Ed Greenwood - The Wizard's Mask

They rushed out into the passage, and their master led them, following Tantaerra and The Masked, pelting down the back stair, where-

Lord Krzonstal Telcanor came to an abrupt halt, to gawk at carnage.

The staircase below him was choked with the broken bodies of his guards. Just in time, he saw their doom and his peril-as long, wormlike arms reached down from the sloping underside of the stair, seeking to rend.

A tentacled monster was clinging to the ceiling above him, reaching for them.

Telcanor and his guards stumbled hastily back up a few steps, out of reach, as the tentacled monster clinging to the ceiling grabbed at them.

Below them on a landing, Tantaerra and Tarram put their backs to the wall.

"It's Voyvik!" Tantaerra shouted unnecessarily. "Use the mask, or something!"

Next to her, The Masked spread his hands helplessly.

Then a door on another landing opened, and blue bolts of magic streaked out, missiles that swept up and unerringly into the monster.

The terrified Lord Telcanor sobbed and clawed his way back a few steps higher.

The tentacled monster convulsed, writhing in pain. Another volley of magical missiles raced from behind the door to smite it, and it shuddered and shrank back-but when the blue radiance faded, the weakened, maddened creature reached out again angrily.

Its tentacles still couldn't reach either Lord Telcanor and his guards or Tantaerra and her partner. After straining to do so several times, they flailed about in frustration.

Then the thing of tentacles began to slowly descend the wall, moving as if it was in great pain, heading for the door where Tantaerra crouched.

"Ah, yes," came a sardonic comment from the other doorway on the landing. "That's the problem with letting the ignorant play with magic. They don't know what they're doing. Or when, for instance, they'll expend the last of an item's power. The gauntlet was a wonderful thing-but not endless."

It was Telcanor's advisor Tartesper, but his face and body were … changing . He looked more and more different with every step he took, as he strolled out onto the landing and gave Tantaerra an unpleasant smile.

She stared at him. "Karm?"

"Who else?" he replied smugly. He now looked exactly as he had when meeting Voyvik in the forest. "It's a shame that Voyvik was unable to complete his mission, but now here you are-and with my mask, I see. How convenient."

He peered up the stair at Lord Telcanor. "So, Krzonstal, would you care to negotiate your rescue? At a price of, say, half your Braganzan properties? Fitting hire, I'd judge, for your staunch new ally, the most powerful wizard in Molthune."

"Who's that?" Telcanor snapped warily.

Karm's smile vanished. "Me. I can save you-but I've no interest in prolonging the lives of headstrong fools. Or the indecisive. So make your mind up. Now."

There came a thunder of booted feet from below. All eyes turned down the stair. A door had opened at the very bottom, and a handful of Telcanor house guards had come through it. Looking up the stair, they drew their swords.

Karm regarded them calmly, then glanced at Tantaerra and The Masked.

" Now , Lord Telcanor," he repeated.

Tantaerra stealthily raised her dagger to throw at Karm, but as the blade moved, she saw the air between it and the wizard start to glow and swirl. He was not unprotected against such attacks.

Karm gave her a coldly triumphant smile. "I've never much liked halflings," he announced, raising his hands to weave a spell.

Behind him, the monster on the wall gathered its tentacles under itself and launched itself at him.

Tantaerra sprang desperately aside. Karm's smile widened as he watched her.

He was still smiling when the monster hit him.

He staggered, tentacles flailing at him, tearing and rending. Karm got his spell off, his magical missiles gutting the falling beast even as his hands were dashed down by its descending bulk-but its tentacles were already wrapped around his body, and in its agony it tore him apart. One wrenched his head around sideways with a crack, others tore off hands or fingers still glowing blue-and then the great bulk came down on the wizard's body with a wet thud .

Tentacles lashed and quivered, then started to change.

Before their eyes, the tentacled monster shrank back into a broken-limbed, sprawled Orivin Voyvik.

The Nirmathi laughed weakly. "I guess this was what Mahalagris really wanted all along."

Tantaerra advanced on him, her dagger ready, but the Nirmathi gave her a crooked smile. "I'm no harm to you, little heroine," he gasped, through bubbling blood. "I'm dying. If you haven't noticed." He shuddered, blood running freely from his nose and mouth now. "Dying with honor, at least."

"Oh?" she asked warily, as The Masked, dagger drawn, came to stand protectively beside her.

"I betrayed my country by taking Karm's pay," Voyvik gasped. "I thought I could bring him to our side. Get him to use the gauntlet to end the war. But it doesn't matter now. I've cleaned up my mess. I can die a true Nirmathi."

"You can," The Masked agreed firmly.

Voyvik managed a bloody smile. "Nirmathas forever!" he shouted.

And died.

Tantaerra looked at his staring eyes and the blood still running from his slack mouth. Shivering, she shook her head and turned away-only to catch sight of Karm's face. The wizard's eyes were still moving, though his twitching lips made no sound. He was still alive!

Well, she could do something about that. Her dagger flashed down, again and again.

The Masked let out a startled shout behind her-half astonished, half delighted. Tantaerra looked up, wiping gore from her eyes.

Tarram Armistrade was holding out his mask, his nightmare of a face clear for all to see. The mask was crumbling, little glows flaring and fading all over it, darkening as the mask itself darkened.

"Look!" he cried delightedly, waving it at Tantaerra. "Karm must have bound this to himself, somehow! It's dying with him!"

The mask crumbled away into dust, and the man who'd worn it for so long threw back his head and roared out incoherent exultation.

Happily, Tantaerra collapsed, falling into waiting oblivion.

∗ ∗ ∗

Tarram hastened out the front door of Telcanor House with Tantaerra in his arms, and hastily peered up and down the street. Telcanor's guards had been too stunned to react as he'd barreled through them, but that wouldn't last for long. And with all the noise he'd made destroying parts of Lord Telcanor's mansion, he could hardly dare hope that no one else in Braganza had-

Oh, they'd heard, all right. What looked like most of the garrison of Braganza was hastening down the street right now, lanterns swinging in their haste. Some of them had been roused in such a hurry that they'd forgotten the spears they loved so much.

Tarram drew back against the wall and looked around for cover. Some of the rubble had fallen clear across the street, and there was a huge heap of it flanking the door, where part of the front wall of the grand house had collapsed outward. Builders, these days …

He ducked behind it, stretched himself out on the ground with the unconscious halfling in his arms, and played dead.

From under his arm, peering out beneath his eyelids, he could see the mountainous armored form of Onstal Zreem hastening along the street, at the head of what seemed like a small army of Braganzan soldiers.

Zreem peered up at the devastation, shook his head, strode up to the open front door-and was almost bowled over by a wild-eyed Telcanor house guard who came sprinting out of the ruined mansion.

"What's happened here?" the giant bodyguard demanded sharply, catching hold of the panting and terrified Telcanor and halting him effortlessly in mid-run.