The Sleeping King (75 page)

“Landsgrave Hyland? The battlefield? Remember?” Rosana murmured to him. “She wiped herself out. It will be at least sunset on the morrow before her energy stores renew themselves.”

He rolled his eyes as Eben commenced the treacherous walk past the narrow spot. He stumbled and nearly fell into the circle and staggered back into one of the fungi. Only Cicero lunging forward and yanking him down to the ground prevented Eben from charging the wolf in the circle and being torn to shreds. The party waited in tense silence while Cicero wrestled the jann for several long minutes until the hallucinogen wore off.

Rosana went next. She was small and agile and only had one tense moment when the wolf lunged at her skirt which had apparently crossed the margin of the invisible magical barrier. She barely managed to yank it back in time to keep the beast from snagging it and dragging her to her death.

Raina went next, and her White Heart tabard snagged on a root, which promptly wound itself tightly in the fabric. Raina was forced to pull out her boot knife and saw painfully slowly through the tendril of root. But finally, she was free and continued on.

It was his turn. Why did his body have to go all weak and uncooperative on him just now?
Bloodroot,
he warned,
I need my strength
. Stars, he hated sharing his body with another spirit!

He followed the course the others had taken but nearly lost his balance as the wolf lunged at him, snapping and clawing mere inches from his face. The fetid odor of its breath nearly knocked him over as the wolf opened its gigantic maw, displaying dozens of deadly fangs that could no doubt rip a man in half with ease.

Finally, the circle began to curve away from the wall, and he had a few more inches in which to navigate his way forward. And then he was beside the others. While Sha'Li brought up the rear, making the traverse look easy, Will looked around. Eben had moved over to the circular dark patch on the wall and was studying it intently.

“Over here!” the jann called.

“Keep your voice down!” Will snapped.

“Why? The wolf's wide awake.”

True.
In fact, they had to raise their voices to be heard over the steady stream of whines, growls, and snarls emanating from its dual heads.

“It's a door,” Eben announced. “And this carved bit here, in the middle, is a lock. It has slots for two keys. I do not know what these other markings are.”

Will stared at the intricate spider's web of lines crisscrossing the surface of the door. It looked like wood, but so smooth and black and polished that he might mistake it for stone at a glance.

“The workmanship is amazing,” Eben said in awe. “It must be priceless.”

“If we find the king and wake him, I promise you can carry out this door and sell it, merchant,” Will said.

Eben grinned over at him. “I would have to wrestle Sha'Li for it first, and she would kick my arse.”

“Forget that not, Rainbow Boy!” Sha'Li snapped.

Rosana and Raina grinned. The moment of levity was interrupted, though, when Sha'Li announced, “Yonder are the keys.”

Will looked where she pointed and groaned. The wolf was standing on its hind legs and pawing some fifteen feet in the air, which was why Will caught the faint glint of metal at its neck under its furry chin. Will looked closer and spied a circlet of metal around each of the beast's necks. Collars.

“Let me guess,” he asked. “Keys hang from each collar.”

“Aye,” Sha'Li answered grimly. “Fast I am, and the keys I can steal. But the beast I cannot defeat.”

Cicero commented, “You need a distraction. But what on Urth could keep that thing occupied for long?”

“Can we even enter that circle?” Rosana asked.

Raina fielded that one quickly. “Almost all magical and ritual circles can be crossed unless they are specifically designed to prohibit a being from entering or leaving. Like Fido, over there. Circles do not act at all like magical walls, which prevent all beings from crossing them.”

Cicero shrugged. “Even if we could get into the circle, that beast would rip us to shreds.”

“Maybe not,” Eben piped up.

Will stared at him, startled. “What do you have in mind?”

“I can turn to stone temporarily. The beast will not be able to do me harm while I concentrate. If I were to get it to bite me and be forced to hang on, could you get the keys, Sha'Li?”

The lizardman girl stared at him with new respect. “Steal them I could.”

Eben nodded and stepped up to the edge of the circle. He made fists of both hands, pressed the knuckles together in front of his chest, and closed his eyes. He appeared to take a deep breath, and then the color of his skin did indeed begin to change in the sickly light. The multicolored whorls and swirls from before faded, leaving a dull, gray sheen over all of his exposed skin.

