Forge of the Mindslayers

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I was twenty-four, and I'd been sailing on the Seastar with Erdis Cai for almost two years."

Asenka blinked in surprise, unsure she'd heard correctly. "You mean Erdis Cai, the explorer?"

Tresslar gave her a small, sad smile, so unlike his previous boastful attitude. "The same."

"But the Seastar hasn't been seen in the Principalities since before I was born!"

Tresslar's smile grew a bit wider. "It was a long time ago."

"I meant no offense, but if you sailed with Erdis Cai, then you must know what happened to him and the rest of his crew. There are so many stories…"

Tresslar's smile fell away.

Asenka sensed there was another tale here, one that was difficult for Tresslar to speak of. Still, one story at a time. "So you were twenty-four," Asenka prompted.

"Yes, and the Seastar was headed for Trebaz Sinara."

Asenka almost interrupted again, but she stopped herself. Trebaz Sinara… Every child in the Principalities had grown up listening to stories about the fabled island. According to legend, Trebaz Sinara was inhabited by the most terrible of monsters and surrounded by treacherous reefs that made landing there all but impossible, but legend also told that the island contained the hidden treasure of two thousand years of pirate raids-gold, precious gems, dragonshards, mystic relics… objects of unimaginable wealth and power. There were also said to be ancient tombs on the island, but who had built them, or what dark secrets they held within their sealed walls, remained a mystery.

Asenka knew that Trebaz Sinara was a real place, but she'd never spoken to anyone who had actually been there. Tresslar suddenly seemed less like a crotchety old man than a figure who had stepped right out of legend. As attentive as she'd been before, she was doubly so now.

Tresslar continued. "We'd sailed past the island numerous times on our way to Regalport or Orgalos, but we'd never attempted to make landfall before, though every time we passed Trebaz Sinara, Erdis made sure the Seastar always came in view of the island, even if it added days to our journey. He would stand at the railing and gaze out upon the deadly reefs that ringed the island, and though he wouldn't say anything, his eyes gleamed with desire, and we all knew that he was trying to imagine what riches and adventures might lie waiting for him there.

"Two weeks earlier we had put in to Skairn for supplies, and Erdis, who was something of a card sharp, had entered a high-stakes game of three-pronged crown between a number of prominent, not to mention notorious, sea captains. It was even rumored that several barons were in attendance. However, since Erdis was the only one of the Seastar present, I cannot confirm this. The game lasted for three days straight, and when it was over, Erdis had managed to double his money, but one of the players who owed Erdis had run out of funds, and he paid off his debt with a treasure map.

"I know what you're thinking: every lowlife gambler in the Principalities tries to pay off his or her debts with false treasure maps, but this debtor was a merchant lord of some repute and was also a longstanding acquaintance of Erdis's, so he accepted the map without even looking it over, though in truth Erdis was doubtful it would prove to be of any real value. Once back aboard the Seastar, and after getting some much-needed sleep, Erdis finally examined the map. He couldn't believe what he was looking at: the map depicted the northeastern tip of Trebaz Sinara, and what's more, it showed a route through the reefs. Erdis could no more resist the map's lure than a starving wolf can resist a plump, slow-footed sheep, so we set sail immediately. Two weeks later we dropped anchor off the coast of Trebaz Sinara.

"Erdis selected a landing crew of a half dozen men and women, myself among them. As ship's artificer, I often accompanied Erdis on dangerous trips, and I'm proud to say that my skills with magic saved his life on more than one occasion, but this time I was ambivalent to be going along. After all, this was Trebaz Sinara, and I feared there was no chance of our coming back alive. Still, it was my duty to go, and truth be told, I would rather have died than display cowardice before Erdis. He ordered a long boat lowered into the water. We climbed aboard and began rowing to the reef. Since Erdis preferred that I save my strength for working magic, I was able to sit and watch while others rowed. Erdis stood at the prow of the boat, map unfurled in his hands, and barked out orders to the rowers: 'Five full strokes, three port, seven starboard!' The rowers obeyed his commands instantly, and we began the long, twisting journey through the barrier maze of reef. How long it took us, I cannot say, but at last we won free of the reef and rowed the rest of the way to shore. The entire time we were in open water, I kept expecting some manner of monster to burst out of the sea and devour us, but none did, and I began to wonder if the stories of the terrible creatures that infested Trebaz Sinara were nothing but sea tales, perhaps originated by the ancient pirates who hid their treasure upon the island to discourage those who would attempt to search for it. Whichever the case, we made landfall without incident. We gathered our weapons and supplies, and set off for the island's interior, with Erdis leading the way, of course.

