Steel and Stone

Maybe what kills one will also kill the other,' he added in a louder voice.

The mage's smile never wavered. 'The force field protects us both,' he said. 'And you won't survive much longer in any case. I can magically summon minions at any moment.'

Lida raised her head. 'No, Janusz,' she whispered. 'You can't cast magic through such a protection spell. You would have to lift the first spell in order to do that.'

Tanis waited at the periphery of the zone of protection, his sword in one hand, his dagger in the other. 'And as soon as you lift it, I will kill you,' he said.

Tanis beckoned the lady mage to his side with a gesture. Kicking the spilled jewels aside, Lida hurried to Tanis.

'The poem,' he said softly. She raised her brows in question. 'The portent, I believe, was sent by your mother from wherever she is, either dead…'

'… or escaped to Darken Wood,' Lida broke in. 'As I believe.'

Tanis went on, his voice a low whisper. 'The poem called for you and Kitiara and Caven and I to be together with the jewels, for you to work the magic to end all this.' Janusz's gaze never left them. The Valdane was curiously still, his eyes alert. Tanis continued. 'But Caven is dead, and Kitiara is unconscious. There's only we two, Lida… Kai-lid.'

Lida's mouth opened slightly. Tanis saw her lips move, and he realized she was reciting the poem of portent to herself. Her focus shifted; she turned

inward, and her eyes, her face, went blank for a moment. Then she spoke. 'Xanthar isn't at the battle, is he? He is dead.' It wasn't really a question. Tanis nodded.

Lida swallowed hard and dipped her head. When she looked up, there was new resolution in her eyes. She faced Janusz. A flicker of puzzlement showed in the older mage's face. She addressed the Valdane, who noted her movements warily. 'You knew my mother long ago,' she said. 'You tormented her ceaselessly, until she called on those who would succor her, and escaped. It was to her eternal sorrow, I believe, that she couldn't take her young daughter with her, but the rules of Darken Wood are strange and often unfathomable… as I well know.'

Lida drew another breath; her voice grew stronger. 'When the time came, she appeared to help me.' Lida clasped her hands and recited,

'The lovers three, the spell-cast maid,

The tie of filial love abased,

Foul legions turned, the blood flows free,

Frozen deaths in snow-locked waste.

Evil vanquished, gemstones might.

'Two of the three lovers appear to be gone, Valdane,' Lida went on. 'But I am three, too. I am Lida Tenaka, handmaiden to the Valdane's daughter,' she said. 'Or so I appear to you.' Her hands untied a pouch at her waist, took out a pinch of herb dust, then opened another sack with the same fluid movement.

'I am also Kai-lid Entenaka of Darken Wood, friend and student of the mentor, Xanthar,' she went on.

She tossed the herbs into the air; red and blue dust caught in her sleek black hair.

'Temporus vivier,' she whispered. 'Reveal, reveal.'

At that instant, Lida's hair gleamed ash-blond, not black. The Valdane uttered a cry. The woman's azure gaze, so like her father's, skewered the Valdane.

'And finally I am Dreena ten Valdane,' she concluded, 'saved from death by magefire through the love of my servant.'

Janusz moaned deeply and spoke a word of magic. At that moment, Tanis was able to push forward; the spell of protection had dissipated. The half-elf flung Dreena aside, even as the Valdane dove for her. Tanis hurtled toward Janusz and drove his sword deep into the wizened mage's breast.

The older mage collapsed without another word. At the same time, the Valdane screamed in agony, crashing to the floor at Dreena's feet. Blood spurted from the leader's chest, not from Janusz's, although the sword stuck in Janusz's breast.

The sound of chanting rose behind Tanis. Dreena was twirling around slowly, hands outstretched, an ice jewel in each cupped palm. 'Terminada a ello. Entendre du shirat.' She swirled faster, her slippered feet a blur at the hem of her robe. 'Terminada a ello. Entendre du shirat.' Tanis heard a groan come from the walls around him. At that, Dreena slowed and halted. She shook her head, tears in her eyes, and spoke. 'Janusz's death will bring destruction. I have done what I could to give us some time to escape. But we must leave now, quickly.'

'And the jewels?' Tanis asked, hurrying to the unconscious Kitiara and gathering her in his arms.

Without a word, Dreena flung the stones from her with a spasm of disgust.

Beads of water appeared on the ice wall. The dying Valdane tried to reach for an ice jewel, but Tanis kicked the stone out of his reach. Suddenly, as the room grew warmer, the floor turned damp and slick. Tanis and Dreena made their way carefully to the door. They paused at Caven's body. 'We'll have to leave him,' Dreena murmured.

'I know.' Tanis offered a silent farewell to the Kernan. The ice blocks were gradually giving way. At the doorway, Dreena hesitated, looking back at the mage who had loved her, and her father who had betrayed her, but Tanis forced her out into the corridor.

The mage had slumped to the dais. The Valdane tried to crawl after the trio, but he collapsed after a few feet.

Snow sifted from the ceiling, a gray-white veil drawing a curtain on the room of the dead and the dying.

'Tanis! Hurry!'

Tanis ran down the corridor after Dreena. Suddenly the ice walls lost their illumination, plunging them into total darkness.

'Janusz is dead. Thus so is my father,' Dreena said flatly. 'Shirak.'

Magelight glowed around them, lighting their way. Dreena halted in confusion in the maze of corridors. 'This way,' shouted the half-elf, and guided by the magelight, he sped down one corridor, Kitiara a heavy weight across his shoulder. Soon Tanis saw the rope coiled at the portal above the dungeon. He slid to a halt at the opening. 'Can you levitate us up through the crevasse?' he asked the mage.

'I don't know,' she replied. 'I can tr-'

A roar interrupted her words. The two of them leaped back as tons of snow crashed down from above the dungeon.

'The crevasse,' Dreena said weakly, her face paling to porcelain in the magelight.

'Is there another way out?' Tanis demanded.

'Not that I know of.' At that instant, Dreena grabbed the half-elf's arm and towed him back up the corridor. 'Janusz's quarters!' she shouted back. 'His books!'

Many of the corridors had collapsed inward by now. Tanis, burdened by Kitiara, stepped carefully over the ice shards and drifted snow that impeded their path. He saw the luminous circle of magelight disappear through a door, and followed.

Then ensued a supreme test of the half-elf's patience. As the ice palace crumbled around them, he had to wait while Dreena riffled through the mage's parchments and books, then, when she crowed with joy and burrowed into one bound sheaf of parchment, he had to wait minutes longer while she studied and memorized the appropriate spell.

One wall of Janusz's spartan quarters had collapsed into slush. The melting ice made groaning noises. Tanis practically had to shout to be heard. 'Can't you just read the spell?'

Dreena's long blond hair waved as she shook her head. 'A mage must memorize the spell in order to use it properly. Now be still.' She closed the book and shut her eyes. Her lips moved, but no sound issued. Then she began to chant, 'Collepdas tirek. San-jarinum vominai. Portali, vendris.' Nothing happened. Dreena cast around her as Tanis shifted his weight from foot to foot. Kitiara moaned, draped over one of his shoulders. Then Dreena reached for a box, a rosewood box with intricate carvings of bull men and thanoi. She opened it, and violet light