Part 11 (1/2)
Albanus swung back the lid and, tossing aside the tattered cloak, carefully laid the sword in the place he had prepared for it The toins' skin, were there, well layered in silk, and those ical iers rested briefly on a bundle of scrolls and rolled canvases
Not yet of any nificance, they still deserved their place in the chest, those sketches and paintings of Garian In a place of honor, resting on a silken cushi+on atop a golden stand, was a crystal sphere of deepest blue within which silver flecks danced and glittered
Letting her robe drift to the floor, Sularia caue touched her lips in small flickers as she stared down at the sword ”It was that blade which slew so ht you not to destroy it?”
”It is too useful,” he said ”Had I but knohat I kno, never would I have put it in the hands of that fool Melius 'Twas those runes on the blade led rimoires”
”But why did Melius slay as he did?”
”In the forging of this weapon, the essences of six masters of the sere trapped within the steel” He let his fingers brush lightly along the blade, sensing the power that had been required for itsSuch poould be his, power beyond the ken of s ”And in that entrapment did madness come” He reached down as if to lift the sword, but stopped with his hand clawed above the hilt, ”Let the sarasp this hilt but three times to use this blade, and thewith the madness of those ancient masters of the sword Escape Slay, and escape Slay Slay!”
Ending on a shout, he looked at Sularia Heropen, and she stared at his hand above the sith open fear in her blue eyes
”How often have you used the sword?” she whispered
He laughed and took his hand away Instead of the sword he picked up the crystal sphere, holding it delicately in his fingers, alh he knew no power under heaven could so ile surface
”You fear the sword?” he asked softly His adaaze seemed to pierce to the heart of the cobalt sphere ”Here is that which is to be feared, for by this is su-a de of such power that even the tomes of Acheron speak of it in whispers full of awe”
And he would be its s of all the nations of the world His breath quickened at the thought
Never yet had he dared that suers thatfor an immortal monster with eternity to aoras, ancient hero-king who had slain the dragon Xutharcan and bound the deon in the depths of the Western Sea?
Alan to roll from his lips
”Af-far mea-roth, Omini deas kaan, Eeth far belawn Opbeab cristi ”
As the words cah the sun had di cracked and forked across a cloudless sky, and, ruan to shake
Albanus stumbled, looked around him in sudden panic at walls that quivered like cloth in the breeze It was too soon for this It was madness to have tried And yet, he had not finished the incantation
There was a chance
Hastily he returned the sphere, glowing now, to its cushi+on within the lacquered chest With great care he blanked hisNo thought at all No thought
Slowly the light in the crystal sphere faded, and the earth ceased to ht broke forth over the city as if at a new sunrise
For a long time Albanus did not look at Sularia Did she say one word, he thought grimly, but one word of the spectacle of fool he had le her with her own entrails But one word He turned to face her with a face dark as that beneath an executioner's hood
Sularia stared at him with eyes filled with pure lust ”Such power,”
she whispered ”You are a ht blind me to look on you” Her breath came in pants ”Is it thus you will destroy Garian?”
His spirit soared, and his pride ”Garian is not worthy of such,” he sneered ”I will create athe usurper to his dooasped