“All that power… requires skill.” It was obvious now that Sardal was struggling to stay alive. “You have… have…” He could not finish the sentence.
“Nonsense. I have studied everything I could get my hands on. I know what to do. It is only a matter of proportion.”
“Argaen…” Sardal gasped, his eyes staring.
It took some time before either the dark elf or Kaz realized that Sardal Crystal thorn was dead. The eyes of the battered elf still stared. Ravenshadow muttered something under his breath and bent down beside the body, obscuring it from the minotaur’s eyesight. When he rose and stepped away, Kaz saw that Sardal was no longer there!
The minotaur struggled against the magical hands that held him fast. “What’ve you done with his body? Saving it for another one of your spells?”
The dark elf turned around and gave him a stony stare. “Sardal Crystalthorn will have a proper burial. We might have been adversaries in the end, but I will honor him still.”
Kaz was tempted to say something about his captor’s twisted code of honor, but held back when he looked closer at Ravenshadow’s face. Killing Sardal had taken more out of the dark elf than Argaen might admit.
“At one time, I meant to share what I found with him,” Argaen said quietly. He seemed only marginally aware of the presence of the minotaur. “Sardal was the only one who really tried to help me. I thought he would understand at first.” Ravenshadow looked up at his captive, and his face was abruptly bland once more. “That is neither here nor there, however. Time is extremely precious now, and I cannot afford to deal with you properly. I underestimated your amazing strength, Kaz-my experience with your race is very limited. As it stands, I think I must ask you to accompany me. An old friend has been dying to see you.” The attempt at sardonic humor sounded flat, even to the dark elf. He turned, glanced at the pile of rubble that had killed Sardal, and then stared at the hole in the ceiling.
Without a word and barely a thought, Argaen Ravenshadow gestured toward Kaz.
The minotaur found himself lifted toward the stone ceiling with frightful speed. Just before the tip of his horns hit the ceiling, the ceiling opened. The opening didn’t appear to be like a trapdoor, but rather like a mouth. As he was pushed through to the next floor, Kaz couldn’t help but imagine that he was about to be eaten. The feeling was enhanced by the total darkness into which he was thrust. Something caught him around the waist and legs, and he had a nightmarish thought that these were teeth. The mouth closed, but another one opened above him. Kaz saw that what held him were more stone hands.
He was being passed up through the levels of the keep like some unwanted trinket. Kaz was passed through four more levels, each time with the same horrifying rush to the ceiling.
Eventually Kaz’s journey came to a halt. His relief at having to face no more oncoming ceilings quickly died when he realized where he was. He was now a prisoner in the chamber of the emerald sphere.
“Here he is, wraith!” shouted Argaen Ravenshadow, whom Kaz had not seen materialize in the chamber. He was simply there, next to the minotaur, calling out to the creator of the artifact. “Shall I allow him a quick death? I know how much that would madden you!”
The emerald sphere flared violently. Ravenshadow laughed mockingly. “You cannot harm me, even though I know you would like to try! I have a piece of you, so to speak!”
While Kaz watched, puzzled, the dark elf shoved a hand into one of his robe pockets and removed a curved object. In the odd light of the room, it glinted a brilliant green… an emerald green. Kaz knew what it was instantly.
Argaen had a chunk of the emerald sphere.
He doubted that the elf could have taken the piece from Galan Dracos directly, and that could only mean that the magic thief had, at some point, scoured the ruins of the renegade mage’s stronghold up in the mountains between Hylo and Solamnia. Kaz knew that the knights had not found all of the shattered remnants of the sphere, even with the aid of sorcerers and clerics. It was just too impossible a task. Argaen must have been lucky enough to locate this particular piece.
“To think”-Ravenshadow turned to his prisoner and smiled briefly-”that I originally carried this as some sort of good-luck charm. How true that turned out to be! While I hold this, minotaur, I am shielded from him!”
Shoving the shard back into his pocket, the dark elf stalked up to the emerald sphere. As he neared it, mist began to rise above it, slowly congealing into the vague form of Galan Dracos. The wraith looked from Argaen to Kaz, silent all the while.
