He turned to the other two. 'Colwyn works difficult magic and we stand around like hogs waiting for'our butchers. The noise is bound to draw Slayers. Colwyn has enough to work without having to worry about such distractions. Let's scout around this object. Surely we can provide a warm welcome for any black-eyed curiosity seekers.'
Oswyn swung his mace. 'I hope some of them do come. We'll satisfy their curiosity, all right. I owe poor Ergo a dozen dead souls at least.'
'Not if I get to them first,' Bardolph said tersely, testing the edge of his own weapon.
'I'm sure there will be plenty of killing to satisfy all of you,' Torquil said. 'Come on.'
They started off to their left, intending to complete another circumnavigation of the dome. Bardolph followed for a moment, then paused.
'We ought to split up here in case they try to take us from behind. We can meet on the far side.'
Torquil nodded approvingly. 'A good idea, if there were more than three of us. I don't want anyone going off by himself. But we can at least spread out a little.'
Torquil took the center, Bardolph the outside, and Oswyn crept along the wall of the glowing dome. Bardolph felt his way cautiously along the chamber wall, walking parallel to his companions.
And then the wall wasn't there anymore to support him, and yet its ghost was. His hand sank through the wall. There was no time to catch his balance, only time enough to shout.
'Torquil!'
Then he was gone, the wall having swallowed him up as neatly as quicksand had taken poor Menno. Torquil and Oswyn arrived an instant too late to help. They pushed and probed the wall, testing, searching for an opening. It was as solid as the floor under their feet.
For another second. Then it had vanished and both men tumbled forward. Torquil had silently cursed Bardolph for his clumsiness. There was no reason for a good thief to be caught so badly off balance, even by a trick wall. But as he stumbled inward, he apologized mentally to his friend, for it was as if they fell downward instead of just sideways, as though the wall turned everything inside out.
They fell into a small room. Bardolph was just getting to his feet. Torauil immediatelv regained his balance and ran at the wall behind them, only to discover that it had become a real wall once more, solid as granite.
'I leaned against it and suddenly everything was upside down,' Bardolph told them,
'I know. It did the same thing to us. Idiots!' He slapped at his forehead. 'Now we've gone and left Colwyn's retreat unprotected, and he may not even realize we've left.'
Turning a slow circle, he took stock of their prison, a ten-by twenty-foot rectangle with no visible openings. There wasn't even an air vent, yet the atmosphere was thick and warm, if a touch musty:
The walls bristled with metal stakes and he knew they hadn't been placed there for decoration. He'd seen similar rooms in use in some of the less enlightened kingdoms and knew well their function.
He cut at the wall they'd tumbled through with his sword, barely scratching the material. 'Search! Check the other end. We've got to get back!' Oswyn and Bardolph rushed to inspect the opposite end of the cell.
So far their prison was silent and still. Torquil did not expect it to remain that way for long. Something was toying with them, perhaps enjoying their anxiety. Soon it would become tired, or bored, or indifferent.
He wondered how many minutes they had left.
Lyssa backed away from the imploding wall. Shards of glassy material flew past her and dust stung her face. She ignored them, her gaze locked on the trembling surface. A crack appeared, was quickly enlarged by another blow from behind. A third strike blew a ten-foot-tall gap in the barrier.
Then a figure stepped through, clutching a strange, battered weapon, and she was running forward even before he saw her.
'Lyssa!' Colwyn opened his arms to her.
'I knew you'd come,' she sobbed. 'I knew that if any man could find me here it would be you!'
'I'd have cut a trail through the center of Krull itself to reach you.' He pulled away from her kiss. 'You don't look injured.'
'My body is unharmed. It was my mind that had begun to worry me. I do not think I could have kept up hope forever.' She spared a bitter glance for her prison. 'It doesn't take long for the absence of light to kill a flower.'
A soft thump reached them from across the chamber and Lyssa turned quickly toward it. 'He always signals his approach, though whether to frighten or warn me I do not know.'
Colwyn took a new grip on the glaive. 'I have penetrated his lair and battled past every obstacle he's thrown at me. I'm not frightened.'
'Be cautious, then, if not fearful, husband-to-be. He is nothing to underestimate.'
'I never underestimate death, love. He is a sickness that must be banished from Krull.' He showed her the glaive. 'I have brought the right medicine to treat with.'
'Not in here, Colwyn. This is his sanctuary. He is too powerful here. He seems to draw strength and comfort from this place, though I know not how. You must fight him away from the center.'
'You know him better than I. I accept your strategy, wife.'
He flung the glaive toward the far side of the chamber, above the place where faint pulses of light could be seen in the distance. The weapon struck the arch above the entrance, shattering it. A second throw buried the doorway with rubble.
'That will not prevent him from following,' she told him.
'I do not expect it to. I buy time to prepare.' He offered his hand. 'Come.'
Lyssa accepted his hand and together they made their way out through the gap he'd blasted in the wall, Colwyn glancing backward to make certain nothing sprang on them from behind.
The chamber outside the dome was not the flower gardens decorating the rear courtyard of the White Castle, but to Lyssa it seemed a step closer to paradise. She stepped out onto the smooth floor, relieved to be free of the Beast's sanctuary, and turned to await her lover.
Intent on the newly carved passageway into the dome, she failed to notice the Slayer that had materialized behind her. Its attention was not directed toward her but was focused on the emerging figure just beyond. It raised a long, glowing spear.
At the last instant she sensed movement behind her, turned, and shouted a warning. 'Colwyn!'
He ducked instinctively and flung the glaive. Lyssa spun away from the flying splinters as the glaive shattered the spear and continued on to bury itself between the Slayer's eyes. It hung embedded until the Slayer began to topple, then arced back to Colwyn's waiting hand.
Lyssa eyed the sparkling weapon with amazement. 'That is no device of recent manufacture.'
' 'Tis older than you can imagine. A very wise man led me to it. Some day I'll tell you all about him. A fine story with which to regale our children. Children who will grow up in a world free of the Beast and his minions.'
'Our children, yes,' she whispered. 'A good thought to cling to.' She saw that he was looking past her. A glance revealed nothing but empty corridor beyond. 'What troubles you, husband?'
'I did not come alone. There were others who've aided me and I see no sign of them.'
'Which way did you come?'
He gestured toward the near tunnel. 'Down that passage in a near straight line from the outside wall.'
'Then perhaps they've gone on ahead to make sure the way out is clear. I'll go and see, if you wish to search this room.'
'And have the Slayers take you a second time and carry you off to another cell? No. Stay here and search with your eyes if you wish, but I'll not be separated from you again.'
She nodded understandingly. 'There may not be time to search for anything.' From within the dome the sound of rubble being pushed aside could be heard. 'He comes.'
'As good a place as any.' Colwyn examined ceilins and walls. 'He would likely catch us in that tunnel. Here I have more room to maneuver.' In any fight he'd always relied on his speed and quickness. Now was not the time to be trapped like a termite in some narrow corridor.
Nor would he abandon this place without learning the fate of his companions. Lyssa must understand that. A glance at her expression told him that she did.
At least they were together again, and together they would cleave this place, on the plane of the living or of the dead. His fingers tensed on the glaive as he waited for whatever might emerge from the crack in the dome's wall.
