" What is this spell? Can you use it?"
" I know the spell now as well as Lirory, but there' s no need for it. The arms are once more connected to Claybore' s torso."
" But the legs?" Kiska pressed.
" I can sense their location without Lirory' s spell." Lan turned and perched on the edge of the table, one leg idly swinging, his mind lost in the intricacy of the gnome' s ancient lore. " Lirory had a reason for collecting the parts."
" He wanted to blackmail Claybore."
" That wasn' t it. He had a use for them. I know it. Lirory had pretensions of being ruler of everything along the Road himself. There was some spell, some conjuration, requiring those parts that would give him the power he sought."
" He had control of Yerrary. What more could a gnome want?"
" You underestimate him. These grimoires show he was a powerful mage. And my duel with him proved that. He had the ability to rulecertainly as beneficently as Claybore," Lan added with a hint of sarcasm. " But how did he plan to use the legs? Those seem to be the key to Lirory' s entire plan. The arms were important, but the legs are the cornerstone of his conquest."
Lan felt the answer dancing at the edges of his mind, just as his light mote bobbed to and fro. He smiled a bit and let the mote come closer. The mage saw the surface of his familiar ripple with pride at the attention he gave it. Before he had conjured this fine companion, it had been nothing- nothingness. Now it lived and took on an existence finer than anything else in the universe.
Lan basked in its admiration, its need to please him. And why shouldn' t it try to give him his every desire? He was more than human now. He was an immortal!
" Lan?" came the cautious, questioning voice. " You look: different."
" Different?" he said. " Yes, I am. Ever since I spoke with the Resident, I have been stronger."
Lan Martak felt the power growing within. What power that was he couldn' t put into words, nor did he desire to try. But he was filled with an energy that ran without limit. Never again would he become drained over the simplest of spells.
He let fire dance from finger to finger and smirked. Once this had been the only spell he knew. Now it was the most trivial of thousands. He could send forth lightning blasts that tore apart mountains. All of Yerrary might split asunder, should he ever feel the whim. The entire world could be sent spinning crazily into its sun if he summoned the proper elementals.
Nothing was beyond his power now. Even Claybore acknowledged that. And Claybore would soon be defeated. Even if the disembodied sorcerer couldn' t be killed, he could be strewn once more along the Road. And he' d soon enough suffer that fate. Lan Martak would do what Terrill had failed to do, too. Stopping Claybore so that he never again menaced a single solitary soul burned as Lan' s only goal.
" You look odd," said Kiska.
" Odd?" Anger flared irrationally. " I am not odd. Never say such a thing."
Kiska cringed at his wrath. And this was as it should be. He was more than a mere human now. Not only was he immortal, he held the reins of the universe in his hand. A single flick of those reins and empires fell. Lan Martak. Invincible!
" I meant nothing by it, Master."
" Master?" he said, anger gone and replaced with confusion. He hardly knew what to do or say anymore. He flew into rages with no good reason. And Kiska k' Adesina spoke the title in both fear and veneration. He wanted neither.
Or did he? The taste of power was sweet. Almost too sweet.
Kiska dropped to her knees and lowered her gaze to the floor.
" Get up," he said irritably. " Don' t worship me. I' m no god. I' m not even a king and don' t want to be." Lan spoke the words, but feelings quivered within that told him he wasn' t being totally truthful. Success had rammed its barb in his psyche and wouldn' t easily dislodge.
" Sorry," she said. " I only meant to say you seem to be: more. More than you were."
" I am." Like a blazing star blossoming in the night sky, revelation came to him. " I have powers undreamed of. And I know."
" What, Master?"
" I can shift from world to world without a cenotaph. And I can do it without using Claybore' s Kinetic Sphere, also." He walked around the chamber, his eyes glazed. " It' s so obvious. The chant, the spells, the weavings of power. It' s all so clear to me."
He began the chant and simply winked out of existence. Kiska roared in rage and raced forward, hands groping to find him.
" Come back!" she shrieked. " You can' t leave me like this. You can' t do it, damn your eyes!"
A tiny pop! betrayed his return. Lan sat on Lirory' s work table, laughing.
" So simple. I was again atop Mt. Tartanius. The shrine to AbasiAbi stands and his son still tends it. I did not speak to him. I noted his presence and left before he took heed."
Lan experienced a dizziness that quickly passed. He knew of powers and places of which even Claybore was ignorant. To defeat the other sorcerer would be child' s play. So easy, so very easy. Lan' s laughter filled the chamber and echoed along the phosphorescent mossilluminated corridors of Yerrary.
Krek slumped into a brown heap on one side of Inyx' s room. Broit Heresler and Ducasien spoke softly, not wishing to disturb either the woman' s or the spider' s foul mood.
Inyx rose and went to sit beside Krek. She leaned against the hard thorax and placed her head back so that she stared up at the ceiling. The lack of shadows within the room due to the moss growing on walls and ceiling had bothered her at first. No shadows, no texture. The light softly thrust its way everywhere, causing everything to look soft and bloated.
She shook herself free of such thinking. She avoided the real issue by occupying her mind with trivial things.
" Krek," she said. " What are we going to do?"
" About what, friend Inyx?" he asked.
" You know what I' m talking about. Lan. He' s so different. Look at the way he allows Kiska k' Adesina to hang around his neck all the time. Not so long ago she was trying to kill him. Now they: they-" She bit off the words as tears rolled unashamedly down her cheeks. Inyx had told no one what she had seen down in the Resident of the Pit' s chamber. It had hurt her too badly.
" You leak water from your eyes. I find it distressing when you do that. Almost as distressing as when I do it."
" Can' t help it," she said peevishly, wiping away the tears. It did no good. More formed.
" You feel betrayed, also. What is it you saw when you went to find him?"
" Nothing, Krek. Forget it." The woman crossed her arms over her breasts and began squeezing down powerfully on her own upper arms. Inyx felt bruises forming and didn' t care. Maybe pain would erase the sight of Lan and Kiska making love.
If he had raped the woman, Inyx could have accepted that. But this had been no rape. It was a mutual lovemaking, mutually initiated, mutually enjoyed.
" You saw them together. I witnessed the peculiar human mating rituals starting. Consummation occurred and you saw it." The spider spoke in an offhand way, as if it didn' t make any difference to him. " He has betrayed you just as he did me."
" That was in the heat of battle, Krek. He sent a spell of some sort to get you out of danger. He didn' t mean for you to permanently leave him alone- just then."
" Nor did he mean for you to discover him with Kiska. He just wanted you to leave him alone, just then."
" Quit mocking me, damn you!" Inyx raged. She started to get up but a pair of hairy legs trapped and held her. She struggled and saw her efforts weren' t availing her anything. Krek was too strong.