Fire and Fog

CHAPTER THREE

" Stop him, Lan! He' s gone crazy!" Inyx barely dodged the rampaging spider. Krek' s mandibles clacked savagely just over her head. A lock of her lustrous dark hair went flying. Inyx dived forward and tried to stop him, but the spider' s ponderous bulk proved too much for her. Inyx was dragged along and then tossed off as easily as Krek might rid himself of a small mite crawling on his leg.

" Krek, stop," said Lan Martak. He used the Voice, putting full magical power behind it. To his surprise, Krek didn' t even slow. It was as if the spider hadn' t heard.

" STOP!" he roared. The very slopes of the mountain behind rumbled with the command. The three gnomes who had preceded them into Yerrary spun and froze to the spot. The Voice, backed by all of Lan' s magical skills, worked to perfection with them.

Krek continued to hack and slash and menace anyone drawing close to him. The arachnid was totally out of control.

" What' s happened to him?" cried Inyx. She wiped a bloody smear off her cheek where she' d been scratched during her brief attempt to slow Krek.

" The fog," muttered Broit Heresler, pointing. Lan saw tendrils of the fog billowing about, forming an almost solid figure, then seeping upward, seductively, slowly, inexorably toward them.

" What about it?" he demanded.

" The fog is a killer. You' ve no wish to be in it. Look what it did to the long- legged one."

Lan formed his protective barrier, again using the light mote familiar. But again to his surprise, the barrier presented no hindrance at all to the fog. It came on, oozing around and even through. He took a moment to check the fog' s composition, hoping to find this was only an illusion sent by Claybore to confound and harass.

The fog was real, nothing more than water droplets held in a fine cloud.

" Has the acid burned through his fur and driven him insane?" asked Inyx, huddling close to Lan. She feared nothing, but knew from her futile attempt to stop Krek that there was no more she could do. The mage had to perform what, to her, looked like a miracle.

" The rain has stopped. There' s only the fog," said Lan, trying to figure out what was happening. Claybore was innocent of this. There was no acid sear to drive Krek wild. What was it?

" The fog' s a killer, it is," said Broit. " Get in out of it. You' ll never rescue the big one. Righto?" he said, turning to the other two gnomes. Their gnarly hands tried to hide their faces; they succeeded so well all Lan saw was their abused vegetable ears sticking out on either side. He realized they were still under his command to stop. He freed them with a single pass. The pair ran off into the bowels of the mountain, safely Home.

Broit remained behind.

" Go, too," urged Lan. " This is our problem."

" It' ll be mine if you don' t cut him down. Think how many corpses that one can create if left alone. You' ll need someone to tag the bodies properly and make sure they get the right grave site."

" What is it about the fog?" asked Lan, even as he performed another, more intricate spell to slow Krek' s berserker rage. The spell failed, also.

" Doesn' t look to be much, does it? The fog' s got things in it.”

" What sort of things? Living?"

Broit Heresler shrugged his hunched shoulders. Licking his lips nervously, he began pointing outward.

" See there and there? The fog comes on like it has a mind of its own. Who knows why it seeks out people, but it does. Then it drives them bonko, right out of their wits."

" There is nothing alive in the fog," said Lan. His magical explorations of the fog turned up nothing. " It must be a chemical, just as the rain was acid."

" Take one sniff of that fog and you' ll be like he is." Broit Heresler backed through the entryway when Krek circled around and again came for them. The giant spider saw nothing. His path was dictated by the terrain and nothing more. He fought unseen enemies and if a friend happened in the way, that friend died.

" He doesn' t have an inkling of what he' s doing," said Lan. " The fog. Does it come off the mountain?"

" Of course it does," said Broit. " The rains set the mountainside on fire, then the fog drifts down, usually reaching its worst at sunset or sunrise."

" Some chemical enters the fog and is carried along on ordinary water drops. If inhaled, it acts as a mind- twisting drug."

" How' s that help Krek, even if it is true?" asked Inyx. Lan held the woman back. She obviously tensed to make another attempt to tackle the eight- legged juggernaut.

" Watch."

Lan closed his eyes and forced his dancing mote of light into another shield. This time he kept it dense enough to prevent even the smallest of air particles from passing the membrane. The sheet of light spun and whirled and dropped like a net over the caroming spider. Krek fought it, slashing helplessly at it. While the scintillant sheet did nothing to stay his reckless running, it completely shut off the air.

" I made a mistake in not knowing the fog' s nature," said Lan. " Remember in the tunnel leading to Wurnna how I prevented the power stone dust from reaching us?"

