Troy Denning - The Summoning
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- Название:The Summoning
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CHAPTER TWENTY
30 Nightal, the Year of the Unstrung Harp
"Wulgreth number two."
"Definitely two." Peering around the chamber, Galaeron nodded his agreement with Takari's conclusion. "This has to be Jhingleshod's Wulgreth."
The pyramid's second room was as dusty as the first, but packed with implements required by any practicing wizard. There were mortars and kettles and vials, balances, braziers, and bottles, tablets, scrolls, and librams-many librams, all lined up on shelves and safely protected behind glass doors. There was also a thick tome of spells, resting on a stand beneath a hovering glowball, open to a spell near the back and not at all covered in dust.
A loud grating sound came from the far corner. Galaeron turned to see Takari springing away from a small crawlway, sword in hand and the first syllable of a fire spell gliding off her tongue. When nothing sprang out to attack, she gestured at a depressed trigger-stone in the floor. "That was easy"
'Too easy." Galaeron kicked a loose stone into the crawl-way, then winced as a wall of green magic descended behind it. "This lich is a tricky one."
"Something he learned from the demons of Ascalhorn," agreed Jhingleshod, stepping into the room. "Easier to lead a victim to his doom than to push him into it."
"A lesson Galaeron would do well to remember," Melegaunt said. He followed the others into the room, and seeing the open spellbook, shook his head in scorn. "A little too inviting, I would say." He flicked a hand at the stand, and a pall of shadow fell over the pages. 'To guard against a straying glance."
Though Galaeron suspected the comment was directed at him, he did not object. The open book was too obvious an invitation. Sooner or later, someone would glance over to see what Wulgreth had been studying and would find himself compelled to continue reading, activating some spell of possession or imprisonment. He was beginning to understand this lich. Unlike the first, which had wanted to drive them off, this one wanted to control them.
The glowball brightened of its own accord, filling the chamber with harsh light and deep shadows. Along the back wall stood a small collection of gilt armor and bejeweled weapons, all enchanted so heavily that an aura of magic showed through the thick coating of dust. Next to the weaponry stood a rack of wands and staves, and next to that sat a row of treasure chests. In front of one chest kneeled Malik, his hands plunged to his wrists in a bed of jewels, his gaze blank and empty.
Galaeron pulled the little man from the chest, spraying jewels across the floor, and slammed the coffer shut. "Don't!" Malik blinked several times, then reached for his dagger. "No need to be greedy, elf. There are gems enough here to make rich men of us all!"
'To make us Wulgreth's slaves." Galaeron looked to the others. "Don't touch it. This is bait." "Bait?" Vala was eyeing a suit of gleaming chain mail.
Galaeron stepped in front of her. "It's how he recruits his undead servants, I think. You saw Malik's eyes." She nodded.
"A clever scheme." Takari eyed the treasure as though it were offal. "If we can't touch anything without becoming slaves, we can't sort through it to find his phylactery" "Unless we dispel the magic first," said Melegaunt. "Then dispel it," Jhingleshod said.
"My magic is not unlimited." Melegaunt eyed the wall of magic items. "It will take someone more powerful than I to dispel all this."
"I am no fool," said Jhingleshod. "You cannot have what you want until I have what I want."
"It's not possible," said Melegaunt. "I've already used that spell once today. I can cast it one more time, but after that I must spend the night imprinting the magic on my mind many times over. By the time I finish, Elminster will be here."
"Perhaps Elminster could dispel it," suggested Jhingleshod.
"You don't have a bargain with Elminster," said Galaeron, "and I doubt he'll be inclined to rescue the one who helped Wulgreth bring demons to Ascalhorn. You can only trust Melegaunt."
Trust him?" The veins in Jhingleshod's eyes grew red and thick. "I am not so naive as you."
"Naive?" Galaeron's gaze flashed to Melegaunt, then back to Jhingleshod. "What do you mean by that?"
"Galaeron, a man can intend two things at once." Melegaunt tried to interpose himself between Galaeron and Jhingleshod. "I am still Evereska's only hope." Galaeron continued to look at Jhingleshod. 'Tell me."
"There is no need to tell you what you already know," said Jhingleshod. "You saw him betray Vala on the bridge. You should not be surprised to learn he has been lying to you."
Galaeron whirled on the archwizard and found Vala blocking his path, one hand on her sword. "No, Galaeron." She pushed him back gently. "You know I can't let you."
Galaeron felt something in his hand and realized he was holding his own sword. He released it, turned to Jhingleshod, and asked, "What did Melegaunt tell you?" "After Wulgreth is destroyed," the knight promised. Galaeron turned next to Malik and said, "You heard it."
"I told Jhingleshod I came to save my people," said Melegaunt. "You, of all people, should understand that."
Galaeron continued to look at Malik. The little man sighed and nodded. "First he claimed he came to save Evereska, and for that lie he received the same blow you did. Then he said he came to save his people, that he needed the Karsestone to return shade to his home."
"Not my home, it's home." Melegaunt shook his head in frustration, then sighed and said, "Shade was a Netherese city. Our shadow masters read the empire's fall in the dawn shadows and took us to safety in the Demiplane of Shadow. We've been trying to return to our home-you call it Anauroch-ever since." "Seventeen centuries is a long time trying," Takari said.
'Time is not the same in the Demiplane of Shadow," Melegaunt said. "Nor the task of returning a simple one."
"Not with the phaerimm in your way," said Galaeron. The anger in his voice prompted Vala to draw her sword. "First, you had to move them someplace else!"
"It was not meant to be Evereska," said Melegaunt, now growing as angry as Galaeron. "But what if it had been? For seventeen of your centuries, we have been trapped in a dark hell, unable to return because of the phaerimm. For the first millennium, we kept our freedom by paying tribute in lives to the demon lords who thought to make us their own, and for the last seven hundred we have fought the Malaugrym for our very survival. Would it be too much to ask of Evereska- and the rest of the world-that they help us destroy the phaerimm so we could return in peace?" "You didn't ask," said Galaeron.
"Not Evereska." Melegaunt shouldered Vala aside and drew himself to his full height, reminding everyone present-including Galaeron-that he had little to fear from an angry elf. "But what would the answer have been, had a Netherese city asked your Hill Elders for help?"
The question sent a cold bolt through Galaeron, for the answer was as obvious to him as to Melegaunt. The ancient elves had disapproved of Netheril's careless magic, and as he knew from ancient writings in the Academy of Magic, taken a secret delight in the fall of the ancient empire.
"You can be sure I am doing more for Evereska than Evereska would for Shade," said Melegaunt. "Whether you believe that is up to you-and your shadowself."
Without awaiting Galaeron's reply, the wizard spun on Jhingleshod. "1 presume the Karsestone to be beneath this pyramid. If there is an easier way to reach it, do not make me waste precious time and magic opening a shadow tunnel." Jhingleshod's eyes flared angrily "Your promise-"
"Whether you value Melegaunt's promise or not, you may trust mine." Galaeron did not know whether the all-too-human fury in his heart was his own or that of his shadowself, but he did know that much of the criticism Melegaunt had leveled at Evereska was true. He turned to the wizard and said, "Were the circumstances of our cities reversed, perhaps 1 would do as much to save Evereska. But know this, wizard, I will hold you to your promise. If Evereska falls, I will see to it that Shade suffers a fate many times worse."
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