Crown of Fire - Ed Greenwood [20]
The rumbling reply sounded a little triumphant, and somehow amused. "With the unlooked-for aid we have brought you. Meet Iliph Thraun, a lord among fiches, as you are a lord among men."
Something small and white moved in the dark opening from whence the beholders had come. It turned and rose. A yellowed human skull drifted into view, looking down at the two wizards.
Both of them stared expressionlessly up at it, thinking the same old saying of Faerun: surprises seldom grow more welcome as one gets older.
The skull drifted to a halt in midair, floating below the two beholders. Two pale, flickering points of light hung in its dark sockets; its gaze was cold but somehow eager as it looked down at the two mages.
"Well met," it said formally, in hollow tones punctuated by the faint clattering of its teeth. "In life, long ago, I had the power of spellfire. I can drain it from this Shandril, if I can catch her asleep."
"And if she wakes before you are done?"
The skull drifted closer. "Once enough of her spellfire is gone, the lass will lose control over what is left. She will become a wild wand whenever she unleashes spellfire-a menace to allies and those she holds dear. Soon she will destroy them… and, in the end, herself."
Lord Manshoon nodded slowly. "I thank you, lich lord. Your powers may bring victory for us all." His words held the finality of a farewell.
As the skull made a polite reply, the smaller beholder turned and drifted a little way toward it.
Obediently, the skull drifted out through the opening it had entered by. When it was gone, Manshoon calmly asked the beholders, "What good is this? I trade a young, reckless girl who scarce knows how to use spellfire for an old, wise, mighty-in-Art lichnee who is sure to defy my orders? Where's the gain in that?"
The larger beholder's mouth crooked in a slow smile. "In becoming a lich, this Thraun used a flawed process; its unlife is maintained by magical energies provided by magelings whom it tutors, then destroys when they grow too powerful. It feeds on certain spells cast for it-if you modify them in the right way, you or any wizard can command the lich lord with absolute precision."
The other beholder spoke. "Would you know these magics?"
"Of course." Manshoon did not even look at Sarhthor as he added, "Speak freely."
"The energy can come from any of the spells that drain lifeforce, or from those that create fire or lightning. Thraun needs them modified so their effects form a sphere, the energies spiraling to its heartwhere this lich lord waits. If you work a governance over undeath and a masking charm employing the name `Calauthas' in your modifying incantations, you can control Thraun from a distance-an absolute control that compels the lich lord's nature. If you choose to do this through a lesser mage whose mind you control, you can even command the lich lord without its knowing who you are."
"So Thraun, who doubtless intends to destroy us all when it regains spellfire, becomes our helpless pawn. A nice twist." The High Lord of Zhentil Keep took two thoughtful paces across the gleaming marble, and then looked up again.
"The time to use Thraun is not yet," he said. "To gather our mages or to have the lich lord widely seen will arouse Fzoul's suspicions. If you agree, I'll send a mageling to serve Thraun, a wizard this lich lord believes it can easily destroy-but one whose mind I control. We tell Thraun our difficulties in capturing Shandril continue, and it's best not to reveal a lich lord whom others may fear and attack, unless we have the maid in hand."
"I have noticed," the larger beholder observed, "that the priests of our Brotherhood regard all undead as things to be either their slaves or swiftly destroyed."
Manshoon nodded. "That is why there have always been very few liches in the Brotherhood." He began to pace again. "If Thraun grows restive, or Shandril eludes us for too long, we allow it to go after her-exerting our control only when necessary."