The Taking of the Eye

Chapter Eight

"Damn it, girl, you said he was asleep!" Eldin accused in a loud whisper. "He's the liveliest sleepwalker I've ever seen!"

"He must have been eager to start," Aminza answered in his ear, her voice a mere breath. "Certainly he was asleep when I left my bed. Something may have woken him up."

"Perhaps he sensed your game," said Hero, "and discovered your absence."

"No, no," she replied. "For I made up my bed to appear as I were in it. Besides, he would have come for me and called me out."

The three of them were crouched in the shadows at the gate of the tunnel that led back to their prison cavelet. In the main cave, through the bars of the gate and by the light of flambeaux, Thinistor Udd could be seen to be engaged in magic. His back was turned to them where he stood half-hidden by a stalagmite before Yibb-Tstll's idol. His arms were stretched high and wide over his head and in one hand he held his knobbed wand.

His voice crackled like subdued lightning in the confines of the cave, and as he chanted his alien discords so. occasionally, he would strike the stony gaunts where they clung beneath the folds of Yibb-Tstll's cloak. Whenever he did this bursts of brilliant white fire would go slanting off, dying before they could strike either ceiling or walls.

"What's he doing?" asked Eldin.

"He draws strength from the idol," Aminza answered. "See how he swells up when his wand strikes fire? Also, he is waking the gaunts. He always wakes them before- before ..." She stared at the dreamers, eyes wide in a death-white face.

"Before he drains someone?" asked Hero.

She nodded. "The gaunts go out to guard the plateau and the mouth of the cave, making sure there are no intruders and that Thinistor will not be disturbed."

Even as she spoke a fantastic thing began to happen. The god's stone cloak grew blurred in appearance, as if viewed through smoke, and its central parting seemed for all the world to widen, wholly revealing the gaunts where they now writhed fitfully as they clung to the god's monstrous body. Then, one by one-stone things no longer but rubbery creatures from the mind of a madman-they fell from the idol like strangely ripened fruit, opening their wings and speeding in a flock round and about the cave's walls and ceiling. A moment more of this wild circling until, as at a signal, they made for the exit tunnel and disappeared into it in a great flapping of leathery wings.

"We must act now!" Aminza hissed. "A moment more and he will be too strong for you. Look-ah!-too late!"

For Thinistor had turned from the idol's uncertainly wavering figure, had seen the three where they crouched at the barred gate, and his yellow eyes were tinged red with fires of hell. He pointed his wand ...

"Now!" cried Eldin and Hero together, stepping back a pace before slamming their massive frames against the metal bars of the gate. The bars bent from their combined weight-chains snapped and hinges sheared-and the gate went down in a cloud of dust and stony debris. The dreamers fell with the gate as Thinistor's bolt passed harmlessly over their heads. It missed Aminza by the breadth of a hot kiss and exploded in white fury in the depths of the prison.

"If a bolt strikes you," the girl screamed, "it will not kill you outright but suck you dry, carrying your strength back to Thinistor!"

Hearing her, Hero rolled to one side as a second bolt seared the air scant inches away, spending itself in a blazing ball of white sparks against me draped wall of the cave. Eldin was springing forward, last dregs of strength powering him, carrying a long metal stave snatched up from the debris of the gate. Aminza, too, played her part, sprinting for the shelter of a knobby stalagmite, distracting the enraged wizard.

And indeed Thinistor, no longer shrunken but swelled out with sorcerous power, was enraged-and confused. His passion saved the three, for in its throes his bolts flew wide and scored no hits. Then, too late, the wizard saw the iron stave where it flew at him from the hand of the older dreamer. He saw it, shrank back, hurled one last, useless bolt, and screamed one shrill scream as the spiked head of the stave impaled him and threw him down. He fell, clutching the iron where it entered the center of his body, and his wand of power went bouncing harmlessly across the covered floor. By the time the three had converged warily upon the wizard's once more shrunken form, his eyes had closed and he lay still.

'There's no blood," observed Eldin, panting from his exertions and clutching painfully at his chest.

"Wizards don't bleed," said Hero.

