Rick Cook - Wizard’s Bane

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning it distinguishes beings with true names from beings without them. But that it does not have to know a thing’s true name to find it and kill it. It is enough that a thing has a true name."

Cormac gave a low whistle. "No wonder it is tied so tight to that cave. With that power it could seek out and destroy anyone in the World. Light, do you suppose the demon itself is the treasure?"

"I doubt it. I think the demon merely guards the treasure."

"It must be treasure indeed to have such a guardian."

"Aye," Shiara said, studying the cave mouth. "Well, we will learn little more sitting here. I think it is time to take a closer look."

"Tread softly, Light."

She turned to smile at him. "I will, my Sun."

The pair approached the cave mouth cautiously. Cormac had his broadsword out and Shiara held her silver wand before her like a torch.

As they came closer Shiara stopped and pointed to a line carved in the living rock across the front of the cave.

"The ward line. The demon cannot cross it."

"Are you certain?"

"Certain enough. Give me a torch."

Cormac reached into his pack and pulled out one of the pine torches Shiara had prepared. The wizardess tapped the end with her wand and it burst into flame. Shiara drew back and threw the torch across the line and they both ducked back out of sight of the cave mouth.

There was no sound or movement from the cave. When they peeked around the corner they could see the torch lying on the rough rock floor of the cavern, burning brightly.

The space revealed by the torchlight was perhaps three times Cormac’s height and somewhat less than that wide, but it ran back into the mountain well beyond the circle of illumination. There was no sign of life or movement.

"The demon must only materialize when someone enters the cave," Shiara whispered.

"Well what now?" Cormac whispered back. "Are you satisfied with your view of the demon’s empty home?"

"Wait," said Shiara, pointing inside the cavern. "What’s that?"

Cormac followed her finger. There was something lodged in a crevice high on one wall of the cave. "A box, I think," he said.

Shiara eyed the thing speculatively. "I wonder… Cormac, have you a rope in your pack?"

"You know I do, Light. And a grapnel too."

Quickly Cormac retrieved the rope and hook from where they had dropped their packs.

"You want that box then?"

Shiara stood by him, her wand in hand. "I do. But be ready to run if we get more than we bargain for."

Cormac swung the grapnel and cast it expertly into the cave. There was a hollow "clang" as the hook connected with the box. Cormac tugged and it clattered out of the crevice and onto the cave floor.

In the torchlight Cormac saw that his prize was a bronze coffer, decorated in high relief and apparently bearing an inscription on the top. Another quick throw and Cormac dragged the box out of the cave and across the warding line.

"Don’t touch it," Shiara warned. As Cormac recoiled his rope she bent to examine the coffer.

Shiara opened the box with a pass of her wand and a whispered incantation. Nestled inside was a smoky gray globe about six inches in diameter.

"The heart of the demon!" Shiara exclaimed triumphantly. "Now we can truly control this creature."

She removed the ball from the coffer and held it in her hand. Another muttered spell and a dense cloud of smoke began to form within the cavern. Through the smoke loomed a great black shape.

The huge horned head swivelled toward them, but before the creature could do more, Shiara raised her wand and spoke another spell. The demon froze as it was, the only sign of life the fire burning in its eyes.

Shiara sighed and sagged. "That should hold it," she said. Carefully, she replaced the sphere in the box and carried it back into the cave. The demon did not even twitch when she crossed the threshold.

The wizardess was still considering the coffer when Cormac came up to her.

"Do we take that with us?"

"I wish we dared. It is a dangerous thing to leave behind, but it would be a greater danger to carry it with us. There might be something above us which can undo what I have done and I do not wish to find a rampaging demon here when we return."

"Conceal it?"

"That is best." She cast about the cavern looking for a hiding place.

"Light, come look at this."

Cormac was standing over a head-high pile of bones.

"So our demon did clean the place deliberately."

"Not that. Look." Cormac shifted his torch and used his sword as a pointer. At one side of the bone pile lay the crushed and mutilated corpse of a man in a brown robe.

"An acolyte of the League! Then they are here before us."

"Yes, but why only one body? Surely they would not send a brown robe alone on such a mission?"

"Surely not. But they might use an acolyte as we used our mandrake homunculus."

Cormac nodded grimly. "Aye, that’s just the kind of thing they would do. But then where are the rest? Did they scatter away at the sight of the demon?"

"Most likely they are somewhere up ahead of us. Once they knew the demon was here, they found a way to counteract it. I do not think they tampered with the box, so perhaps they had the password." She looked up the tunnel. "I think we face an interesting meeting."

"Best be on with it then," Cormac said, shifting his grip on his sword.

The passage sloped up, climbing steadily toward the summit. Cormac went first, naked sword in one hand and smoking torch in the other. Shiara followed with another torch.

"You’re unusually pensive," Cormac told her when they had gone a small ways into the cavern. "What bothers you, Light?"

"That demon."

"Well, it is trouble past and overcome. I am more concerned about what we might find above us."

"Yes, but it is how we overcame it. Why was the box where we could reach it? A few feet further back in the cave and the demon would have been safe from our efforts."

Cormac shrugged. "So our sorcerer made an error. Even the best magician can err through overconfidence."

"I know," Shiara said. "That is what troubles me."

Their way climbed steeply upward but the path was smoothed and widened. Either this had never been a natural cavern or it had been extensively reworked. The smooth black rock seemed to soak up the light of their torches and the darknes pressed in on them from all sides. Shiara hurried slightly to stay within touching distance of Cormac.

There was a low, distant rumble and the earth beneath them moved slightly.

"Earth magic," Shiara said. "Very potent and barely held in check here." She looked around. "Left to its own, I think this mountain would have erupted hundreds of years ago."

"A fitting lair for a sorcerer."

"More than that, prehaps."

"Light, will you stop being so gloomy? You’re beginning to make me nervous."

She smiled. "You’re right, my Sun. This place is affecting me, I am afraid."

They climbed and climbed until it seemed they would emerge at the very top of the mountain. Finally their way leveled out and there before them was a door.

The portal was of the deepest black granite, polished so smooth the burning brand in Cormac’s hand threw back distorted reflections of the two adventurers. A gilt tracery ran along the lintel and down the doorposts. Runes, Shiara saw as she moved closer. Runes of purest gold beaten into the oily black surface of the granite.

Shiara formed the runes in her mind, not daring to move her lips. "It is a treasure indeed," she said at last. "A trove of magic of the sort seldom witnessed. This is the tomb of Amon-Set."

Cormac wrinkled his nose. "The name is somewhat familiar. A boggart to frighten children, I think."

"More than that," she told her beloved. "Before he was a night-fright, Amon-Set was mortal. A sorcerer. So powerful his name has lived after him and so evil he is a figure of nightmare."