" You have created untold misery along the Road," said Lan. " Your mindless rush to regain that stripped from you by Terrill is now at an end. Terrill was unable to destroy you. I might be unable, also. But I feel it within my power. Using your own tongue against you, using the spells locked forever with it, using the grimoire I obtained atop Mt. Tartanius from another of your foes, I can destroy you."
" No, stop. Please. We can negotiate."
In that instant Lan knew he had won. He formed another bolt and sent it directly for the center of Claybore' s skull. The bone chipped and began cracking. Another bolt sailed for the Kinetic Sphere buried within Claybore' s chest cavity. The pinkly pulsating sphere allowed the mage to move from one world to the next without using the cenotaphs. Lan wrapped the Kinetic Sphere in a layer of heavy spells that prevented Claybore from escaping.
Lan Martak formed the ultimate stroke. This carried the full force of every spell he commanded, used the full resources he had gained along the Cenotaph Road.
Claybore stood helpless before him.
The spell was cast- cast and deflected at the last possible instant. Lan blinked in surprise. This could not have happened, yet it did. Claybore lacked the necessary power to save himself.
" Lirory!" cried the dismembered sorcerer. " Aid me now! Again! Aid me again!"
Standing with hands folded at the far side of the pit was a gnome. His eyes blazed emerald green and brighter than any sun.
" This must be the wizard of the Tefize clan Broit spoke of," said Krek.
The spider spat forth a hunting web, intending to tangle the gnome and pull him into the pit. The web vaporized inches before striking the sorcerer gnome.
" I am no novice," said Lirory Tefize.
" Aid me, Tefize!" pleaded Claybore.
" The arms can be yours- in exchange for that which we have mentioned," bargained the gnome.
" Yes, yes! He kills me!"
" An immortal dying? How terrible," said Lirory Tefize, mocking Claybore. " That is unthinkable." The gnome' s entire stature altered, grew. Power blasted from his thick body until Lan had to throw up hands to shield his eyes. He recovered and caught up his familiar light mote, using it to absorb some of this prodigious energy.
Lan knew the tide of battle had turned against him. Unless he quickly summoned all his magical lore, he would die, and Krek and Inyx and untold millions of others would spend their lives under the yoke of tyranny Claybore promised.
He had summoned the ebon dragon once. He did so again. The huge creature filled the room, its nothingness reaching out and taking all the punishment Lirory Tefize and Claybore could offer. It sucked in their energies and demanded more. Lan urged it forward, to attack, to absorb the sorcerers as it now sucked at their power.
" An unusual manifestation," said the gnome. " Can you see it, mage? Allow me to show it to you."
Lan screamed. Somehow, the emptiness of the dragon was pulled inside out and revealed fully to him. He saw death and misery of every conceivable form. It gnawed at his mind, jerked at his emotions, tore him away from the battle.
Again the protective light mote saved him. As Lan cowered from the horrors revealed within his dragon, Claybore attacked. The savage lunge of pure energy sank into the light mote and- almost- penetrated through to the other side. How a single point of light had dimension Lan didn' t know or even want to consider now. That it had thwarted still another of Claybore' s assaults was sufficient.
" The pit widens," said Krek. The spider stepped back, but the edge followed him. He and Lan were soon trapped on a single ledge, their backs to the stone wall of Yerrary.
" It works in other ways," said Lan, regaining his composure. He had panicked for a moment when Tefize joined the battle. Fighting two mages might be difficult, but it wasn' t impossible. Not for him!
Krek started to say something, when he noticed what Lan did. The very rock melted and flowed all around. Tefize and Claybore found their footing increasingly vitreous. Tefize sank to his knees, his waist. Claybore' s mechanical legs were entirely drawn down into the rock.
" Freeze!" cried Lan, sending forth a wave of intense cold. The molten rock returned to its normal solidity, now holding both sorcerers firmly in its grasp.
" That ought to hold them," said Krek. But the spider worried. He shot forth web after web, trying to stick it to the ceiling and swing over to the encapsulated mages. Lirory Tefize vaporized every single strand as it flew toward the ceiling.
" I know, Krek," comforted Lan. " The pair of them work well together. I shall have to do something more, it seems."
He and Krek had been trapped on a ledge along the pit. Now the ledge grew, flowed and merged with solider portions of the cave floor. Soon enough they were on firm footing again and no longer threatened with a long fall into the excavation.
" You have beaten me, Lan Martak," said Claybore without a hint of rancor. This more than anything else put Lan on guard. Claybore would never surrender. Not this easily. Not when there was a single spell yet to be cast, a single geas to be applied.
" Then I want proof of it!" shouted Lan. He blasted outward with the most devastating spell of which he was capable. Lan almost laughed aloud when he saw Claybore' s skull begin to split in half.
Then he screamed. From within the skull came insects of all sizes and shapes. Pincers snapping, mosquito- stingers probing, the cloud of insects erupted forth and filled the entire chamber.
Spell after spell failed. Lan used the Voice to make the insects disperse. Nothing happened. Krek attempted to eat them. He spat out the hideous creatures and silently offered his apology to Lan.
From every side the insects came at him- and Tefize and Claybore added magical jabs until he fought simply to remain sane. His body slowly being gnawed away by the bugs, his mind railing against the renewed assault by the two sorcerers, his emotions torn between admitting he had failed and retreating or staying and fighting to the death, Lan Martak was gradually beaten back.
" Friend Lan Martak, let us leave immediately," urged the spider. " We have lost this bout. There will be another."
" Go, Krek," sobbed out Lan. " You go. Whatever they' ve done to me, I can' t move. My legs are numb."
" The insects do their work well," said Lirory Tefize with some satisfaction.
" I give you my sincerest congratulations. I had not thought this ploy would work," said Claybore. " But it has!"
Lan Martak was beaten ever backward by the opposing magics and his body was being devoured by the insects. Truly, he had now lost both battle and war.
CHAPTER FIVE
" Look out!" cried Inyx, lunging to prevent the wooden stick from landing squarely atop Broit Heresler' s pointed head. The gnome didn' t even take note of her quick action. He snorted and kicked and kept fighting. But Inyx saw the tide of battle inexorably going against them. While it was noble of her to provide a decoy for Lan and Krek to find and fight Claybore, she wasn' t about to die under a wave of gnomes brandishing sticks and brooms and the occasional knife and spear.
" Let' s get out of here," she said to Broit. " We can take that passage and cut down the number of them following us."
" The Nichi know all these tunnels," complained the gnome. " I don' t. If only we could reach Heresler territory. Then things would be different. We' d have them turned into corpses in nothing flat."
Inyx didn' t have the wind to tell Broit that escape was more important than making the most number of dead bodies. She didn' t want to stand and fight; she wanted to flee and find a quiet spot to recuperate. Her body was covered with growing black- and- blue spots and one throbbing bruise over her right knee caused her to limp slightly. She doubted the bone had been injured when the Nichi fighter had smashed her with the rock, but only a closer examination would tell for certain.