Bloodstone (22 page)

"To ease your mind, though, I plan you no malice. Naturally, you will remain in Arellarti until my plans achieve a certain stage; after that...? Well, you'll no longer be in a position to upset my strategy, so you can decide for yourself. Meanwhile, I've commanded the Rillyti not to harm you--so long as you don't try to go beyond Arellarti's walls. I think you know what will happen then. And you would be wise to shun the presence of Bloodstone, for reasons that you probably are aware of."

Teres looked at him bitterly, hating Kane for his treachery, but unable to forget the debt she owed him. His words grew fuzzy; his figure blurred. She swayed dizzily, then caught herself against the control dais. Her strength was virtually burned out from this endless ordeal.

"Can you walk?" Kane asked with a shadow of concern. "I'll take you to where you can rest."

"I can walk... damn better than crawling serpents who steal the shape of men!" she snarled, but did not deny her fatigue.

Kane grinned. "Sure you can. Come with me, then--and if you fall, I'll let you sleep where you lie."

The days that followed had an unreal quality about them, like some fantastic dream from which she could not awaken. Dreamlike, certain moments were impressed upon her mind with indelible clarity, while other times. Teres scarcely could recall what had transpired an hour earlier. Kane told her she had fallen prey to some fever, and he gave her strange, bitter powders to take, though these seemed only to cloud her thoughts further. To her own mind, it was more the alien evil of this elder-world city that twisted her thoughts, filled her head with 'bizarre images.

It was late afternoon when Teres awoke from a lengthy and mercifully dreamless sleep. She lay quiet for a moment, her eyes still shut, and felt the stones beneath her bed of furs. When she opened her eyes, she knew where she was, although the evening before she had fallen onto the rough bed without a glance at her surroundings. Extreme exhaustion had triumphed over her tormented nerves, and she had lapsed into a deep slumber almost instantly.

The room must be Kane's, she decided, since he was evidently the only human in Arellarti. Its furnishings were primitive, aside from a few curious relics he must have gathered from the ruins for study. It was reassuring to find her pack from the boat resting near her, and after cursory ablution Teres discarded her begrimed harem costume and drew on her familiar garments. The sword, of course, was not included, but she partook of the wine and meat she had packed several worlds ago.

Feeling her devil-may-care mood return--after all, what more could happen to her?--she tentatively pushed at the door of the chamber. It swung open readily enough, and she peered into the hallway, where a pair of Rillyti returned her gaze. Their manner was not hostile. Time to test Kane's word, she decided, stepping into the hall.

At her emergence, the guards gestured for Teres to follow. She complied nonchalantly, finishing the braid of her hair with an air of disregard for her surroundings. They descended a steep flight of spiral stairs--the ones, she recalled, whose odd-spaced steps had occasioned some difficulty last evening. Kane had chosen a tower for his lair in Arellarti, and she later recognized that a proclivity for heights was characteristic of him.

Kane knelt inside the dome, intent on a series of engraved bronze alloy plates he had laid out adjacent to one of the glowing columns. He looked up to greet her, his manner casual in the midst of this ancient city of alien sorcery. "Teres... awake finally!" He smiled, noting her change of garments. "Should I say you look like a new man?"

Her smile was venomous. "Some thief made off with my sword."

"I haven't enough toads for you to wreak havoc among them. Besides, you'll be protected from any predators that might creep past the walls." Ignoring her retort, he dismissed the guards. "I think you'll be interested in touring Arellarti. After all, aside from myself, you're one of the few humans ever to set foot within this city of toads. I believe the others never had time for reflection on Krelran architecture."

He reached for her arm, but Teres turned away. Shrugging, Kane stepped on ahead, the girl matching his stride. As they walked through the city, Kane told her something of Arellarti's history, his own connections with its mystery, his reasons for his undertaking--speaking at times guardedly, others exuberantly--like a lord extolling some newly conquered domain. Teres listened in silence for the most part, not able to draw him out on points he chose to leave a sinister veil upon. Despite her unease, her anger, she found herself fascinated by his narrative, and by the uncanny grandeur of Arellarti.

