Part 31 (1/2)

'How did you put... a tiny bit of a G.o.d into Bek, Nakor?' asked Magnus.

'That's the hard part to explain,' said Nakor. He pointed to his own chest. 'I have something here, and sometimes it... takes over. Sometimes I remember it doing things, tricks I don't know, and other times... it's just blanks. I go to sleep one place, wake up another, and sometimes people are very angry with me, or sometimes I have things I didn't have before in my sack.'

'Do you know who's doing this?' asked Pug.

'Oh, yes,' said Nakor with a grin. 'And you need to know, because you need to take him back.'

'Take who back?' asked Magnus.

'Ban-ath.'

Pug sat down next to Nakor. 'The G.o.d of Thieves?'

'The Midkemian G.o.d of thieves,' confirmed Nakor. 'He cannot stay without a protective vessel,' -Nakor pointed to his own chest- 'or he will perish well, he won't perish, but the tiny part of him I carry within will and what he has learned here must go back. You must be his vessel for a little while, until you get home.'

'But why don't you take him back?' asked Magnus.

Nakor grinned. 'Because I'm not going back. This is my time.' He looked around at the vast cavern and said, 'It's an odd place to die, don't you think? At least I'll have a lot of company, human as well as Dasati.'

'Why do you need to stay, Nakor?'

'Because something very big, and very important, needs to happen, and I need to be here to see that it does. I will have just enough tricks left to ensure that this thing goes as it should, and then I will... end.' He stood up slowly. Pug also stood up. Nakor touched his own chest with his hand and said, 'He may answer some questions; perhaps he will think he owes you that much. Perhaps not.' He moved his hand from his chest suddenly and put it against Pug's, and instantly Pug could feel something flow from Nakor's hand into Pug's body.

'What-?'

'I'm going to rest now,' said Nakor. 'You have something you must do, and soon.'

'What?' asked Pug.

'You must go to the cave in Novindus and tell something to the Talnoy there, with that crystal I fas.h.i.+oned, or the ring, either will do.'

'What must I tell them, Nakor?' asked Pug as he helped his friend sit down again.

His eyes suddenly tired and his face lined with age, the tiny gambler looked at his friend and said, 'You must open a rift to Kelewan, near the Dasati invasion site. Then tell them one thing: tell them to go home.'

Magnus said, 'We must find Martuch and have him send us back.'

'No need,' said Nakor. 'He would tell you what I am telling you: stop trying so hard.'

'What?' asked Magnus.

Grinning even more, Nakor said, 'Your father understands.'

Magnus looked at Pug who started to laugh. 'It's all a joke, isn't it, Ban-ath?'

A voice inside his head said, 'Sometimes.'

Pug reached out and took his son's hand. 'With all those things taught to us by Martuch on Delecordia, we began a process of trying to be here. Now, to go home, all we must do is-'

'Stop trying,' finished Magnus.

Pug gripped his son's hand tightly. 'Just let go, Magnus.' He looked down at his old friend and said, 'I will miss you, gambler.'

'I will miss you as well, magician.' Nakor yawned. 'The end comes quickly as it must. That is good, for I am very tired and need to rest. The G.o.d of Thieves gave me a far longer allotment than most men have, so I do not feel cheated it ends now.' He rested his back against the rear of the throne. 'I'm going to start time again, so it will get noisy and unpleasant. You might want to leave now.' He held up his hand and suddenly the wind and noise returned.

Pug said to his son once more. 'Let go, Magnus.'

Magnus closed his eyes and tried to relax. 'Father, it's as if I've clenched my fist for a year. I can't unfold my fingers.'

'Slowly. Let go slowly'

Pug and Magnus stood motionless, concentrating the part of themselves that had been controlling the magic that allowed them to stay in the second realm, and suddenly, there was a wrenching pain, as if fire burned across their minds. Then their lungs burned and their skin felt as if lightning danced across it.

Both men fell to their knees and then lay prostrate on the ground. When the pain ebbed away and they at last could open their eyes, they found they were no longer in the deep cavern. Instead they were in a crater littered with stones and rubble. The noise and stench of the deep pit was gone.

Pug felt his lungs almost collapse from the pain of breathing, but with each breath the pain lessened. After a moment he sat up and saw his son, looking as he always had. Magnus groaned and then started to cough and finally managed also to sit up. Pug saw that his son's illusion was gone and that he looked human once more.

'Where are we?' Magnus asked his father.

Pug stood on unsteady legs and looked around. 'I recognize this! We are in a sub-bas.e.m.e.nt-'

'But there's nothing above us,' interrupted his son.

'I know, but once this was the lowest level of the great arena in the Holy City.'

'We're back on Kelewan?'

'Apparently,' said Pug as he looked around. 'Given the congruency of the two worlds, it makes sense that if we changed the realm in which we resided, we wouldn't have any reason to change location.' He pointed to the rubble surrounding them. 'The Dasati raid... it was more like utter destruction.'

A pain erupted inside Pug's chest and head, and he doubled over, only staying upright with his son's help.

'What is it, Father?'

'Ban-ath,' said Pug. 'He's reminding me I need to get back to Midkemia.'

'Can you conjure a rift home, or should I fly us to the a.s.sembly?'

'I can make a rift and take us where we need to go,' said Pug, though he was almost at the point of total exhaustion.

He closed his eyes and Magnus looked around the crater that had at one time been the bottom of the great arena in Kentosani. The stones around them still reeked of conflict magic and Magnus detected other energies. A great battle had been waged here, as both magicians and priests from the various orders fought against the raiding Dasati. If the reports that had reached Valko were true and apparently they were the Dasati had destroyed a large part of the population after killing everyone in the Tsurani High Council and the Tsurani response had been slow; early estimates had put the dead at fifty thousand Tsurani, warriors and common people. But looking at the devastation around him, Magnus could easily believe more than that number had perished, for this was the result of Tsurani magic, not the deathmagic practised by the Dasati. Some group of magicians and priests had literally torn this arena down around the ears of the Dasati. While his father worked, Magnus used his own arts to rise into the air, gaining a better look.

Once he could see over the rubble that had been the sh.e.l.l of the great arena, he wished he hadn't. The entire heart of the Holy City was in ruins. Fires still burned in sections abandoned by those who lived there and nowhere close by could Magnus detect any sign of life. There was still a faint stench of decay on the wind as bodies left unburied lay where they had fallen. Scavengers had finished most of the work days earlier, but just enough death lingered on the stones to suggest to Magnus this was now a dead city.

He felt overwhelmed, even after all they had been through. Could they really stop the Dark Lord from reaching this world?