'Those riders yonder,' Leda said, pointing away to the east, 'and perhaps the dust cloud to the south too. betoken a state of tense waiting, I think'
'The comment was only a passing thought. I realize that even though the strongest of the Flanaess are gathered within those grim walls to forestall the fall of Greyhawk, no collection of men and more-than-humans too can fend off the archfiend for long.'
Gellor scowled. 'Our proximity will bring the matter to a head. Would it were otherwise!'
'Do we stop in Greyhawk first?' Leda asked him.
'No,' Gord said. 'That would be of no usefulness at all. The ruins of the sprawling fortress built by the Archimage are nearer to us than the city anyway. Let's make for them immediately.'
In a short time the three located a faint trace that led them to the old castle. Although they passed through an unfamiliar gate, Gord's memory was good. The way to the depths of the citadel's subterranean mazes was indelibly etched in his mind. Before descending, they paused, ate a little, and rested. When the sun in the leaden sky was near its zenith, the young champion led the two into the ruins and downward into the central heart of the underground beneath.
At the bottom of a well-like shaft, Gord paused a moment. 'I wonder what ever befell that self-seeking mage who first brought me here….'
Leda had heard the tale of Gord and Chert having to face the dangers that the greedy spell-binder had exposed them to. 'Some just fate, no doubt. Thank him for his actions, though, Gord. You plan to use the knowledge he inadvertently lent you to foil the Ultimate Evil.'
'Yes, so I do, dear little conscience. Between you and Gellor I get no peace.'
The bard managed to clip short the words that rose in his throat. 'If we don't. .'
'Don't what?' his friend asked.
'Don't stop reminiscing like old folk and get to business.' Gellor substltuted, 'we'll attract an unwarned audience for our further descent!' He had thought that peace would never come — obliteration at best an eternity of suffering in a half-aware state under Tharizdun's tender mercies at worst. Thoughts such as those were better unvoiced, and the troubador wondered why he had allowed a hint of such despondent considerations to be uttered.
'With our rings the process is almost no challenge. Come on, let's descend to the realms that exist beneath the actuality of Greyhawk Castle.'
'I have sealed the fate of the rings,' Entropy droned, the uniformity somehow conferring a tone of smugness.
'Have you now? I am much impressed,' Tharizdun said with equal smugness. 'However did you accomplish such a wonder?'
'That is simple,' the entity purred. 'I lured the three into the welter of dimensions and planes which impinge upon the substance of Oerth beneath the construction of the Archimage.'
'Oh, my! How did you manage that feat? It must have required exceptional genius.'
'I spread much of myself to encompass those mortals, and as a noose tightens, I drew the weight of desolation inward. They went before it as sheep.'
Tharizdun could barely contain himself. 'Couldn't I have been op some small assistance to you in that effort, Lord of Entropy?'
The darkness seemed to shrug. 'The thought never occurred to me.'
There was delight in the heart of the archfiend. The entity could be manipulated, hoodwinked, and even played as one would a lute! 'So the champion and two would-be heroes are gone to ground, so to speak.'
'That is well put. They delve below the ruined fortress even now. They will be exactly where I desire when your full power waxes strongest too, I might add.'
'Master inertia, your alliance is most beneficial. Soon now your reward will oome to its fullness. I will take pleasure in having one such as you there in my dominance of all!'
Tharizdun wiped his hand across his beautifully evil features, keeping his face a mask, mind an unreadable blank shielded by his best dweomers. 'As you have alerted me, I believe I should rouse the yeth and ready another hunt. the pack will enjoy the chase through the depths in which those three foolishly stray, will they not?'
Entropy was uninterested. 'What those hounds like or dislike is unknown to me. Do I have your assurance that if I risk the negation of the bands, you will bring the champion to his final battle?'
'The yeth hounds are for just such a purpose, and I too am prepared to fight the three again.'
'Courflamme?'
The archfiend waved his hand airily. 'Have you forgotten what I said in that regard? No matter. Your sly trap has also benefited me. The blade is most vulnerable at a certain place there beneath Greyhawk.' There was far more, but Tharizdun didn't speak of it. He had done most of the work that Entropy claimed, of course. With carefully orchestrated moves, the three had been forced to the place they now were. By wild yeth harrying them, lands torn by strife, spheres devastated, avenues barred. champion and heroes had been put into the exact place Tharizdun wanted them to be.
Did the ultimate expression of Evil recognize that his destruction and slaughter led along a path that ended in the inevitability of extinction? Extinction of not a race or species, but the annihilation of all life followed by the cessation of activity in all aspects of the multiverse? Tharizdun did ponder that very consideration. He wrote off the whole question as ridiculous. In a cosmos of infinite probabilities, infinite realitles, what mattered a few billion deaths? Even the snuffing out of a galaxy or two? Entropy sought vainly to rule in a limitless arena where life, energy, or simply motion would always spawn itself. Hubris always reasons thus, for if a course is determined regardless of what will eventuate because of its pursuit, there are always internal means of rationalizing whatever then occurs or seems probable under known conditions. It can't happen here, to me. .
Entropy too had reason to indulge in introspective questions. Did the archfiend labor under self-delusion? Or was Tharizdun's seeming hubris no false and bloated confidence in his own ability? What if that being could somehow sustain a wholeness of evil activity and repression that blanketed every aspect of the multiverse but failed to bring nullity? That was as unacceptable a thought to the entity as was sharing to the archfiend. If Tharizdun demonstrated a confidence. it was because of his own limitations, his failure to comprehend the certain destiny of the cosmic all when a set of conditions came into being. The stage was set, just as the archfiend had desired, but Tharizdun was but an actor. Entropy wrote, managed, and directed the actuality.
'We meet again in the depths beneath the castle then, Tharizdun.'
'But of course, entity of inertia, but of course. Shall we say in one hour, by local reckoning?' Tharizdun heard no reply, for Entropy had already dissipated its essences. With a dark smile and wicked laugh, the archfiend transported himself elsewhere too. It was time for the last wild hunt.
Nothing was as it had been, should have been still. The places where the existence of other spheres impinged on that of the world of mankind were diminished. The elemental presences were but small manifestations of power. Nature was miniaturized. The mighty Yang and Yin were pygmy-sized and powerless things who fled instantly upon seeing the three. A test of energies garnered scarcely a trickle of the bright force of creation, the same with respect to the dark energy of destruction.
'The elements provided virtually nothing,' Gord said unbelievingly, 'and now Balance proves to be likewise inadequate. Some great change has been wrought here.'
'Do our enemies see so far into the future that they can do thus?' Gellor was speaking more to himself than to his comrades, grim wonder on his visage.
Leda comprehended the actuality. 'It is the hedging off which has done this, bard. When we were barred from plane and probability line, this nexus of such spheres was abridged. I am sure of it, for how else could the diminished states of the places have come about? Gord certainly has not misremembered.'
'That's true enough. I have no memory lapse. There is still one place left which I recall. The hillman caused me some grief there. . ' Gord paused and blinked away a rising tear as he thought of Chert. 'Gone now, vanished with the rest. No sense in such maudlin meandering. We have a problem to overcome!'
The three went onward until coming to an extensive cavern wherein lay a small lake of glittering water. The surface of the pond was undulating, as if monstrous saurians were cavorting beneath it, and the water had a sickly disturbing sheen. 'Eeerg! What is this?' Gellor asked with loathing written on his face as he viewed the place.
