And they'll fight you, Palin knew. They will fight you and your Dark Queen as they fought once before. You will not win.
Palin gripped the staff, his hand sweating, his body trembling. He wasn't afraid of dying. He was afraid of… of the pain.
Would it hurt… very much… to die?
Shaking his head angrily, the young man cursed himself for a coward and stared hard at the Portal. He had to concentrate! To put this out of his mind. He must make fear serve him! Not master him. There was a chance, after all, that he might close the Portal before his uncle… before…
"Paladine, help me," said Palin, his gaze going to the silvery light gleaming atop the staff with steadfast, unwavering brilliance in the shadowy darkness.
"Palin!" Raistlin shouted harshly. "I warn you-"
Lightning crackled from Raistlin's fingertips. But Palin kept his eyes upon the staff. Its light grew brighter, shining with a radiance whose beauty and clarity eased Palin's last fears.
"Paladine," he murmured.
The name of the god mercifully obliterated the sound of magical chanting Palin heard rising behind him.
The pain was swift, sudden… and soon over.
CHAPTER TEN
Raistlin stood alone in the laboratory, leaning upon the Staff of Magius. The light of the staff had gone out. The archmage stood in darkness as thick as the dust that lay, undisturbed, upon the stone floor, upon the spellbooks, upon the chair, upon the drawn, heavy curtain of purple velvet.
' Almost as deep as the darkness was the silence of the place.
Raistlin stilled his breathing, listening to the silence. The sound of no living being disturbed it-neither mouse nor bat nor spider- for no living being dared enter the laboratory, guarded by those whose vigilance would last unto the end of the world and beyond. Almost Raistlin thought he could hear one sound-the sound of the dust falling, the sound of time passing…
Sighing wearily, the archmage raised his head and looked into the darkness, broke the ages-long silence. "I have done what you wanted of me," he cried. "Are you satisfied?"
There was no answer; only the gently sifting dust drifting down into the perpetual night.
"No," Raistlin murmured. "You cannot hear me. And that is just as well. Little did you think, Dalamar, that when you conjured my illusion for this purpose, you would conjure me! Oh, no, apprentice"-Raistlin smiled bitterly-"do not pride yourself. You are good, but not that good. It was not your magic woke me from my sleep. No, it was something else…" He paused, trying to remember. "What did I tell the young man? 'A shadow on my mind'? Yes, that's what it was.
"Ah, Dalamar, you are lucky." The archmage shook his hooded head. For a brief moment, the darkness was lit by a fierce glint in the golden eyes, gleaming with their inner flame. "If he had been what I was, you would have found yourself in sad straits, dark elf. Through him, I could have returned. But as his compassion and his love freed me from the darkness into which I cast myself, so it binds me there still."
The light of the golden eyes faded, the darkness returned.
Raistlin sighed. "But that is all right," he whispered, leaning his head against the staff that supported him. "I am tired, so very tired. I want to return to my sleep." Walking across the stone floor, his black robes rustling about his ankles, his soft unheard footsteps leaving no trail at all in the thick dust, the archmage came to stand before the velvet curtain. Placing his hand on it, he stopped and looked around the laboratory that he could not see except in his memories, in his mind.
"I just want you to know," Raistlin cried, "that I didn't do this for you, mages! I didn't do it for the Conclave. I didn't do it for my brother! I had one more debt to pay in my lifetime. Now I have discharged it. I can sleep in peace."
In the darkness, Raistlin could not see the staff he leaned upon, but he didn't need to. He knew every curve of the wood, every tiny imperfection in the grain. Lovingly he caressed it, his delicate fingers touching the golden dragon's claw, running over each facet of the cold, dark crystal it held. Raistlin's eyes stared into the darkness, stared into the future he could glimpse by the light of the black moon.
"He will be great in the Art," he said with quiet pride. "The greatest that has yet lived. He will bring honor and renown to our profession. Because of him, magic will live and flourish in the world." The arch-mage's voice lowered. "Whatever happiness and joy was in my life, Palin, came from the magic.
"To the magic, I give you…"
Raistlin held the staff an instant longer, pressing the smooth wood against his cheek. Then, with a word of command, he sent it from him. It vanished, swallowed up by the endless night. His head bowed in weariness, Raistlin laid his hand upon the velvet curtain and disappeared, becoming one with the darkness and the silence and the dust.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Palin came slowly to consciousness. His first thought was one of terror. The fiery jolt that had burned and blasted his body had not killed him! There would be another. Raistlin would not let him live. Moaning, Palin huddled against the cold stone floor, waiting fearfully to hear the sound of magical chanting, to hear the crackle of the sparks from those thin fingertips, to feel once again the searing, exploding pain…
All was quiet. Listening intently, holding his breath, his body shivering in fear, Palin heard nothing.
Cautiously, he opened his eyes. He was in darkness, such deep darkness that nothing whatever was visible, not even his own body.
"Raistlin?" Palin whispered, raising his head cautiously from the damp, stone floor. "Uncle?"
"Palin!" a voice shouted.
Palin's heart stilled in fear. He could not breathe.
"Palin!" the voice shouted again, a voice filled with love and anguish.
Palin gasped in relief and, falling back against the stone floor, sobbed in joy.
He heard booted footsteps clambering up stairs. Torchlight lit the darkness. The footsteps halted, the torchlight wavered as though the hand holding it shook. Then the footsteps were running, the torchlight burned above him.
"Palin! My son!" and Palin was in his father's arms.
"What have they done to you?" Caramon cried in a choked voice. Dropping the torch, he lifted his son's body from the floor and cradled it against his strong breast.
Palin could not speak. He leaned his head against his father's chest, hearing the heart beating rapidly from the exertion of climbing the Tower stairs, smelling the familiarsmells of leather and sweat, letting- for one last moment his father's arms shelter and protect him. Then, with a soft sigh, Palin raised his head and looked into his father's pale, anguished face.
"Nothing, Father," he said softly, gently pushing himself away. "I'm all right. Truly." Sitting up, he looked around, confused in the feeble light cast by the torch flickering on the floor. "But where are we?"
"Out-outside that… that place," Caramon growled, letting go of his son, but watching him dubiously, anxiously.
"The laboratory," murmured Palin, puzzled, his gaze going to the closed door and the two, white, disembodied eyes that hovered before it.
The young man started to stand up.
"Careful!" said Caramon, putting his arm around him again.
"I told you, father. I'm all right," Palin said firmly, shaking off his father's help and getting to his feet without assistance. "What happened?" He looked at the sealed laboratory door.
The two eyes of the spectre stared back at him un blinking, unmoving.
"You went in… there," Caramon said, his brow creasing into a frown as his gaze shifted to the sealed door as well. "And… the door slammed shut! I tried to get in… Dalamar cast some sort of spell on it, but it wouldn't open. Then more of those… those THINGS"-he gestured at the eyes with a scowl-"came and I… I don't remember much after that. When I came to, I was with Dalamar in the study…"