Fistanadantilus Reborn

CHAPTER 37

Second Kirinor, Reapember

374 AC

Dawn broke over the sJcy as Danyal, numb with awe, looked at the flaming wreckage of Loreloch. Occasionally a stone broke free from the rubble of the once high walls, rolling through the burning cottages, then tumbling from the summit of the village's mountaintop to bounce and crash down the long, sloping incline. Two structures of stone still stood more or less intact amid the ruin: the bridge leading to the manor, and the lofty tower that had risen from within the high walls.

"Foryth!" the youth said with a moan. "He was still in there. He couldn't have survived!"

Emilo shook his head sadly. "I never saw him after you two went around back last night."

Danyal tried to suppress his tears, but when he slumped back to the ground in the ditch, he felt his throat tightening and knew that the unwanted moisture was stinging at his eyes.

"Why did he have to go wandering off?" he groaned. "He should have stayed with me; he'd be out here with the rest of us now!"

"Quite possibly true," Emilo admitted. The kender's eyes remained focused on the ruined structure, and Danyal turned around to follow the direction of his companion's gaze.

The dragon had worked the destruction of Loreloch using the same methodical thoroughness with which he had devastated Waterton. As well as the bridge and the tower, a few chimneys, stone walls, and an occasional silo stood after the onslaught of flames, though the fires still searched hungrily through the ruins, eagerly seeking more fuel. The wrack seemed utterly complete, and it was impossible to think that anyone could be still alive in there.

"Don't you think we should get going?" asked the kender casually. "Just in case any of Kelryn's men happen to be around."

Danyal shook his head firmly. "Not yet." He found it inconceivable that anyone could have lived through the attack, but more to the point, he was not ready to abandon rhe place where he had Jast seen Foryth Teel. "Maybe he's hurt in there, or trapped somewhere."

He was surprised to realize that, despite the man's fussy nature and impractical priorities, the youth had become very fond of the aspiring priest. Also Foryth's knowledge and his sense of insight into the minds of other people, particularly the bandit lord and former Seeker priest, had been comforting weapons in the companions' meager arsenal.

"Let's have a look, then," Emilo agreed. The far end of the bridge was littered with charred, blackened corpses. Despite the fact that, moments before, these men had actively been seeking his own blood, Dan felt a grim regret at the loss of human life, at the implacable fire that had swept down from the sky with such telling, lethal effect.

"The dragon even pulled down the cottages," Mirabeth said softly. Her own eyes were dry, but her face was as pale as a ghostly fog. "There were people sleeping in them, and now they're dead."

Another rock clattered into the ruins, and the three companions looked toward the tower, expecting to see another stage of Loreloch's collapse. Instead, they saw a small shutter slowly swing outward, a sturdy wooden plug that had secured a tiny window in the thick stone waUs of the tower.

"Someone's alive there!" Danyal whispered, fear and hope mingling in his heart as he saw a slender hand emerge from the window. Even before that hand waved, he recognized the tan sleeve drooping around the slender wrist.

"It's Foryth!" cried the lad, leaping from the ditch and scrambling into the road, ignoring Emilo's fingers as the kender tried to slow him down. "Foryth!" he called again, dancing at the end of the bridge, waving both his own hands. "Are you all right?"

They couldn't hear the reply, though Dan clearly imagined the "tsk" as the historian leaned out of the small, lofty aperture. Foryth waved again, and the trio finally understood the nature of his gesture.

"He wants us to come to him." Mirabeth voiced the obvious conclusion. "Up in the tower."

"But-" Danyal could think of a thousand reasons to object, though none of them quelled the joy of discovering that his friend was alive. "I suppose he thinks he's found something we just have to see," he concluded.

"Well, let's have a look, then." Emilo was already sauntering back over the bridge. Dan and Mirabeth came behind, though the two young humans slowed appreciably as they neared the mass of charred bodies on the far end of the span.

"I wonder which one is-or was, I should say-Kelyrn Darewind?" The kender spoke breezily as he stepped among the blackened bodies.

Danyal took Mirabeth's hand and squeezed, grateful for the returning pressure of her fingers. They avoided looking at the corpses as they walked along the fringe of the bridge to avoid the killing ground. Even so, the scent of burned flesh, singed hair, and death was like a physical barrier across the roadway. Finally, holding their breath against the stink, the two stumbled onto the broken, shattered ground of Loreloch.

Allowing Emilo to pick a path through the wreckage, they reached the base of the tower. Danyal helped the kender pull rocks away from the doorway, where they found that the sturdy portal had been smashed in by the destructive force of the dragon's attack.

Quickly they scrambled up the stairs that spiraled around the interior of the tower. "Foryth!" Danyal cried as they pounded toward the top.

When they reached the landing and burst through the open door, they found themselves in a small library. The historian was seated at a large table. A huge book lay open before him. Nearby were stacked numerous other tomes, and several scrolls had been tossed casually on the other end of the table. One of these had been unrolled and was being held open by a pair of heavy stone paperweights.

"Ah, there you are," Foryth said cheerfully. "I heard a bit of excitement out there. Glad to see that the three of you were able to get away."

"Why did you take off like that?" demanded Danyal, suddenly furious at the historian's nonchalance. "You could have been killed! We were supposed to stay together! Weren't you paying attention?"

"What? Er, yes… I suppose not. That is-tsk! Look here, my boy. I've found something absolutely fascinat-ing."

In spite of his agitation, Danyal leaned over the page that Foryth indicated. He wasn't surprised that he couldn't recognize the symbols written there. "What's that supposed to mean?" the lad demanded.

"Why, right here!" The historian could barely contain his excitement. "It says that there is a skull! The skull of Fistandantilus exists!"

"And why is that important?" Mirabeth asked.

"Because if Kelryn Darewind was to get both of those talismans, the results would be… well, they would be too horrible to talk about, that's what."

"Why? Kelryn is dead!" Dan objected. "The dragon surely killed him!"

"Perhaps. But the threat remains. If anyone of evil ambition should gain possession of the skull and the bloodstone, he would gain an unthinkable power."

"What power?"

"He could travel through time-become the Master of Past and Present, as Fistandantilus was in another era. That is, I believe that the combination of the skull and bloodstone would allow the holder to travel through time, much as Fistandantilus himself did."

"And that would be bad for Krynn?" Mirabeth wondered out loud.

"If the time traveler is wicked and ambitious enough, there are no limits to the damage he could do. Kelryn Darewind could easily become a virtually immortal dictator, a master of a realm greater than Solamnia. And he would be utterly, absolutely invulnerable, for he could use the same power to foresee any attempt against him before it was enacted!"

"Where is the skull?" Dan asked.

"That's the mystery that stopped Kelryn Darewind, that prevented him from going after the skull. And a good thing for the world, I might add."

"You told us. But does that mean you don't know where it is, either?" The lad was becoming exasperated with the historian's indirect responses. "Then why don't we get out of here?"

"Tsk. I said that Kelryn Darewind didn't know, but he lacks the keen eye of the researcher, the ability to perceive obscure clues. I myself have made a deduction."

"I think I understand…" Emilo Haversack chewed on the end of his topknot. "The skull-"

"Precisely!" The historian could hardly contain himself. "It has to be in the lair of the dragon!"