Coda, Chapter 16: The Last Battle

Cragstone reveled late into the night. The Raven had dinner and a few drinks in the Shoushi Hall with her allies and then, being still short of sleep, returned to Cragstone and slept on the cot in her office. When she rose again the brilliant moon was no longer overhead, and the hall was quiet. The officer of the watch was sitting quietly reading reports; two sentries were on duty, and everyone else seemed to have gone to bed.

Outside, however, the parties were still in full swing, dancing around campfires and singing impromptu war-songs. Most of the Gromnatross seemed to have departed, but Orulaan still sat atop the Order Shrine, his head curled back upon his shoulder, talking to or at least looking at Asheron, who stood like a candle-flame in the crook of his wing. Behind them, Alb'arel was dropping into the moat to the east, and silhouetted against it she could see Isin Dule, the tall spires of his crown glistening like frost. The Raven climbed the tower to greet them. Reaching the top, she saw that one other person was present: Tapuaua was crouched on the battlements, leaning against Orulaan's velvety breast.

"My lords," the Raven said, bowing. "Have we any idea where the Hopeslayer and his forces have gone?"

"I have just returned from finding out," Isin Dule said. "They have retreated to the S.H.R.E.T.H. caverns. Thromer and I went to see, but he was thrown back; it is no longer possible to masquerade as a member of S.H.R.E.T.H. by presenting looted documents. None of the Shadows on guard, however, recognized me; I think they must have been new recruits. I went as far into the interior as I dared; the Hopeslayer is there."

"Thank you, milord. In that case, I see it as our next task to attack there and take out the rest of them, if we can."

"Quite right," Asheron said. "Tomorrow, if we can figure out one or two things first."

"Then I'd better tell this lot to shut up and get some sleep."

"Allow me," Asheron said, and without even appearing to draw breath (but did a spectre breathe?) he filled all Cragstone with the resonant voice with which he had defied Bael'Zharon. "My dear people," he said. "We are all happy to have thrown back the attack on this city. Tomorrow, however, we go again into battle. Let me suggest you now put out the fires, put away the musical instruments, and go to your beds. Dawn is not far off."

There were a few cheers, and near-silence, punctuated by shuffles, giggles, and the sounds of pouring water.

"Thank you, my lord," said the Raven. "I have another question: does anyone know what's become of Helethiska? I haven't seen her since before the siege of Arwic."

"She went to Tou-Tou," Asheron said, "to the Lighthouse. There's a Slithis down in its undercrofts; she said she must talk to it. We shall hear from her tomorrow ... I hope.

"Isin, come with me to the Tower," Asheron went on. "We have things to discuss." And they were gone. Tapuaua, knowing she should be in bed herself but too tired and happy to move, leaned back against the soft fur of the Gromnatross, softer than her own, and yawned. The Raven returned to her cot.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The two translucent shapes crossed the room to where two of the five Artifacts still hung upon the wall. Nalicana had the Lifestone Key; Nagual had achieved the Sword of Light; Asheron had taken the Lightbringer's Seal --- somewhere. There remained the Sigil of Chaos, a plain ring of something resembling wrought iron, and the Kemeroi Logos, glowing dully within its crystalline prison.

"Tell me," Asheron said. "The Sigil once identified you as the loyal follower of Bael'Zharon. Does it still carry that message? Does it still proclaim its wearer to be loyal to the King of Shadows?"

"Yes," Dule said. "Please: do not ask me to wear it."

"No, no," Asheron said. "But if someone else were to wear it, would it so identify him? Would those who now lurk in the bottom of the S.H.R.E.T.H. lair think him one of their own?"

"For a few seconds perhaps," Dule answered. "Then the evidence of their eyes and other senses would contradict the message of the Sigil, and they would destroy him; and if they did not, the Sigil would itself do him harm."

"That's more or less what I thought," Asheron said. "Now, the Kemeroi Logos, you told me once, if released from its bindings, would absorb whatever touched it into the Abyss. I have been studying it, and I have concluded that what you said is nothing more than the truth. It would drag whatever it touched into the Abyss ... and slam the door, so to speak, behind it.

