The beams bent and passed harmlessly to either side of his body.
" No!" screamed the skull. The inside of Lan' s own head felt as if it would split like a rotted melon from the force of that denial. He leaned forward, his fingers slick with sweat and shaking with fear, to pluck the skull from the mechanical shoulders.
" Stop. Don' t! You don' t know what you' re risking."
Lan said nothing as he held Claybore' s fleshless skull high, intending to hurl it against the stone wall.
" We can be allies. Share with me the rule of all the worlds along the Cenotaph Road."
" I know what you are, Claybore," he said from between clenched teeth. Lan knew if he ever relaxed, his teeth would chatter with fear. He had to strike now, while the balance of power rested with him and not the ancient sorcerer.
" Inyx! You want to rescue the woman. She dies slowly between worlds. Only I can save her."
" You lie." But Lan hesitated. He knew the deal Claybore tried to make. In return for not smashing the skull into a million fragments, the mage would rescue Inyx. Lan didn' t know if he personally knew enough of the workings of the Kinetic Sphere to rescue the woman in time or not. Claybore did; Claybore could. But the treacherous sorcerer would turn on him if he weakened. No deal was sacred. Honor meant nothing to the decapitated being. If he had the chance to renege and kill both Lan Martak and Inyx, he would take it.
But what if Lan Martak didn' t know enough? To strand Inyx between worlds meant more than physical death, it meant an eternity of longing for real death.
He couldn' t condemn her to that, if Claybore spoke the truth about being the only one who could rescue her. The skull grew warmer to his touch. The sorcerer shifted more and more of his power against Lan, but the man tapped unconscious reserves that kept the deadly ruby columns bent away from his body, kept the spells of compulsion weak.
Lan Martak had a decision to make. Believe Claybore and rescue Inyx. This led to treachery. Claybore would undoubtedly end up with the Sphere and be free to continue his conquest of a myriad worlds. Nothing guaranteed the sorcerer wouldn' t turn on both of them after plucking her from the foggy interworld whiteness, either. But to smash the skull into dust meant no help whatsoever from the mage who had contrived the Kinetic Sphere.
" Freedom, I' ll give you both your freedom. And: and you can rule with me. There' re plenty of worlds. Millions! Take all you want. I' ll give them to you." The skull grew hot to the touch. The very smell of heated bone nauseated the man.
Lan decided.
Even if it meant damning Inyx to an eternity of soulless limbo, he had to stop Claybore. This might be his only chance. His arm cocked back for the pitch against the wall.
He found himself upended and dumped onto his back by the still struggling mechanical. The metallic being sat up, one long arm batting the cranium out of his grip. Lan jerked around to see Claybore' s skull arch upward, then fall toward the opened box on the altar. As it vanished from sight within, a tiny puff of grey powder rose.
Demoniacal laughter reverberated around the stone chamber.
" You fool, you inutterable fool!" came a shocked exclamation from the doorway. " How could you have done that?"
Lan wrestled with the mechanical, but he recognized Abasi- Abi' s voice.
" If you' d helped us: " he began.
Abasi- Abi waved a hand. Lan felt the robot- creature stiffen as if a knife had been rammed into its back. It melted, the metal of its skeleton turning to butter. It puddled in front of him, sizzling against the softness of the floor covering, causing a metallic stench to rise up. Lan stood there stupidly, hardly believing such a thing could happen. One moment the mechanical had been substantial. The next, it dissolved into smoking liquid.
Abasi- Abi stalked into the room. Morto stood just outside the door, his face pinched and white.
" Look, look at what you' ve done!" Abasi- Abi pointed. Lan gasped when he saw the dust within the wooden box on the altar restlessly shifting about, forming patterns, turning more substantial. In less than a heartbeat, the grey dust had formed a torso. The Kinetic Sphere beat like an obscene heart in the chest cavity of the armless and legless body. A thin neck reached up to join with the fleshless skull he' d accidentally tossed into the box.
Lan swore that the bony skull smiled. In victory.
" I don' t understand. The Sphere-"
" The damn Kinetic Sphere means nothing, or very little. It' s his body I' ve tried to keep him from," snapped Abasi- Abi. " With the body regained, Claybore' s power triples. More!"
Lan recoiled when the body began thrashing about inside the boxcoffin.
" Your spells are potent, Lan Martak," came Claybore' s voice, " but Abasi- Abi is correct. You are a fool. Now that I' ve regained my body, none can stop me!"
Abasi- Abi thrust out his hands. Sheets of coruscating energy blasted forth. Lan averted his eyes, shielding his face from the heat. Squinting, he saw the ghastly skull and limbless torso sit up inside the box.
Whatever power Claybore had lacked before, he now had. Lan felt the magic flowing about him and recognized little of it. Back on his home world he' d been taught minor spells for immobilizing game, for healing, for starting fires. He' d witnessed others. Once, he' d seen a man " reduced" for a crime, turned into a sizzling blob of grease. That spell had seemed potent to him.
These sorcerers battled with magics beyond his comprehension. And he' d inadvertently given Claybore back immense power.
" The eyes!" he cried. " Claybore' s eye sockets!"
The mage' s deep- sunken pits began to glow a dark red. Lan thrust himself in front of Abasi- Abi just as twin beacons of death shot forth. Whatever inbred spell he used so unknowingly, it still worked. The death gaze passed harmlessly to either side, leaving Abasi- Abi and himself unscathed.
" I shall rend you into atoms, Claybore!" screamed Abasi- Abi. " Terrill scattered your parts along the Cenotaph Road to stop you. I shall destroy you!"
Ghastly laughter greeted the sorcerer' s words. The Kinetic Sphere pulsated more powerfully in the chest cavity, turning from pink to a royal purple. The pseudo- heart altered visibly, its texture turning from flesh to velvet to a mistiness that confused Lan' s eyes. All the while, Claybore' s power mounted. Lan felt the tide of battle slowly shifting. Abasi- Abi had the initial advantage. He slowly lost it to the dismembered sorcerer.
" Remember me, Abasi- Abi," gloated Claybore. " Remember me when you reach the Lower Places of Hell!"
Lan felt as if a furnace door had been opened. Heat issued forth, driving him to his knees. He fought in ways he didn' t understand. He felt tiny burnings throughout his brain, racing along his spine, turning him into one giant, raw nerve ending. Physical combat wasn' t possible. He joined with Abasi- Abi to fight with magics.
And they slowly lost.
It was as if they were being forced back inch by inch. As they weakened, Claybore' s power grew.
" I: I can' t go on much longer," muttered Abasi- Abi. " I feel myself slipping, slipping away. I did not prepare adequately. I' m too old, too feeble for this. I-"
" No!" shouted Lan, shaking the sorcerer. " You' re the only one with the knowledge to stop him now."
" I can' t."
Mocking laughter. Lan saw the obscene skull nodding atop the armless torso. The Kinetic Sphere had vanished totally into the chest. A pearl- grey light surrounded the stone altar, light signalling the end of the battle.
Claybore had won.
" Die, mortals," said Claybore. " Die knowing I shall rule a million worlds!"
" No," came a small voice from the side. " He steals the heart of the earth. Desecration! Noooo!" Ehznoll rose, obviously in pain. His eyes were wide and an expression of religious fervor crossed his face. He seemed to glow more brightly than the altar. " You are a false god. You are sent by the sky to destroy the sweet earth. You cannot steal the heart. It must be returned!"