Fire and Fog

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

" The spells. They are incredible. Since speaking with the Resident of the Pit, I' m able to see what Lirory meant rather than what he wrote." Lan Martak hunched over the table creaking under the weight of Lirory' s grimoires. The pages now burned with runic writings. The man' s eyes scanned the arcane words with practiced ease.

" Did this Resident creature give you this extra ability?" asked Kiska k' Adesina.

" I don' t know. I don' t think so, but simply being near such power as he commands might have released reservoirs inside me I hadn' t known existed."

" You' re the greatest mage to ever walk the Road," she cooed.

Lan smiled broadly at the praise. He felt nothing hollow in it at all. The spell had progressed too far for that. Lan saw only love and adoration- and felt only love and adoration for Kiska.

" This book is a record of Lirory' s travels along the Road seeking out Claybore' s parts. He used a spell to locate the arms and draw them back to the tunnel where he placed them in special boxes. When he had them safely in place, he collapsed the tunnel and left them there for almost forty Yerrary years."

" What is this spell? Can you use it?"

" I know the spell now as well as Lirory, but there' s no need for it. The arms are once more connected to Claybore' s torso."

" But the legs?" Kiska pressed.

" I can sense their location without Lirory' s spell." Lan turned and perched on the edge of the table, one leg idly swinging, his mind lost in the intricacy of the gnome' s ancient lore. " Lirory had a reason for collecting the parts."

" He wanted to blackmail Claybore."

" That wasn' t it. He had a use for them. I know it. Lirory had pretensions of being ruler of everything along the Road himself. There was some spell, some conjuration, requiring those parts that would give him the power he sought."

" He had control of Yerrary. What more could a gnome want?"

" You underestimate him. These grimoires show he was a powerful mage. And my duel with him proved that. He had the ability to rulecertainly as beneficently as Claybore," Lan added with a hint of sarcasm. " But how did he plan to use the legs? Those seem to be the key to Lirory' s entire plan. The arms were important, but the legs are the cornerstone of his conquest."

Lan felt the answer dancing at the edges of his mind, just as his light mote bobbed to and fro. He smiled a bit and let the mote come closer. The mage saw the surface of his familiar ripple with pride at the attention he gave it. Before he had conjured this fine companion, it had been nothing- nothingness. Now it lived and took on an existence finer than anything else in the universe.

Lan basked in its admiration, its need to please him. And why shouldn' t it try to give him his every desire? He was more than human now. He was an immortal!

" Lan?" came the cautious, questioning voice. " You look: different."

" Different?" he said. " Yes, I am. Ever since I spoke with the Resident, I have been stronger."

Lan Martak felt the power growing within. What power that was he couldn' t put into words, nor did he desire to try. But he was filled with an energy that ran without limit. Never again would he become drained over the simplest of spells.

He let fire dance from finger to finger and smirked. Once this had been the only spell he knew. Now it was the most trivial of thousands. He could send forth lightning blasts that tore apart mountains. All of Yerrary might split asunder, should he ever feel the whim. The entire world could be sent spinning crazily into its sun if he summoned the proper elementals.

Nothing was beyond his power now. Even Claybore acknowledged that. And Claybore would soon be defeated. Even if the disembodied sorcerer couldn' t be killed, he could be strewn once more along the Road. And he' d soon enough suffer that fate. Lan Martak would do what Terrill had failed to do, too. Stopping Claybore so that he never again menaced a single solitary soul burned as Lan' s only goal.

" You look odd," said Kiska.

" Odd?" Anger flared irrationally. " I am not odd. Never say such a thing."

Kiska cringed at his wrath. And this was as it should be. He was more than a mere human now. Not only was he immortal, he held the reins of the universe in his hand. A single flick of those reins and empires fell. Lan Martak. Invincible!

" I meant nothing by it, Master."

" Master?" he said, anger gone and replaced with confusion. He hardly knew what to do or say anymore. He flew into rages with no good reason. And Kiska k' Adesina spoke the title in both fear and veneration. He wanted neither.

Or did he? The taste of power was sweet. Almost too sweet.

Kiska dropped to her knees and lowered her gaze to the floor.

" Get up," he said irritably. " Don' t worship me. I' m no god. I' m not even a king and don' t want to be." Lan spoke the words, but feelings quivered within that told him he wasn' t being totally truthful. Success had rammed its barb in his psyche and wouldn' t easily dislodge.

" Sorry," she said. " I only meant to say you seem to be: more. More than you were."

" I am." Like a blazing star blossoming in the night sky, revelation came to him. " I have powers undreamed of. And I know."

" What, Master?"

" I can shift from world to world without a cenotaph. And I can do it without using Claybore' s Kinetic Sphere, also." He walked around the chamber, his eyes glazed. " It' s so obvious. The chant, the spells, the weavings of power. It' s all so clear to me."

He began the chant and simply winked out of existence. Kiska roared in rage and raced forward, hands groping to find him.

