the moment when you opened it. Don't dwell on
what Bellina was doing.'
"I don't quite understand, My Lady,' Occuda said.
'You don't have to. Just do it. We don't have much
time.' She murmured briefly to herself and then reached
up to touch his shaggy brow. She had to stand on her
tiptoes. 'Why are you people all so tall?' she complained.
She kept her fingers lightly on Occuda's forehead for a
moment and then let out an explosive breath. 'Just as I
thought,' she said exultantly. "It had to be there. Occuda,
where's the count right now?'
"I believe he's still in that central room, lady. He
usually reads for most of the night.'
'Good.' She looked at the bed and snapped her fingers.
'Bevier, get up.' The Arcian rose stiffly, his eyes blank.
'Kurik,' she said, 'you and Occuda help him. Don't let
him fall down. Flute, you go back to bed. I don't want
you to see this.'
The little girl nodded. '
Come along, gentlemen,' Sephrenia said crisply. 'We
haven't much time left.'
'just exactly what are you doing?' Sparhawk asked as
he followed her down the hall. For a small person she
moved very fast.
'There isn't time to explain,' she said. 'We need the
count's permission to go to the cellar - and his presence
I'm afraid.'
'The cellar?' Sparhawk was baffled.
'Don't ask foolish questions, Sparhawk.' She stopped
and looked at him critically. "I told you to keep your
hands on that spear,' she scolded him. 'Now go back to
your room and get it.'
He threw his hands helplessly in the air and turned
around.
'run, Sparhawk!' she shouted after him.
He caught up with them just as they entered the
doorway that opened out onto the stairs leading down
into the sunken room near the centre of the castle. Count
Ghasek still sat hunched over his book in the flickering
light of his guttering candle. His fire had burned down to
embers, and the wind from the storm outside howled
fitfully in the chimney.
"you're going to ruin your eyes, My Lord,' Sephrenia
told Him. 'Put aside the book. We have things to do.'
He stared at her in astonishment.
I need to ask a favour of you, My Lord.'
'A favour? Of course, Madame.'
'Don't be too quick to agree, Count Ghasek - not until
you know what I'm going to ask you. There's a room in
the cellar of your house. I need to visit it with Sir Bevier
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here, and I'll need to have you accompany us. If we move
quickly enough, I can cure Bevier and rid this house of its
curse.'
Ghasek stared at Sparhawk, his face totally baffled.
"I'd advise doing as she says, My Lord,' Sparhawk told
him. "you'll do it in the end, anyway, and it's a lot less
embarrassing if you just agree gracefully.'
'is she like this often?' the count asked, rising to his
feet.
"frequently. '
Time is passing, gentlemen,' Sephrenia said, her foot
tapping impatiently on the floor.
"Come with me, then,' the count said, giving up. He
led them up the stairs and into the cobwebby corridor.
'The entrance to the cellar is this way.' He pointed down
a narrow side hall and then led the way again. He took a
large iron key from his doublet and unlocked a narrow
door. 'We'll need light,' he said.
Kurik took a torch down from its ring and handed it to
him.
The count lifted the torch and started down a long
flight of narrow stone stairs. Occuda and Kurik supPorted
the somnolent Bevier to keep him from falling as
they descended. At the foot of the stairs, the count
turned to his left. 'One of my ancestors considered
himself to be quite a connoisseur of fine wines,' he said,
pointing at dusty casks and bottles lying on their sides on
wooden racks back in the dimness as they passed. "I have
little taste for wine myself, so I seldom come down here.
It was only by chance that I happened to send Occuda
down here one night, and he came upon that dreadful
room.'
'This is not going to be very pleasant for you, My Lord, '
Sephrenia warned him. 'Perhaps you might want to wait
outside the room.'
'No, Madame,' he said. 'if you can endure it, I can as
well. It's only a room now. What happened in it is in the
past.'
"It's the past which I intend to resurrect, My Lord.'
He looked at her sharply.
'Sephrenia is an adept in the secrets,' Sparhawk
explained. "She can do many things.'
"I have heard of such people,' the count admitted, 'but
there are few Styrics in Pelosia, so I've never seen those
arts performed.'
'You may not wish to, My Lord,' she warned him
ominously. "It's necessary for Bevier to see the full extent
of your sister's perversions for him to be cured of hiS
obsession. Your presence as the owner of the house is
necessary, but if you stand just outside the room, it will
suffice.'
'No, Madame, witnessing what happened here may
stiffen my resolve. If my sister cannot be restrained by
confinement, I may find it necessary to take sterner
measures.'
'Let's hope it doesn't come to that.'
