"What do you think he's done with the women?" Sturm asked anxiously.
The dwarf shrugged. "Used them for his pleasure, tossed them into the volcano, sacrificed them in some unholy magic rite. How should I know?"
Sturm looked grave; Tanin scowled; and Palin, truth be told, looked frightened.
"Well, we're about as ready as we'll ever be, I guess," Tanin said heavily, gathering up a handful of spears. "These look stupid," he muttered. "Maybe the dwarf's right. If we're facing an evil wizard gone berserk, we might as well die fighting with dignity instead of like kids playing at knights and goblins."
"A weapon's a weapon, Tanin," Sturm said matter-of factly, taking a spear in his hand. "At least it gives us some advantage…"
The three brothers and the dwarf approached the wall that was still changing its aspect so often it made them dizzy to watch it.
"I don't suppose there's any point trying to find a secret way in," Tanin said.
"By the time we found it, it'd likely be turning into the front door," Dougan agreed. "If we wait here long enough, there's bound to be an opening."
Sure enough, but not exactly the opening any of them anticipated.
One moment they were looking at a wall of solid stone ("Dwarvish make," remarked Dougan, admiringly) when it changed to a wall of water, thundering down around them out of nowhere, soaking them with its spray.
"We can get through this, I think!" Sturm cried above the noise of the waterfall. "I can see through it! The castle's on the other side!"
"Yes, and there's likely to be a chasm on the other side as well!" Tanin returned.
"Wait," said Palin. "Shirak!" He spoke the magic word to the staff and, instantly the faceted crystal globe on top burst into light.
"Ah, I wish the chief had seen that!" said the dwarf wistfully.
Palin thrust the staff into the water, simply with the idea of being able to see something beyond it. To his amazement, however, the water parted the instant the staff touched it. Flowing down around the staff, it formed an archway that it seemed they could walk through, safe and dry.
"I'll be damned!" Tanin said in awe. "Did you know it would do that, Little Brother?"
"No," Palin admitted shakily, wondering what other powers Raistlin had invested into the staff.
"Well, thank Paladine it did," Sturm said, peering through the hole in the water. "All safe over here," he reported, stepping through. "In fact," he added as Palin and Tanin and Dougan — with a wide-eyed gaze of longing at the staff — followed. "It's a grass lawn!" Sturm said in wonder, looking around in the gray gloom by the light of the staff. Behind them, the water changed again, this time to a wall of bamboo. Ahead of them stretched a long, smooth sward that rose up a gentle slope, leading to the castle itself.
"Now it's grass, but its liable to change into a lava pit any moment," Palin pointed out.
"You're right, Little Brother," Tanin grunted. "We better run for it."
Run they did; Palin hiking up his white robes, the stout dwarf huffing and puffing along about three steps behind. Whether they truly made their destination before the sward had time to change into something more sinister or whether the sward was always a sward, they never knew. At any rate, they reached the castle wall just as night's black shadows closed in on them, and they were still standing on smooth, soft grass.
"Now all we need," said Sturm, "is a way inside — " The blank wall of gray marble that they had been facing shimmered in the staffs light, and a small wooden door appeared, complete with iron hinges and an iron lock.
Hurrying forward, Tanin tugged at the lock. "Bolted fast," he reported.
"Just when a kender would come in handy," Sturm said with a sigh.
"Kender! Bite your tongue!" Dougan muttered in disgust.
"Palin, try the staff," Tanin ordered, standing aside.
Hesitantly, Palin touched the brilliantly glowing crystal of the staff to the lock. The lock not only gave way, but it actually melted, forming a puddle of lead at Palin's feet.
"Lad," said the dwarf, swallowing, "your uncle must have been a remarkable man. That's all I can SAY."
"I wonder what else it can do?" Palin muttered, staring at the staff with a mixture of awe, pride, and frustration.
"We'll have to worry about that later! Inside," said Tanin, yanking open the door. "Sturm, you go first. Palin follow him. We'll use your staff for light. The dwarf and I'll be right behind you."
They found themselves crowded together on a flight of narrow, winding stairs that spiraled upward. Walls surrounded them on all sides; they could see nothing save the stairs vanishing into darkness.
