At the Gates of Darkness Part 26

Amirantha said to the others, 'Two minutes.'

Belasco's voice said, 'Good. I am getting very tired holding this beast in check.' There was a dark chuckle, a humour rooted in pain and anger. 'I guess we can both say I overreached myself this time, brother.'

Amirantha looked around the room and saw Jim ready to cut Belasco's throat, Sandreena ready to bash his head in with her mace, and the two elves ready to do whatever they needed to subdue him should the need arise. 'Given that there are five people here longing to see you dead, and you're stuck in a mental struggle with a demon king, putting thousands of lives at risk...Yes I can agree you overreached.'

'Well, I'd tell you I was sorry, but we both know that it would be a lie,' he said with what seemed to be an echo of evil glee. 'You may be right, you know.'

'About what?' asked the Warlock.

'About me being insane; I'm not sure, because I've always felt this way. I know Sidi was mad, but that was easy to see. But I realize now that a lot of what I've done...Don't get me wrong on this, dear brother, I still don't care, but I do realize that one must be a little crazy to try what I've tried.

'I saw myself as just too clever-' There came a hollow laugh. Then suddenly Belasco's tone changed, 'It's starting! You must do it now!'

Amirantha nodded, and Gulamendis said, 'I will delay the demon within for a few minutes.'

Sandreena said, 'I can pacify your brother, Amirantha.'

'Begin,' said Amirantha.

'Fare well, brother,' came Belasco's voice. Amirantha's eyes widened slightly, for in his lifetime, his brother had never offered him the slightest good fortune. As if understanding this, Belasco added, 'For if you do not fare well, I most certainly perish.'

They began their spells.

Demons withered under the blistering attack of the magicians surrounding them. Pug could sense more than see that some of the magicians on the walls were failing, exhausted from using so much of their magic in so short a time. Only Magnus seemed unaffected by the demands placed on him.

A ma.s.sive wave of energy swept up the four towers and suddenly a slightly translucent figure began to appear suspended in the air.

Twenty feet tall, Dahun's ma.s.sive torso was heavily muscled, and descended into huge legs and a scaled lizard's tail below his spine. His black legs and tail blended to red at his stomach and turned crimson at his chest. His face was contorted in pain, as if the transition from the demon realm caused him great agony. He bellowed: a distant, hollow sound. His eyes were solid black orbs, opened wide and seeking; and as his head moved from side to side, his hair, braided with human skulls, swung around his shoulders. The demon king's brow was adorned with a ma.s.sive golden circlet set with a dark stone, which pulsed with purple light. The fingers of his left hand ended in black talons and flexed slowly, as if in antic.i.p.ation of tearing apart his enemies. In his right hand, he held a flaming sword. His hips were girded with a metal-studded kilt, and two large leather bands crossed his chest with a ma.s.sive golden emblem at their centre.

Pug said, 'Now!' to Magnus, and they unleashed every destructive magic they possessed.

Two waves of sizzling light shot from their hands to strike the figure full in the chest. Dahun trembled and started to fall backwards, his hands outstretched, as if in supplication. A single word escaped his lips. 'No!'

As he fell from the confines of the four towers, purple lightning erupted from his body, striking the pillars above him. The demon king screamed in outrage and pain, his arms flailing as he tried to reach for the nearest pillar to keep from falling out of the pit boundaries.

'Destroy the towers!' Pug said to Magnus.

Pug focused on the demon while his son sought to topple the towers. His bolts of searing energy raised smoking welts on the demon's body until Dahun struck the ground between two of the arching structures. A piteous cry escaped from the demon king as he touched the soil.

Magnus noticed that while most of the other magicians nearby were fleeing, a few of the stronger ones remained on the wall, directing their magic at the demon in aid of Pug. He reached out with his mind to find a keystone in the foundation of the tower closest to where his father and he floated. Using his power, he then ground the stone to dust in moments, and sent a ma.s.sive wave of energy at the sudden void in the masonry. The entire tower shuddered and began to collapse, stones falling as the construction moved side to side. As it crumbled, ma.s.sive discharges of green magic swirled upward, like mad dust-devils spinning away into the night sky.

