But all was as should be. Safrag controlled the Fire Rose. The ogre race was his to shape, with the world to follow. The mongrel who had dared sit upon the throne and who played at being Grand Khan was presently a frozen monument to both his folly and Safrag’s inevitable victory.
Caught up in the artifact’s splendor, Safrag paid little mind to subtle changes taking place around him. The thick stone walls bubbled and breathed, changed shade and texture, sometimes seeming as if turning to flesh. Scrolls and tomes on the shelves shivered and flared bright red. A few of the former uncurled as if alive and possibly hungry. Other arcane artifacts shifted position or looked to be melting. A vial transformed into a glowing, green crystal. Small creatures of light-literal fireflies-formed in the air, danced, then burned away.
All that was lost on Safrag. His eyes grew wider and more pale with hints of snow. His skin also paled, remaining blue but with a touch of gold. His features shifted slightly, as if he were becoming another person, one with more ursine traits. Even his garments did not remain untouched, for they flowed as if living.
Also lost on him was the fact that, despite having sealed his sanctum from even those most in his favor, Safrag was no longer alone. Behind him, several of the fiery lights suddenly swirled together. They coalesced into a tall, blazing form-a figure of flame. The flames then stilled for the most part, revealing a watcher who stood not quite as tall as the Titan yet loomed over him like a giant. There was in his face a semblance of elf, human, ogre, dwarf, even kender, and yet in no manner was he related to any of those races. His face was long and angular, and his skin was the color of ash left by a terrible blaze. He wore a mane of rich, red-orange hair that flickered and danced as if wild fire.
But most arresting were his eyes, burning orbs that were long and narrow like those of Safrag, but ever changing of color. They were gold like the sun, red like the deepest blood, brilliant blue, and finally utter white. They were all the colors of flame and shifted from one to the other as rapidly as fire burned.
The god Sirrion watched with amusement as Safrag continued to be mesmerized by his creation. The fiery figure casually stretched his hand to the side. A yellowed scroll flew into his palm. As it landed, it burst into flame. Within less than a heartbeat, there were not even any ashes remaining.
Sirrion’s expression mirrored that of someone who had just devoured a tasty meal. He gave one last cheerful glance at Safrag then became a scattering of tiny fiery forms that dissipated a moment later.
Only at that point did Safrag stir. The Fire Rose dimmed. Most but not all of the transformations faded away with it. Here and there, including on Safrag himself, there were still slight alterations, but only the discerning eye would have noted them.
The lead Titan glanced around as if expecting to see something or someone. When that did not happen, he returned his attention to the care of the artifact. With a gesture, the chamber around him shifted, the walls moving here and there and a doorway suddenly appearing on one part of the sanctum.
All that surrounded Safrag had once belonged to his master. Safrag had worked long and hard to know all the secret chambers hidden by Dauroth’s sorcery. Before him lay the most important, for it was where he kept the Fire Rose when forced to part from it.
As the iron door swung open, a chill wind flowed from the other side. Ignoring it, Safrag stepped through. He stood in a frost- and snow-covered room. Safrag thought of it as the Chamber of Ice. It was the one place where he could be certain that the Fire Rose would be not only safe, but subdued.
More than twenty tall mounds resembling stalagmites dotted the floor of the unsettling room. Safrag eyed the first of the snowy piles, each rising more than ten feet in height. As he approached, one hand rose in anticipation.
And at that moment, the nearest mounds shook from within. Snow and ice broke away. A set of grasping, flesh-less fingers burst from one then another. The mounds shattered.
Four skeletal ogre warriors stood with weapons ready. Bits of armor and skin still clung to the yellowed bones. The eyes were nothing but black sockets that fixed upon the Titan.
One of the undead raised its rusted but still serviceable axe.
“Asymnopti isidiu,” sang Safrag.
But the skeletal guards did not return to their mounds as commanded. Instead, the first took a menacing step forward, its actions immediately mimicked by the other four. A fifth and sixth mound shook.
