At the first sound of Harafin's voice booming across the palace complex, Kevlin rejoiced. Of course Harafin knew what was going on. He monitored the shields covering the entire palace. Somehow the wily old Sentinel had orchestrated this whole situation to capture Tanathos.
Then the full impact of Harafin's words sank in and stomped his hope down to a dark place in the pit of his stomach.
Tanathos grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the deeper shadows. Within seconds soldiers, Stalwarts and even Sentinels raced past, almost close enough to touch. None of them so much as glanced at the shadows where the two hid.
Tanathos leaned over Kevlin and whispered, "No one will even know you're missing for hours. We're invisible here. We have all the time in the world."
His words beat the tiny flicker of hope into tiny pieces. Tanathos was right. No one was going to come to help. Somehow, impossibly, Tanathos had evaded the guardian wards protecting the palace.
Who was attacking the city?
A wave of helplessness and fear washed over Kevlin. He fought to hold it back with sheer obstinacy, with only a little success.
Tanathos reached under the ropes encircling Kevlin's shoulders and drove his hand down under Kevlin's shirt. His skin crawled at the contact from this evil creature and he tried to struggle, but only managed to flop a little like a gutted fish.
Tanathos clubbed him in the side of the head with one fist. Shadows closed over his vision, and his ears rang from the impact. While he lay stunned, Tanathos pulled from under his shirt the amulet on its silver chain.
Kevlin tried to scream defiance as the Shadeleech slipped the chain from around his neck and, with a grin of victory, draped it over his own head. The effort only wedged the gag in deeper, and for a second Kevlin couldn't breathe at all. Only by relaxing and focusing on shallow breaths did he manage to keep from asphyxiating.
Tanathos stood over him, gloating, and Kevlin could do nothing to resist. Tanathos had the amulet. How soon until he destroyed Kevlin?
He hadn't felt so helpless since the first time Tanathos had captured him, deep in the forest of Hallvarr when he had infiltrated their secret fort. At that time, he had known nothing of the protective powers of the amulet and he'd nearly died from that ignorance.
Now, despite everything he knew, despite all the skills he'd developed, despite the fact that almost unlimited power lay hidden in his boot, he was powerless. He trembled as the sense of complete helplessness drew from the bilges of his memory his darkest fears. He again re-lived the moments of torture at the hands of a Sentinel on his father's ship. He'd fought his entire life to never be helpless again.
He'd failed.
Now, even if Harafin somehow appeared to help, Tanathos possessed the amulet. Not even Harafin could overwhelm the mighty talisman.
Tanathos dropped to one knee beside Kevlin and asked in a low hiss, "Where is Tia Khoa?"
Kevlin tried to tell him to go burn in EnKur's chains, but he only managed to make a muffled grunt. Tanathos yanked the gag out and repeated, "Tell me."
Kevlin screamed for help as loud as he could.
Tanathos punched him in the face. Kevlin tasted blood, his eyes watered, and his entire face felt on fire. He coughed, and Tanathos shoved the gag back in. This time he managed to close his mouth around it and prevent it from driving in as far. That strange smoky taste he always got when punched in the mouth returned.
"What's going on over there?" a gruff voice called.
Tanathos rose and spun toward the voice. Kevlin's only view, between Tanathos' legs, was of a pair of military boots circling the statue.
Tanathos yanked another wooden rod out of the folds of his cloak and ropes whipped out to encircle the surprised soldier. The man fell to the earth with a muffled curse. Before he could cry out for help, Tanathos leaped upon him and beat him in the head with the rod until he stopped moving.
Tanathos dragged the unconscious soldier into the shadows next to Kevlin. With a casual flick of his wrist, he slit the man's throat with a small dagger.
Hot blood gushed out and splattered all over Kevlin. The coppery stench of it filled his nose, and the sound of it splashing all around him filled him with horror. The casual murder drove home the desperation of his situation.
He would join the soldier in death all too soon.
If only it could be so clean.
As if reading his mind Tanathos said, "What a pity to waste a soul like that." He crouched beside Kevlin and tried patting him down, searching for the stone. The layers of rope encircling his torso made that effort all but impossible.
