Crypt of the Shadowking

'Don't mention it.' the thief replied. 'Though you might want to start worrying about that.' He nodded toward the dais.

The Shadowking was nearly complete. Muscles and veins writhed like serpents beneath skin as dark and smooth as night. Its legs were as thick as columns, ending in cloven hooves. It flexed its powerful arms; long, dark talons sprang from its fingertips. A tail lined with jagged, saw-toothed barbs cracked like a whip in the air. All that remained indistinct was the Shadowking's face. And slowly, inexorably, that too was taking shape.

'Do something, Father!' Kellen cried, running forward.

'Play the shadow song, Caledan,' Estah said, her voice strong and reassuring.

'Now would be a good time,' Ferret added.

Caledan reached down and picked up the pipes. His fingers felt numb, and he fumbled, nearly dropping the pipes. It had been so many years since he had played music. He feared he would not remember how. He feared that he had read incorrectly the Talfir letters inscribed upon the columns. Then a hand reached up and touched his own, a hand that was small but strong. He did not need to look to know it was Kellen's. Suddenly all his fear slipped away, all his regrets and bitterness. And then there was only music.

He played a first, clear note-a wistful, almost optimistic sound. Talek Talembar had not told him to listen for the echo of the song in the place it had last been played. Talembar had told him to look for the echo of the song. That was the key.

He played the second note of the song, higher in pitch, a pure, ringing note. What the words written in Talfir said, Caledan wasn't certain, but he knew enough of the ancient language to recognize what letters the runes stood for, and that was enough. The first letter of each word was a note of music. It had been so terribly obvious, a puzzle so simple any apprentice minstrel would have seen it, yet anyone who could not read music would never have understood.

Caledan played the third note, this one lower, more ominous, a note of power. The pipes felt warm in his hands.

'I don't mean to be pushy, but you might want to hurry it up,' Ferret whispered, jerking his head toward the dais.

Slowly the Shadowking had begun to draw itself up to its full, towering height, spreading its arms wide. Two batlike wings unfurled from its back. The Nightstone pulsed lividly in the center of its misshapen chest as hot and red as blood. Now the Shadowking's visage was coming into focus, but its face was not the face of a man, not like that of the death mask on the sarcophagus. Instead it was the face of a beast. Fangs like obsidian knives protruded from its maw, oozing dark ichor.

Caledan almost faltered as he played the fourth note, but he clenched his fingers tightly about the pipes and forced himself to breathe. The music continued. The entire chamber was beginning to resonate with it. Each of the notes echoed off the dark stone, interweaving with the others. He played the fifth note, then the sixth. He was trembling now. The sound of the echoing song was growing deeper, more complex.

The Shadowking took a step forward. Its cloven hoof cracked the stone of the dais. It took another step, and more stone crumbled beneath its ponderous stride. It reached out a claw, straight toward Caledan. The last outlines of its twisted face coalesced. It opened its maw to let out a roar of triumph, and a crimson flame burst to life in its eyes. After a thousand years of entombment, the Shadow-king lived again.

Bow to me! a vast and ancient voice thundered within Caledan's mind. Terror clawed brutally at his heart. Bow to me, I am Darkness!

Caledan shook his head against the crushing power of the voice, struggling to stay upright. Summoning his last few shreds of will, he played the final note of the shadow song.

The vast harmony that echoed about the crypt was suddenly complete, becoming a single chord of deep and ancient power. The music soared to a deafening volume. Caledan fell to his knees, dropping the pipes and covering his ears. The others did the same.

The Shadowking shrieked with a fury so monstrous and incomprehensible Caledan thought the sound of it would drive him mad. Then, with a clap of thunder, the Nightstone that beat in the Shadowking's chest burst asunder in a spray of dark, crystalline shards. The Shadowking began to waver and grow indistinct. Its darkness faded into a hazy translucence.

