Trek to Kraggen-Cor (30 page)

The Sun sank lower, and now its rays crept up and away from the black mere until they struck only the Great Arch of the Loom. And at the moment that the last ray left the lake and its leaden surface fell into shadow, Cotton's searching eyes saw a hugh ominous wave flowing out of the dim recesses of the southernmost end—as if something large and fast were speeding just below the surface . . . speeding toward the Door.

"Look!" Cotton shouted and pointed. "The Warder comes!"

Durek spun and saw the fast-flowing wake, a hurtling wedge of water, its point aimed at the Dwarves. "Chdkka shokf'he barked, and all the Dwarves grimly drew their axes, and Cotton and Rand unsheathed their swords, while Brytta gripped his spear.

On came the great wave, a massive flowing heave in the ebon waters, a foaming black wake churning behind, hard-driven by some hidden leviathan menace. Onward rushed the dark billow, toward the grim-faced Warrow and Men and Dwarves, sword and axes at the ready. And Cotton trembled to see how swiftly it came. Onward the crest of the huge wedge sped, straight toward the Door, nearer and nearer, the wave at last surging and boiling over the strand.

And then a hideous creature was upon them:

Great ropy tentacles writhed out of the water to grasp at the intruders on the shore. Dwarves coiled back and cries of dismay rent the air. Brytta set his black-oxen horn to his lips, but ere he could sound it a huge tendril slapped him aside, and he was whelmed against the Great Loom and fell senseless to the ground at its base.

Then a Dwarf was snared, and another, and another, and drawn struggling in vain back across the strand and pulled beneath the water. Other Dwarves hewed at the slimy arms, but the axes did not cut through the thick, unyielding hide. And Durek was grasped about the waist, a great tendril wrapped about him several times, and he was thrown to his knees and his axe flew forward, lost to his grip; he was slowly dragged toward the foul black water, as if a malevolent evil intelligence was toying with a helpless small thing— torturing it, slowly drawing it toward a horrid death.

Rand sprang forward and drove his black-handled sword down onto the arm, but the blade merely bounced from the vile hide; again and again he struck, but to no avail, and Durek was drawn onward.

Rand flung his own useless sword aside and caught up Durek's silveron-edged axe; but ere the Man could use it, Cotton brought his weapon of the Men of the Lost Land to bear—this Atalar blade had been forged to battle against powers of evil, and its golden runes flashed bright in the dying sunlight. Cotton dropped to one knee and slashed the blade downward in a great overhead two-handed stroke which landed athwart the snaky arm and clove a deep gash in it. Instantly Rand hewed the glittering axe into the opening made by Cotton's weapon; the end of the tentacle was shorn off, to drop from Durek's waist and flop and writhe and coil and lash out with a life of its own. The main tentacle gushed forth black blood and was whipped back into the water as Durek stumbled hindward to the Loom wall

And the creature went mad, for only once before had it ever felt pain, and that was when it had been dealt a wound b\ the ven same Atalar Bid..

blade wielded long ago by yet another who sought to enter the Door; but that pain then was as nothing compared to now, for golden-runed sword and silveron-edged axe together had maimed it dearly.

The foul water roiled with the creature's anger, and a great stench filled the air as twenty or more tentacles boiled forth to lash out and grab Dwarves and fling them against the Loom, and to wrench others into the black lake, swiftly now in rage and no longer slowly in calculated cruelty. The creature grasped a huge boulder and pounded it like a great stone maul, smashing with dreadful effect into the helpless Dwarves. It snatched up several of the Chakka and rolled them in tentacles to squeeze them lifeless; the dead were flung down and others caught up; thus did Turin Stonesplitter die.

Durek looked on with horrified eyes at the havoc being wrought as tens and twenties of his kindred were destroyed. "Flee!" he cried. "Back!" And Rand, calling upon a reserve of hidden strength unexpected in one of his slim build, hoisted unconscious Brytta over his shoulder and carried the stunned warrior as they all scrambled and fled northward, trapped within the creature's reach on the narrow strand between the Loom and the water.

