by Gary Gygax
"Who speaks thus?"
"What are you?"
"Kill the spy!"
Those shouts and more came from the mass of demonic nobles gathered, but they meant nothing to Entropy. None there could harm him. Nothing could. Without bothering to reply. Entropy caused Leda to appear from where he had kept her in his secret realm. "This little dark elf is the thing most dear to the one who serves Balance as champion — Gord, the wielder of the two Theorparts you would have."
Vuron whispered to Graz'zt. "That being before us — he is one I know of! He is Lord Entropy, enemy of all. . . all! Trust him never!"
Graz'zt accepted the identification but ignored the rest. "You are Entropy," the ebon demonking said, meaning to establish his power before the being and enhance his status with the lords of the Abyss at the same time. "We will listen to you."
The one of inertia knew what the demonking desired, and it made no difference to Entropy at all. The demons must gain the three portions of the ageless relic soon now, it thought. Then would Tharizdun come and war with demonium, hastening stillness. Chaos itself must end as the last step in the final calm of absolute sameness. "That is most wise. King of Demons," Entropy said. The title bestowed would help to hasten things, too. Each word and deed employed was meant to hasten the coming of Entropy's endless rule. "You and your subjects must now attend my instructions."
The being spoke, and the demons did indeed pay close attention to the ponderous statements that Entropy voiced. All efforts, all energies, all defense and attack were to be directed in but a single focus. The female drow, Leda, was to be the central point. Graz'zt was to direct the aim of the Unbinder upon her. Elazalag would use her potent Eye of Deception. So too would all the other lesser relics and artifacts of dweomer and demonic force be brought into play. The demons' foes could defeat them, would indeed do so, unless this strategy was adhered to. By the simple device of offering Leda in exchange for the two Theorparts Gord possessed, Graz'zt could succeed in winning. Otherwise, the confrontation between him and the massed demons would lead only to their defeat and the loss of Unbinder, thus uniting all three Theorparts in the small man's hand.
"He is not such a stupid fool as to allow a mere female to alter his plan for our undoing," Graz'zt heard his newly restored consort rejoin. "We will be slaughtered as a herd of lambs, without so much as the threat of a puppy to oppose the wolf."
"The single portion of the artifact you are armed with, it and all the rest of your weapons, are but rubbish before the broom of might which that oncethief and his associate bring against you. No demon can come near enough to do harm whilst the troubador renders destruction from the instrument he plays so well. The champion's sword is proof against your weapons, his twin Theorparts sufficient to devastate all the rest. If you do not follow my direction, you are doomed," Entropy pronounced. Despite the emotionless, plodding words, even the wildest of the demonlords paid heed.
"How do we accomplish this?" asked Elazalag, convinced of the dire nature of their position but uncertain of the tactic proposed.
"It is so simple as to escape any mind save my own," Entropy droned with just a touch of self-satisfaction. "He will not trust you. Even the love which moves the champion doesn't make him so stupid as that. Graz'zt will offer the exchange as follows: The priestess called Leda will be held fast by magical bonds in a large, neutral space. The one called Gord will go to her. Seeing that she is well and not some image or duplicate, he will place his pair of relics where the dark elf was held. The force of them will prevent operation of your own objects."
"What is to prevent the little scum from taking her without leaving behind the Theorparts?" Graz'zt demanded.
"And how will he know that we won't slay him and the drow as soon as we get the two?" Elazalag chimed in.
Entropy deepened, and the demons quieted as their vitality felt the creeping of the great entity's anger. "It is child's play to set up a triggering which would bring destruction to the dark elf should the Theorparts and the drow be in proximity for more than a brief interval. As to the possibility of your treachery, Elazalag, the man has no remedy save his sword. I have examined his makeup, seen Gord's aura long and carefully. That one will trust the weapon and his own guile and craft. He will allow the exchange, believing that he will somehow wrest the three portions from you once again after he has Leda safe."
Vuron asked a simple question at that. "Could he manage such a feat?"
