Pool of Radiance - James M. Ward [66]
Tarl was moved by Shal's explanation, especially her description of Denlor's feelings as the beasts kept coming and coming, but he repeated his question. "But how was he turned to ashes? By what?"
"By himself," Shal answered. "I'm almost certain he set a spell into place to-" she hesitated to say the word-"to cremate himself at the instant of death so no beast would feed on his corpse." The thought of the venerable wizard dying at his own dinner table and then bursting into flames like a body on some sacrificial pyre brought tears to Shal's eyes. "The wizard locks and magical energies we encountered, the red gas on the stairway-those were probably all activated by Denlor's death, too."
"Wouldn't bursting into flames leave whatever killed Denlor in pretty rough shape?" Ren asked.
"Perhaps," Shal said. "I don't know for sure." She remembered that when the parchment Ranthor left for her burst into magical flames, no harm whatsoever came to the desk. "It would depend on Denlor's intent. If he wanted the flame to burn the things around it, I think the chair and table would have caught fire, or at least they'd show some sign of damage." She shook her head. "A wizard of his talents might be able to make the flame burn flesh and not objects. I just don't know."
Tarl was still looking at the robe. "What about the robe?"
"Like I said before, I suppose that his spell may have been designed to burn flesh only."
"No, I mean why does it stay there like that? What's it waiting for?" Tarl pressed.
"For us to finish our business and leave, I guess."
"Ouch!" Ren dropped Cerulean unceremoniously to the floor and shook his hand. "He bit me!"
The cat-sized horse let out a tiny whuffle, struggled to its feet, and immediately began to complain in a high, squeaky voice. That giant ape nearly flattened me! Why, he would've crushed my ribs if I'd stayed under his arm one more second! Cerulean clomped round and round the floor, like a child wearing new hard-soled shoes.
"I'm sorry, Cerulean, but I'm sure Ren didn't mean to hurt your ribs," Shal reassured him.
"I didn't mean to carry a horse around, either," Ren muttered.
Cerulean continued to charge around the big room, galloping in steadily widening circles until he was running next to the walls. Each time he approached either of the two brass doorways, the door would glow red and the tiny horse would turn a brilliant shade of blue.
"Wizard-locked, both of them!" exclaimed Shal, not waiting for the question she knew one of her friends would ask.
Shal knew the magical commands that would get her past the wizard locks, and she used them. Tarl and Ren followed, marveling once more at Shal's cool confidence and command of magic. They followed her first through Denlor's private chamber and the treasure room adjacent to it, and then the scroll chamber and the magical supply room adjacent to that. She instructed them not to touch anything.
"Eventually I'll have the skills to come back here and add part of Denlor's magic to my own, but for now, so that his spirit can rest, we have to leave everything the way we find it. And above all, we've got to find Ranthor." Cerulean once again galloped around the circumference of the dining room, clip-clopping his way to the doorway that led to the stairs. As he started to pass through the door frame, his tiny body blazed the brilliant blue hue for which he was named, in startling contrast to the shimmering crimson curtain of energy that appeared in the doorway.
"The curtain will fight any negative energy you carry with you. To pass through it, you need to relax your thoughts and emotions," Shal explained, then walked effortlessly through it, causing the curtain to glow brightly once again. As soon as she stood on the other side, the curtain all but vanished, giving the appearance of a few stray rays of sunlight reflected through a ruby.
Ren turned one shoulder toward the barely visible curtain and tried to barge through,