puzzle. No two sets of spell books were alike; their design was always personalized to their original inscriber.
"Where did you... Who gave... What in the name of..."
"My father gave it to me as a coming-of-age gift," Lynthalsea explained, her voice trembling as she looked Shay in the eye. "I took it with me when I left."
"But my mother gave me my books!" Shay blurted. "There cannot be two sets! And she said they were family heirlooms."
"Our mother, Irielnea." Lynthalsea smiled.
Shay shook his head as he tried to understand. Everything around him seemed to blur as he considered her words.
"B-but that would make us..."
"Brother and sister." Lynthalsea pressed his numb fingers tightly around the book. "Half-siblings, really."
"But I lo—, I mean, I..."
"I know, Shay," she admitted, her eyes downcast. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I had to be sure. And once I was sure... well, it never seemed to be the right time." The elf sighed at the lame excuse, then continued. "But up in the tunnel, when I thought I had lost you, I knew I couldn't put it off any longer."
Shay's eyes brimmed with tears as he broke into a smile that was painfully intense, his heart brimming over with joy. He gripped Lynthalsea's hands, then drew her into a crushing hug.
"I've got a sister," he crooned as they rocked back and forth in their embrace. "A sister..."
Avari grinned, her eyes twinkling with tears. DoHeney also smiled, then started tapping his foot at an increasingly speedy pace. Finally he tapped Avari’s elbow and tilted his head toward the freezing pool and the gems.
Um, Shay?" she said, tapping him on the shoulder. "I hate to interrupt, but can we continue this later?"
"Wha— Oh, yes," Shay agreed, his face still stretched in a wide smile. "Avari, this is my sister!" He held Lynthalsea at arms' length as if introducing her for the first time. He knew how foolish he must look, but the thought of having a flesh-and-blood connection so close, yet unknown, had overwhelmed him.
"Yes, Shay, I know. But..."
"Yes, we should see to the task at hand, should we not?" Shay wiped the freezing tears of joy from the face of his new-found sister, then from his own.
"And just what exactly... Oh, yes! The gems!" Shay leafed through the small book of simple spells, locating one that would serve their purpose. He nodded as he read it. "I should be able to learn this very quickly indeed."
"Fine," Avari agreed. "We'll keep watch. If more trolls, come, I don't want to be caught twiddling our thumbs."
"Good," DoHeney quipped. "It'll give me a chance to have a look round." He grinned and started working his way around the freezing pool, eying the worm's newly wrought tunnel.
"Don't go far," Avari warned, motioning Lynthalsea over so the two could talk. "If you year a yell, come running."
DoHeney waved his assent, then disappeared into the tunnel as Shay bent over the book of spells to study.
Ghendal's eyes watered as he drew his hood lower and squinted into the unbearable glare of the winter sun hitting the south-facing cliff. He focused on the cavern's entrance, waiting for a flicker of motion that would signal him to spring his trap. His last two trolls stood upon the shelf above the cavern's yawning mouth, huge mallets at the ready. At his signal they would drive long iron spikes deep into the ice, separating an immense wedge from the cliff face.
Nothing can go wrong, he reminded himself, there is only one entrance, and they must use it. After the ice fell, digging out the artifacts should not be difficult with the trolls’ help.
Ghendal allowed himself a grin of triumph, but did not permit his attention to waver. He had positioned himself carefully, with a good view of the hidden door. As soon as the thieves were clear of it, he would give the signal and the gems would be his. His allegiance to Iveron Darkmist was forgotten; when such power was at stake, vows of fealty meant little.
Shay rubbed his hands together and mumbled the required chant. The light of the glowing diamond shifted and danced as its imprisoning ice melted. Avari plunged in to retrieve the gem, as she already had the ruby. She came up sputtering, but none the worse for wear due to her immunity from the chill.
"Well, there you are!" she said, holding the stunning diamond aloft for the others to see as she waded out of the pool. "We have three of the four now. One more and that slimy Nekdukarr will be powerless!"
"Not exactly powerless, Avari," Shay corrected. "A Nekdukarr is never powerless so long as the Deathless One's helm rests on his brow. He will still be a powerful force, and free to do as he likes, with his army to back him."
"Party pooper!" DoHeney said, tucking the ruby away.
"Yes, Shay," Lynthalsea chided, patting him on the shoulder. "Admit your victory; we are three-quarters of the way to defeating his plans."
"In fact," Avari put in, holding out the diamond to Shay as a gift, "why don't you carry this one. You've earned it."
"No, thank you." Shay smiled, palms up in protest. "Now that I have seen the might of these artifacts, I am reluctant to keep one on my person. There is no way to know how it might interact with my own magic. You carry it, Avari. I know you will keep it safe. Now I recommend an alacritous exodus. That we have remained unmolested so long is miraculous."
"Wha'd he say?" DoHeney whispered to Avari.
"He said it's time to leave."
"Oh! Well, why didn't he jist say so? I
found a better way out over here, me buckos," DoHeney said as he whirled and started off in the opposite direction that his friends were moving.
"What do you mean, a better— Hey!" Avari noticed the crossbow bouncing along behind him, the very crossbow that had disappeared into the cavern that had nearly claimed Shay's life. She reached out and grabbed the weapon, jerking her short friend back. "And where did you find this?"
"That's what I was jist tellin' ye, lass," he explained, shrugging his satchels back into place. "I got ta thinkin' about that hole we near slid down, and I thought what a nice trap it'd make ta have unwanted guests slide right into the den o' a worm like that one what showed up so unexpected like. And with a little time ta kill, I decided ta jist—"
"You explored the cave, found your crossbow, and decided that would be an easier way up," Avari finished for him.
"Er, yeah. That's right, lass."
"Not a bad idea, DoHeney," Shay commended, helping Lynthalsea around the already freezing pool.
The companions ventured into the tunnel excavated by the drake's searing heat and emerged into its cavernous lair. The floor was littered with the indigestible remains of eons of the ice drake's prey. Most were caribou antlers and bones, some taller than Avari. A few scraps of weapons and armor were visible, tarnished and torn from their passage through the beast's gut.
"One very busy worm," Avari surmised, prodding what looked like a crushed helm.
"Or one very old worm." Lynthalsea leaned to inspect a curved shell that looked suspiciously like a sea turtle. "I’ve never heard mention of an ocean near here."
"We had best be moving," Shay suggested, prodding the others to follow DoHeney toward the entrance.
"It's not really that steep, ye see." The dwarf extracted a hammer and several spikes from his pack. "If I lead, poundin' these in as I go, it shouldn't be no trick a-tall. Shay can bring up the rear, knockin' em out as we go."
Nekdukarr Page 17