He paused alongside the towering obelisks, where Arellarti's ponderous bronze portals--recast in the shrieking furnaces of the city--were being levered onto ancient hinges. This vantage provided an overview of the lost city, so that Teres could gaze in wonder upon the spider-web geometry of Arellarti. Clearly evident was the frenzied reconstruction throughout the circular metropolis, work which she learned continued through the night, lighted by brilliant torches whose flames were fed by the energy of Bloodstone. Teres adopted Kane's habit of addressing the alien crystal by proper name, "Bloodstone," for he assured her the gemstone was a sentient creature, an entity of godlike power.

Below them she could see the tireless Rillyti laboring over tasks which ranged from the hoisting of mammoth blocks of stone to the painstaking reengraving of a delicately carved helix or volute. In the gathering twilight the serpentine flickering brilliance of Arellarti's furnaces stone an eerie light along the streets. Nourished by the crystal's awesome energies, the furnace gave birth in travails of incandescent fury to the unknown alloys and the obsidian-like stone that raised Arellarti from millennia of decay. Raw materials came from salvaged debris and heaps of varicoloured mud the batrachians dug from the swamp.

"Strange that these uncouth slime-dwellers can perform such organized and intricate labor," mused Kane. "Hard to realize that a race of the magnificence the Krelran must have attained in that lost age could have degenerated into these misshapen toads. I wonder how mankind would fare, should some cosmic disaster blast our civilization into forgotten rubble. Perhaps we would return to the trees and caves of our bestial ancestors--skulking apemen that a mad creator's folly transformed into men--and not even legend would remember the dead majesty of our race."

"How can the Rillyti carry out this project, and why do they bother?" Teres wanted to know. "From what you say, they must have lived content in their primitive villages--until you unleashed this slumbering evil!"

"Arellarti was their home of old," Kane replied. "Now they rebuild it. Bloodstone is their god; they obey its commands. They are nothing more than slaves to the crystal--an army of working bodies whose brain is Bloodstone. They worship it, and like a true god Bloodstone controls its servants to accomplish its private goals. Bloodstone commands; toads carry out its will. I doubt they have any freedom to disregard its telepathic directives. Well, once they controlled Bloodstone; now they serve. Another measure of how far their race has declined. Now I am Master of Bloodstone, and through my servant, the Rillyti are my slaves as well."

Teres laughed scornfully. "Are you truly lord of Bloodstone, Kane? By what power do you claim fealty? How can any human believe himself master of this demon whose powers you call godlike--to any sane mind it is a force of cosmic evil!"

He glowered, angered at her insinuations more than he meant to show. Teres laughed inwardly, amused that she had broken his annoying attitude of detached calm. "By this ring I am Master of Bloodstone!" Kane emphatically proclaimed. He clenched his fist to brandish the sinister jewel.

She glanced at the ring with unconcern. "I have seen ragged fools who swore they wielded vast powers of sorcery within the sigils they wore on dirty fingers," she scoffed. "And I know of a few such talismans which did have some degree of magical potency. But your boast defies physical law, since you state Bloodstone is not the work of sorcery. How can a tiny chip of gemstone make you lord of a crystal monolith whose powers come from beyond the stars?"

"Size is not a factor even in physical law," snorted Kane. "A spark can burn a city, a wheel can move a boulder, a sliver of iron can kill a dragon. Don't presume to suggest laws for alien science.

"There is much that even I don't understand about Bloodstone. There are gaps in my knowledge--considerable gaps, I'll grant you--which are lost within mystery beyond my understanding. Sometimes Bloodstone's wisdom has no equivalent in human comprehension; other times I know the crystal guards its thoughts and memories from my perception.

"My link to Bloodstone is of a symbiotic nature. I can draw upon Bloodstone's power, but without me--or more accurately, without the master of this ring--Bloodstone is only a lifeless crystal. For reasons that I cannot altogether comprehend, Bloodstone's life force is a combination of two sources. Somehow it feeds upon the cosmic flow of energy that holds our universe in balance--in space as well as dimension. But it also requires the power of organic life, which it obtains by..."

He faltered, coughed as if to clear his throat, and began on another thought. "So the bond between Bloodstone and the wearer of this ring is all-important. The ring itself is only a convenient method to maintain physical contact; the crystal in the ring is the vital factor. Both Bloodstone and the gemstone of the ring are hemispherical. Though it seems to defy your 'physical law,' the two crystals are equal halves of the single organism. The crystal in the dome draws upon forces. Of cosmic energy; the crystal in this ring transmits organic life force. The two forces--the two halves--make up the sentient entity that is Bloodstone. My mind and that of Bloodstone are linked through this chain, and we draw power through one another."

