Richard Knaak - Kaz the Minotaur

Without a word and barely a thought, Argaen Ravenshadow gestured toward Kaz.

The minotaur found himself lifted toward the stone ceiling with frightful speed. Just before the tip of his horns hit the ceiling, the ceiling opened. The opening didn’t appear to be like a trapdoor, but rather like a mouth. As he was pushed through to the next floor, Kaz couldn’t help but imagine that he was about to be eaten. The feeling was enhanced by the total darkness into which he was thrust. Something caught him around the waist and legs, and he had a nightmarish thought that these were teeth. The mouth closed, but another one opened above him. Kaz saw that what held him were more stone hands.

He was being passed up through the levels of the keep like some unwanted trinket. Kaz was passed through four more levels, each time with the same horrifying rush to the ceiling.

Eventually Kaz’s journey came to a halt. His relief at having to face no more oncoming ceilings quickly died when he realized where he was. He was now a prisoner in the chamber of the emerald sphere.

“Here he is, wraith!” shouted Argaen Ravenshadow, whom Kaz had not seen materialize in the chamber. He was simply there, next to the minotaur, calling out to the creator of the artifact. “Shall I allow him a quick death? I know how much that would madden you!”

The emerald sphere flared violently. Ravenshadow laughed mockingly. “You cannot harm me, even though I know you would like to try! I have a piece of you, so to speak!”

While Kaz watched, puzzled, the dark elf shoved a hand into one of his robe pockets and removed a curved object. In the odd light of the room, it glinted a brilliant green… an emerald green. Kaz knew what it was instantly.

Argaen had a chunk of the emerald sphere.

He doubted that the elf could have taken the piece from Galan Dracos directly, and that could only mean that the magic thief had, at some point, scoured the ruins of the renegade mage’s stronghold up in the mountains between Hylo and Solamnia. Kaz knew that the knights had not found all of the shattered remnants of the sphere, even with the aid of sorcerers and clerics. It was just too impossible a task. Argaen must have been lucky enough to locate this particular piece.

“To think”-Ravenshadow turned to his prisoner and smiled briefly-”that I originally carried this as some sort of good-luck charm. How true that turned out to be! While I hold this, minotaur, I am shielded from him!”

Shoving the shard back into his pocket, the dark elf stalked up to the emerald sphere. As he neared it, mist began to rise above it, slowly congealing into the vague form of Galan Dracos. The wraith looked from Argaen to Kaz, silent all the while.

It was Ravenshadow who finally spoke. “He is yours! The companion, the friend, of your enemy! The closest you will come to revenge against the Solamnic Knight! Whatever you wish to do with him is up to you, but our bargain stands! First you will show me how to bind the sphere to my will!”

“Come… then.” The voice made the minotaur’s hair stand on end. That voice had haunted his dreams. This was no longer a creature strictly human. When Galan Dracos spoke, his voice was like the wind, seemingly drifting toward the listeners from all around.

The elf took another step toward his prize.

“No! I won’t let you do it!” A figure leaped from one of the shadowy corners nearby and landed on Argaen. Kaz struggled, feeling the stone hands loosen as Argaen’s concentration broke under the surprising assault. First the minotaur’s arms, and then his legs, were free. He started toward the two fighters. The newcomer was Delbin, and Kaz knew that, against Ravenshadow, the kender stood little chance.

No sooner did he think that than the dark elf managed to pull Delbin from him and toss him aside like a rag doll. Somehow Delbin landed on his feet, but that was the only good fortune they had, for immediately Ravenshadow whirled on both of them.

All strength fled from the minotaur’s massive frame, and he collapsed without taking another step. Frantically Kaz tried to rise, but it proved too much effort. Oddly, he felt as alert as before. It was only his body that lacked all strength. Delbin was likewise hampered.

Argaen looked them over coldly, then whirled back to face the emerald sphere. “How did that kender get in here?”

“I… was not… expecting… a kender. Neither apparently… were you.” Dracos sounded annoyed with both Ravenshadow and himself.

Glancing back at the hourglass on the table, the dark elf snarled, “Time is running out) Tell me what I must do, and this time nothing must go wrong!”

“You… will not… be disappointed.”

Kaz blinked, the only physical act he was still capable of. Dracos seemed anxious… very anxious.

Raising his hands high in the air, Ravenshadow stared at the emerald sphere. It started to pulsate, slowly at first, then faster and faster as the seconds went by. The elf became enraptured by his work. Slowly Galan Dracos began to dissipate.

Kaz had failed. There was no denying it. He could only watch helplessly as the emerald sphere grew brighter and brighter-so bright, in fact, that the minotaur had to shut his eyes. Thus it was that he did not see exactly what happened next.

In the last seconds, Argaen Ravenshadow faltered. The burning brilliance of the artifact did not bother his eyes, but for some reason he began to blink uncontrollably, regardless.

Outside, Nuitari, the black moon, had only just eclipsed Solinari.

A ghostly laugh reverberated throughout the chamber. The misty form of Galan Dracos no longer hung above the sphere.

With a roar of agony, the dark elf collapsed against the crystalline artifact. The glare died, and Kaz felt life returning to his limbs, all too slowly. Somewhere Delbin groaned.

Ravenshadow pulled away from his prize and looked up to the heavens with a face contorted by numerous vying emotions. He laughed, but that laugh held both pleasure and sorrow. That laugh also held insanity.

His eyes were blood-red.

“I told you, elf, that only through you could I live again!”

The voice was that of Argaen Ravenshadow, but Kaz knew that the eyes, the mind, belonged to Galan Dracos.

This was what the wraith had been waiting for. This was why Dracos had needed the dark elf. The renegade mage had been unable to create more than an insubstantial form for himself, a form ever tied to the emerald sphere.

Argaen, however, had boasted that he was protected against the specter’s power thanks to the shard he carried. Kaz believed him, for he doubted that Dracos would have tolerated the magic thief all along if he had had the power to take over his body. What had happened to change things? Ravenshadow had put the shard into his robe pocket; had it slipped out somehow during the struggle with Delbin?

That was it, of course. Galan Dracos had been able to manipulate Argaen toward this moment and then let the kender do his bidding.

Kaz found that he could now raise himself to a sitting position. Dracos, enthralled by the success of his plot, was laughing and laughing. He clutched his newfound body tightly.

“Mistress, mistress, I thank you for your benevolence and this second chance!” roared Galan Dracos.

The minotaur shivered. There was no question as to who the sorcerer’s mistress was. Kaz was almost to his feet when the mage remembered him and turned.

“Kaz! Minotaur, I hope you did not think I was going to neglect you!”

“The thought had crossed my mind. Feel free to, human.”

Dracos laughed again. That laugh was getting on Kaz’s nerves. “I hope you appreciate how precious these last few moments of your life are; I can promise you, from personal experience, that death is not always a relief!”