"this is the door to the room,' the count said, producing
another key. He unlocked the door and opened it
wide. The sickening stench of blood and decaying flesh
washed out over them. By the flickering light of the torch, Sparhawk saw
immediately why this chamber had inspired such horror. A
rack stood in the centre of the blood-stained floor, and cruel
hooks jutted from the walls. He winced when he saw that
many of the hooks had gobbets of blackened flesh clinging
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to them. On one wall hung the gruesome implements of
the torturers trade, knives, pincers, branding irons and
needle-sharp hooks. There were also thum~screws and an
iron boot, as well as assorted whips.
This may take some time,' Sephrenia said, 'and we
must complete the task before morning. Kurik, take the
torch and hold it as high over your head as you can.
Sparhawk, hold the spear In readiness. Something may
try to interfere.' She took Bevier's arm and led him
towards the rack. 'All right, Bevier,' she said to him,
'wake up.'
Bevier blinked and looked around in confusion. 'What
is this place?' he said.
'You're here to watch, not to talk, Bevier,' she told him
crisply. She began to speak in Styric, her fingers moving
rapidly in the air in front of her. Then she pointed at the
torch to release the spell.
At first nothing seemed to happen, but then Sparhawk
saw a faint movement near the brutal rack. The figure
was dim and hazy at first, but then the torch flared up,
and he could see it more clearly. It was the form of a
woman, and he recognized her face. She was the
Pelosian woman he had seen emerging from the Styric
house in Chyrellos. Her face was also the face of the
succubus that had hovered over Bevier's bed earlier this
night. She was naked, and her face was exultant. In one
hand she held a long, cruel knife, in the other, a hook.
Gradually, another figure began to appear, strapped
down on the rack. The second figure appeared to be that
of a serf-girl, judging from her clothing. Her face was
contorted into an expression of mindless terror, and she
struggled futilely with her bonds.
The woman with the knife approached the bound figure
on the rack and with deliberate slowness began to cut her
clothing away. When the serf-girl had been
stripped, the count's sister methodically began on her
flesh, muttering all the while in an alien Styric dialect. The
serf-girl was screaming, and the look of cruel exultation on
Lady Bellina's face locked into a Hideous grin. Sparhawk
saw with revulsion that her teeth had been filed to points.
He looked away, unable to watch any longer, and he saw
Beviers face. The Arcian watched in horified disbelief as
Bellina gorged herself on the girl's flesh.
When it was done, blood was running from the corners
of Bellina's mouth, and her body was smeared with it.
Then the images changed. This time Bellina's victim
was a male, and he writhed on one of the hooks
protruding from the wall while Bellina slowly carved
small chunks from his body and ate them with relish.
One after another, the procession of victims continued.
Bevier was sobbing now and trying to cover his
eyes with his hands.
'No!' SePhrenia said sharPly, Pulling his hands down.
'You must see it all.'
On and on the horror went as victim after victim came
under Bellina's knife. The worst were all the children.
Sparhawk could not bear that.
And then, after an eternity of blood and agony, it was
over. Sephrenia looked intently into Beviers face. 'Do
you know who I am, Sir Knight?' she asked him.
'Of course,' he sobbed. 'Please, Lady Sephrenia,' he
begged, 'no more, I pray you.'
'How about this man?' She pointed at Sparhawk.
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"sir Sparhawk of the Pandion Order, my brother
knight.'
'And him?'
'Kurik, Sparhawk's squire.'
'And tHis gentleman?'
'Count Ghasek, the owner of this unhappy house.'
'And him?' She pointed at Occuda.
'He's the counts servant, a good and honest man.'
'is it still your intention to release the counts sister?'
'release her? Are you mad? That fiend belongs in the
deepest pit in hell.'
'it's worked,' Sephrenia said to Sparhawk. 'We won't
have to kill him now.' There was a great relief in her
voice.
Sparhawk cringed back from the implication of her
matter-of-fact tone.
'Please, My Lady,' Occuda said in a shaking voice, 'can
we go out of this horrible place now?'
"we're not finished yet. Now we come to the
dangerous part. Kurik, take the torch to the back of the
room. Go with him, Sparhawk, and be ready for
anything.'
Shoulder to shoulder the two slowly walked to the
back of the chamber. And then in the flickering torchlight
they saw the small stone idol set in a niche in the back wall.
It was grotesquely misshapen and had a hideous face.
'What is it?' Sparhawk gasped.
'That is Azash,' Sephrenia replied.
'Does He actually look like that?'
'Approximately. There are some things about Him that
are too horrible for any sculptor to capture.'
The air in front of the idol seemed to waver, and a tall,
skeletal figure in a hooded black robe suddenly appeared
between the image of Azash and Sparhawk. The green
glow coming out of the hood grew brighter and brighter.