"Then you are slave to this twofold vampire!" sneered Teres.

"No!" Kane exploded, and she thought he would strike her. "No! Our minds are separate, independent! I cannot penetrate Bloodstone's thoughts beyond its secret veils, nor can Bloodstone rule my will like a sorceror's hypnotic spell! My mind is my own, and I am master of our pact! And this is not only because I am indispensable to its existence. The Krelran, who created--or at least harnessed--Bloodstone, built external controls into the crystal entity. That 'altar,' where my toad friends were about to make sacrifice last night, is a master control for the entire crystal. He who knows the nature of Bloodstone can manipulate the projections on that dais, and so control the energy within the crystal. To the Krelran, Bloodstone was only a machine, a complex and powerful machine, and no machine can be self-controlled. If I desired, I could shut off Bloodstone's energy... leave it the dormant crystal it was when I found it!"

He caught the look in her eyes and added pointedly, "Needless to say, the control dais is not without certain devices to shield it from ignorant tampering or wanton destruction. Should Bloodstone be impelled, it could annihilate the author of such hostile intent, were he not protected by this ring."

"The crystal would have lain dormant then, until Kranor-Rill at last swallowed these forgotten ruins!" Teres exclaimed in wonder. "What madness drove you to awaken this relic of elder-world evil!"

Kane answered with a sarcastic laugh. "You call it evil? Bloodstone exists beyond human concepts of good and evil. The alien crystal is a focus of cosmic energy; as such, Bloodstone is the key to power beyond human comprehension. I mean to unlock that power, to use it for my own purposes. In that ambition I am no more a 'master of evil' than any other conqueror--who is always a devil to his enemies, a god to his followers."

"Who will follow you, Kane?" There was loathing in her tone.

His voice remained confident. "A strong man will follow a strong leader. When the power of Bloodstone reaches across the Southern Lands, there will be many who will make a victorious cause their own. It is far better to join a conqueror's army than be trampled under his march! And my power will not halt along the coasts of the Southern Lands!"

"Impressive schemes for a lone adventurer who hides among his toads in a rotting domain!" she retorted with deadly scorn. "A man who is twice traitor dreams to rule a continent!"

Her taunts stung him. Kane's manner grew less reserved. "I only bide my time here! Bloodstone now has only the smallest fraction of its potential power. My slaves are at work repairing the damage of centuries, but that will only restore its power to its ancient level! Arellarti was never completed by the Krelran--their enemies destroyed them before the city could be finished. Had their work been perfected, and had not the ancient Master of Bloodstone in some manner inactivated the crystal (or so I find hints in Bloodstone's guarded thoughts), Arellarti could never have fallen, even under the devastating weapons of elder Earth!

"I mean to complete this venture of lost eons-to bring Bloodstone to the peak of its power! Today I am vulnerable, I freely admit it. Were my purpose discovered, a concerted attack could defeat me. But such a united effort will never occur. My neighboring states are at war. They will continue to waste their strength, until my initial foray will overwhelm them easily... unsuspecting and exhausted by their petty battles! I intend to establish the foundation for my empire here in the Southern Lands, and I'll find loyal subjects among the survivors. And soon no man will dare to proclaim himself my enemy. For once Arellarti has been completed to its projected design, the power of Bloodstone will be the power of the cosmos! There isn't an army, a city, a force known to man that can stop me then!"

"Others have made that boast!" Teres snapped.

His eyes were a chilling glow. "Yes, and some of them founded empires that yet stand!"

The night her sleep was poisoned by strange and unwholesome dreams, and when Teres broke from her fitful slumber she found the nightmarish spell yet held her. Phantom shapes leered at her in the darkness, slowly to fade as she gazed at the night with fevered eyes, her fist choking off the cry that hovered on her lips. Sweat covered her skin; her forehead was burning to her cool fingers, though the fur robes were inadequate to comfort her icy trembling. She slipped in and out of consciousness until daylight, too weak to seek the water her throat craved.