was vision. This was destiny.
Gorgrael handed Timozel a glass of wine and waved him over to a table. “We must plan, Timozel, to bring Axis’ evil house crashing about him and to restore Faraday to the light.”
“With pleasure, Lord,” Timozel said, taking a sip of the wine.
The Dark Man stood and the three toasted their future success.
Gorgrael was prepared to admit that the Dark Man had been right. He had over-reached himself by launching his attack on Gorkenfort two years ago. It had been precipitate and foolish. His SkraeBolds had badly mismanaged the attack on the Earth Tree Grove, as well as the battle above Gorkenfort where so many Skraelings had been destroyed by the emerald fire. But now Gorgrael felt that all the elements he needed to defeat Axis were firmly in his grasp. The last piece had been Timozel, and now Timozel stood here, so tightly bonded to Gorgrael’s service that he would sell his soul … no! Gorgrael almost laughed out loud, Timozel would now gladly sell Faraday’s soul to ensure his master’s victory!
“Enough,” he said, startling the other two. “We must plan. Timozel, let me tell you about the army you will command.”
For the next hour Gorgrael spoke, and Timozel’s excitement rose. What a force the Great Lord was handing him! Over the past year Gorgrael had been transforming his hordes. The Skraelings were no longer the misty wraiths Timozel had originally seen at Gorkenfort, vulnerable through their eyes. Now they were fully fleshed creatures, so totally encased in bony armour they would be near-impossible to kill.
The IceWorms had been bred larger, more numerous and more mobile.
“The weather is mine,” Gorgrael said finally. “I now wield virtually total control over the ice and the wind.”
The Dark Man nodded to himself. That was Gorgrael’s Avar blood coming out in him; with that and his ability to wield the Dark Music, Gorgrael would be able to unleash a frozen hell over most of the northern half of Achar … Tencendor now. The Dark Man was pleased with Gorgrael’s work in this area. Two years ago Gorgrael’s control over the winter had been a haphazard and fragile affair. Now it was almost total.
“Then you would do well to send some of your ice south as soon as you can,” Timozel said.
Gorgrael frowned. “Now?” He had thought Timozel would need at least a week or two to establish his control over the Skraeling force.
“Axis will be sending many of his army north soon, Great Lord. We are lucky that he has not already done so. If you send your ice south now – as far as the Western and Bracken Ranges if you can – then you will freeze those rivers that have caused you such trouble. And if the Nordra freezes, Axis will not be able to move his troops north faster than a crawl.”
“Yes. Yes,” Gorgrael said. “You make a good point.”
Timozel watched his master. He vaguely remembered that once he had thought Gorgrael a creature so frightfully malformed, so disgusting, that his very appearance seemed the personification of evil. Now Gorgrael seemed noble, and his strange appearance only made him appear powerful, not ugly or frightful.
“And your ice spears, Master, why have you not used them again? You tried to murder Axis with them once outside the Barrows of the Enchanter-Talons, and you could perhaps have employed them to your advantage at Gorkenfort. If you use them again, I am confident they will create mayhem among Axis’ force – and think how they could impale the Icarii Strike Force!”
Gorgrael looked embarrassed. “Ahem. Yes, well, I must admit, Timozel, that I badly over-extended myself at the Ancient Barrows. I was not as powerful then as I am now. But I am afraid that I will not be able to use the ice spears again in any case, although they were such a pretty creation.”
“But why, Great Lord, if your power is so much greater now?”
Gorgrael grinned to himself, and the Dark Man smiled too, knowing what Gorgrael was thinking of.
“Because I have one more secret to show you, Timozel. The weapon that will surely destroy Axis and his army.”
He clicked his claws, and Timozel heard a movement in one of the darker corners of the room.
“I will give you an air-borne force, Timozel, that will make the Icarii Strike Force seem pitiful indeed.”
“The Gryphon!” Timozel suddenly remembered the dreadful winged creatures that had flown over Jervois Landing.
“Yes,” Gorgrael said. “The Gryphon. Behold, my pet.”
The Gryphon that now crawled on its belly towards them was much larger, her lion’s body more powerfully built, than the original Gryphon Gorgrael and the Dark Man had created between them. As she approached Timozel she dipped her eagle’s head in subservience.
The Dark Man managed to stop himself swearing in surprise. This was not the Gryphon that he and Gorgrael had made!
Gorgrael peered at the Dark Man slyly. “I lost another of the SkraeBolds in the WildDog Plains, Dear Man. With its decomposing flesh I made another Gryphon. Only larger, more powerfully built. More intelligent.”
“And it breeds?” the Dark Man asked, his voice harsh.
“As do its pups,” Gorgrael said, more than pleased at the Dark Man’s surprise. “As do its pups.”
He turned back to Timozel. “I will give you one of this creature’s pups as your own. Go on, pat her head, scratch the back of her neck, she likes that. With one of these creatures as your mount you will be able to sail the thermals as easily as do the Icarii.”
As Timozel bent down to the Gryphon fawning at his feet, Gorgrael took the Dark Man by the elbow and led him away a few steps, talking quietly.
“Perhaps there is something I should tell you, Dark Man.”
Hearing the perverse pleasure in Gorgrael’s voice, the Dark Man knew the news was going to be bad.
“Dear Man, I know you planned that the Gryphon should stop breeding after the second pack was whelped. I know you planned that the numbers of Gryphon would be limited.”
Months ago Gorgrael and the Dark Man had created a Gryphon, a creature with the head of an eagle, the wings of a bird, and the body of a great cat. The Dark Man had infused deep enchantments into the making of the Gryphon; the single female had been created pregnant, and soon after she had been created she had whelped nine pups. And these nine pups had been born female and pregnant. After four months they too whelped, each bearing nine pups. But the Dark Man had thought he had manipulated the enchantments so that the breeding would stop there. He wanted Gorgrael to have a powerful air-borne force – and the eighty-two Gryphon created in this fashion would surely be that – but he did not intend that the breeding should continue.
“But the breeding has continued,” Gorgrael hissed, and he felt the Dark Man twitch under his hand. “Already I have seven hundred and twenty-nine. And soon they will whelp. Each will whelp nine pregnant pups. Do you know how many that will be, Dear, Dear Man?”
The Dark Man was silent, almost overcome with horror.
“Over six and a half thousand. And in another four months those six and a half thousand will whelp – almost sixty thousand pups. And
