Bloodstone (35 page)

A gaunt Lord Dribeck, his injuries cared for, sat before his pavilion deep in thought. Teres dozed fitfully on a pallet inside. Thigh tightly bandaged, Asbraln rested in the sun--Dribeck had ordered the chamberlain taken from the battle after a deep leg wound incapacitated him. Crempra, who had sprained his ankle falling out of a tree, reposed beside him, basking in the warmth of victory with no apparent concern for the next day.

Gerwein came to him there. It was a measure of the gravity of her visit, in that she felt compelled to call upon Dribeck: He had hurried to congratulate the high priestess over the sorcerous vanquishment of Bloodstone's shadow horde, only to learn Gerwein was prostrate with exhaustion in the aftermath of her incantations. Leaving word of his gratitude, Dribeck had intended to return to the Temple's encampment after the noon hour, then to discuss his projected siege of Arellarti.

Her proud face was drawn with strain; something that might be fear shone in her magnificent eyes. Her cold disdain seemed broken by some overbearing concern, and she brushed aside his speech of thanks--when once the priestess would have given her soul for this moment. Perhaps she had.

"I must speak with you," she announced in a strange voice.

"Of course," Dribeck acceded. "In my tent, then. These are all who remain of my counselors, so we might as well make it a formal council. We need to consider our next move against Kane, now that his power lies crushed by your magic."

Gerwein pursed her lips in a taunt line, entered the pavilion, and dropped onto a chair. The others followed her within. Starting from her stupor, Teres had her sword half drawn before awareness returned; sheepishly she sat up. One of the priestess's attendants placed in Gerwein's hands a brittle-leafed tome and withdrew silently.

"This is the lost volume to which I made reference on your visit to the Temple archives," Gerwein began, before each had taken his place. "The pages of our crumbling volumes referred to a yet more ancient manuscript which told the full history of Arellarti, of Bloodstone--as far as any man has penetrated its secrets. Parts of this knowledge had been excerpted, appended to the older compendia of our Temple's lore. Thence came the knowledge we used to combat Bloodstone's powers: the secret of its annihilating energy, which is somehow akin to both the energies of the cosmos and of life--vampirish of the living entities whom it destroys. The shadow slaves of Bloodstone--stolen souls whom it enslaved on the plane where elder science merges into sorcery. These were dead creatures invested with a depraved sham-life, and thus they were vulnerable to Shenan's shining wrath, for such mockeries of living death are hateful to the sight of true gods."

She rested the heavy tome upon Dribeck's battered camp table and opened its pages with a gesture. "My sisters discovered this as we were making ready to depart Selonari. It's a palimpsest, or we would have known it earlier. I can't guess its age, although it predates the more than five centuries our people have held these lands. It's written in the Old Tongue, the language of those whose day was before mankind became a race. I think the history must have come from the giants, who ranged far across the dawn Earth and knew many secrets of the elder ages, though someone must have transcribed this, for the giants cared little for writing. One of my parsimonious ancestors, who did not read Old Tongue or else deemed this lore of little value, erased the parchment to record her memoirs. Much of the ancient script is still legible; my sisters restored it somewhat, and I was able to read these lost pages as we journeyed.

"I was disconcerted by what I learned, but in my pride I did not give full credence to these faded lines. It seemed that my sorcery could triumph over this resurrected demon of alien science, despite the sinister insinuations of the manuscript. So I kept silent upon my new wisdom, thinking it would be advantageous to make the disclosure as a dramatic stroke when Kane was vanquished by my magic.

"But the battle went not as I had thought. More potent sorceries were demanded than I had ever planned--you cannot imagine the powers that clashed invisibly, the frightful sacrifices this narrow victory cost! And now I understand that this ancient writing is not wild exaggeration! That we are aligned against powers of which we have known but a frightened glimpse! That the price of our defeat is far more hideous than ever we had guessed!"

"You mean Kane could indeed conquer the earth?" demanded Dribeck. "Can he enslave all mankind?"

Gerwein laughed bitterly--a sharp, unpleasant sound. "Kane! He knows not what power he has awakened The doom I speak of is a far blacker evil than a world empire with Kane as tyrant--that would mean little more than a change of masters for much of mankind!