"You realize," said Palin suddenly, "that the door will — " Whirling around, he shone the light of the staff on a blank wall.
"Disappear," finished Tanin grimly.
"There goes our way out!" Shuddering, Sturm looked around. "These stairs could change! Any moment, we could be encased in solid rock!"
"Keep moving!" ordered Tanin urgently.
Running up the steep stairs as fast as they could, expecting to find themselves walking on anything from hot coals to a swinging bridge, they climbed up and up until, at last, the stout dwarf could go no farther.
"I've got to rest, lads," Dougan said, panting, leaning against a stone wall that was, unaccountably, remaining a stone wall.
"Nothing inside seems to be changing," Palin gasped, weary himself from the unaccustomed exercise. He looked with envy at his brothers. Their bronze-skinned, muscular bodies gleamed in the staff's light. Neither was even breathing hard.
"Palin, shine the light up here!" Sturm ordered, peering ahead.
His legs aching so that he thought he could never move them again, Palin forced himself to take another step, shining the staff's light around a comer of the stairwell. "There's a door!" Sturm said, in triumph. "We've reached the top!"
"I wonder what's beyond it," Tanin said darkly.
He was interrupted by, of all things, a giggle. "Why don't you open it and find out?" called a laughing voice from the other side of the door. "It's not locked."
The brothers looked at each other. Dougan frowned. Palin forgot his aching body, forcing himself to concentrate on his spell casting. Tanin's face tightened, his jaw muscles clenched. Gripping his spear, he thrust his way past Dougan and Palin to come stand beside Sturm.
Cautiously, both warriors put their hands on the door.
"One, two, three," Sturm counted in a whisper. On the count of three, he and Tanin threw their combined weight against the door, knocking it open and leaping through, spears at the ready. Palin ran after them, his hands extended, a spell of fire on his lips. Behind him, he could hear the dwarf roaring in fury.
They were greeted with peals of merry laughter.
"Did you ever see," came the giggling voice, "such cute legs?"
The mist of battle rage clearing from his eyes, Palin stared around blankly. He was surrounded, literally, by what must have been hundreds of women. Beside him, he heard Sturm's sharp intake of breath and he saw, dimly, Tanin lower his spear in confusion. From somewhere on the floor at his feet, he heard Dougan swearing, the dwarf having tripped over the door-stoop in his charge and fallen flat on his face. But Palin was too stunned, staring at his captors, to pay any attention to him.
An incredibly gorgeous, dark-haired and dark-eyed beauty approached Tanin. Putting her hand on his spear, she gently pushed it to one side. Her eyes lingered appreciatively on the young man's strong body, most of which — due to the loincloth — was on exhibit.
"My, my," said the young woman in a sultry voice, "did you know it was my birthday?"
More laughter sounded through the vast stone hall like the chiming of many bells.
"Just — just stay back," Tanin ordered gruffly, raising his spear and keeping the woman at bay.
"Well, of course," she said, raising her hands in mock terror. "If that's what you REALLY want."
Tanin, his eyes on the dark-haired beauty, fell back a pace to
stand beside Palm. "Little Brother," he whispered, beads of sweat on his upper lip and trickling down his forehead, "are these women enchanted? Under some sort of spell?"
"N-no," stammered Palin, staring around him. "They… they don't appear to be. I don't sense any kind of magic, other than the force of the Graygem. It's much stronger here, but that's because we're closer to it."
"Lads," said the dwarf urgently, scrambling to his feet and thrusting himself between them, "we're in big trouble."
"We are?" Tanin asked dubiously, still holding the spear in front of him and noticing that Sturm was doing likewise. "Explain yourself, dwarf!" he growled. "What do you know about these women? They certainly don't appear to be prisoners! Are they banshees, vampires? What?"
"Worse," gasped the dwarf, mopping his face with his beard, his eyes staring wildly at the laughing, pointing females. "Lads, think! We're the first to enter this castle! These women probably haven't seen a man in two years!"
