Tower of Doom r-9

by Mark Anthony

  Jadis could not suppress the shudder that racked her body.

  Qoreon's scaly claws scratched against the stone windowsill. "Did I not warn you, Velvet-Claw? There is death in all the Wizard King touches."

  Rage flared in Jadis's brain. She grabbed a heavy silver candelabra and hurled it at the raven. "Begone with you, carrion-eater!" she snarled. The dark bird fluttered into the air, easily dodging the missile. "Tell Azalin that I am, as ever, his loyal Kargat. Tell him that he will have the knowledge he seeks. Now away with you!"

  She launched a heavy book at the window, but the raven had already spread its night-cloud wings to rise into the azure sky. Gradually, she forced her anger to cool.

  "That's more like it, love," she murmured. "Now finish what you came here for, and when you return to II Aluk, Azalin will make you whole and beautiful again." Her flesh began to ripple in transformation.

  It was midafternoon when Mika reached the cathedral. The forest parted to either side of the rutted track like a dark curtain, revealing the brooding ruins. She slipped from the back of the sturdy pony Lillen's husband, Elgar, had given her at Irsyla's stern command. The beast let out a nervous snort.

  "I know." Mika stroked the pony's gray-velvet muzzle reassuringly. "I feel it, too. It's as though› something is watching over this place. A presence. Whatever it is, I don't think it wants us here." She tied the pony's reins to a tree branch. Fighting her trepidation, she walked slowly up the crumbling steps to the gaping doorway of the cathedral. The shadows swallowed her up as she stepped within.

  The ruin looked to have been abandoned for centuries. Piles of rubble from the high-arched ceiling were heaped everywhere, and nettles pushed up through the cracked floor. Stone gargoyles leered down from high ledges, grins plastered on their weird mouths. A crimson miasma hung in the air, permeating the stones. The light came from stained-glass windows that seemed oddly out of place amid the decay and disintegration. They shone as brilliantly as they must have the day they were first raised into place, their myriad fragments of glass transformed into shards of sapphire, ruby, and emerald by the sunlight that poured through them. Three stained- glass windows high in the cathedral's nave captured Mika's attention. Slowly, she climbed the steps, gazing upward at the glowing windows. Each depicted a stern-faced knight clad in ornate, archaic armor, and bearing an antique broadsword. The mosaic had been fitted together so skillfully that the knights looked almost real-so real they seemed to follow her with eyes of smoked glass.

  Shuddering, Mika forced her eyes away from the windows. She found herself staring at the broad slab of dark porphyry that must have served as the altar. Like everything in the cathedral, the altar was covered with a thick layer of dust-except in the center. Here, there was a perfectly round space where the stone shone glossily, a circle about as large as…

  "Of course," she whispered excitedly. "This must be where Wort discovered the bell."

  Cautiously, she began to explore around the altar and nave. After some time she could only sigh in frustration. She found nothing save ancient spider- webs and the small bones of rats and birds. She sat down on a fallen chunk of stone, resting her chin on a hand, wondering what she should do next.

  That was when she saw them. They were almost completely obscured by dust and mold. Only now that the steep angle of sunlight cast deeper shadows could she just glimpse them. There were letters carved into the altar. She knelt, wiping away centuries of grime with her bare hands. At last she could make out archaic-looking words incised into the dark stone: In its breaking will the curse be lifted.

  "That's it," Mika murmured in realization. "That's how to free Wort. The bell has to be broken."

  Suddenly sure of what she had to do to, she gathered up her dress and turned to descend the steps. A strange sound halted her. It was an oddly dissonant chiming, like the tinkling of glass. The hairs on her arms pricked up. She stared at the floor in front of her. The glowing patches of colored illumination that fell from above were swirling and flowing. Slowly, Mika turned around, craning her neck upward.

  The armored knights in the stained-glass windows were moving. Like living creatures, they stretched their arms and shrugged their shoulders, as if struggling to free themselves of their imprisoning restraint. With a sound like breaking crystal, the knights pulled themselves free of the lead outlines that held them in place. They jumped to the floor. Slowly, deliberately, holding their glass swords before them, the stained-glass knights began to advance on Mika. Their eyes glowed hotly as though the sun still illuminated them.

