Bloodstone (30 page)

She heard Dribeck's angry tone as she neared the council chamber. They had already begun, then--she had taken more time with her thoughts than she realized. The now familiar faces considered her gravely as she entered, but to outward appearances Teres was remarkably composed. Fear hung like a thick vapor over the circle of bleak faces.

Quickly Dribeck advised her of the most recent fragments of information, but when the conference resumed, Teres had the feeling its topic had changed. "The essential point--and subsequent information won't alter this--is that Kane was able to reduce Breimen to smoking rubble in a matter of hours, then withdraw to his fortress with relatively minor losses. Granted, Malchion was not expecting attack. Nonetheless Breimen was as well defended a city as Selonari, and although surprised and disorganized, the Wolf's army was probably as large as our own. Bluntly, the power that Kane wields makes lethal mockery of warfare as we know it. If Kane--when Kane decides to march against Selonari, we're fools to believe our city will fare any better against this alien sorcery.

"We can't let him choose his own time to strike. I say we must attack Arellarti at once!"

"Suicidal, at this point!" declared Ovstal.

"You know what will happen if we wait for Kane to come to our walls!" Dribeck retorted: "To carry the attack to him is our best chance. Damn it, we've been over this!"

"But then we counted on support from Breimen," Ovstal reminded.

"We can block off Kane's canal through the swamp," suggested Ainon, one of Dribeck's more powerful supporters among the gentry. "Barricade the channel with logs, so he can't bring his transport boats out. Those toads won't be worth so much after a long march through the forest."

"Hell, Ainon, use your head!" Dribeck remarked bitterly. "Kane carved that channel through the length of Kranor-Rill in less time than it takes to swim across! What kind of barrier would block him?"

"We should at least hold off for a few days," Ovstal persisted. "If it comes to a siege, we'll need every man we can muster. Malchion wouldn't help us before, but maybe now some of these Breim refugees will join with us."

"How many men do you think that will be?" commented Crempra, wincing under Teres's glare.

"Ill-bred, but accurate, cousin," Dribeck admitted. "We can't spare time to wait for dazed bands of refugees to trickle in. Kane needs that time more than, we do. My guess is that he dangerously overextended his power on the Breimen raid. Otherwise he wouldn't have crippled his enemy and then withdrawn--rather he'd have totally annihilated the city, or occupied it, perhaps. We strike now, and maybe we can hit before he recovers his strength--at least we'll attack before Bloodstone's power increases to whatever potential the crystal. can attain."

"My men and I will join your assault," growled Teres, speaking for the first time, "and with us will march any man of Breimen who still has spine to swing a blade."

"I'm sure we all appreciate the spirit of your offer," Ovstal replied ambiguously. "But there's another problem. Courage and steel can't do battle with the weapons Kane commands. Our army marches into unguessable danger, and the men know it. Now, maybe it goes against your vaunted logic, but it's human nature to trust in thick walls and familiar weapons."

"You're saying... ?"

"I'm saying the men might mutiny if you try to lay siege to Arellarti right now. They're brave men, but you can push them too far. Here in Selonari they can fight on secure ground."

"It may be that we can work a bargain with Kane," Arclec put in hastily, seeing Dribeck flush with anger.

Dribeek turned his wrath upon his wealthiest counselor. "After what Kane did to Breimen, knowing with what forces he's allied himself, can you seriously consider trying to bargain with Kane?"

There was no answer from the tight-pressed lips of those present.

"Since we must fight, let us fight that battle where we have a slim chance of victory," Dribeck went on.

"There's no denying our casualties will be unprecedented. But a man who is impaled upon his enemy's sword in dying disarms his enemy--and so is avenged by his comrades. It sickens me to propose that, in order to kill the serpent, we must suffer his strikes until his fangs are drained of venom. But unless someone knows a better strategy, these pitiless tactics are all we can fall back upon.

"As to mutiny, I think once tales spread of the massacre in Breimen, then men will know how vain is their trust in Selonari's walls. Kane once observed that bravery and desperation are at times inseparable. Comment?"

