Pelmen landed heavily on several sharp rocks projecting from the cave floor and he groaned in pain. He couldn’t hold onto the large gem. It flew away and lodged against the wall. Flayh vaulted toward it.
Pelmen couldn’t see his opponent, but he heard and felt Flayh’s movements. He responded by twisting onto his back and throwing his legs into the air. They tangled together with Flayh’s, and Pelmen heard the crunch as his opponent took a heavy tumble.
Serphimera crouched beside the altar. Her face and hands burned horribly, but what most concerned her were her eyes. She could hear the shapers struggling but couldn’t see them. The afterimage of the flash still partially blinded her, and she worried about permanent damage. She and her lover were in the midst of a struggle. She needed her sight to aid him.
The two shapers rolled apart. Both kept themselves cloaked. Both plotted their shortest route to the magical object, while each tried to outguess the other.
Flayh acted first. Pelmen saw the other wizard briefly appear and immediately disappear again. He lunged for Flayh and grabbed only air. Recovering quickly, he dodged to the side and fastened his gaze on the glowing jewel.
“Here, Pelmen,” a voice said from the cave’s mouth, and Pelmen jerked his head around to look.
“And here,” it spoke again, this time from beyond the altar.
“And here,” it said a third time, now from a corner of the cave not three feet from where Pelmen stood.
Pelmen was still cloaked in invisibility and had no wish to give himself away. He swivelled his head slowly, to keep the collar of his robe from rustling. He saw Flayh standing next to him, smiling grotesquely toward the center of the cavern, light reflecting off his bald, blue pate.
“You see I can be anywhere—” Flayh began, but he was soon interrupted. A fist split his blue-tinted lip and bloodied his mouth. He howled with rage and leaped magically to the far side of the room, terribly incensed that bad luck had positioned him within Pelmen’s striking distance. “I can be anywhere I choose in a moment!” Flayh finished, his smile gone. He bolted out of that spot into another and continued, “That’s how I came to be here, Pelmen. Moments ago I was in my tower in Ngandib.” Flayh cloaked himself and put up his fists to shield his face. He listened carefully, but Pelmen made no reply.
Flayh turned his attention toward the treasure and watched it a moment. It didn’t move. He tiptoed out of that spot, expecting at any moment to collide with his invisible foe. So this was shaper battle, Flayh thought to himself. He wasn’t sure he liked it.
Serphimera was up on her knees, staring around at the empty cavern. She could see now. The patterns of light and shadow were different, since the source of their light had shifted over to the wall. She’d come to realize that it was through no fault of her vision that she couldn’t see the shapers. They were hidden from one another and from her. At the moment, there was little she could do to help Pelmen except keep quiet. The shapers were using silence as a weapon. She didn’t know what effect it might be having on them, but to her it was tortuous.
Flayh broke the tension. “You are skilled, Pelmen, in forcing others to play your game. But isn’t it rather childish? You’ve bloodied my lip like a schoolboy. Doesn’t it strike you as silly for the two foremost powershapers in the world to resort to bare knuckles?”
As Flayh spoke, Serphimera felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She almost reached up to pat it.
Such a gesture would surely draw Flayh’s eye.She fought the temptation as Flayh continued. “Very well. If you so choose, follow my voice and strike me again. Come ahead. I’ve chosen to battle you on my terms.”
The hand remained on Serphimera’s shoulder. Pelmen was not responding to this challenge. Flayh’s image flickered into view and abruptly disappeared again. The voice continued from another part of the cave. “I know why you’re here. Those poor, howling beasts outside have given you away. They wanted me to free them, you realize. When I wouldn’t, they sought out you. And you, replete with moral obligation and ethical sensibility, naturally have agreed.”
“It had nothing to do with the dogs,” Serphimera said, and Pelmen’s invisible hand clenched slightly on her shoulder. She assumed he was trying to silence her, but she saw no need to be quiet now. After all, Flayh could see her clearly.
“Ah,” Flayh said. “The woman with the healing touch, I assume? None other than our crazed, dragon-loving priestess. What an unlikely couple! The two of you make a formidable alliance. You realize, of course, that if you follow through with your use of this object, your partnership will be permanently dissolved?”
“We think it’s worth the price,” the woman responded serenely. She wondered why Pelmen didn’t act.
Flayh chuckled. “Serphimera, you’re so transparent. Keep me talking while your lover prepares to subdue me, isn’t that your intention? But I’m talking to him. Pelmen, is it worthwhile to you? Certainly you’ll be killed; you’ve already accepted that sacrifice. But do you want to see her killed, too? She will be, you know. Think of it—all those powers my artistry has rendered into canine form, along with all the other powers who choose to go, departing in a single instant through that little crystal object. Why, the power vacuum that creates will lift the top off this mountain. It will take us all. And tell me now, is all this necessary just to defeat me?”
Pelmen spoke. “Your ego is enormous, Flayh.”
“Ah-ha!” Flayh crowed. “So he does have a voice.”
“I’m not surprised that you believe history revolves around you. It’s a common fault of man. And you, Flayh, for all your power, are certainly common.”
Flayh’s laughter rang out of another section of the cave. Pelmen’s hand left Serphimera’s shoulder. She immediately felt lonely.
“So you’re doing all this out of purer, grander motives, is that it?” Flayh asked. “Would you like to tell me what you hope to achieve?”
“We’d like to change man.”
Flayh laughed again. This time he seemed genuinely amused.
“Now who’s being egocentric? History revolves not around Flayh, oh no. It centers instead on Pelmen the Player!” When Pelmen did not respond, Flayh went on scornfully, “You think this act of yours will accomplish that?”
“We believe so.”
“How? A few words muttered in darkness, a ritual blood-letting, an explosion on a distant mountain peak? Why should that change man? It will please those hounds out there, no question about that. It will suck away my power and Mar-Yilot’s and your own. But it won’t change man. Most people pay no attention at all to the powers. Magic won’t be missed. And power will revert back to where it resided before your interference—to the hands of the Merchant League. You won’t change man, Pelmen. You’ll only exalt mediocrity. There’ll no longer be means for a man to soar to the heights.”
“You’re wrong, Flayh. Quite wrong. But I doubt you could comprehend the joys of soaring under the Power’s control.”
“Ridiculous,” Flayh grunted. “Meaningless words. Your powers arc great, Pelmen, but greatest of all is your power of self-delusion. Your time in Lamath affected your mind. You’ve been influenced by those fanatics who hungered only to be swallowed by the dragon. What a fool you are, Pelmen, to have had such power and wasted it in foiling me! You could have been king over three lands at once! Now I will be, instead. Because, while you’ve agonized over the responsibilities of power, I’ve learned how to use it.”
“As you see,” he finished, and once again his voice had shifted over a wide space in an instant. “You surely understand by now that I could, at any moment, dart over to that beautiful object you’ve labored so hard to assemble, snatch it up, and begone with it back to my tower.”