and Aoth had witnessed many times how Mirror's mere touch could wither and corrupt. The sword with which he wrought such havoc in battle wasn't even a weapon as such, just a conduit for the cancerous power inside him.
Yet even so, and rather to his own surprise, Aoth felt a sudden inclination to trust Mirror. Perhaps it was because his plight was so hopeless that, if the spirit's suggestion didn't work, it was scarcely likely to matter anyway.
'All right. Let's do it.' Aoth pulled off the bandage, then felt the ambient sense of malaise thicken as Mirror came closer. Freezing cold, excruciating as the touch of a white-hot iron, stabbed down on each of his eyelids. He bore it for a heartbeat or two, then screamed, recoiled, and clapped his hands to his face.
'Damn you!' he croaked. He wondered if he looked older, the way Urhur Hahpet had after the ghost slid his insubstantial fingers into his torso.
'Try your eyes now,' Mirror said, unfazed by his anguished reproach.
The suggestion seemed so ridiculous that it left Aoth at a loss for words. He was still trying to frame a suitably bitter retort when he realized that his eyes didn't hurt anymore.
And since they didn't, he supposed he could muster the fortitude to test them. He warily cracked them open, then gasped. Seeing wasn't the least bit painful, and somehow he could already tell it never would be again.
Indeed, vision was a richer experience than ever before.
Wandering blind, he'd blundered into the covered walkway connecting two baileys. No lamps or torches burned in the passage, yet the gloom didn't obscure his vision. He could make out subtle variations of blackness in the painted stone wall beside him and complex patterns in the dusty cobbles beneath his feet. He could only liken the experience to borrowing Brightwing's keen aquiline eyes, but in truth, he was seeing even better now than he had then.
He realized he'd been seeing in this godlike fashion ever since the blue fire swept over him, but the torrent of sheer detail had overwhelmed him. Now he could assimilate it with the same unthinking ease that ordinary people processed normal perceptions.
He turned to the wavering shadow that was Mirror. 'You did it!'
'My brothers always said I had a considerable gift. Sometimes I could help the sick when even the wisest priests had failed. Or I think I could.' Mirror's voice trailed off as if his memory was crumbling away, and his murky form became vaguer still.
Aoth wondered if the act of healing, so contrary to the normal attributes of a ghost, had drained his benefactor of strength. He prayed not. 'Don't disappear! Stay with me! If you can cure blindness, you should be able to cure a poisoning, too. We're going to Brightwing.'
This late at night, no one was working in the griffons' aerie. Aoth felt a surge of anguish to see his familiar crumpled on her side, eyes glazed and oblivious, blood and vomit pooled around her beak. He reached out with his mind but found no trace of hers. She was still breathing, though.
'Hurry!' he said, but Mirror just stood in place. 'Please!'
'I'm trying to remember,' Mirror said, and still he didn't move. Finally, when Aoth felt he was on the brink of screaming, the ghost flowed forward, kneeled beside the griffon, whispered, and stroked her head and neck. His intangible hand sank ever so slightly into her plumage.
Brightwing thrashed, then leaped to her feet and swiped with her talons. Thanks to spells Aoth had cast long ago, her claws were capable of shredding a spirit, but Mirror avoided them with a leap backward.
'Easy!' Aoth cried. 'Mirror just saved your life, or at least I hope so. How are you?'
'My belly hurts.' Brightwing took a breath. 'So does my head, and my mouth burns.' She spat. 'But I think I'll be all right.'
Aoth's eyes brimmed with tears. He hoped he wouldn't shed them, because the griffon would only jeer if he did.
'We're going to find the vermin who poisoned me,' she continued, 'and then I'm going to eat
The vengeful declaration served to remind Aoth that they were still in trouble. 'I'd like to watch you do it, but we can't fight the whole Central Citadel.'
'Would we have to?' Brightwing's voice took on an unaccustomed querulous note. 'What's happening?'
'People suddenly want to kill me, and they knew it would be easier if you were out of the way. So they tried to separate us back in Zolum, and when that didn't work, they fed you tainted meat.'
Brightwing snorted. 'I should have realized that, as usual, you're to blame for any unpleasantness that comes my way. All right, if it's like that, saddle me and we'll flee the city.'
It was good advice, especially considering that Aoth had intended to run off anyway, until Bareris tampered with his mind. So it surprised him to realize just how reluctant he was to go.
Deserting because he wanted to was one thing. Fleeing because he feared for his life would leave him feeling baffled and defeated. It would also mean he could never command the Griffon Legion again. He'd never aspired to do so, and in the years since his elevation, he'd honestly believed he didn't enjoy the responsibility. But after blindness rendered him unfit to lead, he discovered he missed it. Indeed, he'd felt guilty and worthless because he couldn't look out for his men anymore.
'Besides… since I don't understand why this is happening,' he said, 'I don't know how just badly people want to kill me. It may be badly enough to hunt us down if we try to run. I also have misgivings about fleeing when earthquakes and tides of blue fire are ripping the world apart. It doesn't seem a promising time to try to build a new life in some foreign land.'
'Then what will we do?' Brightwing asked.
'You'll stay here with Mirror and be quiet. I'll talk to Lauzoril and try to straighten things out.'
'That's assuming that he or his minions don't strike you down on sight.'
'I think I know who can prevent it, if only I can reach him.'
Brightwing snorted. 'It sounds stupid to me, but when has that ever stopped you?' She cocked her head. 'Say, you aren't wearing your blindfold.'
Perhaps it was Malark's imagination, but the ash shaft of the spear seemed to shudder in his grip as though it resented resting in any hand but its master's. He wondered if that could possibly be true, if the weapon was in some sense alive and aware. Perhaps he'd have a chance to ask Aoth about it later, but for now, they had a more urgent matter to address.
Malark hadn't expected to see his comrade again, because he'd heard what fate Dmitra had decreed for him. And although it wasn't the death he would have chosen for Aoth, there hadn't been a reason to intervene. But when, with his lambent blue eyes uncovered and obviously no longer blind, the war mage slipped into Malark's apartments, it was plain the situation had altered.
A small, flat-faced goblin guard used its apelike arms to open the red metal door to Lauzoril's conjuration chamber. When Aoth saw what waited on the other side, he stopped short. Malark didn't blame him.
The room beyond the threshold was the sort of arcane workroom familiar to them both after years spent at the beck and call of wizards. The steady white glow of enchanted spherical lamps illuminated racks of staves and ceremonial swords, a stylized wall painting of a tree that, as Dmitra had once explained, represented the multiverse, and an intricate pentacle inlaid in jet and carnelian on the floor. A thurible suffused the air with the bitter scent of myrrh.
The surprise was the steel table with sturdy buckled straps to immobilize a man, gutters to drain away his blood, and an assortment of probes, forceps, and knives to pick and slice at him. A healer might conceivably have used such equipment. So did a number of the interrogators in Malark's employ.
'Steady!' he whispered. 'It's too late to run. They'll only kill you if you try.' As if to demonstrate that he was right, a pair of blood orc guards and a Red Wizard of Enchantment advanced to take charge of Aoth.
Aoth strode into the chamber, and Malark followed a pace behind him. An orc reached to seize hold of Aoth's arm. Shifting, the griffon rider evaded the creature's hand and shoved it into its fellow. The pair got tangled up and fell down together.
The Red Wizard jumped back a step and lifted a fist with a pearl ring on the forefinger. Brightness seethed inside the milky stone. Malark interposed himself between the enchanter and Aoth and gave the former a glare and a shake of his head.
