Shadowstorm

CHAPTER TEN

26 Uktar, the Year of Lightning Storms

Cale sweated shadows. The spire loomed before them. The thick chains anchoring it to the basin creaked under the strain, a sound like muted screams. The spire appeared carved from a single block of rough black stone, as if a mountain had been uprooted, pared down, and hollowed out. Undead shadows clung to its sides like bats to the roof of a cave.

Thousands of malice-filled red eyes stared down at Cale, Riven, and Magadon as they approached. Below them, the churning sea of pitch vomited up another shadow. It streaked past them and took station on the side of the spire.

Cale could channel enough of Mask's power to control or destroy dozens of shadows, but he could not manage the thousands hugging the spire.

To Magadon, Cale said, Mags, be ready with light. As much as you can for as long as you can.

Magadon nodded, eyes wide.

Before them loomed an archway large enough to accommodate the giants. Similar openings appeared on all sides of the spire. Two giants flanked the arch ahead of the three companions. Both wore helms and mail, and held bare swords as long as Riven was tall. Shadows clung to them and they eyed Cale, Riven, and Magadon with poorly concealed hostility.

Dim green light lit the smooth-floored chamber beyond the archway. A crowd of giants was gathering within.

As if on command, the undead shadows surrounding the sides of the spire swooped down in a long cloud.

"'Ware!" Riven shouted.

Riven, Cale, and Magadon had their blades up and ready but the shadows swooped past them and darted through the archway, for a moment blotting out the light coming from within the chamber.

They blew out a breath as one.

Esmor said to them, "There is nothing to fear here."

Cale almost laughed.

Murgan only glared at them in silence.

I hope you're certain of what you're doing, Cale, Riven said. If this goes bad, it will go very bad.

Cale was not at all certain of what he was doing. He had only a loose idea in his mind of what he would do when he saw Kesson Rel. He needed to see the lay of the room and Kesson's location in it. But he knew they would not get a better opportunity.

Just be ready, he said to Riven.

Riven nodded, murmured a prayer to Mask as they walked. His saber blades leaked shadows. He pulled his magical spell-storing stone from his belt pouch and tossed it into the air before his face. It stayed aloft and orbited his head.

"What are you doing?" Murgan asked, in the lazy tone of a dullard.

"Mind your own affairs, dolt," Riven answered.

They walked through the archway and into the round chamber beyond.

The eyes of two score giants fixed on them. Darkness trailed around the great creatures, just as it did from Cale. Undead shadows blanketed the walls. Cold radiated from them. Cale glimpsed a few dark-cloaked humans moving among the throng, their expressions sly. Immense archways before them and to their left and right opened onto adjacent corridors and chambers.

A mosaic on the floor formed a great purple circle ringed in black. The giants had taken care not to stand upon it. The purple disc motif reappeared throughout the assembled giants and humans on tattoos, necklaces, armbands, tabards, shields, holy symbols.

Cale recognized the symbol, though he did not understand its presence in the spire. Rivalen Tanthul had borne a similar symbol.

Shar.

Statues of the Lady of Loss, cast in dull black metal, stood around the perimeter of the chamber. Some showed Shar in her guise as a lithe human woman armed with daggers. Others showed her in a long cloak, her face hidden within a hood. Cale was reminded of the statues he had seen long ago outside the Fane of Shadows.

The ceiling soared above them to a height of fifty paces. A wide balcony of black stone jutted from the wall opposite them, about halfway up its height. A glittering purple cloth lay draped over the balustrade.

Cale, Riven, and Magadon stopped abruptly. Murgan pressed close behind them.

On the balcony, looking down on the assembled crowd, stood the man who had stolen divinity from the God of Thieves. He looked cast from metal himself.

Ivory bracers and earrings contrasted markedly with skin the color of obsidian. He stood a head taller than Cale and ribbons of shadow curled languidly about his form. Cale made him as a shade.

Black horns, curled like a ram's, sprouted from his bald head. His angular features showed no emotion as he unfolded membranous black wings and met Cale's gaze. His eyes were as dark as holes.

