Despair s blood rushed from his face, and he stood for a moment fighting back a cold fury. He had not received a single forcible from Chulspeth.
The fool.
He considered how to fight, what warriors to send. It had to be someone he trusted, and it had to be someone who could battle a Runelord with hundreds of endowments.
Lord Despair had no warriors with endowments to match, but he had servants with other powers.
Vulgnash. He felt inside himself, and felt peace. He had used his Earth Powers to choose Vulgnash, put him under protection. And so he could send the Knight Eternal into battle. The Earth did not warn against it. Vulgnash s skills as a flameweaver would do nicely. And with his endowments of metabolism, he could fly to Caer Luciare and back in only a few hours.
Yes, he would do nicely. It would give him a chance to atone. This mess, after all, was his fault. He had gifted the Fang Guards with endowments of bloodlust, and had left them untamed.
But Despair could not spare his pet at the moment. The human attack was imminent, and Vulgnash would be needed here.
"I will send Vulgnash tonight. Tell him what you ve seen. You will go with him to punish the Fang Guards. Tell him to burn Chulspeth. There is to be a new lord at Caer Luciare, one who will do my bidding…" Despair considered. He needed someone he could trust, but someone whose presence he could spare. Kryssidia had been gifted with a dozen endowments in the past two days. Over the last few millennia, Lord Despair had elevated his Death Lords to the highest positions because he could commune with them from afar. But having a physical body, it seemed, now offered more substantial benefits. "You, Kryssidia, shall keep the order at Luciare. You shall take endowments there, no less than two hundred, and you shall hold the title of emperor of Luciare."
"I am honored," Kryssidia said, bowing low.
Despair had taken some endowments already-brawn, stamina, metabolism, and grace. He would need more for the coming battle. "Take the blood metal to my facilitators quickly, and have them begin making forcibles and extorting endowments. I want a thousand endowments in the next five hours."
The demand was outrageous, impossible. There weren t enough facilitators to do the work. But the need was upon him.
Despair felt inside himself, listening to the Earth s warnings.
Yes, the danger was still there, but it had grown less. The humans were coming soon, but not with sufficient force.
Deep inside, he heard the voice whispering. "Now is the time. Choose to save the seeds of mankind."
But Despair had no desire to choose further. He d tried to use the newfound protective powers to choose his Death Lords, but they were so far gone toward death that he was powerless to save them.
All right then, he thought, I will choose.
The Knights Eternal had picked up the blood metal and were racing to take it to the facilitators.
He turned to the fleeing Knights Eternal. "I choose you," Despair whispered.
He felt a connection made, weak and tenuous. With one foot in the grave, and one foot out, the Knights Eternal were almost beyond his powers to reach. He wondered if, when he sent them word of danger, they would even be able to hear his call.
That is the Earth Spirit s problem, he thought, and laughed.
Human flesh. That was what the Earth wanted him to choose.
Lord Despair opened a latch to the nearest door and found one of his guards. "O Great Wyrm," the guard said, "we have brought more small folk to give you endowments, as you requested. They await you in the Sanctum."
"Well done," Despair said. "I shall be there shortly."
The small folk. They could be both a cursing and a blessing. He considered the Wizard Fallion. There was a slight chance that the small folk would succeed in rescuing him.
But there was a way that Despair could keep track of him.
The Earth Spirit wishes me to choose, Despair thought, and so I will choose.
He immediately called his guards to escort him to the dungeons-to the cell of Fallion Orden.
Vulgnash sat over the wizard, a forcible in hand, filing a rune at its head. The room was as cold as an ice field with the north winds lashing across it. Vulgnash leapt up as Despair neared; he raised his wings to full span, as if in salute.
"What would please my master?" Vulgnash asked.
Despair peered down at Fallion Orden, who lay sprawled unconscious upon his belly. Frost rimed his collar, and he was barely breathing. Using his Earth Powers, Despair looked into Fallion s heart.
Here was a man who dreamed simple dreams. Fallion did not want to rule the world. Lord Despair had never wondered what the young wizard might desire most of all, yet Despair knew that he would need to know.
There it was in his imagination-a small fishing boat, a coracle that he could row out onto the sea at dawn, and there cast his nets and hopefully be done with work for the day by noon. He wanted a cottage at the edge of the sea with a fine thatch roof to keep out the winter rain. He wanted children sitting on his knee as he told them bedtime stories. He wanted a wife to hold at night, and to cherish.
Such simple things. So repulsively wholesome.
"Yes," the Earth s voice whispered deep inside him. "This one is worthy to inhabit the world to come."
Despair raised his left arm to the square and said, "The Earth hide you. The Earth heal you. The Earth make you its own. I choose you through the dark times to come."
When it was done, Despair stared down at the wounded boy.
Now you are truly mine, he thought. Wherever you might go, I will be able to find you.
"Vulgnash," he said. "It is time to begin the tortures in earnest. Give another hundred endowments of compassion to Fallion Orden today. It is time to force Fallion to tell us what we need to know."
17
Despair is the greatest of all teachers. Others may instruct you in some matters, but Despair can teach you all that you need to know.
The Emir Tuul Ra felt taut with anticipation. The five heroes had spent the better part of the morning racing toward Rugassa, and he knew that they were near. He felt so overwhelmed with emotion that he wanted to shout.
There was hope, yes. Finally the people of Caer Luciare were going to strike back against Rugassa. But there was fear in his heart, also, and mourning. His people had been driven from their homes, from the very world of their native birth, and now squatted beyond its borders, plotting revenge.
But revenge would be hard to come by. The wyrmlings had a mountain of blood metal, and they knew how to bend it to their will. In a matter of days, the wyrmlings would have it in their power to take so many endowments that the folk of Caer Luciare might never be able to break the wyrmlings stranglehold on the world.
So there was a moment, a brief time that they might be able to strike. Today is the day, he thought.
Preparations were being made. All morning he had felt endowments being vectored to him, some from men.
Metabolism, that was most of what he got. Seven endowments of speed. He was not the strongest in the group, far from it. But he would be the quickest, and he had learned long ago that great speed is enough in battle.