" Come back!" she shrieked. " You can' t leave me like this. You can' t do it, damn your eyes!"

A tiny pop! betrayed his return. Lan sat on Lirory' s work table, laughing.

" So simple. I was again atop Mt. Tartanius. The shrine to AbasiAbi stands and his son still tends it. I did not speak to him. I noted his presence and left before he took heed."

Lan experienced a dizziness that quickly passed. He knew of powers and places of which even Claybore was ignorant. To defeat the other sorcerer would be child' s play. So easy, so very easy. Lan' s laughter filled the chamber and echoed along the phosphorescent mossilluminated corridors of Yerrary.

Krek slumped into a brown heap on one side of Inyx' s room. Broit Heresler and Ducasien spoke softly, not wishing to disturb either the woman' s or the spider' s foul mood.

Inyx rose and went to sit beside Krek. She leaned against the hard thorax and placed her head back so that she stared up at the ceiling. The lack of shadows within the room due to the moss growing on walls and ceiling had bothered her at first. No shadows, no texture. The light softly thrust its way everywhere, causing everything to look soft and bloated.

She shook herself free of such thinking. She avoided the real issue by occupying her mind with trivial things.

" Krek," she said. " What are we going to do?"

" About what, friend Inyx?" he asked.

" You know what I' m talking about. Lan. He' s so different. Look at the way he allows Kiska k' Adesina to hang around his neck all the time. Not so long ago she was trying to kill him. Now they: they-" She bit off the words as tears rolled unashamedly down her cheeks. Inyx had told no one what she had seen down in the Resident of the Pit' s chamber. It had hurt her too badly.

" You leak water from your eyes. I find it distressing when you do that. Almost as distressing as when I do it."

" Can' t help it," she said peevishly, wiping away the tears. It did no good. More formed.

" You feel betrayed, also. What is it you saw when you went to find him?"

" Nothing, Krek. Forget it." The woman crossed her arms over her breasts and began squeezing down powerfully on her own upper arms. Inyx felt bruises forming and didn' t care. Maybe pain would erase the sight of Lan and Kiska making love.

If he had raped the woman, Inyx could have accepted that. But this had been no rape. It was a mutual lovemaking, mutually initiated, mutually enjoyed.

" You saw them together. I witnessed the peculiar human mating rituals starting. Consummation occurred and you saw it." The spider spoke in an offhand way, as if it didn' t make any difference to him. " He has betrayed you just as he did me."

" That was in the heat of battle, Krek. He sent a spell of some sort to get you out of danger. He didn' t mean for you to permanently leave him alone- just then."

" Nor did he mean for you to discover him with Kiska. He just wanted you to leave him alone, just then."

" Quit mocking me, damn you!" Inyx raged. She started to get up but a pair of hairy legs trapped and held her. She struggled and saw her efforts weren' t availing her anything. Krek was too strong.

" He was our friend once. Will he be again?" the arachnid asked. Before Inyx could answer, Krek went on. " I feel the powers he gains are turning him into someone other than the Lan Martak we knew. The goodness within has been hidden by a darker side. Does power always corrupt? I made a fine Webmaster and did not allow the position to sway my thinking. Why is he so different?"

" He' s the man who rescued me when Claybore abandoned me between worlds. I lost count how many times he' s risked his life to save you."

" We have done likewise for him."

" Of course we have. And: and I love him." Inyx' s words were tiny, almost inaudible. She remembered the first shock when she realized there might be a man in her life other than her long- dead husband Reinhardt. Inyx' s shock grew when she and Lan made love and found they shared more than bodies. Their minds met and merged in ways she still found frightening and wonderful. His burgeoning power had forced this link and it had been something she wanted, needed. A warrior had to remain aloof. Becoming too friendly with another only caused intensified feelings of loss when the companion was killed. And Lan had shown her that this was totally wrong.

They were closer than man and woman. They were more than one, they were more than two, they were transcendent together.

" And he chooses her over me," Inyx said self- pityingly.

" I sense magic, as you well know," lectured Krek. " You mentioned it. I believe Lan Martak has himself some inkling of the problem. Claybore has set a geas of subtle and cunning power on him. It must have something to do with Kiska k' Adesina."

" You think this is Claybore' s doing?" The hope rising within couldn' t be held down. Inyx wanted to believe the spider.

" It is a more plausible explanation." Krek fell silent for a moment, then added, " Unless he has indeed become corrupted by the power he wields. I have seen it happen in the Web, of course. A hatchling is promoted too rapidly and assumes great duties of importance."

" What?" The woman was confused at how Krek had jumped from Lan to spiderish politics.

" They think respect is due the position rather the individual in that authority spot. Any order they give, no matter how absurd, must therefore be a good one. A sorry state. They become bloated with their own self- importance."

" What happens then?"

" We eat them."

