" Slaves," said Lan.
" Slaves." The word came from between clenched lips. " I require the threat of the spiders to justify the slaves." Iron Tongue stiffened visibly and sweat poured down his face. Lan' s spell tightened like a noose about him.
" You can sue both Bron and the spiders for peace. Forge an alliance against a common enemy."
" NO!" roared Iron Tongue. The blast issuing from his mouth staggered Lan. Madness and magic mixed with rationality. For the briefest of instants, he lessened his spells. This was all Iron Tongue required to recover his composure. " You will make a worthy ally," the ruler said, with some sincerity this time. Lan felt nothing of the verbal pressures that had accompanied the other statements.
" We are not enemies. I do not approve of your policies, but we are not foes. We both fight Claybore,"
" Rugga has gotten to you, I see," said Iron Tongue, sighing. " She is most persuasive, in her own fashion."
" There is nothing in-" Lan began. He cut the sentence off in the middle. The word- fight with Iron Tongue had been subtle, on deep levels. The sensation he experienced now was as subtle as a hammerblow to the head. " Claybore attacks," he whispered.
" To the battlements. I knew he planned an attack soon, but thought it would come after he took Bron."
A flash of insight told Lan that Claybore had already been victorious over Jacy Noratumi' s city- and what of Inyx?
He raced after Wurnna' s ruler, found a circular staircase up, and took the steps three at a time. He emerged on the city' s defense wall, peering down the long canyon. Only a few of the grey- clad soldiers peeked out around the bend from their camp.
" Die!" bellowed Iron Tongue. And Lan watched the few curious souls perish at the command. But the magical pressure did not lessenit mounted higher and higher every second.
" Claybore commands this attack," he told Iron Tongue. " I know it."
Iron Tongue paid him no attention. The ruler- mage turned and faced his city, crying, " To me! All mages to me!" The power of that command caused Lan to take three quick steps toward Iron Tongue. He backed off, awed at the power exerted. If that iron organ in the man' s mouth had once resided in Claybore' s mouth, Lan knew the power it had given. If Claybore regained it, he would be invincible. The simplest of words became an unstoppable command. Coupled with the potent spells Claybore knew, entire worlds could be toppled from their orbits, continents razed, kingdoms conquered.
" We meet again, dear Lan," came soft words. Lan smiled as Rugga stood beside him. He noticed she kept her distance from Iron Tongue. Whatever existed between ruler and woman had to be stifled until the attack had been repulsed.
" Use the power stone," commanded Iron Tongue. " Draw on the power to form a spear point aimed at Claybore' s throat!"
Lan almost fainted at the intensity of the surge rising from within Wurnna. The fifty- two assembled sorcerers coordinated their spells perfectly. Lan had little chance to examine this phenomenon- it had something to do with the tongue resting in their ruler' s mouth. He joined in, adding his power to the magical thrust at Claybore. While the spear was a magical construct, it took on physical reality. Lan studied and learned, even as he lent his own strength to hurling the weapon.
The thrust missed. A swift riposte was deflected by Iron Tongue' s powerful spell, but Lan felt the magics slithering away, not stopped, but merely redirected. In Wurnna hundreds died.
The air came alive with writhing creatures of the innermost imagination. They were dispelled. Returning went sharp jabs, subtle prods, anything Iron Tongue could launch against Claybore. But each parry and magical riposte carried a penalty. Lan felt Rugga weakening. He wondered at this and then saw fully half of Wurnna' s mages were dead or dying. Claybore took a frightful toll.
And Lan hadn' t even noticed!
Lan moved closer to Iron Tongue, keeping his arm around Rugga' s waist. She resisted weakly, then allowed him to drag her along. It soon became obvious she was unable to contribute significantly to the battle. She had been drained of all energy, even though tapping into the power stone surrounding them. With great reluctance, Lan allowed her to sink to her knees on the stone battlements.
The conflict intensified. How, he couldn' t say. Wurnna' s number diminished steadily, yet their lightning thrusts grew in power. Once, Iron Tongue looked at him, a quizzical expression on the man' s face. Lan ignored it. He became engrossed in finding new magics, producing different spells to hurl at Claybore.
Then came the words he dreaded to hear.
" Defense! Form a defensive barrier!"
Iron Tongue turned away from attack to simply protecting what remained of his Wurnna.
" You can' t," Lan screamed. " Claybore will destroy us all."
But he was alone. Iron Tongue and the handful remaining wove a solid wall of energy that crackled and shimmered. Nearby, they exerted more power and stopped Claybore' s attack. Lan reached down and gripped Rugga' s limp hand. She tried to squeeze his fingers, but the strength wasn' t in her.
Angered, Lan Martak bellowed, " You shall not win so easily, Claybore! Not this time!"
The anger boiled and surged and fed upon itself. Fleeting memory of what Iron Tongue had magically forged rose in his mind. Those were spells he had never seen before, but they were now his- and more than his. They took on a writhing, sensuous life of their own, horrible in its awareness, horrible in its stark hunger for human life.
Dragons of purest ebon space formed. Lan Martak unleashed his creatures to suck at Claybore' s troops. The canyon widened under their ravenous feeding, rock and earth and humans vanishing. Claybore exploded them, one by one. By then Lan had formed new spells, ones he did not comprehend.
All around him, space and time churned and boiled away. Eerie silence fell. Light faded and sensation died. All that remained was Lan Martak standing on a stony abutment and the fleshless skull with sunken eye sockets blazing forth ruby beams.
Lan and Claybore fought to the death in a magical realm beyond reality.
CHAPTER TEN
" You cannot win. You will die." The words reverberated through Lan Martak' s skull to the point of pain. He blinked back tears of searing acid and stared straight into Claybore' s ruby- glowing eye holes. In past encounters, he had somehow managed to avert those deadly beams, forcing them away harmlessly. As curious as anything, he sought their deadly virulence and faced them fully.
And absorbed their death. And returned it tenfold to Claybore.
The dismembered mage twitched as the reflected beams struck his fleshless skull. The magics intensified. Spells became more complex, more intricate, more life- threatening. The land about the duellocked pair quaked under the intensity of their battle. Lan Martak took all Claybore had to offer and gave it back with a power and an expertise he had never before possessed.
" The youngling has learned much, I see," came Claybore' s words, words not formed by flesh- and- blood lips. They echoed through Lan' s entire body; he had learned. In some fashion those words were weapons. Instinctively, he robbed them of their edge.
" I have. Give up your quest, Claybore. Retire to a world. Stop enslaving those you encounter along the Road."
" You have learned much magic but nothing of my nature. I will never stop until I am again whole. Terrill robbed me of my arms and legs, my flesh, my every organ." The torso, supported on magically powered mechanical legs, twisted about, allowing Claybore to break eye contact with his adversary. " I am the aggrieved. I seek only that which was- is!- mine."
Lan felt no need to debate the point. Claybore' s goal might have been acceptable. What intelligent being could exist as a mere skull in a box? Only his motives and methods were questionable. The young sorcerer began weaving new and more deadly spells, ones he barely understood, ones so potent none dare commit them to paper for the incautious to find. From somewhere beyond reality came the dancing mote that now gave information. Reading the surface of that twinkling speck allowed him to probe Claybore' s weaknesses.