"But let me read. I'll translate as well as I can these archaic lines, since I doubt if even Lord Dribeck knows Old Tongue:

"And in that distant age to our world and to this land came Bloodstone, from beyond the stars that shone in the elder night. In flight came Bloodstone, driven before the vast war between its brothers and the races of the stars, who had risen against the dread hunger of the crystal entities, and did battle to sunder the strangling fetters of abominable tyranny which that unnatural race had spread across the stars. Seeking refuge from their anger, Bloodstone determined to dwell upon our world, and with its final stores of energy from the land it blasted a great burning wound, and into this wound flowed the waters of the sea, and there was formed an inland sea, wherein Bloodstone had carved an island, and upon this haven did it come to rest. There in the fastness of its island, Bloodstone directed its Krelran slaves to build for it a fortress city, raised from strange elements that Bloodstone's power had transmuted from certain substances, these it took from the earth and the sea and the air and the fire. Nor was this city as any other the Earth has known, before or since, for its design was not so much structured to give shelter to the crystal and its slaves, but to call down from the stars the limitless energies that were the life force of Bloodstone. Thus did his minions labor long and arduously, giving fullest attention to every minute detail of their master's great design, whether to the precise angles of some gigantic and doorless edifice, or to a tiny etching upon some bizarrely faceted carving. For once this extension of its power lattice could be completed, then could Bloodstone freely drink of those immeasurable energies that hold together the universe, known and unknown, that hold apart this plane of existence from dimensions and from worlds beyond this that we know, that are the life principle of all nature, whether rock or flame or living creature.

"Further, it was the intent of Bloodstone to call out to its brothers beyond the stars, where their danger now was great as the wrath of their enemies, and to summon its crystal race, as many as survived, to come to our world, where their enemies had not followed, and here to descend, and to carry out the dread design from which they had been driven by the power of their enemies. Thus would Bloodstone and its kind have brought down from the stars a monstrous doom upon our world, feeding upon and enslaving the elder races that here dwelled, in the same manner that it treated its Krelran slaves, and no power upon the Earth could deny their might. But the elder races of Earth had knowledge of Bloodstone's evil intent, nor were these other beings without wizardry of their own, some having themselves ridden from the stars on great engines of their devising, some having origins of which we may not speak. The greatest of these, the Scylredi, from their castles beneath the sea, and the Tuhchiso, who dwell in far deserts, and the Brveen, whose home is the cliffs where the Great Serpent's Head drops down upon the salt marshes, then made truce from their smouldering wars, and they made an alliance one with another to destroy the work of Bloodstone. Thereby did follow a mighty and terrible war between these elder races and Bloodstone, and great was the destruction of that fearful combat, despite that Bloodstone was much weakened from its flight and its building of Arellarti, and that its power lattice was not completed, so that it could not draw upon the energies for which it thirsted sorely. Even then it may have been that Bloodstone would have withstood their attack, but when its powers were concentrated to its defense, then did the master of the Krelran, Bloodstone's chief servant, who wielded in a strangely wrought ring upon his fist the dual self of Bloodstone's being, rebel against the slavery in which Bloodstone held his people, notwithstanding the high station he bore among them. This chief of the Krelran slaves with secret thoughts approached Bloodstone, and manipulated the master controls of the crystal's power structure to cut off that thin stream of energy by which the crystal was nourished, doing this before Bloodstone could once more hold his mind in thrall. And here was Bloodstone vulnerable, for according to its dual nature of crystal and organic life, it could not control its power through itself directly, but only through the agency of its slave, who under Bloodstone's power was both extension and organic identity of the crystal consciousness. No hand but that of its chief slave might command the mechanisms of the control dais and live, nor could Bloodstone destroy its rebellious slave, for he was part of the crystal's life structure. Thereby was Bloodstone crippled before its enemies, and its rebellious servant then sought to flee, with others of his kind, in the great ship that had carried them to our world. But the fury of these elder races spared no work of Bloodstone and followed the fleeing ship, and destroyed it, and with it died the servant of Bloodstone. Thus was the bond of life broken for Bloodstone, and the ring that bore its dual self was lost, and the giant crystal fell dormant within its ravaged city, which the elder races were not able to destroy utterly, as they did the alien ship. For centuries now has Bloodstone lain silent in the ruins of Arellarti, while the great elder races that conquered it have fallen from their ancient state of might, and it is said that Bloodstone lies not dead, but in repose, dreaming of that day when, by an evil miracle, its power may again throw a light of horror upon our Earth.'"