Shadows boiled from Cale's flesh. Weaveshear vibrated in his hand.

That is Kesson Rel? Magadon asked.

That is him, Cale answered.

A wild-eyed female gnome stood at Kesson's side, holding the hem of his leather cloak off the floor. Her long red hair stuck out in spikes. She shifted on her feet and eyed Cale, Riven, and Magadon with undisguised eagerness.

To Cale's surprise, he felt nothing. Not awe, not fear, not anger. Kesson was just another mark that Cale had been hired to kill. His pay would be Magadon's soul.

"Forward," Murgan said. "Stand in the shadow of the Divine One."

Esmor and Murgan ushered them in further and the rest of the giants crowded close. The humans standing amongst the giants-Cale guessed them to be priests of Shar-slithered through the crowd, encircling the three companions.

The trap would soon be sprung.

Silence fell in the chamber, save for the eager panting of the female gnome.

Cale let himself feel the darkness in the room, on the balcony. He drew it close to himself.

Ready yourselves, he said to his companions, and called to his mind the series of spells he would need to cast.

Kesson placed his palms on the balcony's railing and looked down on the trio. His voice was as smooth as glass. "I wished to look upon you two, the servants of the Shadowlord in this age. This I have done." He shook his head in feigned disappointment. "The Shadowlord has fallen far to choose such as you. He must be desperate indeed."

Riven spun his sabers. "Why don't you come down here, and we'll chat about that?"

Kesson smiled, showing fangs. The female gnome guffawed. The giants shifted on their feet. Cale could feel their eagerness.

"You have something I want," Cale said. "Give it to me willingly and I will not kill you."

Stand ready, Cale said to his companions. Riven, you have the gnome. Mags, light-and lots of it.

The giants laughed raucously. The gnome giggled uncontrollably. Kesson merely held his smile. "I think not."

"The hard way, then," Riven said. He spat on the symbol of Shar and ground it into the floor with his toe.

The giants murmured in anger. Huge hands went to huge hilts. They wanted only a command. Kesson's eyes narrowed.

Almost, Cale said. Almost.

"Kill these pretenders," Kesson said.

The moment the words left his mouth, the Sharrans incanted spells. The giants jerked their blades free of their scabbards and charged.

Now! Cale said.

He surrounded himself and his companions in darkness and rode it to the balcony. The gnome shrieked at their appearance and reached for the daggers at her belt. Kesson faced them, his face hot with anger, the words to a spell already on his lips.

A doorway off the balcony led into a large chamber beyond. Cale could not tell its function and did not care. Movement at the corner of his eye turned his head.

Hundreds of shadows peeled off the wall and swarmed toward them like a hail of arrows.

He called upon the darkness once more and pulled everyone on the balcony into the room beyond.

The moment they materialized, Riven drove both his sabers into the gnome's back and out her abdomen. Blood sprayed and she hissed with pain, eyes wide. He jerked the blades free and she fell to the ground, bleeding, dying.

A ball of light as bright as a noon sun formed above Magadon's head and lit the chamber. The pursuing shadows shrieked and stopped.

The illumination stung Cale's flesh, set his eyes to watering, and dissolved his shadow hand, but he hurriedly spoke the words to an abjuration.

Kesson, too, endured the light. He held out an arm to shield his eyes but continued to cast his own spell.

They stood in a long, wide hallway with rows of statues running its length on both sides. Like those on the ground floor, the statues depicted Shar. They looked stricken in the luminescence.

An elf woman with long dark hair and a shimmering blue robe stood on the far end of the hallway. She held a smooth, straight staff of black wood in her hand, and several wands hung from her belt. A bow was slung over her shoulder. Surprise stole whatever words she might have uttered.

Cale finished his spell before Kesson, and a circular line of silver energy expanded outward from him until it described the entire chamber.

The spell warded the room, making magical travel into and out impossible while Cale's spell remained. Cale would not be able to shadowwalk out, but neither would Kesson, and none of his servants could shadowwalk or teleport in.

Everything you have, Cale told Riven and Magadon. And keep the light bright. I will seal the room.

