"Doesn't your own sword bind the powers of the netherspheres, Gord?"

"Yes, Leda, It does that; but it also holds, separately but in conjunction, the might of the spheres of Light. Balance binds all, and enables the forces to be used in equilibrium. The manifold energies of the Eye of Deception can produce terrible results. They are always of Evil. Who can say what can be performed with that great relic? In the end, its employment always benefits the Abyss.

"The sword, though, has no truly dark side, not any longer. Courflamme is the artifact of primordial neutrality. It exists to enable the cosmos to continue as it is, each of the disparate forces within it keeping the others in check. Perhaps it is the doom of Tharizdun, or perhaps the cosmos must change. It is not written anywhere that things will always be as they are."

"We take the Soulless Sounding again, Gord?" The troubador asked that as the three came within a bowshot of the grim walls of Elazalag's castle.

"We must make it seem that way, at least," the young champion of Balance answered. "It is now readily apparent to our enemies what we are about. There will be rejoicing amongst the great demonlords, of course, for now only they among the forces of Evil possess Theorparts. After the celebration, they will begin to scheme and plan how to gain the one I hold. With that will come a further realization, and then understanding will be our greatest threat."

"Don't be so enigmatic, youngster," Gellor said to him. "Let's have the whole of your thoughts. We're in this right alongside you, aren't we?"

"For now, anyway," Gord concurred. "Who can say what will transpire once the first part of the quest is concluded and the final portion commences?"

"Gord!"

"All right, all right. Once the rulers of this place understand that I have one Theorpart, and that I took it with relative ease, It will strike those with the other two that I am the cat, they the rats, and not vice versa." Gord looked at each of his companions in turn. "Consider this: We had the aid of the Abat-dolor to assure success. Perhaps we had to have such aid, although we might have succeeded with stealth and surprise. No matter now, we have the thing from Infestix, and that one is out of play for a time. At best, the foes will possibly assume that in yielding up the Eye of Deception we have made ourselves sufficiently weaker; then they will remain vulnerable."

"But we have Initiator now, and its strength is twice that of the Eye," Leda said with concern. "That cannot escape even dolts such as Szhublox!"

"Not indefinitely. . . ." Gellor commented, considering the lord of demonium.

"It is least likely that they will band together and make common cause to resist us," Gord said with a solemnity unusual to him. "But we must not dismiss the possibility entirely. With two Theorparts, they would equal our own force, and they have countless demon warriors to call upon to guard them too. If father and son, Graz'zt and Iuz, should somehow set aside their differences for the moment, we would never wrest the two remaining parts from their grasp — not in time, anyway."

"Then we must keep the two factions warring," murmured the troubador, stroking his cheek reflectively. "Yet doing so might be difficult."

"Only if we attack one without offering nonhostility to the other," Leda told Gellor. "Graz'zt is the one with whom we must treat, so that is where we will go next."

"That is so, but neither Elazalag nor any other must know that until we have had opportunity to convince the demonking that he must accept us as his allies."

"We will dupe him, then, and when the second Theorpart is in your hands turn both against him?"

"No, Leda, not quite. We will have to mislead Graz'zt, and in the end it might well be necessary to force him to yield Unbinder to me. The thing can bring him only destruction in the end. Tharizdun will have Graz'zt's life amongst the first the Ultimate One slaughters in his new empire of Evil. Demon and deva, no matter. Both sorts are inimical to what that one plans for the multiverse. It could be that the demonking must be killed by us in order to gain the last portion of the key of doom, but at least Graz'zt will have a chance this way. If he manages to hold the Theorpart from us, another will gain it, or the three will unite on their own. Then destruction is a certainty for him and all demons above the dimmest mentalities."

"That is logical. I accept your reasoning," Leda said. "Something you said makes me wonder, though. Why haven't the fractions knitted themselves into the whole again? Once done, Tharizdun is loosed, no matter the hands that the key might temporarily rest in isn't that so?"

Gord nodded. "I cannot answer that. Think, too, of the other mysteries. Basiliv is gone from us — did you know that? No force seems able to gain the upper hand anywhere. . . ."

"The Demiurge is slain?" Leda looked pale. "Only one of stature beyond the gods could accomplish that! Even so small a thing as my ability to draw forth the energies of the Eye, to employ it with ever-greater success and not be drained to a shell by its inherent evilness. ... I saw Vuron look puzzled by that. It seems as if we have some mighty unseen foe laboring against us, another equally invisible ally assisting the cause."

"Then we will break the deadlock and in that process I think the recondite will become manifest. Our success will unveil both foe and friend alike."

"We go to Graz'zt, then?" Gellor asked as the three strode into the nearly empty bailey of the Abat-dolor stronghold.

"Not via the Soulless Sounding, I'll wager," Leda asserted, looking at the gray-eyed man who had once been no more than a thief and swordsman raising devilment in Greyhawk City. "Gord will have some other means. . . ."

He smiled at them both, but said nothing.

Chapter 9

THEY SAT IN SIX concentric circles, each one smaller and lower as these tiers progressed from largest inward. Six was the favored number of demonium, the most potent number known in the Abyss.

In the sixth and lowest portion of the amphitheater-like space formed by the circles was seated an array of the greatest demons of those present. The issue of who would occupy those lowest seats had been resolved only after many squabbles and threats. The cambion Iuz posed proudly there, with Iggwilv at his right and the ghastly Zuggtmoy beside him to his left. Opposite those three was the bulk of Orcus. Marduk, king of fire demons, was also present, as were Baphomet, Cagrino, and Abraxas. There was space for others, but the eight privileged to be seated in the lowest circle could not agree on other candidates to fill the vacancies, so the places remained empty. In the next lowest level were Var-Az-Hloo, Azazael, Bulumuz, Socoth-Benothas, Szhublox, Lugush, and others totalling eighteen demon lords.

At each succeeding higher level were seated still more of the noble demons of the Abyss, with numbers of greater demons occupying the uppermost two tiers. for there were no lords and other nobles to occupy those spaces. All things considered, it was the largest convocation ever of the most powerful beings of demonium, or so avowed those in attendance. They ignored the fact that once Graz'zt could have commanded as many to a council. But he was no longer so powerful, and in fact the ebon demonking was now the chief foe .... or was he? Rumors flew from tushfilled maw to toothy beak, from slobbering mandibles to slavering jaws.

"We are called to assemble for the final assault on Graz'zt," averred a chief among the Yatish demons. "No — there is a new enemy even worse," contradicted a beetle-browed Thang. Such conversation ran back and forth, up and down the tiers in a cacophony of voices too alien for human ears to comprehend. The noise soon became so great that the masters seated far beneath the rest could no longer speak to each other in shouts, let alone murmurs.