Encouraged, Kaz made a move toward the robed figure, his true adversary, regardless of whether the human or magic thief now inhabited that mortal shell.
As Kaz moved, an entire section of the floor gave way. Into the chamber beneath went one of the dead guards, several tons of stone, a table and the artifacts spread on top of it-and Honor’s Face. Kaz himself barely succeeded in catching hold of what remained of the floor. With a tremendous effort, he tried to pull himself up.
“I wish I could take the time to kill you slowly,” someone with Ravenshadow’s voice uttered madly, “but I fear time is precious right now.”
The floor crumbled a bit more, and Kaz frantically changed his hold. The stone dragon loomed over him.
Dangling by one hand, he looked down at the jagged rubble below, knowing that the fall would surely kill him. His eyes darted to the beast above him and at the robed form stepping around the emerald sphere. His eyes burned green.
“I have the power now to form yet another shield. By the time they break that one, I will have the strength to deal with them permanently! You can die knowing that you have failed! I’m only sorry that I will not be able to witness your death!”
To the stone dragon, Dracos-Ravenshadow shouted, “For the last time, kill him and be done!”
The broken but still deadly jaws of the stone dragon opened wide and the beast lunged. As its head came down, Kaz used every bit of his will to summon Honor’s Face.
Instantly the axe was in his hand. Kaz looked up at on-rushing death and muttered, “Paladine, guide my hand, or we’re both in for it!”
It may be that Paladine did guide his hand. It may have just been the desperate strength of the minotaur, who knew that this was the end, one way or another. It may have been pure luck.
His swing was timed perfectly; it caught the stone leviathan directly in the head near the fault. The battle-axe sank deep into hard rock, and Kaz was nearly flung across the room as the huge beast shook prodigiously. The minotaur landed soundly on the rubble-strewn floor, screaming as his left arm and leg were twisted grotesquely beneath him.
The axe was wedged in the stone dragon’s head, which was now nearly split in two. The leviathan made one feeble attempt to knock the weapon free, but its movements were jerky. The spell could no longer hold together. As Kaz watched through dazed eyes, the stone dragon stiffened completely, teetered momentarily, and then fell over.
If there had been any poetic justice, Kaz decided, Dracos-Ravenshadow would have turned at that very moment and seen the portent of his doom. His eyes would have widened, and he would have had time only to mouth a scream.
Instead, the dragon toppled over onto both mage and sphere. The robed figure never saw death coming.
In the end, Kaz could still not say who it was he had fought-Dracos, Ravenshadow, or some unholy combination of the two. What mattered was that the unholy threat was dead. Kaz blinked his vision clear and looked again. A single twisted arm was all that remained visible of his enemy. He smiled.
Oceans of relief washed over him, and in their wake came the blissful nothingness of unconsciousness.
Chapter Twenty-Three
At rimes his life seemed little more than collapsing and waking, and never more so than now. Kaz had visions of elegant, somber-looking elves surrounding his body. He dreamed of being carried through the mountains by a huge furred creature that might have been Greymir. Bennett and Darius were standing near him while Tesela prayed for his recovery. He, in turn, insisted they find Delbin, who, Kaz thought, might be dead. Each vision was punctuated by timeless intervals of darkness in which the minotaur heard voices, some real, some not. Briefly he dreamed of the overwhelming presence of the Dragonqueen.
The Dragonqueen’s presence faded abruptly as another voice overwhelmed it. Kaz’s confused mind knew that it could only be Paladine, but the voice sounded very much like that of Huma. After that dream, he found he was able to sleep better.
At last voices, actual voices, brought him back to the world of the living. Kaz opened his eyes and found himself lying on a mat in a large tent, surrounded by several arguing figures.
“They have no right to him, milord!” Darius was shouting.
“It would be a stain on our honor if we did not allow them to present their cause!” Bennett replied. “Besides, it is Kaz who must decide!”
Tesela was also in the room, but at the moment, she was saying nothing. Watching the others with mild amusement was an elf. Kaz had to look hard, for the elf reminded him greatly of Sardal Crystal thorn. The newcomer noticed that the minotaur was awake and inclined his head slightly in greeting. He was one of the elves from Kaz’s memory.
The cleric turned abruptly, and her eyes grew wide as she saw that her charge was awake. She rushed over to his side and put her arms around him. “Kaz! Thank Mishakal you’re going to be all right!”
“Unnh! I’ll need your goddess’s services again if you don’t ease up!”
The two knights broke off their argument and greeted him profusely. They were acting as if he had almost died. He was about to question them when a fifth figure entered the tent.
Delbin’s face lit up, and the kender went bounding over to his friend. “Kaz! You’re alive! They said you might die because you lost so much blood, but I knew you were strong, and did you see what they did with the big green thing in the chamber? How come it didn’t shatter? I mean, Argaen shattered pretty good when the dragon fell on him, but the sphere was okay-”
“That accursed thing is still in one piece?”
The elf spoke. He stood with arms crossed and seemed to be leaning back, though there was nothing to support him. He wore a robe of white. ‘The abomination created by the renegade Galan Dracos has been removed from Argaen Ravenshadow’s stronghold. We cannot allow it to be returned to Vingaard, not after what happened the first time.”
“Speaking for my uncle, the Grand Master,” Bennett added, “I have agreed to turn it over to the elves. They intend to bury it in a secret place far, far below the surface of Krynn. Farther than even the dwarves would ever dare dig.”
“Why bury it? It should be destroyed!”
“We have tried.” For the first time, the elf seemed annoyed. “We have failed, though I cannot say what still holds it together now that Galan Dracos is truly dead. Should we find a way to destroy it in the future, we will do so. The emerald sphere by itself is not dangerous. It is only, as you know, a means of drawing power from other sources, especially chaos.”
“No one will ever use it again,” Bennett finished.
Kaz nodded, but he was not completely satisfied. He fervently hoped the emerald sphere would stay where the elves buried it, at least until Kaz had gone to join his ancestors.
“The enemy’s morale failed when they saw that no one defended inside the keep anymore,” Darius offered. “Many are dead or captured, and the rest are scattered loosely about the mountain chain. They will never be a coherent force again. That leaves the ogres in the north with no allies.”
“When Solamnia is stronger, we will deal with them,” Bennett commented..
Greatly relieved, Kaz turned his attention to Delbin. ‘‘What about you? I thought you were dead! I saw the guardsman strike you!”
Tesela, who moved to stand beside Darius, explained, “He only had a large bump on his head. Delbin must’ve been struck with the flat of the blade. Judging by what was going on, I’d say that his attacker didn’t have time to be bothered with killing a kender.”