Martuch said, 'This is madness.'

Pug laughed. He found himself suddenly unable to stop laughing. Hirea and the two Lessers who served the White stood in obvious shock at the sound coming from the seemingly empty air. The effect was doubly troubling, for not only was the source of the sound not apparent but, to the Dasati mind, laughter was closely linked to pain and death.

'Father, what is it?' asked Magnus, and Pug's laughter stopped.

'I'm sorry,' said Pug. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 'I was suddenly struck by the enormity of what we have to do and then to have Martuch call it madness... everything we have encountered since the advent of Leso Varen has been wholesale madness. So I was overcome by a sense of how mad must it be for what we're doing now to be singled out as madness in the midst of all this other insanity. I don't know why it struck me as funny, but it did.'

Magnus said, 'You're just tired, Father.'

'We all are.'

Hirea said, 'I see no humour here.' He stood up from where he had been sitting quietly. 'If you must do this thing to reach your friends, it is best we do it soon. There is a very small amount of time left before our presence anywhere near the Palace Guards' enclave will be noticed.' Without another word he climbed the ladder to the trapdoor. He lifted the door and peered about, making sure no one was in that part of the grove before continuing up.

Pug and Magnus followed, Magnus telling Martuch when he was clear of the ladder. The warrior and the two Lessers followed, and when all were above ground, the trapdoor was replaced.

It was evening, but enough was going on in the city that two warriors riding as if on urgent business would hardly be noticed. Martuch had been adamant about the need to be into the palace and out again before dawn. He had given Pug explicit instructions on how to reach the most likely location to find Nakor and Bek: the recruits' barracks.

Pug and Magnus mounted behind the two warriors and held tightly as the war-trained varnin were unsettled by the additional weight on their backs. Martuch and Hirea moved off at a brisk pace, for two riders in the middle of a supposedly empty orchard at this time of day might arouse interest.

They rapidly made their way to the first tunnel into the city proper and if anyone took note of their pa.s.sing, it was not apparent. Quickly they moved down busy boulevards, though they were less crowded than would be usual. The recent Great Culling had taken its toll. While death was a constant in Dasati life, there was a hint of antic.i.p.ation and anxiety in the air, that somehow the Culling was but a foreshadowing of more troubles approaching.

When they had first come to this realm, Pug had noticed that many Deathknights would venture into the evening without benefit of armour, preferring comfortable robes and riding on less temperamental mounts than war-varnin. And many more ladies of the Dasati thronged the streets, moving freely from one location to another, from those places designated for food and beverage, akin to the Midkemian inn or restaurant, and places reserved for Lessers of particular skill groups, the closest thing the Dasati had to shops; but tonight there were hardly any women in sight and no man was abroad who wasn't wearing armour, save for Lessers following Deathknights.

Of Deathpriests and Hierophants he saw none. All were busy and that was another sign that something important was underway. Pug didn't know if it meant preparation for the invasion of Kelewan though he thought the leaders of the great houses and the societies would be given some warning to muster or perhaps another Culling, should the Dark One need more death-magic to create more portals.

As they reached the precinct whose entrance was closest to the quarters likely to house Bek and Nakor, Martuch and Hirea reined in their varnin. Martuch spoke without looking back. 'We will take backstreets and circle the precinct. We will return here at sunrise. If you are able to, be visible and we will stop as if you belong to us and have you follow behind. If not, we will pause. Speak to us if you can and let us know what you need. If we do not find you...' He let the thought go unfinished. Pug knew what he meant.

'If we don't find you,' he said softly. 'We will find our own way back to the Grove.'

Hirea said, 'Good fortune.'

'And you,' answered Pug.

When the two riders had departed, Pug said, 'Magnus?'

'Here, Father,' came a voice to his right. Magnus reached out and made contact.

'We need to stay close to the wall. One touch by even a Lesser and we are undone.'

They hurried into the tunnel, past a series of closed doors and curtained windows.

'Everyone seems to be keeping out of sight,' said Magnus softly.

'That's to our benefit,' answered his father.

Down the long hallway they scurried. The corridor Was wide enough for half a dozen riders to pa.s.s shoulder to shoulder, but it was deserted. Pug worried that it was so quiet someone might hear the sound of their pa.s.sing, but he pressed on. There were no guards anywhere to be seen which seemed very strange, but then Pug remembered he was not dealing with human rulers here. Even the Emperors of Tsuranuanni or Great Kesh had over the ages been confronted by ambitious n.o.bles and threats from within as well as by enemies across their borders. But here, the TeKarana commanded almost universal obedience the only exception being the White such a minority as to be no more than a myth to the ma.s.ses of the Dasati Empire. When the vast majority of males in the population are under arms and loyal to the point of fanaticism, security becomes an afterthought.

