Darkvision - Bruce R. Cordell [106]
"Then you should have warned us," accused Zel. A thin line of blood trickled from the older man's brow.
"Cease!" snapped Iahn. "Is anyone hurt badly?"
"I think my leg's broke," grimaced Zel. "I can't move it, and it hurts like a devil's got his teeth in me."
Ususi said, "I'll be fine when I get my breath back. Tend them, please, Iahn?" The wizard rooted around in her satchel and withdrew a vial she pressed into the vengeance taker's hand.
Iahn inspected Warian first and helped him to his feet. Other than having his breath knocked out of him, Warian was healthier than he expected after falling such a distance. He'd sport some terrific bruises later, though.
Next, Iahn knelt at Zel's side and probed Zel's left leg, which was splayed too far to one side just below the knee.
"Fractured," Iahn concluded. The vengeance taker unstopped the vial Ususi had given him and administered a portion of it to Zel.
Zel attempted to drink down all the fizzing fluid, but Iahn drew back. "Not all at once. We must conserve. Your leg should be mending already."
As Warian watched, his uncle's leg slowly straightened to true, and the lines of pain in his face eased. "I do feel better," Zel said.
"You'll walk with a limp for a while," said Iahn as he rose and turned to Ususi.
The wizard approached one of the walls, which wasn't as bare as Warian had first assumed. Subtle characters were reflected in Ususi's light, forming a script unfamiliar to him. A moment later, each strange letter began to glow with a cool blue radiance.
Warian joined the wizard and vengeance taker at the wall. "What is it?"
"Instructions for getting clear of the containment," said Ususi. "Any Imaskari who resided in the palace would know the answer to this riddle, so if accidentally caught in the automated trap after coming through from the Celestial Nadir, he could regain freedom in short order."
"It's a riddle? And you know the answer?"
"Yes. Yes, it's a riddle, but I don't know the answer. For certain. But perhaps we can think of the answer together," said Ususi.
As Warian studied the lighted inscriptions, those in the center swam and changed before his eyes, forming words he could easily read. Symbols on the periphery remained incomprehensible, but they didn't seem important.
Warian asked, "Couldn't someone not authorized to know the answer, like us, work it out, too? That would negate the entire point of the trap, right?"
"You would be correct, of course-however, if any but an Imaskari attempts to answer the riddle, the walls of this room will close down upon us and squeeze us dead. Or so promise these glyphs." The wizard pointed to the upper right corner of the wall at an inscription that remained meaningless to Warian.
"Oh. A trap within a trap."
"How efficient," said the vengeance taker.
Warian nodded and said, "Maybe I'd better not even read it. Zel, you look away, too."
Zel shrugged and turned away, as did Warian. Ususi read.
"The Thirty-Eighth Law of Veracity holds that a magical elixir can never be entirely drunk. A residue always remains behind. A miser mage who collects empty elixir vials can make a new elixir to drink from the residue of every five empty vials found. When he has collected twenty-five elixir vials, how many new elixirs will he be able to drink?"
Warian's uncle guffawed. "Ridiculously easy! Twenty-five vials can be arranged into five groups-so the elixir-grubbing mage could drink five more potions."
Warian flinched and whispered, "Only an Imaskari can answer!"
"Don't worry, Warian," said Ususi. "To formally answer this riddle, the changeable script now instructs me to answer aloud in the language of Imaskar."
"Say five, then," Zel said, rubbing his hands in anticipation.
"No," interrupted the vengeance taker. "Five is incorrect."
Ususi looked at Iahn. "Why so? Seems straightforward enough."
"That should be your first warning-too straightforward. A real riddle hides an answer in