by Неизвестный
" I feel it, also," said Knoton.
" And I. This is what holds us in the maze? This?" Inyx walked around the marble pedestal studying the grisly sight. " Only the flesh from the sorcerer' s skull exerts magical power enough to keep us in the Twistings?"
" Every part of Claybore is potent," explained Lan. " Even the skin from his face."
" But it seems so minor!" protested the woman. She drew her sword and started to slash at the head.
" Wait," said Knoton, holding her arm and preventing the stroke. " Wait for what Lan Martak has to say."
" Hmmm, oh, thanks, Knoton. You' re right. Destroying it physically isn' t possible. It must be done magically." Lan' s attention drifted from the others and back to the spell Abasi- Abi had spent much of his lifetime perfecting. If a truly major portion of Claybore' s body had been found, Lan doubted the spell would have worked, that he had the expertise to cast it. But for such a minor bodily artifact, he thought he might be successful.
He took the leather- bound grimoire and chanted the complex spell repeatedly. All around him rose a shimmering curtain of energy, cutting him off from the others, making him an island unto himself. This battle had to be fought alone, using weapons he scarcely comprehended. A dead sorcerer' s spell turned against a living, disembodied sorcerer' s flesh- and Lan Martak was the agent delivering the potent magical energies.
He controlled and guided immense flows. At first he thought he failed. He kept on, persisting until sweat flowed in thick rivers down his face. Lan never once wiped away the perspiration. His concentration had to be perfect, his chanting impeccable.
" It' s changing shape," cried Inyx. " Keep on, Lan. You' re doing it!"
Lan Martak scarcely heard her. He had caught a tiny thread, teased it, pulled on it. This led him to a slightly larger string, then to a cable. He tugged harder and harder until elation mounted inside.
" Almost there. Almost have it. Almost oh, yes, there!"
The potent spells locked in Claybore' s facial skin vanished, but in that instant of dissipation a gateway between worlds opened.
Lan Martak faced the fleshless skull and limbless torso of Claybore, master mage and would- be conqueror.
" You' ve ruined my face, worm. My face is destroyed! So shall yours be!" The deep eye sockets clouded over, then boiled with the turbulence of ruby death. The beams shone forth directly at Lan, but he had encountered these before and lived. The beams deflected from his body. Behind, he heard the very walls of the Twistings begin to sizzle and burn.
" This is only the beginning, Claybore," said Lan in slow, measured tones. " I failed miserably when you regained your body. No longer. Your face is gone forever. So shall your tongue go."
" My tongue?" The death beams winked out. " How do you know about that?"
Lan allowed the control spells he held to weaken. The gateway between him and Claybore vanished. It was a pathetic gesture, this taunting of the sorcerer, but it was all Lan could do. At the moment.
" Are you all right?" asked Knoton, hurrying to the human' s side. Strong metals arms supported Lan.
" All right? I' m great!"
" You destroyed it, Lan. The skin is gone. Nothing but ash left. And even more important, the geas holding us inside the Twistings is lifted. I can' t feel it anymore."
" Yes, it' s gone," he agreed. Weakly, he cast forth magical tendrils, seeking out the Lord of the Twistings' spells. Most had vanished. " And the Lord knows what has happened. He underestimated us. He thought his minor traps and the maze creatures would stop us. He' s lost!"
" Come along, then. Let' s find the entry point and put a real end to him," declared Knoton.
" He' s mine," said Inyx.
" I want him," Lan said.
" We can argue over it on our way out. Free!" screamed Knoton. " We are free of the Twistings!"
Lan indicated one of the giant holes blasted through the wall by Claybore' s ruby death beam. They climbed through to rejoin Krek and the others. Lan felt elated at his victory; he also felt as if every bone in his body had turned to water.
" Help me, Inyx," he said. " Otherwise, I' ll fall flat on my face."
" If you do, we go together," she said.
They hurried off to the entry point, following Knoton and his mechanicals.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
" Slow down, Knoton," called out Lan. " I can' t keep up."
" Don' t worry about him," said Inyx. " He senses release from the Twistings. He' s been trapped here for five years- and I think he might be guessing wrong. There' s never anything to indicate the passage of time."