Cotton ran in terror, stumbling and scuttling over the rocks and slabs as the creature's great tentacles lashed and flailed all around him, grasping and smashing and slaying. A huge tendril whipped into the rocks just ahead of him, but the Warrow leapt over it and ran on as it snatched empty air inches behind him. A Dwarf was grabbed up from beside him and hurled into the Loom. A ropy arm cracked the great rock hammer to smash into the ground to miss Cotton again. Another tentacle shot out to bar the way, but the buccan slashed it with his sword of Atala, and again the bitter blade gashed the creature; the cut arm lashed back and forth, but Cotton fell flat and it swept overhead.

The frightened Warrow scrambled up and fled onward, across the bridge and along the sundered causeway. And all around him, before and after, others ran and fell and scuttled and fled and died as the Helarms pursued, still under the black surface, with only its huge tentacles worming and writhing and grasping and smashing fleeing victims, until the quarry came to the north end where the water was too shallow for the creature to follow. Even then its great bulk flanked the shore as the survivors made for the dam, but they stayed well up out of the Monster's reach as, weeping and defeated, they came stumbling down the hill to the Host.

An hour passed and the dusk deepened, and still Durek sat on a rock, unmoving, with his hood cast over his head. The gathered Legion waited in silence, even those who wept. Brytta had regained his senses, and he, too, sat grim and silent as Hogon bandaged the Reachmarshal's right hand, broken by the Krakenward's slap. Rand stood with his own hands tightly clasped behind his back, his face stern, staring at the fading violet sky to the west as dusk yielded to night and the vale gradually fell into darkness. Cotton sat

nearby on the slopes in the twilight as slowly his horror and grief gave way to a dull red hate. And then from across the lake there sounded a great clatter of rock, and a sentry came down from the top of the hill and said to Durek, "Sire, the Maduk heaps more stone upon the Door."

Durek sat a moment without moving; then he cast back his hood, and there was a fell look upon his face. "This cannot be borne," his voice grated. "We shall slay that spawn of evil. Get Gaynor to me, and Berez, and Bomar. Bring Tror and his Hammerers and Felor with his Drillers. Before this night is over, it shall be done."

As Cotton watched, the message went forth, and Dwarves arrived, bearing with them tools from the black waggons. Lanterns were unhooded and carried up the stairs to the face of the dam. Gaynor, Berez, and Bomar were all accounted Masterdelvers and had been second only to dead Turin. With King Durek they crawled over the stone face of the dam, studying the fissures in the rock, judging its faults. Then Tror with twelve other Dwarves carrying sledge hammers, and Felor with as many carrying tongs and pointed iron rods and wedges, climbed up to the sites indicated by the Delvers; and they set the rods and irons in place and began hammering them and wedging them into the cracks and crevices. The Host and waggons and animals were gathered up out of the valley and moved to high ground. And by the blue-green light of the Dwarf-lanterns the pounding and delving went on.

They were going to break the dam.

They had hammered but a short time when suddenly a great tentacle looped over the top of the barrier and wrapped about the neck of a Driller, snapping it and then flinging the Dwarf aside. With cries of terror, the others fled downward as more arms writhed and slithered over, reaching and grasping, clutching two more ere the others escaped.

A moan of dismay rose up from the watching Legion as the creature slew their kin and then wrenched loose the drills to throw them aside. The arms lashed and whipped menacingly, then sinuously withdrew as the creature lurked on the far side of the dam. Many Dwarves tore at their beards in rage, but Durek's look became more resolute than ever, and he called the Chief Captains to him. "Fire," he ordered in a grim voice. "Build me a fire on the dam above the drilling site. Make it as fierce, as hot as the heart of a crucible, or an iron forge. Spread it along the top above the work point farther than the Maduk can reach."

Wood was gathered and brands lit; oil was spread on the tinder It quietly carried up to the stonework and placed on top and fired More timber was added, and the flames shot high. When the heat became nearly unbearable the drilling work resumed under the blazing barrier Drillers and Hani merers were spelled often, for it was like working in a furnace sweat poured

off even those watching from the vale sides, and cloaks and jerkins were removed.

When the pounding began again, the creature once more reached a tentacle out of the water, but the flames repelled it; and it moved to a place where the fire was not and groped over the dam but could not reach the workers. There was a great beating and lashing of the water as the frustrated Kraken-ward whipped the surface in its fury. Then it raced to the other end of the flames, but there, too, it was thwarted; and the water boiled and foamed in the Monster's rage; a malodorous reek rose up, and an ominous hissing could be heard, as if from some reptilian source. But the work went on.