"What we need to do, therefore, is to follow the pattern laid down for us by so many long-ago folktales. You remember them: the evil wizard has chanted the heart out of his own breast, and hidden it somewhere: in an egg, for example, inside a golden bird, and set the bird on a tree of thorns, inside a great castle, atop a mountain of glass, surrounded by a lake of fire. But when the hero has found the heart, and broken it at the wizard's feet, it strikes him dead.

"We must shatter the Logos before the Kemeroi, in the depths of its lair, and it will be cast back into the Abyss, through the breach that it made between the worlds, and pull it in after itself. For it is itself the breach that let the Darkness into Auberean. And then we will be free of it, until the next time."

"You will ask for a volunteer, then, to wear the Sigil, approach the Kemeroi, and break the Logos?"

"Light forgive me, I might, if I thought it would work," Asheron said with something like a sigh. "But you said 'seconds.' No runner could cross the distance in time, between that last turn of the corridor and the place where the Kemeroi intrudes itself into the world. No, I was thinking of an arrow. We need an archer. Hmmm ..." and turning away from the wall, he called in his great voice of power, "Tapu! Come!"

And a thing like the portal storms Tapuaua had read of in the histories snatched her up like a windstorm and carried her away into the east, leaving her scarcely time to wave to Orulaan. When she had gone, the Gromnatross spread the great curve of his wings and drifted away into the west.

Tapuaua landed lightly on the floor, and bowed. "My Lords?"

"Tapu. We have need of a good archer; and now I come to think of it, I can teach him some spells that will help him to clear the enemy's deception from his sight, and guide his aim truly. But he must be also an enchanter, and that's not a common pairing."

"Jorgen," she said.

"Very well," Asheron said. "Tell him, please, to meet us at the Malthabbor Northwest Outpost tomorrow. He will be in my own party --- and you also." The Tonk bowed.

"As a healer?" Isin Dule asked.

"That, and more," Asheron said. "Tapu, show him your rattle." The Tonk's eyes widened, but she obeyed. "That little thing has special powers upon the undead," Asheron said. "With it, she despatched the last of the Filinuvekta out of this world; by means of it, Rytheran and Aerfalle were alive and dead upon the same day. And Black Ferah, also."

"I see." The Shadow was silent for a long moment. "Tapu, when this battle is over, I shall have a request to make of you."

"My lord," said Tapuaua, "when this battle is over, I shall listen to your request."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

As morning dawned, the units of the army assembled, and made their way singly and in groups to the Malthabbor plains. A skeleton garrison of volunteers remained in each town and outpost.

The Northwest Malthabbor Outpost was in ruins, a skeleton of uprights surrounding a Lifestone, and one wall. Asheron assembled his party there nonetheless: Thromer (who had been forbidden to march with his cousins in their usual unit), Nalicana and the Raven, and Jorgen and Tapuaua, and several messengers whose task it was to run between the command party and the several divisions of the army of Auberean, and Aracoeli, standing close to Nalicana, clearly ill-at-ease but sticking close nonetheless. Isin Dule would join them before the assault; he had gone ahead for a last-minute reconnaissance. Nagual appeared, leading a glittering army of Falatacot down the slope to assemble on the plain, along with ... "Good heavens," Nalicana said.

Nagual set his troops in order on the plain and ran up to the Outpost. "My lords, my ladies," he said, "the Legions of the True Falatacot are assembled. Also, some irregulars."

"Felsisters and Thralls," Nalicana said.

"They have been our servants since time was," Nagual said. "They are probably our cousins, though no one remembers for sure." The lean, sharp-faced creatures saw their commander looking at them, and grinned and waved. "They asked to come, to represent their people."

"Let them come," Asheron said. "We have a small force of Gurogs accompanying us, for the same reason; do you see them, assembling up there on the peak? Harren," he called, "bring them down."

The Gurogs came running down the slope, Harren and the Supreme Warlord at their head, vigorous young warriors surrounding a central group of aged spellcasters. As they reached their assigned place on the plains, one of the old warlocks broke from the ranks and made his way to the command party in the ruined outpost. "Asheron," he said. "I knew you'd come back."

"Lodrog," Asheron said. "I never really left." The old Gurog bowed, and tried to touch Asheron's robes, and laughed as his hands went through them as through sunbeams.

