"We have the empress, my lord."
"Excellent. Put her on, and have the troops in the chasm stand by."
Llawan appeared in the screen, with the mystic Olsham-his eyes closed-and another cephalid officer at her side. "What do you want, Laquatus?"
"Greetings, Empress. I hope you are well. Isn't it a fine day?"
Veza's dread was like physical pain. She didn't know what Laquatus was up to, but she guessed he had been preparing for it since before he captured the survey vessel. She continued to stare at Olsham, willing the mystic to hear her silent message of warning.
"Speak, irritant. You waste our time."
"This is something in the nature of an official call, I'm afraid. I'm here to offer terms."
"Then you will abandon this farce and submit yourself to imperial justice?"
"Actually, Empress, I was going to offer you one last chance to surrender. You have already lost here. If you leave now, and cede the chasm to me, I will spare you the embarrassment of losing each and every one of your loyal guards. I may even spare your life."
Llawan chittered. "You are a fool, Laquatus. We mock you and spurn your offer."
"Are you sure?" Laquatus's obvious joy twisted Veza's stomach, but Llawan was unimpressed. She began to turn away from the screen.
"Inform the troops," Laquatus said loudly. "Launch an all-out attack on the empress's forces. Begin immediately."
Llawan paused and shook her head. "Your ego has finally grown past the point of your good sense," she said. "But the imperial guard will be happy to accommodate your lunacy."
The occupants of both vessels heard the sounds of renewed combat. Llawan stared grimly at Laquatus, who stared, smiling at Llawan. Veza fought the urge to cry out to Olsham. Whatever was about to happen, the empress's ship would be better off if it were intangible, as her transport had been during the catastrophe that created the chasm.
Olsham opened his eyes. Veza was the only one on board who had seen the empress's shield defenders in action, and so she was the only one who saw their almost transparent bodies stream up and encircle the empress. They did nor harden into their defensive formation, but they stood by, ready to do so.
"Forgive me, Empress," said the yacht's cephalid captain. "But I think you should see this."
Llawan turned, and Laquatus's bridge had a clear and unobstructed view of Llawan's, complete with the image that appeared on its scrying viewscreen. Both bridges stared silently at the images they saw. On Llawan's screen, a steady stream of dark, serpentine figures was pouring out of the chasm and surging forward to attack Llawan's troops. There were thousands of them, a multitude. Along with the ambassador's mercenaries and monsters, they slammed into the empress's line like a crashing wave, and slowly drove it back.
When the empress spoke, it was to her crew, her voice thick with anger.
"What are we looking at?"
"I don't know, Empress. Those creatures seem to be corning from just outside the chasm rather than inside it."
Llawan turned back to Laquatus. "They attack our loyal guards. What are they? What do they want?"
Veza stared as the skirmish grew steadily bigger. Her memory had been jogged by the sight. She remembered a Cabal barge that docked in Breaker Bay some years ago. The Cabalists had set up a makeshift arena and staged a fighting demonstration. A wild- eyed woman with green eyes and a bald head challenged all comers, and she had beaten every one. Not her, Veza corrected herself. The monsters she created.
"They are dementia creatures." Veza's voice was hushed, muted by fear.
Laquatus beamed. "Yes," confirmed the ambassador, "and they are here to kill you, Llawan."
CHAPTER 25
Kamahl watched Chainer release his reply to the attacking angels of vengeance. His casting matched the Order angel for angel, but Chainer's were raven- feathered and armed with spiked maces. The dark angels each engaged a single counterpart, and the terrible cries of all six warriors could be heard throughout the arena.
While the angels continued to battle high above the arena floor, old grudges erupted all around Kamahl and desperate fighters lashed out at each other in an effort to escape. The Mirari Games were quickly turning into a bloody melee, and the crowd loved it. Kamahl wondered how long they would cheer before they realized they, too, were in danger. Neither Chainer nor the Order seemed to care about protecting innocent bystanders.
The crowd around them cleared, and Kamahl got what he'd been waiting for, a line of sight on the justicar.