“Asymnopti isidiu,” the lead Titan repeated more sternly.
The undead had the audacity to continue to menace him. The two new warriors followed the example of the four. In the background, other mounds began quivering.
Safrag started to gesture then thought better of it. Instead he grinned and held up the Fire Rose.
His desire alone stirred it to raging life. Awash in its glorious light, the skeletal guards hesitated.
The Titan made his wish be known to the artifact.
The Fire Rose blazed.
As one, the skeletons curled into themselves. Their bones became fluid, wrapping around and around until each was bound by itself. The tightening of the bodies forced the skulls to gaze up.
A thick, white substance secreted from the bones, spilling over the undead guardians. It caked the bones until nothing remained but a smooth, white column of ivory the size of each warrior.
Safrag found himself panting not from exertion, but more from excitement. Not only had the skeletons converging on him been altered, but so had those not yet stirring. The Fire Rose had been very thorough in carrying out his wishes.
Why the guardians had not obeyed the original spell only then occurred to Safrag. They had been created to heed only the voice of Dauroth. Safrag had always used his power to perfectly imitate his former master, but in the afterglow of using the Fire Rose in his sanctum, he had forgotten.
The mistake was no longer important. The guards were not needed anyway. Safrag had installed other safety measures far more insidious.
The Titan leader turned back to the doorway then recalled that he had entered to put the artifact away. With great reluctance, Safrag wound his way around the hard mounds to where a black, iron chest lay half buried in the ice. With a wave of one hand, he opened the chest. Within, a clear, thick liquid untouched by the cold slowly rippled.
Safrag bent down, holding the Fire Rose just above the surface. Dauroth had created that liquid to subdue the primal forces of a fragment of the Fire Rose, and Safrag used it with the same goal in mind. However, he hesitated, thinking that perhaps he might wield the crystalline structure one last time, just to be certain that he understood its functioning.
At last, fighting the temptation, Safrag set the artifact in the chest. As he reluctantly pulled his hand free, not one hint of moisture remained on him.
His return from the pocket realm to his main sanctum was greeted by a slight red shift in the outer chamber’s illumination. It was a silent signal cast by Safrag to inform him when someone sought entrance to his lair.
He had no doubt exactly what the visitation concerned. His expression masked, Safrag had the door open before him.
There were six of them, six of the more persistent objectors, including three from the inner circle. Kulgrath was among those and most likely the instigator of the confrontation. Safrag noted that for later.
“Great Master,” the instigator sang with a low bow. Behind Kulgrath, the others followed suit.
“Kulgrath. Gadjul.” Safrag acknowledged the names of the other four as well. His pointed naming of each made two of the lesser sorcerers visibly shrink. None wanted to earn Safrag’s wrath.
Kulgrath eyed him oddly. “Master, you are well?”
“Should I not be?”
Kulgrath quickly abandoned whatever stray notion had caused him to ask the impertinent question. “The Fire Rose … we felt its majesty. We felt it call out.”
“I made some tests of its abilities,” Safrag said with a slight nod. “That’s what you felt.”
; “And all was in order?”
The lead Titan’s eyes did not betray his impatience. “Of course. It was to be expected.”
Kulgrath steeled himself. “Then it is now our chance to wield it? Under your guidance, naturally?”
“Not yet.”
His answer came so quickly and with such finality that the other sorcerers visibly started. Kulgrath’s eyes flared ever so briefly before the other Titan recalled himself. Bowing low, he replied, “But surely very, very soon. The artifact is straightforward in its use.”
Safrag turned from him; the lead Titan was bored with the conversation. “There are intricacies. You must all learn patience.”
“The populace is growing restive, Master,” interjected Gadjul. “They await their great ascension.”
“And they, too, must learn patience,” the Titan leader replied without looking back. “They, too, must learn patience.”