“I am ready,” Sha'Li announced.

Eben stepped forward. His foot passed easily through the circle, and the beast wasted no time grabbing Eben's leg and yanking him up high into the air. The jann brought his fist down hard on the beast's second nose, and immediately the second head grabbed him by the arm. The two heads shook savagely, doing their best to tear Eben in half. But to no avail.

Sha'Li moved fast, leaping onto the beast's belly and climbing its fur like a flea. The beast shook itself as if registering her presence, but then Eben swung his free fist again and clobbered the beast in the side of a head. The wolf's answering snarl was muffled as it chewed fiercely on Eben. But Eben's concentration held.

“The first one I have,” Sha'Li grunted. Will had to admit, she was very good at her roguing craft. Of course, if she hadn't been quite so light-fingered and hadn't stolen Bloodroot's disk in the first place Will wouldn't be hovering on the verge of death now.

Will held his breath as Sha'Li clung to one of the wolf's necks precariously. The beast was still whipping its heads from side to side in an effort to dismember Eben. The lizardman girl leaped and Will gasped as she flew from one neck to the other.

The wolf let go of Eben's leg to snap at its other neck where Sha'Li now clung.

“Watch out!” Raina shouted.

Sha'Li swung below the neck fast, barely missing being the wolf's lunch. The beast yelped as it bit itself and lifted the head still holding Eben's arm high while the other mouth snapped ineffectually at the neck where Sha'Li now hung. The lizardman girl actually used the jann as a shield, ducking behind his flailing body as the wolf tried to grab it with its snapping jaws.

Cicero managed to get in a good blow with his bow across the top of the wolf's free nose that made it yelp and then snarl. Distracted from Sha'Li, it grabbed Eben in its second mouth around the middle of his body. Will couldn't imagine the crushing power of those massive jaws. But so far, the stoneskin was holding

Will held his breath as the lizardman girl hooked her feet in the beast's metal collar and hung by one hand from a fistful of fur, using her free hand to fiddle under the beast's chin.

“Got it!” Sha'Li crowed in triumph. She swung down, using the momentum of the wolf's thrashing head to throw her toward the edge of the circle. As the free beast lunged at her with its mighty paws, Sha'Li rolled fast, crossing the thin light barrier at the last possible second before the beast's claws snagged her. The wolf's body smashed into the barrier and the beast screamed in pain and fury.

Will looked up at Eben. “Okay. You can come out now.”

“Umm, small problem,” Eben grunted. “If I drop my stoneskin, the wolf will crush my arm.”

Rosana frowned. “So keep your stoneskin up until the wolf tires of trying to eat you. When it lets you go, you can walk out of there.”

Raina spoke up. “It doesn't work that way. Keeping up a magical effect like that takes intense concentration. Eben can only do it for a few minutes at a time if I had to guess. And that wolf doesn't look even close to bored with the idea of killing him. Eben's stoneskin will fail before that beast turns him loose.”

“She's right,” Eben grunted.

From behind them Sha'Li announced, “Fit the keys do. This lock I can open.”

“Not yet!” Will exclaimed. Stars knew what threats lay beyond that circle of strange wood “First we have to free Eben from this cursed beast.”

“Can we distract it?” Rosana asked practically.

Cicero bent down, picked up a clod of dirt, and hocked it at the beast's nose. It ignored the missile completely. “I do not think so,” Cicero answered grimly.

The wolf lay down, covering Eben's legs with its giant paws, and commenced chewing on the jann with his free mouth as if he were a bone. A tough, annoying bone.

“This is not good,” Eben said in tones of rising alarm.

“Sha'Li, can you go back in there and distract the wolf?” Raina asked doubtfully.

“I doubt it. I got past its guard the first time because both mouths were full with Eben. But the wolf's free head is tracking me now.”

Will looked and noticed that indeed the wolf's free head was keeping a sharp eye on the lizardman girl, its jaws open and waiting for her to make a mistake.

