Алексей Пехов: Shadow Blizzard

I should have realized sooner! I’d been taken for a ride!

“Have you ever really been inside?”

“Yes. With the king. Only for some reason they wouldn’t let me go any farther than the first floor.”

“Then what good are you to me?”

“I can help save your neck. And I can work a bit of magic, too.”

“Kli-Kli! Don’t pretend to be more stupid than you really are! You know perfectly well you’re no match for a magician of the Order.”

“Listen, Harold, here we are hanging about like two fools outside the door into the Order’s holy of holies. Get those lock picks to work before anyone notices us.”

“I’m afraid the magicians didn’t bother to put a lock on the door. There’s probably something else instead.”

“Then check it out! Are you a thief or not?”

She was right—hanging about in open view really was stupid. I could have a word with the gobliness later (if there was any later).

I reached out my hand to the metal ring of the door and pulled it cautiously toward me. The door didn’t budge. I pulled harder. The same result.

“Open,” Valder whispered, and the door of the tower suddenly yielded.

“Oho!” Kli-Kli gasped in delight. “How did you do that?”

“Just lucky,” I muttered, thanking fate yet again for bringing me together with the dead archmagician. “Wait for me on the edge of the square. If I’m not back out in an hour, go to the king.”

“Uh-huh,” the gobliness said, and darted in through the door. “You don’t think I’m going to leave all the honor and the glory to you, do you?”

“Kli-Kli…”

“Drop that tone of voice. I’m going with you.”

“What if I tie you up?”

“I’m warning you! I’ll bite!”

“All right! But just don’t go getting under my feet!”

“When did I ever get under your feet?” she asked, and then bit her tongue.

We were in the brightly lit entrance hall on the first floor of the tower. On the far side of it there were three corridors and a stairway.

“Don’t make any noise,” I warned my companion, just to be on the safe side.

“The tower’s a lot bigger than it looks,” said Kli-Kli.

“I know,” I answered, and called: “Valder?”

“Yes?”

“Do you know which way we should go?”

“I’ve never been here before, but they build all these towers to the same design. I think you should go up the stairs.”

“And then?”

“If the Master of the Order intends to perform a ritual, then it will take place in the Council Hall. The magical mirror will intensify his spells.”

“I understand.”

“You know, this business with the Horn reminds me of something. I see Zemmel isn’t the only one who has ever tried to play the Game of the great ones. Be careful.” And then there was silence.

“How long are you going to stand there just staring into space?” Kli-Kli inquired. Naturally, she couldn’t hear my conversation with the archmagician.

“We should go that way.”

The stairway of dark purple marble wound its way up the tower. At first we moved cautiously, in case there was someone else here as well as Artsivus, but after the third floor we started walking more confidently.

“How long now to midnight?”

“Still more than an hour,” she panted. “We’re in good time. The important thing is not to run into Artsivus.”

The fifth floor. The sixth. On the seventh I cast a quick glance into a brightly lit corridor and saw someone sitting slumped against the wall in the distance. My blood ran cold for a moment because I thought it was Artsivus. But no, Sagot spared us. And the way the man was sitting there was kind of strange, too.

“Kli-Kli,” I said to the gobliness, who was already creeping on up the stairs.

“Yes?”

Without saying anything, I indicated the man in the corridor with my eyes.

“We have to check!”

“Have you got nothing better to do?”

“We have to check, Dancer. We can’t leave any strangers in our rear.”

“All right, but be careful,” I said, taking out my crossbow.

As we walked along the corridor the man didn’t move. Then I saw who it was and went dashing to him.

Someone had split Roderick’s head open. The floor and the wall he was slumped against were covered in blood.

“Ah, darkness!” I cursed. “Who did this to him?”

“You know who. Don’t make a fuss, Harold. The lad’s dead. He must have guessed something and his old teacher decided to get rid of him.”

“He saved my life once. I feel sorry for the lad.”

“We’ll all be in need of pity soon, if we don’t get a move on. Come on, Harold. We can’t do anything to help him now. Listen, what’s that door doing open, eh?”

It was only then I realized that the door closest to us was slightly ajar. Kli-Kli immediately stuck her curious nose through it.

“Ooh! Just look what’s in here, Harold!”

I looked in. The vast hall was crammed full of boxes and all sorts of weird things. I supposed it was probably a storeroom for magical doodads.

“The artifacts depository!” Kli-Kli had had the same idea as me. “Maybe the Horn’s still here?”

“Let’s check then,” I agreed. “But quickly!”

The storeroom was full of absolutely everything, from shelves with spell scrolls on them to mysterious and incomprehensible objects that glowed. The only things missing were the Rainbow Horn and the Shadow Horse.

“Looks like we’re wasting our time wandering around in here,” said Kli-Kli, giving up even before I did.

“Looks like it,” I sighed, gazing at a set of shelves stacked with various shining globes and spheres.

One of them caught my eye. It was gray, and I could make out a familiar silhouette inside. I took a step toward the shelves, and the tower immediately trembled slightly.

“What’s that?” Kli-Kli asked, gazing around in fright.

“I don’t know,” I said, puzzled.

“It’s begun,” Valder told me. “The ritual has begun!”

“How can it have begun!” I yelled out loud. “It’s not midnight yet!”

“Harold, what are you talking about?” Kli-Kli asked in amazement.

“Bad news, Kli-Kli. Artsivus is impatient!”

“So what do we do?”

Before I could answer, Valder spoke again.

“The goblin girl should leave!”

“What?”

“She should leave, Harold. She’s too powerful as a shaman, and I’m already weak. When she’s here, it’s hard for me to do anything at all. And today I’ll need all my strength.”

“Harold, what’s wrong with you?”

“Let me speak to her myself.”

I relaxed, leaving Valder free to do whatever he wanted.

“What on earth’s happen— Oh!”

She gaped at me with amazement in her eyes, obviously listening to what Valder was saying. I couldn’t hear what he told her, but Kli-Kli nodded rapidly.

“Hang in there, Dancer!” the gobliness said to me at the end. “I’ll bring help.”

She rushed off and the tower trembled again.

“Why did she do that?”

“It’s for the best. You and I have to stop the Master of the Order.”

“And how do we do that?”

“I don’t know yet. Take it.”

“What?”

“That sphere. It will be useful.”

“What if he breaks out?”

“That will distract the Player for a while.”

I grabbed the sphere with the demon inside. It was cold. Well now, perhaps the Messenger was right when he said demons had a part to play in this story.

“Leave the crossbow. And the bag, too. We won’t need all that,” said Valder. “Good. And now forward, my friend!”

I darted out into the corridor, clutching the sphere in my hands, and ran toward the stairs.