Tanathos straddled Kevlin and draped his cloak over both of them, plunging them into complete darkness. His voice whispered from just above Kevlin's face, "Better idea. I'll use the direct method."
A cold hand grabbed Kevlin's face in a rough grip, and pain lanced into his head. It felt like five daggers drove through his face simultaneously and sank into his brain.
#
Harafin paused in mid-sentence and whirled around to face the palace. From where he stood atop the inner city wall, he could see over most of the supporting buildings to the individual kingdom palaces. The Great Dome rose high above them all. Sentinels stood beside him, and Colonel Gabral had just pushed his way through the crowd.
Harafin glanced back at the city where he could easily make out many fires. In the last frantic minutes, he'd coordinated dispatching teams of soldiers, Sentinels, and Stalwarts to destroy those pockets of attackers.
Already it seemed clear they faced scattered attacks designed to strike panic into the hearts of the citizens, not a full-scale assault on the city. The suicide attackers might kill ten times their number due to the surprise nature of the assaults, but the entire effort would prove fruitless.
Now he knew why they did it. Their efforts were but a feint designed to draw his attention from the real danger lurking in their midst.
It had worked.
"Felix, take over here," Harafin ordered.
"I demand to know what's going on," Gabral said.
"Come then," Harafin said.
He grabbed Gabral by the arm and leaped off the inner side of the wall, dragging the surprised colonel with him over the edge.
#
Kevlin screamed and writhed under Tanathos' hand, but the gag muffled everything.
Tanathos slammed a knee into his chest to hold him still, and the pain in his head intensified. Thought scattered and madness chased him through the halls of his memory. Kevlin found himself laughing into the gag along with the memory of Akillik.
Should he spin the Wheel?
What did he have to lose?
Even in the depth of despair, wracked with torment to the brink of sanity, Kevlin couldn't throw his fate into the void controlled by the fickle god.
Then Tanathos shouted with victory, and a lightning-like wave of magic rippled down through Kevlin's torso. Every muscle convulsed, and he screamed so hard he tasted blood.
Without the amulet, he had no defense. He also had no way to capture the magic. As the ripple of agony burned through him, the Trembling Madness awoke. Kevlin howled against the gag and his arms and legs writhed against the restraining bonds as he fought to hold onto even a fraction of the power that tore at him.
He had to have it! He couldn't let it all escape. Kevlin screamed at the torment, his hands clenching in the vain attempt to physically grab the magic. He sawed at the ropes with his little stiletto, but the rope parted too slowly.
As the magic subsided, the torment proved too much and Kevlin's scream changed to hysterical laughter. He embraced the memory of Akillik and laughed along with the young god as the magic he yearned to feel drained out of him. Then it was gone, and Kevlin lay panting on the ground, exhausted. Tanathos stood and flicked his cape away.
He frowned down at Kevlin. "What madness is this?"
Kevlin lunged against the ropes and managed to lift half his body off the ground before falling back. He tried again. If only he could reach Tanathos's throat. Even with the gag, he'd rip the Shadeleech's head off to get the amulet back, to restore the route to power.
Tanathos kicked him back down. "You don't suffer as well as I'd like. No matter, there will be plenty of time to perfect the right torture."
The Shadeleech scooped Kevlin up and threw him over one shoulder. Kevlin tried to bite Tanathos's back as his head bounced along with the Shadeleech's stride, but the gag prevented him from doing more than bruising his lips.
Tanathos skirted the southern end of the central palace and walked west. That direction made no sense.
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Then Kevlin understood. Tanathos made for the high cliffs above the Tamerlane Sea. There was no exit that way, no way down. Tanathos meant to throw him off the cliff.
Kevlin struggled harder, but Tanathos merely shifted his grip and kept walking. The man's strength proved far greater than Kevlin would have imagined. Nothing he tried so much as caused Tanathos to stumble.
They passed through an orchard and then crossed a pasture filled with sleeping cattle. The distant crashing of waves reached Kevlin's ears. As Tanathos twisted to cross a fence, Kevlin caught sight of the cliff edge, barely fifty yards away.
