’WARE THE SLEEPER
As soon as Alton emerged into the tower chamber, he
called upon his special ability to shield him. He was just in time
as lightning forked down on him, the force knocking him to his
knees. His nostrils flared at the charged air; he felt his hair
rise. He remained absolutely still—more out of mortal fear than
discipline—and the magic lightning dissipated. For a moment. He
needed to get the tempes stone to the center of the chamber.
Merdigen said it did not need to be placed on the pedestal, but it
needed to be within the circle of columns.
Alton shifted his
eyes, peering into the gloomy heights of the tower. He discerned no
movement, no hint of the creature’s presence, but he knew it was
there clinging to the shadows. He knew it must be watching
him.
There was no use in
delaying the inevitable. The sooner he delivered the tempes stone,
the sooner he could leave the tower. He checked his shield once
more, then sprinted. Lightning slammed into his shield and sizzled
on the stone floor all around him. Each step brought a new
discharge of power trying to blast him from existence. One jolt hit
him so hard it knocked the tempes stone from his hands. He fumbled
with it, the blanket that was supposed to protect it hampering his
grasp.
“No!” Alton cried.
He saw in his mind’s eye the green stone striking the floor and
splintering into pieces.
As it tumbled from
his fingers and plummeted, he dove after it and caught it—caught it
soundly. His heart hammered in his chest and he closed his eyes
briefly, taking a deep breath. He’d almost lost
Merdigen!
He leaped the rest
of the way between a pair of columns and fell into the center of
the chamber, thudding to the floor beside the skeleton. Once again,
as he stilled, the lightning ceased.
Like the other
towers, passing between the columns seemed to transport him to some
other place. But wherever this other place was and whatever it had
once been, it was now a burned out ruin of blackened, seared ground
and dark murky sky. Nothing lived here, not even a speck of grass.
Nothing. It was a shadow land.
Alton moved
carefully so as not to spark the tower’s defenses again, making a
nest of the blanket and resting the tempes stone on it. Its fiery
green glow sparkled with its own inner fire, adding living light to
the desolation all around. He wondered if Merdigen would know he’d
almost been dropped. Alton hoped not because he’d never hear the
end of it.
“Tsk, tsk,” the mage
said, materializing next to the pedestal and looking down on Alton.
“Quite a disaster in here.”
“What do you think
happened?” Alton asked.
“Give me a few
minutes to look around.” Merdigen circled the pedestal with
Haurris’ sickly tempes stone upon it, and then gazed down at the
skeleton. He muttered to himself and shook his head.
Alton tried to lie
as still as possible, but naturally he had an itch below his left
shoulder he was dying to scratch. Resisting the impulse made his
eyes water. It did not help he was face-to-face with the skull. He
wished Merdigen would hurry up.
“Sad, very sad,”
Merdigen murmured.
Alton watched out
the corner of his eye as Merdigen moved beyond the columns to
explore the tower chamber at large.
Where was the
creature thing? he wondered. He tried to focus—to listen for
stealthy movements—but he only heard Merdigen clucking to himself.
All else was silence. There wasn’t even a touch of a breeze in the
scorched landscape he lay in. The air was stagnant,
acrid.
“Are you almost
done?” Alton demanded.
“These things take
time,” Merdigen said. He returned to the center of the chamber and
gazed once again at the tempes stone, stroking his beard. “I
believe the skeletal remains to be Haurris’. How he came to such an
end is impossible to know. Unless ...”
“Unless
what?”
“Unless he managed
to leave a trace in his tempes stone, but from the looks of it,
that’s not very likely. The spells about the chamber definitely
have Haurris’ signature, both the barrier that prevented you from
entering the tower the first time, and the defensive spells. I’m
beginning to think he also destroyed the bridges that prevented me
from coming here in the fall.”
“To what end?” Alton
demanded. “Why would he want to keep us out?”
“Not just keep us
out,” Merdigen replied, “but to trap something
within.”
Alton shuddered.
“Can you see it? The creature?”
“No, I cannot. If it
is here, it is remaining utterly still in the shadows. Amazing that
it has survived Haurris’ defenses. And for how long, I
wonder.”
“What
now?”
“I am going to take
one more look around to make sure I’m not missing anything,”
Merdigen replied. “Then we are going to return to my tower with
Haurris’ tempes stone.”
