robber.
He was older, his beard untrimmed and his face worn by wind and sun. The dead man sat slumped against the wall, a dagger buried in his ribs. Oddly, his right arm was bent and resting atop his head, a finger stiffly pointing down. Sturm studied the face. It was familiar — in a rush, he recognized the man as Bren, one of his father's old retainers. If he were here, could Sturm's father be far away?
'What are you pointing at, old fellow?' Sturm asked the dead man urgently. He opened the man's coat to see if Bren carried any clues to the fate of Sturm's father. When he did, the dead man's right arm slid out of position and came to rest pointing straight up, overhead. Sturm raised the torch.
There was nothing above him but an iron wall sconce -
— which was crooked. Sturm looked more closely and saw a light mark scored on the wall block. The bracket piv oted, scratching this mark. Sturm grasped the lower end of the sconce and pushed. It turned, following the scratched path in the wall.
The floor trembled, and a tremendous grinding sound filled the tunnel. A section of floor rose in front of Sturm, revealing a dark cavity below. In all his life in the castle, he'd never known of such a secret room.
'Go down… Go down…' rasped the phantom voice. Sturm felt for the first time a presence to go with the voice. He turned sharply and saw the apparition behind him. It was a dim red figure, dressed in what looked like furs. Sturm stepped forward with the torch. He couldn't make out the face, but he caught a glimpse of a dark, droop ing mustache. The man he'd seen in the thunderstorm!
'Come forward, you!' he shouted, and thrust the torch into the specter's face.
The face was his own. Sturm dropped the brand.
'Great Paladine!' he sputtered, backing away. His heel slipped off the top step into the secret vault. 'What does this mean?'
'Go down…' repeated the phantom Sturm. Its lips did not move, but the voice was distinct. 'Go…'
'Why are you here?' Sturm said. He reached for the torch with trembling hands. 'Where did you come from?'
'Far away…'
Sturm's eyes widened. The phantom repeatedly urged him to descend into the secret chamber.
'I will,' Sturm assured. 'I will.' With that, the red figure vanished.
Sturm turned to the steps, but could see nothing beyond the sphere of ruddy light cast by the torch. He took a deep breath and went down.
It was cold in the secret vault, and he was glad to be wear ing Merinsaard's thick tunic. At the bottom of the steps, some eight feet beneath the level of the corridor, he found two more corpses. They were unmarked, but their faces told too well how they had met their fate. The trap door had sealed them in, and in the ensuing hours the men had suffo cated.
Sturm turned from the dead robbers. As he did, his torch light gleamed on something metallic. He walked into the velvet darkness, his breath pluming out before him. The glow of the torch fell over a suit of armor.
Sturm swallowed hard, trying to force down the lump in his throat. With one shaking hand, he reached out to brush the dust from the etched steel. It was. It was his. Sturm had found his father's suit of armor. Breast- and backplate, greaves, schildrons, and helmet were all there. The superla tive war armor etched with the rose motif. The helmet had high horns on the forehead, making Sturm's old headgear, still dented from Rapaldo's axe, seem like a cheap imitation.
The armor was hung on a wooden frame. As Sturm ran his hands over the cherished suit, he felt the soft, cold links of a chain mail shirt under the breastplate. And hanging from the waist by a single thickness of scarlet ribbon was a slip of yellow parchment. Inscribed in Angriff Brightblade's forceful hand were the words, For My Son.
Sturm was filled with such joy at that moment, he could scarcely breathe. The mortal shell of a man could weaken and die, but the virtues that made him a leader among men, a Knight of Solamnia, were embodied in the imperishable metal. Sturm's life was half complete. All that remained was to know of his father's fate.
He threw off Merinsaard's clothes and, dusty or not, began to put on the armor. It fit well, almost perfectly. The shoulders were a bit roomy, but Sturm would grow into them. He finished tying the cops to his boots and lifted the breastplate off the crossbar. Beneath it, hanging from a sin gle peg, was the sword.
The hilt curved toward the point in a graceful are, the steel as clean and shiny as when it had come from the forge.
The long handle was wrapped in rough wire, to ensure a tight grip even when soaked with blood. The almond shaped pommel was hard brass, engraved with the symbol of the rose.
Sturm could bear it no longer. He felt the tears flow over his cheeks and made no move to wipe them away. He had not cried like this since the night he'd left his father behind, twelve years ago.
The sword came lightly off its peg. The balance was per fect, and the handle fit Sturm's hand as though it had been made for him. He drew Merinsaard's silver-handled weapon and tossed it, clanging, to the cold stone floor. Sturm slipped his father's sword into the black scabbard and hur riedly fit the breastplate and backplate over his head. He was still closing the buckles under his arms when he heard a strange humming.
Merinsaard's sword was glowing. The hum emanated from it. Sturm shoved the stand over on top of the glowing blade, and he watched, open-mouthed, as the sword rose into the air, flipping the heavy wooden crosstree over effort lessly. Merinsaard's sword drifted toward the stairs, and
Sturm hastily snatched up his father's helmet and followed.
The silver sword slanted upward, out of the vault.
The floating blade moved unerringly across the great hall to the despoiled kitchen and out the door. There stood Mai tat, unmoving, like a statue of alabaster. The nervous stal lion had never been so quiet. The sword came on, point first. The blade slowly circled the horse, its point barely touching Mai-tat's neck. The glow reached out to engulf the horse. The charger began to writhe and shrink within its white aura. He stepped forward, ready to cut the suffering animal down, but the fierce heat radiating from the sword stopped him. The glow intensified to searing level. There was a flash of blinding light and a great clap of thunder.
Sturm was hurled back against the wall, the breath driven from his body.
A deep-throated laugh filled the courtyard. The hair on
Sturm's neck prickled. He coughed and rubbed his eyes.
Where Mai-tat had been, there now was Merinsaard, fully armed and full of rage.
'So, Brightblade! This is the.treasure you traveled so far to find! Is it worth dying for?' he roared.
Sturm fell back a pace, his head throbbing from the shock of Merinsaard's appearance. Finding his voice, he replied,
'The relics of a noble past are always worth having. But I don't expect to die just yet.'
Sturm brought the Brightblade sword on guard. Merin saard cut wide circles in the air with his own blade, but he didn't come forward to fence. He raised the silver sword high and declaimed, 'Do you know what it was you so care lessly carried forth from my camp, impudent fool? This sword is the key to all the negative planes. It is Thresholder, the pathway to power! I allowed you to escape, worm; five seconds after you left me bound and gagged, I was free and plotting how best to follow you. Was it not convenient that you should impersonate me, and ride me in my equine form all the way here?'
An unnatural wind sprang up, blowing hot in Sturm's face. 'It's a pity you did not stay a horse!' he said boldly. 'In that form, at least you were a useful creature!'
A ball of silver fire flew out from Thresholder's tip. It spi raled up to the donjon's roof and burst there, shattering the tiles asunder. Sturm ducked inside the kitchen as broken rock rained down where he'd been standing.
Merinsaard laughed. 'Flee, little man! Only now do you realize with whom you have trifled!' merinsaard smashed through the wall. He whipped his silver blade to and fro, leaving arcs of crackling-hot light behind. Sturm dodged into the great hall just ahead of a siz zling tongue of fire that scored molten ruts in the slate floor.
Merinsaard was toying with him. He could bring the whole castle down on Sturm if he desired.
Sturm wanted to stand and fight, but only on ground of his own choosing. There would be less debris to fling at him on the open battlements, so Sturm led the maniacal warlord to the second floor and down the narrow corridor where
Sturm's bedroom used to be. Sturm cleared the end of the corridor just as Merinsaard entered it. The