Inyx shivered. Krek' s logical thought processes never failed to give her a pang of cold, gut- clutching fear. He spoke so easily of devouring his comrades.

" You think this is the way to handle Lan?" she asked.

" No. Lan Martak is too powerful. He would fry us long before such a course could be carried out. Or drown me. No, he would set fire to me. That is a hideously favorite spell with him." The huge body quaked at the very idea of being turned into a torch.

" What are we to do? I won' t give him up. Not to the likes of her."

The spider said nothing.

Inyx didn' t have any good answer to her own question, either. The best they could do for the moment was sit, wait, and then seize whatever opportunity presented itself. That waiting would be the most difficult she' d ever done, but it had to be done.

The woman turned and looked at Ducasien and experienced even more confusion. What exactly was it she wanted?

There seemed no easy answer.

" I must go," Lan Martak said, rising from the throne. He reached out and gestured with his hand to summon his light mote. It orbited in from the far reaches of the universe, ready for battle.

" What' s happened?" demanded Kiska k' Adesina. " Claybore' s attacking?"

" The legs. I go for them. I see how Lirory wanted to use them. It came to me- like so many other things do now."

" How? How would he have used them?"

Lan' s gaze turned outward, penetrating stone and changing from physical sight to a scrying with his magical powers. The legs glowed within their individual cases, hidden away in the deepest recesses of Yerrary. Lirory Tefize had hidden them well, but Lirory had lacked Lan' s power. To Lan they were apparent.

And to Claybore, as well.

" Like a battery," Lan said, starting off. Kiska trailed behind, clutching at his sleeve. He brushed her off. He started to empower a spell to freeze her to the spot, but it refused to form on his lips. The tongue resting inside his mouth felt cottony rather than metallic every time he began a spell to subdue Kiska.

" I don' t understand."

" Lirory intended to place a leg at one corner of this pyramidshaped chamber and the other leg at still another corner. The arms each went into the other corners. Sitting on his throne placed him equidistant from the four limbs. He would draw on the power focused on this special spot." Lan indicated where the throne had been before Claybore destroyed it.

" But he had the arms and legs. Why didn' t he do this when he had the chance?"

Lan smiled. Everything was so obvious to him now.

" He needed one further part. Any bodily part. In the ceiling of the chamber. Placed there, it completed a pyramid of power. I suspect he desired most the Kinetic Sphere, but Claybore had retrieved that." Lan felt a passing bitterness when he realized he had allowed it to fall into Claybore' s hands. " If Lirory had known I had Claybore' s tongue in my mouth, he might have succeeded. Instead, he banished me, thinking the fog outside the mountain would kill me. The tongue would have sufficed as well as the Kinetic Sphere."

" He didn' t sense the tongue," said Kiska in a hushed voice. She now understood, also.

" His powers were great, but not great enough. If Lirory had formed the battery of Claybore' s parts, his abilities would have been enhanced to the point not even Claybore could have withstood him."

Lan laughed aloud now.

" You can defeat him, can' t you?" asked Kiska.

Lan didn' t answer. He didn' t have to. The answer, like all else, was obvious.

" Are you able to wrest the legs from Claybore?" she pressed.

" Stay here."

" I have to be at your side," Kiska said, her voice turning shrill with urgency. The brunette forced her way up and next to Lan. He tried once more- in vain- to form the spell to hold her back. " I' ve come too far not to see this through to the end."

" But you-" Lan couldn' t even say the words he wanted.

Kiska k' Adesina was Claybore' s commandant. She commanded legions on a score of worlds and had perpetrated crimes so ghastly his mind recoiled thinking of them. Entire cities had died on the world the pair of them had walked prior to coming to Yerrary. Only one city survived- barely- when she and Claybore had finished. Kiska k' Adesina was his sworn enemy and still he not only allowed her to come with him on this most dangerous and vital of missions, but he spoke freely to her of Lirory and of the gnome mage' s discovery, how he himself had come across dozens of small clues and turned them into weapons against her master, and Lan even gave her information which could be turned against him.

And he loved her.

An addict dependent on drugs, a mage linked permanently into spell dreams, a man in love. All produced the same result, and Lan Martak found himself caught in the trap. He loved Kiska k' Adesina against reason and sanity.

" Stay back. This will be dangerous. Lirory Tefize laid traps of subtle and diabolical design."

They pushed into territory alien to Lan, but he knew it as well as he did the forests on his home world. He saw, not only with eyes but with magic- and burning like a campfire in the night were Claybore' s legs. Locked onto that, Lan couldn' t be turned away.

" Where you go, I will," said Kiska, but her lips curled back in a sneer that Lan failed to see. Her fingers lightly stroked a dagger hilt. She started to draw the sharp- edged weapon and sink it to the hilt in the mage' s broad back, but something stopped her.

The sneer turned into a broad smile. Claybore had promised that there would come a proper time for Lan Martak' s death and that it would be at her hand.