" Knoton' s time sense is accurate. He runs an internal clock," said Krek. " An admirable ability, always knowing what time it is. Though what use it would be to a mountain arachnid, I cannot say offhand. We swing so freely, the breezes gently caressing our furry legs, swinging us in our webs. Ah, yes, how I long for those days. It will be good to escape this infernal underground."
" Krek," said Lan. " Stop the mechanicals. There might be traps ahead they can' t detect."
" Nothing stands between them and freedom now."
Lan still worried. The destruction of Claybore' s face had lifted the geas holding them in the maze. Obviously, the longer in the Twistings, the more powerful the spell became on an individual. That also meant the urge to flee, once the geas lifted, would be greater in those who' d been the longest in the maze world.
" Up ahead. There is the entry point, friend Lan Martak."
Lan cursed his weakness from so much magic use, but there wasn' t anything he could do now but rest and recoup his energy. He felt as if he' d been battered and beaten by Claybore' s entire grey legion. Magic required a different set of responses, ones he still had great difficulty controlling.
" No!" came the anguished shriek from inside the room.
Lan momentarily forgot his tiredness and sprinted forward, outdistancing both Inyx and Krek. Inside the room, metallic fists pounding on the vault door, stood Knoton.
" It won' t open. We can' t make it open."
Lan closed his eyes and cast forth his magical senses. What he encountered only added to his tiredness. He sank to the floor, sitting cross- legged.
" It' s worse than you think, Knoton," he said. " The Lord has permanently sealed the vault door. The spells operating it have been cancelled and, as if that' s not enough, he has ordered his technicians to weld it shut. Feel the heat seeping through? No amount of work on our part will open this way again."
" Trapped for eternity," wailed the mechanical.
" Perhaps not," spoke up Krek. " The Lord of the Twistings entered once to taunt us. He vanished in a part of the maze some little distance from this point. This might indicate another entrance- and a potential exit. After all, he hardly expected to go to the room containing Claybore' s skin by traversing his own maze."
Lan snapped his head up and around to stare at the spider. His brain refused to think. Exhaustion poured into his body like melted tar. But the spider was right.
" We did think he vanished too quickly to ever reach this room," he said. " And the Lord wouldn' t want to go through so much of the maze to get to his precious skin down in the room where we just were. He' s got an entrance other than this one! He has to!"
" And one leading to his playroom," said Inyx. " I' d bet on it. He dotes on the smaller man- trap mazes he keeps there. He seldom leaves that damned room, but when he does, I' ll bet he comes down into the Twistings to gloat over his fine creations."
" Let' s go do some wall tapping," suggested Lan. He got to his feet, legs almost refusing to support his weight. Going to the forlorn Knoton, he put an arm around the cool metal shoulder and said, " We' re beaten- this round. Next one will be ours."
The pair left the sealed vault door behind, never looking back.
" The scouts have worked the entire area," said Inyx, " and they' ve not found a single hidden corridor or room."
" It' s there," said Lan. " I know it. The Lord isn'
t the kind to have only one way out of his hidey- hole."
Knoton clanked in and propped himself against a wall. His left leg still dragged slightly, and there hadn' t been time to fix the dents in his head caused by Krek' s talons. The mechanical had seen better days.
" We found a hidden room," he said without preamble.
" What? Where?" demanded Lan. " Show me."
" A word first with you- and Inyx."
Lan and the woman exchanged quick glances. This was unexpected. They knew the mech wanted out, and this might be the path. Why stand around and discuss anything?
" We are on the brink of escape," said Knoton. " When you destroyed the facial skin of this sorcerer, you told me that we would decide who got to kill the Lord of the Twistings. I want him. That is my condition for aiding you and telling where this room is in the maze."
" Do you hate him so?" asked Lan. " He' s cast you in, yes, but you' d keep us in the Twistings just for revenge?"
" Humans are treacherous," snapped Knoton. Softening his tone a little he said, " I am sorry. You have shown yourselves to be honorable. This is something I do not expect out of nonmechanical life forms."
" Humph," sniffed Krek. The spider turned away, already miffed at the turn the conversation took.
