BLOOD AND DARKNESS.
Queen Charize leaned forward, one great claw stretching out to slice Palimak"s life away.
He cut at her with his sword, but she only laughed and slapped it aside.
At that moment an enormous drumboom resounded from behind Charize and her army. They jolted about to see what this new threat might be. The boom was immediately followed by the trumpeting cry of what Palimak swore was a horse.
Then there was the thunder of hooves and a shouted war cry.
Palimak gaped as some invisible force burst through the line of monsters, hurling them aside.
There was a skitter of horse"s hooves, another war cry, and then two more creatures fell to the ground, gutted and fountaining blood.
Then Palimak thought he heard someone shout, "Palimak! To the tomb, Palimak!"
It was Safar"s voice.
His father"s voice.
Without hesitation Palimak whirled and rushed up the short flight of stairs to the coffin. He was too numb to be surprised when he saw that the huge lid had been thrown open.
The mummified corpse of an enormous demon stared blankly out at him. He had time enough to see that it was dressed in black wizard"s robes decorated with bejeweled symbols. Then he heard Charize hiss orders and he came about to do battle.
The beast that was Queen Charize roared at her sisters to close in on the invisible force. At the same time she struck out blindly with her scepter. A blast of blue light shot out, but she must have missed because the magical light hammered at nothingness.
Although for just a moment Palimak thought he could make out the shadowy figure of an armored warrior astride a great stallion.
Then the vision was gone and everything became a strange, violent shadow-play as Charize and her sisters battled the invisible force.
He saw a line of beasts form before Charize, saw that line bend as the force cut through them. Then the way was open and Charize clubbed at the air with her scepter.Palimak heard a heavy thump and a groan as her scepter struck something.
There was a long pause, as if the attacker were struggling to recover, then the moment broke and Charize roared defiance, charging forward.
He heard a meaty thunk, saw Charize stop in mid-charge. And suddenly a red line jagged across her throat.
Charize toppled over, huge head falling to one side--bony skull held only by a thread of gristle--and she crashed to the floor.
There was a shocked silence as Charize"s sisters stared down at their queen"s lifeless body. Then that silence grew longer and more thoughtful as both Palimak and the creatures realized that the horseman and his steed were no longer present in the chamber.
First there was a shuffle--many claws and talons clicking against the stone.
Then a single whisper: "Who will be queen?"
That whisper became a chorus, "Queen? Queen? Queen?"
And the first voice began to chant: "We are the sisters of Asper, Sweet Lady, Lady, Lady...
The others took up the chant, turning on Palimak as they did so.
" ... We guard his tomb, we guard his tomb, Holy One ... "
And Palimak had the soul-shivering realization that the battle for royal succession would be fought over his body.
Thwack! as Biner once again a.s.saulted the wall. His club blow did so much damage that Leiria had to shield her face against the shattered rock that exploded outward. Even so, a sharp piece of stone cut her hand and the blood started to flow.
Leiria ignored the wound. What"s a little blood, even if it"s your own? She studied the results of Biner"s work. Strong as he was, mighty though his blows might be, he"d only managed to hammer out a shallow depression into the wall. At this rate, hours would pa.s.s before they broke through--a.s.suming Biner didn"t wear himself out first.
There was one dubious victory his efforts had won--the depression made a kind of funnel that magnified the sound on the other side. They could hear plainly the clash of battle raging in the chamber beyond.
"Dammit, Biner!" Leiria growled. "This isn"t working."
Biner didn"t waste his energy on a reply. Instead, he drew back the club once again--planting his feet far apart and bunching his big shoulders in readiness for the blow.
"Here, let me help you," came a woman"s voice.
Startled, Leiria turned to see Jooli standing there. Flanking her were the Kyranian soldiers who were gawking at King Rhodes" daughter. Apparently they"d been so surprised to see her, that they had lether walk right through their ranks.
Biner--stopped in mid swing--glared at her. "What"re you doing here?" he demanded.
Jooli gave a throaty laugh. "Not making a fool out of myself, that"s for certain," she said.
Leiria was angry. "I don"t know how in the h.e.l.ls you escaped your guard," she said, "but I don"t have time for you. Get your royal behind out of here before I thin-slice it for rations!"
"I"m a witch," Jooli said, answering Leiria"s unasked question. "Right now the guards on your airship think I"m tucked away nice and cozy in that tiny closet of a cabin you gave me."
Biner was furious. "I don"t care if you are the witch of all witches!" he roared. "Remove yourself from my sight, woman!"
Jooli chortled. "You have more muscles in your head," she mocked, "than you"ll ever get in your body."
She took a step forward. Leiria started to block her, but there was something about Jooli that gave her pause. Leiria quite liked Biner. But sometimes he did tend to let his brawn get in the way of cool thought process.
Just as he sometimes used his big voice--even more startling because it came from the body of a dwarf--to hammer down people it wasn"t always wise for him to overpower.
Jooli plucked the club from Biner"s fingers as if it were a feather. He was too surprised to react. Then she made a gesture at the wall with her free hand. And she chanted: "You are stone!
You were sand.
You are strong!