Alton’s breath of
relief raised a puff of sooty dust. He was pleased Merdigen did not
insist they remain in the tower to complete his investigation of
what had happened here.
Merdigen wandered
away, weaving between the columns, looking up, looking down. He
then returned and gazed at the skeleton.
“I would that we
could collect his bones for a proper pyre,” Merdigen murmured. “But
I suppose they are safe enough where they are for
now.”
“Does that mean you
are ready to go?”
“It
does.”
Alton checked his
shields once again and rose. The lightning descended on him and he
gritted his teeth. Though it did not touch him, the power of it
battered him, threatening to knock him down again.
“Fascinating,”
Merdigen said.
It was not the word
Alton would have used, but he needed to focus on what he was doing
and maintain his shield. He reached for Haurris’ dingy tempes
stone, and at his touch a ghostly figure sputtered to life, a bent,
ancient man with a long bristling beard.
“ ’Ware the
Sleeper,” it intoned.
“Haurris!” Merdigen
cried.
The figure did not
acknowledge him. It flickered, and repeated, “ ’Ware the
Sleeper.”
Alton lifted the
stone from the pedestal and the figure vanished.
“I hope there’s more
than—” Merdigen began.
A screech shattered
the still air and out of nowhere something fell from high above and
collided with Alton knocking the stone out of his hands. He heard
it clatter onto the floor and Merdigen’s wail, but he was busy
defending himself from claws slashing through his shields.
Lightning ripped overhead.
The creature bowled
him over and he fought to keep it at arm’s length as he worked to
strengthen his shields. It was hard to concentrate with that wild
and savage thing—all bones and sinew—snarling and lashing at him,
seemingly impervious to the lightning that struck at
it.
Alton threw it off
him, rolled, and staggered to his feet. Before the creature could
pounce on him again, he grasped the hilt of his sword.
“No!” Merdigen
cried, but too late.
Alton drew the
sword. A bolt of lightning flash-blinded him and struck him off his
feet. He tossed his sword away from him and lay there stunned,
thinking that if not for his shielding, all that would remain of
him would be a smoking pile of cinders. Then the creature was on
him again, hissing and digging through his weakened shields for his
neck.
They rolled on the
floor. Rolled over the skeleton of Haurris, bones snapping beneath
Alton’s back. He heaved the creature off him once more and rose to
his knees, breathing hard. His hands were covered in blood—his own,
he thought. The creature crouched, ready to spring on him again.
Alton could make out little of its features, except for its spidery
limbs and glowing green eyes.
The creature
launched at him. Alton grabbed a broken thigh bone and plunged the
sharp, fractured end into the torso of the creature.
A keening filled the
tower. Alton fell away covering his ears. He lay on the floor amid
Haurris’ bones, too stunned to move, the cry echoing in his
mind.
When it faded, he
saw Merdigen gazing down at the creature on the floor.
“If that had been an
ordinary bone you’d used,” Merdigen said, “and not that of a great
mage, you might not have killed this creature.”
“What? Why?” Alton
asked. His voice was hoarse and he tasted blood.
“It was Eletian. Or
at least it had been at one time.”
The creature was
nothing at all like the living, breathing Eletians he’d met. Its
flesh was taut parchment spread over angular bones, the glow gone
from its eyes, its hair like a snarled cobweb clouding its
face.
“You may be only the
second person to end the life of an Eletian since the Long War,”
Merdigen said. “You brought to an end an otherwise eternal
life.”
Alton glanced at his
bloody hands. The second? Then he realized Karigan had been the
first.
“Can we leave now?”
Alton asked, appalled and exhausted.
“Indeed,” Merdigen
said. “I’ll have some time to think about all this until we reach
my tower. Don’t forget Haurris’ stone.” After a pause he added,
“And don’t drop me this
time.”
“I did not—” But
Merdigen had vanished before Alton could complete his
sentence.
He ground his teeth.
It wasn’t fair Merdigen could just disappear when there was
something he didn’t want to hear. The mage had the easy end of
things, too. Alton checked his shields and braced himself for the
lightning that would descend on him the moment he
moved.
He gathered both
tempes stones and his sword, and ran for the tower wall with the
lightning hammering him all the way. When finally he stumbled
outside, he found himself the object of concern and attention from
the two women who awaited him. Pleased by their solicitous
ministrations, he thought perhaps he’d the better end of the deal
after all, especially when Estral shifted her belongings to his
tent.