Book 7 Uneasy Alliances

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
."Could he have gone back?"Shar shook her head."Never.If you think he'd retreat this close to the bloodforge, you don't know him."Kern stood uneasily for a moment, shifting from one foot to the other while the others waited."Well," he said finally, "we'll go on.If something got him, we can't help him, and if he left on his own, I don't want him." He took up a position beside Ingrar and pointed with his sword."Let's go."Ingrar stretched out his hands before him and gestured, almost as if pushing the heavy atmosphere aside, then started forward.Noph could hear Kern, beside the young man, softly chanting a prayer to Tyr beneath his breath.The rows of pillars suddenly parted and stretched in a great semicircle round a high stone altar.Where the pillars ended, light revealed the wavelets of an underground lake that stretched up to the very foot of the altar.The torches that Kern and Entreri carried flared brightly, then flickered and went out.But they needed no light to see clearly what lay before them.It lay atop a carved stone pillar before the altar, pulsing with its own internal glow that spread dancing shadows about the pillars and across the water.From it came the high-pitched humming that Noph had detected earlier.In form, it was a round stone, no more than a foot in diameter.The colors that came from within it mirrored the entire spectrum, a luminous display that shone brightly but without warmth.Round the altar were carved bas-reliefs.Noph recognized with a shock the same squidlike figure he'd seen in the fountain where he first met the mercenaries, a figure he now knew to be the mage-king.As the party stared in silence at the bloodforge, a slender shadow slipped from behind the altar.In the unnatural light cast by the forge, they could see the cold, composed countenance of the master assassin, their erstwhile leader.Entreri's thin face was lit by the glowing bloodforge, its shifting colors casting sharp shadows along the contours of his visage.His eyes matched the glow of the stone as he moved toward it, hand delicately outstretched."No you don't." Trandon stepped cautiously to the stone pillar supporting the bloodforge.At the same time, Entreri carefully circled behind the artifact.Trandon stared in fascination at the changing hues and patterns on the surface of the stone."How does it work?" he muttered."Never mind that." Kern had taken his warhammer from his belt and raised it over his head."In the name of the true god, I destroy this engine of evil—""Kern, no!" Trandon stepped between the paladin and the bloodforge."We don't know what this thing is.We don't know how to destroy it, or if we should destroy it."A dry chuckle turned both men about.Entreri stood unmoving, an angry sneer on his lips.Tour concern is unimportant," he snapped.He moved suddenly, and there was a silver flash as a dagger sped from his hand at Kern.Trandon's staff came up to block it.The dagger struck the wood and stuck there, quivering."Stop, you idiot! This thing isn't a toy.We must find out how it works!"Entreri laughed aloud and drew his sword.The stone turned a deep red, and the little assassin's lips seemed to drip blood as he spoke."It creates armies.Out of thin air." He gestured to the carvings on the altar."If you're looking for an instruction manual, old man, you've got one right behind you.But I found it first, while you were all groping about in the dark back there.Now you won't last long enough to use it."Trandon matched Entreri's maneuvering, his eyes flickering in the direction of the carvings that ringed the altar.He paused suddenly, his gaze narrowing."So that's it.That's what shows you how to use it."Entreri lifted his sword, the blade gleaming scarlet.He reached up and suddenly grasped the naked blade with his free hand, jerking the sword across it in a hard, sharp motion.He extended his hand, fist clenched tightly, over the stone."It's called the bloodforge.It needs blood.It feeds on blood."There was a hiss as the assassin's blood, squeezed from his slashed hand, dropped onto the stone's surface.To Noph's eyes, aching from the glow, the blood seemed to spread across the entire surface of the forge, shimmering, separating, and recombining in a series of ever more complex patterns.The humming that filled the cavern increased in volume, and from the forge stepped a man.Yet only half a man.His limbs were twisted and hideously distorted, his neck bent as if broken.One leg was shorter than the other, one arm a tiny withered appendage, while the other ended in a massive knotted fist.The creature moaned in pain and lunged at Trandon, lifting its good arm against the paladin.Trandon's staff countered the blow, but he was driven back, and the forged creature followed after him, hacking furiously at his opponent with fist and feet.Kern's warhammer rose again, only to be turned aside, this time by Sharessa's blade."No, paladin.A fair fight.Let them continue." She grinned impishly at him."Unless you think you can go through me—in a fight or in a bed.You're welcome to try either."Noph had drawn a dagger at the first sign of trouble, but now he stood silently looking at the developing conflict, unable to choose a side.Ingrar stood near the bloodforge, his arms dangling.His voice rose in an urgent shout."Stop this! Stop it at once! There's danger coming! Terrible danger!"The combatants ignored him.Trandon and the golem were hard at one another; the fighter tried to maneuver his opponent back toward the water, evidently hoping to push him in.Kern and Sharessa were still sparring with one another, only half-seriously but prepared to escalate the fight if need be."In Tyr's name!" shouted Kern."In Tyr's name," came a mocking echo from the blackness, but not in Kern's voice [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne