The Ghost King

by R. A. Salvatore

CHAPTER 29

 

  CHASING IT TO THE ENDS OF REALITY

  There!" Rorick cried, pointing at the sky high above the mountains. They had heard the shriek of doom, and following Rorick's gaze, they saw the Ghost King as it glided across the starry canopy.

  "Over our home," Hanaleisa said, and all five began to run. With every tenth step, though, Ivan called for a halt. Finally, the others slowed, gasping for breath.

  "We stay together or we're suren dead," the yellow-bearded dwarf scolded. "I can'no' run with ye, girl!"

  "And I cannot watch from afar as my home is attacked," Hanaleisa countered.

  "And ye can'no' get there," said Ivan. "Half a day and more o' walking - hours of running. Ye mean to run for hours, do ye?"

  "If I - " Hanaleisa started to retort, but she went quiet at Pikel's "Shh!" All eyes focused on the green-bearded dwarf as he hopped about, pointing into the dark forest.

  A moment later, they heard the shuffling of many creatures moving swiftly through the underbrush. As one, the group braced for an attack, but they quickly realized that those creatures, minions of the Ghost King, they believed, were not coming for them but were running flat out to the west, up the hillsides toward Spirit Soaring. Their enemies swarmed to the distant battle.

  "Quick, then, but not running," Ivan ordered. "And stay close, all o' ye!"

  Hanaleisa spearheaded the charge, and at a swift pace. With her intensive training in stealth and stamina, and the graceful manner of her movements, she was sure that she could indeed run all the way home, as far as it was, even though the path was mostly uphill. But she couldn't abandon the others, surrounded by enemies, and particularly Rorick with his torn ankle, struggling with every step.

  "Mother and Father are surrounded by a hundred capable mages and priests," Temberle tried to reassure her - and reassure himself, she sensed from the tone of his voice. "They will defeat this threat. "

  Soon after, with nearly a mile behind them, the group had to slow, both from exhaustion and because the forest around them teemed with shadowy creatures. On more than one occasion, Hanaleisa held up her hand to stop those behind her and fell low behind a tree trunk or a bush, expecting a fight. Every time, though, the noisy beasts scrambling ahead or to the sides seemed possessed of a singular purpose, and that purpose had nothing to do with the little band of Carradden refugees.

  Gradually, Hanaleisa began to press on even when enemies sounded very near - a part of her hoped that some would come against them, she had to privately admit. Anything they killed out in the wilds would be one less attacker at the gates of Spirit Soaring.

  But then Hanaleisa sensed something different, some movement that seemed intent upon them. She slid behind a broad tree and motioned for the others to stop, then held her breath as something approached very near, opposite her on the other side of the tree.

  She jumped out as her opponent did the same, and launched a series of blows that would have leveled a skilled warrior.

  But every strike was intercepted by an open hand that slapped her attacks aside. It took Hanaleisa only a moment to understand her defeat, only a heartbeat to recognize her opponent as the woman who had trained her all her life.

  "Mother!" she cried, and Danica fell over her in the tightest hug she had ever known.

  Rorick and Temberle echoed Hanaleisa's call and they, along with Ivan and Pikel, rushed up to embrace Danica.

  Tears of profound relief and sheer joy filled Danica's eyes as she crushed each of her children close to her, and as she fell over Pikel. And those tears streaked a face full of confusion when she looked upon Ivan.

  "I saw you die," she said. "I was on the cliff, outside the cave, when the dracolich crushed you. "

  "Crushed them what was chasing me, ye mean," Ivan corrected. "Dumb thing didn't even know it was standing above a hole - small for a dragon, but a tunnel for meself!"

  "But . . . " Danica started. She just shook her head and kissed Ivan on his hairy cheek.

  "You found a way," she said. "We'll find a way. "

  "Where's Father?" Hanaleisa asked.

  "He remains at Spirit Soaring," Danica replied, and she glanced nervously up the mountains, "facing the Ghost King. "

  "He's surrounded by an army of wizards and warrior priests," Rorick insisted, but Danica shook her head.