  Mika tried to stumble backward, but her legs didn't seem to work. One of the knights turned sideways, and she nearly lost sight of it-they were no thicker than window panes. Then the knight turned to face her once more, gnashing its glass teeth hatefully. All that escaped her throat was a low sound. She could not scream. The knights of glass bore down on her, raising their shardlike swords.

  A ferocious snarl echoed around the cathedral. Like dark lightning, a shadow streaked from nowhere to crash into one of the glass knights. The knight stumbled, waving its sword wildly, then fell backward against the hard stone altar. With a deafening sound, the glass knight shattered into a thousand pieces of colored glass. Its eyes rolled across the floor like glowing marbles.

  Mika could only watch, paralyzed with fear, as the two knights turned to face the creature that had attacked them. It was some sort of huge, black- furred beast with ivory fangs, slashing claws, and a twitching tail. Yet the creature was also vaguely human in shape, and walked on two crouched legs. Though the beast was powerfully muscled, it moved with clumsy, lurching motions, as if wounded.

  The knights slashed at the beast, but it dodged their blows. It lunged again, shoving one of the knights forcefully against the other. The two stained- glass figures collided, exploding in splinters. A spray of shards rained to the floor with the din of a thousand chimes. The magical knights were no more.

  The beast turned in Mika's direction, stalking slowly toward her.

  "Please," Mika somehow managed to gasp through her constricted throat. "Please, make it swift." She squeezed her eyes shut.

  Oddly, a woman's voice spoke. "I do not intend to kill you."

  Mika's eyes fluttered open. Instead of a beast, a naked woman stood before her. The woman's hair was as dark and glossy as onyx, and her eyes glittered green and gold like a summer forest. Mika recognized the woman. The Lady Jadis. Dark blotches covered her body, but before Mika could study them, Jadis pulled a woolen dress from a small pack tied around her waist. Swiftly, the dark-haired woman donned the dress, concealing the strange bruises.

  "My lady Jadis," Mika said breathlessly, trying to adapt to this peculiar turn of events.

  Jadis nodded deferentially. "My lady Mika."

  Mika took a hesitant step forward. Whatever the lady was-r-woman or beast-she was obviously injured. "You're hurt, my lady. Will you let me examine you? Perhaps I could-"

  Jadis's sultry laughter cut her off. "Mo, my good doctor. Thank you. But I am afraid that you cannot cure me. Only one being can, and he is far away from this place."

  "I see." Mika could think of nothing else to say.

  "I had expected to find something of interest here, Doctor," Jadis mused. "I had not expected it to be you. Now, how does your presence here fit what is going on?"

  Mika shook her head. "I don't know what you mean, my lady."

  "No, Of course you don't." Jadis lurched closer. "Tell me, Doctor, if you will-why have you journeyed to this strange place?"

  Mika hesitated, wondering just what she ought to say. "I came to help a friend."

  "Let me guess-the hunchback in the bell tower?"

  Mika let out a small gasp. "How did you know?"

  "Oh, you'd be surprised, Doctor, at the things I know." Jadis smoothed her coal-dark hair. "You must tell me, why should you care for a lonely wretch everyone else despises? Is it simply your inherent goodness that compels you to such perverse extremes?"

  A
frown touched Mika's brow. "You say much I don't pretend to understand, my lady. I will tell you this. There is no one in this fiefdom who deserves my help more than Wort. Indeed, there is no one who has been more wronged."

  "How so?"

  Mika gazed at her defiantly..Why not speak the truth? "Wort is the true Baron of Nartok."

  "Is he?" Jadis purred with obvious fascination. She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what, Doctor. I have some information concerning your lover, the good baron, which you might be eager to hear. Let us make a bargain. My secrets for yours. What do you say?"

  Mika shivered. What sort of information could Jadis mean? There was only one way to find out. "Agreed," she whispered.

  The two women spoke for a long time in the gloom of the cathedral. First Mika explained why she had come to the cathedral-to find some way to free Wort from the dark power of the cursed bell and to keep him from committing any more murders. Then she spoke of what she had learned about the unusual circumstances surrounding the births of Caidin and Wort.

