the cen shy;taurs' clubs.
The hags finally drew back. Another centaur let an arrow fly, but the greenhags merely disappeared. The annis hag deflected the arrow with one hand.
'They don't need to fight us,' Phytos said. 'They merely seek to delay us. Thou wast right, Mynx. Hederick must have sent them.'
'But Hederick hates magic!' Kifflewit cried.
'Unless he has some necessary use for it,' Mynx mur shy;mured. She probed her memory for information about hags. How to stop them? 'Where are the two greenhags?' she asked suddenly.
A cry from the centaurs answered her question. One of the centaurs to Mynx's left suddenly grasped his neck, where invisible hands had crushed his windpipe. He went down, gagging and kicking. The woman who'd been astride him leaped away.
'Phytos!' Mynx shouted. 'The gem!'
Phytos looked confused.
'The gem they gave you. It's a hag's eye. It's magical. Destroy it!'
Phytos looked in his hand, where the mud-colored jewel still nestled. Then he flung it to the ground and stamped upon it with his forehooves.
Three screams sounded through the forest. The annis hag clapped her hands over her eyes. 'Sisters, I'm blind!'
she cried. The two greenhags reappeared. They, too, were pawing at their eye sockets.
It took but three centaurs armed with clubs and arrows to slay the hags.
Mynx found the female centaur who had been carrying her. 'Hurry!' the thief shouted. 'We may be too late already!' Her hand reflexively went to her neck, to where she'd placed the Diamond Dragon for safe-keeping.
Her fingers found… nothing. Mynx immediately cried out and countermanded her own order.
The centaurs pulled up, protesting, as Mynx groped under her armor for the Diamond Dragon. Perhaps it and its thong had slipped under the armor's gorget, she thought. Phytos caught the panic-stricken look in her eye and understood immediately.
'Thou hast lost it?' he cried. 'The magical artifact?'
'I don't know,' Mynx returned. 'I was pushed and shoved in the battle. Perhaps it fell off.'
The centaurs and humans lost valuable time searching for the Diamond Dragon.
Finally, Kifflewit Burrthistle found it, stomped into the mud. 'Here it is!' he chirped. He bolted over to Mynx and handed it to her with a flourish. Hands shaking, she retted it around her neck.
'Hurry!' she shouted. 'We've no time to waste.'
The slaves remounted. The centaurs leaped into a can shy;ter, and then a gallop. Trees flew by. To the east, a yellow glow announced the arrival of day. Mynx glanced down; the Diamond Dragon sat serenely atop the gorget of her mismatched armor.
Mynx frowned. One of the diamonds was missing. She found herself hoping it wouldn't make any difference in the artifact's power. At any rate, there was no time to backtrack and search some more.
'Hurry!' she repeated. 'Oh, please hurry!'
The longtime thief found herself breathing the first prayer of her life.
Meanwhile, on a nearby centaur, Kifflewit Burrthistle patted one of his pouches. Yes, the diamond was still in there. It had sure been loose when he picked up the arti shy;fact. What a lucky thing he had been there to pry the jewel out of its setting and keep it safe.
Who knew what trouble there might be if it were lost, he thought.
Outside Tarscenian's cell, footsteps scuffled on the flag shy;stones. A temple guard.
Tarscenian stood and faced the door of his prison cell. The footsteps stopped. Hands rattled the tiny window in the door and slid it aside.
Hederick's face peered in at Tarscenian. The older man inclined his head and waited for the High Theocrat to speak first.
'I have come to offer you clemency,' Hederick said.
'Ah. But at what price, Hederick?'
'Tell me where the Diamond Dragon is,' the High Theocrat ordered. 'If you do this, I will let you go.'
As near as Tarscenian could guess, the magical artifact was probably waltzing through Krynn in the pouch of a carefree kender, but the old man would die before he'd tell Hederick that. 'I do not know, High Theocrat.'
'Of course you do,' Hederick snapped.
'If I knew where it was, why would I have ventured into the temple? Into your quarters?' Tarscenian asked reasonably. He gazed at Hederick. There was no sign of the frightened boy he once had been.
'Remember the giant lynx, Hederick?' Tarscenian asked quietly. 'Remember how we fought it off together? You fought fair, once.'
'Don't change the subject,' the High Theocrat spat out. 'If you came into the temple, it must be because the Dia shy;mond Dragon is hidden here somewhere. That's it, isn't it, Tarscenian? Tell me where it is, and I'll arrange to have my minions transport you safely away from Erolydon.'
Tarscenian shrugged. 'As a dead body, no doubt.'
Hederick drove his fist into the thick door. 'I will kill you slowly, false priest! I will torture you, I swear. It will take you days to die. No one defies me. Everyone in Solace will witness your humiliation.'
Tarscenian stood silently.
'If you think your friends will come and rescue you, you are wrong,' Hederick snapped. 'Even now, three hags devour them in the forest outside Solace.'
'Ah, Hederick,' Tarscenian chided. 'Stooping to using magic. What would your gods think?'
It was the High Theocrat's turn to say nothing.
'I am ready to die, Hederick,' Tarscenian told him. 'I wish to join Ancilla.'
'Then she is dead.'
Tarscenian declined to admit he wasn't sure. There was still hope of some miracle-and of Ancilla escaping from the tree trunk in the courtyard. 'Yes, Ancilla is dead.'
'Where is the Diamond Dragon, Tarscenian?'
'I don't know. Nor do I care.'
Hederick's tone was silky. 'I will have you bound to the vallenwood trunk and torn, limb from limb, by the mater-bill.'
Tarscenian only shrugged at Hederick's threats.
'By the New Gods, Tarscenian, you will beg for mercy before I am through!'
'There are no New Gods, Hederick. I told you that long ago, back in Garlund. There are only the Old Gods, and they will return someday-perhaps sooner than you know. And when they do, Hederick, you will suffer for what you have done.'
Hederick snorted. 'One last chance. You will not tell me where the Diamond Dragon is?'
Tarscenian shook his head.
'By the New Gods, then, I will tear apart every stone in Erolydon to find it! I built this temple, and I can destroy it if need be!'
'As you will, Hederick.'
The High Theocrat slammed the small window shut.
A short time later, the temple guards came for Tarscenian.
Chapter 25
'There's Crystalmir Lake!' Ceci Vakon cried. Her mount and Mynx's led the thundering centaurs as they streamed through a clearing just east of the lake and north of Eroly shy;don.
Then a shadow swooped over the women, and they threw themselves to the ground. 'Night hunter bats!' Ceci shouted. 'They're the ones who carried us off to the slavers.'
'Everyone stay low!' the silver-haired Phytos bel shy;lowed. 'We are challenged!'