This was it, the end of all things for Kevlin. In his mind, he heard Akillik laughing, but his thoughts focused on the Wheel burning in the young god's hand.
Time to spin the Wheel.
Kevlin laughed into the muffling gag. He would call upon Akillik's fickle luck.
A wall of flame erupted out of the ground directly in front of Tanathos. The heat beat upon the back of Kevlin's legs like a hammer.
Tanathos threw Kevlin from him. Kevlin tumbled to the ground in a heap and stared in amazement at the fire. He'd expected the Wheel to come up against him, but he never imagined Akillik would attempt to roast him alive.
Wait. He hadn't actually spun the Wheel. Now he never would.
Tanathos spun back the way they'd come and raised hands already glowing with crimson power. Lightning-like magic slammed into him again and again, so fast the multiple bolts fused into one.
Kevlin clenched his eyes shut against the blinding light, but the after-images burned in his eyelids. Tanathos cursed as his cloak burst into flames and fell away from him in tattered, charred pieces.
"I think you've gone far enough tonight."
Kevlin forced his eyes open at the sound of the familiar voice. Sentinel Ah'Shan strode out of the darkness toward them.
Tanathos beckoned Ah'Shan forward and made a sweeping bow. "Excellent timing, Sentinel. Had you waited a moment longer, you would have lived out the night."
Ah'Shan smiled. "You're unusually confident for one trapped behind enemy lines."
"I am far from trapped," Tanathos said. He lowered his hands and spread them wide. "See for yourself. Your magic has no power over me."
Ah'Shan glanced at Kevlin, looking a little less sure of himself. He took a single step forward. "I'm surprised one of your kind bothers to take prisoners. Why not kill this one now?"
Kevlin tried to shout. He needed to warn Ah'Shan about the amulet, but the gag still remained tightly wedged in his mouth.
Tanathos said, "This man's death is already scheduled, in my good time."
"Late night snack, eh?" Ah'Shan asked. He whipped his hands up and they flared with white light.
Tanathos did the same, his hands glowing crimsom.
Flames leaped out of Tanathos' hands in a horizontal sheet toward Ah'Shan. The Sentinel flicked his wrist, and a whirlwind of air caught the flames and dispersed them in all directions. Then Ah'Shan threw his hands forward and a bolt of pure white light leaped between them and struck Tanathos.
It blasted him from his feet.
Tanathos rolled several times before landing in a crumpled heap on the ground. He groaned and staggered back to his feet. As he rose, he pawed at his collar, drew the amulet forth, and stared at it, clearly confused.
Kevlin snarled to see the amulet around Tanathos' throat. The fool broke it! He threw himself against his ropes and started rolling toward the Shadeleech. He had to get it back. Nothing else mattered.
As he rolled, a lance of pain in his left wrist snapped him out of his crazed rage. His hand was twisted at an uncomfortable angle, still clutching the stiletto. He had cut a couple of ropes earlier, granting him a tiny bit of movement.
Kevlin sawed against the ropes with frantic intensity.
Ah'Shan chuckled. "Your failure is astonishing. Clearly you intended to capture Tia Khoa, but all you found was a broken amulet and a Steward who no longer possesses the stone."
Tanathos let the amulet to fall to his chest and, with a snarl, threw out a hand toward Kevlin, who lay barely ten feet away. Fingers of pulsing fire encircled him and sank into his chest.
Kevlin screamed and writhed inside the flames. He decided he didn't like torture. Only minutes in Tanatho's power was more than enough.
He continued to saw frantically at the ropes, but couldn't tell if he was making any headway. He should have been rolling toward Ah'Shan and safety.
"You've proven yourself a fool twice over," said Tanathos. "Choose your next move carefully. I'm linked to the Steward now. Any attack you direct at me will be passed to him. He will die first, I guarantee it."
That was bad. What a coward.
Ah'Shan shouldn't have wasted all that time talking. Why would he do that? Now Tanathos had turned the tide against him yet again.
