The Kingless Land - Ed Greenwood [40]
The mage sitting next to him also unhooded, to reveal the handsome, faintly smiling countenance of Nynter of the Nine Daggers, who habitually defended himself with winged flying daggers and collected gem-stone statuettes and pretty slave girls. His curls were dyed the hue of old honey, and his dancing eyes were merry with excitement. He was feared in Ornentar, but not so much beyond its borders as the Master of Bats… perhaps because he traveled less.
Seated some distance away, a third mage also drew back his hood, revealing the more forbidding features of Phalagh, who was known to collect coins and the severed heads of those who dared to cross him. His usual suspicious frown sat heavily under his high-domed forehead, and his huddled pose gave him the look of an irritated perched vulture.
"So, Huldaerus," the baron said almost jovially, "I bid you begin the converse-if not with your own plans and thoughts, then with a point we can dispute and debate."
Huldaerus inclined his head in a nod of acquiescence, and said, "Think, all: we could bring great mages back from the grave to fight for us!"
"Oh?" the deep-voiced warrior shot back. "And control them how? And when we're done, and all Darsar lies at our feet, who will rule-them, or us? How do you kill something that's already dusty bones, eh? Magic? Well, who'll be the masters of that-them, or us?"
"Well," a masked mage responded, "we can use the Stone to keep ourselves alive no matter what the Silvertree mages hurl at us!"
"Oh? Alive as their slaves forever? And what's to keep them from just taking the Stone from us-your spells?"
The masked mage stiffened in evident anger, but the baron lifted a warning hand to forestall any reply.
One of the procurers asked then, "Are the whereabouts of any of the other Dwaerindim known for certain? I would know more of these magics awakened only when two or more of the Stones are used together."
"To your first question: no, so far as I know and any will admit," Huldaerus answered. "To your second: legends and wild tales and dusty records all wrestle with the truth as to just what powers can be unleashed, but 'tis fairly certain that the Stones work together only when placed in particular patterns and, moreover, when specific incantations are uttered."
"What powers, mage?" a gravel-voiced armaragor asked. "Or are these more of your secrets that all non-wizards who learn must be slain out of hand?"
Huldaerus smiled thinly. "As I said," he replied, "there is much disagreement over these powers. Best known among them, for instance-told of in all nursemaids' tales-are the summonings. Use all four Stones one way, and you awaken, free, and call forth the Sleeping King!"
There were snorts and wordless sneers of derision, but the mage merely smiled and added, "Use them another way, and you call up instead his age-old foe, the Serpent in the Shadows."
"Empty bards' babble," one warrior sneered. "You waste our time, wizard!"
The cowled figure standing behind the baron raised both of its wands to draw attention-most effectively-and hissed in reply, "Not ssso. I have studied the Ssserpent all my life and have mastered the spells to control its sssavagery, to make it ssslay only those I choose. The Ssserpent is very real; at least three cities lie forgotten and overgrown today because their folk thought it empty legend, or sssomething they might easily master. It devoured them all-and it gleans sssomething from every mind it eats. Bring me the Ssserpent, and I ssshall win all Darsssar with it!"
A wizard who was still masked tapped the table before him with a wand of his own, and demanded, "I hear talk of serving the Serpent, if I hear aright-and I want to see who speaks such words!"
There was a stir of agreement-a stir that died to tense silence as the figure at the baron's elbow set down its wands, reached up slowly, and drew back its hood.
The face that had been hidden in the cowl belonged to no man, but was green and scaled and slit-eyed, with the fangs and darting forked tongue of a snake. "I have the pleasssure to be a priest of