It was Ravenshadow who finally spoke. “He is yours! The companion, the friend, of your enemy! The closest you will come to revenge against the Solamnic Knight! Whatever you wish to do with him is up to you, but our bargain stands! First you will show me how to bind the sphere to my will!”
“Come… then.” The voice made the minotaur’s hair stand on end. That voice had haunted his dreams. This was no longer a creature strictly human. When Galan Dracos spoke, his voice was like the wind, seemingly drifting toward the listeners from all around.
The elf took another step toward his prize.
“No! I won’t let you do it!” A figure leaped from one of the shadowy corners nearby and landed on Argaen. Kaz struggled, feeling the stone hands loosen as Argaen’s concentration broke under the surprising assault. First the minotaur’s arms, and then his legs, were free. He started toward the two fighters. The newcomer was Delbin, and Kaz knew that, against Ravenshadow, the kender stood little chance.
No sooner did he think that than the dark elf managed to pull Delbin from him and toss him aside like a rag doll. Somehow Delbin landed on his feet, but that was the only good fortune they had, for immediately Ravenshadow whirled on both of them.
All strength fled from the minotaur’s massive frame, and he collapsed without taking another step. Frantically Kaz tried to rise, but it proved too much effort. Oddly, he felt as alert as before. It was only his body that lacked all strength. Delbin was likewise hampered.
Argaen looked them over coldly, then whirled back to face the emerald sphere. “How did that kender get in here?”
“I… was not… expecting… a kender. Neither apparently… were you.” Dracos sounded annoyed with both Ravenshadow and himself.
Glancing back at the hourglass on the table, the dark elf snarled, “Time is running out) Tell me what I must do, and this time nothing must go wrong!”
“You… will not… be disappointed.”
Kaz blinked, the only physical act he was still capable of. Dracos seemed anxious… very anxious.
Raising his hands high in the air, Ravenshadow stared at the emerald sphere. It started to pulsate, slowly at first, then faster and faster as the seconds went by. The elf became enraptured by his work. Slowly Galan Dracos began to dissipate.
Kaz had failed. There was no denying it. He could only watch helplessly as the emerald sphere grew brighter and brighter-so bright, in fact, that the minotaur had to shut his eyes. Thus it was that he did not see exactly what happened next.
In the last seconds, Argaen Ravenshadow faltered. The burning brilliance of the artifact did not bother his eyes, but for some reason he began to blink uncontrollably, regardless.
Outside, Nuitari, the black moon, had only just eclipsed Solinari.
A ghostly laugh reverberated throughout the chamber. The misty form of Galan Dracos no longer hung above the sphere.
With a roar of agony, the dark elf collapsed against the crystalline artifact. The glare died, and Kaz felt life returning to his limbs, all too slowly. Somewhere Delbin groaned.
Ravenshadow pulled away from his prize and looked up to the heavens with a face contorted by numerous vying emotions. He laughed, but that laugh held both pleasure and sorrow. That laugh also held insanity.
His eyes were blood-red.
“I told you, elf, that only through you could I live again!”
The voice was that of Argaen Ravenshadow, but Kaz knew that the eyes, the mind,
belonged to Galan Dracos.
This was what the wraith had been waiting for. This was why Dracos had needed the dark elf. The renegade mage had been unable to create more than an insubstantial form for himself, a form ever tied to the emerald sphere.
Argaen, however, had boasted that he was protected against the specter’s power thanks to the shard he carried. Kaz believed him, for he doubted that Dracos would have tolerated the magic thief all along if he had had the power to take over his body. What had happened to change things? Ravenshadow had put the shard into his robe pocket; had it slipped out somehow during the struggle with Delbin?
That was it, of course. Galan Dracos had been able to manipulate Argaen toward this moment and then let the kender do his bidding.
Kaz found that he could now raise himself to a sitting position. Dracos, enthralled by the success of his plot, was laughing and laughing. He clutched his newfound body tightly.
