Dwarven Nations - Hammer And Axe Part 22

"Watch over Raistlin 7" Tanis repeated furiously. "He left you here, to die!"

Tanis held Caramon in his arms.

Caramon closed his eyes wearily. 'No, you're wrong, Tanis. I sent him away. - .

:"The warrior's head slumped .forward.

THE DRAGONS OF WINTER NIGHT.

Night's shadows closed over them. The elves had disappeared. Sturm and Kit came to stand beside the dead warrior.

"What did I tell you?" Sturm asked harshly.

"Poor Caramon," Kitiara whispered, bending down near him. "Somehow I always guessed it would end this way:" She was silent for a moment, then spoke softly.

"So my little Raistlin has become truly powerful,"' she mused, almost to herself.

"At the cost of your brother's life!"

Kitiara looked at Tanis as if perplexed at his meaning. Then, shrugging, she glanced down at Caramon, who lay in a pool of his own blood. "Poor kid;' she said softly.

Sturm covered Caramon's body with his cloak, then they sought the entrance to the Tower.

"Tanis-" Sturm said, pointing.

"Oh, no. Not Tas," Tanis murmured. "And Tika.''

The kenders body lay just inside the doorway, his small limbs twisted by convulsions from the poison. Near him lay the barmaid, her red curls matted with blood. Tanis knelt beside them. One of the kender's packs had opened in his death throes, its contents scattered. Tanis caught sight of a glint of gold.

Reaching down, he picked up the ring of elven make, carved in the shape of ivy leaves. His vision blurred, tears filled his eyes as he covered his face with his hands.

'There's nothing we can do, Tanis:' Sturm put his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"We've got to keep going and put an end to this. If I do nothing else, I'll live to kill Raistlin'

Death is in the mind. This is a dream, Tanis repeated. But it was Raistlin's words he was remembering, and he'd seen what the mage had become.

L will wake up., he thought, bending the full force of his will to believing it was a dream. But when he opened his eyes, the kender's body stall lay on the floor.

Clasping the ring in his hand, Tanis followed Kit and Sturm into a dank, slime- covered, marble hallway. Paintings hung in golden frames upon marble walls.

Tall, stained-gla.s.s windows let in a lurid, ghastly light. The hallway might have been beautiful ante, but now even the paintings on the walls appeared distorted, portraying horrifying visions of death. Gradually, as the three walked, they became aware of a brilliant green light emanating froze. a room at the end of the corridor.

They could feel a malevolence radiate from that green light, beating upon their faces with the warmth of a perverted sun.

"The center of the evil;" Tanis said. Anger filled his heart, anger, grief, and a burning desire for revenge. He started to run forward, but the green-tainted air seemed to press upon him, holding him back until each step was an effort.

Next to him, Kitiara staggered. Tanis put his arm around her, though he could barely find the strength to move himself. Kit's face was drenched with sweat, the dark hair curled around her damp forehead. Her eyes were wide with fear-the first time Tanis ever saw her afraid. Sturm's breath came in gasps as the knight struggled forward, weighted down by his armor.

At first, they seemed to make no progress at all. Then slowly, they realized they were inching forward, drawing nearer and nearer the green-lit room. Its bright light was now painful to their eyes, and movement exacted a terrible toll. Exhaustion claimed them, muscles ached, lungs burned.

Just as Tanis realized he could not take another step, he heard a voice call his name. Lifting his aching head, he saw Laurana standing in front of him, her elven sword in her hand. The heaviness seemingly had no effect on her at all, for she ran to him with a glad cry.

"Tanthalas! You're all right! I've been waiting-"

She broke off, her eyes on the woman clasped in Tanis's arm.

"Who-" Laurana started to ask, then suddenly, somehow she knew. This was the human woman, Kitiara. The woman Tanis loved. Laurana's face went white, then red.

"Laurana-" Tanis began, feeling confusion and guilt sweep over him, hating himself for causing her pain.

"Tanis! Sturm!" Kitiara cried, pointing.

Startled by the fear in her voice, all of them turned, staring down the green- lit marble corridor.

"Drakus Tsaro, deghnyah!' Sturm intoned in Solamnic.

At the end of the corridor loomed a gigantic green dragon.

His name was Cyan Bloodbane, and he was one of the largest dragons on Krynn.

Only the Great Red herself was larger.