Tanathos grabbed Kevlin by the collar and yanked him to his feet. He held Kevlin before him like a shield and started dragging him toward the cliff.
Heading for the cliff made no sense. He and Tanathos shared a mutual hatred, but he would have thought the Shadeleech wanted to survive the encounter. If he threw Kevlin off now, he'd lose his defense.
Tanathos wasn't a quitter, and he wasn't stupid crazy, so he had to have a plan. His arrogance was only rivaled by the depth of his evil.
Kevlin sawed harder at the ropes. One severed, granting him a little more room, making it easier to saw at the next one.
Ah'Shan paced them, thirty feet away, hands half-raised to strike again. "Why should the life of this man concern me?"
"Because he is the only one who can reveal the stone."
Ah'Shan frowned, "You lie."
"Not in this. I see you too wish to know the secret. I know it, and this man is the key."
They now stood barely three paces from the edge of the cliff. The pounding of the waves crashing against the rocks far below rang loud in Kevlin's ears. He vainly tried to dig his heels into the soft earth to slow their progress toward destruction.
A chill breeze blew off the water, filled with the salty tang of the sea. It brought back memories long forgotten of his earliest years aboard his father's ship. For the first time in a very long time, he yearned to see his family again, just one more time before he died.
"You've reached the end of your path, Tanathos," said Ah'Shan. "You cannot hope to win this fight."
"Perhaps not, but I guarantee you will lose it."
Movement to the right of Ah'Shan drew Kevlin's gaze. His heart leaped with hope at the sight of Harafin and Gabral racing toward them.
Gabral pointed the Mace at them. From fifty yards away, the top spike fired off with a loud snap. It ripped through the air faster than an arrow, headed straight for Kevlin.
The idiot was supposed to be saving Kevlin, not trying to execute him.
Tanathos hissed and jerked Kevlin to the side. He extended his other glowing hand toward Gabral. The spike deflected just a little and streaked past Kevlin's right arm.
The stiletto cut through another rope. Kevlin finally managed to slip his left arm out of the constricting loops. He spun the blade in his hand and drove it backward. It sank to the hilt between two of Tanathos' ribs.
Tanathos gasped, and his hold on Kevlin's collar eased. Half a heartbeat later, agony speared into Kevlin's torso between his ribs. He doubled over in pain. He had hoped Tanathos was lying about passing pain on to him.
Then the ropes binding him disappeared.
Kevlin didn't know if it was Harafin or Ah'Shan, but as soon as the ropes vanished, he lunged against Tanathos, grasping for the Shadeleech's neck.
Tanathos snarled into his ear, "Die then, knowing your life fuels my escape."
He had thought he hurt before.
Now overwhelming agony tore through Kevlin's body from Tanathos's powers. Kevlin arced away from the Shadeleech as his entire world disintegrated into burning fire.
Deep inside of him, Tanathos began ripping out his soul. Darkness descended over him, while waves of agony crashed through his head. Every inch of his skin burned as if immersed in living fire, and he could no longer breathe.
Then the pain disappeared.
Kevlin clutched at Tanathos as his legs buckled. Tanathos looked as surprised as Kevlin did that the pain had stopped.
Someone had interfered.
Kevlin wasn't about to give him a chance to figure out how to restart the torture trip. He lashed at Tanathos's throat and his hand closed around the amulet. He shouted with exultant victory.
Tanathos wrapped his arms around Kevlin and threw himself backward. Together, they toppled off the cliff.
The insane Shadeleech didn't even say anything profound when he consigned them to death. It seemed a waste of an important moment.
The two plummeted toward the jagged rocks hundreds of feet below, but Kevlin still clawed at Tanathos, trying to rip the amulet off his head. If he was going to die, he'd die with the amulet in his hands.
Tanathos bit his arm, making him release his grip. The two tumbled around each other, buffeted by the wind, bare inches from the rough stone of the cliff, punching and biting at each other.
Tanathos grabbed Kevlin's face and dug at his eyes. Kevlin beat the Shadeleech's hands away. That was all the distance Tanathos needed. He hardened the air between them like a wall.