“Mistress, mistress, I thank you for your benevolence and this second chance!” roared Galan Dracos.
The minotaur shivered. There was no question as to who the sorcerer’s mistress was. Kaz was almost to his feet when the mage remembered him and turned.
“Kaz! Minotaur, I hope you did not think I was going to neglect you!”
“The thought had crossed my mind. Feel free to, human.”
Dracos laughed again. That laugh was getting on Kaz’s nerves. “I hope you appreciate how precious these last few moments of your life are; I can promise you, from personal experience, that death is not always a relief!”
The minotaur straightened. If the reborn mage was going to kill him, Kaz would die with honor and dignity. “So I gathered. You didn’t escape the Dragonqueen after all.”
“Not quite. I was trapped in my own creation, but the claws of my mistress reach very far. Though she could not remove me from my selfmade prison, she spoke to me. I still could aid her with her conquest of Krynn, even after her defeat and temporary exile by your belated comrade.”
“Temporary?”
‘Temporary.” Galan Dracos smiled through Ravenshadow’s visage. More and more, the elf’s body seemed gaunt, and the skin, though it might only have been the minotaur’s imagination, appeared a bit scaly. “Tonight, Kaz, you will watch the world welcome Takhisis back to Krynn! Tonight!” He laughed again in that same mocking tone.
The laugh broke off in midstream as two things happened simultaneously. The first was the hourglass, which, without warning, exploded, sending glass shards and bits of sand flying about the room. The other was what at first seemed to be an attack of some illness so virulent that all of a sudden Dracos pitched forward and fell to one knee, screaming.
“Cease… your… struggling! This is… my body now!”
Kaz scanned the room hurriedly, seeking something he could use against Dracos, or Ravenshadow, or whoever was controlling the body.
“Kaz!” Delbin rushed to his side.
“Get out of here, Delbin! Go and find the others! I’ve got to stop him if I can!”
“He’s got your battle-axe, Kaz! I saw it! That one called Dracos has it, only it’s invisible now, so you can’t see it-”
“Where? Just point!”
“I don’t know. He hid it!”
Eyeing the agonizing figure of the elf, Kaz held his breath and concentrated on the axe. Maybe, just maybe, with both Dracos and Ravenshadow fighting for control of the body, the spell on the battle-axe would be weakening. If so…
Delbin whistled. “How’d you do that? Can you do it again? That’s a neat trick!”
As Kaz gazed down at the dwarven axe, new sounds reached the minotaur’s ears. The sounds of battle had returned. The barrier that Ravenshadow had formed with the guidance of Dracos was no more.
Thrusting a sword through an overanxious opponent, Darius looked up and saw a strange dull haze surround the keep. At first he thought it was some new addition to the spell that Argaen Ravenshadow had evidently cast, but then he spotted several figures in the distance. At least three of them had their arms raised and were staring intently at the keep.
Another man came at him with an axe, and he put up his sword to block the blow as best he could. Something bright flashed in his adversary’s eyes, and the man faltered.
“Do something!” Tesela shouted from behind him.
Darius realized that she had saved his life. While his opponent tried to move back out of range until his eyes cleared, the knight urged his mount forward, reached under the other’s frantic swings, and ran the man through at the neck.
“Darius! Look at the keep!”
He did-and covered his eyes as the spell of the other mages reacted with the barrier spell and the entire region was lit up brightly.
When he dared look again, the barrier was gone. The keep was open to attack.
“Stay close to me!” he shouted at Tesela. “This is our chance to rescue Kaz!”
With renewed morale, the knights surged forward.
“You have… your god-spawned battle-axe… again! No matter! That will not… help you now!”
Dracos had recovered somewhat, and now pointed a finger at his adversary. Kaz was thrown back, but he managed to keep a grip on his weapon. He landed on a table, crushing several tomes and breaking the table itself in two. The minotaur was only slightly stunned; he had suffered worse blows in tavern brawls with drunken, hateful humans.
Dracos swore bitterly and swerved toward the emerald sphere.
