Shadowmasque (64 page)
“Die the death,” he said and straightened.
The corpse stirred, the chest inhaled and the arms twitched, as did the feet, then with an ungainly effort it sat up. Disarranged eyes blinked and a ghastly glee twisted the mouth, but only for a moment. A slack hand wavered up to finger the gaping wound in the neck and a look of tormented horror passed over the features or a second before it quivered and slumped onto its back. Its last breath was a quiet, grisly sound.
Calabos smiled and leaned back against the bare rock of the gully side, then slid down into a sitting position. Meanwhile, Tashil and the others splashed their way waist-deep across the Kala and Qothan came over to crouch beside him.
“I am here,” Calabos said with the care of the utterly weary, “by virtue of the sacrifice of dear and noble friends. It is so heartening to know that I still have some left!”
As they helped him to stand and walk gingerly out into the sunshine, he surveyed the devastation and the bare earth.
“So — how is Ilgarion, and dear old Tangaroth?”
“Dead,” said Dardan.
Calabos arched an eyebrow. “You don’t say? Any arguments over the succession yet?”
Sounek grinned. “There’s a nice big one scheduled for this afternoon. But we have plans, involving the Count and Countess of Harcas…”
Calabos gave an approving nod. “Hmm, perhaps if I have a brief nap…”
Tashil laughed and hugged him. “Lasting a couple of days, perhaps!”
Calabos glanced at her and smiled. “You may be right, come to think of it.”
As they walked down towards the Valewater, Tashil said, “So is that the end of the Shadowkings and the Lord of Twilight!”
Calabos, poet and mage, did not answer for a moment, then said:
“Yes, they are gone, finished, ended. But I can’t help remembering something that my friend Coireg once told me. He said — ‘Evil acts do not require the hand of an evil god’.”
“And what about good acts?” said Qothan. “What about their origin?”
Calabos smiled and shrugged.
“Does it matter?”
The End
THE SHADOWKINGS TRILOGY
Shadowkings*
Shadowgod*
Shadowmasque*
HUMANITY'S FIRE
Seeds of Earth
The Orphaned Worlds
The Ascendant Stars
Ancestral Machines
SHORT STORY COLLECTION
Iron Mosaic
*available as a Jabberwocky ebook
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