Gorgon's laughter echoed through the night. "I shall make you immortal also."

Incredulous, she looked at him.

"Can I not steal souls bound for the Sea of Chaos and bend them to my bidding? If I have such power over death, then know that you, too, shall be immortal when my hand stretches across Haven."

His image pulsed and glowed, shaping and reshaping, hovering for a moment as a seductive woman/child, then as a man, then as a strange shaping of the two, which held Patrice spellbound.

"It is but a small matter," Gorgon whispered. "Remember, you now hold the Crystals of Fire, except for the Heart the most coveted of Jartan's gems."

"Jartan?" Patrice asked. "Where is he now?"

The image of Gorgon rose high in the pillar of fire.

"He has taken much that is mine," the demon lord boomed. "Thousands of my servants, a score of my lords have fallen into the Sea of Chaos by his hands. Even now his forces storm the very gates of my inner realm. Yet he has paid as well, for by my hand even Minar was injured. I have slain their sons and daughters, their children's children, and their host of followers."

Patrice could sense the rage in his voice and knew that Jartan and Minar had dealt Gorgon a severe setback, despite of the cost he'd exacted.

"Yet it shall be as nothing," Gorgon went on, dropping into a thin pulsing flame. "For when my servants have passed through to your realm, the work shall begin. With Horat's Portal crystal, I will be able to break through the barriers and step into Haven, making it ours. Jartan and Minar know not the threat.

Already we have slipped past them, destroying the portals back to this world. It will take them days to cut their way back here--and by then it wiil be too late."

"It is time we begin," Gorgon whispered soothingly.

Patrice looked at him, her features fixed in a smile. How long she had planned for this moment, she could no longer recall. She could not even say when the turning away had first begun; how many countless nights she had savored the anticipation of this moment, though her heart had stayed her. Could it be that the mere anticipation had kept her alive, kept her dreaming and plotting?

She watched him closely, and the clarity of thought returned. He would try to destroy her in the end, she knew. Could she ever control him?

"You are not afraid of me, are you?" Gorgon purred, and again his voice was like that of a young woman's.

A dark smile flickered across her mouth. No; she could control even him--or it--or whatever it was that floated before her.

When his work here was done she would bend him to her will, or drive him back into the darkness. It had gone too far already, she realized. She had taken action which would force Jartan to strike her--if he returned--and that thought filled her with a sudden edge of fear and at last pushed the caution aside.

"Afraid of you?" she whispered. "I fear nothing."

Her right hand pointed downward, and the dark portal crystal by her feet flared into brilliance.

The portal widened, deepened, pulsing bright red. Shafts of light snapped past her, so that the room appeared to be engulfed in an inferno. From out of the flame five forms drifted upward, their taloned wings beating darkly against the light.

Arcing outward, they spiraled down to land by her side, their coal-black eyes like pits of eternal night.

"Your servants," a demon lord growled, bowing.

"Then begin your work," Patrice said coldly, stepping back from the pentagram.

Forming a circle around the pillar of light, they raised their winged arms, their cries renting the air.

Then one by one, from out of the light, yet more appeared, broadening the circle, drawing out the legion of their warriors and magic users, and preparing for the arrival of their master.

Exhausted, Patrice turned away, and a gentle laughter washed over the room. She looked back to see the image of Gorgon, still barred from her realm by the power of the Essence laid down so long ago. But here at last she was cracking the final barrier, and she could see the lust of anticipation in his eyes. He looked over at her and smiled again, the smile of an innocent child. She smiled back to him, the smile of an innocent woman.

"There--do you sense it?" Leti whispered softly. The Heart crystal in the center of the conference room glowed and flickered, bathing those in the circle with a gentle lavender light. "She's doing it; she is actually cutting the fabric of the Essence, laying our world bare to him."

Ikawa looked across the room at her, and though for a moment their eyes caught and held each other, he felt so very distant from her. She was now a demigod burdened with an awesome responsibility to protect the realm, while he was still merely a sorcerer, the holder of a minor fiefdom.