"From the start, it was clear that there was something strange about the island, or at least the northeastern portion of it. The landscape was a patchwork of different kinds of vegetation and soil. There were the usual trees that you expect to see in the Principalites: oak, elm, ash, fir, evergreen… but there were also trees that rightfully belonged to warmer climes: cypress, orange blossom, palm trees… Tropical fruit trees were abundant as well, and though it was summer, such fruit did not belong there, did not exist anywhere else in the Principalities, so far as any of us knew. The soil was just as varied. Sometimes it was a rich moist black, other times dry red clay, and sometimes it was cracked, barren, and lifeless as any desert. The air was still and stale, and as we trekked across the island following the path laid out in Erdis's map, we began to feel weighed down, as if some invisible force had settled on us and was slowly, inexorable pushing us toward the ground. Adding to the overall oppressive atmosphere was an eerie silence. Monsters or no, an island of that size, with all that vegetation, should've been teeming with birds, animals, and insects, yet we saw or heard no signs of such life as we walked.

"The crewmembers began to grow increasingly nervous, myself included, but when we told Erdis of our fears, he just laughed and asked if we wanted to live forever. We weren't surprised by his reaction, since his cavalier attitude toward danger was familiar to us all. Erdis was drawn to peril like a moth to flame, and in the end, I suppose, with much the same result."

The artificer paused, as if momentarily lost in thought, then he shook his head sadly and resumed his tale.

"We continued for some hours until we finally came to a rocky hillside and Erdis called a halt. He grinned, pointed to a cave opening in the hillside, and declared that we had reached our destination. By this time many in the landing party had begun to doubt the worth of Erdis's map, but upon seeing the cave, all their doubts were erased, and enthusiasm-which had been in short supply among us for some time-began to run high once again. Someone, I forget who, asked Erdis what lay inside the cave. Still grinning, Erdis said, 'That's what we've come to find out.' Erdis drew his sword, the rest of us took our own weapons in hand, and we followed our captain up the sloping hillside.

"The smell hit us before we were halfway to the cave entrance-the musky scent of lizard, combined with an acrid chemical stink that burned our throats and noses and made our eyes water. I'd never smelled anything like it before, but evidently Erdis had, for he whispered, 'Green dragon.'

"His words struck me like an arrow through the heart. I'd encountered more than my fair share of monsters since signing onto the Seastar, but I'd never faced a dragon before, and the thought of doing so terrified me. I was near to confessing my terror to Erdis and begging him to let me remain outside the cave when, as if sensing my fear, he turned to me and spoke first. 'This breed of dragon breathes poisonous fumes that result in agonizing death for any who are unfortunate enough to inhale them.' He put his hand on my shoulder then. 'But we have no reason to fear, do we, Tresslar? Not with our ship's artificer protecting us.'

"I wasn't at all confident that I could force myself to take a single step inside the cave, let alone protect Erdis and the others from the dragon's poison breath, but Erdis looked at me with a trust-filled gaze and squeezed my shoulder, and though my fear didn't vanish altogether, it did diminish to the point where it became manageable. All because of a single look and touch from the man. 'I'll do my best,' I told him, and he smiled. 'That will be more than sufficient. It always has been before.' Then he continued climbing toward the cave entrance and, after a moment's pause, I began following again, the others coming along behind me, their fears allayed as well.

"I still had concerns, though. I was a self-taught artificer with little formal schooling, and what I knew about dragons came almost entirely from drunken tales I'd heard from the Seastar's crew. I knew most of their stories were lies, but the problem was I didn't know which few weren't, so as we finished our ascent to the beast's lair, I mentally went over all the dragon lore I knew-true or false-and prepared as best I could to justify Erdis's faith in me.

"There was a good-sized ledge jutting out from the cave entrance, and Erdis examined it closely before letting any of us climb onto it. 'This would be a perfect place for the beast to sun itself,' he whispered, more to himself than to any of us, 'but there are no claw marks in the stone, not even so much as a single scratch.' Erdis seemed troubled by this, and at the time I had no idea why. Now I know that he had been considering two possibilities: either the dragon had an alternate means of entering and exiting its lair, or the beast rarely left-if ever. Despite his misgivings, Erdis started toward the cave entrance, motioning for the rest of us to follow. Other captains might've let the low men on the pecking order go first, but not Erdis. He was always the first to face danger, and in those rare instances when he deemed retreat necessary, the last to flee it. I, as ship's artificer, was usually close behind, and that day in the dragon's lair was no exception.

