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.”“I suspect the latter,” Arien said.“He gathers his strength, like his army.”“Then if the dawning o’ the morrow harkens the dark day,” said Belexus, “let us pray to the Colonnae for the strength we will surely need.Noble and just is our cause; the truth will bring us victory.”“And damn the Black Warlock to the hell he deserves,” agreed a young woman behind them.They turned to see Siana, Jolsen Smithyson, and Lennard standing proudly, fully arrayed for battle.“Your place is with the wounded,” Benador said to her, though his tone was not scolding.“They have been tended as well as they may,” Siana assured her king.“And those who could travel are long down the road toward Pallendara.”“Go with them,” Benador bade them, honest sympathy in his voice.“All three of you.You have done your part in this war, more than your part.No more sacrifices can we ask of you.”“Then take what is not asked for,” Lennard replied determinedly.“We will stand beside the wounded who cannot be moved.”“And Thalasi will have to get across our lifeless bodies to strike at the helpless ones!” Jolsen agreed.“Surely I did not heal them only to give them over,” Siana reasoned.“You will see, my King, that I am of value with sword as well as with the healing powers Rhiannon imparted to me.”Benador could only smile at their defiant courage.“I do not doubt your words,” he said.“But let us hope that you will not see battle.Let us hope that the talons do not get as far as the tents of healing.”The three young warriors nodded their agreement, but when Benador and his entourage moved away, their gazes drifted across the river to the swollen ranks of the talon camp, and they suspected that their leader’s hopes were in vain.And from across the river, other, darker eyes looked back.“Has the stupid wizard answered your challenge?” Mitchell asked impatiently.“Logic says that he is on the way,” Thalasi replied.“Though I fear to rely on logic where Rudy Glendower is concerned.”“We must go soon,” the wraith explained.“I have whipped them into a frenzy, and any delay will only steal from their excitement.”“I want the missing wizard on the field,” Thalasi replied.“I want him where we can watch his every move.Ever does that one have a trick to pull!”Mitchell looked down at the Black Warlock’s bony hands, clenched, as they always seemed to be, in fists of rage.“But you are right,” Thalasi went on, calming again.“And I commend your work with the talons.”“We will sweep the Calvans from the bridges,” Mitchell promised.“And chase them all the way back to Pallendara.”“You understand the purpose of your undead legions?” Thalasi asked.The wraith nodded, that evil smile spreading over his dark features.“I will hold them in reserve,” he replied.“And when the battle reaches a critical moment, I will lead them in.”“The northernmost bridge,” Thalasi said.“That is the one I enchanted in that past age.Its enchantment is strong; it will not be destroyed.”Mitchell nodded his assent.“And when—if—the wizard Ardaz appears to halt me? Have you prepared my weapon?”Thalasi reached under the folds of his black robes and produced the wraith’s skull-headed mace.Mitchell felt it vibrating with dark power when his master handed it to him.“It feels different to my touch,” he commented, a bit confused, for the instrument’s heavy balance had changed, had lessened; it seemed less a striking weapon, and its mighty head, the mace that had split boulders, was now lined with tiny holes.Thalasi laughed at Mitchell’s hesitation.“Still you have not learned the true meaning of power,” he remarked.“Think not of your weapon as a striking mace, my friend, but as your scepter.Strike with it if you choose—it has lost none of its battering strength.”Mitchell relaxed visibly.“But the weapon has another feature now, a darker feature which should dim the light of Ardaz, or of any other fools who try to stand against you.” Calling an unfortunate talon to come over and stand before him, he took the scepter from Mitchell.The talon trembled and rubbed its hands together.It understood, or thought it understood, the terrible implications of becoming a testing ground for the Black Warlock’s powers, but the pitiful creature was simply too terrified to run away.Still, for all its fears, the talon could not have been prepared for the ultimate doom that descended on it when Morgan Thalasi waved the scepter in its direction.Black flakes puffed out of the weapon’s head, falling over the talon in a perverted snowfall.The talon’s eyes widened in stark, disbelieving horror as it felt the coldness of doom engulf it, stealing its very soul.So terrible was its inner anguish that the talon did not even feel the physical burn of the flakes before it died.But burn they did, and in seconds the scepter’s first victim had been reduced to a bubbling mass of smoldering, shapeless ooze.A hiss of sheer elation escaped the wraith’s mouth.“You will come to understand power,” Thalasi promised.“And you will enjoy your new toy.We will go in the morning, whether Ardaz has made his appearance or not.Let the Silver Mage come in late, if he will.Let him witness the rout of all the army of Calva.” Thalasi’s glare at the wraith seemed double-edged, promising ultimate glory if they succeeded and ultimate blame if they failed.“The army is fully yours,” Thalasi explained.“I must prepare for my strikes on the witch and wizard.Tomorrow, Avalon burns to ash, and the White Tower crumbles to dust.”Mitchell brought the menacing scepter up before his fiery eyes.“And if Ardaz shows his face …” the wraith promised through his wicked grin.Chapter 26The StormA GLOBE OF darkness rested on the field behind the stirring talon army, a perverted black ball that scorched the grass as it moved.And in the center of this wicked sphere loomed a figure, tall and terrible.Morgan Thalasi called now upon the Staff of Death, tapping its lethal black heel against the soft earth and uttering arcane words of power.The staff responded to the commands of its master, its horrid magic drawing the life force from the ground beneath it and giving it to Thalasi.“What is that?” Bryan gasped when he noticed the dark spectacle.He and Rhiannon had come over the northwesternmost slopes of the Baerendels just before the gray dawn and were still several miles from the talon encampment, but even from this distance, the globe of blackness shone clearly before their eyes.“Morgan Thalasi,” Rhiannon replied in a whisper, as if speaking that name would alert the Black Warlock to their presence.“Angfagdul,” Bryan muttered, using the name his father had used for Thalasi when recounting the legendary Battle of Mountaingate.“He’s gathering his power,” Rhiannon explained, though she had no idea of why she was so certain of her observation.“Then we have arrived just in time,” Bryan reasoned.“The battle is about to begin.”“Just in time?” Rhiannon balked.“To watch, then? What good’ll we do against the likes o’ that one?”Bryan’s expression turned angry.“Words of doom,” he scolded.“You surrender before the first arrow is loosed!”Rhiannon dropped her gaze and accepted his rebuke
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