Martuch had given him precise instructions on how to find the new recruits' barracks and they soon reached the first dormitory. But once through the door they realized the enormity of the task, for arrayed on each side of the aisle in which they found themselves were hundreds of bunks, in which sleeping Dasati youths rested. How to find Bek?

Lessers were scattered around the room on sleeping mats on the floor, making any attempt to walk between the sleeping cots very risky. But they could walk the perimeter of the room, and this they did, moving quickly and quietly through the first room, but seeing no one who resembled the huge young warrior or Nakor.

They pa.s.sed into a second room, and a third, and there was still no sign of either Bek or Nakor. Several times sleeping young Deathknights would stir, but Pug found it remarkable that the Dasati didn't snore, nor did they seem to move much when sleeping; to a man they all slept on their backs and while there was some variation in position, none of them slept on their sides or stomachs. Pug wondered if it was some sort of survival trait: not moving while you're asleep lessens the chance of a predator finding you, or perhaps it allowed the sleeper a quicker response time if attacked. He didn't know, but he found the almost uniform sleeping pose oddly disturbing.

But when they reached the fourth chamber, their fortunes changed. In a far corner they found Bek sitting up on his bunk. Nakor sat on the floor, speaking to him in a very low voice. As they neared, Pug could hear him saying, 'Soon things will change and you will have a great deal to do in a very short time.'

Bek whispered, 'Yes, Nakor. I understand.'

'Good,' Nakor whispered in return. 'I may not always be with you so I must be certain you know exactly what it is you're supposed to do if I'm not there.'

'I understand,' repeated the young warrior.

'Good. Now, go to sleep. I must speak with Pug and Magnus.'

Bek lay back in the same position as all the other Dasati warriors, and Nakor turned, looking right at Pug and Magnus. 'I was wondering when you'd find me.'

Still invisible, Pug asked, 'How?'

'Later,' said Nakor, standing up. 'Make me invisible, too. If they find me wandering around, I'll be killed. There's something I must show you.'

Soon Nakor was as invisible as Pug and Magnus. He whispered, 'We must go through that door on the left over there,' - it was clear which door he indicated - 'and then down the corridor to the right. I'll tell you where next when we reach an intersection.'

He moved silently out of the barracks and when they pa.s.sed through the door, Pug could see that they had left the last of the recruits' barracks. Nakor's whisper carried well enough that they didn't have to strain to hear, for this corridor, like the others, was empty. 'Something big is going to happen, soon, Pug. Everyone is terrified. Even the Deathknights. I don't know why. I've never seen fear in a Dasati before. I mean, I've seen cringing Lessers, but that is is as much a part of their role as true fear any Lesser who thought he had an opportunity to kill a Deathknight or Deathpriest and win status would do so without hesitation but even Deathknights can barely conceal their trepidation.' as much a part of their role as true fear any Lesser who thought he had an opportunity to kill a Deathknight or Deathpriest and win status would do so without hesitation but even Deathknights can barely conceal their trepidation.'

'I can feel it,' answered Magnus. 'Something is making them afraid.'

Pug let out a long sigh. 'I have been battling disquiet, too, since we left the Grove.'

'We all have strong minds,' answered Nakor. 'Think how it must be to these people, who don't know fear.'

'Where's it coming from?' asked Pug.

'That's what I want to show you.' They reached the junction and Nakor said, 'Now we go to the left, and it's a long way. I'm going to run and I suggest you do the same. When you reach the end, you'll know where to stop.'

'Wait,' said Magnus. 'I can still fly us if we stay low.'

They rose off the ground again, and sped along the corridor. Pug hoped his son's control was as precise as it needed to be, for he had no doubt magical skills would be of little aid if they went bouncing off a stone wall.

The corridor went on for what must have been miles; unlike the others it was unlit. Pug now had to completely rely on the illumination from the stones, invisible to the human eye, but providing a low residue of shapes and textures to the Dasati eye. He would miss this ability, he thought, when he got home... and felt a sudden stab of pain, an anxiety he had not experienced.

