Blackveil (69 page)
A
s soon as Alton emerged into the tower chamber, he called upon his special ability to shield him. He was just in time as lightning forked down on him, the force knocking him to his knees. His nostrils flared at the charged air; he felt his hair rise. He remained absolutely still—more out of mortal fear than discipline—and the magic lightning dissipated. For a moment. He needed to get the tempes stone to the center of the chamber. Merdigen said it did not need to be placed on the pedestal, but it needed to be within the circle of columns.
s soon as Alton emerged into the tower chamber, he called upon his special ability to shield him. He was just in time as lightning forked down on him, the force knocking him to his knees. His nostrils flared at the charged air; he felt his hair rise. He remained absolutely still—more out of mortal fear than discipline—and the magic lightning dissipated. For a moment. He needed to get the tempes stone to the center of the chamber. Merdigen said it did not need to be placed on the pedestal, but it needed to be within the circle of columns.
Alton shifted his eyes, peering into the gloomy heights of the tower. He discerned no movement, no hint of the creature’s presence, but he knew it was there clinging to the shadows. He knew it must be watching him.
There was no use in delaying the inevitable. The sooner he delivered the tempes stone, the sooner he could leave the tower. He checked his shield once more, then sprinted. Lightning slammed into his shield and sizzled on the stone floor all around him. Each step brought a new discharge of power trying to blast him from existence. One jolt hit him so hard it knocked the tempes stone from his hands. He fumbled with it, the blanket that was supposed to protect it hampering his grasp.
“No!” Alton cried. He saw in his mind’s eye the green stone striking the floor and splintering into pieces.
As it tumbled from his fingers and plummeted, he dove after it and caught it—caught it soundly. His heart hammered in his chest and he closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath. He’d almost lost Merdigen!
He leaped the rest of the way between a pair of columns and fell into the center of the chamber, thudding to the floor beside the skeleton. Once again, as he stilled, the lightning ceased.
Like the other towers, passing between the columns seemed to transport him to some other place. But wherever this other place was and whatever it had once been, it was now a burned out ruin of blackened, seared ground and dark murky sky. Nothing lived here, not even a speck of grass. Nothing. It was a shadow land.
Alton moved carefully so as not to spark the tower’s defenses again, making a nest of the blanket and resting the tempes stone on it. Its fiery green glow sparkled with its own inner fire, adding living light to the desolation all around. He wondered if Merdigen would know he’d almost been dropped. Alton hoped not because he’d never hear the end of it.
“Tsk, tsk,” the mage said, materializing next to the pedestal and looking down on Alton. “Quite a disaster in here.”
“What do you think happened?” Alton asked.
“Give me a few minutes to look around.” Merdigen circled the pedestal with Haurris’ sickly tempes stone upon it, and then gazed down at the skeleton. He muttered to himself and shook his head.
Alton tried to lie as still as possible, but naturally he had an itch below his left shoulder he was dying to scratch. Resisting the impulse made his eyes water. It did not help he was face-to-face with the skull. He wished Merdigen would hurry up.
“Sad, very sad,” Merdigen murmured.
Alton watched out the corner of his eye as Merdigen moved beyond the columns to explore the tower chamber at large.
Where was the creature thing? he wondered. He tried to focus—to listen for stealthy movements—but he only heard Merdigen clucking to himself. All else was silence. There wasn’t even a touch of a breeze in the scorched landscape he lay in. The air was stagnant, acrid.
“Are you almost done?” Alton demanded.
“These things take time,” Merdigen said. He returned to the center of the chamber and gazed once again at the tempes stone, stroking his beard. “I believe the skeletal remains to be Haurris’. How he came to such an end is impossible to know. Unless ...”
“Unless what?”
“Unless he managed to leave a trace in his tempes stone, but from the looks of it, that’s not very likely. The spells about the chamber definitely have Haurris’ signature, both the barrier that prevented you from entering the tower the first time, and the defensive spells. I’m beginning to think he also destroyed the bridges that prevented me from coming here in the fall.”
“To what end?” Alton demanded. “Why would he want to keep us out?”
“Not just keep us out,” Merdigen replied, “but to trap something within.”
Alton shuddered. “Can you see it? The creature?”
“No, I cannot. If it is here, it is remaining utterly still in the shadows. Amazing that it has survived Haurris’ defenses. And for how long, I wonder.”
“What now?”
“I am going to take one more look around to make sure I’m not missing anything,” Merdigen replied. “Then we are going to return to my tower with Haurris’ tempes stone.”
Alton’s breath of relief raised a puff of sooty dust. He was pleased Merdigen did not insist they remain in the tower to complete his investigation of what had happened here.
Merdigen wandered away, weaving between the columns, looking up, looking down. He then returned and gazed at the skeleton.
“I would that we could collect his bones for a proper pyre,” Merdigen murmured. “But I suppose they are safe enough where they are for now.”
“Does that mean you are ready to go?”
“It does.”
Alton checked his shields once again and rose. The lightning descended on him and he gritted his teeth. Though it did not touch him, the power of it battered him, threatening to knock him down again.
“Fascinating,” Merdigen said.
It was not the word Alton would have used, but he needed to focus on what he was doing and maintain his shield. He reached for Haurris’ dingy tempes stone, and at his touch a ghostly figure sputtered to life, a bent, ancient man with a long bristling beard.
“ ’Ware the Sleeper,” it intoned.
“Haurris!” Merdigen cried.
The figure did not acknowledge him. It flickered, and repeated, “ ’Ware the Sleeper.”
