by Mel Odom
“Nooooo!” Aldhran Khempus howled. His eyes locked onto Juhg’s. “By the Darkness, halfer, you will die for what you have done here this day.” He brought his hand back and threw it forward as if he were throwing a spear. Crackling lightning shot from his hand.
On his knees, fumbling for the red gemstone, Juhg didn’t have a chance. He watched the lightning bolt come straight for his chest and knew that he was about to die.
Then a gnarled wooden staff materialized out of thin air, interposed itself in front of Juhg, and smacked down smartly on the stone floor.
The lightning struck the wooden staff and a concussive blast blew back the lines of goblinkin and the warriors standing with the Grandmagister. Redirected by the staff, the lightning blast flew from the end of the staff and blasted a huge chunk out of the stone ceiling high above. Black scorch marks scarred the stone floor and the area around the gaping hole that had been ripped into the ceiling.
All other sounds went away, leaving Juhg deaf and sitting on his knees. The huge force waves that had sent goblinkin and warriors tumbling over each other like leaves in the fall never touched him. He looked up at the robed figure that had protected him, recognizing the staff and the pointy hat and that impossibly tall, gaunt frame all at one time.
“Craugh,” Juhg croaked.
Craugh showed him a wintry smile. “Surely you didn’t think a little falling sand could kill me, apprentice.”
“No,” Juhg said, throwing his arms around the wizard’s legs.
“Apprentice,” Craugh said sternly.
Juhg immediately released the wizard.
Striding to the center of the room, his eyes never leaving those of Aldhran Khempus, Craugh roared out in rage, “I am Craugh, called often the Unruly and the Unholy. I am a warrior born and a wizard trained. I have killed and warred and built empires and destroyed them. I am father to the greatest evil this world has ever known.”
Juhg couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“I have known pride and shame, tasted victory and defeat, spilled the blood of my enemies and shed my own,” Craugh continued, coming to a stop in the center of the room with his staff across his knees. “I have fought for passion and I have fought because I lacked anything else to do.”
Juhg hugged The Book of Time close to him, feeling the power within the thing.
“I have known many things in my long life, but I have known the friendship of only one who gave that friendship in spite of all the faults he knew I had, though he did not know them all.” Green fire blazed from Craugh’s eyes. Wind whirled through the room, circling the wizard. “And I know you, Aldhran Khempus, as I knew your dead brother lying here in pieces before you, as men that rode into the In-Betweenness to steal The Book of Time. I have come here today to kill you, for past transgressions as well as the harm you have given to my friend.” He took a deep breath and went on in a cold voice. “I am going to kill you, Aldhran Khempus, so protect yourself as best you may.”
Aldhran shouted words and a massive wind rose up from the throat of the hallway behind him and blew goblinkin and warriors before it, rolling them into piles that became bloody fights. Arrows flew for just a moment, then the combatants were far too close to deal with each other with anything more than edged steel.
Raisho was immediately in his element, coming over to guard Juhg just as Cobner wove a net of deadly steel around the Grandmagister. Jassamyn sprinted up the stairwell, her bow in her hand as she shot goblinkin archers who stood at the balcony and tried to shoot the human, dwarven, and elven warriors below. Her draca fought at her side, spitting flame and raking eyes out with its talons.
After the wind subsided, Aldhran screamed in rage and ran at Craugh with his sword raised over his head, obviously intending to halve the wizard. Moving with speed and economy, Craugh blocked the sword blow and returned a blow of his own that Aldhran riposted.
Then Aldhran threw his hand out. Magical force rippled between them and Craugh left his feet, flying back against the large double doors that led out into the main courtyard.
Bright sunlight shone down on Craugh as he crawled to his feet. He set his pointy hat aright, then gestured. Immediately Aldhran was lifted from his feet and yanked out into the courtyard as well.