"Might as well die on the attack as on the defense," quoted Ovstal somberly. "With planning, with luck... maybe we can counter some of Kane's advantage. Spread our forces, make him waste his power in striking at small targets. Better yet, close with his minions, so he'd hesitate to fire. These bolts of energy are his deadliest weapon, so far as we know. Without that ring and in open combat, we'd have the numbers to chop apart his army. Be best if we could draw him out of his fortress. Lure him into the open, then attack with everything we can muster. Good trick if we could do it--but Kane's a damn clever strategist himself, that I'll give him."

"Can't we find some counterspell to protect the men from Kane's sorcery?" demanded Arclec, thinking of his position in the army's van.

"There may be hope," Dribeck announced. "I'm going to speak with Gerwein again. Last time she hinted that the Temple might have access to powers of magic as potent as Kane's frozen demon. She was vague, whether temporizing or truly uncertain what help she could give, I couldn't say. If the latter, she's had time now to search through the Temple's moldy vaults for forgotten secrets. If the former, let's hope the massacre at Breimen will warm her heart to our crass political endeavors."

Asbraln shook his head gloomily. "Ask help from the Temple, and the price won't be an easy one. It's been a hard battle to block Gerwein's ambitions as much as we've done."

Dribeck made a bitter face. "As we've said, these are desperate days before us. If Gerwein can be of help against Kane, we can't afford to ignore her aid. I only hope the cost won't make our victory a black one for us. But then, defeat looms blacker still."

Gerwein was a model of imperious grace for so early in the morning, mysterious in a long-skirted gown of burgundy silk, patterned with patches of cream leather, and cunningly pierced to suggest the beauty it enswathed. Her raven hair was combed in long, softly curling tresses; her dark eyes were as inscrutably calculating as a cat's stare across a dimly lit room. Teres did not like the cold impersonality of her delicately chiseled face.

"The wild she-wolf," she stated, her gaze flicking over the rough-attired girl. Teres challenged her unwavering eyes. Gerwein could not have been more than five years her senior. "Do you bring her as bodyguard, Lord Dribeck... or do you think to sway my sympathies with the help of one of the goddess's sex?"

"I thought you might find it of benefit to speak with the only person who has firsthand knowledge of Kane's hidden power," replied Dribeck, keeping an even temper with difficulty, after a sleepless night of care.

"Perhaps. Yes, maybe we would have things to say to each other. But this morning I perceive a haunted urgency overshadowing your usual polished manner, milord, and cries from the street inform us of Kane's most recent work of infamy. Has the madman whom you welcomed among us returned to our gates so soon?"

Dribeck gave her a vivid account of all they had learned concerning Breimen's fate, watching her face for some show of unease. He was disappointed. The high priestess's air of mocking sophistication was unbroken, although she questioned them both on point after point.

Finally Gerwein fell silent, pondering the information they had given. Her beautiful face was unchanged, but she had come to a decision. "Come with me, if you please," she directed, rising from her chair of state. "It is rare that outsiders intrude beyond the Temple's halls of worship, but I see these are strange times."

Into the secret reaches of the Temple they followed her, through winding hallways that twisted past rooms with incense-laden air and groups of girls in pale tunics at study or at leisure, performing meaningless rituals or mundane household tasks. The hallway led down flights of stairs, became torchlit as the chevroned windows disappeared. Now the rooms were more often closed and locked, some with doors whose timbers seemed inordinately massive. From behind one such door escaped the muffled sound of weeping, and Teres thought she saw a quick, cruel smile dance across Gerwein's lips.

They were well underground when the priestess paused before an iron-bound portal. "Knock," she invited. Dribeck complied.

A sharp face appeared at the spyhole, ducked, and then with a scraping of bolts, the door was opened. The room within was surprisingly large. Dribeck's harried countenance lit in admiration at the sight of the vast wealth of books and manuscripts stored along the extensive shelves. A trio of priestesses of middle to declining years were examining a number of musty volumes laid out upon a heavy table. A silver-gray disk of polished metal, perhaps five feet in diameter, lay flat against the table's center. Dribeck assumed it was a mirror-until he bent over and saw that the burnished circle cast no reflection.

