Worldbinder

THE ENDOWMENT

Areth Sul Urstone lay near death in the crystal cage, while a child tortured him, creating a symphony of pain.

He did not mind. He was too near death to care. He had grown numb to his surroundings, accustomed to pains that would have made another man’s knees buckle.

The cage itself was made of quartz and shaped like a sarcophagus, one which conformed nicely to his body and forced him to lie prone, with legs splayed and his hands stretched painfully above his face. Drilled into the sarcophagus were hundreds of small holes. Through these, the wyrmlings had shoved crystalline rods, which pierced his body and pricked certain nerves-the ganglia in his wrists and elbows; the nerves in his sinuses, ears, and eyes; the pain sensors in his stomach, kidneys, groin, toes, and hundreds of other areas.

Some of the rods were as thin as eyelashes, others as thick as nails. By simply tapping them with a willow wand, the child could create indescribable pain.

Tap. A touch to the small rod made it vibrate, and suddenly Areth’s eye felt as if it were melting in his socket.

A brush over his lips made Areth’s teeth feel as if they had exploded.

Yet the pain could not touch Areth anymore. Free of all hope and desires, he had discovered a reservoir of inner calm. Yet with each tap, he groaned, in order to satisfy the young wyrmling girl who seemed to think that torture was play. She smiled, tapping the rods in a rhythm as if to some mad melody, creating her symphony of pain.

“You’re lucky,” the apprentice torturer told him as she played. “By dawn you’ll be the last human alive.”

Suddenly, all of the pain receded. “Wha?”

“Our armies are marching on Luciare,” the girl said. “Didn’t anyone tell you?”

Of course no one had told him. The girl tapped a rod, and Areth’s stomach convulsed as if he suffered from food poisoning.

“Lie,” Areth groaned. “You lie.” They had told him so many lies before.

“Have it your way,” the girl said, brushing her wand over dozens of crystals at once. Suddenly the world went away in a white-hot tornado of pain.

When he resurfaced to consciousness, Areth heard the clank of locks and the squeak of a wooden door that announced a visitor, followed by the tread of feet.

It could not be someone bringing a meal.

Too soon, he thought. Too soon since the last one.

He had learned to gauge the time by the knot that formed in his stomach.

Locked in his crystal cage, skewered in so many places, Areth could not turn his eyes to see the stranger. Even if he had, he would have seen little. The wyrmlings seldom used lights. Their skin was faintly bioluminescent, so faintly that a human could hardly see it. Yet it sufficed for the wyrmlings.

Blessedly, the girl shrieked in fear and the torture stopped. “Welcome, Great Executioner,” she said.

That was a title reserved only for Knights Eternal.

“Open the cage,” a soft voice hissed.

“Immediately,” the girl answered.

Suddenly the cage’s lid flipped open, and Areth cried out as hundreds of crystalline rods were ripped from his flesh. For a moment he lay gasping in relief to feel the rods gone. He had been in the cage for more than a day.

Strong hands grabbed Areth and pulled him from the cage. He did not fight. He no longer had the strength for it. His head lolled and he fought to hold onto consciousness as he was dragged down a hall. He lost the fight.

When next he woke, it was to the sniveling of some wyrmling child. Two wyrmling warriors held Areth upright, while his knees rested on the cold stone floor. The chamber was dim, for it was full night outside, and the only light came from a single thumb-lantern that hung from the ceiling. Beneath the light, a gawky boy of perhaps eleven huddled in a fetal position, jaws clenched, as if fighting back tremendous pain.

Areth peered around the room at several dignitaries. Some were wyrmling warlords, dressed in fine mail. Several others, shadow creatures with wisps of black silk as their only covering, hovered at the head of the room in a place of honor. These were wights, Death Lords. One of them, the tallest, wore silks with diamonds sewn into them, so that they shimmered in the wan light.

Emperor Zul-torac, Areth realized in sudden awe. I’ve been brought before the emperor.

But why? he wondered. To be put to death for the emperor’s amusement?

That seemed likely. But Areth wondered if it had to do with the alleged attack on Luciare. Perhaps the city really had fallen at long last, and the emperor wanted nothing more than to watch Areth be put to death.

Areth waited for some explanation as to why he was here, but the wyrmling lords said nothing. Instead, they merely watched.

A Knight Eternal held up a metal rod and inspected it, his eyes straining in the gloom. The rod was red, like rusted iron perhaps mingled with copper. At one end was a glyph. He scrutinized the glyph under the light of a thumb-lantern, and pronounced it “Exquisite.”