'Don't look at its face!' Sephrenia warned them
sharply. 'Sparhawk, slide your left hand up the shaft of
the spear until you're holding the blade.'
He vaguely understood, and when his hand reached
the blade-socket, he felt an enormous surge of power.
The Seeker shrieked and flinched back from him, and
the glow from its face flickered and began to fade.
Grimly, step by step, Sparhawk advanced on the hooded
creature, holding the spear-blade out in front of him like
a knife. The Seeker shrieked again and then vanished.
'destroy the idol, Sparhawk,' Sephrenia commanded.
Still holding the spear, he reached forward with one
hand and took the idol from its niche. It seemed terribly
heavy, and it was hot to the touch. He raised it overhead
and dashed it to the floor where it shattered into
hundreds of pieces.
From high up in the house came a shriek of unutterable
despair.
'Done!' Sephrenia said. 'Your sister is powerless now,
Count Ghasek. The destruction of the image of her God
has bereft her of all supernatural capabilities, and I think
that were you to look at her, you'd find that she once
again appears as she did before she entered the Styric
house in Chyrellos.'
"I will never be able to thank you enough, Lady
Sephrenia,' he said with gratitude.
'Was that the same thing that's been following us?'
Kurik asked.
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Eddings, David - Elenium 2 - The Ruby Knight.txt
"Its image,' Sephrenia replied. 'Azash summoned it
when He realized that the idol was in danger.'
'if it was only an image, then it wasn't really
dangerous, was it?'
'Don't ever make that mistake, Kurik. The images
Azash summons are sometimes even more dangerous
than the real things.' She looked around with distaste.
'Let us leave this revolting place,' she suggested. 'Lock
the door again, Count Ghasek - for the time being. Later
on, it might be wise to wall up the entrance.'
'I'll see to it,' he promised.
They went back up the narrow stairs and returned to
the vaulted room where they had found the count. The
others had already gathered there.
'What was all that awful screaming?' Talen asked. The
boys face was pale.
'My sister, I'm afraid,' Count Ghasek replied sadly.
Kalten looked warily at Bevier. 'is it safe to talk about
her in front of him?' he quietly asked Sparhawk.
'He's all right now,' Sparhawk answered, 'and Lady
Bellina has been stripped of her powers.'
That's a relief. I wasn't sleeping too well under the
same roof with her.' He looked at Sephrenia. 'How did
you manage it?' he asked. To cure Bevier, I mean?'
'We found out how the lady was influencing others,'
she said. 'There's a spell that temporarily counteracts
that sort of thing. Then we went to a room in the cellar
and completed the cure.' She frowned. 'There's still a
problem, though,' she said to the count. 'That minstrel's
still out there. He's infected, and the servants you sent
away probably are as well. They can infect others, and
they could return with a large number of people. I cannot
remain here to cure them all. Our quest is far, far too
important for such delay.'
"I will send for armed men,' the count declared. "I have
enough resources for that, and I will seal up the gates of
the castle. If necessary, I will kill my sister to prevent her
escape.'
'You may not have to go that far, My Lord,' Sparhawk
told him, remembering something Sephrenia had said in
the cellar. 'Let's go and have a look at this tower.'
'You have a plan, Sir Sparhawk?'
'Let's not get our hopes up untill I see the tower.'
The count led them out into the courtyard. The storm
had largely passed. The lightning was flickering on the
eastern horizon now, and the pounding rain had
diminished to intermittent tatters that raked the shiny
stones of the yard. 'it's that one, Sir Sparhawk,' the count
said, pointing at the southeast corner of the castle.
Sparhawk took a torch from beside the entryway,
crossed the rainy courtyard and began His examination of
the tower. It was a squat, round structure perhaps
twenty feet high and fifteen or so in diameter. A stone
stairway wound half-way around the side of it to a solidly
barred and chained door at the top. The windows were
no more than narrow slits. There was a second door at
the base of the tower, and it was unlocked. Sparhawk
opened it and went inside. It appeared to be a storeroom.
Boxes and bags were piled along the walls, and the
room appeared dusty and unused. Unlike the tower,
however, the room was not round but semicircular
Buttresses jutted out from the walls to hold up the stone
floor of the chamber above. Sparhawk nodded with
satisfaction and went back outside again. 'What's behind
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that wall in this store-room, My Lord?' he asked the
count.
'There's a wooden staircase that runs up from the
kitchen, Sir Sparhawk. Intimes when the tower had to be
defended, the cooks could take food and drink to the
men up there. Occuda uses it now to feed my sister.'
'Do the servants you sent away know about the
stairway?'
'Only the cooks knew, and they were among the ones
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