  "He's with a small group of powerful allies," Danica corrected, and she looked at Ivan and Pikel. "King Bruenor and one of his battleragers, and Drizzt Do'Urden. "

  "Bruenor," Ivan gasped. "Me king, come to us in our time o' need. "

  "Drizzit Dudden," Pikel added with a signature giggle.

  "Lead on, Milady," Ivan bade Danica. "Might that we'll get there when there's still something to hit!"

  * * * * *

  The Ghost King didn't open wide its wings to break out of the stoop. Down it came, a missile from on high, wings folded, eyes burning, jaws wide. At the very last moment, right before it crashed, the Ghost King snapped its head up and flipped its wings out, altering nothing but its angle of descent. It hit the ground and plowed through the turf, digging a trench as it skidded at its prey. And if that alone were not enough to put a fast end to the fool who would challenge a god, the Ghost King breathed forth its flaming breath.

  On and on it went, consuming all in its path, reaching to the very doorway of Spirit Soaring. The flesh of dead crawlers bubbled and burst and disintegrated beneath the conflagration, grass charred and obliterated.

  "Drizzt!" Bruenor, Cadderly, and Jarlaxle yelled together from inside the cathedral, knowing their friend was surely consumed.

  The gout of flames might have continued much longer, for it seemed an endless catastrophe, but a scimitar swung by a drow who should have been buried in that assault smashed hard against the side of the Ghost King's face.

  Jolted, stunned that Drizzt had been quick enough to get out of the way, the Ghost King tried to turn its fury upon him.

  But a second blow, so heavy with magical power, snapped the dracolich's head to the side yet again.

  The Ghost King hopped up to its hind legs, towering over the drow even though it stood in a trench deeper than two tall men, a hollow torn by the weight of its cometlike impact.

  Barely had it stood when the beast bit down at the drow, spearlike teeth snapping loudly, and in Spirit Soaring's doorway, Bruenor gasped, thinking his friend taken whole.

  But again Drizzt moved ahead of his enemy, again the drow, so intent on the image of his wounded bride, so perfect in his focus and so adroit his reflexes, dived at precisely the right angle, forward and inside the reach of the Ghost King. As he came up, three lightning-fast steps brought him to the beast's right hind leg, where his scimitars bit deep.

  Yet the power of Cadderly's magic and the fury of Drizzt Do'Urden could not do to that godlike being what he had done in dismembering the nightwalker, and for all of his rage and fury and focus, Drizzt never lost one simple truth: He could not beat the Ghost King alone.

  And so he was moving again, and with all speed, even as he struck hard. Again the dragon snapped its killing fangs at him, and again he dodged and ran, at a full sprint away from the dracolich and toward Spirit Soaring.

  Instinctively, Drizzt swerved out wide and dived again, and felt the heat at his back as the Ghost King breathed forth its murderous fires once more. Drizzt crossed that blackened line back the other way the moment it ended, again just ahead of the pursuing, biting monster.

  He bolted through the double doors just ahead of the Ghost King and called out for Cadderly, for there was nowhere to turn.

  And as he knew would happen, the Ghost King's fires followed him inside, rushing fast for his back and engulfing him fully, filling the passageway behind and in front with dragonfire.

  Cadderly groaned in pain as roiling flames gnawed at Spirit Soaring, at the magic that sustained the priest and his creation. He held his radiant hands out before him, reaching
for the corridor, reaching for Drizzt, praying he had reacted quickly enough.

  Only when Drizzt scrambled into the room, out of the blast of dragonfire, did Cadderly allow himself to breathe. But his relief, the relief of them all, lasted only a moment before the whole of the great structure shuddered violently.

  Cadderly fell back and grimaced, then again as another explosion rocked Spirit Soaring. Its walls, even for their magic, could not withstand the fury of the Ghost King, who crashed in, tearing with tooth and claw, battering aside walls, wood and stone alike, with its skull. Ripping, shredding, and battering its way along, the Ghost King moved into the structure, widening the passageway and crashing through the lower ceiling outside the audience chamber.