Kesson finished his spell and spun a long finger in the air. Thousands of magical blades, each about as long as a dagger, formed a ring in the air around him and spun like a cyclone. They reached floor to ceiling and moved so fast they hummed. Cale could hardly distinguish one from another. They caught two of the statues within their orbit and stone chips flew until the force of the blades' impacts toppled the images of Shar. They fell with a crash.

Green light flared around Magadon's head and a bolt of white energy shot from his palm, through the wall of blades, and struck Kesson Rel in the chest.

Kesson grunted and the force of the energy drove him backward a step. The smell of burning flesh filled the air.

The elf recovered from her shock, shrieked in rage, and incanted a spell of her own. A ball of shadows coalesced in her hand and she flung it across the room at Magadon. It hit the floor at his feet and burst into a viscous glob of shadows as thick as tar. The substance covered Magadon to his knees and affixed him to the floor. It started to ooze up his body, covering him in the gook.

"Cale! Riven!" Magadon shouted.

Help him, Cale said to Riven.

Cale had only a moment before two score giants found their way into the chamber. Clutching his mask, he shouted the words to his next spell. When he pronounced the last couplet, the magic created smooth gray stone from the air and Cale mentally molded it into a hemisphere that covered the entire chamber. All doors were blocked.

Magadon's light would hold off the shadows, and Cale's wall of stone would hold off the giants. At least for a time.

"You will not leave here," Kesson said. He incanted another spell, the words sharp and powerful, and pointed his finger at Riven.

"Die," he pronounced.

A black ray went forth from his finger. Moving to help Magadon, Riven never saw it coming and it hit him in the back. His face went white and he fell to his knees, eyes wide, mouth open, gasping for breath.

"You will suffer for this," the elf said, and leveled her staff at Cale. Blue lightning fired from the tip and tore across the chamber. Cale interposed Weaveshear, absorbed the lightning, and pointed the blade back at her.

The blade discharged the bolt and it hit her in the midsection, shattered her staff, and blew her backward against the wall. She fell to the ground, smoking from her clothes, the charred piece of her staff clutched in her hand.

Cale turned to look at Riven. Riven?

Cover your ears, Riven answered, as he climbed to his feet and uttered a single word of the Black Speech. With his one good hand wrapped around Weaveshear's hilt, Cale could not effectively cover his ears. Cale's ears rang and he felt a moment's dizziness. Magadon shouted with pain, but the word disintegrated the black substance holding the mindmage to the floor.

Behind him, Cale heard the elf woman intoning a spell. He turned, saw her casting from her knees.

She is mine, Magadon said.

The elf's speech turned to slurred incoherence and her eyes widened. She screamed and clutched her head. Blood poured from her nose, her eyes, her ears.

Behind his wall of blades, Kesson held forth his hand and an arc of unholy energy went forth from it. It hit Cale, Riven, and Magadon and tore holes in their flesh, cracked bones, bruised organs. They screamed as one.

Cale endured the pain, quickly scanned his friends to ensure they were alive, then bounded forward and stuck Weaveshear into the whirling blades. He grunted with frustration when the blade did not absorb the spell and the impact of the spinning blades almost knocked Weaveshear from his hands.

Kesson chuckled, spoke the words to a spell. Cale answered with a spell of his own. They stared at one another through the blades as they cast.

Kesson finished first. Another wave of black energy went forth from his palm, bypassed Weaveshear, and rent Cale's flesh. Gashes and sores opened on his arms, abdomen, and face, and blood poured from the holes. He stumbled over the words to his own spell, spat the final syllable, and summoned a column of flame that engulfed Kesson.

Riven appeared at Cale's side, pale but breathing, bloody sabers in hand, and took him by the arm. The magical gem circling the assassin's head flared and healing energy warmed Cale's flesh and closed most of his wounds. Cale cast his own spell of healing and it mended the rest.

Kesson did the same, staring at them throughout. When he finished his spell, he looked whole again, and time was his ally. Cale had sealed out Kesson's servant creatures and prevented Kesson himself from fleeing. But Kesson had sealed Cale and Riven out with a curtain of whirling blades.