"The sun had dipped close to the horizon by the time we reached the hillside, and little light came through the cave entrance. On my wrists I wore bracelets with a pair of light-stones set into the metal. I willed the light-stones to activate, but I made certain to keep their illumination at low strength: bright enough for us to see, but dim enough that we hopefully wouldn't draw undue attention to ourselves. The tunnel was more than large enough for us to move easily without having to crouch or squeeze through single file, and soon several of us-myself included-were walking alongside Erdis. The tunnel curved to the right and began to angle downward gradually, and though the slope was sometimes steep enough that we had to work to keep from sliding, we managed to maintain our footing as we continued ever downward.

"The air in the tunnel grew thicker and more acrid the deeper we went, and breathing became increasingly more difficult. I motioned for everyone to stop, and Erdis-undoubtedly knowing that I intended to do something about the gaseous air-did not dispute my right to call a halt. I slipped off my pack, rummaged through the contents until I found what I was looking for: a handful of pebbles. These weren't ordinary rocks. They'd been given to me by a locathah shaman when Erdis and the rest of us helped her tribe stave off an attack by a band of sahuagin. The fish-woman had enchanted the pebbles to allow surface dwellers to breathe underwater, and we were able to fight the sahuagin on their own terms. The pebbles had worked fine during the battle with the sea devils, but I had no idea if they could be adapted to function in our current situation. I pulled out my artificer's tools, worked on the pebbles for several moments, and when I was finished, I placed one under my tongue, counted to ten, then inhaled deeply through my nostrils.

"The air I took in was as clear and sweet as any I had ever breathed, and what's more, the gaseous fumes no longer stung my eyes. I had hoped as much, since the saltwater hadn't affected our vision when we fought alongside the locathah. Confident that the pebbles worked, I passed one out to every crewmember, including Erdis. Keeping a pebble stashed under one's tongue made speech difficult, but since we'd been proceeding in silence so far, I hoped this wouldn't prove much of a drawback. Thus we continued onward. Eventually the tunnel broadened and we saw a glowing green light ahead of us. I deactivated my light-stones, and we proceeded with cautious excitement toward the source of the verdant glow.

"We rounded a final bend and the tunnel opened into a vast cavern. Immediately we saw the source of the green light: both the cavern's stalactites and stalagmites were coated with some form of luminescent substance, a mold or perhaps some form of moss. Whatever it was, while its light wasn't bright as day, it was sufficient to illuminate the entire cavern-and most importantly, the cavern's sole occupant-a huge green dragon.

"Despite the pebble in my mouth, I found myself holding my breath at the sight of the awesome beast. The magnificent creature lay curled up on the cavern floor, head resting on its tail, eyes closed, greenish vapor curling forth from both its nostrils and the corners of its mouth. Even asleep, the beast exuded an almost palpable aura of power, and I was so awed by the dragon's sheer presence that I didn't notice what Erdis did. He leaned close to my ear, so close his lips almost touched my flesh, and whispered, 'No hoard.' Aside from the green dragon-and us, of course-the cavern was empty. While I'm sure that Erdis felt disappointed that there was no treasure, I later came to understand that he was more concerned because of how strange it was for the dragon not to have some kind of hoard. It was the one constant in all the tales about the beasts I'd ever heard. For reasons known only to themselves, dragons have a need, a compulsion almost, to surround themselves with treasure, but this dragon had none.

"Then another mystery soon revealed itself. We didn't notice at first, for the air in the cave was hazy from the proliferation of fumes wafting forth from the dragon's snout, but the longer we stood there, the more we came to realize that the creature was wounded, terribly so. The wings folded against its back were shredded, their bones twisted and broken. Iridescent scales had been torn away in numerous places, exposing raw bloody flesh beneath. Fractured ribs jutted out from the creature's sides, and jagged fragments of bone protruded from its shattered limbs. We might've thought the dragon dead if not for its breathing, and even that we now realized was labored and irregular.

"Once more Erdis leaned close to my ear and whispered, 'This beast has come here to die. We should leave it in peace.' We might have done so, too, except the dragon chose that moment to shift its position. It didn't move much, merely lifted its head off its tail, stretched its neck, and then settled its head on its front feet, eyes closed the entire time, but the movement was enough to reveal that the dragon wasn't entirely bereft of treasure, for we now saw that around its neck hung a golden chain, and dangling on the end of it-"

"Was the dragonhead." Asenka nodded at Tresslar's wand.

