The Ivory Star

Chapter 32

Uhr could feel his power growing. The Great Conjunction drew near. Soon the heavens would be in alignment, and then this puny mortal resistance would no longer matter. Until then, however, they must be dealt with, stamped out, lest they somehow gain a victory. Outside his pavilion he could hear the preparations outside for the next assault on Valerion's fortress.

He picked up the sorcerously carved silver bowl from the black stone table. In the bottom of the bowl lay a few bits of torn skin and dried blood, the One's own flesh, which Uhr had dug from beneath his nails. The bowl he carried to the center of his private pavilion, where the Bloodstone burned upon a jet-black pedestal extruded from the ground itself. He laid a rotting hand on the stone, holding the bowl in the other. Arcane syllables began to drip from his mouth like acid. The red glow strengthened, filling the large tent like a tiny sun. Flashes of crimson lightning crackled and snapped around his hands and bowl with its gruesome contents.

Outside, the grass around the tent wilted and blackened. Nearby night creatures stopped chirping. The two Slayers standing guard at the entrance fell over, dead. Birds stopped their flight and fell to the ground, sucked dry of life-energy.

The bottom of the silver bowl began to fill with fresh blood and a thick, clear mucus.

The Ophidians near the Slayer camp watched the red light brighten the fringe of their encampment, tried not to look. The Slayers ignored it.

On the wall of the fortress, Robinius cursed as he watched, and his stomach knotted up, as he watched this scarlet brilliance grow. He did not bother to pray to his father's gods anymore. He was convinced now that they were deaf and dumb and blind. Robinius and his countrymen were alone now, it seemed, abandoned by their gods and allies to face the Evil One himself. The glow out there began to throb and pulse, like a heartbeat. Hundreds of cook fires dotted the shore of the lake among the ruins of Lakeside and beyond.

Uhr's voice avalanched across the camp as if a thousand times amplified. Sneev's men cried out in pain, clawing at their ears. It was the tongue of madness that swept men's souls into the realm of black insanity. Agonized screams filled the air.

Inside the pavilion, the beast blasted out the chant's last horrid syllables. Thunder rolled across the cloudless sky. The blinding sorcerous light slowly faded. The Ophidians collapsed and wept, or stared dumbly into their cook fires with glazed eyes, or lay drooling on the ground, or ignorantly mumbled the syllables that had just been blasted into their minds.

Uhr peered expectantly down into the bowl. Scarlet arcs crackled across the warm surface. There, in the bottom of the bowl, in a pool of mixed blood and fluid, lay a human fetus. It pulsed with a new-given life, and even as Uhr watched, it grew, and his ghoulish laughter roared across the encampment.

* * *

Angus MacTavish scowled in disgust. After three sleepless nights and days, he had pulled guard duty. His exhaustion merely served to magnify his foul mood. He paced monotonously back and forth across the wall above the inner ward's gatehouse. The hour was just past midnight, and three hours still remained in his watch. Even now he felt the brink of collapse nearby. Only his own iron will kept him going. Aylok walked his own station on this section of the wall nearby, and the sharp-eyed Sigmunnd further down. Only Red Dragons guarded the inner ward, now that the outer ward was lost.

As he patrolled, Angus thought about how Valerion's mood had darkened of late. He seemed to have fallen into a fit of deep despair. Who wouldn't? Angus thought. Angus had seen Valerion earlier today at about sunset, and he looked as if he hadn't slept in days. Valerion had sent a messenger dove to Lord Skaand in desperation, but had received no reply. And what about Eric? What of The One? Angus wondered if his long-time friend was dead, or rotting in a dungeon somewhere. Or maybe he had the legendary Ivory Star by now and was on his way to kill Uhr. If so, would they be alive when he got here?