Dahun shrieked in agony as the unbalanced forces in the pit began to discharge ma.s.sive explosions like lightning and b.a.l.l.s of fire. Pug could feel waves of heat rising and instinctively raised a protective s.h.i.+eld around himself and Magnus.

With the s.h.i.+eld in place, they could only watch.

Dahun lay writhing on the soil, gasping like a landed fish. His body contorted in spasms, while flames roared all around him. His legs and tail still hung over the pit and they now began to smoke and blister; he screamed in pain, but was unable to move.

Magnus sent to his father,It's over.

Pug replied, 'Not quite yet.'

A second tower began to tremble and Pug used his magic to send a warning to the remaining magicians. 'Get out!'

Two of them flew away and the other leaped from the low wall to the outside of the fortress and ran as fast as he could.

The third and fourth towers also began to come apart and tumble inward. As they did, another tower of flame erupted from the pit. All of Dahun's lower body was now consumed, and his vacant eyes had rolled up in his head.

Then suddenly a loud sucking sound could be heard, followed by a trembling through the earth. Dahun's remains were ripped from the earth and vanished back into the pit in an instant. All the masonry and dead bodies nearby were also sucked into the pit as if a ma.s.sive vacuum had inhaled everything. Anything without foundation within the confines of the walls disappeared, including discarded weapons.

Then it was still.

'Is it over now?' asked Magnus.

'I think-'

The explosion was ma.s.sive.

A visible shockwave rolled out of the pit, pus.h.i.+ng earth, parts of dead bodies, and debris before it. It blasted outwards with enough force that the small building and the outer walls of the fortress were swept away like a child's hands knocking away toy blocks.

Only Pug's s.h.i.+eld kept his son and himself safe, but the ferocity of the blast caught him off guard.

The speed and power of the shockwave cleared the area in seconds, and when they looked down, there was no sign of the pit, or any construction. The blast area was also devoid of any plant life and as smooth as polished marble.

'What happened?' asked Magnus.

'The rift closed,' said Pug. 'We unbalanced the magic and it rebalanced itself.'

'It looks as if there's nothing left down there.'

'Well, our friends are still down there, if they survived.' Lowering himself and his son down, Pug said, 'We'd better start digging them out.'

'I hope Kaspar got his men far enough away to survive that blast,' said Magnus.

'I suspect he did,' said Pug. 'I'm not so certain about poor Timothy. He was running when last I saw him.'

Magnus said, 'He's fast.'

'Let's hope he's fast enough. They reached the ground and Pug said, 'Now, where was that building?'

'Somewhere over here,' said Magnus, as he closed his eyes and started probing with his magic to locate the entrance.

Amirantha was the first to regain consciousness. It was pitch black in the room. The ma.s.sive explosion above had momentarily sucked all of the air out of the chamber, extinguis.h.i.+ng the lights and rendering everyone within it unconscious.

His lungs burned and he felt his head pounding as he reached around blindly and felt the base of the altar. He used it to steady himself and got to his feet. The air had quickly returned to the room, but the sudden decompression really had caused some damage.

He reached into his belt pouch, took out a crystal, and incanted a single word. The crystal began to glow, casting enough light on the room that he could see the others. Sandreena was stirring with a groan, and he knelt next to her shaking her shoulder gently he said, 'You're alive.'

She shook her head and focused her eyes on him and said, 'What?'

'In case you were wondering; you're alive.'

She grunted, then said, 'I was wondering.'

He helped her to her feet as Jim and the two elves began to review the damage. Looking at the p.r.o.ne figure of Belasco, Amirantha said, 'Did he survive?'

As if prodded by the question, Belasco groaned and moved slightly.

A thump from above and a sudden cloud of dust from the corridor was followed by Magnus's voice in their minds,Is everyone all right?

Amirantha shouted, 'We're alive, if barely.'

A moment later, the two magicians entered the chamber and Pug said, 'It's over.'

'The demon's gone?' asked Jim, blinking, trying to clear his vision.

'Everything's gone,' said Magnus. 'The pit is filled, the ground is flattened, and the stones are scattered for miles. It's as if this place never existed.'