Isin Dule appeared, as though a cloud over the sun had cast him. "The field has changed," he said. "You remember how before there was that huge cavern filled with Lugian-like stonework, such that the Lugians themselves could not imagine how it was made, and told tales of stone golems that chewed it into shape. All that is gone; only the cavern remains, vast and featureless, and at the far end a great wall. I think there is an opening in it, but I could not get close enough to be sure. And the cavern is well-filled with Shadows --- shadowed men, shadowed beasts. More than came to Arwic or to Cragstone." He looked around at the assembled armies, Humans and Tonk and Lugians and Drudges, Yalaini and Falatacot, and the little band of Thralls and Felsisters, and the Gurogs who had reunited themselves with their old allies the Lugians. "We still outnumber them, I think."

"Very well," Asheron said. "I shall make the final announcements, and then, Raven, you're in command."

"As you wish, my Lord," the Raven said with a bow. "You're the risen King; I'm the General." And she smiled.

"Attend," Asheron said in his command voice. "Everyone is to Lifestone here. If you haven't done so already, make sure you do before we go to the island. The portal leading there is summonable; nevertheless, Lifestone here. There will be Vitae healers stationed here. We will march, in our units, northwest along the road until it turns to the northeast; we will continue northwest overland until we reach the coast. Stay with your units. Your leader will locate the portal to the island, and you will all enter it together. Once there, we'll march up the road into the crater and across it to the door. If anyone has never been there before, the password is 'SHRETH.' " There was a ripple of laughter from the troops. "Nagual's Third Cohort will be the first to enter the portal, to take out whatever guards may be inside. The rest of us will follow on signal; the drop should not be hot once Nagual has dealt with it, but be wary nonetheless.

"You will follow your leaders through a series of corridors and into a very large cavern. Treat it as if it were Deimos's lair: move to the back wall, stay in your units, do not attack until ordered. If anything attacks you, try to mesmerize it rather than killing it; the initial units have been provided with mesmerizers for that purpose.

"You will probably not hear from me again, until I give the order to evacuate. At that point, all of you will recall to the Lifestone, except for those of you who will portal recall to the shore of the island: you know who you are. Obey the Raven, your unit commanders, and your common sense. May the Light be with us all."

"Thank you, my Lord," said the Raven. "Let's get moving. Nagual, you're in the lead with the Third. Make sure your irregulars Lifestone." The army of Auberean formed slowly into a long line, two or three units abreast, and set off along the road to the northwest.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The portal dropped them, unit after unit, onto the flowery slopes of the island, where the little gromnie nestlings fluttered and hissed. Nagula led the Third Cohort up the road to the crater. The command party were not far behind. Above them, three Gromnarocs perched on the crater's rim, watching them with speculative eyes. Higher still, several Gromnatross soared. Tapuaua squinted into the light, trying to see if Orulaan was among them; but she could not tell.

The door to S.H.R.E.T.H. headquarters seemed just as always, until one got up close. Then its surface revealed innumerable tiny cracks and lines, like a piece of crackle-glazed pottery. Perhaps something had gone through it at a very high temperature ... or a very low one. The Third Cohort had already gone through. Asheron turned to see if the command party were all assembled, and saw that the Raven had raised her hand to halt the procession. Out of the tunnel behind them, across the greensward, leaving a turbulent line of astonished troops in her wake, came Helethiska, fully armored, and beside her a great floating structure like a full-blown rose, every petal a Lifestone crystal, following Helethiska like a child's toy balloon or pet Lasher. "Aha," said Nalicana. "She made it."

Upon the blue rose sat, or lay, or perhaps squatted a creature that looked at first glance like a very large Spawn. Then the differences became noticeable: the single luminous eye atop a long eyestalk, the one long tentacle-arm and the four or five others that seemed lopped or crippled, the long segmented tail that coiled beneath it. "My Lord Asheron, honorable company," said Helethiska, "I have the honor to present the Slithis Ethq'oq'atl. It fears that in its weakened state it may not be of much help to us, but it wishes to accompany us anyway, representing its people against the Living Shadow."