Finally, with a last shuddering sigh, the Shadowking flickered and was gone, like a shadow on the wall banished by the light of a single candle.

Caledan looked up to see Kellen. The boy's face was expressionless. Caledan gripped his hand, then Kellen flung himself into Caledan's arms, sobbing. Caledan held him tightly. 'It's all right, Kellen,' he said softly. 'I'm here now. It's all right.'

'Caledan, I think you'd better come here.'

It was Estah. Her voice sounded tight. Gently, Caledan pushed Kellen away and rose.

The healer knelt at Mari's side. The Harper lay unmoving, her fiery hair spread out beneath her on the dark stone, her face deathly pale.

'Is she…?' Caledan managed to ask, choking on the words.

'She is not dead,' Estah said.

'Then you can use your medallion,' Caledan said urgently, kneeling beside the halfling. 'Use it, Estah. Please. Heal her for me. For all of us.'

Estah shook her head sorrowfully. 'I don't know if my magic can help her, Caledan. She is not dead, nor is she alive. It's almost as if her spirit is somehow caught in the gateway between this world and the next.'

'It is the enchantment of the tomb,' Morhion said. He ran his fingers across the stone of one of the basalt columns. 'I can feel it lingering in this place.'

'Then let's get her out of here,' Caledan said. He lifted Mari's limp form in his arms, taking a few steps forward. Suddenly the floor lurched beneath him. Only Ferret's hand kept him from falling. There was a cracking sound, followed by the tumult of falling stone.

Caledan gasped. The crack in the dome of the ceiling gaped wide and jagged now, and other cracks spread outward from it. Suddenly one of the buttresses lining the perimeter of the tomb slumped, sending massive blocks of basalt crashing to the floor. The onyx shattered like glass beneath the force of the boulders.

'The crypt is collapsing!' Caledan shouted above the roar of the cave-in.

'The vibrations of the song must have weakened the dome,' Morhion cried.

The floor lurched again. With a sound like lightning a crack opened in the center of the tomb. The companions scrambled away from the edge of the widening chasm. They watched as the massive sarcophagus listed like a sinking ship and then slid into the void.

'Stay close to me,' Caledan shouted to Kellen above the deafening noise. Kellen's face was white with fear, but he nodded, following behind. Caledan stumbled on, clutching Mari.

They ran for the open doorway and had nearly reached it when the greatest tremor yet shook the crypt. Two of the basalt columns tilted crazily and tumbled off their plinths toward the tomb's center. A huge chunk of the ceiling gave way, and the mosaic exploded against the floor. Caledan dropped to his knees. Chunks of flying stone and shards of tile cut into his skin, yet he kept his grip on Mari.

'Look at the door!' Kellen shouted.

Caledan jerked his head up to see the two massive slabs of onyx slowly closing. He could see now that it was not magic that had opened the doors after all, but a simple lead counterweight hanging from a chain. With that last tremor, the iron chain had snapped and was now slipping freely through a pulley.

With impressive quickness Ferret dashed forward, sprang into the air, and caught the rising end of the chain. The onyx doors continued to swing shut. The chain carried the thief higher. Then the doors began to slow. Finally they came to a halt, leaving an open space barely two feet wide between them. Ferret dangled at least a dozen feet above the floor, swinging slowly from side-to-side, a crooked-toothed grin on his face.

Another tremor shook the tomb. With a groan the doors swung shut a few more inches.

'I'm not sure I can hold on much longer,' Ferret shouted down. 'Get through the door. Ill follow.'

'Crazy thief,' Caledan muttered, but with Mari in his arms, he slipped through the narrow opening with Kellen on his heels. Estah and Morhion followed moments later. Caledan peered back through the doorway at the thief still dangling from the chain.

'All right, Ferret, we're on the other side,' Caledan-called through the doorway. 'Now you-'

'Caledan, don't you see?' Estah said fearfully. 'Once Ferret lets go of that chain, the doors will shut. He'll be