Loremaster - Palace Of Kings Part 28

128.

follow the Master of Darkness. You must stay here.'

Rubel spun round and cried out as the dagger cut into his outflung arm, sending him cras.h.i.+ng heavily against the first stair-riser, knocking him unconscious. 'No! No!' Arbel cried, as the darkness dissolved and he saw what he had done.

Bending, he gathered up his brother's body and laid him carefully across a broken chair. 'I could not help it!' he cried.

'That foul mesh that entangled me at Gildersleeves, sometimes it seems that it is still there, filling me with darkness, making me do things.'

Mumbling and crying Arbel bound his brother's wound and then ran to the doorway and looked out at the lightening sky. 'The darkness draws me, beckons me to follow, but somehow I must overcome it and rescue Elionbel and Mother.'

129.

In the Ruins of the Granite City

Elionbel ran wearily at Krulshards' heels, pulled along by the life thread looped around her throat. Behind her Martbel stumbled to keep the Nightmare's hurrying pace. Dawn brought little but chill winds to comfort them as the early light changed from dismal grey to soft green as the sun climbed above World's Edge. Before them on the rising ground black shadows surrounded a huge mound of granite grey blocks, piled, it seemed, in tumbling disorder. Each slab was thrown upon the other as if the bones of Elundium had erupted from the ground; only on the summit of the mound above the edges of the shadows did the chaos end in a smooth wall that rose sheer against the morning light. Just above the ruin of the wall Elionbel could see the steep gables of weathered slate that covered an ancient hall.

'Mother,' she whispered between running steps, 'what place is this?'

Martbel peered around the billowing folds of the malice that Krulshards had spread across his eyes against the light and her face drained of colour. 'It was once the Granite City,'

she replied, falling back behind Elionbel.

Krulshards turned his hideous head, dead locks of tangled hair streamed in the wind, and he laughed, cruelly and

without pity. Spreading his arms he shouted, 'Behold the last of the Granite Kings. You see the beginning of a long night of darkness where only I, Krulshards, the Master of Darkness, rule! Nightbeasts - your Master!'

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The dense black shadows began to sway and in answer to the Nightmare's cry they chanted, heralding his victory, 'Krulshards, Master of Darkness. Krulshards, the King of all Elundium!'

Elionbel shrank in horror and hung back against the pull of rthe life thread. 'The shadows are Nightbeasts! The city is surrounded by the Nightmare's army!'

tKrulshards laughed and tugged both women along on their knees through the ranks of his beasts. Cruel claws pinched and slapped their arms and legs. Nightbeast faces leered and laughed at them and everywhere hung the stench of rotting flesh and the dry rattle of Nightbeast armour. Only when they stood in the shadows of the highest innermost wall did Krulshards halt. Reaching out he pressed his bone black fingers against the smooth granite, scratching his sharp nails across the fine grooves left by the masons.

'Kerhunge!' he boomed, 'Come to your master!'

Kerhunge, Kerzolde's brother, heard the summons, quickly clambered out of a dark hole between the granite blocks and hurried forward to kneel at Krulshards' feet, offering up the handle of his twelve-tailed whip. 'Master, the Granite City is yours!'

'You lie! This city will not be mine while the Granite King lives,' Krulshards shouted, hooking his fingers into Kerhunge's iron collar and pulling him to his feet. 'Where is the Granite King's head. Bring it to me now!'

Elionbel listened in horror as Kerhunge stammered out the last moments of the Granite King, pointing to the top of the wall, and telling the Master of Night how King Holbian had retreated into one of the Granite Towers seconds before it collapsed, burying him for ever beneath a thousand granite blocks. 'The inner circle of the city is empty, Master. There is only the strange light in the Candlehall and a stoop of owls guarding the ancient roof. Nothing more.'

Krulshards seethed with new anger. Picking Kerhunge up by his collar he tossed him down towards the lower ruins of

131.

the city. 'I want the King's head!' he roared. 'Destroy the inner circle and find me the King. Tear out every brick and stone, dig down into the bones of Elundium and find the

King. Elundium cannot be mine until I have his head!'

