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body struck the bottom of the pit. It gave a great roar, and golden beams
began to shine from its eyes. "Let's see what you're hiding down here, shall
we?"
The lion ran its glowing eyes over the pit walls, until it found a single,
winding tunnel opening to one side.
With a low growl of satisfaction, it bounded away. Venomous lizards leaped out
of the shadows and clamped steel-
toothed jaws around the beast's legs, while blood-drinking scorpions dropped
onto its head to stab at its eyes with dripping barbs. The construct countered
by crushing the reptiles underfoot and flinging the arachnids off with
vigorous head shakes, but many attacks still found their marks.
The attackers' venom did not slow the lion down at all. Beads of syrupy fire
dripped from the wounds on its legs, and tears of acid poured from the eyes.
Both fluids neutralized the poison long before it could cause any damage to
the beast.
The tunnel opened into a chamber supported by hundreds of ebony pillars. On
each column hung a single torch, burning with a black flame that absorbed
light instead of casting it. The only sound was of a man chuckling in a soft,
maniacal voice.
The fur along the lion's spine stood fully erect. It dropped to its belly and
slunk through the murk until it reached the front of the room. There, in a
throne of human bones, sat King Tithian of Tyr. In one hand, he cradled the
obsidian scepter of a sorcerer-king, in the other, the disembodied head of his
only friend: Agis of Asticles.
"Now you know what Borys promised: my heart's desire," said Tithian's figure.
A purple light glimmered deep within his scepter's pommel, then Agis's head
spoke. "You may leave now. His
Majesty prefers to be alone." To reinforce the command, Tithian pointed the
scepter at the unwelcome intruder's head.
The lion opened its maw as if to roar, but the sound that filled the little
room was a deep, booming laugh.
* * * * *
The Castoffs swarmed over Agis, pressing their ethereal mouths to his skin
wherever it was exposed. Each touch sent a searing pain deep into his flesh,
raising a ghastly red welt that continued to bum long after the agonizing kiss
had ended. Although most of the lips pressing against him belonged to
children, they were easily two or even three times the size of his own, and
the blisters they left were enormous.
Agis rose. "Stop it!" he yelled, almost losing his balance as Fylo's stomach
shifted beneath his feet. "Leave me alone!"
The Castoffs rushed away from him, staring in astonishment at his upright
form. "How can he stand the pain?"
gasped one.
"He must have a strong mind," said another.
"No, it's something else," replied the face of a button-nosed woman, one of
the few visages that appeared to be an adult. "It might be wiser to leave this
one alone."
As the faces voiced their opinions, Agis climbed toward Kester and had his
first clear view of the pit. The shaft had an irregular, rectangular shape
varying greatly in width. As he had noted earlier, the walls were covered with
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huge quartz crystals, and from the interior of each one shined a silvery light
By this pale glow, Agis saw more than a hundred yellowed giant skulls hanging
on the walls, each carefully positioned on the tip of a crystal.
When Agis reached the tarek's side, the Castoffs descended on the noble again.
They began to rub their cheeks against his skin, causing long streaks to turn
brown and slimy. The putrid stains filled him with a dull anguish, and he felt
instantly queasy and feverish.
Agis closed his eyes and focused his concentration on the core of his being,
letting the sickening anguish of decay wash over him without fighting it. He
focused all his thoughts only on the mystic truths of the Way, truths that
allowed him to accept his pain and use it to transcend his mortal body.
Once he felt in control of his agony, the noble said, "Enough games. Leave us
alone, or you shall regret it."
A few Castoffs stared at him in amazement, but most continued to assault both
him and his friends. Agis closed his eyes and drew energy from his spiritual
nexus. Soon, his tortured body buzzed with the power he needed. In his mind,
the noble visualized more than a hundred open hands, then opened his eyes and
projected one from inside his head to each spirit's cheek. The palms struck
their targets with resounding slaps, melding into the face and leaving behind
black impressions of themselves.
Once he had marked the Castoffs, the noble said, That's to let you know I can
carry out my threats. If I must defend us again, I won't be so lenient"
Crying out in alarm, the Castoffs rose into the air and hovered above his
head.
Agis knelt down to examine Kester. Where the glowing faces had been rubbing
against her back and shoulder, her thick hide had shriveled into a desiccated,
wrinkled mass. The noble turned her over and found her front side in even
worse condition. She had long since fallen unconscious, but her face remained
racked with pain. The hide covering her neck and breasts was as grotesquely
creased as that on her back, save that the outer layers of skin were falling
away in a dusty powder.
Agis used a few strands of scraggly beard to secure her beneath Fylo's chin,
then turned his attention to the giant. The half-breed's face had become as
grossly misshaped as that of any Saram child. One of the eyes had nearly
doubled in size and now bulged from its socket with all the precariousness of
a ball at the edge of a shelf. The other had grown smaller, sinking so far
beneath his brow that it was barely visible. His nose had somehow been
rearranged so that it had a separate passage running down to each nostril,
with a long cleft in between. Even his buck teeth had not escaped alteration,
and now splayed out in opposite directions like the two branches of a forked
stick.
Agis looked up at the faces hovering over his head. "Why have you done this?"
he yelled.
The Castoffs descended toward him in a slow circle, their immaterial visages
twisted into bizarre masks of regret or rancor, he could not quite tell which.
Ghostly sobs poured from the lips of several children, while ethereal tears
streamed down their cheeks and vanished into the black air.
"We're scared!" wailed a little girl.
"And lonely!" added a boy.
"Why did they put us down here?"
With each cry, a pang of anguish pierced Agis's breast, filling him with a
deep sense of regret. Every complaint added to his sorrow, and his heart grew
heavy and weak. Soon, he felt like a terrible weight was pressing down on his
chest, and it hurt to breathe until the Castoffs continued to pour grief into
him, until he felt so gorged with misery that he feared he would burst.
"Stop it!" Agis yelled.
The noble summoned the energy to use the Way and closed his eyes again, this
time seeing a hammer with white-feathered wings on its handle. Once he had it
locked firmly in his mind, he looked toward the highest hanging
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