Gerwein closed the book, pushed it away from her. "It goes on to describe Arellarti, talks about the powers of Bloodstone and the like--the sections which were excerpted and abridged for the volumes we uncovered earlier. The part I translated for you tells us where we stand, though.

"In short, you suggest that Kane's power has been broken. This is doubly false. In truth we speak of Bloodstone's power, for Kane is no more than its pawn. He erred, as did we all, in believing the Krelran had harnessed the power of Bloodstone to serve their race. Our conceit kept us from recognizing on whose neck the shackles truly weighed. And now we realize how little our hollow victory means--if after such losses we can name it victory! While we were barely able to check Bloodstone's attack last night, our strength has been sacrificed for but little gain. We defended our lives--the lives of a few of us--and now what force have we to attack Bloodstone! Yet Bloodstone is no more than a short span of time from the fulfillment of its design and the attainment of power that well may be without limit! Do you think this inconsequential setback we dealt Bloodstone last night could have crippled such might?

"But the final despair is to understand the doom Bloodstone means to wreak upon all mankind--if its horror will not reach even farther! The others of its race shall be summoned, and man shall be a mindless slave to these devouring gods... and what hope is there to break such chains? I believed my pitiful sorceries could defeat Bloodstone, but last night it took the most potent of spells just to withstand its languid thrust! Once it achieves the peak of its power, no magic forces known to man can resist Bloodstone! It took the incalculable strength of three elder-world titans to destroy Bloodstone when its power was at ebb--and even they could not altogether annihilate it!

"Our cause is doomed," she declared quietly. "We are pitted against an enemy whose power truly is beyond our conception. Against such measureless force mankind cannot hope to prevail."

It seemed the dark silence which followed her pronouncement would never be broken. Not even a bird or warrior's shout was heard within the tent. It was as if the pavilion had been hermetically sealed by their despair.

"Let us die in the attempt," said Dribeck at last. The others remained silent. Nor was there any answer they could give.

"I have no more than several hundred men who are fit to march," he continued, his voice unnatural. "Still, I'll lead them to the walls of Arellarti--though we're but children throwing stones at an ogre's castle. Likely we'll all perish before some new and terrible weapon... before we ever reach the city portals. Yet there's a chance we might fight through--reach Bloodstone's fane--destroy it somehow, I don't know--maybe force Kane to show us how. The odds are not ones I care to ponder, but they seem a far more tempting gamble than to wait for Bloodstone to deal with us as it wills.

"At least the evils of which we know have been vanquished. The shadow army is destroyed, there can't be more than a few score Rillyti skulking about, and we can counter Kane's death ring. I'm assuming we can take your moon disk with us--is there any other way your sorceries can aid us?

"We'll try to arrange for the simulacrum to accompany you, though I doubt its magic could withstand the fury of Bloodstone's limitless energy for very long." Gerwein's chin lifted resolutely; her eyes flashed determination, if not hope.

"There is one desperate spell which remains to us that may be effective--a spell that will force Bloodstone to the defensive. But this is magic of terrible potence. I had hoped not to resort to such evocation, since the forces that will be unshackled will be almost beyond the limits of sorcery to control. There is no longer a choice to make, it seems.

"As you know, Shenan, goddess of the moon, is mistress of the ocean tides. Kranor-Rill was sea before it rotted into morass, and thus its boundaries once were part of the tidal realm. There is a spell, a most dangerous spell, that will loose the ancient tides upon the lands where once they held dominion. I intend to send the waters of the Western Sea into Kranor-Rill... to hurl the power of the tides against Arellarti!"