Unwilling to miss the fight, and having precious little room to maneuver inside the overcrowded great room, Juhg lunged around combatants. He picked up a mace that one of the goblinkin had dropped and used it for great effect, smashing goblinkin toes and kneecaps—and, once, a goblinkin noggin, when one came down close enough for him to manage it. He left a ragged line of victims behind him, helping the outnumbered human, elven, and dwarven warriors.
Craugh and Aldhran continued their battle under the morning sun that reached rosy fingers of dawn over the Haze Mountains. Their shadows reached long and lean behind them.
Every time the staff and sword met, sparks flared out several feet in all directions.
Looking toward the front gates, Juhg saw that the massive doors had not opened. The goblinkin so far were able to defend against their attackers, and now some of them were starting to pull back from their posts along the massive wall to help with the small group already within their walls.
“Raisho,” Juhg called. “Jassamyn. They haven’t gotten the gate doors open yet.” He took off, running across the horse-tramped earth. He shoved The Book of Time deep into his jacket pocket and pulled the drawstrings.
The inner courtyard formed a great rectangle that held a drill yard and combat exercise equipment to the left and low horse stalls to the right. Choosing discretion over certain destruction, Juhg ran to the right, climbing over the side of the corral that held the horses.
Arrows whipped past him for an instant, then one of the brighter goblinkin commanders realized that the archers endangered the animals more than Juhg because hitting a horse was much simpler than hitting a fleet-footed dweller. He ran, shooing the horses by flailing his arms, causing them to charge into the goblinkin that tried to intercept him.
Raisho was at his heels, forcing the goblinkin to turn immediately to face the threat of the young sailor’s flashing and deadly cutlass. Jassamyn didn’t even pause as she nocked arrow after arrow, sending shafts into the goblinkin that managed to get in front of Juhg.
A trio of goblinkin got ahead of Juhg and he managed to avoid them by sliding between the feet of a mare, then leaping back up on the other side. He grabbed a pitchfork and threw it into the face of the first goblinkin that came around the horse. Still on the move, Juhg ran behind another trotting mare, grabbed her tail, and swarmed up onto her rump. He was up on her rump before she kicked and planted a hoof into the second goblinkin’s face.
Juhg ran across the horse’s back as it broke into a trot, then leaped to the roof of the low shed that offered the horse shelter from the elements. The third goblinkin drew back its sword to swing on him, but Jassamyn put an arrow through its head.
At the end of the shed, Juhg leaped to the ground again, crying out as pain racked his injured ankle. Goblinkin archers atop the wall turned and fired at him, but he ducked in close to the wall and ran toward the gates. Jassamyn brought down two more goblinkin archers as he moved. Then Raisho was there, covering his back as they streaked for the windlasses that held the drawbridge up and that raised the metal gate behind it.
Juhg drew his knife as Raisho stepped in front of him and engaged two of the goblinkin guards protecting the windlasses. The young sailor cleaved the head of one of his two opponents, then found himself momentarily fighting for his life against the second.
Passing by the goblinkin, Juhg kicked out with his leg and stomped the creature’s foot as hard as he could. During the moment of distraction and dropped guard, Raisho slit its throat with the cutlass. In the next moment, Jassamyn put an arrow through the heart of a goblinkin along the wall.
Then Juhg was at the drawbridge windlass. His knife scraped across the rope and the strands parted like butter. The drawbridge fell open with a ma
ssive thump.
Moving on to the windlass that raised the huge iron gate, Juhg started tugging but found that he lacked the strength to move it more than an inch at a time. “Raisho. Help.”
Coming over to join him, the young sailor leaned into the task. His muscles rippled and the windlass turned rapidly. The human, elven, and dwarven warriors waiting outside the gate rushed forward at once, screaming war cries.
In seconds, the inner courtyard was a bloody battleground. The goblinkin held for just a moment, then crumpled and gave way like a beaver’s dam during a high flood. They fell and fell again.
In the center of the courtyard, Craugh blocked Aldhran Khempus’s sword thrust and reversed his staff, catching his opponent’s neck in the forked end of the staff. Mercilessly, Craugh twisted the staff and broke Aldhran’s neck with an audible snap. Then he held high the savage trophy he’d claimed, showing the rest of the goblinkin that their master was no more.
