Son of Thunder - Murray J. D. Leeder [93]
Gan tumbled backward onto Gunton's spear, which snapped under his weight. The bloody spearhead emerged from his chest. He reached out to grasp it as his body twitched and rattled.
* * * * *
As Gunton looked down on Gan, he saw the hobgoblin's dying face was a mask of confusion and indecision. Some realization must have dawned on Gan in his last moments. Perhaps, Gunton thought, in those last moments the hobgoblin understood the full power the axe had wielded over him.
Gunton choked back tears as he looked at the mangled wreck of Royce's body. He turned to the white-clad men and women still approaching from the Sanctuary. He spread his arms wide to show that he was unarmed.
"He was a brother to me," he explained. "Do you understand what that means?" He repeated himself in Illuskan, more furiously.
"We never should have dealt with a Zhentarim," he continued in Common, not worrying that they might not understand him as they approached with steady steps. "That was our first mistake. It wasn't just Geildarr's coin we craved. He truly seemed to treasure the things we found for him. He seemed as passionate about history as we were. He was hard to resist. We were just as deluded as Gan. May Shaundakul accept our Souls despite our weaknesses."
Gunton made no attempt to run as one of the figures stepped out of the Sanctuary before him. It was a woman, her white face as gnarled as a tree branch, jet black hair spilling over her shoulders. She extended a hand, and the axe rose from the water and into her grasp.
Gunton turned his back to her and braced himself. "I am the only member of this expedition not killed by a companion," he whispered to himself, awaiting the axe's impact.
Instead a bony hand clamped onto his shoulder and squeezed. He yelped in pain.
"We have use for you," the old woman said. "You must earn your rest."
* * * * *
Two days passed before the Thunderbeasts arrived, their path clarified by Vell's descriptions. They passed Mount Vision to the east, passing through the forest until they found the remains of the Sanctuary. The strange, thin trees were slowly dying. The cold mountain water from the Heartblood River had penetrated the marsh, and its magical warmth was lost. With the behemoths gone, the region was empty and desolate. Vell's heart cried out when he saw it-it was not the living, vital preserve he knew from his vision, but a drab, ruined, and useless waste.
On the northernmost phandar tree, the crow-pecked remains of one of the invaders made a gruesome spectacle. He was tied high up on the trunk, his hands severed and lashed alongside him. His head, thickly bearded and with its eyes stolen by birds, rested between his two feet.
"A warning against further intruders," Thluna said, unable to bring himself to look at it for long. "But who left it?"
"The Shepherds," said Vell. "Whoever they are." He looked across the Sanctuary to the menhir and immediately saw the difference. "The red light is gone. The invaders stole it when they stole the behemoths. It must have been the source of the magic that preserved this place."
"It is so," came a voice. A figure appeared from nowhere, white-clad and ancient. He was older even than Keirkrad and looked as if his flesh were ready to slide from his bones. While Keirkrad was unnaturally old, he was preserved by Uthgar's grace, and retained something of his youthful self. This figure made Elaacrimalicros seem young. His skin was mottled, halfway between skin and scales. Yet, despite his vast age, the old Shepherd had jet black hair like an Uthgardt, streaked with only a few strands of white. His eyes were a lifeless brown.
"Your failure is utter," he said. His voice was cold, without compassion. "You of Uther's blood have led us to ruin, once again."
All eyes stared at the strange old man. More of his kind emerged from the swamp, as if they had been hiding beneath the water, or simply melded with the marsh. A dozen appeared in all, men and women both-all of them equally ancient, as if all their life-force had long ago been sucked from their bodies. One of the