Scream of Stone

27

18 Nightal, the Year of Wild Magic (1372 DR) The Land of One Hundred and Thirteen

" I had these teeth carved out of whalebone for you,” Marek Rymiit said, holding up the little bowl for Willem to see. Gray-black clouds boiled in the sky above them. Standing on the roof of the tower as they were, the bottoms of the clouds seemed only inches above their heads. “Open your mouth.”

The undead thing opened its jaws wide and Marek stepped closer. Emaciated and half-rotten, Willem Korvan stood naked in the uniformly warm air of his master’s pocket dimension. Marek examined the spaces in his black gums where the teeth had fallen out.

“I wish you would have kept the originals,” Marek chastised his creation. “These will dono one will notice, anywaybut they’ll hurt.”

Marek didn’t expect any reaction from Willem and didn’t get one, but Insithryllax grunted from behind him and said, “Why do you speak to that thing as though it understands you?”

Willem’s yellow eyes rolled in their deep-sunken sockets to fix on the dragon, who leaned against one of the battlements in his human form.

“What makes you think he can’t understand me?” the Red Wizard asked.

“You’re the expert,” the dragon acquiesced, “but still…”

“Still, nothing,” Marek said. “Willem understands me. It’s a part of the curse, I suppose, and I doubt it’s something he appreciates. In fact, if I didn’t have total control of his shredded will, I have no doubt he’d have pounded me to death with one of my own limbs the way he did the late master builder.”

“So,” said the dragon, “doesn’t that give you pause?”

Marek shook his head and chuckled in response. He chose one of the whalebone teeth and lined it up with a puckered, dried-up hole in the top right side of Willem’s mouth. He pressed it in until it met a little resistance, then wiggled it around a bit until it started moving again. Willem didn’t move or react in any way.

“That’s grotesque, Marek,” Insithryllax complained. “Really.”

“Well, if you want to undo an omelet,” Marek said, “you have to reassemble a few eggs.”

He let go of the tooth and stepped back to make sure it was straight.

“Close enough?” he asked the dragon.

“A little to the left.”

Marek adjusted the tooth and moved on to the next one.

“Don’t you usually leave a hood on this thing anyway?” the dragon went on, and Marek started to wonder about his curiosity. “Surely this isn’t cosmetic.”

“Well, in a way it is,” Marek said while he pressed the second tooth into another dead space in the thing’s black gums. “You see, I require a living Willem Korvan for a timeor, well, a mostly living one, anyway. His looks have always been his most potent weapon.”

Insithryllax let out a scoffing breath.

“I meant it was his most potent weapon, my friend,” Marek confirmed. “At any rate, I intend to restore a measure of life to our friend here.”

Marek looked up at the undead man’s eyes and was certain that there was some recognition there. He knew the creature could think, though not necessarily make decisions, and that he could speak, even.

“You hear me, don’t you, Willem?” he said. “Do you want to live again?”

The creature just stood there.

“I’ll take that as a maybe,” Insithryllax said.

Marek jammed another false tooth into the dead man’s gums and said, “O ye of little faith. He wants to live again, Insithryllax. Of that I am entirely certain, though he will likely not be terribly satisfied with the life he’ll return to.”

“He has been… gone,” the dragon said, “for a long time, by human standards.”

“He has, hasn’t he?” Marek agreed. “But don’t forget that I have some influence on the way the winds blow in Innarlith. I’ll have him returned to the senate. I’ve even kept his house sealed and waiting for him.”

“I’m sure he’ll be delighted,” said the dragon, even though Marek had just told him that Willem wouldn’t be.

“Delighted or not,” the Red Wizard said, “he will continue to be mine to command.”

The dragon watched, occasionally commenting, while Marek finished restoring the dead man’s teeth. When he was finished he stepped back to examine his handiwork and smiled.

“Willem,” he said, “I have something to tell you.” The undead creature gave no indication he’d heard a thing.

Marek turned to Insithryllax and said, “Just for you, my friend, a little demonstration. This is not a zombie, after all, and not insensate.”

The dragon shrugged but continued to look on.

“Willem,” Marek said, “the ransar has released Ivar Devorast from his dungeon.”

The dead man’s head twitched a fraction of an inch.

“You don’t like that name, do you, Willem?” asked the Red Wizard. “Ivar Devorast?”

The dead man’s jaws clacked closed, and Marek gasped, worried the new teeth might crack, but they remained intact.

“I know you want to kill him,” Marek went on. “You will have your chance soon enough.”

The corpse moved his head in a way that might have been a nod.

“I’ve sent others before you to claim his life,” Marek said, “and they have all failed.”

“You’ve never sent me,” Insithryllax said.

Marek ignored him and said to the corpse, “It will take everything I’ve put into you to kill that one, I think, though I still can’t put my finger on why he’s managed to live this long. Sheer force of will, I’m sure. But for the nonce I’m going to awaken a force that I left latent inside you when first I helped you transform into your current state. When your heart beats once more you’ll go back to Innarlith and the remains of your life.”

The undead thing just stood there, silent and unmoving.

“I want you to go back to being a second-rate human,” Marek said, “before I make you a first-rate monster.”