The nearly full Moon slowly came over the mountains and added its silver radiance to the firelight and the lantern-glow. And still the work continued.

Clang! Clang! Chink! Clank! The great sledges drove home the drills and wedges under the roar of the fire. Mighty thews swung the mallets with Dwarf-driven force, and each Driller held the rods with the tongs until they were wedged deeply; then they placed longer ones in the crevices when the shorter ones had been driven home. And the stone split slowly along the weakened fissures as many teams cracked the rock in two separate vertical lines some twenty feet apart.

Chank! Clank! Thunk! Chang! The crews nearest the top of the wall— nearest the fire—had to be relieved most often, but those at the bottom required spelling, too. And on the vale sides, Dwarves gathered wood and placed it at the disposal of the fire teams, who kept the blaze going. The entire Host now worked to slay the creature: many who had never drilled took shifts and handled the tongs and irons; others swung the sledges; still others placed wedges to be driven in; wood gatherers and fire teams rotated. Cotton, Rand, Brytta and his Men from Valon, and all the Dwarves were struggling to destroy a creature that alone could slay the entire Army.

And slowly the fissures were widened and deepened. Gaynor went up into the heat and examined the splits, and then he ordered everyone out except four teams—two on each breech—for the fissures now seeped water and would soon give way.

Bang! Clank! Dlang! Chunk! The pounding resumed. But then a great wave smashed into the dam, quenching part of the fire. The creature had found a weapon! Water! Another great dark surge slammed into the dam, and more of the flames were drowned.

Bang! Chank! Fire teams ran with dry wood to start new blazes in the gaps, but sinuous tentacles reached up to smash the Dwarves aside.

Chank! Clang! Blang! Now began a desperate race between stone delvers

and a cunning evil monster Once more the creature used its great bulk and

I toward the dam, pushing the water in a high crest ahead of it. With a

' whoosh, a hist large wave washed over the top and extinguished the

remainder of the fire directly above the workers.

Bang! Clank' Chunk' By the luminous phosphorescence of the Dwarf-

lanterns and the pale radiance of the bright Moon overhead, the Host saw slimy wet tendrils slowly snake over the top, to find the flames gone. Then the tentacles plunged toward the now-fleeing Dwarves, catching up one: Gaynor. It held the Dwarf high and reached up a second hideous arm to grasp him also, and then it exerted its terrible strength and tore him in two and flung the remains down.

Many Dwarves wept and gnashed their teeth and tore at their hair in helpless rage, for the Monster had won. And they watched as the great slimy tendrils groped for more of these small creatures to fling to their deaths, and to smash with rocks, and to squeeze to pulp, and to drown struggling, and to rend in twain. It reached down, but found only more rods to rip out and fling away. It had triumphed! It raised up its hideous tentacles, seeming to celebrate its victory. Cotton wept, while King Durek looked on grimly Berez raged, and Brytta clenched even his broken fist, while Rand closed his eyes in silent grief. Bomar gazed at the failed delving in . . but wait! He stared hard and saw . . . "King Durek!" he shouted. "Look! Look at the fissures''*

Slowly the great long cracks were widening, and water was beginning to gush forth, faster and faster. Almost imperceptibly the ponderous slab began to tilt outward, a splitting and cracking rent the air, and a deep heavy grinding of massive stone upon stone sounded. Then, with a thunderous crash that shook the vale, the giant slab toppled over to smash into the stone of the Sentinel Falls precipice; and then it fell onward, tumbling down the linn to shatter at the bottom. Right behind came a great roar of water, freed at last from its centuries-old trap to blast outward in a great torrent and leap to freedom over the cliff, to plunge toward the Ragad Valley in a massive wall of water that carried giant boulders bouncing and smashing along the ravine and rent great trees from the earth to lash and tumble and splinter in the deluge.

When the slab toppled and the water thundered out, the Krakenward caught directly in front of the gap. Impelled by a force it had never felt before, the evil creature was hurled toward the gaping space, borne outward by the massive surge. Yet as the Monster passed into the roaring slot, it flung out all of its malignant tentacles to grasp the walls of the dam and throw all of its evil power into a mighty pull to propel it back into the depths But the Maduk reckoned not with the whelming dint of the escaping flood, tor the creature's hulk was inexorably drawn through the gap With a malevolent