"Yes. We were at least a hundred feet away from the dragon, but as soon as I saw the dragonhead, I could sense the mystic power emanating from it. The magic was strong, more so than anything I had come across in my young life. Erdis saw the dragonhead as well as I, and he turned to me and raised a questioning eyebrow. I understood exactly what he was asking me: Is the dragonhead valuable? Not in a monetary sense, for even if it were the most precious of rare artifacts, Erdis wouldn't risk his life and the lives of his crew to obtain a single object, but a magic object… that was a different story. I looked at him and nodded.

"A sly smile spread across Erdis's face as he turned back to examine the dragon. He pointed to me then two more of the crew. The message was clear: we three were to follow; the others were to remain behind. Erdis began moving toward the dragon, I came next, and the other two followed behind me. We went slowly and cautiously, for while the dragon appeared to be on the verge of death, still it was a dragon and not to be taken lightly. I don't know how long it took us to cross the cavern floor and reach the dragon. It seemed like hours, but I'm sure it took much less than that. Close to the dragon, the air was thick with greenish vapor, and if it hadn't been for the breathing pebbles under our tongues we would've died long before reaching the beast. When we had closed to within three yards of the creature, Erdis motioned for us to halt. Once again he leaned closed to my ear and whispered.

"'No blood,' he said. For a moment I didn't understand what Erdis meant, then I realized that the floor around the dragon was spotless. Though the creature was grievously wounded and its injuries were clearly wet with blood, the dragon wasn't actually bleeding. That is to say, blood did not seep from its wounds to spill onto the floor. At first I thought the beast might be some manner of undead thing, but its sides moved in and out as it breathed, vapor curled from its nostrils, and when it had moved earlier, it motion wasn't awkward and jerky like that of an undead creature, but rather smooth and natural, despite its wounds. Only magic of an extremely high order could be responsible for such a miraculous enchantment, and I looked at the golden dragonhead hanging from the beast's neck with newfound awe. A split-second later I realized that if we removed the dragonhead, there was a very good chance that the green dragon would no longer be protected against the progression of time, and its wounds would begin bleeding and death would soon come to claim it.

"I wanted to tell Erdis these things, but I was afraid to speak aloud and wake the dragon, so I hesitated, and in that moment, Erdis-sword gripped tight-crept up to the dragon's side and reached out for the golden dragonhead with his free hand. How he intended to get the object off the chain, I don't know. For at that instant, the dragon opened its eyes, or rather, I should say eye, for its left was nothing but a hollow, bloody socket.

"Erdis took several steps backward, but before he could do anything to defend himself, the dragon lifted its head, opened its mouth and released a blast of poison green gas that rolled over the four us like a cloud of thick, emerald fog. The vaporous cloud lingered for a moment before beginning to dissipate, and when the dragon saw that none of us had fallen, it spoke.

"'I see that you have come prepared. Not that it matters, for all you've done is ensure yourselves a more grisly, though equally swift, demise.'

"Waves of fear pounded into me with each word, and if I hadn't been so completely consumed by terror, I would've turned and fled screaming for the cavern's exit. I understood then that I had experienced my first taste of dragonfear.

"When it finished speaking, the dragon rose onto all four feet, wincing in pain as it did so. Whatever the spell that kept its wounds from bleeding, it obviously didn't relieve the pain they caused. The creature drew its head back as if it were a serpent preparing to strike. Half of its teeth were either gone or reduced to broken nubs, but it still had more than enough left in its huge maw to slay with. As its one-eyed gaze was focused intently on Erdis, there was no doubt about whom it intended to kill first.

"The need for silence was long past, and I fought past my dragonfear to shout, 'Cut the dragonhead from the chain!'

"Erdis didn't respond, but as the dragon lunged, Erdis sidestepped, gripped his sword with both hands, and swung his blade at the golden object dangling from the chain around the dragon's neck. The strike was well aimed and severed the link holding the dragonhead to the chain. The object fell to the cavern floor. An instant later the dragon stiffened and let out a deafening roar of agony. As if some sort of internal dam had burst within the creature, blood gushed from its numerous wounds. Those of us closest to the dragon fled, as much from a sudden intense surge of dragonfear as to avoid the beast's death throes, but we needn't have bothered, for after releasing a single bellow of pain, the dragon slumped to the cavern floor and lay motionless. The dragonfear that had taken hold of us, Erdis included, subsided, and we stopped running and turned back to gaze upon the dying creature. I say dying, for though the beast did not move, its one good eye remained half open, and tiny curls of green vapor wafted from its nostrils.