He continued down the corridor as if they no longer stood there. The other Titans glanced at Kulgrath, who did not hide his mounting frustration from them.
“We must learn patience,” he muttered. “First from Morgada, now him. Patience …”
Kulgrath glanced at Gadjul then made a brief gesture for the others to follow. Kulgrath and the group journeyed down the corridor in the direction that Safrag had gone.
All, that was, save Gadjul.
With one last look at his disappearing companions, the lone Titan quickly drew a circular pattern in front of the door to Safrag’s sanctum. The pattern was a complicated one with smaller, curved figures within the main body that represented a mirror image of the larger. Gadjul drew the pattern with ease, clearly having practiced it for some time.
Once finished, he stepped back. There was no hint in his expression of concern that he might be caught. Rather, Gadjul exuded confidence.
Under his breath, he sang a single word, the key to the pattern’s function. The pattern shimmered then drifted to the door.
A blue haze surrounded the entrance. The blue shifted to green, then red, then finally white.
The sorcerer smiled. The hidden protections had been temporarily nullified.
Gadjul gestured at the door.
Iron tentacles shot forth from the door, seizing the startled Titan. They wrapped around his limbs and torso, even his throat. Gone from his expression was the arrogant confidence; only utter fear was on Gadjul’s face.
Titans were powerful not only in sorcery, but also in physical strength. Gadjul gripped the metallic tentacles around his throat and right arm and pulled with all his might. Yet his efforts barely slowed the attack.
He blurted out a short spell. Moisture suddenly drenched the monstrous limbs. They began to rust. The change was accompanied by creaking.
But just as quickly, a gray aura spread over the tentacles. In its wake, the aura left the tentacles pristine again.
Gadjul let out a gagging sound that was as much due to his astonishment as it was to the tightening around his throat.
The tentacles dragged him toward the door. In desperation, the Titan dug his heels into the floor, but Safrag’s sinister guardian relentlessly pulled him closer.
Gadjul desperately thrust a hand against the door.
The hand plunged in. Worse, when the sorcerer attempted to pull it free, it would not come out.
One foot also sank in, followed by the rest of the one arm. Gadjul’s nose touched the door.
With one final, almost indifferent tug, the tentacles shoved the hapless Titan into the door. Gadjul was able to let out only a desperate murmur before he vanished.
The door resumed its original appearance. Silence reigned.
A moment later, Gadjul went flying out as if spewed from a giant mouth. He collided with the opposing wall and fell to the floor.
The door once more stilled.
A thick, iron-gray sap caked the shivering, wide-eyed sorcerer. Gadjul managed to stumble to his feet. Half mad, he stared first at the door then down the corridor where Kulgrath and the others had long vanished.
Mouth agape and still shivering, Gadjul fled in the opposite direction, grateful merely to be alive.
He had not escaped. Gadjul knew that he had been released. He had survived only at the mercy of Safrag, who had hidden that spell-protected magical minion in the door for just such intrusions.
But the departing Gadjul knew one other thing: The next time someone sought uninvited entrance to the master’s lair, they would not be as fortunate as he.
V
REUNION
Golgren and Tyranos landed with a heavy thud. The half-breed made a grab for the wizard’s staff but failed to grasp it as the wizard bounced in the opposite direction.
“This is your doing!” the robed figure growled as he came to a halt next to a large outcropping.
“No,” was all Golgren answered. He rolled to his feet and was not surprised when Tyranos stood up almost as quickly. The wizard was very agile, very athletic for one of his calling.
And that again reinforced suspicions that Golgren had always had concerning his “ally.”
The deposed Grand Khan looked around. While the mountains bore a similar appearance, he was sure those that surrounded him were not all that far from the citadel. They had the same bleak, skeletal look to them and radiated a familiar sense of despair. Whatever had caused the pair to be transported there did not seem to want to send him very far from his objective.
He glanced down at the signet.
