But he knew he couldn"t really abandon them. It wouldn"t be chivalrous. Ajandor-the old Ajandor, anyway-would never have countenanced such a selfish, craven act.
Kevin glimpsed motion from the comer of his eye. Impelled by pure reflex, he jumped to one side, and the leaping spider pounced on the spot where he"d just been standing. Some of the prisoners wailed.
Made of the same shifting murk as the other horrors infesting Tilverton, the spider was perhaps the size of a child, its fused bulbs of head and body hanging between arched, segmented legs. Hoping he could land a blow before it reoriented on him, Kevin hacked at its abdomen.
Quick as a cat, the shadow wheeled to face him. His blade slashed through one of its legs, but without encountering any resistance, and without severing the limb.
The spider scuttled toward him and he retreated, cutting and thrusting as he went. It was still like sweeping his sword through empty air. In the dimness, he could just make out a hint of the shadow"s ring of bulging eyes, the jagged mandibles opening and closing around its maw.
He backed into one of looms, which banged, rattled, and shed choking, eye-stinging dust into the air. As he started to flounder around that obstacle, he collided with strands of the shadow webbing. The stuff was as sticky as he would have expected, and it had hold of his sword arm, not that his sword had done him any good.
He struggled to pull free. The glue began to give but not quickly enough. The spider scuttled forward to plunge its no-doubt poisonous fangs into his flesh.
Just as the shadow"s mandibles were about to close on his knee, he heaved his legs up, evading thebite. The weakened adhesion couldn"t support his weight, and he fell free of the webbing and onto the shadow.
He plunged right through the creature just as his sword had done. For an instant, as they were joined, his mind blazed with inhuman sensations. He slammed down on the floor beneath the spider"s underbelly.
The shadow started to scuttle off him. Gripping his sword by the blade for use in such close quarters, he jammed the point into the crack between the spider"s abdomen and cephalothorax.
For some reason, this time, the steel bit into solid matter, and the phantom jerked and thrashed.
Kevin used his sword to roll the spider onto its back, then he kept pressure on the weapon until the ghastly thing stopped moving.
The squire needed to rest but knew he didn"t have time. Panting and trembling, he cut the captives free.
Most of them, anyway. On closer investigation, he found that a couple were but dry, shriveled husks.
But the majority were alive. Some were even strong enough to help the weak ones along. Kevin reckoned that with luck, he could get them all out.
He nearly did.
Scouting ahead for shadows, he led the prisoners back the way he"d come. Once, as the procession pa.s.sed beneath a tattered gonfalon, a toddler started to cry, and everyone froze in terror, certain the noise would bring shadows down on their heads. The child"s mother quickly put her hand over his mouth, and no shadow came to investigate the sound. Later on, the fugitives came upon a bellpull, and a scrawny, gap-toothed fellow, who seemed a bit mad from his ordeal, stared at the velvet strap in fearful fascination, as if he didn"t want to ring it but felt a compulsion to do so. The matron with the gray ringlets took him by the arm and led him on by.
At last Kevin spied the marble bust of a sharp-nosed, crafty-looking fellow siting on its pedestal.
He"d noticed it coming in, and it meant that the exit into the Medusa"s Garden was just ahead. He smiled, and a psychic shriek stabbed into his head.
Some of the prisoners cried out. Others clutched their heads and sobbed. Though equally pained by the silent caterwauling, Kevin yelled at them and shoved them. He had to keep them moving, had to get them out the door before their pursuers arrived.
He chivvied them down the long rectangular entrance hall and almost to the arched exit before instinct impelled him to look back. He couldn"t see shapes, not yet, but the darkness boiled with movement. Shadows were pouring out of the doorways along the walls.
Kevin reckoned he needed to delay the phantoms for at least a few seconds. Otherwise, few if any of the captives would make it outside. He turned and tried to bellow a war cry, but it came out as more of a weary, frightened squeak. He strode toward the far end of the chamber, and a wave of shadow hurtled out of the gloom to meet him.