Graz'zt was silenced before he could snarl at his steward for daring to speak thus. "Yes," Entropy said simply, "but only if the parts were left as separate devices in the hands of indIvidual demons. "You, Graz'zt, have one, so it will be incumbent upon you to meld the three into one engine."
"That is as I had planned," Graz'zt cried with arrogant agreement. "It is as it shall be!"
"But then the darkest will be"
"Never mind," Entropy said in slow assurance. "I will send forth my own mantle to slow and enervate Tharizdun. He will never know, and by my power he will be made into dormant state unending." It was a lie so obvious and bald that none there saw it for what it was.
"Wait!" said Vuron. "What is to prevent some other agency from intervening? If the champion removes Leda and leaves the relics, why couldn't his associate somehow regain the two Theorparts for him?"
"Because I will lurk inside the dark elven priestess, and when she is freed by the proximity of the relics, so too will I be. The guarding of them is something I can easily accomplish. No mortal can resist the drag of my being."
Graz'zt was suddenly alert. "You could easily possess the two Theorparts, then!"
"That, demon, is not possible. Great as I am, the Theorparts are paradoxical to my being, as is any magic. Entropy is the denial of any activity, even the forces of negation and evil. No, Graz'zt. You need not concern yourself with that. I above all desire you to gain the whole of the artifact."
Many other questions came thereafter, but not one concerned the reason for Entropy's desire for demonic possession of the artifact. Why should any of them ask? The lords of the Abyss were, after all, the most worthy to hold the tripartite relic. Many of the greatest in the assemblage would gladly have questioned Entropy's choice of Graz'zt as the owner of all three. None dared voice such thoughts, however, for Graz'zt did already wield Unbinder. Most questions came from the stick-thin albino, and concerned the workings of the arrangement.
"The man will sense your presence," the pale demon asserted.
"Not with all the other energy there," Entropy denied unemotionally. "I am the antithesis of power. Unsuspecting such, the humans will never suspect my presence."
"Are you so sure, nullity?"
"For time out of mind they have not in the last few years, I have often interfered directly — and not the greatest of them has suspected. Their champion is chosen for his ability to face and defeat foemen, not because of his powers of reasoning."
As the albino started a fresh question, Graz'zt silenced him. "No more, Steward. You dislike any plans but your own — especially, it seems, if the scheme gains me the prize I have so long sought after. I think you object because you see your own existence terminating with the culmination of my purpose."
"Never, my Lord," Vuron hastened to say without so much force as to appear to be in direct contradiction. "It is just that never has our strategy worked—"
"Never have you had Entropy assisting you!" the entity interjected with a deep sound brought from the void.
"And once I have the relic," Graz'zt said in a triumphant tone, "never will we again. Now is now, and it is time to act. I will follow your plan. Entropy. Let us ready for the coming sport."
Leda, unable to move or speak, still overheard the whole exchange. If only she could warn Gord away! To allow their love to interfere in his mission would be unthinkable, yet she feared that what had been said would prove true. He would exchange, thinking that with her safe and Courflamme at his side he could manage to separate the demons into warring factions,
then take away each of the three portions of the artifact one by one again. She willed her muscles to respond, tried to get that part of her mind unshackled that could telepathically alert Gord to the terrible trap he was about to walk into. But her nerves refused to carry messages, her muscles remained dormant, and her psyche was bound fast and silent within.
Entropy noted the pulses from the little dark elven beauty. "Oh, no. Be calm and resigned. All will transpire as I decree now, and soon you will become one with me in an eternal quietude of inaction and unbeing. It is time for a little more lethargy, I think, so that you will be as tranquil as the blessed vacuum when the time comes for us to go out to him you adore so."
Leda tried to resist, but nothingness came, and she was consumed by it.
Chapter 13
WHEN THE SINGLE DEMON appeared, Gord was sitting as a statue, the two fused Theorparts resting across his folded legs. Just to the left and a little behind, Gellor rested in a similar position with the ivory form of the silver-stringed little harp squarely on his lap.
