Whether Golgren intended to answer him became a moot point, for even as he finished speaking, Stefan Rennert-and the Fire Rose-vanished.
Tyranos let out a frustrated howl as he leaped to the spot where Stefan had stood. Chasm, who had stood quietly in the shadow of his master, reflected the wizard’s frustration with a long, angry growl.
Rising, Kiri-Jolith confronted the minotaur. “There is in my power the ability to grant your request to be transformed, but I would like you first to consider the consequences. Recall those that you loved, those you lost, and what you may lose in the future.”
“None of that matters! Change me! Make me no longer a minotaur! Change me!”
But the god did not do so readily. “Now is not the time. You must discover the full truth about yourself before you can demand of me such a thing … if you still desire it then.”
“Damn all you gods!” Tyranos bitterly shot back. “Damn all your word games and tricks! That knight was a fool who was probably manipulated into sacrificing his eternity, the elf was tricked into killing herself for an ogre, and you …” He spit in Golgren’s direction. “You are the biggest fool of all!”
Tyranos raised the staff as if to use it. Then the crystal flared brighter and he, too, disappeared.
Chasm hissed at the god and Golgren then took to the air. Ever linked to his master, undoubtedly he would find the mage wherever Tyranos had chosen to go.
“A pity,” Kiri-Jolith murmured. “But destiny still has a heavy hand to play where he is concerned … a destiny his own choices still shape.” To Golgren, the deity added, “The Fire Rose is no more a part of your life, Grand Khan. Sirrion’s capricious interest in you should wane. Such is the nature of fire.” He shrugged. “Still, I will watch. Times have changed, and perhaps even the predictability of gods has also.”
“And will you now demand fealty of ogres for this offer?”
“No. I owe you for Sirrion, though you will never know the full reason why.” When Golgren said nothing in return, Kiri-Jolith concluded, “As I owe you much, I will also do one last favor.”
Closing his eyes, the god raised his hands to the sky. As he did, a slight tremor shook Garantha. Golgren, just starting to step away, looked around suspiciously.
The maddening alterations made by Safrag on Garantha melted away, and in their place returned the familiar, centuries-old image of the ogre capital. Kiri-Jolith was restoring the city to what it had always been, thereby erasing the mark of Safrag; the Titans; Xiryn; and most of all, the Fire Rose.
Eyes still shut, Kiri-Jolith muttered under his breath then lowered his hands. The god gave a deep sigh and appeared slighter in size, though still overwhelming.
“It is all the same as it was, save for one small thing I chose to do,” Kiri-Jolith said as he opened his eyes again. “I thought you might want the one small thing.”
But the bison-headed warrior saw that the half-breed was no longer close to him. Instead, Golgren once more was leaning over and peering down at where Idaria still lay dead, sprawled.
Nodding sadly, the god departed.
XXVI
Weeks passed on Krynn, weeks of tension and of not a little fear-all of it focused on the ogre realm.
To the south, legions of minotaurs stood battle-ready, their siege machines prepared. Each fortnight, the ranks were expertly shifted to keep the soldiers ever at their peak. Attack might come at any moment. They faced no ordinary foe.
It was the Grand Khan Golgren.
Solamnic Knights also patrolled those lands nearest to the ogres, but Sir Augustus Rennert was no longer in command. He had left after the retreat to confer with his superiors to discuss what had happened and what could be done.
The Nerakans, too, surveyed the new borders of the ogre realm, but with a trepidation more akin to that of the minotaurs. They prepared for a war certain to come.
Golthuu-the name was only just beginning to spread from Solamnics and the minotaurs to other places-was all but entirely cut off from the rest of Ansalon. A great canyon surrounded the combined lands of Kern and Blode, even cutting through the land of Khur. Behind the canyon-and further securing Golthuu-stood the great wall of stone, a veritable mountain chain wrapping around Golgren’s domain.
Curiously, the creation of both wall and canyon had happened in such a manner that those in its path had been given enough warning to flee. Of course, no one believed for a moment that the half-breed ruler had spared lives out of any goodness; rather, it was suggested and accepted that he had simply been displaying how perfect his mastery was over the magic he wielded.
Yet no word-no warning-had been issued from Golthuu until the day Solamnic Knights stationed at the one entry point remaining in the west awoke to find a large column heading out from between the lone crack in the vast wall. That column moved unerringly toward a single land bridge made of stone that had been carved out by the same magic as had created the canyon over which it crossed. Not once had the Solamnics dared to use that bridge; they suspected that it existed solely for some reason known to only the Grand Khan. And on that morning, with the winds high and the skies dark, they discovered that purpose.
The elves numbered in the hundreds, even more perhaps. They were weary and hollow-eyed and their garments were tattered. Yet they did not seem frightened, not even as they marched under the gaze of ogre sentries flanking the gap.
The sentries, in turn, watched the flow of refugees as if very pleased to see them go. As soon as the last of the elves had crossed the bridge, the ogre sentries slipped back into the shadows of the crack, disappearing without a word.
The elves carried food and water with them, enough to last two or three days’ journey more. Questioning revealed little, save that they had been rescued by one of their own kind who was helped by a brave human Knight of Solamnia named Stefan Rennert. The elf had vanished, but the knight had led them to a place not far from there before he, too, had disappeared. However, he had told the elves to wait. Ogres would be coming who would, at their master’s command, lead them the rest of the way.
The Solamnics took the elves in tow. They would soon be united with their kinsmen and fellow exiles.
And once again, Golthuu and its master settled into an ominous silence.
But while the other races and realms worried about the terrifying magic the Grand Khan of the ogres was capable of wielding, in Garantha itself there was no sign of impending war. However, the capital was a somber place, even though its inhabitants attempted to go about their daily lives.
Outwardly, the city looked the same as before, but there had been, as Kiri-Jolith had promised, one alteration. It stood at the entrance to the palace, where once a prominent statue of Golgren himself had been set. There was a different figure: a slim, female figure with long, flowing hair who looked with kind eyes upon any who stood before her. One hand reached out, as if to give comfort to the ogres, even though she herself was obviously an elf. The figure was astonishingly lifelike and colored exactly as the one after whom it had been modeled. Many ogres swore that, at times, the female statue did move.
The statue stood atop a large, thick structure of marble that to all appearances seemed solid. However, upon his approach, Golgren had found the marble foundation open and waiting.
Waiting for Idaria’s body.
Understanding that, the half-breed had deposited the broken and bloody burden that he had carried with him into the waiting tomb. He set her gently in place then arranged the signet atop the griffon pendant that she still wore upon her breast. Golgren had not marveled when the tomb had then sealed itself, the entrance transformed into just another wall. Gods were capable of many miracles … but only up to a point, it seemed.