“Don’t put too much stock in that bauble, oh great one,” Tyranos sneered. “Against the Fire Rose, it is worth nothing.”
“And so I should hand it over to you, perhaps?”
The wizard snorted. “Keep it if you like.”
Golgren turned from Tyranos, more interested in determining just where he was. He considered demanding that the spellcaster bring him to the top of one of the peaks so he could orient himself, but there was always the chance that the wizard might just leave him there.
Something glittered in the gloom surrounding them. That should not have been possible, but when Golgren focused on the teasing flicker, it appeared to be Sir Stefan Rennert.
Coinciding with that, the signet glowed brighter.
“What-?” Tyranos began, but the half-breed was already moving toward the distant, much-too-bright figure. Golgren thought the knight stared back at him. Certainly the knight’s hand rose as if to greet Golgren.
He tried not to blink as he increased his pace. Golgren was certain what would happen if he did.
But in the end, he could not help himself, and though it was perhaps no more than a second at most that his vision faltered, that was long enough. The Solamnic was no longer there.
However, there was something else descending from above. The size and the wings spoke of one creature: a gargoyle.
Though the ring still glowed, Golgren did not trust it to protect him. Teeth bared, he snatched up a rock and crouched, ready to throw it with practiced accuracy at the head of the beast.
Tyranos clutched his shoulder. “Hold on! That’s not one of his! It’s Chasm! I can sense that!”
Aware of the wizard’s link to his gargoyle servant, Golgren lowered the rock. He eyed the nearing creature and finally noticed that Chasm carried a slighter form in his grip.
“Idaria,” the half-breed whispered.
The duo descended. With a rumble, Chasm gently lowered the elf in front of Golgren. She moved with some unsteadiness toward him. Her hair was disheveled, almost completely covering her face. Her gown, already well worn, was closer to tatters.
“My lord,” the slave murmured, bowing her head. Her face was even more pale than normal.
“Do not look down when you speak with me,” Golgren commanded. “You, my Idaria, must always look me in the eye.”
As she did as he bade, Tyranos interjected himself into the situation. “And where’s the cleric? Where’s the Solamnic?”
Idaria’s gaze fell to the ground again. “Sir Stefan …
he is dead.”
Golgren raised her chin so she again looked at him. For a brief moment, the glow of the signet revealed her surprise that it once more graced his hand. “Speak of this! When and where?”
She told them, leaving out none of the terrible details. The knight had been trying to rescue her when the macabre creatures serving the gargoyle king had surrounded them. They had seized Stefan, and one of them had slain him with his own sword. His body had been tossed to a corner where the gargoyles deposited their refuse.
Chasm nodded vigorously in support of her story. They also gave an account of their escape. In the telling, though, the tale expanded to reveal more about the dread master of the citadel and his desires. Golgren and Tyranos did not interrupt, both keenly aware that to do so might cause some memories to lapse and, thus, vital knowledge to be lost.
“He claims utter ownership of you,” she told Golgren. “From before your very birth! He says that you would not even exist if not for his desire.”
“There is some sense in that,” Tyranos muttered, despite a glare from the half-breed. “Ogres and elves … the mix is not a workable one.”
“No less so than a human and an Uruv Suurt,” Golgren returned.
The wizard opened his mouth to retort then clamped it shut. His eyes blazed.
“So,” continued Golgren, “I am to be his hound so that he might have the Fire Rose. I-”
Chasm suddenly began hopping up and down. “They come. They come!”
Screeches filled the air.
“Brace yourselves-” the wizard began.
But as he spoke, the signet flared brighter. Light crackled around them, light that shaped itself. The foursome was abruptly surrounded by shining silver shields stacked one upon the other, so they were covered from all sides and overhead.
The cries of the great flock drew closer.
“I had thought we lost them,” Idaria muttered. “Forgive me! I should have warned you-”
Golgren silenced her with a wave of his hand. He listened to the thunder of flapping wings. The minions of their foe were upon them.
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