What disconcerted the demon most was the longsword that floated in the air, suspended with its pommel toward the champion of Balance, point aimed out. It swung as a compass needle to aim at the demon's heart, no matter how the netherbeing shifted. Gathering its bravado, the chargin demon blurted, "If I am harmed, mortal, the drow called Leda dies!"
"Do not shout, brother of Krung," Gellor said clearly and without emotion. "The champion knows why you have come, what you are going to say, even who you are and why you were chosen."
Those words made the demon shake inside himself with a combination of furious hatred and horrible fear. Because the human with the enchanted gem for an eye called the chargin "brother of Krung," it was evident that at least a part of what that one said was true. The man knew too much!
Yognath was indeed the sibling of the chargin who had dared to serve Hades. As such, he had been given the unenviable duty of bringing Graz'zt's ultimatum to the human invaders. If he succeeded in returning alive, then Yognath would be rewarded with lordship of the chargin demons, and the race would no longer be outcast and harried for Krung"s stupid alliance outside the bonds of demonium. Better to pretend absolute confidence, to ignore the strength implied in what the human had said.
"No secret that," Yognath nearly shouted in retort. "All the Abyss thunders with the achievements of Graz'zt. The name of Yognath, the great lord honored to bear his ultimatum, is carried by the very pulses of demonium. Even a fool would know the only course then possible."
"Yes, demon, the whole of this is foolery," Gellor said without inflection. "Speak the words you are commanded on pain of death to speak on Graz'zt's behalf. Say nothing else," the bard added, and his voice was steely when he added that admonition.
Yognath peered quickly at the silent man who sat with the great relics. Could he snatch the two and be away before either of these puny mortals could stop him? Then, to use their power upon the ebon demonking, all of those who had wrought such misery upon Yognath and the rest of the chargin recently. . . . No, that was only a fleeting fantasy, and the demon knew it. The forces that radiated from both men were sufficient to warn Yognath that he would have no chance if he tried it. The only indication he even considered so doing was a slight narrowing of his eyes, a twitching in his ropy, long-taloned fingers. Then with hardly a pause, the messenger repeated what he had been sent to say. In essence it was "give Graz'zt the Theorparts, and he will give Leda back to you."
The whole of his speech was long and convoluted. Yognath stared at the unmoving champion when it was finished. The man seemed totally detached, uncaring. "Well?" the demon demanded. Still the human was as stone.
"Tell Graz'zt that Gord, champion of Balance, has heard and will come as requested," Gellor said after a long pause.
"He must speak for himself," the demon sneered.
"I am only repeating his commands, as you do those of Graz'zt" the bard informed the jeering chargin. "Go away! Do your duty — tell Graz'zt!" Gellor ordered. As if to punctuate that statement, the sword that floated before the smaller man suddenly began to pulse alternately light and dark, moving slightly closer to Yognath's scaled breast as it did so.
The chargin nearly stumbled over his own splayed feet in his haste to comply. The two men were left alone in the nightmare wilderness, still unmoving statues of alien sort in that demonic plane.
"Was it sufficient time?" Gellor finally asked.
Gord moved with a spryness and alacrity that was surprising after sitting so long in a contorted fashion. "More than sufficient, dear comrade, more than you can know! The demon is but a dupe and a dolt Nothing he supposes is correct, and much has been kept from him, so that no probe of his mind, or physical torture, could force him to reveal the secrets which his masters hold."
"Then how can you have sufficient information? What intelligence so invigorates you?"
"Much is told by not being said, Gellor," Gord said enigmatically. "Come on. Let us ready ourselves to greet a multitude of demons and free our Leda!"
Gellor shook his head while proceeding quickly to ready himself. "Two against the millions," said he as he clasped the final piece of his armor into place. "Never have there been such odds."
"We are not as alone as you think, I assure you,
Gellor. Millions can work for and against, even as a million-to-one chance."
"You are growing unbalanced, Gord. Lunatic ravings hearten me naught."
"None could gainsay madness, should I choose to adopt it as a shield. But I do not, good troubador. I merely toy with it as the demon lords would toy with us, were they able." The analogy brought sudden insight to Gellor, and his countenance displayed the fact.