Kesson said, "This will end only one way."

His smile vanished as another energy bolt from Magadon slammed into his chest, charring his robe and skin.

"Give us what we came for!" Magadon shouted.

Kesson roared in answer and fired a bolt of yellow lightning from his hand. Magadon dodged too late and it struck him squarely in the side and spun him around like a child's top. He screamed. His clothes caught fire and he fell to the floor. His arms spasmed grotesquely and inarticulate grunts escaped his mouth.

We cannot do anything from out here, Riven projected.

Cale agreed. See to Mags, then help as you can.

Riven looked a question at him but Cale did not bother to explain. He sped across the room to the elf, casting a spell on the way that filled him with divine power. By the time he reached the elf's side, he was stronger, and half again his normal size. He sent her bow and quiver skittering across the floor to Magadon, then picked her up-to his surprise, she was still alive, though insensate-and lifted her onto his shoulder.

A floor-shaking boom sounded against the stone wall Cale had summoned-the giants were coming.

He looked across the room, saw Riven using the shadows to heal Magadon, and made up his mind. He inhaled, steeled himself, and ran at the blade barrier full speed.

Kesson's expression showed surprise, but he hurriedly moved through an incantation. He completed it before Cale closed the distance and a green beam as thick as an arm shot from his outstretched hand. Cale tried to sidestep it, stumbled, caught himself with a hand on the floor, but dropped Weaveshear. The beam would have hit him in the side, but instead hit the elf on her arm. The limb disintegrated into dust and the pain brought her around enough to utter a scream. Cale did not slow to recover his blade. The elf, perhaps sensing his intent, squirmed in his grasp, shouted at him to stop.

Cale used her body as he would a tower shield. He positioned her against him so that her body faced the spinning blades. They both screamed as he leaped through the blizzard of whirling steel.

Dozens of slashes rent his flesh, pierced his body, knocked him sideways. Her slight frame vibrated from the multitude of impacts she suffered. Blood sprayed them both. His own, hers, he could not tell.

They fell to the floor within the whirling wall of blades. Blood soaked the tatters of his clothes and flesh. He cast the elf to the floor beside him. She was little more than a pile of bloody rags and torn flesh.

He climbed to his feet, and Kesson was upon him. The Divine One clutched Cale's wrists and whispered dark words of power. Unholy energy poured into Cale's body, lighting him on fire with pain. Cale screamed, used his greater strength to hold Kesson's arms out wide, and kicked him in the chest. Bones cracked and the Divine One staggered backward.

Cale could not follow up. He sagged, barely able to stand. He quickly intoned a prayer of healing, the most powerful he knew, and winced as the spell knitted shut the scores of wounds in his flesh.

Kesson, too, incanted a spell. When he finished, he, like Cale, stood at half again his size.

"Shar's power is the greater, First of Mask."

"We will see," said Cale, and charged.

Kesson spoke a single word of such power that it stopped Cale in his steps and left him reeling. He tried to step forward, fell to one knee. The room spun. He could not get his bearings. He put his hand down to prevent from falling on his face. He knew he was vulnerable but he could not cause his body to answer his commands.

Kesson stepped forward and took him by the throat. Cale's eyes focused enough that he could see into Kesson's black eyes. He saw madness there.

The Divine One snarled and put a claw-tipped finger to Cale's forehead. There, he carved a bloody symbol into his flesh.

"Pain," Kesson said, and at the pronouncement, every nerve in Cale's body flared with agony.

He shrieked with pain, fell to the floor, and writhed. Every beat of his heart sent agony along his veins. Each time he drew breath, razors sliced his lungs. He heard a voice in his head but it demanded too much.

Get up! Get up, Cale!

His skin felt as if it were aflame. Kesson stood over him, brandished his metallic holy symbol of Shar, and uttered the words to a spell.

Cale welcomed it. He wanted to die, for the pain to end.

I will take some of it, Cale, projected Magadon.