He knew he would somehow get home. He had been promised that by no less than the G.o.ddess of Death, for she had foretold his fate, and he was doomed to live until he had served the G.o.ds' purpose and that fate also included watching everyone he loved die before him. He would get home, but he had no way of knowing if Magnus or Nakor would.

'You can slow down now,' said Nakor. 'We're coming to the end.'

They reached the end of the very long corridor, Pug calculating they must have flown more than two miles. 'I almost got caught here, last time,' said Nakor. 'I wasn't invisible. It's a trick you'd think I'd have learned by now. I talked my way out of getting killed.'

Pug was amused, and wished he could have heard that exchange, for he had no doubt the Dasati who had been here had been as confused as any human once Nakor got through with one of his confidence tricks. 'You'll have to tell me about it some time.'

'We can get visible now,' said Nakor.

Pug ended the spell of invisibility.

'Where are we?'

'This is a most clever and useful thing,' said Nakor. They stood on a platform and Pug could feel a vibration through his feet and heard a deep and distant thrumming noise. 'Soon a thing like a wagon is going to come by and we are going to get on it. Move quickly because it doesn't slow down.'

'What-?' began Magnus, just as the device Nakor had described appeared.

It was like a wagon, in so far as it had a flat bed and what would have been a driver's bench, except there were no animals drawing it. And rather than a cargo bed in the back, there were more benches. 'Jump!' Nakor shouted.

They did, and all three arrived within one bench of one another.

'It takes some practice, I guess,' said Nakor.

'What is it?'

'I don't know what they call it here, but I think of it as a really big tram.'

'Tram?' asked Magnus.

'Miners use them,' said his father. 'Dolgan the dwarf king in the Grey Towers told me about them. We were travelling through an ancient mine and I saw an abandoned tram off in a side tunnel.'

Nakor said, 'I've seen them down in Kesh, in the copper and tin mines. They have big wheels so they can be pulled by mules. They load them up with ore and haul it out of the mine. They use little ones they push by hand to fill the big ones. Sometimes they lay roadways of wood.'

'How does this thing work?'

'There's some ma.s.sive contrivance, an engine of some sort, perhaps water-driven or by some other means, that moves along on a giant tether in a big loop. If you ride it long enough, you end up back where you got on.' He paused. 'Hang on, there's a place ahead where we-' Before he could finish there was a hard jolt and suddenly the tram picked up speed. 'I think there's a device that moves it from a slow tether to a fast one. There's another jolt when we slow down at the other end.'

'Who built it?' The Dasati?' asked Magnus. Pug understood his son's question. The constructions on this world and Kosridi were ma.s.sive, beyond the abilities of people on Midkemia or Kelewan who had built some impressive structures by human standards. But the scale of the building and engineering in this world required such things as they had observed: ma.s.sive doors beyond any known means of moving; arching bridges that spanned miles and defied the imagination. Nothing they had seen of the Dasati indicated that this was a significant population with the talents and abilities to build such things, nor was there a hint of any new construction or projects. To all appearances, it was a society stagnant to the point of necrosis.

'Where does this take us?' asked Pug.

'Into the heart of madness,' replied Nakor as the tram sped along into a vast tunnel leading to the darkness.

The tunnel seemed endless. Pug lost track of time, though he was certain they had been moving for less than half an hour. Still, at the rate of speed they were travelling, they must be at least ten or more miles from where they boarded. 'How much longer?'

'We're about half way. That's why I said we had to hurry. And we cannot linger at our destination. Or at least I can't. You and Magnus can decide what to do when I show you what you need to see. I have to get back before they rouse the recruits lest Bek does something... well, something that Bek might do.'

Pug noticed that since coming to the second realm, Nakor's usually cheery spirits were all but absent. He was subdued, and Pug could understand why: not only were the Dasati a grim and b.l.o.o.d.y people by human standards, but their concept of humour was almost exclusively limited to pain and suffering. There was more. Over the last few weeks, there had been a growing sense of despair and fear, and the att.i.tudes and habits of the population in the city had been changing. Fewer ventured out after dark, and markets that had been thronging when Pug had first arrived on Omadrabar were all but deserted. Groups of Lessers scurried in the shadows and cringed visibly as Deathknights rode past. Deathpriests and Hierophants were all but absent from public view, being locked away in the black heart of the Dark One's temple, involved in preparations for the Dark One's next horror.

