"You were outfighting the Ultimate Evil?" Gellor's disbelief was very much in evidence despite the rasping voice that their recent flight forced from him.
"He is the Champion," Leda sniffed.
"He is right, Leda. Listen to the wisdom of our friend," Gord responded after drawing several deep breaths. "Never again will there be such an opportunity as I had just then. Tharizdun was newly awakened, muddled, only half what he will soon be. I could have — would have! — sent him into the void forever more had not the Lord of Entropy interfered."
"What will we do?"
"Gather our own resources and prepare for a second battle. There is no other option. If we sought to avoid it, Tharizdun would certainly come to seek us out. No, there is but one thing to do. Ready and then find that maggot before he has the opportunity to become fully prepared."
Gellor nodded somberly. "I must agree. It is the only course we have. How long before the darkest is able to draw into his being the full might of the netherspheres?"
"The demons will resist!" Leda interjected.
"Aye, that they will. Tharizdun will go into the pits of Hades first, absorb the powers there, then do likewise in the infernal regions. Demonium will be his last stop in the lower worlds, that is certain." Gord took a moment to quaff a small amount of elixir from a little flask he had drawn from his belt pouch. He offered it to his comrades, and both Leda and Gellor sipped. "Refreshing, isn't it? It is something which the wizard aichemist Keogh gave to me. ..." He shook his head, dispelling whatever thoughts of the Lords of Balance were surfacing. "To the problem at hand. If all of the demons in the Abyss unite to combat Tharizdun, they could not hold out a moon's cycle. Never will those contentious ones join forces, so it will be less than a month. Then Tharizdun will have the force of demonic dweomer, too."
"You mean in a fortnight or so, the dreaded Evil will be fully revitalized?"
"No, Gellor. In fact, until he manages to slay me, the maggot will never gain his full strength!"
Leda was mystified at such an assertion. "What makes you say that, Gord? I too know a little of Tharizdun. and there is no abridgement of his evil because of the existence of a champion to oppose him."
Gord smiled a hard, mirthless grin. It was almost as if he were a panther growling at some other creature that dared to come too close. "The grublord was kind enough to give me a bit of his potential," he grated.
"Please be more specific, my young friend," the bard said softly. "We are part of this fight, no?"
"Yes." Gord agreed simply. Then he drew the bag that had been strapped over his shoulder and laid it down before them. Undoing the thongs that tied it shut, Gord reached in and pulled forth the skull by its flaxen hair. "Tharizdun neglected to consume the boy fully in his vampiric, cannibalistic feast. Until he gams this head from me and devours it, the darkest of maggots will not have full use of his own brain!"
His friends listened in horrified fascination as Gord proceeded to describe to them what Tharizdun had done and recreated for the view of his adversary. "He hoped to make me impotent by such a ghastly display. But I was able to resist, and then it was too late — he could find no opportunity to regain the grisly trophy he had flung at me." The Lords of Light, Gord said, must have made the boy as one would create a clone when Tharizdun was bound fast. That made Leda shudder. "No true reproduction of the darkest, though. The boy was an aging imp. He was the receptacle of those thoughts and forces that could not be submerged in comatose slumber when the greatest of the malevolent was confined." Of course, he surmised, the child-Tharizdun was neither smart nor strong enough to attempt any loosening of the bonds that held him and his progenitor fast in the castle's tower. "He was merely a boy who epitomized evil in childish form."
"Then what would have occurred had Tharizdun not . . . not done as he did?" asked the elven girl in revulsion.
"Perhaps the boy would then have had the nourishment to mature, to become a true twin of Tharizdun, but neither would have been as strong as the original, even assuming that two such beings could agree to work in concert. The boy was Tharizdun only in the sense that it was a thing which held a portion of the darkest one's powers. Now had I slain Tharizdun and the boy survived, then perhaps ..."
"We would have more time," Gellor ventured, "but the same end result"
"That seems plausible. But the actuality is otherwise, and we have a dual problem too. The Lord of Entropy now allies with the darkest."
There can only be one reason for that," Leda said angrily. "By that means the entity will hasten the end of all. Is there nothing which we can do to counter the alliance?"
"Surely. Gord, the deepest wickedness will never agree to share with the Lord of Entropy?" the bard observed. The alliance cannot survive a week."
"A sennight of eons. Gellor. Tharizdun lacks the faculty to reason properly in some narrow areas. Remember that Entropy will have no Joy in oppressing, not the least desire to rule Evil. The entity will only require certain actions on Tharizdun's part, mere triflings which will probably please the darkest. A slaughter here, destruction there, an end to some opposing drives — joy, hope, creativity. Then will the final steps move more swiftly. Tharizdun will rule supreme, but Lord Entropy will lurk ever closer, and soon thereafter will stillness come over endless nothing, and the realm of Entropy will be complete. Tharizdun's force will expire in a whimpering at the last."
"Let us give the head to Tharizdun then, for it will allow him to discover the entity's design." suggested Leda.
"Perhaps it would, but the selfishness of the most malign is so great that the result would likely not be as we would hope, and I — we — would then have no chance of defeating the maggot!"
"Do we have any hope of that now, Gord?"
"Gellor, I believe that we do. I have kept certain information from you, I now admit." When he observed the expressions on his friends' faces, Gord was apologetic. "Do not be hurt or offended — It was because the foe had to be kept ignorant. Besides, I am not sure that we can actually expect active help. I am also unsure of how useful aid will be if it is granted to us."
"I can accept your determination to keep your own counsel," Gellor said. "I have suspected something ever since our sojourn in the depths of demonium. You seemed to have inspiration, fresh direction, as it were, when we were there and you were sunk into introspection."
"That's all very well and good, you two," Leda said impatiently. "Please share the news with me. What allies do we have?"
Gord took her hand, gave her a kiss on her forehead. "Hush, girl. You and Gellor will know soon enough. We need to restore ourselves quickly now and move along. There is much travel to accomplish, and who can say what will lie in wait along the road?"
"What path do we follow, Gord?"
"First we seek the end of Law. If we attain that, we must go to the uttermost extreme of Tolerance."
"Order is anathema to my— "
"I know, Leda. Yet if you would share in this thing, then you must be willing to endure that."
"If I understand you aright, Gord," the troubador remarked, "then I too will not find the passage easy. Perhaps I miss the mark, but the second destination suggests some— "
"I suggest that we all refrain from further discourse, dear friends! Of all places, this is one which must see us no more. Are you both ready to begin again?"
They understood. Gellor said no more about where he thought they had to journey, and Leda asked no more, voiced no objections. It was a simple matter for them to walk out of the strange plane. Just as if the three were going along a material track they strode back down the mountainlike terrain and soon arrived at the verge where the Empyreal Sphere commenced.