The column came to a halt just before the Vraad. Cabe noted that Plool had worked it so that even at full height the warlock would be a head shorter than the seated Nimthian.
"You are a most peculiar-looking piece of work," Plool commented. How he saw anything from under that hat was a miracle. "Everything"s so orderly. Would you like me to change that? It must be awful for you. Awful it must be."
"Thank you, but I"m happy with the way I am." The words flew from Cabe"s lips. The dark-haired sorcerer tried to hide his anxiety. He did not even want to imagine what the Vraad might have in mind. A form like his? Never!
"Are you certain?" As he spoke, Plool at last lifted his head enough for the warlock to view the rest of his narrow face.
Cabe almost gasped aloud. It was only with the best of efforts that he prevented himself from stepping back in shock and possibly falling from his perch.
Only in Nimth could Plool have become possible. The lower half of his countenance, while peculiar, was not overly unusual. Even the nose, long, narrow, and pointed now, was within the realm of reason.
But the eyes . . .
Both were set on the left side of his face.
They were positioned one right atop the other, like some madman"s portrait. On the right side of the face, there was a blank area of skin where the one eye should have been. Had he been born that way or was it a later legacy of Nimth?
The eyes blinked. Once over the sight of the lids closing and opening in unison, Cabe discovered another peculiarity about them. Around the pupil, they looked almost crystalline, so crystalline, in fact, that they probably glittered in sunlight.
The disconcerting eyes were fixated on him. "You and yours are a strange sight; a strange sight you are. So much is strange this day. When I saw the hole, I could not be but curious, yes, curious I could not help but be. Where did it lead? Where had it come from? There are so many things of wonder in my world, but this . . . I think this is not Nimth."
Cabe remained silent.
The eyes blinked again. "The hole. It pulled me in and I found myself here. Then it was gone. Why is that, do you think?"
The warlock shook his head. He had ideas, all involving wolf raiders and Dragon Kings, but he was not about to relay any of them to Plool. The less the bizarre mage knew, the better.
Plool rose, at the same time extending the height of the earthen column so that Cabe was still a head shorter. The odd-looking figure stood atop the formation and once more gazed around at the mist-covered land. It was still impossible to see beyond a few yards, yet the Vraad studied his surroundings as if the fog did not even exist.
"And so where am I, Bedlam? Where has the great Plool, Plool the Great, found himself? What do you call this little place?"
"This is Legar." The answer was safe enough. It told Cabe"s companion nothing, which was all he wanted Plool to ever know. Somehow, there had to be a way to return him to Nimth.
"Legarrrrr . . ." The spiderlike figure mulled over the word. His crystalline eyes closed for a time. When he opened them again, they were even brighter and livelier than before. "An amusing name."
"Great Plool, if I may ask you a question?"
He almost preened himself. "You may do so."
"Where was this hole you came through?"
Plool looked sly. "Trying to rid yourself of my presence?"
Cabe actually was, but he was not going to admit that to the Vraad. "I share your curiosity about things, about your world."
The answer satisfied Plool. He nodded, thankfully obscuring his unnerving eyes, and responded, "I like you, Bedlam. Would you like to see the hole?"
"If it is safe."
The Vraad shrugged, chuckling all the while. "What is safe, Bedlam?"
Cabe blinked. They now stood atop the peak of one of Legar"s taller hills. The warlock looked down and saw nothing but the dire mist; he was on the edge of a precipice. Cabe quickly backed away, only to b.u.mp into Plool, who floated, legs crossed in a sitting position, just high enough to gaze down at the young mage.
"Sweet, sweet Nimth," the spiderlike Vraad nearly sang. "Your loveliness envelops all . . . and chokes it to death."
He doesn"t sound very eager to return. I hope there"s no trouble. Somehow I have to convince him to leave. "I don"t see the hole, Great Plool. Where was it?"
"The hole is closed, but the door remains."
"And the door?"
"Below us."
Cabe turned his gaze downward once more and saw only murk. He could not even see the rest of the hill, merely a few feet of earth below them. Fog obscured the rest. "Down there?"
"Yes, here."
Every muscle in the warlock"s body grew painfully taut as he once again found himself transported to another location. Plool had a habit of teleporting others from one spot to another without warning, something that Shade had often done and even Darkhorse still did without thinking. Cabe had never liked being pulled along in the past and he certainly did not like it now.
They were down in the murky soup he had just been observing from above. From where he stood now, Cabe could not see the top of the hill. How high did the fog go? All the way to the sun?
He reminded himself that it was not the fog that mattered. For now, he needed to concentrate on the magical doorway that had allowed all of this, including his erstwhile Vraad companion, to enter unchecked.
The object of his desire lay between them. A sphere. At first, Cabe studied it with some confusion. He had expected a portal or a tear in reality. Certainly not a gla.s.s ball. It looked more like a container than a doorway.
"Can I touch it?"
"If you like."
He did. A mild shock made him pluck his hand back. Plool chuckled. Cabe steeled himself and reached out again. The same mild shock coursed through him, but it was only momentary. Slowly he ran his hands over the artifact. It was not gla.s.s after all, but crystal. There was also still something inside. The mage could not be certain, but it appeared to be more fog.