Alton lifted the stone from the pedestal and the figure vanished.
“I hope there’s more than—” Merdigen began.
A screech shattered the still air and out of nowhere something fell from high above and collided with Alton knocking the stone out of his hands. He heard it clatter onto the floor and Merdigen’s wail, but he was busy defending himself from claws slashing through his shields. Lightning ripped overhead.
The creature bowled him over and he fought to keep it at arm’s length as he worked to strengthen his shields. It was hard to concentrate with that wild and savage thing—all bones and sinew—snarling and lashing at him, seemingly impervious to the lightning that struck at it.
Alton threw it off him, rolled, and staggered to his feet. Before the creature could pounce on him again, he grasped the hilt of his sword.
“No!” Merdigen cried, but too late.
Alton drew the sword. A bolt of lightning flash-blinded him and struck him off his feet. He tossed his sword away from him and lay there stunned, thinking that if not for his shielding, all that would remain of him would be a smoking pile of cinders. Then the creature was on him again, hissing and digging through his weakened shields for his neck.
They rolled on the floor. Rolled over the skeleton of Haurris, bones snapping beneath Alton’s back. He heaved the creature off him once more and rose to his knees, breathing hard. His hands were covered in blood—his own, he thought. The creature crouched, ready to spring on him again. Alton could make out little of its features, except for its spidery limbs and glowing green eyes.
The creature launched at him. Alton grabbed a broken thigh bone and plunged the sharp, fractured end into the torso of the creature.
A keening filled the tower. Alton fell away covering his ears. He lay on the floor amid Haurris’ bones, too stunned to move, the cry echoing in his mind.
When it faded, he saw Merdigen gazing down at the creature on the floor.
“If that had been an ordinary bone you’d used,” Merdigen said, “and not that of a great mage, you might not have killed this creature.”
“What? Why?” Alton asked. His voice was hoarse and he tasted blood.
“It was Eletian. Or at least it had been at one time.”
The creature was nothing at all like the living, breathing Eletians he’d met. Its flesh was taut parchment spread over angular bones, the glow gone from its eyes, its hair like a snarled cobweb clouding its face.
“You may be only the second person to end the life of an Eletian since the Long War,” Merdigen said. “You brought to an end an otherwise eternal life.”
Alton glanced at his bloody hands. The second? Then he realized Karigan had been the first.
“Can we leave now?” Alton asked, appalled and exhausted.
“Indeed,” Merdigen said. “I’ll have some time to think about all this until we reach my tower. Don’t forget Haurris’ stone.” After a pause he added, “And
don’t
drop me this time.”
don’t
drop me this time.”
“I did not—” But Merdigen had vanished before Alton could complete his sentence.
He ground his teeth. It wasn’t fair Merdigen could just disappear when there was something he didn’t want to hear. The mage had the easy end of things, too. Alton checked his shields and braced himself for the lightning that would descend on him the moment he moved.
He gathered both tempes stones and his sword, and ran for the tower wall with the lightning hammering him all the way. When finally he stumbled outside, he found himself the object of concern and attention from the two women who awaited him. Pleased by their solicitous ministrations, he thought perhaps he’d the better end of the deal after all, especially when Estral shifted her belongings to his tent.
HAURRIS
O
nce more in Tower of the Heavens, Alton carefully placed Merdigen’s tempes stone back on its pedestal. Immediately the mage materialized to life beside him.
nce more in Tower of the Heavens, Alton carefully placed Merdigen’s tempes stone back on its pedestal. Immediately the mage materialized to life beside him.
“Ah,” Merdigen said. “Very good to be home, and unscathed.” He strolled about, swinging his arms and stretching.
Perhaps Merdigen had returned unscathed, but Alton had been battered by his encounter with the creature in Tower of the Earth. Somehow the creature had reached through his shields and scored claw marks on his chest, and the tussle had left him banged up and bruised. Estral’s care and concern had taken his mind off his hurts for a time, but now he was stiff and sore.
“Do you want me to take Haurris’ stone out?” he asked.
Merdigen did not reply. He was gazing up toward the tower ceiling.
“What is it?” Alton asked.
“Do you notice anything different in here?”
Alton glanced around. Now that Merdigen mentioned it, something did seem different, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He gazed upward like Merdigen. Daylight filtered through the hole above, and then it hit him.
“That hole,” he said. “Is it smaller?”
“Yes, I think so,” Merdigen replied. “Not only that, but other damage appears to be mending.”
It was true. The tower chamber looked tidier, as if all the minor debris and stone dust that Alton hadn’t yet touched had been cleaned up. The major damage remained—the toppled column, other chunks of masonry on the floor.
“How?” Alton demanded.
“The guardians are happier,” Merdigen replied. “In harmony and cadence. Who do you think put them in that state?”
“Estral,” Alton murmured, his surge of joy tempered with slight jealousy that it was not his own doing. It was everything he had been working for—to fix the D’Yer Wall—and yet she succeeded where he had not. He wondered if her music had affected the damage at the breach, too. He’d have to go back and take a closer look.
“You must tell her to keep singing and playing the song of the guardians,” Merdigen said, “to keep reversing the damage. It won’t fix the breach itself, but it can mend what is still standing.”
“What about that line of music from the book of Theanduris ?”
“She must work on that too. It may be what fixes the breach.”
Alton was ready to run out of the tower right then to grab Estral, hug her, and tell her.
“However,” Merdigen continued, “even if the wall is made secure again, there is another problem Theanduris apparently overlooked.”
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