Almost immediately, the fight left the goblinkin. No quarter was offered, though; the human, elves, and dwarves wouldn’t allow it. The few goblinkin that weren’t killed or tossed off the mountain ended up chased down the mountainside till they managed to escape into the forest. Not many of them made the escape.
Juhg stood there in the middle of it all, knowing that he stood at a pivotal period in history. In his mind, words were already connecting that would tell of the day, the men, and the battle.
epilogue
Lord of the Libraries
Juhg climbed the stairs that led to the Grandmagister’s office. It was strange going there because he had been so used to going to the Grandmagister’s old office. But so much building was going on now to restore the Vault of All Known Knowledge that he knew it would take a long time to get used to it.
In addition to the renovation, the dwarven architects had also designed new wings for the addition of the books they were even now bringing in from the Library Tuhl had served at. A lot of the materials that Library had gathered had been dark and evil and malignant, but they had a number of books as well that replaced all and more of what the Vault of All Known Knowledge had lost in the attack triggered by the trap Aldhran Khempus had set. As soon as books were copied at one Library, they were quickly sent to the other. Copies would soon be on hand at both sites.
Farther down the Knucklebones Mountains, in the shadows of the Ogre’s Fingers, the newest buildings were being added. Those were Juhg’s pride and joy, a surprise gift from the Grandmagister and the dwarven construction board. Four schoolhouses had been designed to train teachers who wanted to go out to the mainland to establish schools there. Or to train people from the mainland who wanted to learn to read and write, learn the histories of their people, and return home to share everything they had learned.
Five months had passed since the battle up in the Haze Mountains. Everyone who had lived had healed, though there were a number who had fallen in battle. Their names lived on in tales told by warriors, and in the book that Juhg had written about all that had led up to the battle that morning.
It was the first time Juhg had ever felt strange about writing about things he had done and participated in, primarily because he had had such a dramatic impact on the outcome of things.
But the Grandmagister had insisted that no one else could write the tale. However, the Grandmagister had relented and agreed to edit the work when it was finished, as well as add articles and monographs and an appendix on things that needed to be better fleshed out that Juhg judged himself not capable of doing.
They had worked on the book back and forth for nearly all of those five months while handling increased visits to Greydawn Moors, helping make decisions about the renovations to the Library, and agreeing on the schoolhouses as well as the curriculum that would be taught.
Imarish was going to be the center for the first mainland school. Armies of humans, elves, and dwarves were already gathering to drive the bridge-building goblinkin from Imarish within the next year, long before the goblinkin could reach the Canal City.
At the door, Juhg waited politely for a moment, enjoying watching the Grandmagister reading, something he had seldom gotten to do during the past five months. It was, Juhg saw, an old favorite of the Grandmagister’s from Hralbomm’s Wing. A little tattered, perhaps, but still readable. Juhg was also certain that the copy wasn’t the only one that existed. The Grandmagister had also gotten the Librarians producing copies at a never-before-seen rate. Some of the dwellers who had left the service of the Library came back of their own volition, feeling perhaps a little threatened by the newcomers arriving at the Yondering Docks on a daily basis.
The title of the work was Taurak Bleiyz and the Bleak Pits of Darkhearted Vormoral.
“Will he save her?” Juhg asked. “The mighty dweller hero, Taurak Bleiyz, I mean? Will he save the fair Gylesse?”
Looking up from the book, the Grandmagister marked his place with a forefinger and smiled. “Of course Taurak Bleiyz will save the fair Gylesse from the Bleak Pits of Darkhearted Vormoral. Doesn’t he always?”
“In the best stories, yes.”
“And don’t forget, he has his magical war club, Toadthumper, at his side.”
Juhg smiled and felt the scar still pulling at the side of his face.
“Come in,” the Grandmagister invited.
