LITMIR.BIZ

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that debate too often; he felt that his mother was more like her own father than she cared to admit.

      Magnus said, ‘It’s unfortunate that those who found the Talnoy destroyed most of the warding spells when they removed the thing from its crypt.’ He again wondered how the Tsurani Great Ones would feel if they knew that there were an additional ten thousand of the creatures concealed in a vast vault in Novidus. Fortunately, the ward around that chamber was intact. Nakor, Magnus, Pug, and Miranda had all taken turns to study and try to learn Macros’ secrets.

      Magnus saw the three Great Ones staring at him, as if they expected him to continue, so he said, ‘Perhaps my father has gained some insight since last I spoke to him.’

      They nodded and Magnus felt frustrated. He had spoken to his father only an hour before coming back to Kelewan, so he doubted that Pug had come to any grand revelation since then. He had seemed more distracted by news coming from Great Kesh, that the Nighthawks were once more manifesting. He sighed. ‘I shall consult with him and return here in two days. I know he would want to be informed at once about the new rift you mentioned.’

      Illianda stepped forward. ‘Please tell him that we think we have made one breakthrough. As I was saying, with the consultation of some of the more powerful priests of a number of temples, we think we can safely say that it is not a soul that empowers these things, but a spirit.’

      ‘I fail to see the difference,’ said Magnus.

      ‘For the sake of brevity, we’ll avoid most of the lengthy discussion we had with the priests. The soul is a specific quality of mind unique to the individual, and it is the part which flees to the realm of the gods upon the death of the body. The spirit, on the other hand, is a form of life energy and that is what drives the Talnoy.’

      Magnus’ eyebrows raised and he looked genuinely surprised. ‘In other words, they’re haunted?’

      ‘The energy that once served the soul is now trapped within the creature. In our own experience, the soul and spirit are inexorably linked, but within these creatures, or rather the creatures who provided the life energy, they appear not to be. In other words, it is, at the heart of things, just another form of energy.’

      ‘And what can we infer from that?’

      ‘Two things,’ said Fomoine. ‘First, that most priestly arts will avail us little or nothing because we are not truly dealing with a soul—’

      Savdari interjected. ‘Assuming that creatures of the lower circles have souls as we understand them.’

      Fomoine threw his companion a dark look. ‘—therefore, all exorcisms, spiritual banishments and the like, will have no effect on them. It also means that they are mindless objects, and the spell of control used to fashion the ring you provided is truly a marvel of design, for it interprets intent and then translates it into commands for the Talnoy.’ His voice dropped, and he added, ‘Which means they have magicians of prodigious arts.’ Then he smiled. ‘But if there is any good to be found in all of this, it is this: because it’s a life force, it’s limited.’

      ‘Limited?’ said Magnus. ‘How can that be? The Talnoy has been resting under the hill on my world for thousands of years and is still active.’

      Fomoine said, ‘It is our considered opinion that as long as none of the life force within the Talnoy is being utilized, it remains in reserve. But as it acts, moves, fights and does whatever it is instructed to do, the life energy runs out, and eventually …’ He shrugged. ‘… it will stop functioning.’

      ‘How long?’ asked Magnus. ‘This could be very important.’

      ‘Days, a few weeks at the most,’ said Illianda. ‘From what you told us, it walked and fought for what must be less than a few hours before you brought it here. Yet we can see a slight weakening in its strength as we have experimented on it. We have used the control ring to test its strengths and abilities and our entire use of it has amounted to less than half a day.’

      Magnus was quiet for a moment, then said, ‘That would explain Kaspar’s report about why the Dasati seem to use their own soldiers in most of their conflicts. These Talnoy must be special assault troops.’

      ‘Their strength is in numbers, they would be nearly invincible for a short while. After that, however, I think they could be easily neutralized.’

      Magnus nodded. ‘I can think of several ways to do that.’ He turned towards the doorway and said, ‘I will speak to my parents about the ward and in a day or two one of us will return with more information on the problem. Even if these things are few in number and short in endurance, the Dasati themselves are still a danger that should not be underestimated. We need to discover how Macros hid this thing from detection. Please keep us informed of any new rifts, if you would be so kind. Good day.’

      The three magicians bowed as Magnus left, heading for the rift room where he would power up the gateway between Kelewan and Midkemia. Then they returned their attention to the Talnoy. All felt the same thing, there was something about this creature that Magnus was not telling them.

      Nakor climbed through the narrow passageway between the outer cave and the vast inner chamber housing the ten thousand Talnoy. A solitary figure stood before him. ‘Greetings, Nakor,’ said the warrior decked out in white and gold armour.

      ‘Hello, Tomas. I hope your stay hasn’t been too tedious.’

      The tall warrior nodded and said, ‘It brings back old memories. I spent months at a time in deep tunnels with the dwarves of the Grey Towers during the early years of the Riftwar.’ He glanced behind him at the row upon row of Talnoy standing motionless, like soldiers at attention, and said, ‘Still, there has been a noticeable lack of good conversation for the last few days.’

      ‘Pug appreciates your help,’ said Nakor with a grin.

      Tomas stiffened and his head came up. ‘Do you hear horses?’

      Nakor turned and looked towards the light streaming in through the small tunnel. After a moment, he said, ‘I do now.’ He glanced at the human-turned-Dragon Lord and said, ‘Your hearing is excellent.’ Tomas moved to investigate the noise, but Nakor said, ‘I’ll look. You stay here unless there’s trouble. It’s probably just a few ragged bandits. I’ll chase them away.’

      Tomas laughed quietly as Nakor departed. Like many others before him, he had discounted Nakor when they had first met. The spindly-legged little man in the tattered robe, with the ever-present leather rucksack, seemed about as menacing as a day-old kitten, but over the years Tomas had discerned something of Nakor’s true nature. Now, he was inclined to agree with Pug – that Nakor might be the most dangerous man either of them had ever met.

      Still, Tomas was not one to sit idly by if there was trouble approaching, and he was also bored, so he waited for a moment before climbing through the narrow tunnel to the smaller cave where the original Talnoy had been discovered, and waited near the back.

      He could see Nakor standing before the cave’s entrance as a band of horsemen reined in.

      ‘Hello,’ said Nakor with a wide grin, one hand on the rucksack at his left hip, the other waving in greeting. Tomas edged closer so he could see past his friend.

      There were five riders, young men with the look of a rag-tag bunch of wild adventurers rather than hardened bandits. They hardly seemed the type to offer real danger, but they were all armed and looked prepared for trouble should they find it.

      One rode forward a few feet and laughed. ‘You are the most amusing thing I have seen in years, old man. We heard from a wagoner down in Jakalbra that there was a cave up here with treasure in it. So we thought we’d ride up and see for ourselves.’

      He was a youngster, only twenty years of age or a bit older, but very broad of shoulders and tall, perhaps nearly as tall as Tomas’ six feet, six inches, and he had thickly-muscled arms and neck. He wore leather chest armour and leather riding breeches tucked into leather boots. His arms were bare, except for heavy leather bracelets circling his wrists. Raven hair hung

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