  When it was the other's turn, Mika found herself utterly hypnotized by Jadis's dark revelations. Jadis was a servant of King Azalin of Darkon himself, and had been sent to spy upon Caidin. Mika listened in growing horror as Jadis described in detail all the abominable actions Caidin had taken in his pursuit of the throne of Darkon-from the false inquisition in which hundreds of innocent people had been executed, to the building of the tower on the moor accomplished by his army of zombies.

  This was the fiend who had held her in his arms. He had kissed her lips lingeringly again and again. Now the thought made Mika want to vomit.

  At last Jadis was done with her tale. "Can we consider the bargain fulfilled, my lady?" she asked with a smile that was somehow both kind and wicked.

  "Yes," Mika barely managed to choke out the word.

  "Then I bid you farewell." In a surprising gesture, Jadis reached out and gripped Mika's hand warmly. "You may have saved my life after all."

  Mika smiled wanly. "And you may have saved my soul."

  As the shadows of afternoon lengthened further, the two women left the cavernous cathedral. Mika mounted the pony once more. The beast let out a frightened snort, and when she looked up Mika thought she saw a black shadow speed into the forest. In a heartbeat it was gone. She nudged the pony into a trot, starting the long journey back.

  "How could I have loved such a fiend, my dear ones?" she whispered as she gripped the golden locket. Yet she had not really. The feelings Caidin had instilled in her had been anything but love. At least now she knew the truth. Not only was he a bastard, he was the monster as well. A resolved expression took her face. She was more determined than ever to help Wort.

  Behind her, in the silent cathedral, the waning rays of the sun filtered across the dark stone altar. Gradually the angle of the light grew steeper, revealing another row of words carved into the ancient rock:… and by its final tolling will the dead awaken.

  Eighteen

  In human form, Jadis roamed the corridors of Nartok Keep. Startled courtiers leapt out of her path, revulsion written across their faces. The high-necked dress she wore could no longer conceal the decay that ravaged her body. Livid blotches stained her hands and face, and her glossy hair was falling out in clumps. Walking was arduous now-it felt as if her legs were carved of wood. Her right arm was still functional, but the left dangled uselessly from her shoulder. Even breathing was difficult. She had to make a constant effort of it, forcing her lungs to fill with air and then expel it again in a rank cloud.

  A maidservant screamed, dropping a tray of dishes. Wailing in fright, she dashed away down the corridor. Jadis did not notice or care. In minutes she would have the knowledge for which she had journeyed to Nartok. Then she would stumble into the carriage waiting outside the keep-the carriage that would bear her rapidly back to II Aluk. She had only to stay alive in the meantime. When she reached Avernus, she knew, King Azalin would heal her decomposing body.

  "You shall see, love," she whispered to herself. "You will be more beautiful than ever."

  At last she reached the chamber where a terrified servant had stuttered that she would find the baron. She barged through the door. Beyond was a spacious sitting chamber. Its walls were lined with heavily laden bookshelves, but the other furnishings were spare, limited to a pair of velvet chairs spaced some distance apart. In one of these, Baron Caidin looked up with a bemused expression.

  "What? No polite knock, my lady? Have we surrendered all the niceties, then?"

  Jadis curled her lip into a snarl. "As you said yourself, Caidin, this little charade has grown wearisome."

  She hobbled into the chamber as a genuinely startled look crossed the baron's face. Strangely, this gave her some satisfaction.

  "What is wrong, Caidin?" she said in a slurred voice. "Do you no longer find me desirable?"

  His eyes narrowed in disgust as he regained his composure. "I might, my lady, were I a vulture with a taste for carrion."

  Jadis glared at him hatefully.

  "But please," he went on indulgently, "won't you sit down?"

  Caidin gestured for her to sit in the chair opposite him, and this she did clumsily. As she sank down into the velvet cushion, she had the distinct impression that the chair shifted beneath her.

  "You seem oddly calm, Your Grace," she began musingly.

  "Oh? Why is that?"

