Part 29 (2/2)

”I created a vision, an illusion,” Dain protested.

”You have mastery over the animals.”

”No.”

”You can touch the minds of men, read their thoughts perhaps. Oh, your abilities in these areas are not as strong as mine, but I have studied and practiced many years to learn the art of mind spells, while this you do naturally.”

”I am not like you!” Dain said sharply. ”I do not-”

”Wouldn't you like to increase your powers?” Sulein asked him. ”Wouldn't you like to know how to wield them exactly as you wish, to use them for-” ”No!” Dain said. He hurried to the door, but it would not open. Frustrated, he tugged at it, twisting the ring this way and that, but it was locked. He gave the wooden panel a kick and turned back to face the physician. ”When you learn to put aside your fear, when you learn to open your mind to what you truly are, then you will have a future of limitless possibilities,” Sulein said.

”I have no desire to be a sorcerel,” Dain said defiantly. ”Let me go.” ”But you were so eager to come inside before.”

”That's when I thought you might give back my bard crystal,” Dain retorted.

”Keeping my property from me is theft.”

Anger touched Sulein's eyes, and the air inside the room grew suddenly cold. ”I study, Dain,” he said after a long silence. ”I guard. But I do not steal. Remember that.”

Dain stood there, mute and angry, his blood pounding impatiently in his veins.

Sulein's words were all lies and trickery. Nothing he said could be trusted. Outside, the chapel bell began to ring, tolling the deaths solemnly while thunder continued to roll in the skies.

”I must go,” Dain said.

”One last thing, and then you may relieve Lord Odfrey's mind. Come over to the light.”

Sulein walked away from Dain, leaving him to follow reluctantly. The physician bent over another piece of parchment, writing on it with a gla.s.s pen spun from myriad colors that s.h.i.+mmered in the candlelight.

Putting down his pen, he turned around and held up the parchment in front of Dain. ”Read what this says.”

This time Dain found himself looking at runes, simple ones, written in the old style. New wariness entered him, for many times the old runes contained spells. ”Well?” Sulein prompted.

”I can read this.”

”What does it say?”

Dain said nothing.

”What does it say?”

Dain felt a pressure to respond. Angrily he gestured at Sulein. ”Stop that! It will not work on me.”

The pressure stopped, and Sulein frowned. ”Your obstinance is most annoying. Why can you not cooperate even in such a simple matter as this?” ”Because it's not simple,” Dain said. ”The old runes have power and spells in them. It-” He stopped in mid-sentence and frowned. A memory bobbed to the surface of his mind, and he sent Sulein a sharp look. ”These are the runes carved on the band of the old ring in your strongbox. You want to know what they say, but I thought you could read-” ”No,”

Sulein responded with visible discomfort. ”I speak dwarf. I cannot read their runes. At least not very well. What does this legend say?” ”Where did you get the ring?” Dain asked. ”What do you want with an old ring like that?”

”Never you mind. Just tell me what the runes say.”

Dain hesitated, tilting his head to one side. ”You must give back my bard crystal.” Sulein's eyes grew angry. ”You would have me defy Lord Odfrey?” ”The spells you practice and seek to learn in here defy him every day,” Dain replied.

”I will not return the crystal to you,” Sulein said, lifting his chin. ”Not until Lord Odfrey commands me to do so.”

”Then I won't tell you what the ring says.”

Sulein glared at him a long while. Dain stared right back, a tiny smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

In the end, it was Sulein who broke eye contact, ”Very well,” he said. ”You may have your king's gla.s.s back.”

Dain held out his hand.

Sulein drew himself up with a huff. ”Do you doubt my word? Translate the runes.”

Dain said nothing, just went on holding out his hand. Muttering in his beard, Sulein glided over to the strongbox and took it off the shelf. Dain hurried to him and received his pendant. Slipping it around his neck, Dain reached into the box before Sulein could close the lid and grabbed up the ring.

Holding it aloft, he read its inscription loudly, ”Solder's ring!” The stones in the walls of the tower shook slightly, and the ring's great stone glowed with white light.

Sulein turned pale. ”Mareesh have mercy!” he cried in horror. Grabbing the ring away from Dain, he threw it back into the box and slammed the lid shut. ”Are you mad, invoking its powers like that? It is not to be touched, never to be touched without the greatest care and protection.”

Alarmed by the reaction to what he meant as a joke, Dain stared at the physician. ”What, exactly, is it?”

Sulein looked shaken. Clutching the strongbox to his chest, he wiped his face with his sleeve. ”It is,” he said slowly, ”what I hoped it to be. A miracle brought to me by the G.o.ds and a peddler who sold it into my keeping for a piece of silver. The Ring of Solder,” he said, his voice filled with awe. Dain expected the walls to shake again, but all was now still. ”I told you the old runes have spells in them. If I say it again, will the walls shake a second time?”

”Foolish boy, do not joke about things you do not understand,” Sulein admonished him sternly.

”So who is Solder?” Dain asked with curiosity. ”Not a dwarf king. I've never heard of him.”

”Someday you will know the legend,” Sulein said. ”If you do not already. You are a tangle of lies before me, but I will unravel all of them to find the truth of what you really are and what you really know.”

”I am not this missing king you're looking for,” Dain said, hoping he wasn't going to start that again.

”Believe me, if I were him, I'd-” ”Go away, Dain,” Sulein said, sounding tired. He waved his hand across the surface of the door, and it unlocked with an audible click. ”I have much to consider. Now that I know this ring of legend truly exists, I must study its powers and safeguard it properly. It is not a toy to be played with.” Dain stepped around him, heading for his escape, but Sulein gripped him by the back of his wet tunic and held him back.

”Say nothing about the ring,” he said fiercely. ”Not to Lord Odfrey, not to anyone. Swear this to me!” Dain frowned at him with equal fierceness. ”Then grant me one boon.”

”Must you barter over everything?”

Dain shrugged. ”Blame it on my dwarf upbringing. I will keep silent, if you will part the veils of seeing.

Show me who I really am. Show me my father and mother. Give me my past.”

He expected Sulein to jump on this. After all, the physician still wanted to name him King of Nether. But instead Sulein frowned and shook his head. ”No,” he said portentously. ”Not now. I have other things to study.” In a flash, Dain knew the truth. Fresh anger welled up inside him. ”You do not know how,” he said, his voice rising in disbelief. ”The first level of the sorcerer's art, and you know it not. Are your minor spells just smoke and illusion? How can you reach past-” He stopped, aware that in his anger he was revealing too much knowledge of his own.

Sulein was watching him like a hawk.

Dain glared back at him, then wrenched open the door and strode out. As he went, he chastised himself for letting his temper and pride get the better of his good sense. Sulein had learned too much today. If not for the recovery of his bard crystal, Dain would have believed himself completely the loser of this battle of wills.

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