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.At the top of the scroll were the words, "slow… red fog… reaching for me… too close!" and below these was a sketch of a long hallway, its sides lined by sarcophagi-filled alcoves and with a cracked door at its end."I know this place," Cadderly began tentatively, then he stopped abruptly, his elation and train of thought disrupted by Barjin's insidious and incessant memory-blocking spell.Before Cadderly could fight back against the sudden lapse, a scream from the hallway froze him where he sat.He looked at Newander, who was equally disturbed."That was not the priestess of Sune," the druid remarked.They rushed through the door and into the hallway.There stood a gray-capped priest, holding his entrails in Percival hands, an eerie, almost ecstatic expression on his face.His tunic, too, was gray, though most of it now was blood-stained, and still more blood poured out of the man's opened belly with each passing second.Cadderly and Newander could not immediately find the strength to go to him, knew the futility of it anyway.They watched in blank horror as the priest fell face down, a pool of blood widening around him.Disturbing AnswersMullivy was not a swift walker, and Druzil used this time away from Barjin to reestablish contact with his master.He sent his thoughts out across the miles to Castle Trinity and found an eager recipient awaiting them.Greetings, my master, the imp communicated.You have found Barjin?In the catacombs, as you believed, Druzil replied.The fool.Druzil wasn't certain that he shared Aballister's appraisal, but the wizard didn't need to know that.He has other allies, the imp imparted.Undead allies, including a mummy.Druzil smiled widely as he sensed Aballister's reaction to that bit of news.The wizard didn't mean to communicate his next thoughts, but Druzil was deeply enough into his mind to hear them anyway.I never would have believed that Barjin could achieve that.Many emotions accompanied those words, Druzil knew, and fear was not the least among them.The mighty Edificant Library is in peril, Druzil added, just to prod the wizard.If Barjin succeeds, then the Most Fatal Horror will have put us on the path toward a great victory.All the region will fall without the guidance of the library's clerics.Aballister was wondering if the price was too high, Druzil realized, and the imp derided that he had told the wizard enough for this day.Besides, he could see the daylight up ahead as his zombie chauffeur neared the tunnel exit.He broke off direct communication, though he let the wizard remain in his mind and view through the imp's eyes.Druzil wanted Aballister to get a good look at the glory of the chaos curse.*****The white squirrel kept high in the branches, unsure of what its keen senses were telling it.Mullivy came to the edge of the earthen tunnel, then immediately turned around and disappeared back into it.Another scent, an unfamiliar scent, lingered.Percival saw nothing, but like other foraging animals, low on the food chain, the squirrel had learned quickly to trust more than just its eyes.Percival followed the scent-it was moving-to the tree-lined lane.The road was quiet, as it had been for the last two days, though the sun shone bright and warm in a clear blue sky.The squirrel's ears perked up and twitched nervously as the library's door opened, seemingly of its own accord, and the strange scent moved inside.The unusualness of it all kept the squirrel sitting nervously still for many moments, but the sun was warm and the nuts and berries in the trees and shrubs were abundant, just waiting to be plucked.Percival rarely kept any thought for any length of time, and when he spotted a pile of acorns lying unattended on the ground, he was too relieved that the groundskeeper had stayed in the tunnel to worry about anything else.*****Brazil's perceptions of the state of the Edificant Library were far different from Cadderly's.Unlike the young scholar, the imp thought the rising, paralyzing chaos a marvelous thing.He found just a few priests in the study halls, sitting unmoving in front of open books, so riveted by their studies that they barely remembered to draw breath.Druzil understood the hold of the chaos curse better than any; if Barjin entered the hall with a host of skeletons at his back, these priests would offer no resistance, would probably not even notice.Druzil enjoyed the spectacle in the dining hall most of all, where gluttonous priests sat on chairs set back from the table to accommodate their swelling bellies, and other priests lay semiconscious on the floor.At one end of the table, three priests were engaged in mortal combat over a single remaining turkey leg.Arguments, particularly between priests of differing faiths, were general throughout the building, often becoming more serious encounters.The least faithful or studious simply wandered away from the library altogether, and few had a care to stop them.Those most faithful were so absorbed in their rituals that they seemed to notice nothing else.In another of the second-floor study chambers, Druzil found a pile of Oghman priests heaped together in a great ball, having wrestled until they were too exhausted even to move.When Druzil left an hour later to report to Barjin, he was quite satisfied that the chaos curse had done its work to unpredictable perfection.He felt the first insistent demands of his master when he rounded the northern side of the building, approaching the tunnel.You have seen? his thoughts asked Aballister.He knew that if Aballister had been paying attention, the wizard would know the state of the library as well as Druzil did.The Most Fatal Horror, Aballister remarked somewhat sourly.Barjin has brought us a great victory, Druzil promptly reminded the ever-skeptical wizard.Aballister was quick to reply.The library is not yet won.Do not count our victory until Barjin is actually in control of the structure.Druzil replied by shutting toe wizard completely out of Percival thoughts in midconversation."Tellemara," the imp muttered to himself.The curse was working.Already the few score priests remaining at the library probably would not be able to fend off Barjin's undead forces, and their potential for resistance lessened with each passing moment.Soon, many of them likely would kill each other and many others simply would wander away.How much more control did the wizard require before claiming victory?Druzil paid no heed to Aballister's final warning.Barjin would win here, the imp decided, and he was thinking, too, that maybe he could find extra gains in his mission from Aballister, in spying on the powerful priest.Ever since the magical elixir had been dubbed an agent of Talona, the priests of Castle Trinity had enjoyed a more prominent role in the evil triumvirate [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]