" I have as much claim on him," said Inyx. " What he did to me was insane. He must be punished."
" We all have good claim against him, but you' re forgetting something. Even after we' re out of the Twistings, there' s an entire army to contend with. We have to assume Claybore still supports him. While the skin is gone, the entire world remains a plump- enough prize. Unless I miss my guess, Alberto Silvain is no fool. He' ll defend the Lord ably." Lan sat back, arms crossed on his chest. " When we escape, it must be one convulsive burst outward, with force. We have to convince Silvain that the Lord is no longer in control, that the object he seeks for his master is already destroyed."
" Silvain would never fight for the Lord without the promise of recovering Claybore' s skin," said Inyx, sureness in her voice. " You' re right, Lan. Convince Silvain and he will not fight for the Lord. He' d kill the Lord in an instant. But he' s another one I want: Alberto Silvain."
" Let' s come to a quick agreement that we' d all love to see all these men punished. After we' re out, we might even be in control. If so, we can discuss the matter further, at leisure when we can look at this from many different perspectives. But let' s first get out of the Twistings."
" Agreed," said Inyx. She looked to Knoton. The mechanical hesitated, then gave a quick head nod.
" To this room you' ve found. May it lead us right up into the center of the Lord' s palace!"
" It' s a relatively simple spell," Lan explained. " I' m not going to have any trouble at all with it."
" But?" asked Inyx. " You' re hesitating. That' s not like you, Lan."
" I don' t know what we' ll find on the other side. The grey- clad soldiers still support the Lord. I' d feel better if we had some sort of cat' s- paw to shove through ahead of us."
" Like the maze creatures?" piped up Krek. " I have noticed them following us. Their voracity has not diminished one iota since the geas was lifted. If anything, they become bolder."
" Can you herd them into this room?"
" Of course," answered the spider. He lumbered off to begin assembling the cappers, blue monsters, and others.
" Stand back. This might be dangerous." Lan chanted his spells and felt the wards diminish before him. In less than a minute the last of the spells collapsed.
The way into the Lord of the Twistings' palace opened to them.
" I was right!" exclaimed Inyx. " That' s his playroom." She peered around the edge of the doorway, obviously eager to go through and find the man who had imprisoned them all in the Twistings.
" Hey- yahhhh!" came the cry from the corridor. Knoton, Lan, and Inyx jumped back in time to avoid being crushed under the waddling might of dozens of the blue eating creatures. They yammered, jaws snapping, and charged forth into the Lord' s playroom. Behind came a legion of cappers, drifting along, tiny hands wiggling in front. And behind them, mandibles clashing together in order to keep the herd moving in the proper direction, rolled Krek.
" That ought to soften up the opposition," said Lan. " Knoton, get your troops together. We' ve got a ruler to depose!"
Lan turned to find Inyx, but the dark- haired woman had already left the Twistings. He hurried after, death tube in hand. The device had grown progressively weaker after each usage, and Lan worried that it might fail him now. Still, it provided a better weapon than his dagger.
" Inyx!" he called. " Where are you?" He listened and heard sounds of battle coming from the next room. The man tried to re- create the floor plan of the palace; he thought the noise came from the audience chamber. He hurried to find out.
The enormous room had been filled with the voracious maze creatures. Finding more food than they had had during their entire existence in the Twistings, the beasts devoured unsuspecting soldiers and dismembered slow- moving mechanicals. The soldiers fought halfheartedly, wanting more to run than fight. Lan didn' t blame them. Such carnage wasn' t seen often, even on the most hard- won of human battlefields. After all, humans don' t stop to eat their victims.
" Away!" came a familiar voice. " Away, back to the Twistings!" The words carried more than a demand; magics laced them, as well. Lan even hesitated on hearing the command, feeling the spell' s power, wanting to return. Then he got a better grip on himself. He was exhausted, but he wasn' t beaten into the ground.
Lan homed in on the Lord. The man stood in the center of the large stage, arms upraised, head tossed back, imploring the powers to drive away the hordes wrecking his audience chamber. A quick vault brought Lan onto the stage. The Lord lowered his gaze, staring directly into Lan' s eyes. There was no sign of recognition.