'Good,' said Jim. 'That means no explanations to the Kes.h.i.+an government.'

Belasco groaned again as he sat up. In a gravelly voice he asked, 'It's over?'

'Yes,' said Amirantha. 'And your day's grace to find a safe haven begins this moment.'

Moving gingerly from the altar stone, the magician stood on uncertain legs for a moment, then he said, 'I'll go.'

He began walking in a halting fas.h.i.+on, stopped, took a deep breath, then repeated, 'I'll go.'

He was almost to the door when Amirantha said, 'Wait.'

Turning, Belasco said, 'What?'

'Give me your word one more time.'

'You already have it,' he said with a contemptuous snarl.

'Again, say it again.'

'What?'

'The oath.'

Belasco was silent for a long minute, then said, 'Very well. By the old woman's blood-'

Amirantha shouted, 'Kill him!'

Pug, Magnus, the elves, and even Sandreena hesitated, looking at the Warlock as Pug said, 'What?'

Jim Dasher, however, didn't hesitate. The dagger that had not left his hand since coming into this chamber now flew straight across the room, and took Belasco in the throat. The magician's eyes grew round, and he reached up as if he could staunch the blood flow with his fingers.

Crimson gushed from his mouth and nose as he tried to speak, then his strength gave way and he fell to his knees. With blood pouring down his face, neck, and chest, he fell over on his right side.

'Why?' Pug asked.

'Because that wasn't my brother,' said Amirantha.

'What?' asked Sandreena.

'Belasco would never recite the oath incorrectly. It begins, "By the blood of the old woman of the moons", not "By the old woman's blood".' Pointing a finger at the corpse on the floor he said, 'That was no longer my brother. That was Dahun.'

'It was the demon king?' said Gulamendis.

'Yes,' said Amirantha. 'When we were being so clever, he was outwitting us. He manipulated everything we did. We believed there was a struggle between him and his host, because he wanted us to. Belasco remembered the oath correctly, but when the time came, Dahun cast him out into the demon body emerging from the Fifth Circle. It was a foregone conclusion that you two,' he pointed to Pug and Magnus, 'would destroy Dahun's body; Belasco had no ability to use the demon's magic. He was an easy target.'

Magnus said, 'It required a lot of magic to destroy that construction, but before that, there was no real fight.'

Pug said, 'But why? Why go to all this trouble to come here, just to possess your brother?'

'I can only speculate,' said the Warlock.

Jim said, 'Well, we're going to be back on Sorcerer's Isle soon, so let's leave it to discuss then.'

Pug said, 'Agreed. Now, let us leave this G.o.ds forsaken place and go home.'

No one in the room objected.

EPILOGUE - Aftermath PUG MOTIONED FOR EVERYONE TO SIT.

The mood in the room was subdued. Despite their victory over the demons, they had lost lives.

Pug said, 'With Belasco dead, I hope our days of conflict with your family are over, Amirantha.'

The Warlock smiled. 'a.s.suredly. My brothers' service to the dark agency who caused so much harm is beyond my ability to amend, but I will do what I can to help, Pug.'

'It's welcome. It's clear we have very little understanding of the demon realm.'

The two elven brothers were speaking softly, and Gulamendis said, 'My brother is going to return to E'bar, Pug, to see if we are able to help our people,' dryly he added, 'and find out if we're at all welcome.

'I'd like to remain here for a while, and study with Amirantha.'

'Of course,' said Pug. 'You are both welcome here at any time.' He looked at Laromendis and added, 'Your task may prove difficult, if I understand what your Regent Lord and his Meet plan. But if we must, we shall endeavour to extend our hand and offer friends.h.i.+p.'

Laromendis smiled. 'Remember, we are a long-lived people, Pug. Give Tomas a few more years to come to terms with the Regent Lord, then we'll introduce you.'

Dressed once more as the ragged leader of a Krondor street gang, Jim Dasher laughed, and drank his wine. He had announced earlier that although the Kingdom could do without his services for a few more days, he doubted the Mockers, the thieves of Krondor, could. Wiping his mouth with a dirty sleeve, he said, 'I must be off in a few minutes, but I have a question, and this seems the perfect time to voice it, while you're all here.'