As he reached the end of the hallway, he slammed into a table-an invisible table that had been placed in his way. It dug into his belly and stole the wind from his gut. The axe flew from his grip, landing on the floor in the middle of Geildarr's study.
A faint wind blew in this room, from the wide-open doors to the balcony. Bookshelves lined the walls-Sungar had never seen so many books, had scarcely seen them at all. A passageway built into a bookcase hung open.
On the floor, the axe trembled.
Regaining his footing, Sungar hopped over the invisible table and into the study. He snapped up the axe and prepared to dive after the gnome down the hidden staircase. Kellin and Thluna arrived behind him, shoving the table aside.
But as Sungar leaped toward the passageway, he felt the axe tremble in his hands. A strange red glow enveloped its head.
It pulled him the other way.
Sungar didn't resist, but let the axe guide him, turning with its coaxing until it pointed to a corner of the study next to the balcony.
Suddenly, a burst of red radiance pulsed on the head of the axe. The new energy flowed across the room, and the artifact to which the axe was magically tied, the Heart of Runlatha, pulsed in return. As it had done at the Sanctuary, it dissolved all illusions, all invisibility, slicing through anything that kept the Heart hidden. Moritz the Illusionist was revealed before Geildarr's bookshelf. The gnome staggered from his bleeding wound, and he clutched the Heart of Runlatha in one hand.
Moritz frowned at the barbarian chief and slowly shook his head.
"Sememmon's not going to like this," he said. And with the last of his strength, he ran for the balcony.
Sungar bolted after him, axe raised. The gnome reached the balcony's rail and took a flying leap just as Sungar brought the mighty axe down, burying it deep into the floor. Moritz vanished over the side.
Thluna and Kellin rushed to join him. Sungar smiled, holding up the axe. Blood clung to the blade.
At his feet lay the Heart of Runlatha, clutched within a diminutive hand.
Kellin looked over the balcony just in time to see a falling body vanish into the dusty haze that encircled the Lord's Keep. A trickle of falling blood traced its path downward.
Sungar plucked up the gnome's arm and pried the Heart from its grip. He felt its warmth and held it up to his eye to inspect it closely, as one might a jewel. He turned to face Thluna and Kellin.
"Now," he said. "Is someone going to tell me what this damned thing is?"
CHAPTER 23
"Was Moritz killed?" asked Geildarr when they returned to him in the anteroom. Lanaal lifted the blade from his neck and stepped back to join Sungar, Kellin, and Thluna, who held the Heart of Runlatha.
"Perhaps not killed," said Kellin.
Sungar held up the severed arm and threw it down at Geildarr's feet.
"His own flesh." Geildarr nudged the hand with his boot. "No illusion. So he escaped?"
"He went over your balcony," explained Kellin. "I saw him vanish into the dust, but I couldn't tell if he teleported or not before he hit the ground."
"You had best hope he didn't escape," said Geildarr. "You will find Sememmon to be an unforgiving enemy. My advice to you is to get rid of it fast. Wait-what am I saying?" He chuckled darkly. "Why am I giving you advice? If you keep it, Sememmon will do things to your tribe that'll make you wish you never busted out of my dungeon."
Sungar punched Geildarr in the face. The mayor's head rocked back and struck the wall behind him.
"Was that blow in place of killing me?" said Geildarr, blood dribbling down his chin and onto his robe. "I wish you would kill me. Moritz wasn't lying. There is little chance that the Zhentarim will let me live, and if they do, it will be to endure a terrible punishment, far beyond anything your barbarian justice could comprehend." His words carried a perverse pride.
Thluna looked at Thanar's ruined body lying on the stairway. "Many of our men have died, thanks to him," Thluna reminded Sungar.
"And how many of my people did you kill?" asked Geildarr. "How many of my people are still dying out there, while your behemoths continue to wreck my city?"
Sungar brandished his axe before the mayor. "We will let you live," he declared.
"Somehow," Geildarr gulped, "I'm still glad for that."
The chief of the Thunderbeasts tilted the axe sideways and slammed its broad side into Geildarr's head, throwing his world into blackness.
When Geildarr awoke, he wondered if it had all been a bad dream.
His head spun from the blows he had taken, and his vision was clouded with spots of light and dark. A bright light shone in his eyes from above him. He was sitting in a chair. He recognized the second floor dining hall, damaged from fighting. The paintings on the walls hung askew.
A dead dwarf lay on the table in front of him, covered by the white table cloth.
Geildarr screamed. As he did so, he realized that he could not move his arms or legs, and he screamed louder, panicked. He grasped at the shreds of his wits and looked about to discover the reason for his paralysis.
He was bound to the chair, just as he had bound Sungar.
Through the tablecloth, Geildarr could see that the dwarf's head faced him, one lifeless eye open, the other crushed in its socket. The undamaged eye stared at him through the shroud as if mocking him, blaming him.
He screamed again. It echoed off the walls of the room. He yelled for help, but no one was in the Lord's Keep to hear him.
Geildarr screamed some more.
Finally, he laughed.
Vell saw himself staring at the surface of a pool of water, as if he were submerged and looking up. In the stillness he could see his reflection, but when he reached out to touch it, his image was lost in the ripples.
Who am I? A Thunderbeast, but what does that mean? Vell the Brown, but what does that mean?
A mystery. A mystery worth contemplating.
He stayed submerged in this restful state, thinking about it, until a word sounded in his ears that drew him back to himself.
By the time the behemoths were quieted, a full third of the buildings in Llorkh had been destroyed by the rampaging animals. The number of dead was uncountable. With the Heart of Runlatha in hand, Sungar, Thluna, and Kellin easily calmed the massive creatures. Only four of the twelve that had been stolen from the Sanctuary remained, the rest killed by Geildarr's lightning bolts or lost in the confusion and battle afterward. Ilskar survived the calamity and when he laid eyes on Sungar, joyfully shed his animal body and took the shape of a barbarian again.
But Vell was lost in his behemoth shape. There was no flicker of human intelligence in his eyes. He seemed to have entirely forgotten that he was ever human. Lanaal tried to reach him in the depths of his animal mind.
"I have experienced something like this myself," she said. "Especially after emotional strain-as he must have experienced when the behemoths were killed. Being an animal is seductively simple. He'll return in time." She sounded less than certain about her prediction.
Kellin wondered about the Endless March that sages sometimes spoke of, that she had discussed with Thanar under Grandfather Tree. The March was the eternal progress of life, growing and changing in all its myriad forms, all stemming from a central point that connected all life with a common origin, like the leaves and branches of a tree. But it held a darker implication as well. If humans had once been beasts, was there not something of the beasts in them still? She thought of what Lanaal said, of the seductive quality of being an animal. Part of that must be toxic, as well-how else to explain the Shepherds? They had worn scales too long, their humanity atrophying in their breasts. But if all people were born of animals, and had wisps of animal in them as surely as Vell did, who could say when such spirits might climb out?