"The Temple archives," announced Gerwein. "Repository of centuries of tedious records and arcane wisdom. In these fallen days, we daughters of Shenan have all but lost our ability to discriminate between the trivia of routine and the priceless knowledge whose secrets our cult once mastered. My sisters have labored ceaselessly these last days in the effort to distill knowledge of the elder Krelran race and their demon Bloodstone from this moldering dune of ancient parchment. Selonari is fortunate--as is the world beyond, it would seem--that our search has not been altogether in vain."

"What do you know of Arellarti?" Dribeck could not help blurting.

"Much. We hope to know more, once we can find a certain ancient manuscript that dates from our city's earliest days. So far, that volume has eluded us." Her smile was coldly triumphant. "But we've learned enough already from references in the other writings to recognize the nature of this crystal devil called Bloodstone. And more important--having learned this, we have discovered means to combat its power. It is likely that we shall be able to nullify the deadly energy bolts Kane controls through his ring... and I see my suave Lord Dribeck betrays his interest!"

"If you can counteract that one weapon, we can destroy Kane!" swore Dribeck, too intent to fence with the high priestess.

"Unless Bloodstone has other powers, and more deadly. But I think we're learning enough to do battle with Kane on even terms. From your statements, Teres, I see Kane once revealed a significant aspect of Krelran power, though your unlettered mind failed to grasp what he meant. You spoke of Bloodstone's power as 'sorcery,' and Kane said that you were in error, and by design or condescension to your ignorance, he never troubled to explain the distinction.

"Kane's power is that of science, not sorcery--although with elder-world science the distinction becomes blurred. But then, to untutored minds the distinction is difficult to grasp, for this lies in understanding the forces at work, and in the laws they obey. For example, to produce a deadly sword to wield in battle, a master smith will use secrets of his craft to smelt choice iron into steel, forge steel into tempered blade, then balance, hone and haft the blade to the best of his art. Similarly, a wizard may utilize the secrets of his craft to forge a sword from starfire and incantations. Both swords seem magic to some club-swinging apeman, such as legend places on lands unknown to our civilization, but clearly one is born of science, the other spawned by sorcery. I leave it to you to judge which weapon would prove more potent."

"I'll trust to honest steel," snapped Teres, angered by Gerwein's gibes. "I've heard the legends of your magic swords, and they seem to serve their masters ill enough by the saga's end!"

"She took me literally," breathed Gerwein in polite wonder. "I don't consider myself untutored," broke in Dribeck, himself annoyed. "Now that you've made your point, where does it lead us?"

"Your pardon, milord. It leads to a war of science against sorcery. And to our advantage, we understand something of the principles of Krelran science, while I doubt Kane is greatly acquainted with the sorcerous powers of Shenan."

"I'd not care to stake my life on that," Dribeck warned.

"But then you are. The important thing is that Krelran science borders on realms we humans consider sorcery--although perhaps my analogy of the savage persists. Science has laws; magic obeys laws. The source of the power each draws upon is different--or is it, if we question far enough? Matters too devious for our attention today. But what we understand of Bloodstone's power convinces us that it is closely akin to the laws of sorcery, and as such it is within our power to combat Kane through the magic of Shenan.

"This disk, which I see you recognize is not a mirror, was laid in the Temple vaults centuries ago, its use almost forgotten--as with so many other artifacts of our lost glory. It may be the defense you seek against Bloodstone's death beam."

Dribeck considered the metal disk skeptically.

"Lift it," she suggested.

It was chill to his touch--how cold he did not realize until his fingertips came away with stinging white stigmata. With painful effort he hooked his grip beneath an edge, and while its mass should not have been more than a few tens of pounds, the disk of unknown metal seemed to weigh as much as the stout oak table.

Her laughter was even colder. "A simulacrum, it would appear. We have rediscovered its secret, and it may be that Kane will soon find the power of Bloodstone is not invincible. And there is much else we have learned, which will dismay Kane when the battle begins. Of course, the rituals are complex, for the forces involved are of a major order. We will require time, many items that we know where to find.

"You will have to revoke the ban on human sacrifice, however, unless you wish to battle Kane with swords alone. Don't look so grim, milord. We also know where to find our virgins--frail blooms we've nurtured since birth. The details will not concern you; it is enough that no child known beyond these walls will die."