Boreas, who had arrived only moments before the war council had begun, shifted in his chair and glared with a cold anger. "She's opened the gate."

"How long do you think we have?" Leti asked, looking over at the only ally whom she and Tulana had been able to summon. Communication had been next to impossible, so thorough had Patrice's jamming been. If not for Tulana's strength, and the crystal shard forged by his grandfather, they might not have reached even Boreas. All attempts to reach Aleena had failed, and Reena, whose realm was on the other side of the world, would not respond, so distant was she now to the concerns of others.

"The barriers are the strongest bonds ever forged," Boreas said darkly. "Even with Horat's crystal it will take days. She needs to bring through hundreds of his demons first; they in turn must channel all their energy back into the portal to stretch it wider. We have three, maybe four days before Gorgon himself can cross through."

Leti settled back in her chair and sighed. Boreas was silent, while Tulana, sitting next to him, pulled on his beard and cursed.

"And Jartan?" Mark asked.

Leti shook her head and looked at Pina, who was now in charge of the gateway portal.

"Jartan's forces have gone through fourteen jumps on this campaign, eleven of which are into Gorgon's outer realms. Picture it as a long thread leading into an unmapped darkness. Two days ago the thread was cut at the fifth jump point inside Gorgon's territory."

"It was a perfect defense," he said evenly. "The deeper in Jartan went, the more he had to leave behind to protect each point in our communications line. I would assume that after the fifth jump point was outflanked and taken, Gorgon's people followed up the line, cutting point after point."

"So Jartan's still cut off and there's no hope of contacting him?" Tulana asked.

Pina nodded. "Jartan might not even know yet that he's been cut off, or could assume that it's a minor harassment to his rear and continue to press forward. It could be weeks before he comes back. If he followed standard battle doctrine, he would have kept a strong point midway on his communications line.

Hopefully that point will hold, but even it could be outflanked and cut off."

"A masterful deception," Boreas commented.

"Obviously well planned," Pina replied, with a slight hint of admiration for the professional skill of his adversary. "I suspect Jartan will perceive this merely as a delaying and harassing action and will continue to press his attack into the heart of Gorgon's realm."

"And we lose Haven," Leti said grimly. "The whole thing fits together so nicely. Lure the gods off Haven, lead them on a wild chase, then cut straight into the heart of our realm."

"But it hasn't all gone according to plan," Ikawa replied, the slightest edge of rebuke in his voice.

Boreas and Leti looked up at him.

"Vena was supposed to steal the Crystals of Fire without our even being aware that they were gone. The portal would have been opened, again without our being aware of it. If our attention had not been drawn to it, and at least some of her shielding penetrated by the power of the Heart"--he pointed to the massive gem glowing before the group--"Gorgon might already be among us."

"There's been a delay of nearly ten days as well," Ikawa continued forcefully. "I dare say that Gorgon's forces have taken a terrible beating from the gods while he waited for the crystals to be retrieved."

"We must fight our way through," Boreas pointed out. "It'll take us three days to reach her realm. We'll have no levies of armed men available--there is no time to march them down there. I am bringing all my sorcerers; when I left I had already passed the word to marshal here."

"How many will that be?" Leti asked.

"Just under seventy with warrior skills--and that will strip my realm bare. Twenty are already here with me"--he paused--"including Giorgini."

Ikawa looked at Mark, who stiffened, but did not comment.

"We have only a hundred or so from Jartan's provinces," Leti said, "and most of those are not of the top echelon. We can get another forty or so from the free guilds and minor fiefdoms."

"I brought up ten from Landra, and we can pick up another ten from occupation duty in Sarnak's old territory," Pina interjected. "Those of Minar's provinces closest to us can throw in another forty or so."

"Twelve from my territories," Tulana said coldly. "I had to leave seven behind to protect my cities from the Cresus."

"And there's us," Ikawa said.

"Around three hundred then, who can make it here in time," Boreas said. "Calling up transport people and other nonmilitary sorcerers, we might get four hundred total."