Martuch and Hirea were even more stoic than usual, barely speaking unless asked direction questions. Pug was left with the impression that there was usually a sense of relief after a Great Culling, a sense of survival and relative calm. But this time something was different. Rumours abounded in the city, but no one really knew what was coming next, for nothing like this had ever occurred before. The loss of two of the TeKarana's legions was a sacrifice unprecedented in Dasati history.

The tram jerked and slowed and Nakor said, 'We get off in a moment.'

They stood up, and when the tram moved alongside a long platform, they all stepped off. 'This way,' said the little gambler.

They hurried down another long corridor and then Nakor stopped them. 'From here I got lost, and the only reason I wasn't killed was because Bek behaved himself back at the training barracks so no one noticed his Lesser was not there for a day. I wandered around and found this thing I must show you. But now that you're here we can get there fast.' To Pug he said, 'You need to make us invisible again.' To Magnus he said, 'You need to fly us, straight up there.' He pointed up into the gloom above them. 'It goes very far up. Then you'll need to fly us straight that way,' he pointed straight ahead, 'and then we'll need to go down, very far down, into a very dark place. Are you ready?'

Pug said, 'Yes,' and wove his enchantment, rendering all three of them invisible.

'Hold on,' said Magnus and Pug gripped Nakor with one hand, and his son with the other. They rose straight up into the air, rising rapidly until there was nothing but gloom above and below.

'How far up does this go?' asked Pug.

'Seventy-five flights of stairs, but I lost count so it may be seventy-six or seven.'

They reached the topmost floor and Nakor said, 'A bit more, over the rooftops.'

Magnus took them up until they were higher than the highest roof. The sky above was still lost in darkness. 'How big is this place?' asked Magnus.

'Really big,' answered Nakor. 'I used a couple of tricks and the best I can tell is that the roof is another two thousand feet above us.'

'Who could build such a thing?' asked Pug.

'And how?' said Magnus.

'Only the G.o.ds, I think,' replied Nakor. 'Only the old G.o.ds of the Dasati.'

Remembering the Necropolis of the G.o.ds in Novindus, Pug said, 'Perhaps. Certainly I can't imagine any mortal being building this.'

'Neither can I,' said Nakor. 'And I can imagine a lot of things.'

They flew above the huge set of rooms below them, and at last came to a vast cavern. 'How big, do you think?' asked Pug.

'Miles,' said Nakor. 'They have a lifting device I found a distance from here, and it took a long time for me to get where we are going. But no matter where I was, or what sort of tricks I used, I couldn't see the far side. It was like standing on the edge of a great bay where you can see coasts curving to your right and left, but vanishing into the mist, and you can't see beyond the horizon.'

'Where are we?' asked Magnus.

'Ah,' said Nakor. 'I thought you'd have deduced it; we're in the Temple of the Dark One himself.' Softly, he added, 'He's down there.'

Downward they sped, through a murk unmatched by anything Pug had ever encountered, for not only was it devoid of light, it was as if life itself had been leached out of the very fabric of reality. Soon they saw a light below them, an angry red-orange glow with a tiny fringe of green at the edges. 'The G.o.d is down there,' said Nakor, softly, as if fearful of being heard.

'But won't we be seen?' asked Magnus.

'It seems occupied with its own concerns,' said Nakor. 'At least the last time I was here, it didn't pay attention to me.'

They continued down, until a shape emerged in the middle of the red-orange glow. At this distance it was a large featureless black ma.s.s, but as they approached they could see it was undulating around the edges. 'What is that?' whispered Magnus.

Nakor said, 'That is the Dark G.o.d.'

Pug looked astonished. He had interacted with the G.o.ds on Midkemia but they had always presented themselves in roughly human form. This being, however, looked nothing remotely like a human or even a Dasati.

It was enormous, easily hundreds of yards across and its shape was difficult to apprehend, because the edges kept moving, flowing and undulating, as if a supple bag of some material had been filled with oil or water, yet it moved with a slower motion than liquid. Pug was reminded of silk flowing slowly in a breeze. There was no colour on the surface of the being, yet it could not properly be called black. The sensation was that of a void of colour and light, without the accompanying energies visible to the Dasati eye. Evil, was how Pug thought of it, yet even that was attributing too much vibrancy and dimension to it. It was devoid of anything he could recall... save for one time! He pushed aside a stab of fear bordering on panic.

The head of the creature was ma.s.sive, but dwarfed by the enormity of the rest of its body, rising up at least four feet above the torso, on some semblance of a neck.