CHAPTER SEVEN
Our Heroes
Surrounded by hundreds of admiring women reaching out to touch them and fondle them, the confused and embarrassed «rescuers» were captured by kindness. Laughing and teasing them, the women led the brothers and the dwarf from the vast entry hall to a smaller room in the castle, a room filled with silken wall hangings and large, comfortable silk-covered couches. Before they knew quite what was happening, the men were being shoved down among the cushions by soft hands, the women offering them wine, sumptuous food, and delicacies of all sorts… ALL sorts.
"I think it's sweet, you coming all this way to rescue us," purred one of the women, leaning against Sturm and running her hand over his shoulder. Long blonde hair fell down her bare arm. She wore it tucked behind one ear, held back by a flower. Her gown, made of something gray and filmy, left very little to the imagination.
"All in a day's work," said Sturm, smiling. "We're going to be made Knights of Solamnia, you know," he added conversationally. "Probably for doing this very deed."
"Really? Tell me more."
But the blonde wasn't the least bit interested in the Knights. She wasn't even listening to Sturm, Palin realized, watching his brother with growing irritation. The big warrior was rambling on somewhat incoherently about the Oath and the Measure, all the while fondling the silky blonde hair and gazing into blue eyes.
Palin was ill-at-ease. The young mage felt a burning in his blood, his head buzzed — not an unusual sensation around such lovely, seductive females. He felt no desire for these women, however. They were strangely repulsive to him. It was the magic he sensed, bum-ing within him. He wanted to concentrate on it, on his feeling of growing power. Thrusting aside a doe-eyed beauty who was trying to feed him grapes, Palin inched his way among the cushions to get nearer Sturm. The big man was enjoying the attentions of the attractive blonde to the fullest.
"Sturm, what are you doing? This could be a trap, an ambush!" Palin said in an undertone.
"Lighten up for once, Little Brother," Sturm said mildly, putting his arm around the blonde and drawing her close. "Here, I'll put your mind at ease. Tell me," he said, kissing the blonde's rosy lips, "is this an ambush?"
"Yes!" She giggled, wriggling closer. "You're under attack, right now"
"There you are, Palin. No help for it. We're surrounded." Sturm kissed the girl's neck. "I surrender," he said softly, "unconditionally."
"Tanin?" Alarmed, Palin looked to his oldest brother for help, and was relieved to see the serious young man getting to his feet, despite all efforts of the dark-haired beauty to drag him back down beside her. The dwarf, too, was doing his best to escape.
"Get away! Leave me be, woman!" Dougan roared, slapping at the hands of a lithesome girl. Struggling up from among the cushions, the red-faced dwarf turned to face the women.
"What about Lord Gargath? Where is he?" the dwarf demanded. "Using you women to seduce us, then capture us, no doubt?"
"Lord Gargath? Hardly!" The dark-haired beauty who had been making much of Tanin laughed, as did the other women in the room. Shrugging her lovely shoulders, she glanced at the ceiling. "He's up there… somewhere," she said without interest, caressing Tanin's bare chest. The big man shoved her away, glancing nervously about the room.
"For once you've made sense, dwarf. We better find this Gargath before he finds us. Come on." Tanin took a step toward a door at the end of the perfumed, candle-lit chamber, but the dark-haired beauty caught hold of his arm.
"Relax, warrior," she whispered. "You don't need to worry about Lord Gargath. He won't bother you or anybody." She ran her fingers admiringly through Tanin's thick, red curls.
"I'll see for myself," Tanin returned, but he sounded less enthusiastic.
"Very well, if you must." The woman sighed languorously, nestling her body against Tanin's. "But it's a waste of time — time that could be spent in much more pleasant pursuits. The dried-up old wizards been our prisoner now for two years."
"He's your prisoner?" Tanin gaped.
"Well, yes," said in the blonde, looking up from nibbling at Sturm's ear. "He was such a boring old thing. Talking about pentagrams and wanting to know which of us were virgins and asking a lot of other personal questions. So we locked him in his old tower with his stupid rock." She kissed Sturm's muscular shoulder.
"Then who's been taking the women hostage all these months?" Palin demanded.
"Well, we did, of course," said the dark-haired beauty.
"You?" Palin said, stunned. He put his hand to his forehead and noticed his skin felt abnormally hot. He was dizzy, and his head ached. The room and everything in it seemed to be just slightly out of focus.