You were weak.
Strong to weak.
Weak to sand.
Sand to dust!"
On the last line she leaned forward and gently tapped the stone wall with the club.
With barely a sound the entire thing collapsed, making a two-foot-high pile of dust on the floor.
Leiria didn"t waste any thought on Jooli"s amazing feat of magic, much less her motives for being here.
The only thing she cared about was that the wall that had been barring her way was gone. And now she was staring into a deep, black emptiness.
Although sight was absent, hearing was plain. There was a whispering of many voices. Harsh voices.
Alien voices. Growing louder and louder, until the words rang clear: "We are the sisters of Asper, Sweet Lady, Lady, Lady ... "
Then she heard Palimak shout: "Get back!"
Leiria hurled her torch deep into the dark cavern. There was a flare as sparks scattered in every direction.
She caught a glimpse of nightmare creatures--enormous things, with long fangs and vampire wings--thenthe torch guttered down.
"More light!" she shouted to the others.
And she charged through the opening, sprinting toward the place where she"d caught a brief glimpse of Palimak"s pale face.
As she ran she heard Biner bellow orders. More torches arced into the cavern. Spears of light crashed against the floor, scattering flame in every direction so that the chamber became like a night sky lit by a meteor swarm.
UnG.o.dly screams came from all around her, as if she"d burst into a nest of banshees.
She collided with a ma.s.sive body, struck out blindly with her sword. An exploding torch revealed a horrible figure towering over her. As her sword bit into flesh she had time to realize that the creature was cowering in agony.
Warm fluid splashed her arms then she stepped around the creature and kept on running--dodging or slashing at any shadow that got in her way. The images revealed by the hurled torches seemed jerky, unreal, as light gouted, then died, then gouted again.
A smaller shadow loomed up and a stab of light came just in time for her to stay her hand: she saw Palimak--eyes wild, sword stained with gore.
"Leiria!" he cried, voice full of relief.
She leaped to his side, whirling to see a shadow army of shrieking beasts advancing on them. From far across the chamber she heard Biner bellow his war cry, followed by sounds of fighting. The others had joined the battle.
"They fear light!" Palimak shouted, at the same time dodging a huge claw striking out at him from the darkness.
Leiria lopped at the claw, sharp sword cutting through flesh and bone. And she heard a satisfying howl of pain.
"All I need is a little time," Palimak cried out, "and I can stop them!"
Knowing he meant to cast a spell, Leiria tried to give him the time he needed, chopping and thrusting in every direction. But there were too many of the creatures and after a moment Palimak broke off his efforts and joined her in the fight.
Even so, the fight was clearly turning against the Kyranians. She could hear Biner and the others trying to fight their way through. But her limbs grew weary and each blow seemed to have less effect. The torches were all guttering out and the chamber seemed to grow darker and more deadly by the minute.
Then she heard a wild ululation and a tall, slender figure vaulted over a knot of beasts.
There was a blast of light and the creatures howled, shrinking back. Leiria had time to see a shattered pot of burning pitch on the floor.
The light from the fire dazzled her for a moment, but as the flames died--too quickly! too quickly!--she saw that it was Jooli who had vaulted to their side.
She"d found a pike somewhere and was jabbing at the beasts in the guttering light as they recovered andpressed forward for the kill, mad with pain and hatred.
Jooli leaped up beside her, then turned, her shrill ululating war cry sweeping away Leiria"s weariness.
The two of them attacked the beasts full force and it was if they had been a fighting team for years, instead of only a few minutes.
Jooli"s pike would thrust at a creature, running it through to the backbone. While at the same time Leiria"s sword would slash and cut at any who dared the defensive gap Jooli"s attack would leave open.
Then Leiria would dance forward, doing awful damage with her sword, Jooli at her back, lancing pike giving Leiria the room she needed to maneuver.
Even greater damage was done when they would fall back, the creatures surging forward to take them.
Their very numbers making them easy targets for the steel snake-like strikes of sword and pike from the two warrior women.
Still, the numbers were so unequal that Leiria knew they couldn"t last much longer. And she could tell from Biner"s shouts and the sounds of fighting across the chamber that his attack was stalled.
Just then she heard a dry crack! and a cry of alarm from Jooli.
Leiria glanced to the side, but in the stormy twilight of the chamber she couldn"t see what had happened.
All she knew was that suddenly she was ringed by snarling beasts, talons reaching out to take her.
Leiria struck at a shadowy claw, felt the blade bite, then she was flung back, her sword swept away.
Stone steps cut into her backbone as she fell, knocking her breath away.
And she sprawled there helpless, without even enough fight remaining to kick and bite and claw with her nails.
Two enormous red eyes loomed over her. She saw the glint of long fangs reaching for her throat.
Her mind raged in fighting fury. But she didn"t even have breath enough to curse her enemy before she died.
Just then she heard Palimak shout: "Light!"
And suddenly a hot white light seared into being.
It was so bright, so blinding, that Leiria wasn"t sure whether she"d been saved, or if she had been killed and her ghost was seeing the fiery entrance to the h.e.l.ls.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
SAFAR RETURNS.