The guards obeyed. The warlord nodded to Wargroch. “Now! We will find him for her!”
Wargroch nodded agreement. Sword gripped tightly, he followed Atolgus, letting the sorcerers’ puppet take the lead.
Morgada had not yet returned. Tyranos had reminded Golgren of that fact more than once. The wizard paced back and forth, while the half-breed continued to sit with his eyes closed, his thoughts concealed from his companion.
The wizard’s pacing suddenly stopped. Golgren’s eyes opened to slits.
Staff held before him and his other hand flat against his chest, Tyranos appeared to be readying a spell. However, the hooded figure hesitated at the last moment, which brought a slight smile of understanding to Golgren’s lips. The smile vanished and the eyes closed again before Tyranos turned back to observe him.
“Are you going to just sit there?”
“We cannot leave, so, yes.”
Shaking his head, the spellcaster growled, “And yet you insist you must reclaim your realm. Just how will you do that sitting there?”
“I have been … considering.”
“‘Considering’ what?”
Before Golgren could reply, the walls shimmered. Golgren immediately rose to his feet even as Tyranos gripped his staff with both hands.
“Someone other than Morgada seeks entrance,” the half-breed murmured.
“Someone who’s also a Titan,” the wizard added.
One wall suddenly heaved inward, as though it were clay softening. It receded then heaved in again, almost like some great beast breathing.
“I warned you,” Tyranos said.
Golgren said nothing, instead striding to the vast bed and ripping off one of the shimmering silken sheets. Expertly, the half-breed used his single hand to twist the sheet around and around until he could readily grip it.
His companion snorted. “Are you planning on trying to strangle someone? Won’t you need another set of fingers for that?”
Again, Golgren did not reply. His focus was on the wall.
A black stain suddenly spread through the shifting wall, as if some unseen wound caused it to bleed black blood. The smell of burning ash filled the chamber, causing Tyranos to start coughing. Small tendrils of smoke snaked upward from wherever the inky stain spread.
The wall began to melt, pooling into molten slag on the ground.
A gigantic figure burst through. Golgren tossed the sheet toward the intruder. The sheet opened as it flew, just as intended. It spread, immediately enveloping the looming figure of a Titan.
Momentarily distracted, the sorcerer stumbled. He let out a curse that caused the sheet to turn to cinder.
But Tyranos, finally understanding what Golgren had planned, had already charged forward. Swinging the staff like a mace, he struck the Titan in the stomach.
A black flash erupted where the crystal touched the sorcerer. Both he and Tyranos were hurled in opposite directions. The Titan flew against the ruined wall, accompanied by another fearsome black flash. The wizard simply crashed.
The Titan did not immediately move, but Tyranos managed to rise. He touched his chest then stumbled toward Golgren.
“I think-I think I can transport us away now that the wall’s breached! Hurry!”
The half-breed leaned into the wizard, helping the latter to maintain his balance. Tyranos concentrated.
The Titan stirred. Golgren recognized the Titan’s face, although he had not seen it for a long time. When last he confronted him, years earlier, it had been just before he had vanished, apparently the victim of Dauroth’s ire.
“Falstoch,” the half-breed muttered.
The crystal flared. Golgren’s surroundings grew murky.
And suddenly the half-ogre found himself falling to his knees in a corridor. Tyranos was nowhere to be found. An angry sound from his left warned Golgren that he was not far away from the Titan. He pushed himself up and peered in that direction; the part of the wall that Falstoch had destroyed stood only a yard away.
Falstoch himself had not discovered where Golgren had landed, although surely some spell of his was responsible. The half-breed had no time to concern himself with Tyranos’s fate, for the Titan already was turning toward the opening.
Golgren jumped through the hole, crashing into Falstoch before the Titan knew what was happening. Despite the sorcerer’s immense size, Golgren was used to ighting larger adversaries. Falstoch landed hard. The Titan let out a grunt and, for the moment, lay still. Taking no chances, Golgren planted his maimed limb across the fallen sorcerer’s windpipe.
A rasping sound escaped Falstoch as Golgren pressed. The Titan raised a hand.
A shock ran through the half-breed. He tumbled back, his body quivering from brief but intense pain.
“I knew she couldn’t be trusted,” Falstoch gasped in Common. “I never truly trusted her, although I pretended to do so! She was always too close to the master, always using her devilries on him! She went so easily from worshiping damned Dauroth to bedding Safrag!”
Golgren tried to rise, but a backhanded gesture from Falstoch sent him slamming to the floor once again.
“Only I can truly be trusted by the master! Safrag gave me back my glorious self after Dauroth punished me for daring to disobey him by searching for the Fire Rose! My life is Safrag’s now, and any who betray it must pay!”
Golgren could move his hand but could not find no weapon. “I was a prisoner of Morgada,” he managed.
The sorcerer shook his head, his expression eager. “Oh, no! If that was true, she would’ve brought you to him right away! That was his command! If one of us found you, we were to bring you, dead or alive, directly to him.” A sinister grin spread across the blue countenance. “I choose dead.”
Still unable to do anything to help himself, Golgren stalled for time. “And so clever is Falstoch! How did you know that Morgada hid me here?”
Falstoch loomed over him. One glowing palm faced Golgren, continuing to keep him flattened. “Yes, I am clever, so don’t try to stall. Abandon all hope. Your wizard friend has gone wherever he planned, and he won’t be able to return here! It would require far more power than a mere creature like he has.”
“Then tell me of your cleverness and finish me.”
The monstrous spellcaster grinned even wider. “I knew she was up to something! Always hovering around Safrag and then vanishing into one of her lairs, either here or in the great sanctum! Even great Safrag could not detect her duplicity!”
Golgren had slowly managed to slide one foot over closer to Falstoch’s. The Titan prevented him from rising but not from moving sideways. The half-breed braced himself. It would take all the might he could muster to trip Falstoch or push him off balance.
“Then only a short while ago, I sensed her working subtle spells, seemingly insignificant ones by themselves, but together acting to shield something in her chamber! I knew that the master would not notice, not with the artifact radiating such power around him! I had to take the chance, wait until she was gone from the palace, to discover what was so very important to her that even Safrag must not know. It turns out that she was intent on betrayal, with you as her ally.”
The irony was that Falstoch was half right; before that day, all Morgada’s secrecy had concerned her service, however treacherous, to the gargoyle king. Golgren bared his teeth in a predator’s smile at that knowledge. Falstoch was ignorant, in so many ways.
The Titan hesitated. “You’ve no reason to grin, mongrel! I’ve granted you the irst part of your wish, and now give you the second! I doubt the master would mind in the least if I brought you to him entirely flayed and perhaps, after all, still breathing.”
Golgren shoved his foot against the Titan’s leg.
The force caused Falstoch to slip forward before he righted himself.