He sent a small fireball blasting past the armored visor, and called, "Hey, sparky!"
The justicar turned.
"That's more warning than you gave me," Kamahl said. "And more than you deserve. This is twice now you've attacked the Cabal at home. I think it will be the last."
"Stand aside, barbarian," the justicar said. "The Order will settle with you later."
"For you, there is no later." Kamahl hauled his huge sword out and charged.
The justicar sent a jag of lightning at Kamahl, but the barbarian easily drew it into his sword. "You think I don't know lightning? We pick our teeth with lightning up in Pardic." The justicar hurled another bolt which Kamahl also countered, then had to draw his own sword to defend himself.
Kamahl's brass-colored blade rang against Gobal's silver one. The justicar tried to charge up for a larger bolt, but Kamahl was so close that he bled the armored figure's energy off before he could use it, storing it in the blade of his sword.
"You fight like an officer," Kamahl jeered. He butted his head into the justicar's visor, denting it. "Welcome to the pits."
Enraged, Gobal put a crackling hand on Kamahl and shoved him backward. Kamahl staggered but was able to block the justicar's sword stroke as it came down toward his head.
"Is that it, shiny man? Are you really only dangerous when nobody knows your power?"
Another Order soldier threw his spear at Kamahl. The barbarian caught the shaft in midair and burned it to ashes with a glare, but the distraction allowed Gobal enough time and space to raise his arms above his head. Hot, white light from all around the arena streamed into his hands, forming a swelling, crackling ball of energy.
"You're done, justicar." Kamahl launched his broadsword with all his might, skewering Gobal through the chest. The energy stored in Kamahl's sword joined that in the justicar's body, and Gobal screamed. The circuit of energy fed on itself, and light began sparking out from all the seams of the justicar's armor. Kamahl conjured a small throwing axe, knocked Gobal's visor back with a wide round kick, and jammed the axe deep into his enemy's armor.
Kamahl dove to the ground and covered his head just as Gobal exploded. The combination of lightning, fire, and fury was so intense that the sharp metal bits of the justicar's armor melted even before the force of the blast scattered them across the arena. All around him, Kamahl saw warriors and monsters alike cut down by the hail of molten silver.
Without the armor, Gobal was unable to control the electricity that gave him his power. He became a much smaller, broken figure draped in rivulets of melted metal, a figure that grew ever smaller as jags of lightning leaped off his body and dissipated.
Kamahl picked up his sword and stood ready as the justicar collapsed into a ball of flaming debris. Except for a charred pair of footprints and a few droplets of steaming metal, there was no evidence he had ever existed.
"Bravo, barbarian!" Kamahl looked up and saw Chainer politely clapping. Kamahl touched the tip of his sword to his forehead, a gesture of recognition.
Then he pointed at Chainer and drew the tip across his throat, beckoning the dementist down with a wave of his hand.
*****
Chainer laughed with delight at the shows both above and below his platform. On his level, the battle of angel versus angel prevented any other flying things from soaring too high. On the ground, Kamahl had just revenged himself on the justicar, and all of the other contestants were either killing each other to get at the Mirari, or killing
each other to escape from the pit. He had planned it carefully, but he hadn't planned it anywhere near as well as it was happening.
One of the Order angels broke free of its nightmare twin and tried once more to reach Chainer's platform. He waited until it was almost on top of him and then threw one of his anaconda people into her face. The snake wrapped its twelve-foot-long body around the angel's wings and torso and sank its venomless fangs into her sword arm. The angel cursed the snake, and both creatures fell out of sight.
"What are you staring at?" Chainer yelled at the dark angel who no longer had an opponent. "Fight!" The angel bared her sharp teeth and hissed, but she complied. She slammed her mace into the unprotected shoulder of one of the Order angels then followed the wounded creature to the floor as she fell, striking as often as time and gravity permitted.
Chainer was starting to see why the First treated everyone like children. There wasn't a single Cabalist left who could think and act for himself. He took one last look at the carnage on the floor and suddenly became bored. Why was he offering the Mirari when he already had the Mirari? No one but he could use it. It was a cruel waste of time to even offer the illusion of obtaining it.