Cale felt an itch behind his eyes and the pain diminished. Outside the barrier of blades, he heard Magadon wail with the pain he had taken from Cale. Cale tried to focus, tried to stand.

Kesson stared down at him, hate in his eyes, words of power on his lips. Cale's limbs would not respond.

Behind Kesson, Riven jumped through the wall of blades, Weaveshear in hand. He landed on his feet, bleeding from a score of wounds but alive. Kesson must have sensed him, started to turn, but it was too late. Riven drove Weaveshear into the Divine One's back and out his chest. Blood sprayed Cale's face.

Kesson looked down at the blade, his black eyes wide.

Riven twisted it once and jerked it free.

Blood poured from Kesson's mouth. He staggered, looked down at Cale, and… smiled.

Cale tried to utter a warning to Riven but could manage only an incoherent shout. He rose to all fours as Kesson whirled around to Riven and spoke a couplet of arcane words. The Divine One finished and shouted, "Away!"

The magic of his spell augmented the shout to such volume and power that even with Kesson's back to him, Cale felt as if knives had been driven into his eardrums. The power in Kesson's voice cracked the floor, shattered several of Riven's teeth, shredded his clothing, and drove him to the floor, flat on his back. Somehow the magical stone about his head survived the onslaught. Riven did not move. Blood dripped from the sides of his mouth, his ears.

Kesson recovered himself and intoned a spell to close the hole in his abdomen.

Another impact shook the wall of stone. Another.

Cale willed his legs solid under him.

Kesson incanted another spell and black energy engulfed his hand. On the floor before him, Riven's hand twitched. Kesson bent and reached for Riven.

Before he could touch the assassin, two arrows, both glowing red with energy, streaked through the wall of blades and sank into Kesson's flesh. He stood upright, reaching around his wings to clutch at the arrows.

Do something, Cale! Magadon said.

Cale did. He rose and rushed Kesson, stumbling but determined. He took the root of one of Kesson's wings in his hand and shoved the Divine One past Riven and toward the spinning blades. Kesson shouted with surprise, tried to flap his wings, tried to bury his heels in the floor. Cale grunted, leaned into him, leaned into Magadon's arrows, and kept him moving.

Kesson shouted and Cale heard fear in it. The Divine One reached back blindly with his spell-empowered hand and touched Cale at the waist.

The spell cracked Cale's ribs and ankle, rent the skin of his legs. Pain blinded him but he held on and pushed. But he was weakening.

Kesson resisted, held his ground.

Cale was falling, failing.

"Kill him, godsdammit!" shouted Magadon from a hundred leagues away.

Three more arrows streaked through the wall of blades but they hit nothing.

Cale grunted, pushed, but he could not move Kesson. The Divine One began to incant another spell. Cale shouted in despair.

Riven appeared at his side and slammed his shoulder into Kesson's back. His added strength was enough. The Divine One lurched forward.

"Push this bastard!" Riven grunted. The assassin used his shoulder to drive Magadon's arrow deeper into Kesson's flesh and the Divine One exclaimed with pain, losing the thread of whatever spell he had intended to cast.

Kesson roared with frustration and fear as Riven and Cale together held him by the wings and levered him toward the blades. Kesson could not stop them. The two were greater than the one. Desperate, Kesson tried to fall to the ground to stop their advance but they held him on his feet.

Kesson screamed and held up his arms as if to brace himself against the blades.

The storm of steel sent his fingers flying, his hands, his forearms. Kesson howled with pain. Blood, bone, and skin showered the floor.

"Yes!" Magadon shouted. "Yes!"

Cale and Riven roared in answer to Kesson's screams and pushed him farther into the blades. He squirmed but they would not allow him to escape.

The blades chewed up Kesson's arms, face, chest, and legs. A shower of gore rained on Cale and Riven. Soon they each held only the stump of a wing.

Kesson Rel was dead, his remains cast about the floor in glistening scarlet lumps.

Abruptly the wings and gore on the floor dissolved, melted like ice into nothingness. Cale and Riven stepped back, breathing heavily. The wall of blades, too, vanished.