"And the gods know how many hundreds of demon warriors and lords will have already passed through by the time we get there," Leti pointed out.

"It doesn't look good," Valdez grumbled.

"There's nothing else we can do," Boreas snapped. "We have to attack."

"Frontally," Valdez said, "against a fortified position with wall crystals, and the odds already against us?"

He gave a snort of disdain and walked around the Heart crystal to face Boreas. "We'll be slaughtered on the first assault."

"So we stay back here and hide, like frightened children?" Boreas growled.

"Are you accusing me of cowardice?"

"If your people had done their proper job, that woman never would have infiltrated our ranks."

"I take responsibility for that," Valdez snapped.

"You damn well should."

"If you want satisfaction, I'm ready to meet you any time," Valdez shouted.

Boreas leaped to his feet. "Here and now, if you don't like what I said."

"Damn you, we're suppose to be fighting on the same side," Ikawa roared, coming up to stand between Valdez and Boreas.

Leti came up beside Ikawa and angrily put her hands on Boreas shoulders. "Valdez is the best security advisor in Jartan's realms. He's better than mine, he's better even than your Farnak. If she got past him, she'd have gotten past any of our people."

"I don't need you to defend me," Valdez said slowly, his voice brimming with rage.

"I need all of us to work together," Leti shouted. "If you two want to kill each other later--if there is a later--then go ahead."

Ikawa took Valdez by the shoulders and gently pushed him away from Boreas. "Not now," he whispered. "First Patrice, who has insulted you far more by what she did."

"But I must redeem my honor," Valdez whispered, torment in his eyes.

"You've never lost it."

Valdez was silent, and Ikawa felt his throat tighten. He could understand the torment of this man.

Through an unprecedented security breach, an enemy had stolen into the heart of Jartan's realm and opened the way for attack. The guilt was slowly killing the man.

"For the common good of us all, don't cause a breach between our people and Boreas."

Valdez looked into Ikawa's eyes, and for the first time since coming to Haven, Ikawa could see confusion in the old warrior's face.

"We settle it later," Valdez growled, breaking free from Ikawa and looking back at Boreas.

The demigod merely nodded.

"Yet I still say that a frontal attack on Patrice's city is suicide," Valdez told the council. "She might believe that word has yet to reach us of the danger and it'll be several days before we can respond. But nevertheless her defenses will be deployed. Hours before we hit, she'll know we're moving in. In fact, she'll fully anticipate our arrival."

The room was silent for a moment.

"There is no other way," Leti said finally. "Perhaps with the Heart crystal we can cut our way in."

"The damn thing's a wonderful weapon," Boreas replied, "but cumbersome. It'll take my strength, and yours as well, just to move it. In an air battle it'll be next to useless, and we'll have to fight our way across twenty, maybe fifty miles, before we even reach the walls where the power of the Heart can be brought to bear in its full strength. Even if we breach the walls and knock out her heavy crystals, we'll still have to fight our way over and into the palace, cut our way through, and then finally smash the portal down--a position which will be swarming with Gorgon's denizens."

The room was silent again as everyone in the chamber considered his words.

"Then we'll have to try from another direction," Tulana said quietly.

"I figured we'd get around to this sooner or later, and I didn't feel like wasting my breath first," he went on. With a snap of his fingers, one of his sorcerers stepped forward and unrolled a chart on the table before the Heart Crystal.

"My forces are already moving. Just remember I'm the one who thought it up when it comes to reward time later."

Chapter 15.

"This is Red Team calling in," Walker said, breaking comm link silence. "I've got many, many bandits coming up at twelve o'clock."

"Fifty at least," Kraut shouted, winging up alongside Walker. "No, make that seventy-five plus."

"Seventy-five plus," Walker repeated into his crystal.

"What are bandits?" a voice crackled through the interference that Patrice's defensive teams were putting down.

Walker looked over at Kraut and shook his head.

"The guys in the black hats. The enemy!"

"Acknowledged," came the curt reply.