"This is how you came to be here?"
There was a hint of annoyance in the Vraad"s voice. "This is how I came to be here; I came to be here because of this. Do you want to ask again, Bedlam?"
"I"m sorry," he quickly responded, "it just amazes me."
Plool squatted. His legs seemed to be built for that. He now resembled the spider again or perhaps a spider and a frog combined. The round torso was so great in girth that it was a wonder the spindly legs could maintain such a balance, yet they did. "Came I through this little sphere, Bedlam, but the opening was much more vast. When I saw what had been the cause and it tried to fly away, I brought it down to this spot and with my might forced it to the ground. It stays there now until I deign to release it to its master."
To its master . . . There was only one being that Cabe could think of who might have been responsible. Certainly not the wolf raiders. Now he was certain that it could only have been the Crystal Dragon.
But why? This seemed a strange defense for a leviathan who had turned the might of the Ice Dragon back. It was, for all its strength, a rather halfhearted and in most ways foolish sort of attack. Cabe was certain that he, in the Dragon King"s position, could have devised more than a score of countermeasures much more efficient and less haphazard than the unleashing of Nimthian decay. What happened if the deadly mist became permanent? Might it not also spread?
He sighed. Why was nothing ever simple? It was terrible enough that he had been forced to come here and seek out both the lord of Legar and the Aramites, but now he had the fog and a Vraad to deal with.
The Dragonrealm does like to play with us, doesn"t it?
Thinking of that, he suddenly had a wary thought. Plool would not know the lay of the land, but he might know enough about this region in general to answer a few questions. "Great Plool, are we far from where we first met?"
"Nothing is far away . . . but Nimth now."
So perhaps the answers would not be forthcoming for now. Trust Plool to speak in riddles and poetry. Standing, Cabe studied what little he could see of the hill formation. The one thing he was certain of was that he was high in the sky. These hills were the closest Legar had to true mountains and only some arbitrary decision by ancient mapmakers had prevented them from falling into the other category. He could recall only one area in all the peninsula where such high hills were located. If his estimates were correct, and it was still quite possible they were not thanks to the concealing fog, then he was in a region very near the underground city of the Quel and the caverns where he suspected the Crystal Dragon"s clans made their home. That would also put him near enough to the sh.o.r.eline of the peninsula, which meant that the wolf raiders, too, might be his neighbors.
This is not what I had in mind when I began this journey. He looked at Plool. Could he convince him to leave Legar? The hills of Esedi would be the most likely place to reunite with Darkhorse, although what the demon steed and the Vraad would do when faced with each other worried him. Darkhorse he was certain he could calm, but the madcap figure beside him was more unpredictable. He had clearly been responsible for separating the two.
Cabe saw no other choice. His best chances for putting a finish to all these matters lay in combining his skills with those of Darkhorse and Plool, the latter because of his ability to work and exist in the Nimthian mist. Cabe also wanted Darkhorse with him in order to keep a better eye on the Vraad. True, the ebony stallion was weakened by the very fog that Plool thrived in, but between the two of them they should be able to keep him in check. The warlock hoped it would not come to that, however. Plool was not evil, not exactly; his was simply a different world. He might be willing to help if only because he found the situation entertaining.
"Great Plool, there is another place we should go, a place where there is someone I hope to meet. I think you"ll find it a fascinating place, so alive with stability and so unchanging." I begin to sound like him.
"The black beast. You hope to meet him."
He had been careful not to mention Darkhorse, but Plool had made the connection regardless. "His name is Darkhorse. He means no harm to you." I hope! "He is my friend and companion on this journey."
Indignation. "I am Plool! I do not fear anything! I can create castles in the air! I can make monsters from mud!"
"I didn"t mean-"
The indignation vanished, to be replaced by curiosity. "But so much . . . unchanging . . . not even Nimth has created such!" The eyes blinked. "I will enjoy this world . . . yesss . . . I will come with you and see this place, talk to the hole, too. The hole I will talk to, this Darkhorse!"
"Good," Cabe returned once he had pieced his way through the Vraad"s quick and confusing words. The warlock had no idea what he would do if Darkhorse was not there. Return to Legar with Plool, he supposed. Not to this location, however. Better to choose one of those he was vaguely familiar with from long ago. Plool appeared willing to listen to him, although who knew why, and with the Vraad to aid him he should be able to find a better place to materialize than here.
First, however, he had to find a way to get Plool to teleport the two of them to Esedi. The Vraad had been quite agreeable so far to teleporting them from one place to another. Maybe he would do so again. Cabe did not want to risk his own sorcery if he could avoid it, not here in this malevolent mist. "Master Plool, if you could be so kind-"
The eerie figure executed a bow, an act that, considering his shape, bordered on the absurd. "I am ever benevolent to those in need; to those in need benevolent I ever am."
"My grat.i.tude. First let me-"
Plool was already acting.
Cabe started toward him, hand out. "Wait!"