'Master, it will be done!' cried Kerhunge, crawling back to lie at the Nightbeast's feet.

'Now!' screamed Krulshards, cracking the twelve-tailed whip in Kerhunge's face. Kerhunge fled towards the siege ladders that lay propped against the inner wall ready for the final a.s.sault. Shouting and screaming he drove the waiting Nightbeasts forward in a black ma.s.s and they scaled the ladders and breasted the top of the wall, spears and scythes casting a forest of shadows across the empty cobbles below.

Krulshards stretched out a long impatient hand, caught Kerhunge by the collar and pulled him close. 'Why do you hesitate?' he hissed, watching the Nightbeasts pause on the top of the wall.

'Master it is the light!'

'Light?' snarled Krulshards, climbing on to the first rung of the ladder.

'There is a strange light that s.h.i.+nes blue and gold in the Candle Hall. It burns into our eyes even through the wolfskin s.h.i.+elds.'

'Light!' sneered the Master of Darkness, reaching the top of the wall and roughly pulling Elionbel and Martbel up with him. 'I will destroy this hall and all the light that ever shone in this foul city!'

'It was beautiful once,' Martbel whispered to her daughter, stealing a furtive glance back across the ruined lower circles of the city. 'The sheer strong walls once cast deep velvet shadows over the maze of narrow streets that wound their way up towards Candlebane Hall.'

Krulshards hissed and tugged sharply at his life thread, silencing Martbel's whisperings. 'It is more beautiful now that my army has rebuilt it!'

Elionbel laughed bitterly, pointing at the broken doors of

the Candle Hall, 'That is a hallowed place that you cannot destroy, look!'

Krulshards turned back towards the Candle Hall, his face blood red with anger and screamed out with rage and pain, throwing the malice over his head against the light.

'It is a hallowed place!' laughed Elionbel, her hair blowing in the clear morning breeze, her face reflecting all the brilliant light that flooded out of Candlebane Hall. Krulshards lashed out at Elionbel, catching her behind the knees with his black knuckles, almost sending her toppling over the inner edge of the wall to plunge to her death on the cobbles below. Martbel sprang forward and wrapped the life thread around her hands, 'Elionbel! I will save you,' she shouted as the thread went taut, cutting into the palms of her hands.

'Elionbel!' Krulshards hissed, knowing now which one of the Marcherwomen he sought. He reached down into the blinding light and hooked his fingers into the fabric of Elionbel's cloak, pulling her back to the safety of the top of the wall. 'Now I know!' he sneered through the folds of his malice. Sitting back on his haunches he laughed and grabbed Martbel by his other hand. Holding both women before him he stared at them through a crack in his malice, looking from one to the other.

'You are payment against Thanehand,'he hissed at Elionbel. '

For his crimes you shall hang in torment in the City of Night. But you, Marcherwoman,' he sneered, dribbling the word across his malice, 'you shall serve me a purpose.' Half turning his head, he looked down at the Candle Hall s.h.i.+elding his eyes against the light. 'I cannot enter the Candle Hall, or destroy the inner circle of the city, the light is against me, but you, Marcherwoman, I can take, and enter, and spoil. You

shall be my last act of destruction in the Granite City.'

'No! No!' Martbel screamed, struggling against Krulshards'

strong grip as he dragged her into the malice. 'NO!'

Elionbel bit at the Nightmare's hand and wriggled free.

Turning she kicked and beat on the outer folds of the malice

but it was closed against her. m.u.f.fled and far away she could hear her mother's screams as Krulshards took her, raping her without mercy. 'She is mine!' gloated the Master of Nightmares, his eyes blood red and swollen with victory.

'I will kill you for this, you foul Nightmare!' Elionbel cried, falling to her knees. 'I will tear out your black heart for what you have done this daylight, by Nevian I will!'