Inyx nodded but kept a careful eye on Krek. The spider still rolled and clawed and snapped viciously, but those actions were becoming weaker and weaker as oxygen- deprivation began.

" I kept the light shield so that air passed but larger dust particles didn' t. I tried the same thing at first with Krek. Now I shut off all flow either in or out of the shield. I have him encapsulated."

" A bug in amber. How nice," said Broit Heresler. " Can I dig the grave for him when he suffocates? Never had to do one this big. Course, there was the mass burial we Hereslers did about thirty years back. I wasn' t around to personally view it, but the grave was big, and I mean big. Everyone' s still talking about it. The stuff of legends, don' t you know?"

" There won' t be a grave. As soon as he collapses, I' ll release the shield and we can drag him inside. The fog doesn' t enter Yerrary, does it?"

" We have tight doors."

Krek rolled onto his back and all eight legs kicked spastically. Ever weaker, the spider eventually lay without moving.

" Don' t let him die, Lan," said Inyx, her fingers digging into the mage' s arm.

" You know I won' t. I' m going to have to put the shield around us. No air to breathe except what we start with, so move fast. Ready, now!"

Lan and Inyx ran out, hidden behind the impervious shield of light. Each grabbed one of Krek' s thick legs and started to pull. Before they got halfway back to the entrance to the mountain fastness, Lan felt himself growing weaker, lightheaded, almost to the point of passing out.

" You' re doing a better job at this than I am," he told Inyx. " I' ll hold the shield around you alone to give more air. I' ll follow."

" Lan, the fog' s coming back."

" Get Krek inside. Do it!"

Lan rearranged the spell so that only Inyx remained inside the protective bubble of magic. The instant he freed himself, air gusted into his straining lungs. Gratefully, he dropped to his knees and sucked in huge draughts of life- giving oxygen. In the distance he heard Broit Heresler screeching about the fog.

Turning, Lan saw filmy tendrils reaching out for him. He smiled. These weren' t foggy tendrils, these were a woman' s fingers. A lovely woman caressing his face, beckoning him on. He stood and stared into the fog. It parted like a curtain in a theatre, revealing the most gorgeous creature Lan had ever seen.

Not quite human, she possessed a beauty transcending the physical.

" Come to me," she urged. Long fingers reached out to stroke and entice. Lan moved toward her. " I want you for my own. Together we can be invincible. Together, we can be gods."

" I' d like that," said Lan, moving away from the mountain and into the ethereal woman' s embrace. But he did not find it. She danced away lightly, taunting him, leading him on.

" Come," she whispered seductively. " Come and I will grant you all your wishes."

" Stop Claybore," he said.

" That, yes. I can give you that."

" Inyx. Be with Inyx."

" You choose another woman over me? What a man! You can have us both. Come, come!"

He followed. He heard a faint cry from behind, but he ignored it. How could he be burdened with petty conversation when he was being promised universes?

Lan fell heavily onto his face when something smashed into the back of his knees.

" Dammit, Lan, the fog' s got you, too!" came the cry.

Angry at being denied his ultimate fantasies, he kicked out. Inyx hung on with grim tenacity.

" Back, Lan. Fight it. The fog' s burning away your brain. I can' t hold out much longer. Hurry, Lan. Fight it!"

Inyx gasped out the last of her pent- up breath, imploring Lan to action. The sight of the lovely woman clinging to his leg, her face red with exertion, shook him.

" I need you," came the siren' s call from the fog. " Leave her. I can give you anything- everything!"

Lan' s brain churned and felt as if it would rip from his skull.

" Lan," wheezed Inyx, slowly succumbing to the fog' s induced dreams. " It' s Reinhardt. But it can' t be. Vision, image. Not real. I remember being fooled before. Not real."

The mention of Inyx' s dead husband snapped Lan back to a semblance of command over his emotions, his body. Reaching deep within, he summoned the most powerful magics of which he was capable. A small spire rose, spun, turned into a vortex catching the foggy tendrils within. The air elemental boiled about, shrieking with insane joy as Lan released it from eternal bondage.

The elemental spun to the sky and blasted itself free, taking with it most of the fog. Lan stood with the wind whipping around, snapping at his clothes, clawing at his face, and sucking out the moisture. He endured and the fog' s effects faded.

" Come on, Inyx. Summoning the air elemental warned Claybore. It had to. That was potent magic, but nothing else seemed to work."

He half- dragged her back to where Broit Heresler stood in the doorway leading into the mountain. Beside him crouched Krek, shaking and openly crying.

" Why did I ever leave my fair young bride to walk the Road? Oh, Klawn, can you ever forgive me?"

