Red Magic - Jean Rabe [131]
"You can trust us," Galvin emphasized again.
"We trust you. But only because you know language of the earth," the boulder answered.
Relieved that he seemed to have the approval of the rock creatures, Galvin started into the mine. Wynter and Brenna followed him cautiously. The enchantress cast a last glance at the plateau; the zombies and skeletons that had survived the rockslide were shuffling toward the shaft.
Fifteen
Szass Tam nudged Maligor's mind. The lich had been unable to find his rival Red Wizard, and the legion of undead headed by his Harper pawns had uncovered nothing substantial, nothing other than hints of Maligor's whereabouts.
Annoyed and intensely curious, the lich concentrated, probing outward with his thoughts. Szass Tam had spent the past several hours linked to his favorite crystal ball, uncharacteristically tired of waiting for word of Maligor. The ball had yielded nothing, so he had focused his efforts at communication only.
Finally the lich met with success.
"What do you want, Szass Tam?" Maligor's thoughts haughtily projected. "I am very busy today."
The lich strained to get inside Maligor's mind, but the wards were too strong. "You are not with your gnolls," Szass Tam began. "You are not in Amruthar."
"So you seek to know where I am?" Maligor said, feigning mild surprise. "Beyond your grasp, lich."
Angered, Szass Tam furrowed his brow and funneled his energies on Maligor, attempting to look through the rival wizard's eyes into his mind. But the lich saw only blackness, and he heard only Maligor's hollow, echoing laughter.
"I will live up to my part of our arrangement," Maligor said with a chuckle. "You will get half the lands my gnolls take. But you will not be included in future endeavors if you press me."
The lich ran his bony hand over the smooth surface of the crystal ball, the hot pinpoints of light staring out of his sockets reflected on the crystal's surface.
"You will not best me, Maligor," Szass Tam said simply.
"And you will not interfere with my dealings," Maligor replied. "However, you may watch my gnolls if you desire. And we can speak again when I return to Amruthar in a few days."
"As we agreed," the lich added, "I will not lift a hand to stop you-or your gnolls." But, he thought to himself, my Harper puppets are a different matter, and they will be your undoing.
The lich closed the link and settled back into the large chair in his study.
*****
"Who was that snake-woman?" Brenna whispered as she and Galvin trod into the black maw of the mine. Although she could see the faint flicker of torches ahead, the darkness in the tunnel seemed to swallow them, and she had difficulty seeing. She grasped the druid's arm. "She wasn't human."
"A creation of a Red Wizard, maybe. Perhaps some poor animal Maligor corrupted." Galvin kept his voice low, not wanting to alert others in the mine to their presence. However, he realized such caution was probably useless. He heard the steady clip-clop of Wynter's hooves behind him, and the clinking of the undeads' bones echoed through the shaft. The druid scowled as he thought of the skeletons and zombies; the army had been halved by the rockslide, and he wondered if the remaining force was strong enough to take whatever lay ahead.
"I just hope she-or it-is dead," Brenna added, still feeling sore from her ordeal with the naga. "I saw her go down the mountainside. I just hope there's no more of them in here."
The procession wound its way into the mountain, navigating the twisting main shaft. Wynter had difficulty moving through the tunnel. The top of his head brushed against the ceiling in places, and the rocky floor felt uncomfortable beneath his hooves. His human chest and his equine body ached from being pelted by the rocks in the slide, but he plodded forward, focusing on Galvin several feet ahead.
The shaft was nearly twenty feet wide, allowing the undead to spread out behind the centaur. Torches spaced