Ellen Severson - Hederick the Theocrat

"Antin mrok mon midled alt'n."

Another bolt, green this time, arced toward Mynx; her right arm was encased in green fire. When the glow receded, the wounded arm was bandaged, the pain gone. Ancilla as Presence was just lowering her claws from casting the spell as Mynx looked back. With her left hand, Mynx raised her swordtip to her helm and nodded. The Presence gravely nodded back. The Diamond Dragon sparkled on her shoulder.

And then suddenly the centaurs and mages had goblins and hobgoblins alike on the run. The few temple guards who survived fled with them.

Erolydon's perimeter fell into rubble.

The Presence's image flickered, so that one moment Tarscenian saw a woman, then a lizard, a snake, then a dragon, and once again a woman.

"Hederick. Face me. I am Ancilla. Face me."

A dragon stood where Ancilla had been.

Hederick remained behind the temple doors. Ancilla sighed, and leaves swirled once more around the courtyard. Her image flickered to that of a snake.

"Hederick, I summon you. I have the power. You no longer have the Diamond Dragon. It is back with me. I summon you!

"Cariwon velpacka om tui rentahten-Hederick."

The temple door opened. The rotund priest stood there, his robe streaked with dust. As he stepped unsteadily through the portal, Ancilla-now a woman garbed in white, but double the height of the crumbling temple- pointed a finger at the entryway. It collapsed behind him.

"Admit your pain, Hederick. Face it, welcome it. And then throw it aside. Your gods are but a figment of this pain. Embrace the Old Gods, the true gods, and you may still be saved. They may forgive, although you have done much to anger them.

She was a dragon again.

Hederick merely stretched a hand toward his sister and shrieked, "Witch!"

"The Diamond Dragon is gone from you now, little brother. It has returned to me, its rightful mistress. You cannot use its charisma to charm and snare the people any longer."

Ancilla's image took on the form of a snake, then a woman, and again a lizard. The image gestured toward

Solace with the lance.

"See how they have left you, Hederick. Even your high priest has fled to the village. Solace has no use for you anymore. Even your guards and aides desert you. Where are your goblins, your other foul creatures? My brother and sister mages slaughtered them as they stood.

Hederick moved toward the huge lizard that called itself his sister. "I am the High Theocrat of Solace," he shouted. "I will be the greatest Seeker on Krynn. There is no one who can stop me! I will be a god! And you cannot stop me, Ancilla."

Ancilla's dragon eyes glittered at the man.

"You will stop yourself, Hederick. I will not have to."

"Impossible."

"Sauveha deitista, wrapaho yt vontuela."

Out of the rubble of the temple rotunda rose a curl of mist, and then another. Hederick turned and cried out. The mist coalesced into the figure of a massive man, who grew until he was equally as large as Ancilla. His shoulders were corded, his face broad and heartless. Hederick fell to his knees. "Sauvay!" he cried. "Punish this witch."

Ancilla continued chanting.

The apparition raised its arms above its head and opened its mouth. A new voice throbbed through the courtyard-a deep one, whose words matched the movements of the godlike apparition.

Hederick, Erolydon is foul. You have spread filth upon my name.

"My lord Sauvay?" Hederick stammered. "The temple is a tribute to you. I built it only for your glory."

No, Hederick. You built it for your own glory. And now you must destroy it.

"Destroy Erolydon?" Hederick whispered.

Ancilla's Presence began to flicker faster than ever. Mynx looked at Tarscenian.

The old man, his face haggard with fatigue, nodded with understanding. "She's weakening," he said. "She's losing control." Even as he spoke, Ancilla took the form of a lizard, then a snake, then a woman, and a lizard again. "She cannot control the god apparition and her own at the same time."

Burn Erolydon, the fake Sauvay commanded. Destroy it now. Or I will destroy it, and you with it!

The other mages continued chanting at Ancilla's feet. Hederick's minions were gone by now, either dead or fleeing. Chanting grew louder in the courtyard, and the building shook with a series of crashes. One of the pillars worked loose and toppled between the Presence and Hed-erick.

Hederick whirled and vanished into Erolydon. Within moments, a new explosion tore through the temple. Flames rose from the back of the building, from the area of the Great Chamber.

"He's setting off the special powders!" Tarscenian shouted. "The ones the priests use to impress their followers."

"Will that be enough to destroy the building?" Mynx asked.

"More than enough."

"Tarscenian, my love."

"Ancilla?"

"I am weakening. The building will explode soon. You must get Hederick out of there."

"Let him die, Ancilla!" Mynx cried. "He has killed hundreds of people."

"Perhaps thousands," Tarscenian said quietly. But his eyes were resigned.

"I will hold the building safe as long as I can, Tarscenian. Get him. Hederick may yet recant. I would not have my brother die a heretic to the Old Gods. I made my vow."

The image of Ancilla began flickering so fast now that it was visible only as a column of glittering light. Tarscenian raced into Erolydon, Mynx close behind him.

They darted around fallen columns and arches, and were halfway down what remained of the corridor when Mynx screamed and pointed upward. "Tarscenian, look out!" A blazing tapestry detached slowly from the wall. The flaming curtain fell directly toward the two, who threw themselves into a doorway. Soon the corridor was filled with flame.

Ancilla was calling to Hederick from the courtyard, encouraging him to come out of Erolydon now that he'd set in place the powder that would destroy it.

"Never!" came the High Theocrat's voice from the smoke before them. "You are evil!"

"I am the only good you ever knew."

The sound of laughter from Hederick.

"You will die at the hands of evil forces if you do not embrace the true gods now, Hederick."

"I am the embodiment of good. I will die here, in my holy temple," Hederick rejoined. He sounded almost giddy at the prospect. "Sauvay will gather me to him."

Tarscenian threw himself into the hallway and dashed through the blaze. Mynx followed.

The vallenwood Great Chamber was filled with smoke, but the dense wood had not yet burst into flame. The statues of Omalthea and the rest of the pantheons were smoldering in the heat. Mynx and Tarscenian could see the open crates of red and yellow powder that the High Theo-crat had piled around each statue.

Hederick stood at the top of the pulpit. His hands were up, his lips moving, but no sounds came out. Then, the silent benediction over, the High Theocrat bowed to the empty benches. He beamed and smiled and nodded like a potentate accepting accolades from adoring subjects.

Then Hederick began to descend the flights of steps, slowly and regally, still nodding to each side as though he

were leaving to the roar of a standing ovation.

"Tarscenian! I cannot hold the building much longer."

Goaded by Ancilla's call, Tarscenian and Mynx raced up the steps. Between them, they wrestled the portly High Theocrat onto Tarscenian's shoulders, then fled down the steps and out the lakeside door.

The moment they stepped into the sunshine, Erolydon erupted into a volcano of block, flame, and ash. Mynx and Tarscenian went flying into the trampled grass of the western courtyard. They came to rest against a section of standing wall and burrowed against it.

When the explosion died away, the two lifted their heads. There was no sign of Hederick.

They made their way around what was left of the steaming building. Every now and then, more fires would explode. Soon Mynx and Tarscenian didn't even flinch at the continuing eruptions.