The Raven and Asheron glanced at one another. "Of course it may," the Raven said. "Please tell it that it is welcome, and to prepare itself; through this portal lies the unknown." And, as Helethiska aided the Slithis in picking out the password upon the runestones, Asheron murmured, "You didn't ask whether it had Lifestoned." "No, my Lord," she answered. "The Light-Mother will have thought of it; either it has Lifestoned, or it is unable to. In either case, who am I to forbid it to give its life for the honor of its kind? They, in their long history, have suffered from the Kemeroi more than any of our races."

The Slithis touched the last rune and disappeared. Helethiska followed it, and the rest of the command party behind her.

The halls inside were free of Shadows; a few dark corpses lay smoking upon the floor. "There were about twenty of them," Nagual reported. "They gave us very little trouble. We noticed some, however, that were unfamiliar to us: the usual dark man-shapes to the waist, and nothing but a pillar of smoke beneath."

"Uvriliim and Panuvriliim," Isin Dule said. "The Hopeslayer must have had the opportunity to promote some of his followers to those ranks. Be wary, Nagual: those are capable of respawning, and will do so within minutes."

"They have Lifestones of their own?"

"Not exactly; I have not the time to explain it, and you don't speak Dericost anyway. Suffice it that they will return."

"Our people will be passing through here for most of the next hour anyway," the Raven remarked, as unit after unit appeared on the drop spot, collected itself, and marched away. "Nagual, have you stationed guides along the corridors, to direct them through the maze to the portal into the cavern?"

"Yes, my Lady."

"Then we'll pick the Uvriliim off as they respawn, and leave a rear guard here to cover our backs when the rest have passed through."

"I'll leave a century behind," Nagual said. "That will be more than adequate, even if they all respawn at once."

"Unless ---" Tapuaua began, and the Raven and Asheron said together, "No." "We'll want you in the van," Asheron said. "There will be plenty of them. We'll take the rearguard later."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Once past the maze and the portal, the cavern was as large and as daunting as Isin Dule had described it. The army of Auberean had filled its back wall in ranks about five units deep. Ahead of them, the Shadows stood and floated in irregular clusters, seeming not to be aware of the invaders: man-shapes, shreth-shapes, vermin-shapes, skeletal undead. One Panuvris hung in mid-air nearby, the rainbow lines of mesmerism arcing over its head. Tapuaua brought out her rattle, and the Panuvris slumped to the floor and became a big-boned Lugian, strangely shrunken, who could mutter only "I don't understand, I don't understand," until she died. Tapuaua returned to the command party, shivering, though the cavern was neither warm nor cold.

Presently, units stopped appearing at the drop spot. The Raven turned to face the ranks behind her, hand raised. In the grey darkness, her face was lit by the reflected glow of Asheron. Isin Dule was completely invisible. There was utter silence. "You know the drill," she said quietly. "One target at a time. Stay with your units if possible. The Light will be with us." She turned, and pointed toward the Shadow host. "Forward!"

Five units of Falatacot, under Nagual, closed in around the command party. The rest went forward to engage the enemy. Five Virindi took shape over Thromer's head, and drifted back and forth over the party as if the ranks of the Falatacot were boundaries over which they were forbidden to pass, however eager. Anything that came near them was mesmerized, and the Falatacot slew anything that came near them, as the party slowly moved forward. All around them, small units took on individual Shadows or small groups of Shadows.

Members of the Shadow Kingdom, their faces grim, the shoulders of their baldrics blazoned with the three-pointed star that was Dule's insignia, stayed as close to him as they were permitted, attacking anything that came near. The Order of Dereth, by far the largest faction in the room, formed into multi-unit platoons and swept arcs across the cavern floor, carving out segments of floor that were clean of the enemy. Dominion units, most of them with at least one Virindi floating above them, adopted a surround-and-engulf tactic that swallowed up Shadows one by one the way tiny creatures in pond water swallow up those even tinier. Ethq'oq'atl floated quiescent for a time, but when a pair of reckless Uvriliim, armored hands outstretched, came floating toward it like stormclouds before the wind, it raised its single working tentacle and blasted them together into a little cloud of smoke that left the air smelling of ozone.

"You also know the drill, Jorgen," Asheron said. "Stay close to me. I have an arrow for you; I have no idea when the moment will come for you to use it, and I don't want you putting it in your quiver and taking it out perhaps by mistake. We have only one of it." "Aye aye," Jorgen said.

