Pug looked back and saw the others in the White company were also watching as Bek weighed into the fray, laying about with his sword as if he were a giant among mere men. He took wounds, but ignored them, and each time he struck a Talnoy guard fell. Quickly the Talnoy began to do something unthinkable a moment earlier, turning to flee. Bek crippled two from behind before they could take a step, then set off in pursuit of the handful that were trying to organize a stand on the far side of the room. In a half-dozen strides, Bek was upon them and with the efficiency of a butcher in an abattoir he finished them off in moments. Then the room fell silent. Deathknights of the White stood in mute astonishment at what they had just witnessed.
Valko said, ‘This will not last long. No matter how much confusion exists in the palace and the city beyond, as soon as we pass through that door into the TeKarana’s inner chambers, every loyal Talnoy guard and palace Deathknight will come as quickly as they can. We must move decisively and without hesitation.’ He turned to his company, many of whom were barely able to stand, and said, ‘No one beyond that door is our friend.’
Valko looked at the Deathpriests who had joined them and saw Father Juwon, one of the first to begin his training to serve the White. He was as highly placed in the Brotherhood of the Dark One as any serving the White, and a powerful practitioner of magic. He hurried over and said, ‘Your mother and sister are well.’ He spoke rapidly. ‘We located the traitor, a Lesser who served in the kitchen. He revealed himself to be a Deathpriest and did not die easily. Everyone you left behind is safe and the Bloodwitch Sisterhood is intact, and ready to serve when needed.’
‘How go things elsewhere in the city?’ asked Pug, ignoring the odd expression on the face of the High Priest when a Lesser spoke up without permission.
‘This is the human magician, Pug,’ said Valko. ‘And that Lesser there is also a human magician.’ He indicated Magnus.
A voice from behind the priests said, ‘And I am, too.’
They looked around, and there was Nakor. The little man said, ‘I mean, I’m human; I’m not a magician. I’m a gambler. But I know a few tricks.’
The Deathpriests did not seem to know what to make of Nakor.
Pug said, ‘We haven’t much time. How are things?’
‘Madness, beyond anything we have ever encountered, or even heard about; what is happening now to the people of this planet makes the Great Culling we recently endured look like nothing more than ridding a tiny bush of pests. Now there is wholesale murder around the world, Valko.’ Juwon closed his eyes for an instant, a gesture Pug found very human, then he looked at the young Deathknight. ‘While the great muster waits patiently to go to the human realm and die on another world for the glory of the Dark One, tens of thousand of Lessers are being slaughtered everywhere.’
‘Everywhere,’ said another Deathpriest. ‘It’s as if no living thing on Omadrabar is safe.’
‘Nothing is,’ said Pug. ‘I know more of the nature of rifts and magic portals than any man living on my world or on the Tsurani world. This thing that tethers this world and Kelewan is like nothing I’ve sensed before. I can’t be certain until I get closer to it, but the only thing I have seen that is remotely like it was the death rift used by a mad human magician to leave Midkemia for Kelewan.’
‘What are these rifts you speak of?’ asked Valko.
Nakor said, ‘Be brief; we have little time left.’
‘Rifts are portals, if you will, between worlds. Those I understand are fashioned with magic that is both powerful and subtle. But this one, used between our two realms, is a thing of deathmagic, necromancy of a power beyond my capacity to contemplate. It is more like a vast tunnel, allowing travel in both directions, and it is fuelled by the deaths of your people. I think there must be a way to close it, to save my realm from the Dark One, but I won’t know until I reach it.
‘The Dark One is a bloated creature of the Void, near-mindless in his hunger for life. The next realm, my home, is far richer in life. That is why he seeks to rise into my realm, rather than extend his reach beyond the Twelve Worlds.’ Almost to himself he added, ‘The only mystery is how he found the means to reach our plane from yours.’ Pug paused, then continued, ‘The Dreadlord is seeking a way into my realm using the deaths of your people as a means. He has been devouring your people for ages, building up his strength and readying himself for this migration to my realm. He’s now using this wholesale murder to fuel the rift between our worlds, and doesn’t care if he kills every living thing on this world or the other eleven ruled by the Karanas in his name.
‘He will destroy the entire Dasati race if needed to reach the next plane of reality. There is nothing that can change the fate of the Twelve Worlds unless we conspire to destroy the Dark One.’
Valko looked to where Bek waited, his body covered in orange blood, his eyes fixed on the doorway leading into the inner sanctum of the TeKarana. ‘Is he the Godkiller?’
‘If he isn’t, I don’t know who is,’ said Pug.
‘No,’ said Nakor. ‘He is not the Godkiller.’
All eyes turned to Nakor.
In amazement Pug said, ‘What did you say?’
‘I said he’s not the Godkiller. Bek is here to allow the Godkiller to destroy the Dark One, but he is not the Godkiller.’
‘I don’t und—’ began Pug.
‘There’s no time,’ said Nakor. ‘Bek, open that door!’