“Can you reach the edge of the circle, Eben?” Raina asked. The jann's legs lay not far from the glowing line of safety.

“Maybe I can get a foot across, but that's about it,” the jann grunted. He sounded like he was about at the end of his ability to hold the stoneskin.

Will suggested, “What if we lasso Eben's foot, and, the instant his stoneskin comes down, we yank him out of there? Maybe the wolf will be surprised enough by his change that it won't bite down on him right away.”

Nobody had a better idea.

“I can't hold up my stoneskin much longer,” Eben panted. He struggled for the next few seconds to angle himself until one of his feet rested outside the circle. It was the best the jann could manage. Using a length of thin, tough root that Will chopped off fast with the dagger Ty had given him so long ago, he lashed the root quickly around Eben's boot.

“Everyone, grab Eben's leg or the root,” Will instructed.

“It's fading,” Eben gasped.

“On the count of three, let it go. That's when we all pull,” Cicero bit out. “One. Two. Three!”

Will jerked as hard as he could on the root-rope as the beast lurched and both heads whipped toward Eben, jaws snapping together like great bear traps. Eben let out a horrible scream. The group crashed backward as Eben slammed into them, narrowly avoiding hitting the mushroom wall. They all rolled away from the glowing fungi fast as Eben let out another horrific scream. Hot blood shot everywhere.

Raina and Rosana leaped forward, working feverishly and speaking in half sentences.

“Know regeneration?”

“No.”

“Stop the bleeding.”

“Got it.” A pause while Rosana poured magic into whatever great injury they worked over. Will had no wish to see it. Then the gypsy muttered, “Bandages. My pouch.”

Raina rummaged around at Rosana's hip and emerged with a roll of white cloth. All the while, Eben moaned in agony. The sound was terrible to hear. Will watched the two healers work in grim silence for several minutes.

Then Raina announced, “I think we have another problem.”

“Beyond his arm being ripped off?” Rosana echoed in dismay.

Will lurched. He moved to stare around Rosana and, sure enough, there was only a heavily wrapped stump where Eben's right arm should be. He shuddered, nauseated at the gruesome sight.

“Smell his breath,” Raina said.

Rosana sniffed and then sucked in a sharp breath of her own. “What is that?”

“Plague. Magical and powerful,” Raina said low.

“What does that mean?” Cicero asked tersely.

“The wolf's bite was diseased. Eben will die by degrees over the next few hours or days.”

“But you can cure disease, can't you?” he demanded of Raina.

“When I have magic, I can.” She stared down at Eben, who was writhing in mindless agony beneath Sha'Li's restraining hands. “But I don't know if I could cure that. It's empowered magic. Very nasty stuff. It would likely take a ritual to fix. And yes, I know how to cast the ritual, but I don't carry around the scrolls or components for such things.”

Will grimaced. Cicero's words from before they entered this place a lifetime ago echoed through his head again.
One of us must live to reach the king
. The true meaning of that phrase struck Will now like a physical blow. Was this really worth it? Eben was horribly maimed and dying. Who would be next?

He looked up at the door in hatred. Why did it have to be him to do this thing? Why all of them?

He opened his mouth to tell the others they should turn around and go back. Find a cure for Eben. Leave this madness and be safe. He would go on alone. But just then Sha'Li cracked open the circular door. As she did so the lighted circle behind them, the one containing and restraining the two-headed dire wolf, blinked out of existence. With a vicious snarl the beast charged straight toward them.

*   *   *

Anton wanted nothing more than to roar in fury and frustration, but to do so would call down more of those twice-cursed orcs upon him and his men. It had to be here, somewhere close by, whatever it was the Boki guarded so fiercely and his enemies coveted so greatly. The concentration of orcs was growing steadily greater and the fight the greenskins were putting up growing steadily more desperate. Oh yes. He was very close indeed to their treasure.

But there was one monumental problem with that. If he wanted to be the first to lay his hands on it, he was going to have to move to the front lines and actually lead his men. In the point position. Where it was dangerous. He might be lethal throwing his gas poisons, but he could only deliver one at a time. If several orcs attacked him simultaneously from close range, he was dead.