Crypt of the Shadowking

lure the shadevar toward me. But once it's close, I need something to distract it, something that will make it forget me, at least momentarily. Anybody have any ideas?'

'I believe I can arrange something,' Morhion said. The mage's eyes were as impassive as ever.

Caledan scowled. He knew the others were watching him intently. Finally he nodded. 'Be ready, then,' he said through clenched teeth.

'As you wish.'

Caledan swore inwardly. Sometimes he wondered if a heart even beat inside the mage's chest.

Ferret remembered seeing a game trail at the mouth of the ravine. He thought it would lead them atop the southern cliff while keeping them downwind of the shadevar. They guided their mounts into the storm. How Ferret found the faint track in the blinding rain, Caledan couldn't guess. The trail wound its way haphazardly up the slope. Soon the ravine gaped below them to their right, a great dark maw in the earth.

Caledan blinked the cold rain from his eyes and noticed that Mari rode next to him. She reached out a hand. He gripped it tightly for a moment, then let go.

'We're getting close,' Ferret shouted, though his voice was almost drowned out by the roar of the wind. 'We should be downwind of it still.'

'There's a small knot of trees near the top of the ridge,' Caledan said, pointing to a cluster of stunted cedars twisted by a lifetime of scouring winds. 'Let's leave the horses there. We can climb to that jumble of rocks on top of the ridge. Do you think you can cast your spell from up there, Morhion?'

The mage nodded.

'Good,' Caledan said. 'As soon as the shadevar is within ten paces of me, cast your spell.'

'Very well,' was all the mage said.

They tied the horses in the scant shelter of the ancient cedars and scrambled up the rocky slope. At the crest they hunched behind the cover of a pile of granite boulders. The whistled across this high place. Caledan peered into the hollow. He felt his heart lurch.

The shadevar stood upon a mound of rock a hundred paces from the ravine's edge. The tatters of its black robe fluttered like wisps of shadow upon the air. Its monstrous face was upturned toward the leaden sky, seemingly oblivious to the pelting rain. It moved its head slowly from side to side.

It's trying to catch the scent, Caledan realized with a shiver. My scent. But they were almost directly downwind from the creature. It could not possibly realize they were so close. Caledan started cautiously down the slope. He reached the bottom, moving swiftly to the edge of the ravine. He could see a jumble of jagged rocks far below. He continued along the cliffs edge.

The creature caught scent of him much sooner than Caledan expected it to, and when it did it moved with a speed that amazed him.

The wind seemed to be whirling in all directions now, and some eddy must have borne his scent to the shadevar. The creature let out a high, inhuman scream that cut across the noise of the storm and made Caledan's blood run cold. Its scaled, muscular legs pumping with blinding speed, its taloned feet gripping the stone, the shadevar hurled itself forward.

Caledan looked for a place to stand his ground. The shadevar had already covered nearly half the distance between them. It screamed again, baring its obsidian tusks, a viscous, ruddy ichor drooling from its gaping maw. Caledan saw a flat-topped boulder and made for it. He drew his sword and leaped onto the rock.

The heel of his boot skidded on the wet granite. The rain had made the stone slicker than he thought, and he shouted a curse as he lost his footing. He tumbled backward, land' ing hard on the edge of the cliff and grunting with pain-The sword skittered away from his fingers.

Suddenly a shadow loomed over him. Another high, soulless scream sliced through the air. Caledan blinked the blinding rain from his eyes. Out of the corner of his eye Caledan saw his sword, just out of arm's reach, balancing precariously on the precipice. He wanted to turn to grab it, but could not break his gaze away from the shadevar.

The creature raised a clawed hand, preparing to strike a blow that would gut Caledan. 'Damn you, mage!' he shouted above the raging storm. 'Damn you to the Abyss!'

The shadevar's talons descended.

Suddenly another scream rent the air, only this one was a cry of agony. Caledan opened his eyes. The shadevar reeled above him. Its razor-sharp talons were clawing at its own face, at the hollows where its eyes should have been. It screamed again in fury and pain. Caledan watched in horror as the creature writhed above him.

A brilliant flash of lightning sliced across the dark sky, and the shadevar screamed again, clawing at its eyeless face even more furiously. Hot, dark droplets of blood fell against the stone, sizzling before they were washed away by the rain.

Suddenly Caledan understood. The creature could see. The shadevar had seen the lightning, and the brilliant illumination had caused the thing pain! Somehow the mage had given the sightless creature the power to see, and it was driving the shadevar mad.

The shadevar stumbled, on the verge of losing its balance. Caledan did not waste more time. He snaked out a hand and grabbed his sword. He thrust it upward into the shadevar's gut. The creature's scaly armor was nearly impenetrable, and the blade did not bite very deeply. But it was enough.

The shadevar slumped forward over the sword point, Caledan kicked out, grunting with effort as he used his foot and the sword to lift the creature above him.

The shadevar's claws flailed wildly, one talon tracing a hot, crimson line across Caledan's cheek. With one last blood-chilling scream it sailed into the ravine.

There it struck a jagged, razor-edged column of granite Even the shadevar's scales could not withstand the impact of the fall. The creature's hideous cry was cut short as the shard of rock was driven through its body. Dark blood sprayed out in a hissing, steaming fountain.

Caledan nearly slid over the edge after the shadevar, but he caught himself at the last moment, wedging his fingers in a crack and dragging himself back up. He lay on his side, panting, gazing down at the shadevar impaled below. The wind tugged at the shreds of its black robe, but this time the creature did not stir. The torrent of blood gushing from its body gradually slowed to a trickle, then stopped, and soon the rain washed the dark stain away. Caledan groaned, his head sinking to the stone in weariness just as the companions reached him.

The shadevar was dead.

The storm was over.

It was late afternoon, and all that remained of the storm were a few ragged shreds of clouds scudding along against the azure sky. Morhion had ridden back down the game trail and into the ravine to examine the shadevar's body Now the mage was returning astride his black gelding.

'The shadevar will not rise again,' Morhion said when he reached the others. 'The stone driven through its body pierced its heart, shattering the magic that gave it power. Already its body is decaying. By nightfall nothing will be left of it but cinders.' The mage drew something from a pocket of his gray robe. 'However, I did find this.'

In his hand Morhion held an egg-shaped crystal, its myriad facets dim and opaque.

'What is it?' Caledan asked.

'I cannot say,' Morhion replied. He muttered several words in the tongue of magic. Suddenly the gem began to glow with a crimson light.

'Magic…' Tyveris whispered.

Morhion nodded solemnly. 'I will be able to study it further when I return to my tower.' The mage spirited the crystal away into a hidden pocket of his robe.

'Your magic was greater than the shadevar's, Morhion.' Mari said. 'We saw the creature ready to strike Caledan, and the next moment it was writhing in pain.'

The mage nodded, his long, pale hair blowing in the wind. 'The shadevari were sightless from the moment of their creation. Their spirits were never meant to be touched by light. I think the lightning burned it from within. I doubt it had ever known such pain.'

Caledan regarded Morhion carefully. He could never let himself forget how dangerous the mage could be.