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The Stone of Truth - Part 4

--by Rythall--

Hialdan watched the sobbing girl intently. He was disappointed to see nothing happening, and he had a sudden chill suspicion that the magician had somehow double-crossed him. "What's wrong?" he snarled at Mordrig. "Why is it not working?"

"Shut up, fool!" Mordrig snapped. "You're endangering everything!"

Hialdan subsided uncertainly. Beads of sweat were standing out on the necromancer's forhead. He looked as if he were struggling with something. But the grimace on his face was nothing compared to what happened to the girl at that point. Her face twisted into a horrible expression of terror. She opened her mouth as if to scream, but what came out was a strangled gasp. She sat trembling violently, staring at nothing. Small moans escaped her as her eyes darted this way and that, seeing things that were not there.

"Find Kilgar, little one," Mordrig said almost gently. "I want to speak to Kilgar."

The girl - Lisha - opened her mouth to speak. The voice that issued forth from her mouth was not hers, however.

"Why have you summoned me from my sleep?"

Hialdan allowed himself a triumphant smile. It had worked! "I want to know where the Sword is," he said eagerly. "The one Sword of power, the other half of the Krallan Stone. The Sword of fire and ice, where is it? It was with the Krallan Wizard last, that I know. Where is it now?"

Lisha's tear-streaked face turned into a snarl. "You're not getting that information from me, son of a mongrel bitch."

Hialdan felt his heart go cold with rage. He stretched out a hand hungrily for Lisha's white neck.

"Stop, you idiot!" Mordrig barked. "Do you want to cut off our connection from the spirit world entirely? There are other ways to gain information from the dead." He turned to the cringing girl. "Little one," he said in that strangely gentle, coaxing voice, "you've seen into the mind of the corpse of Kilgar. Can you tell me where the Sword is?"

She sat trembling, saying nothing. Hialdan controlled his temper with a supreme effort and simply watched.

Mordrig spoke in that Krallan language of his, a strange, harsh language. He was commanding answers. The hollow voice of Kilgar responded in an anguished howl that obviously meant he was being compelled to give the answers.

"Zargoth has it," Mordrig translated with a look of shock. "Is he alive?"

"Zargoth?" Hialdan demanded. "Corqurst's advisor? He survived the attack of Krall?"

"Yes." Mordrig turned to the girl again. "Listen carefully, little one," he said. "This is very important. Where is Zargoth?"

She stared at him mutely. Hialdan bent to look into her face.

"Tell me, Lisha," he said softly, smiling with a confidence he scarcely felt. "Will you tell your Lord?"

She swallowed. "He used a spell of invisibility," she said in a barely audible voice. "He took Kilgar's infant son, Rythall, and the Sword, into the woods southwest of Krall where the vegetation is denser than anywhere. There he hid, and hides now."

Mordrig and Hialdan exchanged a long look. "Zargoth took the Sword... and Kilgar's son," Mordrig said slowly. "They are important to him."

"And therefore to Corqurst," Hialdan added. He stared at the weeping girl thoughtfully for a long time.

"I want that Sword," he said finally. "And I want Kilgar's son dead."

continue to part 5 >>

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