"You must be quick now," Aminza grasped their arms.

"Soon the gaunts will return, which they must before the idol can once more turn to true stone."

"But surely the idol is stone?" Hero frowned.

"No, it's half and half. See-" and she pointed. Sure enough, the outline of the hideous effigy still wavered, and it seemed to the dreamers that its red eye gazed evilly down upon them. The emerald eye, on the other hand, still beckoned enticingly; and now there was nothing to stop diem from taking it.

"Our weapons!" cried Eldin, spotting their knives and swords where they lay wrapped in a skin on the floor.

"Good!" said Hero, his voice much harder than its norm. "Give me my knife. Mountains and snow leopards-gaunts and mad wizards-demon gods and what all: damn them to the nineteen hells! We came for the wand and now we have it. Aye, and that great jewel's coming with us, too, when we leave!" He pointed at Yibb-Tstll's emerald eye.

"Well spoken, lad," wheezed Eldin, sitting down heavily on Thinistor's stony throne. "But that's a climb you'll need to make on your own. This old fellow's winded. Girl," he grasped Aminza's wrist. "Is there nothing for a man to drink in this place?"

While Aminza found an unbroken bottle of wine for Eldin, Hero climbed the carved folds of Yibb-Tstll's cloak. He was aware of the unpleasant, vibrating feel of the warm and slimy stone under his hands, aware, too, of the half life with which this monstrous lump of rock seemed imbued-which made its surface appear fuzzy to his eyes and full of trapped motion, like a frozen whirlpool-but at last he perched with one foot in a high fold of cloak and one arm thrown about the horror's neck. Then he took his knife in his free hand and started to prise the jewel loose. He dug around the edges of the socket, where the stone seemed strangely soft, until finally he could stab the knife in deep and lever the great emerald free.

As he did so, suddenly it seemed to him that the idol convulsed in a kind of spasm-of agony, perhaps?-and at that he gave an involuntary shudder and jumped free to land catlike on the furs at the foot of the carven effigy. The jewel had fallen, too, directly into Aminza's hands where she stood waiting. Grimacing, Hero wiped his hands on his brown jacket and took back the huge jewel. He took out a coarse handkerchief, formed it into a little sack around the emerald and tied it to his belt.

By then, despite the fact that Eldin was a half bottle of red wine heavier, the older dreamer was back on his feet and raring to go. To the girl he said: "Aminza, does Thinistor have any other goodies of value lying around? A treasure chest or two, perhaps?"

"He has a lot of money somewhere," she answered, "but I've been here for a year and never found it yet. Perhaps he's hidden it in the great keep. And of course, there's his wand of power . .."

"I'll take that," said Eldin, catching up the wand from where it lay at his feet. But no sooner was the wand in his hand than a great blue spark leaped from its knob to strike him in the forehead, standing his hair on end and hurling him backward head over heels in a somersault from Thinistor's stalagmite throne. He let out a yell of shock and anguish as he fell in a tangle to the furs of the floor.

Then, as Eldin dizzily propped himself up on his elbows and shook his head to clear it, Hero stepped over and gingerly tried his luck with the fallen wand. Before his fingers could even touch it, however, small bright sparks flew up in warning, causing him to snatch back his hand. "Damn thing just doesn't want to be taken!" he snarled.

'Then we'll have to leave it," Eldin grunted. "And in any case, wands are for wizards. If Borak still wants it, he'll just have to come after it himself-if he's still capable when I've finished with him!"

"Aye, too true," Hero readily agreed. He was fully recovered now from his funny turn with the idol, but still he kept a wary eye on the mutilated face of the stone god where it stood half in shadow. "Anyway, we have this monster's eye, and I say that's treasure enough. So let's be on our way." To Aminza he said: "Can you climb, girl?"

"I can try," she answered.

"Good. The Great Bleak Mountains are high and it's a long way down if you fall!"

And so they quickly set off along the main tunnel that led back to the lofty plateau and its sentinel Keep of the First Ones.