Chainer flipped the control switch that would bring the platform down. It was time to end this charade, clear the building, and start from scratch. New Cabal City would be twice as grand as the original, and there would be no Order to interfere with the Cabal's business.
As the platform descended, Chainer hoped that Laquatus was putting his borrowed dementia monsters to good use. Once he had settled with the Order, Chainer vowed that the Mer empire woulc become nothing more than a subsidiary of the Cabal. He may have sworn an oath with Laquatus, but it was Laquatus who taught him that oaths could be broken.
*****
Llawan's bridge was in chaos. Cephalid sailors and imperial guardsmen swarmed around the ship while her advisors counseled her to escape while she still could. She cleared the room of all but the command crew and Olsham, then she turned to the captain. "Take us into the battlefield." "But Empress- " the captain stammered.
"Do as we command. We will not allow our most loyal subjects to be killed by phantoms." She turned back down to the mirror clasped in her forelimb. "Silence! You have broken our bargain, Cabalist. We have a personal guarantee from the First!" she screeched. "There was to be no interference!"
"The First has gone south to Aphetto," said a young man with black braids and a void in his eyes. "Who are you again?"
"We are the Empress Llawan, rightful heir to the throne of Mer." "Never heard of you. Sorry." "We demand to speak to your patriarch." The young man paused. He seemed amused. "Who's we?" If the braided man had been in the room, the look on Llawan's face alone would have struck him dead with fear. "What is your name, Cabalist?"
"My name is Chainer, and if you don't leave me alone I'm going to change my mind. And then you'll be sorry." The connection broke, and the mirror went dark.
Llawan lowered die mirror. "The man is mad." She turned to Olsham. "Have you any ideas, mystic? Can this endeavor end well for Llawan?"
Olsham closed his eyes and bent his limbs into a complex sigil. "There is always a chance, Empress. But in this case, chance is not enough."
*****
Laquatus sipped at a fine white wine as he watched the destruction of Llawan's hopes for the throne. With Chainer's monsters, his forces outnumbered Llawan's four-to-one, and he had major sea serpents and an orcan behemoth still in reserve.
Burke stood at Laquatus's side, silent and subservient. Laquatus was sorry to miss Chainer's Mirari Games, but he knew the treasure would keep. Someday soon, he would sit in the First's luxury box, watch Burke tear the competition limb from limb, and finally lay claim to the prize. Laquatus smiled. That is, he would do these things if the foolish boy Chainer hadn 't destroyed himself and all of Cabal City by now. Laquatus truly hoped that Chainer was still alive, so he could watch his own creation steal the Cabal's greatest treasure for the glory of Mer.
"Ambassador." One of his mercenary chiefs stood in the doorway to Laquatus's chamber. "Emperor," Laquatus corrected him. He sipped his wine. "We are forcing Llawan's guard away from the mouth of the chasm. We should have room to bring out the behemoth shortly." "Excellent. Keep me informed." "There is one other thing, Amb… Emperor." "Yes?"
"Llawan's command ship has left the edge of the battle." Laquatus rose and struggled to keep his voice calm. "She is abandoning the field?" He had expected more of a fight before she accepted defeat.
"No, Emperor. She is joining the battle."
"That cannot be. She would never…" Laquatus stopped as the chief pointed to the scrying screen. It clearly showed a host of Cabal serpents battling a host of Llawan's cephalids. It also showed Llawan's yacht and the obvious positive impact it had on her troops' morale.
"Why, that reckless, soft-skulled witch," he said, amused. This was even better than he had dreamed. Defeating Llawan's army would earn him the throne, but killing Llawan in the process would ensure that his reign lasted for the rest of his naturally long life.
"Take us farther into the chasm," he said. "Oh, and Veza? I heard you trying to contact that psychic octopus. I'm very disappointed." He turned to one of his mercenaries. "Kill her." The mercenary drew his knife and advanced on Veza.