Slowly the number of Shadows diminished; they died and returned, and died and did not return. It appeared that none of the beast-Shadows were Lifestoned, for the remaining enemy forces were all man-shaped. Slowly the command party moved forward toward the great sheer wall, with (they could see it now, dimly) the single door in its base.

A Panuvris got in a lucky shot and killed Nagual; it stooped to reach for the Sword of Light, but before it could seize it Ethq'oq'atl let loose another bolt and fried the Panuvris where it floated, and Tapuaua darted in and resurrected Nagual. "Thank you," he said. "I was not expecting that." "You're welcome," she said. "Remember Aun Tanua."

Now a Falatacot wearing the insignia of a decurion came up to Nagual. "Centurion Exotl's compliments, sir, and the Shadows in the maze have stopped spawning. There have been none for the past half hour. If they haven't died for good and all, we think they may have moved in here to take part in the battle. We request permission to do the same."

"Tell him yes," Nagual said, and the decurion grinned and ran back toward the portal.

They were near the door now; they could see it clearly. Like the door into S.H.R.E.T.H., but somewhat lower, it was covered with the same network of cracks. It appeared to be locked. Isin Dule examined it and stepped back, shaking his head. Nalicana did the same. Thromer said, "I could portal to the other side of it, but I couldn't unlock it from that side. It's set up to respond to evidence of ---" he stopped, and conferred silently with one of his attendant Virindi --- "alignment. Evidence of alignment."

"Ah," Asheron said, and from somewhere about his person took out a long arrowshaft, fletched with stiff white feathers, and having instead of an arrowhead a ring and a crystal, bound to its leading end with waxed linen thread. Cautiously, he brought it up to the door, a little closer, a little closer --- and there was a sound, not a click like a lock unlocking, but a snap like a thread breaking; and Asheron stepped back and the door swung open.

Beyond was another maze of corridors, such as they had seen before in the old and the new S.H.R.E.T.H. headquarters. "Thank the Light," Thromer murmured. "This is what remains of the old central core. I think. There's no one in sight; shall I scout ahead?"

The Raven looked at Asheron; he looked at her. "I would say, wait a moment," he said, "and to take just our party and your Falatacot, Nagual."

"Make it so," the Raven said. "Nagual, get your people inside the door. Helethiska, please ask Ethq'oq'atl if it wishes to come along."

"It says yes," Helethiska answered. "It may die, but it will die harming the Living Shadow."

The blue crystalline structure cleared the sides of the doorway, just, and the door swung closed behind.

"Excuse me mentioning it," Tapuaua said, "but if you die here and hit your Lifestone, you won't be able to get back in. Wait to be rezzed," and the Raven said, "What she said. We can't replace anyone."

Now Thromer went cautiously ahead, one Virindi floating above and a pace behind. They reached a place where they must turn a corner, and stopped; the Virindi slowly reached out one tentacle-tip to the corner of the wall, as if it could see with it, and perhaps it could; it drew it back again, and Thromer beckoned to the rest of the party. There was nothing in sight ahead.

"I am impressed," Nalicana murmured to Nagual, "at how silently your troops can walk, in all that armor." He bent close to her ear and whispered, "Long practice."

Another corner, another cautious reconnoiter, another advance. They were now coming close to the place where Number Two had once paced nervously among his Disaster Mages, unless the base had been rebuilt or reconfigured. Another corner, leading to a corridor lined with doors ---

--- and the doors burst open and the Shadows poured out, twice or thrice the number of invaders. The Falatacot turned outward and made a wall of fire and steel around their party. Jorgen shot arrow after arrow over their heads. Ethq'oq'atl and Aracoeli cast fiery bolts, Nalicana healed whomever she could reach. Tapuaua looked like a child's jumping-jack, rising high on her toes to snap with her rattle at the Shadows, crouching low to target a fallen fellow with her drum and cast Tanua's Gift. Too many of her people were bleeding ---

Asheron raised his hand and the Seal of the Lightbringer blazed, pouring out a pearly light into every corner, healing every member of his party and blinding the Shadows for two crucial seconds from which many of them never recovered. "Well," Tapuaua said. "What am I here for?" "You know what you're here for," Asheron said. The Shadows were falling fast. The Shadows were down, and the last of them shed his inky cloak and died and crumbled into dust. "Any more?" the Raven asked rhetorically. "Then we'd better move on. Someone will have heard that."