Then he held the glyph-end of the rod overhead and began to sing. His song came out as a deep bass. The sounds were soothing, and after several long moments, the metal rod began to glow like a branding iron, turning white at the tip, as if it were being heated in a forge.

What magic is this? Areth wondered.

The whimpering child looked at the glowing iron, eyes widening in fear, for it appeared to be scalding hot. He licked his lips and sweat streamed down his forehead.

But the Knight Eternal began to whisper soothing words.

“Have no fear,” the Knight Eternal was saying. “You are in great pain now. But that pain can leave you. All that you have to do is give it away-to him.”

The Knight Eternal held the glowing rod, peered over his shoulder at Areth.

“There will be pain,” the Knight Eternal promised, “but it will only last for a small moment, while your honor and glory will remain for all eternity. Will you give your pain away?”

The child was in such fear and agony that he could not speak, but he managed a small nod of the head.

“Good,” the Knight Eternal said.

He pressed the glowing rod to the child, and began to sing. The rod brightened, and the smell of singed skin and burning hair filled the chamber. The child did not wince or cringe away from the heat. But as soon as the metal rod flared and gave off a flicker of flame, the Knight Eternal pulled it away.

The lad grunted in pain, like a boar that has been struck with a lance.

The rod left a white trail of light, which lengthened as the Knight Eternal pulled back. Around the chamber, wyrmlings growled or oohed and aaahed, for the trail of light was far brighter than the illumination thrown by the small lantern. The Knight’s singing became faster, more insistent. There were no words to his song, only calls like a lark and harking sounds.

He waved the branding iron-for Areth had decided that it was some sort of branding iron-in the air, and then studied the trail of light that remained.

He nodded, as if the light passed his inspection, then whirled toward Areth, and approached, leaving a trail of light as he came.

“What is this?” Areth demanded. He was weak, so weak. His muscles had wasted away in prison. But it was more than that. He felt a sickness deep inside him. The crystal rods had pierced him deeply, in his gut, in his liver and groin. He had been fighting infections for years, and losing. It was only the spells of the Death Lords that kept him alive, feeding him life from those around him.

“It is called a forcible,” the Knight Eternal said, his blood red robes flaring out as he approached. He spread his wings out, flapped them in excitement. “It is used to grant endowments, to pass attributes from one person to another. Those who give endowments are called Dedicates. This boy will be your Dedicate.”

Areth knew that this couldn’t be good. Wyrmlings were notorious for not giving information. This one would only be explaining himself if the news was going to be bad.

“This child has taken endowments of touch from four other Dedicates, four who are at this very moment being placed in crystal cages.

“And now we will give his endowment of touch to you.”

“Why?” Areth asked.

“This is an experiment,” the Knight Eternal said as he ripped off the stinking rag that served as Areth’s only scrap of clothing, “an experiment in pain. So far, we have been very gratified at the results. For years you have endured our tortures. Now you will learn what it feels like to endure others’ pain.”

The Knight Eternal plunged the forcible into Areth’s chest. The skin sizzled and puckered as his hair burned.

The white snake of light raced from the boy’s arm, blanking out, until it reached Areth’s chest and entered with a hissing sound.

From across the room, the young boy cried out in unimaginable anguish, then wept for joy at his release.

Areth drew back in surprise, for the first kiss of the forcible gave him great pleasure, surprising in intensity, and just as suddenly it turned to agony.

The pain that smote him drove him to his knees, left his head whirling. He vomited at the distress as his stomach suddenly cramped. Unseen tortures assailed him from every side. His ear drums felt as if they would burst, and his sinuses flared. His groin ached as if he’d been kicked by a war horse, and it seemed that every bone in his feet had suddenly been cracked into gravel.

Wordlessly, Areth collapsed, gasping for breath. No scream could have expressed his torment.

“Is that it?” Emperor Zul-torac demanded, speaking for the crowd of nobles that stood in attendance. “Did it work?”

Areth Sul Urstone could not speak. Through tears of affliction he peered at the gawky boy beneath the thumb-light, who now stared at his hands clenching and unclenching them as if mystified by his own lack of feeling.

“The transfer is complete,” the Knight Eternal confirmed.

Emperor Zul-torac nodded, and the guards dragged Areth away.

He gasped for breath as they did, drowning in pain, until they threw him in his cell, where he lay naked and quivering and overwhelmed.