Merdigen wandered away, weaving between the columns, looking up, looking down. He then returned and gazed at the skeleton.
“I would that we could collect his bones for a proper pyre,” Merdigen murmured. “But I suppose they are safe enough where they are for now.”
“Does that mean you are ready to go?”
“It does.”
Alton checked his shields once again and rose. The lightning descended on him and he gritted his teeth. Though it did not touch him, the power of it battered him, threatening to knock him down again.
“Fascinating,” Merdigen said.
It was not the word Alton would have used, but he needed to focus on what he was doing and maintain his shield. He reached for Haurris’ dingy tempes stone, and at his touch a ghostly figure sputtered to life, a bent, ancient man with a long bristling beard.
“ ’Ware the Sleeper,” it intoned.
“Haurris!” Merdigen cried.
The figure did not acknowledge him. It flickered, and repeated, “ ’Ware the Sleeper.”
Alton lifted the stone from the pedestal and the figure vanished.
“I hope there’s more than—” Merdigen began.
A screech shattered the still air and out of nowhere something fell from high above and collided with Alton knocking the stone out of his hands. He heard it clatter onto the floor and Merdigen’s wail, but he was busy defending himself from claws slashing through his shields. Lightning ripped overhead.
The creature bowled him over and he fought to keep it at arm’s length as he worked to strengthen his shields. It was hard to concentrate with that wild and savage thing—all bones and sinew—snarling and lashing at him, seemingly impervious to the lightning that struck at it.
Alton threw it off him, rolled, and staggered to his feet. Before the creature could pounce on him again, he grasped the hilt of his sword.
“No!” Merdigen cried, but too late.
Alton drew the sword. A bolt of lightning flash-blinded him and struck him off his feet. He tossed his sword away from him and lay there stunned, thinking that if not for his shielding, all that would remain of him would be a smoking pile of cinders. Then the creature was on him again, hissing and digging through his weakened shields for his neck.
They rolled on the floor. Rolled over the skeleton of Haurris, bones snapping beneath Alton’s back. He heaved the creature off him once more and rose to his knees, breathing hard. His hands were covered in blood—his own, he thought. The creature crouched, ready to spring on him again. Alton could make out little of its features, except for its spidery limbs and glowing green eyes.
The creature launched at him. Alton grabbed a broken thigh bone and plunged the sharp, fractured end into the torso of the creature.
A keening filled the tower. Alton fell away covering his ears. He lay on the floor amid Haurris’ bones, too stunned to move, the cry echoing in his mind.
When it faded, he saw Merdigen gazing down at the creature on the floor.
“If that had been an ordinary bone you’d used,” Merdigen said, “and not that of a great mage, you might not have killed this creature.”
“What? Why?” Alton asked. His voice was hoarse and he tasted blood.
“It was Eletian. Or at least it had been at one time.”
The creature was nothing at all like the living, breathing Eletians he’d met. Its flesh was taut parchment spread over angular bones, the glow gone from its eyes, its hair like a snarled cobweb clouding its face.
“You may be only the second person to end the life of an Eletian since the Long War,” Merdigen said. “You brought to an end an otherwise eternal life.”
Alton glanced at his bloody hands. The second? Then he realized Karigan had been the first.
“Can we leave now?” Alton asked, appalled and exhausted.
“Indeed,” Merdigen said. “I’ll have some time to think about all this until we reach my tower. Don’t forget Haurris’ stone.” After a pause he added, “And don’t drop me this time.”
“I did not—” But Merdigen had vanished before Alton could complete his sentence.
He ground his teeth. It wasn’t fair Merdigen could just disappear when there was something he didn’t want to hear. The mage had the easy end of things, too. Alton checked his shields and braced himself for the lightning that would descend on him the moment he moved.
He gathered both tempes stones and his sword, and ran for the tower wall with the lightning hammering him all the way. When finally he stumbled outside, he found himself the object of concern and attention from the two women who awaited him. Pleased by their solicitous ministrations, he thought perhaps he’d the better end of the deal after all, especially when Estral shifted her belongings to his tent.
HAURRIS
Once more in Tower of the Heavens, Alton carefully placed Merdigen’s tempes stone back on its pedestal. Immediately the mage materialized to life beside him.
“Ah,” Merdigen said. “Very good to be home, and unscathed.” He strolled about, swinging his arms and stretching.
Perhaps Merdigen had returned unscathed, but Alton had been battered by his encounter with the creature in Tower of the Earth. Somehow the creature had reached through his shields and scored claw marks on his chest, and the tussle had left him banged up and bruised. Estral’s care and concern had taken his mind off his hurts for a time, but now he was stiff and sore.
“Do you want me to take Haurris’ stone out?” he asked.