"The dragon's right front claw twitched, its talons lightly scratching against the stone upon which it lay. At first I thought it was trying to get up, but then I saw the golden dragonhead lay less than ten feet from the claw, and I knew the beast wished to reclaim its magic talisman in order to save its life. Overwhelmed with sudden pity for the dragon, I stepped forward, intending to help it, but Erdis put a hand on my shoulder to stop me. I looked at him, and though he gazed at me with understanding, still he didn't release me, and I didn't try to break free. Instead, I turned back to look at the dragon. The streams of blood that had gushed from its wounds only seconds before had slowed to mere trickles, and I knew the dragon didn't have much time left.

"The beast spoke then. Its voice no longer echoed like thunder through the cavern, but came out instead as a soft rumble so quiet I had to strain to hear it.

"'For more than twenty-six hundred years I have lain in this cavern, with only my pain for company,' the dragon said. 'The Amahau kept me alive all that time-much as I wish it hadn't-but now its work is finished. The Gatherer is yours now. Use it wisely.'

"I understood that the Amahau and the Gatherer were both names for the golden dragonhead, and though I knew this was hardly the time to quiz the dragon about the object, my artificer's curiosity was burning to learn more about the magical artifact, but before I could ask any questions, Erdis asked one of his own. "'What is your name?'

"'I am… Paganus.'

The dragon's eye closed then, and a last rattling breath escaped its scaly lips. After nearly three millennia-if the beast had been telling the truth-death had finally claimed it."

Tresslar fell silent after that and gazed out upon the sea. Asenka looked at the dragonhead-the Amahau-with newfound awe.

"What happened after that?" she asked.

Tresslar didn't respond right away, and she thought he hadn't heard her or that perhaps he had and merely intended to ignore her question, but then the artificer spoke once more.

"We left. I took the dragonhead, since as ship's artificer I was best equipped to handle it, and we made our way back to the Seastar. The return journey wasn't without its difficulties… after all, it was Trebaz Sinara, but all of us made it to the ship more or less intact, and we set sail. I began experimenting with the Amahau to learn its capabilities, and eventually I discovered how to use it to absorb and store magic. I affixed it to the end of this wand, and that's the end of the story."

Asenka very much doubted that last statement, but she sensed Tresslar didn't want to speak more about Erdis Cai or the crew of the Seastar, so she decided to ask something else. "Did you ever learn anything about the Amahau's origins or what the wounded dragon was doing hiding in the cavern for so long?"

Tresslar shook his head. "To be honest, I was never much of a scholar, but after Erdis and the rest of the crew… retired, I ended up working on Dreadhold. Because so many of the criminals incarcerated on Dreadhold possessed mystical abilities to one degree or another, the prison had a rather extensive research library for the artificers' use. From time to time I would visit the library to see what I could find about the Amahau or about a green dragon named Paganus, but I found only the most oblique references and very few of those. To this day, more than forty years later, I don't know where the Amahau came from or the full extent of its power."

Asenka gazed upon the golden dragonhead, its ruby eyes and crystalline teeth, and realized she was in the presence of a great mystery. After a time, she said, "Maybe it's better that you don't know more than you do."

"I've often thought the same," Tresslar replied.

They both fell silent after that and stood at the railing, side by side, watching the waves as the Zephyr sped across the water toward Perhata.

Inside the obsidian sarcophagus, Makala lay in darkness. The coffin's power insulated her from the effects of sea travel, so much so that she had no awareness that the ship was even moving. She wasn't asleep, at least not in the way that mortals understood the term. Just as vampires existed in a shadowy nether region between the worlds of the dead and the living, when resting, they hovered in a state between awareness and unconsciousness. The closest mortals could come to this experience was the delirium that accompanied a dangerously high fever. Makala's mind drifted in this ethereal twilight, images and sensations coming unbidden and leaving only distorted, fragmented memories of their visit upon departing.

Her reunion with Diran dominated her thoughts. The images that paraded through her mind were mostly of him, but at the extreme edge of her semi-awareness a voice whispered to her, as it had every day since she had been transformed into a vampire by Onkar, Erdis Cai's first mate. When she awakened, she would have no memory of this voice-she never did-but she would be changed a bit more by the dark words it spoke.

Makala… blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh… Soon you will be ready. Soon you will be worthy. Soon we shall be one…

And then the voice-feminine, cruel, and so very, very cold-laughed.