Kaz looked at his battle-axe, momentarily debating whether to throw it or not. He might succeed in striking the sphere, but there was no guarantee that it would shatter.
Galan Dracos made it to the artifact, but he paused there, oddly indecisive. He seemed to be of two minds, and Kaz sourly reminded himself that he was indeed of two minds. What Argaen Ravenshadow lacked in sorcerous ability, he more than made up for in willpower, and he was not about to surrender his existence to Dracos. Ravenshadow was an elf, and he had centuries of training behind him, something the human mage had evidently not taken into account.
Kaz took one look at the sphere and then at the struggling sorcerer. The minotaur hefted his battle-axe. Perhaps he could get two targets with one blow.
The doorways were suddenly brimming with onrushing soldiers.
Cursing, Kaz turned to meet them. He should have realized that it was only a matter of time before guards were summoned to investigate the commotion.
The first man came at him, a spear thrust barely missing Kaz’s shoulder. This man, too, underestimated the reach of the minotaur, and Kaz brought the axe around, ripping a great gap in the human’s chest. The man tumbled to the floor as two others moved closer. They were armed with longswords. Behind them, a third man, clad in the dark armor of one of the Black Guard, saw the crazed mage and shouted Dracos’s name.
Another guard went down under the minotaur’s onslaught, only now two more joined in. Against four, Kaz was hard pressed. These were not goblins; these were veteran warriors.
Kaz couldn’t see what was happening, but the guardsman who had called out the mage’s name now gave a shout and ran toward his master, sword at the ready.
That relieved the minotaur of one opponent, but the other three still kept him at bay.
“Give me that, you little vermin!” a voice shouted from the other part of the room. Kaz could spare no time to glance back, but he could think of only one person the guardsman could be shouting at. In his present danger, he had forgotten that Delbin was still in the chamber. The kender was quick and armed with both a knife and a sling, but Kaz thought less of Delbin’s chances than he did of his own.
“Stop him!” Ravenshadow-Dracos, Kaz corrected himself-shouted.
The minotaur had no time to wonder what his companion was doing, for in the next instant, a huge form broke through the roof, sending massive sections of stone tumbling down on everyone. A guard in the corridor outside screamed as he was crushed by the stone. Kaz and his opponents leaped away from one another as a particu
larly large chunk fell between them, collapsing the floor and falling through to the next level.
Above him, the stone dragon opened its mouth in a silent roar.
One of the guards sought to take advantage of the moment and jumped across the gap. Kaz turned and caught him as he was landing. Before the man could secure his footing, Kaz shoved him backward with the top of his battle-axe. Cursing, the guard fell into the hole.
Temporarily free, Kaz located Delbin. The kender was backed into a corner by the ebony-armored guardsman. In Delbin’s hands was a barely visible item, Ravenshadow’s shard. Off to one side and still near the emerald sphere, the two minds within the dark elf’s body continued their struggle. Occasionally words would bubble forth.
The stone dragon finally worked its way into the chamber, leaving a gaping hole in its wake, and proceeded to go wild. The one opponent still left to the minotaur screamed as a massive paw crushed him into the floor. The beast’s tail swished back and forth madly. Whichever of the battling mages had summoned the beast barely controlled it now; it was possible that no one really did anymore.
That left fighting it up to Kaz-and Delbin.
The kender cried out. Kaz saw the guardsman strike the small figure down, but the dragon chose that moment to swipe at him with a huge rocky paw. The minotaur was buffeted and fell to one knee. The battle-axe almost slipped from his grip.
Rage washed over Kaz. He saw the black figure lean over the still form of the kender, take the shard, and give it quickly to Dracos-Ravenshadow. He saw the elven body straighten and knew that, with that shard, one of them had finally triumphed.
The stone dragon swiped at Kaz again, and this time the minotaur, still on one knee, defended himself with the dwarven axe.
Honor’s Face cleaved through half the paw without even slowing.
Kaz gaped, momentarily at a loss. The unliving leviathan reared back and mouthed a silent roar of anguish. It could not perish, not in the sense that a living creature could, but even this creature had a sense of self-preservation.
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