This time they moved faster through the tunnel, lighting the way with torches taken from the flambeaux in the temple, and in a very short time they emerged from under the overhanging peak onto the plateau. Dawn was coming up over the edge of dreamland and with it a chill and moaning wind that blew the torches out, leaving the trio shrouded in a cold and deceptive half-light. The dreamers headed straight for the keep, intending to skirt its great base and return down the mountain along the same route they had used to climb it. Aminza, now warmly wrapped, stepped nimbly between them, almost aglow with the gladness of being free at last from her ordeal. Then, as they entered the shade of the looming keep-

-Bat-wings beating, and a cloud of leathery gaunts settling all around them! The things had been waiting in shadows high on the face of the keep, and now they buffeted with their wings, punched, kicked and gouged with their rubbery paws. Swords whispering and slicing, knives stabbing, the dreamers fought back to the best of their ability-ah, but they were not used to looking after a woman! Aminza, having no weapons of her own with which to fight, was snatched aloft by a pair of gaunts and whirled away, back toward the overhang and the cave it shadowed. Her cries came back to the two as they battled desperately, fighting for their very lives.

And abruptly as the fight had begun it was over. The gaunts lifted up and flapped away, leaving three of their number behind, stretched lifeless on the cold, snow-patched ground. Against a brightening sky Hero stood tall and roared his frustration.

"Damn and blast all creation!" he cried, waving his sword. "Now we'll have to go back for her. Eldin ... what-T He quickly kneeled and held out his hand to the older man. "What's wrong, old friend? Did you get a clout?"

"My bloody pumps!" the other wheezed, spitting redly on a patch of snow. "They're coming apart, I'm sure. You go back, and all speed. I'll get my wind and follow. I'll wait for you at the mouth of the cave. Sorry, David-and good luck!"

But Hero was already gone, racing for the overhang, white teeth gritted and sword at the ready, the weight of Yibb-Tstll's emerald eye jouncing against his thigh ...

Aminza, buffeted almost unconscious by the wings of the two gaunts as they sped with her back along the tunnel toward the temple of Yibb-Tstll, did not see what passed her moving in the opposite direction. This was as well, for while the god's stone idol was a sight evil enough by any standard, Yibb-Tstll in the flesh was a thousand times worse! She knew, however, as soon as she regained her senses where her captors had tossed her to the floor of the temple, what had happened.

Thinistor Udd, though gravely injured, had not been dead when they had left him in the temple. Recovering, he had used his wand to gain strength from the morbid idol. This was all too plain from the way he now sat with his back propped against the base of his throne, wand to hand, darkly stained stave beside him where he had lain it after dragging it from his body. The idol's absence spoke for itself, that and the trail of dishevelled furs that led across the floor of the cave and into the exit tunnel.

Now, as Aminza lifted herself onto one elbow, Thinistor looked at her. Glistening droplets of sweat formed on his bald, yellowed pate and forehead to roll down and wet his sickly, agonized face; but his yellow eyes were bright and evil as ever. From the wand he held in his clawlike hand a greenish light streamed out, following the trail of disturbed furs and disappearing into the mam tunnel. Aminza knew that Thinistor guided the god through this thread of alien energy, knew also that he had sent that hideous Being out to bring back her friends from the waking world. To bring them back-or to kill them!

"Did you think to escape from Thinistor Udd so easily, girl?" he whispered through cracked lips which scarcely moved, so great was his pain. "I can see that you did. Well, old Thinistor's not dead yet, not by a thousand years or more! And you'll pay for your treachery, you may count on it. As for your friends: they've seen their last morning in dreamland, I fear. They took Yibb-Tstll's eye, which displeased him greatly. Even if I wanted to I couldn't save them now-and I don't want to!"

"No!" he cautioned, as Aminza made to rise. "Don't move, girl, or they'll have you quick as a flash!" He cast his eyes up to the ceiling where clung the two gaunts which had recaptured her.

As she sank down again to the floor of the temple, Thinistor laughed. "Aye, best to do as you're told. Gaunts have no faces but they're manlike enough in other ways, eh, girl?" And despite his obvious agony he cackled mercilessly before returning his gaze to the weave of green light where it flowed from his wand ...