Kevlin continued to plummet straight down as Tanathos slid along the hardened air and began circling away from the cliffs in a gentle spiral.
"No fair!" Kevlin screamed.
The rocks approached with shocking speed.
The night burst into blue-white brilliance as a bolt of lightning ripped through the air from the top of the cliff and slammed into Tanathos. The blow flung him sideways and he bounced off the cliff face. The impact threw him into a wild spin.
Kevlin laughed with terror, trying to keep his eyes focused on Tanathos's limp form instead of the fast-approaching rocks. At least the two of them would die together. He closed his eyes and waited for the abrupt crash that would rip him from this world into the next.
The loud rushing of the wind dimmed, and Kevlin glanced down. The rocks rushed up to meet him, barely fifty feet away.
He screamed. What else could he do?
The rocks slowed their advance and the wind lessened further. Kevlin's stomach lurched as an invisible force yanked against him and his body bent under the strain of conflicting forces. Waves crashed just below, and spray flung up from the rocks to splash against his face.
He stopped. Kevlin hung in the air barely twenty feet above the rocks and the crashing waves. Tanathos hung motionless in the air not far away.
They started to rise.
Kevlin's stomach roiled in protest from the unexpected change of direction as his body began accelerating up the cliff face. He fought the urge to vomit and chided his useless stomach. Why get sick when escaping danger?
He caught sight of the amulet glinting in the moonlight as it hung on its silver chain around Tanathos's neck. He reached for it, even though it hung far out of reach. He needed it. He had to have it, and he would never let it go again.
The two of them sailed over the edge of the cliff and touched down gently on the earth a dozen paces inland. As soon as he felt solid ground under his feet, Kevlin launched himself at Tanathos.
He yanked the amulet off the unconscious man's head. Then he drew his belt dagger and raised it high, intending to plunge it through Tanathos' heart.
Strong hands grabbed his wrist and yanked him off. He growled and spun. Gabral punched him in the mouth and pushed him aside. He hit the ground hard, but lunged back to his feet, dagger at the ready.
Gabral shooed him back. "Gather yourself together, man. We can't kill him yet."
"Sure we can," Kevlin protested. "It'll just take a second."
"No, we cannot," Harafin said. The old Sentinel pointed a glowing finger at Tanathos, and a bright blue prison of magic settled around the Shadeleech.
"Is he dead?" Ah'Shan asked.
"No," Harafin said, "Although he is not very alive. That lightning strike was a poor choice."
The powerful Sentinel shrugged. "It seemed appropriate. This man is extremely dangerous. I didn't want to take any chances."
Kevlin hissed, "Kill him." They couldn't risk leaving Tanathos alive.
Harafin ignored Kevlin. "You took an awful risk, Ah'Shan. You might have struck Kevlin, or you might have killed him."
"But I did neither."
"No, I suppose not." Harafin placed one hand on Tanathos's glowing prison and grinned. "Finally, we have him."
Ah'Shan said, "Bind his prison to me, Harafin. I'll see him to the secure holding cells and oversee his questioning."
"Very well. You're best qualified to extract the truth. Report your findings to the council chamber. I will assemble the council."
Kevlin sheathed his dagger and fought down a flash of irritation that no one bothered to ask if he was all right. His muscles ached and his entire body felt like he'd been keel-hauled.
Gabral returned the Mace to its curious leather sheath on his back. Kevlin loved watching it melt and flow up over the spiked ball. Why did such an arrogant fool get such an awesome weapon?
"How did you know he'd deflect that spike when you fired it?" Kevlin asked.
Gabral shrugged. "I'm surprised he did. If he hadn't, the spike would have passed right through your unarmored body and killed him too."
He clapped Kevlin on the shoulder. "Sometimes victory comes at a price. I was willing to pay it."
Then he turned and walked away.
Kevlin wanted to follow him and explain with his fists what price he was willing to pay for renewed peace of mind. He resisted the urge. Barely. Instead,, he watched Tanathos's floating prison begin following Ah'Shan toward the palace. The sight of his most bitter enemy immobilized in Harafin's power was one he wanted to memorize.