He drove his sword into a shadow"s chest but never knew whether he"d slain it, for the next instant, the rest of them swept over him, and after that, he was no longer able to keep track of specific adversaries. There was only a pack, a many-limbed ma.s.s, striking and s.n.a.t.c.hing at him from every side, as he lurched and whirled and slashed at it.
Once, for a split second, a narrow gap appeared in the ma.s.s, and Kevin glimpsed other devils loping toward the door. He wished he could intercept them as well, but knew there was no chance of it.
Cold hands seized hold of his arms and shoulders, and the strength began to flow out of him.
Even as he struggled to pull free, other shadows clutched at him, and it was hopeless. He resolved not to scream, but did it anyway, sure the phantoms were sucking out the final traces of his life.
In time, he woke to cold rain spattering his face and hard, wet floor beneath his supine body. He pried open his gummy eyelids. Gray clouds floated directly overhead, but walls rose at the corners of hisvision, as if he was in a pit. He tried to lift himself for a better look around but failed. He was horribly weak, and cold deep inside in a way that even his soaked attire couldn"t explain.
"Young man!" someone whispered. "Don"t move!"
He rolled his head to the side and saw the goodwife with the curly gray hair, who was also lying on the floor.
"Why not?" he whispered back.
"You"ll provoke it!"
Somehow Kevin knew without asking what "if was. King Shadow. The lesser phantoms had borne him and his fellow human into the t.i.tan"s lair. The fancy he"d scrawled inside the Cormyr Gate had more or less come true.
"Did the shadows recapture all of you?" he asked.
"No," the woman said. "Most of us made it out the door."
Kevin surprised himself by smiling. "Helm gave me good value for my penny then. Better than I had any right to expect."
The matron frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"It doesn"t matter. Tell me where we are and what"s going on."
"We"re in a large chamber at the top of the keep. The roof is gone, and this huge ... thing apparently makes its lair here."
"Go on."
The lesser shadows dumped us here for the monster to eat when it"s ready, the same way you"d put down food for a dog. It already gobbled up Quinn and Evaine while you were unconscious."
"It"s not gobbling us at the moment, and if it"s not paying attention, perhaps we can slip away."
"It is paying attention. Evaine tried to sneak out, and that"s when it s.n.a.t.c.hed her up."
"Oh. All right, I understand. Now try to rest while I figure a way out of this."
"That"s mad. If you were facing the way I am, if you could see the creature-" .
"Ajandor, the knight I serve, taught me that if a man his head, he can think his way out of almost any peril, and I might as well try. Why not? What do we have to lose?"
The matron smiled. "When you put it that way, lad, not a thing. Think away."
Kevin lay and pondered, wondering what Ajandor would have done in his place, and if the knight had actually come looking for him. Probably not, for by the cold light of this joyless morning, he recognized that the trick he had attempted to play was a puerile one, born out of desperation rather than sense. No doubt the shrewd old man had seen through it at once and simply bade good riddance to the impudent a.s.s who had hoped to gull him.
No, Kevin could only pray that Ajandor would come to his senses by himself, before his one-man campaign against the shadows destroyed him. His squire had another problem to address.
He waited until a little strength seeped back into his muscles, enough, he hoped, to stand, run around, and yell.
"I"m going to distract King Shadow," he said. "You get out of here. I"m hoping the other prisoners will follow your lead."
Her blue eyes widened. "But the shadow will kill you!"
"It"s going to do that anyway."
She hesitated. "We"ll still have all the smaller shadows, the ones shaped like men and cats and wolves, barring the way out of the fortress."
"Run. Hide. Throw rocks at them. Whatever it takes to get away."
She swallowed. "All right, and may Helm take you into his keeping. The knight you serve must be very proud of you."
Kevin smiled at a pang that had nothing to do with the mauling the shadows had given him. "Well, he used to be. Get ready."
He gave her a moment to gather her strength, then, wishing the shadows had left him his sword, he scrambled to his feet, and spun around.
As the matron had advised him, the room was big and essentially circular, with a ragged hole wherethe ceiling once had been. Sc.r.a.ps of it were lying about the floor, and painted pentacles adorned the plaster walls. In the middle of the s.p.a.ce, taking up a goodly part of it, hulked King Shadow.