They moved on. They turned another corner with exceptional care, and found nothing; and "Up there," Thromer whispered. "That's the place."

The Raven raised her hand for silence, turned to Asheron, and gestured "Over to you." Asheron brought out the arrow again, and handed it silently to Jorgen; the Human hefted it, checked its balance; bent it delicately between his fingers to test its flexibility. He raised his bow, and a little cloud of blue light from him, and a faint sheen of white, as he cast the spells Asheron had taught him that morning. Then he set the nock to the string and waited.

Leading Jorgen with a gesture of his finger, Asheron stepped slowly forward; they rounded the last corner and saw a long corridor, as in all the other times Maronak's agents had penetrated S.H.R.E.T.H.'s base to learn its secrets. Far at the other end of the hall the Hopeslayer stood, and another Shadow, their backs toward the watchers. Behind them, at the very end, hung a long narrow vertical dark shape, like the slitted pupil of the eye of a night-creature, or like a little floating thing with a long tail. But there was no way to get a clear shot at it; the Hopeslayer's long robes and filmy wings blocked it. Asheron beckoned again, moving Jorgen a little further into line-of-sight; and then cried suddenly, "KELLIN!"

The Hopeslayer turned, and the other Shadow, and began to run toward Asheron and Jorgen. Asheron said quickly, "Now. Tailtip. Floor!" and Jorgen bent his bow and aimed, and loosed the arrow. It sped along the corridor. The Shadows passed it in their flight, and it impacted at the very bottom of the dark shard in the distance, and there was a little sound like ice cracking on a frozen puddle.

The Shadows fell to the floor. Like their servants in the battles outside, they were losing their inky cloaks; the Hopeslayer's wings were in shreds; he was shrinking in size. Behind them, the dark fracture that had allowed the Kemeroi entrance into the world, that was the Kemeroi, was shrinking inward upon itself with a sound like two dry fragments of glass rubbing against each other. Valind was on hands and knees. Kellin, thinner than they had ever seen him, was struggling to rise. Asheron commanded, "Evacuate!"

His voice was heard all through the base, all over the island. The Falatacot, trained in obedience, raised their swords and staves and recalled to the Lifestone. Tapuaua put her hands to her drum, Jorgen raised his bow; but Thromer put out his arms and a shining purple mist spread out to envelop all his party; he would take no chances. In the last moments before the portal took them, they saw Valind rise and raise her hand, Kellin struggle to his feet and raise the broken stump of his sword; and they too vanished.

Asheron's party landed together on the green at the foot of the island, where the little gromnie nestlings were wont to play; but something had changed. A milk-white Gromnatross was gliding overhead, not much higher than their heads, urging a whole flock of nestlings ahead of her; they vanished into the portal. There were other Gromnatross high above them, but the slopes of the island seemed to be deserted.

Nalicana turned to Aracoeli and thrust something into her hand. "Go!" she said, and Aracoeli gripped the thing tight in her fist and vanished. There was a rumbling sound under their feet, like thunder, growing in volume, and making the hill shake where they stood. "Evacuate!" Asheron called once more, and, as there seemed to be none left to hear him but themselves, herded them all quickly through the portal.

Back on the beach at Malthabbor, they turned to look at one another, all counting noses: Asheron, Isin Dule, Nalicana, Thromer, Nagual, Tapuaua, Jorgen, Ethq'oq'atl. On the bluffs above them, their warriors whispered, and pointed, and began to cheer, as little nestlings ran about between their feet.

Asheron raised his arm, pointing toward the southwest, and as they watched, a thin dark line grew on the horizon, rising higher and higher into the sky, a pillar of smoke shot through with fire. The sound of thunder, late in arriving, rumbled about their ears and under their feet.

"We've done it," Nagual murmured. "Have we?"

"We've undone the Hopeslayer, and sent the Kemeroi back out into the Abyss through the crevice of its own making," Asheron said. "We still need to find what's become of Kellin and Valind."

"Kellin may be accounted for," Nalicana said. "We need to search for Valind."