  Inside that hall, the four companions fell back, step by step, trying to hold their calm and their confidence. A look at Cadderly did nothing to bolster their resolve. With every crash and tear against Spirit Soaring, the priest shuddered - and aged. Before their astonished eyes, Cadderly's hair went from gray to white, his face became creased and lined, his posture stooped.

  The front wall of the audience chamber cracked, then blew apart as the monster slammed through. The Ghost King lifted its head and issued a deafening wail of pure hatred.

  The building shook as the wyrm stomped into the room, then shook again with its next heavy step, which brought it within striking distance of its intended prey.

  "For me king!" yelled Thibbledorf Pwent, who sat atop a tied-off log up on the high balcony. Right before him, standing on the rail, Athrogate cut free the lead log and gave it a heave to send it swinging down from on high.

  The giant spear stabbed into the side of the Ghost King, hitting it squarely just under its shoulder, just under its wing, and indeed, the creature lurched, if only a bit, under the weight of that blow.

  An inconsequential weight, though, against the godlike dracolich.

  Except that Thibbledorf Pwent then cut loose the second log, the one on which he sat. "Wahoo!" he yelled as he swung past Athrogate, who gave a shove for good measure, and followed the same trajectory as the first beam.

  More than the dwarf's added weight enhanced the blow as log hit log, end to end, for the front end of that second log had been hollowed out and filled with explosive oil. Like a gigantic version of Cadderly's hand crossbow bolts, the dwarven version collapsed in on itself and exploded with the force of a thunderbolt.

  The front log blew forward, lifting the Ghost King and throwing it far and fast against the opposite wall. The back log blew to splinters, and the dwarf who had been sitting upon it flew forward, arms and legs flailing, and chased the dracolich through the air to the wall, catching it like a living grapnel even as the ceiling crumbled down atop the stunned Ghost King. Like a biting fly on the side of a horse, Thibbledorf Pwent scrambled and stabbed.

  The Ghost King ignored him, though, for on came Drizzt, leading the charge, Bruenor behind. Still beside the shaken Cadderly, Jarlaxle lifted his wands and began a barrage.

  Taulmaril's stinging arrows led Drizzt's assault, flashing at the Ghost King's face to keep the creature occupied. As he neared, Drizzt threw the bow aside and reached for his blades.

  He unsheathed only Icingdeath, however, his eyes sparking with sudden inspiration.

  He felt his bones cracking like the beams of Spirit Soaring itself. His back twisted in a painful hunch, and his arms trembled from the effort of trying to hold them up before him.

  But Cadderly knew that the moment of truth was at hand, the moment of Cadderly and Spirit Soaring and Deneir - somehow he sensed that it was the Scribe of Oghma's last moment, his god's final act.

  * * * * *

  He needed power then, and he found it, and as he had done in the previous battle with the Ghost King, the priest seemed to reach up and bring the sun itself down upon him. Allies drew strength and healing energy - so much so that Athrogate hardly groaned as he leaped down from the balcony, his twisted ankles untwisting before the pain even registered.

  The Ghost King felt the brutal sting of Cadderly's light, and the priest advanced. The dracolich filled the room with dragonfire, but Cadderly's ward held strong and the sting did not stop the assault.

  The Ghost King focused on Drizzt instead, determined to be rid of that wretched warrior, but again it could not bite quickly enough to catch the dancing elf, and as it tried to position its strikes to corner Drizzt against the rubble of the broken wall, it found itself cornered instead.

  Drizzt leaped up against the dracolich and caught hold with his free hand on the monster's rib, exposed by the wide hole blown into it by the dwarven bolt, and before the Ghost King or anyone else could begin to analyze the drow's surprising move, Drizzt pulled himself right inside the beast, right into the lung, torn wide.

  The Ghost King shuddered and thrashed with abandon, out of its mind with agony as the drow, both weapons drawn, began tearing it apart from the inside. So violent was its movements, so shattering its cries, so furious its breath that the other combatants staggered to a stop and pressed hands over their ears, and even Pwent fell off the creature.

  But inside, Drizzt played out his fury, and Cadderly held forth his radiant light to bolster his allies and consume his enemy.