" Shut up, Krek," commanded Lan. The spider' s head snapped around when he saw Lan pulling Inyx inside. Broit slammed and locked the door. Lan noted with some satisfaction the rubber seals all around to prevent the fog from entering Yerrary.

" Give us a few minutes to rest, Broit. Then we can be on our way."

" Never seen anybody get away from the fog before. Don' t know what it does, but it' s a killer. Usually find the bodies miles from here. What a chore, dragging them to the graveyard. Can' t just leave them in a nice pile by the door, no way. Nothing' s ever that easy, even death." Broit cocked his head to one side and peered at Lan. " You' re damn good. Think you can get rid of the Tefize and their pet sorcerer?"

" I' m going to try."

" Don' t know what good that' s going to do me. Just cause more work. Bodies, bodies everywhere! That' s all that happens when we have a couple tame mages to do our fighting for us."

Lan Martak rested and closely watched both Krek and Inyx. The spider threw off the effects of the fog rapidly enough, but Inyx took longer. As she gasped for air, Lan considered the psychic effects he' d felt. Visions weren' t produced by another, as when Claybore sent his nightmares to haunt Lan' s sleep. Rather, these were images generated by the individual. He had no idea what Krek had seen, but it had terrified the spider. His own goals were all promised, if only he follow. And Inyx had again been shown her dead husband Reinhardt.

Lan smiled without humor. That image had been used to imprison the woman before, on another world, by a human mage without a shred of conscience or decency. Inyx had remembered and had used it to counter the fog' s insidious effects long enough for Lan to recover and act.

He stroked over Inyx' s raven hair, noting the spot where Krek' s mandibles had cut a lock free. She no longer fought. He hummed quietly, soothingly. Of all the people he had met along the Cenotaph Road, of all the friends he had made, she was truly special.

Inyx was more than a friend to him. Much more.

Lan closed his eyes and sent forth his dancing light mote to scout through Yerrary. There was no need to play coy now. Claybore had to have sensed the prodigious powers released by the air elemental as it sucked up all the fog in its wild bid for freedom. The magical battle would soon be joined and he might as well know Claybore' s location.

To his surprise, Lan found not only evidence of Claybore, but also of another mage, one nearly as powerful.

His eyes flashed open and focused on Broit.

" Are there other mages in Yerrary?" he asked.

" None left in the sorcerer' s clan," said Broit. " Damn Lirory Tefize. When the sorcerers wiped themselves out almost to the man, the handful left petitioned other clans for membership. The Tefize were dumb enough to take Lirory."

" And he took over," finished Lan.

" Hard to believe a bunch of shit- movers would even think about having a sneaky mage in their ranks, and now they' ve got one running their clan business."

It was always this way, Lan mused. A powerful enough sorcerer had advantages over everyone else. Mostly the mages were reclusive and desired nothing but their own solitude. Occasionally, with ones like Claybore and this Lirory Tefize, they nurtured ambitions spanning worlds. They were the dangerous ones. They were the ones Lan had to fight.

" I sense Lirory," he said. " And Claybore. He shines like a black flame. But there is another presence, one I can' t penetrate."

" Those are the real corpse- makers around here," said Broit. " The pair of them keeps us dragging, it does."

" Lan?" came a soft voice. " Are you all right?"

" Are you?" he asked Inyx.

" If we' re inside the mountain and together, the answer' s ' yes.' "

" I must have alerted Claybore to our presence," he told her. " The air elemental was like a finger pointing us out to him."

" We survived the fog. We can survive Claybore."

" I hope so, but there are things within this mountain I don' t understand." He told her of Lirory Tefize and the powerful emanations he felt from the gnome clan leader and of the undecipherable radiations from still another mage. " Worst of all, I feel a very strong force within Yerrary. Claybore might be able to recover more than just one bodily part."

" How many are here?" she asked.

" Four, They might be his arms and legs."

" Why are all four here?"

" Lirory," broke in Broit Heresler. " He walks the Road and he' s been collecting dead parts from all over. Why, nobody can say. We wanted to bury them, but he got huffy about it."

" Lirory' s been accumulating them. For Claybore? Or for his own ends?"

" Any Tefize is a slippery character," said Broit. " Who can say?"

" He might be bartering the parts for concessions from Claybore," said Inyx. " Such a trade would appeal to Clay- bore. He wouldn' t have to scour the worlds on his own to regain much of his power."

" Broit said there weren' t any grey- clads on this world. This might be because of Lirory Tefize. He holds Claybore' s legions at bay with the threat of destroying the body parts he controls."

" Claybore would make him ruler of the entire planet if he turned over the parts," said Inyx. " Why hasn' t he already done so?"