Kevin was prepared for the hugeness of the shadow and for the strangeness of its tangled limbs, like fat, flexible feathers writhing in all directions. However, he had had no inkling of the true nature of King Shadow"s flesh. He hadn"t been able to make it out when the t.i.tan drifted past high above his head.
Within the shadow"s murky substance flowed human faces distorted and jammed together. Despite the stretching, twisting, and squashing, it was somehow possible to discern their grimaces of agony, madness, and rage. Ilmater"s tears, was this what became of the people King Shadow destroyed? Did their souls wind up trapped inside the shadow"s body?
Kevin stood frozen with horror as King Shadow reached for him, one amorphous arm dipping down above his head and another curving in on each side. At the last possible moment, the youth snapped out of his paralysis and flung himself backward. The three tentacles closed on empty air, and all the faces inside the t.i.tan"s body began to rave and howl in a silent cacophony.
Bearing the psychic din as best he could, Kevin made his own noise, shouting and shifting back and forth. King Shadow stretched out more of its members to seize him, and the gray-haired woman jumped up and ran for a doorway. Several other prisoners did the same, and the rippling hillock of a shadow ignored them all.
Kevin grinned. It was satisfying to have played a trick that worked, even if it was going to cost him his life.
King Shadow clubbed at him with blows that flattened its boneless arms and shook the floor. The squire dodged and dodged again, knowing it was only a matter of time before one of the tentacles connected. Once his evasions carried him near a doorway, and he dashed for it. The shadow extruded a great slab of itself between its prey and the exit, cutting him off as effectively as a wall.
Something shattered, flashed, and roared on top of King Shadow, and all the faces inside the devil shrieked in agony, for the immense phantom wore a crown of crackling blue and yellow flame. Kevin looked up at the hole in the ceiling, where Ajandor was preparing to throw another keg of oil. Unlike the first, this one didn"t need a fuse. When it broke, the contents would feed the fire that was already burning.
Ajandor heaved the barrel, and the conflagration boomed and flared higher. A man drenched in burning oil would likely thrash about and expire, but the t.i.tan floated up toward its tormentor. The falling raindrops shone yellow in the firelight.
Kevin picked up chunks of debris and hurled them at the shadow. Several of the smaller phantoms appeared along the edge of the hole. Apparently trusting them to dispose of Ajandor, King Shadow dropped back onto the floor to confront the squire, who wished he hadn"t just wasted his only chance to bolt.
Its ragged tendrils squirming, King Shadow spread itself to either side of Kevin, pinning him against the wall. The t.i.tan looked like a pair of hands poised to catch a ball, albeit with fire dancing on the upper surfaces and spatters of burning oil dripping off the sides.
Kevin saw no possibility of escape, so he spat at King Shadow. It was a feeble gesture, but better than nothing.
The twin ma.s.ses of shadow-stuff began to close on him like the covers of a book, then Gray Dancer fell at his feet, hitting the floor with a clank.
Kevin stooped and grabbed the mithral sword by its leather-wrapped hilt. He was sure that Ajandor had dropped Gray Dancer intentionally, to give his fosterling some semblance of a fighting chance, even though the knight needed the weapon himself to battle his own opponents.
The squire came on guard, and a wave of vitality washed the soreness and weakness out of his muscles. Gray Dancer was bolstering his strength. Ajandor had occasionally permitted him to handle the blade, but it had never done anything like this. Apparently it took a foe to wake its magic.
The adversary in question had faltered momentarily when the sword fell between them, but now the twin arms of its V-shape began to converge once more. The squire ran to the member on the right and swung Gray Dancer in a vertical cut.
The weapon"s razor edge split the churning shadow-stuff and scrambled the writhing, flowing facesinside it. King Shadow screamed, and its limb twitched backward, creating a gap between itself and the wall. Kevin dived through.
Once out of the trap, he immediately turned and renewed the attack, cutting and cutting for all he was worth. Drops of burning oil spattered and blistered him, but he scarcely felt the pain. Then a column of shadow-stuff exploded out of the ma.s.s before him, slammed into his chest, and hurled him across the room.