" Why do you do this to me?" the ruler asked, his voice hurt and childlike.
" You don' t recognize these creatures? They live in the Twistings. And the humans, the mechanicals, the hybrids? Those are people you exiled."
" I don' t understand."
But Lan did. The man played for time. He felt the stirrings of magical powers all around. He immediately began building counterspells, but the Lord had the edge. Years of practice, years of malevolence, had honed his powers to an edge sharper than Lan' s newly acquired ability. When the Lord unleashed his magics, Lan, staggered under the onslaught- but he held his position.
Fighting a defensive battle, he maintained his composure. The Lord had failed to destroy him or push him back. This added to Lan' s confidence. While the battle of magics tired him quickly, he thought he might soon break down the other' s barriers.
" Die, you scum!" Lan heard from the side. He allowed his eyes to flicker over. Inyx held death tubes in both hands. The weapons flared and smashed into the Lord' s defensive barrier. With this added assault, the man couldn' t continue.
Wordlessly, he spun and vanished behind curtains at the side of the stage. Inyx followed him with her death tubes, setting fire to the curtains. But the Lord of the Twistings had fled.
" Inyx, wait," cried Lan. He stumbled forward. " He knows the palace too well. There are traps everywhere."
" He' s mine, dammit!" the woman flared. " After what he did to me in that damned maze, dammit, he' s mine!"
Lan turned and surveyed the room. The Lord' s mechanicals had put up no resistance whatsoever when they saw Knoton. If anything, the sight had provided a rallying point for them to rebel. Only Claybore' s soldiers fought those pouring out of the maze- and the battle went poorly for them.
Taken by surprise, unable to fight off the blue monsters and cappers, the soldiers quickly retreated. Only one pocket of resistance formed. Lan figured this was commanded by one of the higher- ranking officers, perhaps even Alberto Silvain.
" The Lord' s not going anywhere. He' ll not lose all he' s built here. Let' s eliminate the grey- clads, then go after him. There' s still Silva
in to think about."
" But the Lord:" Inyx glared at the spot where the Lord of the Twistings had disappeared, then she slumped. " You' re right. Following him now is too dangerous. Wipe out the others, get control, then root him out like the worm that he is."
Krek tottered up to the edge of the stage and looked Lan squarely in the eye.
The arachnid said, " The maze creatures return to the Twistings. I do not understand it."
" The Lord cast a spell ordering them to go back. I felt it and managed to fight it off before it grew too strong. He underestimated us again. He won' t do it anymore."
" The battle goes against him," observed the spider. " His mechanicals rally to Knoton. The soldiers are all but eliminated. Do you wish to assist removing one last group of them?"
" Let' s go," Lan urged, his arm around Inyx' s waist. He tightened the grip slightly to move her along. He didn' t want her running off alone in search of the Lord. He' d never asked what the man had done to her; it had to be awful. She' d discussed her stay at Luister len- Larrotti' s with him but positively refused to do more than proclaim her hatred for the Lord of the Twistings and vow she' d personally kill him.
He' d touched her in ways too deep for her to speak of.
The man' s evil would end- soon.
" There, over there!" called Knoton. He stood at the front of a tight band of mechs. They held death tubes and other weapons picked up from fallen humans. Lan felt the buzz of concern surge through their ranks as he and Inyx joined the metallic leader. The other mechanicals weren' t sure of any humans. One quick gesture from Knoton quieted them.
" The greys are behind that wall," said Knoton. " A frontal assault will be deadly for us."
" The room is small. There can' t be more than a few dozen inside," said Inyx. " They' ll be in each other' s way constantly."
" Too bad the maze creatures returned," said Knoton. " We could have used them."
Lan said nothing while Inyx and Knoton discussed possible ways of attacking the soldiers' position. He paced and studied, his magical sense probing out. The man hesitated to use a spell against the soldiers for a variety of reasons. It drained him casting even the simplest of spells, but even more to the point was the Lord. Magics turned against their user were more devastating than any other kind; the mage had little in the way of defense against a spell personally conjured. Lan Martak didn' t doubt for an instant that the Lord waited for him to make a mistake using a powerful spell.