Juhg went in and sat. They talked for a few minutes about the construction going on, then about the book. The Grandmagister had finished the final reading only the night before and found it a very good read. He’d put it into production that morning and there was already a long line of people who wanted to read the books as fast as they could be put out.
“I’ve asked you here to tell you something,” the Grandmagister said after they’d drifted into a comfortable silence.
“What?” Juhg asked.
“Well, I’ve asked you here to tell you good-bye, Juhg.”
“Are you going somewhere?”
“Yes, yes I am.”
That bothered Juhg. “But the Library—”
“Will be fine in your hands,” the Grandmagister told him. “Both of them.”
“Both of them?” Juhg replied.
“Yes. We now control both Libraries, that which we’ve managed to save from the Vault as well as Tuhl’s collection. You are now Lord of the Libraries and it is up to you to manage the collections as you see fit.”
“Couldn’t I go with you?”
The Grandmagister shook his head. “Not on this trip. Nor do I think you would want to go. Your work is here, Juhg. You’re a teacher, and I think you’re going to be the finest teacher ever.”
“But you’re a teacher, too. You taught me.”
“There’s a difference between you and me,” the Grandmagister said. “At the very heart of you, you want to teach. You love showing people new skills and watching them make them their own. You love helping people understand things they’d never even truly wondered about before. As Lord of the Libraries, you will teach others to do the same. It is no longer the time for books and knowledge to be kept in a vault. It should be loaned out for all.” He paused. “But the heart of me, my heart, is something else.”
“What?”
“I’m a rover, Juhg. That’s why I kept going back to the mainland all these years.”
“You were searching for books.”
“The search for books was important,” the Grandmagister allowed, “but that was the excuse, not the reason. I love seeing new places these days, Juhg. Meeting new people. Having new experiences.” He smiled. “I suppose it’s Hallekk’s fault in a way. I mean, he is the one who shanghaied me and first brought me aboard One-Eyed Peggie. But it’s not his fault. He’s a pirate at heart, and probably always will be.”
“Where are you going?” Juhg thought the trip sounded permanent, and that worried him.
Reaching into his desk, the Grandmagister pulled out The Book of Time. It looked more like a book these days, journal-sized and filled with pages, though it still had
gemstone covers and gemstone color plates inside.
As Juhg had kept it, he found that gradually it adjusted to the Grandmagister. One day he’d gotten up and found out he wasn’t able to pick it up anymore. But the Grandmagister had been able to.
From that day forward, the Grandmagister kept it. Juhg wasn’t sad to see it go. It was only a short time after that custodial change that The Book of Time began to have pages.
Craugh, over dinner down at Carason’s Eatery, which still existed and was still the Grandmagister’s favorite place to eat, had voiced the opinion that The Book of Time had found a kindred spirit in the Grandmagister and had started changing itself to suit the Grandmagister’s tastes. Neither Juhg nor the Grandmagister had another opinion.
The Grandmagister tapped the book. “I’m going here,” he said.
“Into the In-Betweenness?”
“Yes,” the Grandmagister said. “Into the In-Betweenness … and beyond.”
“How will you get there?”
“The book will take me. I’ve been reading it every chance I get. Every time I open it, I find something new, something I’ve never thought about or a new way of thinking about something I’ve done or seen for a very long time.”
“But why would you want to go there?”
“Because it exists, Juhg, and because I can. If you don’t understand that, you never will. I just love the idea of going there.”
“But you’re the Grandmagister. You’ve got a lot of work to do here.”
The Grandmagister shook his head. “All the work that needs doing here can be done by you. Or at least overseen by you. You’ve been doing more of the day-to-day decision-making than I have for the last month. And you’ve never even noticed.” He paused. “You’re ready for this, Juhg. Just as I am ready to begin my journeys among the worlds that lie beyond the In-Betweenness.”
“When are you leaving?”
The Grandmagister reached under the desk and took out his old traveling pack. “Now.”
“You can’t leave now,” Juhg protested.