She had been waiting for this, fully aware that Laquatus would have detected her pleas to Olshatn. Veza was not a warrior, but she trusted her own speed and strength when compared to that of a surface dweller. The man's knife flashed, and Veza stunned him with a sharp blow across the face. Blood flowed, but the mercenary did not fall. Laquatus and the rest of the bridge crew laughed. "You're fired," Laquatus called to the bleeding mercenary, and the man growled in anger. He drew his sword.
Veza didn't wait for Laquatus to order more mercenaries into the fight. She ran from the room and hit the flooded corridor in a running dive. The laughter stopped, and Veza heard more bodies break the surface of the corridor as the mercenaries pursued. She pressed on, confident that no human being, no matter how well enhanced, could swim faster than a mermaid.
She had been in and out of the ship numerous times, and she knew she could make it at least as far as the edge of the chasm. Better to die randomly in the battle as a subject of the empire than as a coward on a traitor's command vessel.
Veza found the exit hatch and opened it wide. The last thing she heard before plunging into the frigid waters of the chasm was Laquatus's amplified voice, echoing throughout the ship.
"Burke?" he said. "Retrieve the prisoner."
CHAPTER 26
Chainer made his way back to his chambers. He did not go unchallenged, but he might as well have. A small band of Nantuko pounced on him as he came off of the platform, but they were quickly collared and absorbed. Chainer broke a few bones with weighted chains as he went, but for the most part the fighters gave him a wide berth, and the spectators ran at the sight of him.
One of the First's toys was buzzing as he opened the door. It was a handheld mirror with a talking octopus in its glass. Chainer made a half-hearted stab to figure out what she wanted, then shattered the mirror over his knee. He had more important things to occupy his time.
The Mirari was where he left it, under the pyramid of paper in the corner of the smallest room. No one dared enter his chamber after he had deposed the First, and he doubted anyone would have believed him audacious enough to hide it there anyway. He took the glowing black sphere in his hands, and once again marveled at the depth of the power it contained. He should have used it to find a way to kill the First. Cabal City was nothing to him now, and worse, it was an obstacle. He would have to tear it all down before he could build it back up again properly.
Chainer drew the power into him and began to shape it. What he had in mind was complicated and would happen on a scale undreamed of even by the most fervid dementist. He reached out into Cabal City and beyond to Aphetto. His mind flew out past Krosan, across all of Otaria, and beyond into the
depths of Mer. He could see and feel every dementia caster there was, each of them linked by their power and their oath to the Cabal. He felt a few dead spots in his continental sweep, a few individuals who could not be contacted. Fulla, for example, and a handful of casters in Aphetto. Perhaps the truly disconnected were beyond even the Mirari's reach.
No matter, he thought. He had more than enough. The Cabal taught them the ways of power, and they in turn used that power to benefit the Cabal. But the Cabal was dead now, just waiting to be buried. It was time for a new covenant, one that Chainer would enforce.
All across the land, he felt casters stop, freeze, and remain rigid. Skellum had always said that a master needs pupils, and in one stroke Chainer had more than any master who had ever lived. With the Mirari, he could enter each of their minds and commandeer them. He could occupy all the dementia space there was and turn it toward his goals. He could assemble the largest and most diverse army of dementia monsters that had ever been.
"Like this!" he cried, and he was suddenly back in his own dementia space even as he remained in his chambers. Both locations superimposed on top of each other, fusing and separating over and over. It was as empty there as it had been when he first arrived, and Chainer suddenly felt very small and lonely. He had been expecting a multitude, and he was unnerved by the complete lack of company. Where had they all gone?
He heard a fresh scream nearby, and he appeared back in his chambers. They were all around him. Sprawled across his floor and spilling out in to the hall, visible in the courtyard outside his window and throughout the streets of Cabal City, a million monsters or more howled and hunted and rampaged and roared. Twisted nightmare versions of people, animals, birds, snakes-fantastic beasts of the forest and terrifying monsters from the depths all lashed out at themselves and the world around them. Chainer had opened the floodgates of his mind, and the Mirari was keeping them open.
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