Death of the Dragon - Ed Greenwood [59]
Rowen pulled him to his feet and said, "You're the one who asked for my help. Do not insult me by refusing to trust me."
"That might be a little easier if you let go."
Vangerdahast cast a meaningful glance at his wrist, where the ghazneth's hand was sliding down toward the ring of wishes. Rowen let go so abruptly that Vangerdahast nearly fell and had to catch hold of a bauble rack.
"Let's go." Rowen backed away, his dark brow arched in horror, then started through the scarecrows again. "Once you have the scepter, we are done with each other. Take it and hide someplace I won't find you."
"I'm not going to do that. I can't." Before following, Vangerdahast allowed the ghazneth to advance a few extra steps. "Our chances are better together."
"Until my hunger grows too strong." Rowen was moving so fast that Vangerdahast began to fall behind. "Then I will steal your ring and drain the scepter. When that's gone, I'll turn on you."
"You won't," Vangerdahast said. "I can feed your hunger."
"But never satisfy it," said Rowen. "The more you fill it, the more it will grow. It is like your thirst for the crown."
Vangerdahast stopped and stared at the ghazneth's back. "My what? I have no thirst for the crown."
"No? Then you did not claim to be king when Boldovar wounded you?"
Vangerdahast was too astounded to reply. He had told Rowen about being wounded by the mad king but not what he had hallucinated-the wizard barely remembered that himself.
A few steps later, Rowen stopped and turned to face Vangerdahast. "It was a guess." His tone was gentler now, almost sympathetic. "But not a terribly hard one. We all have a dark seed in our hearts, and it is from that seed that a ghazneth's power sprouts."
"And what was your seed?" Vangerdahast demanded huffily.
"Fear," Rowen said. "Fear of never seeing Tanalasta again."
Vangerdahast was not nearly as astonished by the admission as he was by his own reaction to it. During their travels together in the Stonelands, he had considered Rowen's affection for Tanalasta a danger to the crown and done everything he could to discourage it. Now here he was, relying on that same affection to insure a ghazneth's loyalty and protect himself from feral hungers he could only guess at. The irony was not lost even on Vangerdahast. He knew the real monster between them.
Vangerdahast laid a hand on Rowen's shoulder and said, "You'll see Tanalasta again. We both will."
"And that is what I fear now." Rowen shrugged the wizard's hand off. "This is not how I want her to remember me."
"She won't," said Vangerdahast. "What is done can always be undone. I'll see to it when we escape."
"If we escape, wizard. Be careful of your arrogance."
Vangerdahast started to object that it was confidence, not arrogance, then thought of how long he had been in the city already. "Good advice. If we escape, then."
Rowen nodded, then started forward again. "And if you do escape, you must never tell her what became of me."
"If I escape, I pray you will be there to tell her yourself."
Vangerdahast's reply was careful, for there was a danger in making promises even a royal magician might find impossible to keep. He followed the ghazneth across the immense cavern, past another dozen pits-at least judging by the smell and the irregular crescents of dark clearing-and untold thousands more iron scarecrows. The chamber narrowed to a small passage crammed full of racks and baubles, with a long sliver of a black pit running along one wall, then opened into an immense room where the scarecrow legion stood even thicker.
The ghazneth threaded his way through the darkness into the center of the chamber, then stopped at the edge of another pit. This one was so large that the far side remained swaddled in darkness, even after Rowen doubled the size of the lightning ball on his fingertip.
"Down there." Rowen pointed into the rancid hole.
Vangerdahast dropped to his knees and peered down. The wall