  "I would have thought that a baron who was about to be executed by his own subjects might get a bit more apprehensive. I understand the rabble plan on assaulting the keep in force tonight. And in an effort to save their precious, powdered necks, most of the members of your court-ever the pragmatists, you see-plan to join in the fun when the peasants clap you in irons and drag you to the dungeon."

  Caidin pressed his hands into a steeple shape before him. "Oh, I wouldn't be surprised if the peasants found themselves a bit too preoccupied for an uprising tonight."

  Jadis licked her peeling lips. "Why is that?"

  "Enough about myself," Caidin sidestepped smoothly. "What brings you to see me, my lady?"

  Gathering her wits, Jadis proceeded carefully. "We're going to have a conversation, Your Grace, and it's going to go like this. You will tell me something I wish to know. Then I Will tell you something that I am quite certain you yourself will very much wish to know.

  "You see, I've learned some interesting details concerning your birth, Your Grace." Jadis allowed herself a caustic laugh. "But that title isn't really appropriate, is it?" Smugly, she noticed the flicker of alarm that passed over his countenance. "Perhaps you can tell me. What is the proper aristocratic term for bastard?"

  Caidin's composed expression shattered. "How do you know that?" he hissed.

  "It is unimportant. All that matters is that, somewhere on the edge of your fiefdom, a courier awaits a message from me. His instructions are such that if by sundown tonight he does not receive this message-and indeed it is a simple message, but a single word-this courier will ride hard to I) Aluk and deliver to a select set of nobles some very exciting news concerning Baron Caidin of Nartok.",

  Caidin gripped the arms of his chair in white- knuckled fury. Jadis shook with mirth.This was simply too wonderful.

  "I will be ruined," he whispered hoarsely.

  "Precisely, Your Grace. If word spreads among the nobility of Darkon that you are a bastard, you are finished. No noble will bend his knee to an illegitimate ruler. In their utter contempt, the nobility will never support you. I would give you two weeks on the throne before you were assassinated. Perhaps less."

  "Very good, Jadis," Caidin said in open admiration. "Very, very good. You're right, of course. I would indeed like to know this one remarkable word that would stay the courier's spurs. And let me postulate as to what piece of information you wish to receive in return." He clenched his hand into a fist. "Could it be how I intend to depose Azalin in his castle of Avernus with a tower that presently stands in my fiefdom?"

  "Your Grace ca
n read my mind," Jadis replied with mock demureness.

  "Very well, Jadis. I will tell you what I intend to do. In fact, I do not think it will help your master very much, even if you manage to survive long enough to deliver the news." He eyed the dark splotches on her hands.

  "Get on with it," she snapped.

  Soon her anger was replaced by fascination as she listened to the dark words the baron spoke. When he finished, Jadis could barely suppress a shudder. The fiendishness of Caidin's plan surprised even her. However, now she had what she had come for. She had to return to II Aluk without delay. "You have fulfilled your end of the bargain, Caidin. Once I am outside the keep, I will fulfill mine." She started to push herself out of the velvet chair.

  "I wouldn't do that if I were you, my lady."

  Something in Caidin's voice made her hesitate.

  "In fact, I think you would do well to stay seated in that chair and proceed to tell me just where I might find this courier of yours, and what word I must speak to him." N

  Jadis studied him with calculating eyes. "And what, pray tell, would compel me to do that?"

  Caidin stood and approached a small wooden shelf near the door. On it was a small object concealed by a black cloth.

  "You see, my lady," he explained matter-of-factly, "the square of stone upon which your chair stands is sensitive to the weight that rests upon it. The slab is attached to a rope and pulley beneath the floor, which is in turn attached to the rod that supports this shelf. Should you leave the chair, the rope will move, and the support will be pulled out from under the shelf. As a result, the glass jar beneath this cloth will fall to the floor and shatter."

  Jadis frowned. "I fail to see why a jar shattering should bother me."

  "Oh, normally it shouldn't," Caidin concurred. "Except this is no ordinary jar, but is instead an enchanted prison for a most interesting creature."

  He pulled away the dark cloth. Crimson flames danced and shimmered inside the glass jar. Jadis thought she glimpsed a tiny, humanlike being amid the flickering fire, but she could not be certain. The flames were too bright to gaze at directly.