The materbill roared once more.

The witch of Zaygoth closed her eyes and died.

Chapter 6

"Your Worship!" Dahos called. "The woman has turned the guards to stone!"

"I see that, you idiot!" Hederick raged. A dozen novi shy;tiates huddled underneath the platform, but Hederick refused to show any panic. "Send more guards against her, fool!"

The high priest didn't move right away. Instead he stared in awe at the elderly mage. "What power!" he mur shy;mured. Then Dahos raised his voice to a level that could be heard by Hederick. "Your Worship, the woman has stopped two dozen guards. She hurls bolts of lightning around the courtyard like so many twigs. Yet she has harmed no one. Why should this be?"

"She wants only me," Hederick shouted. "She would kill me if she could, but I am too strong for her! Double the forces, high priest!"

Dahos looked from the bolt-hurling enchantress to the High Theocrat. Then he gestured curtly to the captain of Erolydon's guards. The chief guard put a horn to his lips and blew.

The front entrance of the temple building crashed open, and six goblins, clad in leather armor and wielding maces and spears, hurtled through. Blinking against the painful light, they shoved the panic-stricken people aside, injur shy;ing more than one person in the process. Yellow Eyes dashed toward Ancilla and Tarscenian, his five comrades at his heels. "Endit the lady witch!" Yellow Eyes thun shy;dered. "Kill 'em!"

The goblins did no better than the guards. Twenty paces from Ancilla and Tarscenian, they crashed into an invisible wall of magical origin and slid, senseless, to the cobblestones.

"By Sauvay!" Hederick swore. The witch had never challenged him so directly before. He shoved his hand into the front of his robe and drew forth an object. Then Hederick thrust his hand toward Ancilla. Suddenly he and Dahos were bathed in glittery light. The device shone too brightly for any but Hederick to discern its subtle details. To most, it was a glowing ball, no more.

"Leave off, witch!" Hederick bellowed. "My gods pro shy;tect me, here as everywhere."

"You must stop this evil, Hederick." Ancilla spoke in a normal tone, but her voice seemed to echo from the marble walls, the stones of the courtyard, and the iron of the gates. Lightning continued to ricochet around the area. The materbill, smeared with ashes and blood, snarled and dashed back to the door through which it had emerged. Responding to Hederick's command, a frightened novitiate frantically hauled on the rope, and the leonine creature dis shy;appeared safely into Erolydon's lower reaches.

"Norvir tonwek." Ancilla's gravelly voice insinuated itself around Hederick like a noose.

"You can't stop me, Ancilla," Hederick said.

"Centinbil chuffhing, adon."

"I'm well aware of your pathetic attempts to impede me," Hederick shouted. "You cannot harm me-not while I have the Diamond Dragon of my lord Sauvay." He held it aloft, exulting in the control it gave him. Let the masses see the power that their High Theocrat wielded!

"Gatefil antogys adon."

"What will it be this time, Ancilla? Will you again use magic to try to usurp my followers, my closest aides? They will not forsake me, witch. They cannot harm me, either, despite your wishes. My lord Sauvay made the Diamond Dragon too strong for simple subterfuge."

Hederick taunted her, suddenly conscious of the stares of hundreds of awestruck Seeker converts. He could imagine their thoughts: The High Theocrat was single-handedly taking on a mage of the highest order-and clearly winning-without magic!

"Surrender now, Ancilla," he coaxed. "I will make sure you and Tarscenian die quickly. I will not draw out the time of your deaths, even though you do not deserve my mercy. A mage and a false Seeker priest! Sauvay and Omalthea will rejoice at your deaths. They will rain their benefactions upon me and my followers." He turned to face the crowd, once again holding forth the Diamond Dragon, and cried, "Hear me, people of Solace!"

Ancilla's hands could barely be seen, so quickly did they whirl in the air. Her eyes gleamed. "Gatefil antogys adon. Shiral." Magical powders gyrated around her, join shy;ing and separating to create rainbows of color. The High Theocrat had never seen such a display of magical power.

But there was nothing here that the Diamond Dragon of Sauvay could not stop, Hederick was sure of that. He held the artifact higher, shifting it so that it threw off multitudi shy;nous sparkles in the midday sun. As always, the people appeared mesmerized-all but Ancilla and her unholy mate. Hederick's sister appeared to have thrown some sort of protective spell around Tarscenian, sheltering him from the effect of Sauvay's Diamond Dragon.

Ancilla spoke. "If you will not cease this activity, Hed shy;erick, I will remove you from your beloved Erolydon."

Hederick smiled disdainfully, confident that with the support of Sauvay he would prevail. The High Theocrat had nothing to fear.

Ancilla's seamed face was implacable as she continued her warning. "Oh, I'll not send you too far away, Heder shy;ick," she said. "I would not deprive you of your temple. But you will be someplace where you can no longer harm the innocent."

He laughed malevolently and once again displayed the Diamond Dragon.

"Ghezhit."

Hederick saw a purple cloud speed toward him. The front of the magical creation opened like a dragon's maw. The nimbus expanded, the vapor reforming until a purple lizard seemed to tower over him, nearly as large as the courtyard. Claws reached hungrily for the High Theocrat.

Ancilla continued to chant, triumph apparent in her stance and in every syllable she uttered. Where had she accumulated such power? Hederick wondered.

"Centinbil chuffhing, adon. Ghezhit. Gatefil antogys adon. Ghezhit."

The lizard's nebulous mouth opened farther. The magi shy;cal creature lunged.

And Hederick turned the Diamond Dragon to face the magical wyrm it so closely resembled.

A flash, and roiling smoke. Then the lizard recoiled in the sky above Erolydon, tail churning the air, front legs pawing at a slash in its vaporous belly. It wheeled about in midair.

And charged back toward Ancilla and Tarscenian.

"Sederai donitan!" Ancilla chanted. She shoved Tarscen-ian aside and stood alone against the monster's charge.

The cloud creature swallowed her whole. Where Hed-erick's sister had stood only moments ago, now there was… nothing.

Chaos prevailed for a few moments before the temple guards and Hederick's goblins regained their senses. By the time the High Theocraf s minions recovered and could begin forcing their way through the panicked people, Tarscenian was out the gate and racing toward the vallen-woods.

Chapter 7

The temple guards had no chance against Tarscenian's advantage of surprise, and his magic gave him even better odds of eluding them.

The leather-clad goblins and the blue-and-yellow-arrayed guards raced after the sound of running feet that seemed to be pounding toward Solace. Thanks to an effec shy;tive illusion on Tarscenian's part, the guards followed only sounds. His pursuers were certain they would catch up with their elusive quarry around each bend in the Solace road, only to find when they rounded a corner that he was still beyond their line of sight.

Meanwhile, Tarscenian lay in an outcropping of ferns near the temple.

Ancilla was dead.

After five decades fighting Seekerism together, they had ultimately failed. Hederick was High Theocrat, and was fully convinced of his own divine destiny. He was stronger and more powerful than ever, seemingly invincible. Forty white-robed mages were doomed to slow deaths within the bark of as many vallenwoods. Worse, the people of Krynn now stood helpless against the evil of Hederick and his Seekers.