If not for his hauberk, the impact likely would have shattered his ribs. As it was, as he dropped on his rump, he started to black out, then felt Gray Dancer"s magic grip his mind like a powerful hand and heave it back to wakefulness.
When Kevin looked up, King Shadow had pulled itself up into a gray-black fiery sheet curling over at the top like a huge, tempest-driven wave. The youth saw that he wouldn"t have time to roll out from underneath, so as the shadow began to fall, he raised Gray Dancer"s point to meet it.
King Shadow impaled itself on the sword, and no more balked than surging water would have been, crashed down on Kevin, swatting him like a fly. He lay in a pool of seething, gibbering, burning ghost-faces. He was dazed, vaguely surprised to still be alive, and Gray Dancer hauled him back to full consciousness again, with more difficulty this time.
Though the blade had no real voice, not even a silent one like the shadows, he somehow sensed what it wanted to tell him: Look, look, look at King Shadow now, look, you only have a moment!
Kevin did look. The shadow-stuff splashed across the floor was still "humping and slithering, but not with its former nimbleness. Evidently the fire, Gray Dancer, or both had finally done the t.i.tan some significant harm. Moreover, the soft, murky substance was converging from all directions toward a sort of bulb, as if to rebuild the creature"s body around it. Unlike the seepage, the node contained no tortured human faces. It was pure black.
The squire reckoned he knew what to do, but then hot pain washed over his ribs and leg. He looked down and discovered that his clothing was on fire. He could attempt to extinguish it, or he could ignore it and strike while King Shadow was vulnerable.
He tried to rise, and other pains balked him. His left arm and ankle throbbed, sprained or broken, he supposed. He tried again and this time made it to his feet.
He limped forward. The shadow-stuff was flowing faster now, and had nearly succeeded in coating the t.i.tanic creature"s heart with itself. He drove Gray Dancer"s point into the one sliver of absolute blackness still showing.
All the faces screamed, and King Shadow vanished. Kevin threw himself on the floor and rolled until he was free of the fire.
Then he just sat, too sore and spent for anything else, the strength Gray Dancer had lent him expended, until a shout reminded him that his had not been the only battle. He peered up through the smoky air. The rain felt good on his singed, sweaty face.
Ajandor peered back down at him through the hole. "Are you all right?" asked the knight.
"I could be a lot worse. Thank Helm for wet clothing! We have to move. The other shadows-"
"Seem to have disappeared along with their king," said Ajandor, "dead or fled, who knows? Or cares? I"m coming down."
He stepped away from the hole and came through one of the doors in the room a minute later.
"You"re sure they"re gone?" the squire asked.
"Well, the ones I was fighting just melted away, and I don"t see any of them bursting in on us, do you?"
"Now that you mention it, no. How did you find me?"
"It wasn"t difficult. I discovered your note and smelled a trick, but I still didn"t want you wandering around alone in a city of shadows. I came after you and ran into one of the captives you freed. He told me where to look for you, and I sneaked into the witch"s keep. Eventually, I figured out where you were, but I couldn"t reach you. Too many horrors blocked the path. However, I did find a way to get above you and the great flying pudding, and I hoped that if I hurt the thing, you might be able to escape in the resulting confusion. I located some oil old Tilvara had laid in, carried it up to the roof, and the plan fellapart." He grinned. "You jumped up prematurely, and some shadows picked up my trail and followed me up to my perch."
"How did you hold them off without Gray Dancer?"
"With my dagger and a torch. Not the more formidable of weapons, but sufficient to give the creatures pause."
"Evidently." Kevin hesitated. "Sir, are you angry at me for trying to fool you?"
"I was, but... I know why you did it, and maybe it did shake something loose inside me. Maybe it was meeting the fellow you rescued. That shamed me, by reminding me what a knight is supposed to be.
Perhaps seeing King Shadow die has made me feel a little better. At any rate, I still sorrow, but I guess I"m no longer in such a hurry to join Pelethen on the other side. I"ll see him when I see him."
"I"m glad." Kevin"s gaze fell on Gray Dancer, lying ingloriously in a pool of rainwater. He picked it up and proffered it.