Another boom shook the wall. Cale heard stone crack. He and Riven stared at one another.

"Why is nothing happening?" Riven asked.

Cale shook his head. He had expected a rush of divine energy, an explosion of power, something, anything.

Instead, nothing.

"Where is it?" Magadon shouted. He moved across the chamber, holding the dead elf's bow in his hand. His face was drawn and pale from taking Cale's pain. "Where is it?"

Cale looked at the floor, at his hand.

"All this," Riven said. "For nothing?"

A series of thuds sounded against the stone. It held, but the giants were trying something new. It was only a matter of time before they got in.

"We have to leave," Cale said, and Riven nodded.

But first Cale had to fix his broken body. He wanted to order Magadon to rid them of the light, to let his flesh regenerate in the darkness, but he knew darkness would invite the undead shadows. Instead he cast a powerful healing spell on himself. He groaned as his bones rejoined and wounds closed. Riven did the same. The assassin moved a few paces and recovered Weaveshear. He returned it to Cale, hilt first. Kesson's blood was not on it.

"Doesn't fit me," Riven said.

Cale took it, sheathed it. "Seemed to fit you fine."

"We cannot leave, Cale," Magadon said, and Cale heard despair in his voice. "You promised me."

"I know, Mags. I-"

Near Magadon, the gnome woman audibly groaned.

Magadon whirled on her. "She is still alive. She can tell us what is happening."

Cale and Riven shared a look as another impact shook the stone. Cale intoned the words to a spell that placed a second stone wall behind the first, doubling its width. He had bought them some time.

They moved to the gnome woman's side. She rolled over and her eyes opened.

"Sit up," Cale said. "Do only what we say or you die."

She sat up, wincing with pain. She wore a necklace of dried eyeballs around her neck. Her teeth were as black as her heart. Blood stained her shirt and leather jerkin. She looked around the chamber, eyes wide.

"You… you killed the Divine One?" she stammered.

"Not so divine anymore," Riven said with a sneer.

"How is that possible?" she asked, dazed. "How can that be?"

Cale loomed over her. "This can be difficult or easy, woman."

Her expression hardened and she stared defiance at Cale. "I will tell you nothing, Maskarran."

Cale put Weaveshear's tip to her throat. Shadows swirled from the blade, circled her neck like a garrote. She eyed Cale with hate and Cale saw the fear behind it. He nodded at Riven.

The assassin moved behind her, pulled her to her feet, and held her with a forearm around her throat.

Her breath came fast. She swallowed reflexively. "I will tell you nothing," she said. "Nothing."

Riven tightened his grip on her throat and she gagged. He put his mouth to her ear. "I promise you that you will."

The gnome blinked, struggled. She looked like nothing so much as a trapped rat.

"I can compel you with spells," Cale said. "You will eventually succumb."

A boom shook the wall. Another. Another. The gnome shook her head. "I will resist. You do not have time."

"Then I will compel you with sharp steel," Riven said, his voice low and dangerous. "And you will succumb sooner."

To that, the gnome said nothing, but her skin whitened. Cale feared she might faint.

Cale said, "We will have what we came for. One way or another."

"Leave her to me," Magadon said, his voice cold.

"Mags…" Cale began.

"It is my soul at stake!" Magadon snapped, his eyes flaring.

Cale could not argue the point.

"Can you do it?" Riven asked him.

Magadon stared at the gnome. "Mephistopheles did not take power, Riven. He took conscience."

Cale and Riven shared a look. Cale said, "Do it."

"You are going to like this," Riven said to the gnome, and released her.

Before she could run, a red glow flared around Magadon's head. The gnome stiffened and she froze. Her eyes went wide.

"No," she said, her voice hushed.

Magadon advanced on her.

Her fists clenched. She gritted her teeth. "I will tell you nothing," she hissed, and shook her head. Spit flew.

"No, but you will show me everything," Magadon said, and his voice sounded deeper. Cale was reminded of Mephistopheles's voice and almost called a stop to matters.

