enchantress, pounding downward. There was a flash of red as the woman rolled desperately to the side.
'No!' cried Coryn.
Solinari was with her. The wand thrummed in her hand, vibrating with concentrated power. She was abruptly surrounded by whiteness, a storm of magic drawn from the forest, from the air, from the lingering essence of the white moon. The swirling power coalesced around the young woman, exploded through the tool of her slender wand, and wrapped the golem in an irresistible grip. Its stone body cracked and crumbled with a force that shook the ground. The swirling and the noise and the stone-crushing seemed to go on forever.
But when the spell at last faded, there was only a pile of multicolored rock pieces where the golem had stood.
Chapter 24
Wearers of the Three Robes
There is no door-so how can we get into the Tower?' asked Coryn. She stood in the courtyard, glaring up at the twin spires.
'We could fly up to one of those balconies and try to get in that way,' Jenna suggested, 'as soon as Dalamar is fit to take part in the attack.'
'I won't hold you up,' growled the dark elf. He had finished wrapping a piece of dark cloth around his scalp, where the wound had ceased to bleed. 'But I'm not certain that would be the best tactic-a wizard who is flying is extremely vulnerable. Kalrakin could strike at us in the air, and we couldn't do much to stop him.'
He pulled up his hood and draped it over the top of his head, concealing the makeshift bandage almost completely. 'Still, I'm ready to go,' he added in a tone of grim determination.
'Wait,' Jenna said, suddenly holding up her hand. 'It's almost dark. The moons will be rising, and the spell we cast on the Night of the Eye will not take long to show results. Let us look to the forest before we attack. We may find assistance there.'
The sun had already dropped below the level of the courtyard walls, casting the whole area into purple shadows. Coryn looked out through the gates, saw that the face of the forest was glowing with emerald vitality, brilliantly lit by the nearly horizontal rays of the sun. In the frenzy of the battle, she had almost forgotten the spell they had cast on the previous night. Now she felt curiosity and hope: Had wizards heard the summons, and how long would it take them to get here?
Solinari was just beginning to rise, while Coryn sensed that Nuitari was already high in the sky. The very memory of the beautiful white moon, pure and full as during the previous night, nearly took Cory's breath away. For a moment she felt a dizzying rush of power, release, escape, and freedom-all embodied in the white sphere. How long would it be before she saw it again? She strained to see through the trees, even as she told herself that it wouldn't crest into view for several more hours.
Then, side by side with Jenna, she strode across the courtyard; Dalamar lingered behind to watch for any sign of Kalrakin on the ramparts or balconies. The Red Robe raised her hands as they neared the gate, uttered a magical command that was both reverent and exultant. She spread her hands to the sides and the shimmering gates vanished, opening the passage from Wayreth Forest into the courtyard.
'Can you sense them?' Jenna asked. 'Coming through the woods?'
'I don't know,' Cory admitted, straining for a glimpse of a robe of any color.
'Come, cousins under the three moons!' Jenna cried. 'Let us reclaim our birthright!'
Coryn saw a glimmer of white, flashing between two massive, gnarled trunks. A moment later an old, old man in a clean, unadorned robe of white emerged from the fringe of the forest. He tottered weakly, leaning upon a staff as he walked slowly. The young wizard was about to hurry forward, to give him her arm as a support, when Jenna touched her on her elbow.
'That is Bernardus,' she whispered, her voice strangely taut. Coryn glanced at the Red Robe and saw that tears were welling in Jenna's eyes. 'He has been blind drunk, living in the gutters of Palanthas, for years, sleeping in filth and eating… Solinari only knows what. I have tried to reach him many times during those dark years, most recently a few months ago, after the moons returned to the skies. Always he pushed me away with scorn and fear. He was lost for all that time. Your casting on the Night of the Eye, even if his presence is all that it has wrought, still, it has worked a miracle.'
Coryn studied Bernardus. His hand on the staff was bony, tightly wrapped with papery skin. His nose was inflamed, his eyes rheumy and watering, and grinning at her he revealed only two or three brown stubs of teeth.
Yet those bony arms embraced her with undeniable strength, and his breath smelled sweet as he whispered into her ear. 'May all the gods rejoice, child, that a true daughter of Solinari has come forward to lead our order out of the darkness.'
'Thank you, Grandfather-' She lapsed into the honorific of her tribe without thinking. He seemed touched. 'And welcome back to our tower.'
'Aye, lass. Let's see what can be done about this place.' He frowned as he scanned the damaged facade. Still leaning on his staff, he hobbled across the courtyard, muttering and shaking his head.
By this time other figures, one or two at a time, were emerging from the woods and approaching the gates with various degrees. Coryn was taken aback at the sight of one dwarfish figure, swathed in a black robe with the cowl pulled low to mask the hateful sun. He limped grotesquely, and when he reached the shadow of the gates, two bent, crooked hands pulled the hood back.
Coryn gasped aloud as she beheld a scarred, eyeless face, surrounded by a thin patch of scraggly beard. A wide gash of a mouth gaped in a leering grin, and as that horrid face looked her over, up and down, she drew her robes more tightly about her breasts, and took a step backward.
'A young one, huh?' wheezed the dwarf with a harsh, breathy bark-a sound that Coryn only recognized as a laugh after several seconds. 'Dalamar knows I sure likes 'em young! So where is that dark elf scoundrel?' The dwarf's sightless sockets swept across the courtyard. Clearly he could not 'see' anything, yet he grinned in satisfaction when his 'gaze' fell in Dalamar's direction. 'Ah, there he is!'
The dwarf shuffled into the courtyard, toward the blank-face of the foretower. He stopped and turned to face Coryn, enacting an elaborate bow.
'Willim the Black, at yer service,' he said with the same hacking chuckle, lewdly emphasizing the last word. Coryn watched, speechless, as he limped toward the foretower.
By this time, Jenna was warmly hugging another newcomer, a red-robed woman, smaller and much older than the Red Lady of Palanthas.
'Rasilyss, my old teacher,' Coryn's companion murmured. 'May Lunitari be blessed-I never thought to see you again!'
'Bah, girl-you know I never sleep on the Night of the Eye. Yet it has been many years since those moons gave me a thrill such as this one past. I had no choice but to come.'
'I know, dear. And thank you,' Jenna said before reluctantly breaking the embrace. 'Do you remember another of your students, Scharon, of the Icereach?'
'Of course,' Rasilyss replied as her eyes fell upon Coryn. 'I see a resemblance before me that quite takes my breath away.'
'She is my grandmother,' Coryn said with a stab of worry. 'At least, she was. I have not seen her for many months. I fear her health is failing.'
'Have faith, girl. We old grandmothers can be stronger than you know.'
'Thank you for the kind words,' Coryn said. 'And welcome back to the Tower of Sorcery.'
There were many more of them coming, now, representatives of all three robes. Most were humans, and the great majority of these were aged, appearing to be considerably older than Jenna. Those who were not old were surprisingly young, in their early twenties or teens, and they gawked around them in wide-eyed wonder as they filed through the gates and bowed to the two robed wizards who met them.
'Ah, these youngsters are the legacy of the previous Head of the White Robes, Palin Majere,' Jenna