Snaking his head through a doorway, he blotted out the blinding green light with his hulking body. Cyan smelled steel and human flesh and elven blood. He peered with fiery eyes at them.

They could not move. Overcome with the dragonfear, they could only stand and stare as the dragon crashed through the doorway, shattering the marble wall as easily as if it had been baked mud. His mouth gaping wide, Cyan moved down the corridor.

There was nothing they could do. Their weapons dangled from hands gone nerveless. Their thoughts were of death. But, even as the dragon neared, a dark shadowy figure crept from the deeper shadows of an unseen doorway and came to stand before them, facing them.

"Raistlin!" :Sturm said quietly. "By all the G.o.ds, you will pay for your brother's life!"

Forgetting the dragon, remembering only Caramon's lifeless body, the knight sprang toward the mage, his sword raised. Raistlin just stared at him coldly.

''Kill me, knight, and you doom yourself and the others to death, for through my magic-and my magic alone-will you be able to defeat Cyan Bloodbane!"

"Hold, Stucco!'" Though his soul was Filled with loathing, Tanis knew the mage was right. He could feel Raistlin's power radiate &rough the black robes. 'We need his help:'

"No;' Sturm said, shaking his head and backing away as Raistlin neared the group. "I said before-I will not rely on his protection. Not now. Farewell, Tanis"

Before any of them could strap him Sturm walked past Raistlin toward -Cyan Bloodbane.. The great dragon's head wove back and forth in eager antic.i.p.ation of this first challenge to his power since he had conquered Siilvanesti.

Tanis clutched Raistlin. "Do something!"

"The knight is, in my way. Whatever spell I cast will destroy him too:" Raistlin answered, "Sturm!" Tanis shouted, his voice echoing mournfully.

The knight hesitated. He was, listening but not to Tanis's voice. What he heard was the -clear, clarion call of a trumpet, its music cold as, the air from the snow-covered mountains of his homeland, Pure and crisp, the trumpet call rose bravely above the darkness and dead and -despair to pierce his heart.

Sturm answered the trumpet's call with a glad battle cry. He raised his sword- the sword of his father" its antique blade twined with the kingfisher and the rose. Silver moonlight streaming through a broken window caught the sword in a pure-white radiance that shredded the noxious green air.

Again the trumpet sounded, and again Sturm answered, but this time his voice faltered, for the trumpet call he heard had changed tone. No longer sweet and pure, it was braying and harsh and shrill.

No". thought Sturm in horror as he neared the dragon. Those were the horns of the enemy! He had been lured into a trap! Around him now he could see draconian soldiers, creeping from behind the dragon, laughing cruelly at his gullibility.

Sturm stopped, gripping his sword in a hand that was sweating inside its glove.

The dragon loomed above him, a creature undefeatable, surrounded by ma.s.ses of his troops, slavering and licking his jowls with his curled tongue.

Fear knotted Sturm's stomach; his skin grew cold and clammy. The horn call sounded a third time, terrible and evil. It was all over. It had all been for nothing. Death, ignominious defeat awaited him. Despair descending, he looked around fearfully. Where was Tanis? He needed Tanis, but he could not find him.

Desperately he repeated the code of the knights, MY Honor !s My Life, but the words sounded hollow and meaningless in his ears. He was not a knight. What did the Code mean to him? He had been living a lie! Sturm's swordarm wavered, then dropped; his sword fell from his hand and he sank to his knees, s.h.i.+vering and weeping like a child, hiding his head from the terror before him.

With one swipe of his s.h.i.+ning talons, Cyan Bloodbane ended Sturm's life, impaling the knight's body: upon a blood-stained claw. Disdainfully, Cyan shook the wretched human to the floor while the draconians swept shrieking toward the knight's still-living body, intent upon hacking it to pieces.

But they found their way blocked. A bright figure, s.h.i.+ning silver in the moonlight, ran to the knight's body. Reaching down swiftly, Laurana lifted Sturm's sword. Then, straightening, she faced the draconians.

"Touch him and you twill die;' she said through her tears.

"Laurana!" Tanis screamed and tried to run forward to help her. But draconians sprang at him. He slashed at them desperately, trying to reach the elfrmaid, Just when he had wan through, he heard Kitiara call his name. Whirling, he saw her being beaten back by four draconians. The half-elf stopped in agony, hesitating, and at that moment Laurana fell across Sturm's body, her own body pierced by draconian swords.