Magadon loomed over her. With his horns and his demonic flesh, he looked the way Mephistopheles had looked standing over Magadon on Cania. Red light flared around his head, brighter than before. Veins pulsed in his brow.

The gnome screamed.

"I see," Magadon said.

The gnomes mouth hung open, spit suspended between her teeth, eyes wide and vacant. She made no sound.

Magadon reached down and covered her brow with his palm. At his touch, her body spasmed and she whimpered.

Cale and Riven looked at one another with concern but neither moved to stop the mindmage. They needed the information.

Cale imagined Magadon boring into the gnome's memories, peeling her mind open layer by layer. It could not be pleasant.

Magadon spoke. "Kesson Rel was infused by the Shadowlord with a shard of his divine power."

Cale nodded. He knew as much.

"Later, he defied his god and drank of the Black Chalice. He was named heretic by his fellow priests and cast out. Kesson secretly abandoned the Shadowlord for Shar and took the name Volumvax. Shar prevented Mask from retaking what he had given and Kesson Rel avenged himself on his fellows by bringing first the Hall of Shadows, then all of Elgrin Fau to the Plane of Shadow to die."

Cale nodded again. He knew Kesson Rel's crimes, but hearing them spoken aloud reinforced the magnitude of the murders.

Magadon continued. "To accomplish his work, he bound a dragon to his service. To bind the dragon, he was forced to use some of the divine essence given him by Mask. Kesson meant it to be temporary, but Kesson's fellow priests sacrificed themselves to cage the divine essence within the dragon. The dragon's name was Furlinastis."

Riven and Cale looked at one another and cursed in unison.

"Kesson sought the dragon for millennia," Magadon said. "To kill him and recover what he had lost, but he could not locate the beast. As the centuries passed, Kesson grew weak from his lack. Soon he had power only on the Plane of Shadow, then only in the Adumbral Calyx, then only in his spire."

The gnome shrieked. The tendons and veins in her neck stood out like ropes under her skin.

Cale had heard enough. Kesson Rel did not have Mask's divine spark. Furlinastis did. They had been on the wrong hunt.

"Let her go, Mags. We've got what we need. The dragon is our prey, now. And we know where to find him."

Magadon held onto the gnome.

"There is more here yet, Cale," the mindmage said, his eyes hard. "It's deep, but I can get it."

Magadon's pupils disappeared altogether. His eyes went solid white, like those of Mephistopheles.

"Enough, Mags," Cale said.

Magadon seemed not to hear him. Creases and veins lined his brow. The gnome screamed again. Magadon smiled. He was taking pleasure in exerting his will over another.

"Enough, Mags," Cale said. "We have what we need. We are leaving."

Magadon did not stop. The gnome started to shake. The blood vessels in her eyes popped, drenching them in blood.

"Mags, enough!" Riven said. "Enough."

The assassin took Magadon by the shoulder and pulled him away from the gnome.

Magadon snarled, whirled on Riven. The assassin had a blade drawn and at Magadon's throat so fast it was a blur.

"Slow down, Mags," Riven said softly.

The rage left Magadon's eyes. His pupils returned.

"All right?" Cale asked him, and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Yes," Magadon answered. "I'm sorry, Riven."

Riven lowered his blade, nodded.

Magadon looked back on the gnome, her small form gibbering on the floor. He looked away, regret on his face.

Cale said, "Don't give in, Mags. I understand your fight."

"You cannot," Magadon said, and offered no further explanation.

Cale could think of nothing more to say.

Another boom shook the stone hemispheres he had created.

"Lower the light," he said, and pictured in his mind the hill outside Elgrin Fau.

The light dimmed and shadows formed.

Cale breathed easier and his flesh began to regenerate. He recited the words to a counterspell and unwound the magic that prevented magical transport from the room.

The moment he did, patches of shadow clotted all over the room and giants materialized, blades in hand and violence in their eyes. No longer held at bay by Magadon's light, undead shadows streaked in through the floors, ceiling, walls.

Cale ignored them all, pulled the shadows about himself and his comrades, and rode the darkness to Elgrin Fau, leaving the Adumbral Calyx behind.