The familiar hilly and, thankfully, clear terrain of western Esedi manifested before him. Despite his not having described it to the Vraad, Plool had known where to go. He could have only done so by seizing the image from Cabe"s mind.
His relief at escaping the fog made the invasion of his thoughts almost secondary, at least for the time being. Cabe exhaled in relief and started to look for the other mage.
He heard a gasp of pain from a voice that could only be Plool"s, then the world around him began to spin. He struggled to maintain balance, but the force tugging at him was too strong.
Cabe was torn from the earth. Everything around him shimmered in an all too familiar way. There was a brief instant when he was surrounded by nothing. Pure nothing. The nothing was followed by a body-rending shock as the startled warlock was flattened against a rocky surface.
It was not enough to severely injure him, but it did leave him stunned and aching for several minutes. Eventually, he tried to see where he was, but his surroundings seemed but a blur no matter how many times he blinked.
No. Not a blur. As his head cleared, Cabe saw that it was not his vision that was at fault.
He was back in Legar. Back on the hill near where the sorcerer from Nimth had shown him the crystalline sphere.
What had happened to Plool? Cabe recalled the brief, agonized sound. He scanned the region, but his search was limited to a few yards at most in any one direction.
"Gngh!" A terrible force dragged him upward. His frantic thought was that the teleportation spell was still in effect, but then he ceased moving. Cabe simply hung where he was, his arms and legs mysteriously bereft of movement. There was an uncomfortable pressure around his chest that made it difficult to draw a breath.
"Bedlam, I do not like pain! Betray my faith, my goodwill! I have punished for less; much less have I punished for, Bedlam!"
"Ploo-ool?" Cabe managed to choke out.
The Vraad floated before him on a throne formed from the very mist. His round torso was tipped back so far that Plool had to practically peer over it. He was breathing hard and one hand shook. The maddening eyes were narrow in dark thought.
"Wh-what have I done?"
"The pain!" Plool roared. "The pain, the pain, and the pain! My very body twisted and boiled! Were I not Plool the Great, I would be dead, torn apart!" Somehow, Plool managed to lean forward. "As you shall be for my sport and vengeance!"
"I did nothing!"
"Lies and lies and lies and lies!"
It was growing nearly impossible to breathe, much less speak in his own defense. "You"ve freely invaded my mind, haven"t you? Do it again, but this time seek out the truth about me! Try to prove that I betrayed you!"
He hoped his plan, born of the second, would succeed. Otherwise, Plool would use him as he desired. A Vraad"s desire. The very notion turned his stomach. He knew the legends.
Plool"s long, hodgepodge face leaned even closer. Was it Cabe"s imagination or was the upper eye slightly more to the other side? That was preposterous, of course, the product of his predicament. It was a moot point, anyway. What mattered was what the furious Vraad drew from his mind.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Three and four, all harsh.
The pressure on his chest eased. Slowly, both he and Plool sank toward the ground. Plool ceased descending when he was roughly a man"s length from the rocky surface of the hill. He still used the chair of mist to support his ma.s.sive form. Cabe, on the other hand, was unceremoniously dumped. The gasping warlock managed to keep his balance.
From the Vraad there was no apology, but a careful study of Plool"s insane countenance revealed to Cabe enough to satisfy him. Plool had read his mind and found what the desperate mage had wanted him to find.
Nothing more. Cabe was certain of it now. There were things his mind held, thoughts concerning the Dragonrealm and his fears of Plool, that the searching Vraad would have surely noticed and acted upon. That he had not noticed meant that like Darkhorse, Plool had limits as to how deep he could plunder another"s mind. It was good to know. Cabe had feared that he would not have the power to direct his menacing companion"s mental search toward specific thoughts only. His mind was his after all.
"I was in great and terrible pain, Bedlam," the floating spellcaster hissed. His tone bespoke his condition; Cabe grew more and more interested in what had happened to him. "Terrible and great pain."
"I feel your pain," Cabe returned, all politeness. "But I am not the one responsible, as you now know."
"Then who? Who, then, Bedlam, hmmm?"
The Crystal Dragon? It was unlikely. Not at all like the Dragon King, if the warlock"s opinion was correct. The lord of Legar was generally satisfied with his enemies fleeing from his kingdom. He would have been more likely to take both of them and fling them farther from the peninsula, say all the way to the Dagora Forest. Still, nothing was predictable anymore. It might very well be the Crystal Dragon.
The Aramites certainly would not have left Cabe alone, so it could not be them. He also doubted it could have been some trick of Lanith"s mages. They were not that organized.
Could it have simply been something about Esedi itself? Or Plool even?
Plool . . . yes, it was a possibility. He tried not to change his expression as he covertly studied the misshapen body of the Vraad. What had he thought earlier? Only in Nimth could someone like Plool be possible?
Only in Nimth and not beyond the borders of its foul mists.
"I don"t know," the warlock finally responded. He despised lying, but in this case he was not certain the truth was any better. Plool might choose to believe him or he might not. Besides, there might still come a time when Cabe would need that bit of knowledge to save himself; the Vraad had already proven his instability.