"This is a wonderful life! " said the blonde, sitting back, and teasingly rebuffing Sturm's attempts to pull her down. "The Graygem provides all we need. We live in luxury. There is no work, no cooking and mending — »
"No children screaming — »
"No husbands coming back from battle, bleeding and dirty — »
"No washing clothes in the stream day after day — »
"No endless talks of war and bragging about great deeds "
"We read books," said the dark-haired beauty. "The wizard has many in his library. We became educated, and we found out we didn't have to live that kind of life anymore. We wanted our sisters and our mothers to share our comfortable surroundings with us, so WE kept up the ruse, demanding that hostages be brought to the castle until all of us were here."
"Bless my beard!" exclaimed the dwarf in awe.
"All we lack are some nice men, to keep us from being lonely at night," said the blonde, smiling at Sturm. "And now that's been taken care of, thanks to the Graygem…"
"I'm going to go find Lord Gargath," said Palin, standing up abruptly. But he was so dizzy that he staggered, scattering cushions over the floor. "Are the rest of you coming?" he asked, fighting this strange weakness and wondering why his brothers didn't seem afflicted.
"Yes," said Tanin, extricating himself with difficulty from the dark-haired beauty's embrace.
"Count on me, lad," said Dougan grimly.
"Sturm?" said Palin.
"Just leave me here," said Sturm. "I'll act as… rear guard…"
The women broke into merry laughter.
"Sturm!" Tanin repeated angrily.
Sturm waved his hand. "Go ahead, if you're so keen on talking to some moldy old wizard, when you could be here, enjoying…"
Tanin opened his mouth again, his brows coming together in anger. But Palin stopped him. "Leave this to me," the young mage said with a twisted smile. Setting the staff down carefully among the cushions, Palin lifted both hands and held them out, pointing at Sturm. Then he began to chant.
"Hey! What are you doing? Stop!" Sturm gasped.
But Palin continued chanting and began raising his hands. As he did so, Sturm's prone body rose into the air, too, until soon the young man was floating a good six feet off the floor.
"Wonderful trick! Show us some more!" called out the women, applaud
ing.
Palin spoke again, snapped his fingers, and ropes appeared out of nowhere, snaking up from the floor to wrap themselves around Sturm's arms and legs. The women squealed in glee, many of them transferring their admiring gazes from the muscular Sturm — now bound hand and foot — to the mage who could perform such feats.
"G-good trick, Palin. Now put me down!" Sturm said, licking his lips and glancing beneath him nervously. There was nothing between him and the floor but air.
Pleased with himself, Palin left Sturm in the air and turned to Tanin. "Shall I bring him along?" he asked casually, expecting to see Tanin regarding him with awe as well.
Instead, Palin found his older brother's brows furrowed in concern. "Palin," said Tanin in a low voice, "how did you do that?"
"Magic, my dear brother," Palin said, thinking suddenly how unaccountably stupid Tanin was.
"I know it was magic," Tanin said sharply. "And I admit I don't know much about magic. But I do know that only a powerful wizard could perform such a feat as that. NOT one who just recently passed his Test!"
Looking back at the levitated Sturm hovering helplessly in the air, Palin nodded. "You're right," he said proudly. "I performed a high-level spell, without any assistance or aid! Not even the Staff of Magius helped me!" Reaching out, he took hold of the staff. The wood was cold to the touch, icy cold, almost painful. Palin gasped, almost dropping it. But then he noticed that the dizziness was easing. He felt his skin grow cool, the buzzing in his head diminished. "My magic!" he murmured. "The Graygem must be enhancing it! I've only been here a short while, and look what I can do! I have the power of an archmage. If I had the gem, I'd be as strong as my uncle!" Palin whispered to himself. "Maybe stronger!" His eyes glistened, his body began to tremble. "I'd use my power for Good, of course. I would seize the Tower at Palanthas from Dalamar and cleanse it of its evil. I would lift the curse from the Shoikan Grove, enter my uncle's laboratory." Thoughts and visions of the future came to him in a swirl of wild colors, so real and vivid he literally reeled at the sight.
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