here,' Vangerdahast explained, hastening over to the panel Pennae was standing beside. It was no longer glowing.
'They'll be lost if I don't gather them,' the Royal Magician said. 'Do you want to be torn apart by a lich?'
A lich near Semoor's elbow chuckled coldly, and he shrank back from it, shuddering. 'Why are all these liches here, anyhail?'
'Bound here by the Royal Magicians before him,' Doust said. 'Wizards who went mad, that is. They did not come here as liches. I think this place makes them liches.'
Vangerdahast turned, gave them the grimmest of smiles, and said gently, 'And I think you're righr about that. And before any of you ask, no, I haven't bound anyone here.'
'No need,' Semoor said, stepping quickly behind Islif. 'You just take all the mad mages and make them war wizards.'
'Thank you, Light of Lathander,' Vangerdahast replied sarcastically. 'Your observations are so helpful, in our present situation. Boosts the morale of your fellow Knights to no end.'
Florin started forward, but the Royal Magician flung out an arm to bar his way. Vangerdahast nodded when Islif plucked the mace from the ranger's grasp from behind.
'Enough heroics for you,' Vangerdahast said and looked at Islif. 'Will you break this one, Lady Knight?'
She nodded, stepping forward, and Vangerdahast looked at the other Knights. 'Face outward, everyone,' he said. 'Pennae and… you, Wolftooth, go back to the door and watch for glows. I'll thrust out the wards to keep liches away from you.'
Pennae started for the door, but Semoor didn't move. He was frowning at Doust.
'What're you staring at, Clumsum?'
'That,' Doust said quietly, pointing across the room into its darkest corner. His finger was leveled at the largest floating, disembodied skull among the liches. It grinned at them, eyes twinkling. Around its brows was a slender-spired crown, still silver-hued in places but mostly black and in a few spots green with age.
'So that was a king, or prince, or something,' Semoor said slowly, giving Vangerdahast a look. 'Is this some dark state secret?'
The wizard shook his head, putting out his hand again to keep Islif from striking the panel.
But Doust spoke again..'No, not the crown. Look above the spires.'
The Knights peered. It was hard to see the crown's spires and the space above them clearly in the gloom, but from the doot Pennae said, 'The end spire doesn't have a gem on top. The gemstone is floating in the air above the spire. So, Doust?'
'It wasn't there at all-the gem, that is-before we entered this room,' Doust said. 'I happened to look right at that skull with the crown.'
'You're sure you haven't mistaken it for another?' Florin asked. 'None of the other floating skulls are wearing crowns. Not even a circlet.'
'I am haunted, truly haunted…,' Semoor started to sing a well-known tavern song.
Islif gave his stomach a solid poke with the mace, and he stopped with a startled gasp.
'So we watch it to see if anything else happens,' she said firmly. 'Nothing else we can do, aye?'
'To the door, Wolftooth,' Vangerdahast reminded Semoor. 'Sulwood, why don't you keep a close eye on yon skull, now and henceforth?'
'I'll do that,' Doust said, as Islif stepped forward ro menace the panel with the mace again. This time the Royal Magician stepped back and nodded to her.
She swung, connecting with a crash, and the panel split apart in blue-green fire-and that glow spat out bright arcs of lightning, hurling Islif away and making all the Knights scream as the wardings flared up bright blue-green around them.
Briefly blinded, none of the Knights saw that neither the lightnings nor the blue-green glow touched Vangerdahasr. He srood smiling in their midst.
'Now,' Vangerdahast said, 'the hard part of this Unbinding begins. Be strong, my Knights. For just a little longer.'
Brorn Hallomond licked his lips, drew in a deep breath and let it out again, threw back his head to stare at the ceiling-and then shrugged, held his sword ready, and stepped boldly forward into the magical glow.
It swallowed him.
A moment later, a dark shape arose from where it had been crouching on the stairs. Lorbryn Deltalon didn't have a sword to brandish, but he held his wand like a weapon as he walked warily across the cellar to the waiting portal. He hesitated for a moment and then stepped through.
Two faces that had watched the war wizard's disappearance drew back from where they'd been peering down the stairwell. Their owners traded glances.
Wizard of War Tsantress Ironchylde and Ornrion Taltar Dahauntul of the Purple Dragons exchanged a long look, then they shrugged in unison, drew wand and sword respectively, and started down the stairs to the portal.
The Unbinding had become a slow march of pain. Every time the Knights shattered a panel, lightnings shot throughout the wardings, searing everyone.
Grimly they plodded from room to room, the host of undead silently following. There were more than forty liches now, the lights of their eyes glittering hungrily. They pressed ever closer to the Knights as warding after warding fell away.
Whenever the Knights entered a room, another floating gem appeared out of nowhere-literally materializing out of the empty air-to join those already hanging above the spires of the largest floating skull s crown.
Thrice the Royal Magician tried to direct Jhessail or one of the priests to take a turn breaking a panel, until Florin and Islif had both told him to cease giving such orders. Their hair and faces scorched, the ranger and the fighter were taking turns swinging the mace now. They trudged along, bent and trembling between those ordeals.
The Knights could no longer see the glow of the next panel, but Vangerdahast seemed to know or be able to feel where they should strike next.
'Why aren't the lightnings harming you?' Jhessail asked the Royal Magician, as they trudged along yet another passage that looked very much like the rest.
'They are,' Vangerdahast said. 'I'm just far more used to agony than, say, your average band of Crown- chartered adventurers. I've been enduring pain for years.'
Jhessail gave him a look that was dark with disbelief.
He stared back, twisting his face momentarily into a manic, gleeful smile-and then letting that smile fall right back off his face to leave it looking grim and old.
'This door,' he said, not bothering to look at it. 'The next panel is in here, to the left. I can sense it.'
'Can you sense what I'm thinking now?' Semoor rasped.
'Yes,' Vangerdahast replied. 'Two things occupy your mind. One is your bladder, and the other is treasonous, so I'd advise you to start thinking of Lathander instead. The Unbinding will certainly bring about a new beginning.'
Semoor groaned. 'Will we be alive to see it?'
Chapter 15
Swords among the walking dead Nothing worse could be than raw butchery The stink, the screams, the blood so red But that was before I first made war With swords among the walking dead