" Lirory is ambitious. He holds out for more, if I know that bugger," said Broit.

" What more can there be?" asked Krek, finally shaking off his depression. " A world? A hundred worlds? What price is too high for Claybore to pay?"

Lan thought it over and finally said, " I don' t know, but it might have something to do with the other presence I feel. Potent magics not of Claybore' s doing are present. Perhaps Lirory bargains with two parties."

" Another Claybore?" groaned Krek. " Is not one ample for our feeble efforts?"

" I don' t know what' s going on. We' ll have to check it out personally and see. Broit, lead on."

" You certain you want to ally with the Heresler?" the gnome asked. " These other clans have some high- class talent aiding them, damn them all. So why us?"

" We like you," said Inyx, laying her hand on the gnome' s shoulder. Broit looked confused. Perhaps it was the first time anyone had ever told him he was likable.

" I only asked because it' s taken us so long getting inside. We' re going to have to cross Nichi territory to get safe."

" Who are they?"

" Sweepers," the gnome said with some disgust. " All they do is push their filthy brooms around the corridors, stirring up dust and dissension. Awful people. And ugly! They are enough to make you die just looking at them."

Lan said nothing. Broit Heresler hardly appeared to be the height of beauty, but different worlds had different standards. He looked at Krek and had to smile. The spider always chided him on not having enough legs. And Krek' s bride Klawn- Lan had seen her. The spider' s description of her hardly jibed with reality. Larger even than Krek, she had tried to devour him on their wedding night and still Krek described her as loving and petite and the epitome of spiderish pulchritude.

" Are you going to take root or come along?" Broit asked snappishly.

" You lead, we follow. I' ll keep a lookout for Claybore."

Inyx shot Lan a quick, anxious look and he shook his head to reassure her that Claybore was not near.

" This is a claustrophobic place," muttered Krek. " Look at the terribly constricted halls. Not like a good web spun across a mountain valley. Imagine living inside the mountain, rather than dangling from the outer slopes."

" Remember the rain and the fog," said Inyx. " And you saw how the rock burned when the rain hit it. Would you want a web exposed to those conditions?"

" It is as I said. This is a terrible place. Friend Lan Martak, let us hasten off this world and onto another, more bucolic one."

" We' ve work to do here, Krek. But don' t worry. I don' t want to stay here any more than you do."

" What' s wrong with Home?" shouted Broit Heresler. " Isn' t this good enough for you buggers? Looks great to me. Fine place. Fine."

" I' m sure," said Inyx, trying to soothe the gnome' s anger, " Yerrary will grow on us."

" You make it sound like a fungus. This is a great place to live. Wait ' til you see our clan territory. Best in all of the mountain. You' ll like it- you' ll see."

Lan held up his hand cautioning Inyx and Krek. His light mote familiar bobbed about and returned. On its rippling surface he " read" what lay ahead of them in the hewn- rock tunnel.

For almost a hundred yards there were no cross- corridors. The rock itself was firm and virtually impenetrable, the tunnel being lit by phosphorescent moss growing on the roof and walls, casting a glow in such a way that there were no shadows anywhere. This all- pervading light erased shadows caused by contours and gave an odd appearance to both clothing and people. But beyond that was a chamber holding no fewer than twenty gnomes.

" Broit, is this way safe? There are many of your people ahead and waiting." Lan couldn' t interpret whether or not those ahead were of the Heresler clan or another. From all Broit had said, he doubted they were friendly.

" It had better be safe. It' s the only way back to Heresler territory without leaving Yerrary and daring the slopes." The gnome shivered with disgust at the idea of braving the elements outside his precious Home once more.

" Behind us is nothing," said Lan. " Shall we go forward?" He glanced from Inyx to Krek. Both nodded, knowing he would not lightly ask this question.

Broit already stormed ahead, swinging his short arms and leaning forward as he walked.

" The moss tickles," complained Krek. The giant spider brushed the top of his body along the tunnel roof as he went. " And it tastes awful." He made a spitting noise.

" Nichi!" cried Broit. " Those are the sweepers and they' re waiting for us!"

" I told you," said Lan. He conjured a small spell to brush the gnomes from their path, then felt the spell snuffed out like a candle in a hurricane. " We are under attack magically," he said.

Inyx and Krek found themselves already occupied with swarming gnomes taking swings at them with brooms and rakes. Broit Heresler shrieked and cavorted about, kicking and gouging and biting. All in all, this part of the battle appeared ineffectual.

Lan Martak felt the magics building around him, powerful magics able to smash cities, to wreck entire worlds. This was the real battle. Lose it and he lost all.