  The Ghost King pushed away from the wall, stumbling and kicking, smashing a foot right through the floor to crash down into the catacombs below. It shrieked and breathed its fire, and the weakened magic of Spirit Soaring could not resist the bite of those flames. The smoke grew thick, dulling the blinding brilliance of Cadderly's light, but not weakening its effect.

  "Kill it, and quickly!" Jarlaxle yelled as the beast shuddered and shook with agony. Bruenor raised his axe and charged, Athrogate set his morningstars to spinning, and Thibbledorf Pwent leaped onto a leg and thrashed as only a battlerager could.

  A blue glow overwhelmed the yellow hue of Cadderly's radiance, and the three dwarves felt their weapons hitting only emptiness.

  Drizzt fell through the insubstantial torso, landing lightly on the floor, but sliding and slipping on the blood and gore that covered him. Pwent tumbled face down with an "Oomph!"

  "It flees!" Jarlaxle shouted, and behind him, in the small room, Catti-brie cried out. In the main hall, the Ghost King vanished.

  Cadderly was first to the anteroom, though every step seemed to pain the old man. He pulled the latch and threw open the door, and from under his white shirt produced the ruby pendant Jarlaxle had loaned to him.

  Before him, Catti-brie trembled and cried out. Behind him, Drizzt pulled out the onyx figurine. Cadderly looked at Drizzt and shook his head.

  "Guenhwyvar will not get you there," said the priest.

  "We cannot allow it to escape us again," Drizzt said. He moved inexorably toward Catti-brie, drawn to her in her pain.

  "It will not," Cadderly promised. He gave a profound sigh. "Tell Danica that I love her, and promise me that you will find and protect my children. "

  "We will," Jarlaxle answered, and Drizzt, Bruenor, and Cadderly all looked at him in astonishment. Had not the weight of the situation been pressing so enormously upon all of them at that moment, all three would have burst out in laughter.

  It was a fleeting moment of relief, though. Cadderly nodded his appreciation to Jarlaxle and turned back to Catti-brie, bringing the ruby pendant up before her. With his free hand he gently touched her face and he moved very near to her, falling into her thoughts and seeing through her eyes.

  A collective gasp sounded from the two drow and the three dwarves, and Cadderly began to glow with the same bluish-white hue of the departing Ghost King. That gasp became a cry as the priest faded to nothingness.

  Catti-brie cried out again, but more in surprise, it seemed, than in fear.

  With a determined grunt, Drizzt again reached for Guenhwyvar, but Jarlaxle grabbed his wrist. "Don't," the mercenary bade him.

  A crash behind them stole the moment, and all turned to see a g
iant support beam lying diagonally from the balcony to the floor, thick with flames.

  "Out," Jarlaxle said, and Drizzt moved to Catti-brie and scooped her up in his arms.

  * * * * *

  It was a shadow image of the world he had left, absent the fabricated structures, a land of dull resolution and often utter darkness, of huddled ugly beasts and terrifying monsters. But in those clouds of shadowstuff shone a singular brilliance, the light of Cadderly, and before him loomed the most profound darkness of all, the Ghost King.

  And there the two did battle, light against darkness, the radiance of Deneir's last gift to his Chosen against the combined powers of perversion. For a long, long while, light seared through shadows, and the flowing shadows rolled back to cover the radiance. For a long, long while, neither seemed to gain an advantage, and the other creatures of the dark plane looked on in awe.

  Then those creatures fell back, for the shadow could not grow against that radiance, that unrelenting warmth of Cadderly Bonaduce. Possessed of great draconic intelligence and the wisdom of centuries, the Ghost King knew the truth as well.

  For the king had been usurped and the new Ghost King stood amidst the darkness, and in that final struggle, Cadderly could not be defeated.

  With a cry of protest, the dracolich lifted away and fled, and Cadderly, too, did not remain. For it was not his place, and there, he cared not if the evil beast lived or died.

  But he could not allow the creature to return to his homeland.

  He knew the sacrifice before him. He knew that he could not cross back through the membrane between worlds, that he was trapped by duty to Deneir, to what was right, and to his family and friends.

  With a smile of contentment, certain of a life well-lived, Cadderly left that world of darkness for a place almost, but not quite, his home.