CHAPTER SIX
It was nearing sundown when they reached the outer walls of Castle Gargath. The walls shifted aspect just like the castle. Sometimes they appeared to be built of bricks. When the brothers looked again, however, the walls were hedges, then iron bars.
On reaching the base of the shifting walls, the warriors left them, returning to their villages despite anotherrecruiting speech from Tanin. The speech was a half hearted attempt at best. The fact that he was giving it practically naked lessened his enthusiasm, plus he was fairly certain it was bound to fail.
'Come with us! Show this evil lord that you are men! That you intend to stand up to him and fight! Show him you are willing to risk your lives in defense of your homes!'
He was right. The speech had not worked. The moment the shadow of the shifting castle walls fell over them, the warriors backed away, looking up at it in terror. Shaking their heads and muttering, they fled back into the jungle.
'At least leave us your spears?' Sturm pleaded.
That didn't work either.
'They need their spears,' Tanin said, 'to make certain we don't hightail it back to the ship.'
'Aye, you're right, lad,' said Dougan, peering into the trees. 'They're out there, watching us. And there they'll stay until — ' He stopped.
'Until what?' Palin demanded coldly. He could still see the dwarf's leer and hear the unspoken words, and he shivered in the jungle heat.
'Until they're certain we're not coming back. Right?' Sturm said.
'Now, laddie, we'll be coming back,' Dougan said soothingly, stroking his beard. 'After all, you have me with you. And we're comrades — »
'Share and share alike,' Tanin and Sturm both said grumpily.
'The first thing we have to do is make some weapons,' Tanin continued. He looked around. Thick jungle vegetation grew all around them. Strange-looking trees of various types and kinds festooned with hanging vines and brightly colored flowers grew right up to within a foot of the wall that was now made of thorny rose-bushes. And there it stopped. 'Not even the jungle comes near this place,' he muttered. There were no animal noises either, he noticed. 'Palin, give me your knife.'
'Good idea,' said the young mage. 'I'd forgotten about it.' Rolling up his white sleeve, Palin fumbled at the dagger in its cunning leather thong that held it to his forearm and was supposed to — at a flick of its owner's wrist — release the dagger and allow it to drop down into Palin's hand. But the cunning thong was apparently more cunning that its master, for Palin couldn't get the dagger loose.
'Here,' he said, flushing in embarrassment and holding out his arm to Tanin, 'you get it.'
Keeping his smile carefully concealed, Tanin managed to free the dagger, which he and Sturm used to cut off tree branches. These they honed into crude spears, working rapidly. Day was dying a lingering death, the light fading from the sky, leaving it a sickly gray color.
'Do you know anything of this Lord Gargath?' Tanin asked Dougan as he worked, whittling the point of the green stick sharp.
'No,' said the dwarf, watching in disapproval. He had refused to either make or carry a wooden spear. 'A fine sight I'd look if I'm killed, standing before Reorx with a stick in my hand! Naw, I need no weapon but my bare hands!' the dwarf had snarled. Now he was rubbing his chin, pacing back and forth beneath the strange walls that were now made of shining black marble. 'I know nothing of this present Lord Gargath, save what I could find out from those cowards.' Dougan waved his hand contemptuously at the long-gone warriors.
'What do they say?'
'That he is what you might expect of someone who has been under the influence of the Graygem for years!' Dougan said, eyeing Tanin irritably. 'He is a wild man! Capable of great good or great evil, as the mood — or the gem — sways him. Some say,' the dwarf added in low tones, switching his gaze to Palin, 'that he is a wizard. A renegade, granting his allegiance to neither White, nor Black, nor Red. He lives only for himself — and the gem.'
Shivering, Palin gripped his staff more tightly. Renegade mages refused to follow the laws and judgments of the Conclave of Wizards, laws that had been handed down through the centuries in order to keep magic alive in a world where it was despised and distrusted. All wizards, those who followed both the paths of Good and of Evil, subscribed to these laws. Renegades were a threat to everyone and, as such, their lives were forfeit.
'It would be palin's duty, as a Mage of the White Robes, to try to reclaim the renegade or, if that failed, to trap him and bring him to the Conclave for justice. It would be a difficult task for a powerful Wizard of the white robes, much less an apprentice mage. Those of the Black Robes had it easier. 'You, my uncle, would have simply killed him,' Palin murmured in a low voice, leaning his cheek against his staff.
'What do you think he's done with the women?' Sturm asked anxiously.
The dwarf shrugged. 'Used them for his pleasure, tossed them into the volcano, sacrificed them in some unholy magic rite. How should I know?'
Sturm looked grave; Tanin scowled; and Palin, truth be told, looked frightened.
'Well, we're about as ready as we'll ever be, I guess,' Tanin said heavily, gathering up a handful of spears. 'These look stupid,' he muttered. 'Maybe the dwarf's right. If we're facing an evil wizard gone berserk, we might as well die fighting with dignity instead of like kids playing at knights and goblins.'
'A weapon's a weapon, Tanin,' Sturm said matter-of factly, taking a spear in his hand. 'At least it gives us some advantage…'
The three brothers and the dwarf approached the wall that was still changing its aspect so often it made them dizzy to watch it.
'I don't suppose there's any point trying to find a secret way in,' Tanin said.
'By the time we found it, it'd likely be turning into the front door,' Dougan agreed. 'If we wait here long enough, there's bound to be an opening.'
Sure enough, but not exactly the opening any of them anticipated.
One moment they were looking at a wall of solid stone ('Dwarvish make,' remarked Dougan, admiringly) when it changed to a wall of water, thundering down around them out of nowhere, soaking them with its spray.
'We can get through this, I think!' Sturm cried above the noise of the waterfall. 'I can see through it! The castle's on the other side!'
'Yes, and there's likely to be a chasm on the other side as well!' Tanin returned.
'Wait,' said Palin. 'Shirak!' He spoke the magic word to the staff and, instantly the faceted crystal globe on top burst into light.
'Ah, I wish the chief had seen that!' said the dwarf wistfully.
Palin thrust the staff into the water, simply with the idea of being able to see something beyond it. To his amazement, however, the water parted the instant the staff touched it. Flowing down around the staff, it formed an archway that it seemed they could walk through, safe and dry.
'I'll be damned!' Tanin said in awe. 'Did you know it would do that, Little Brother?'
'No,' Palin admitted shakily, wondering what other powers Raistlin had invested into the staff.
'Well, thank Paladine it did,' Sturm said, peering through the hole in the water. 'All safe over here,' he reported, stepping through. 'In fact,' he added as Palin and Tanin and Dougan — with a wide-eyed gaze of longing at the staff — followed. 'It's a grass lawn!' Sturm said in wonder, looking around in the gray gloom by the light of the staff. Behind them, the water changed again, this time to a wall of bamboo. Ahead of them stretched a long, smooth sward that rose up a gentle slope, leading to the castle itself.
'Now it's grass, but its liable to change into a lava pit any moment,' Palin pointed out.
'You're right, Little Brother,' Tanin grunted. 'We better run for it.'
Run they did; Palin hiking up his white robes, the stout dwarf huffing and puffing along about three steps