"Yes, my one-eyed, open-mouthed companion, yes!" Gord went on. "I watch and listen and wait for some choice response from you, but you only babble and tell me nothing. Thus, unenlightened, I go forth to do as the black master of the Abat-dolor demands. Will you also go in the required fashion?"
It was not Gord who spied. It was natural that the demons would watch, and Gellor now comprehended what Gord was warning him of. Something did watch and listen — listen even to thoughts sent from mind to mind, else his friend would have used telepathic means to alert him. "The choice is one of staying here alone or accompanying you to the place of exchange?"
"There can be no other," Gord averred. "It isn't so glum a prospect, for who can say what will transpire after the event has rim its many-faceted course?" The words didn't convey anything useful to Gellor, and the bard shrugged to indicate that fact while moving beside the champion. "Good," his friend said, taking the troubador by his arm. "We'll stand together thus when coming before the demons." With a brief string of sounds to activate the Theorparts, Gord and his comrade then vanished from the wild depths of the Abyss.
It was on iyondagur that Leda was held. To that forsaken stratum the two men must come, bearing the two parts of the arcane key that the demons demanded as the price of her release. Graz'zt demanded, actually, while the horde of other great and lesser demons lent support. Better for the Theorparts to be held by one of their own, of course, than by a wretched outsider.
At a place where the gray and stony barrens of iyondagur's outreaches merged toward another desolate tier of demonium was gathered the whole force of the allies. A half-hundred noble demons there were, with petty lords and demon-chiefs outnumbering them by six times, and the ranks of their warriors yet farther back and in countless hundreds of thousands. Unimaginable, frightening, and poised as a flock of raptors above some field upon which a plump hare must soon venture.
The bait was the pretty captive. Leda was standing alone, nearly naked, not tied but immobilized nonetheless. A thousand paces separated the dark elf from the hordes of warriors, half that distance from the place where their masters were waiting, and only a scant hundred from the spot where Graz'zt waited with Elazalag and Vuron. The albino grasped Unbinder — a dubious privilege but one upon which Graz'zt had insisted, w
ith horrid threats of the consequences should Vuron not use the artifact effectively for his master's protection.
Graz'zt would have preferred to be alone, only he dared not attempt that until he secured the two other Theorparts. Doubts still slunk as jackals around the demonking's mind. Would the man be so stupid? Could the entity calling itself Lord Entropy be gulling him? Could anything go wrong? Each little thought skulked and yapped, but when one was grasped at to be considered, it ran away in fear.
"They come," hissed the albino, pointing toward a slight distortion near where the drow priestess stood.
"I am ready," Graz'zt pronounced. His voice was loud, meant to carry the intervening distance, to inform Entropy. Was that needed? Perhaps not, but the ebon demon would rather be on the cautious side.
The distortion brightened into a shimmering archway, and from the portal it formed stepped the two humans who championed Balance. It pleased Graz'zt to observe that the one called Gord carried the united pair of relics in his left hand, reserving his right for the deadly magical blade that was his badge of office as Balance's greatest hero. This was according to Entropy's assessment. The weakling was actually going to comply! He would trade mastery of all for a mere female!
"You have answered my summons," the tall demonking said as the small man looked toward him.
"Was there ever a doubt I would?" Gord replied lightly. "I have come to do as you wish. I will place the Theorparts beside Leda now for your inspection."
Graz'zt watched closely, scrutinizing all for the least sign of trickery. There were no falsities involved. Gellor stood in place as Gord slowly paced the distance between himself and the drow, covering the hundred steps without seeming haste. Once there, the man hardly paused to examine the captive to determine her reality and state of health. No need, Graz'zt supposed. The energies of the two portions of the great relic would easily convey all such information to him in a flash — and would also report if the elfs true nature was being screened by counterdweomers from similar instruments of powerful magic. Entropy had forbade any magical shielding, for to attempt that would be to alert the champion to something, and extensive inspection might discover the presence of something . . . else . . . there with the dark elven priestess.