"Then we should be finished by breakfast."
"Yes, but whose breakfast?"
With howls and scrabbling feet, the Transformed came on again.
Eremius suspected that his face was streaming sweat, as if he had been in a steam bath. He knew that pain racked his joints so that it needed real effort to stand.
Nearly all his magic was pouring into the duel with Illyana. The little he could spare for the Transformed was barely enough to keep them attacking without turning on one another. Those who took wounds or lost their courage had to do without his help.
This should not be. It could not be, unless Illyana had become greater than he. That was impossible. She did not have it in her to become so.
Eremius turned against Illyana even the little magic he was sparing to ease the pain in his joints. He almost cried out, like a man on the rack. He eased his pain with the thought that this addition of strength might be enough to let him try piercing the veil around Illyana"s Jewel.
He tried and failed.
Only after he abandoned the effort, when he could barely stand, did he realize that the failure had told him what he wanted to know. Illyana"s Jewel was utterly in harmony with her, defending both her and itself against him. How had she achieved this harmony?
Eremius thought he knew the answer. When he allowed himself to contemplate it, he knew fear as well, for the first time in many years.
Both Conan and Raihna were bleeding from a dozen minor wounds. Their muscles twitched and ached, their breaths rasped, and neither of them had enough intact clothing to garb a tavern dancer.
They fought on, because the Transformed did so. Illyana chanted and the Jewel-light danced and flickered. Bora"s sling flung stone after stone, always swiftly, often with effect.
It was still mostly Conan"s fight and Raihna"s. Neither any longer kept count of the Transformed maimed or slain. Neither kept count of the times they had saved the other"s life.
These matters were of small importance, compared with the oncoming Transformed. There had to be an end of them, to be sure, but would that end come before Conan and Raihna reached the end of their strength?
Already Raihna"s dagger was blunted from thrusting through scales, and her sword was kinked. Conan"s sword showed as many nicks as if he had been chopping wood with it. They might soon lose the power to harm the Transformed even if they still possessed the strength.
It seemed to Conan that the Transformed were somewhat thinner on the ground. It also seemed that the intervals between attacks were growing longer. It was not impossible that the tide of battle was flowing their way.
Would it flow fast enough? They could still lose everything, if the Transformed broke through in sufficient strength to slay Illyana.
Another Transformed-no, two of them-charged the opening. Conan dashed the sweat from his eyes. Matters were not well, when he could hardly count the number of his opponents!
The Transformed facing Conan bore several wounds and an arrow, relics of previous exchanges. It stumbled against the barricade, flinging all its more-than-human weight against the stones. One of them shifted, then another.
With a rattle and a crash, the barricade subsided in a cloud of dust.
The second Transformed leaped through the dust. Raihna met him with a desperate lunge. Her sword bent almost double. Conan hewed at the Transformed"s neck, but it had the speed to elude him. It leaped between the two defenders, shrugged off a stone from Bora"s sling, and lunged at Illyana.
The talons were only an arm"s length from the sorceress when she leaped up and back. Conan would have sworn that she floated into the air. He did not doubt what he saw leaping from the Jewel-emerald fire, a spearthrust of eye-searing light.
It struck the Transformed. One claw raked Illyana"s shoulder, without drawing blood. Then the flesh was boiling off the Transformed"s bones, like stew in an untended pot. A wave of indescribable stench swept over Conan, making him blink and reel. When he saw clearly again, only smoking bones on the cave floor remained of the Transformed.
Illyana stood, fingering a shoulder that Conan knew should have been gaping nearly to the bone. The smooth flesh was unmarred. Unbidden and unwelcome, the thought of how he had held that flesh close to him entered his mind.
As if she shared the thought, Illyana smiled.
"I should not have been able to do that. The Jewels-" Whatever she might have wanted to say about the Jewels went unuttered. Instead her face turned grim. "I do not know how often I can do that. I can certainly do it often enough to let you and Raihna attack."
"With what?" the swordswoman exclaimed, holding out her crippled weapons.
Illyana seemed uncaring. "Eremius has drawn closer and the Transformed are weaker. If you attack now, with Bora and me guarding your backs, you may slay Eremius. The second Jewel will come to us. Victory will be ours."
Conan wanted to shake the sorceress. "We"ll win no victory with blades too dull to cut b.u.t.ter!"
For the first time, Illyana seemed to notice the weapons in her friends" hands. Her eyes clouded for a moment. Then she rested a hand on Conan"s sword, stretching out the other with fingers spread so it touched both Raihna"s sword and dagger.
Conan fought the urge to s.n.a.t.c.h his blade out of Illyana"s hands.
Sorcery had been too close for too long already. To fight with an ensorceled blade-
Illyana chanted, and Raihna"s sword straightened. The nicks vanished from the edge of Conan"s sword. A point returned to her dagger. Bright sharp edges gleamed on all of them.
"Crom!"
The Cimmerian G.o.d was not one to answer prayers or hear them with patience. For once in his life Conan almost regretted this.
Conan raised his sword, testing the balance and sighting along the magically-restored edge. It seemed as good as new, Ensorceled or not, it was also the only weapon at hand.
He still felt nearly as much fear of Illyana as of the Transformed when he led Raihna out of the cave.
Eremius struggled to understand what had come to pa.s.s in the cave.
Illyana lived and the Transformed had died in a way that even the power of her Jewel should not have allowed.
He abandoned the struggle when the Cimmerian burst from the cave.
Understanding he did not need, when life itself was in peril.
Withdrawing his power from the duel against Illyana, he sought to shield, then rally the Transformed.
For a moment he thought he had succeeded. Emerald fire blazed along the thin line of the Transformed. Two were not swift enough to leap clear; the flesh flew from their bones amid howls.
The other Transformed recoiled at those howls. They did not recoil far.
They saw that the fire held their enemies away from them, and began to regain their courage. Eremius cast his thoughts at them furiously, forming them into a solid ma.s.s, then urging them forward.
They were approaching the line of fire when Illyana appeared at the mouth of the cave. Eremius"s thoughts leaped from battle to her awesome beauty, every bit of it revealed to him.
A moment later, he saw his doom revealed as well. Illyana raised a hand, and the line of fire vanished. She gripped Bora"s arm with the other hand, then let him wind up with his sling.
Only one stone flew, but the Transformed howled as if each saw a stone flying straight at it. Their solid line broke up. The Cimmerian and the swordswoman plunged into the fleeing remnants.
At first they had to fight a way. Then the Transformed realized that their foes would attack only those in their path. To leave the path of humans who seemed invincible was a simple matter, a few steps, then a few steps more, each step taken more swiftly.
Not all of the Transformed fled like dead leaves before a gale, but few enough fought. The Cimmerian and the Bossonian came down the hill like avenging G.o.ds.
Eremius tore the ring from his arm. He still would not dare the spells that offered the last chance with the Jewel so close to his flesh. He cast it to the ground. The gold rang on the stones, and the ringing seemed to go on, filling his ears like the tones of. a mighty gong.
The sorcerer clapped his hands to his ears. Shutting out the sound, he tried to array his thoughts once more, for the last spells.
If he succeeded, no more would be needed.