Oriseus cursed in a forgotten language. He reappeared by the stone, stooping for the discarded iron bands that had circled the crystal. Aeron reacted without hesitation, raising his hands and barking out the words for the storm-strike. With no other options, he drew his strength from the Shadow Stone's awful presence, enduring its sinister touch long enough to finish his spell. From his fingertips bright electrical arcs leaped forward to stab at Oriseus- but even as they reached for the sorcerer, they doubled back on Aeron and struck him. He screamed and twisted under the assault of his own spell, caught in the throes of a dozen burning skewers of pain, before collapsing to the floor.
Oriseus looked up from his work with a bare smile. "You should have been more careful, Aeron. The first spell I cast upon you was a mage-shield I devised centuries ago, designed to turn your own spells against you. It may have lapsed ... or it may still be intact. Why don't you cast another spell and see?" Deliberately, he inscribed a rune upon the iron strip.
Aeron groveled in agony, his vision red and hazy. His strength was failing fast; he'd pushed himself to the limits already. "Baillegh, stop him!" he gasped.
The silver hound streaked forward to leap at Oriseus. The sorcerer raised his hand and spoke a single word, catching the dog in an amber beam that froze her in mid-leap. Stiff as a statue, she crashed to the ground at his feet, imprisoned in a shimmering field of golden energy.
Eriale helped Aeron rise, her face frozen in a tight grimace of pain. "What are we going to do?" she said quietly. "How can we defeat him, Aeron?"
He shook his head. "I'm running out of ideas," he replied.
Melisanda slipped the scepter into her blouse, and silently began to work a spell. Aeron watched her, fascinated; she didn't have his ability to use the incalculable energy of the Shadow Stone and had to draw the entirety of her spell from the burning flame of her own life-force.
Before his eyes she seemed to wilt, sagging to her knees and paling with the effort, but she managed to finish her casting. A single streaking point of light soared away from her hand, arcing toward Oriseus. The sorcerer looked up just in time for the spell to detonate in a terrific blast of flame that filled the chamber with an awful roar. Aeron raised his cloak over his face and turned away to throw Eriale to the floor as searing heat washed over them.
The fiery sphere dissipated in moments, leaving behind a haze of smoke and the stink of burned clothes. The Shadow Stone still lay where it had been, untouched by Melisanda's spell. Oriseus, however, was not so fortunate. He groaned and stirred, burned black over his face and hands, while small flames smoldered over his ceremonial robe. Despite the horrible wounds he'd sustained, the sorcerer drew himself to his feet, turning a look of awful rage on Melisanda.
"You were warned," he said through cracked lips. He took a step toward her, already gathering magic for the spell that would destroy her.
At the edge of the room, Melisanda's strength gave out and she collapsed to the floor. She'd crafted too strong a spell from her own spirit. Aeron staggered to his feet, determined to help her. Oriseus's mage-shield still clung to him like thick oil. His thoughts raced as Oriseus closed in on Melisanda. He needed a counterspell; quickly he barked out the words to the dispelling enchantment.
Oriseus wheeled at the first sound of his words, and then grinned. "So you have decided to chance my rebounding shield again, Aeron? I thought you smarter than that." He turned back to Melisanda, his hands glowing with power.
Aeron finished the spell, directing it at Baillegh. If Oriseus's shield had fallen for some reason, he might be able to free her from the amber field that imprisoned her. Sparkling motes of magic danced around the trapped hound, but then they shifted and appeared around Aeron, attacking the black abjuration that tainted his magical powers. Under the assault, the curse failed, freeing Aeron.
Instantly he shaped the deadliest attack he knew, the force-missiles he'd used against Oriseus the first time they fought. Without consideration for himself, he wrenched at the raging power of the Shadow Stone and hammered three coruscating spheres of black-streaked energy at Oriseus. The archmage wheeled just in time to catch all three in his torso. Each detonated with bone-shattering force, blasting great gaping wounds in Oriseus's body and crumpling him against the wall. Incredibly, the sorcerer slowly stood, dragging himself to his feet and turning to confront Aeron again.
"By all the gods," Aeron breathed. His knees buckled with exhaustion and he slumped to the floor. He had no more spells of attack left to him, none that could affect a mage as formidable as Oriseus. "What are you?"
"I told you before, Aeron. This body is nothing more than a shell for my consciousness." Oriseus attempted a triumphant grin, a horrible expression in his burned and damaged face. "You've treated my steed poorly, but you haven't hurt me at all. If this frame does not survive the day, I'll just find another. Perhaps your friend Melisanda here ... or maybe even you. It's no matter to me." He reached out and summoned the Shadow Stone's metal bands to his hand, finishing the inscription he needed to restore his spell of binding and control. "Let me set this in order and finish what I came here to do, and then we'll speak of this at greater length." He laughed, a horrid rasping sound.
Aeron dropped his eyes to the floor, unable to bear the victory in Oriseus's gaze. Eriale reached out to rest her hand on his shoulder. "How can you beat something like that?" she said.
Beneath his hand he felt cool, smooth wood. He glanced down in surprise; Eriale's bow lay on the floor next to him. Slowly, he picked it up. "Do you still have your quiver?" he asked her.
"Yes, but my arms are half-frozen. I can't shoot."
"I can," Aeron said softly. "Give me one of the enchanted arrows." He held out his hand, watching Oriseus while Eriale fumbled for the rune-marked shaft. Silently she laid the wood, the good oak wood from the heart of the Maerchwood, in his hand.
At the last moment, Oriseus sensed his peril. He looked up, meeting Aeron's steel-hard eyes, the iron bands hovering in the air before him as he mouthed the words to bind the Shadow Stone to his will and control again. His hands started to work at a defensive barrier, moving quickly and certainly to their task as the iron bands clattered to the floor, the spell abandoned.
He wasn't fast enough. With all his old skill, Aeron drew Eriale's bow to his ear and released the arrow straight and true. It buried itself to within a handspan of the fletching in the hollow of Oriseus's breast, biting into the scarred stone wall behind him. The sorcerer drew in a great breath, his jaw falling open as his legs gave out. He slid about a half-foot down the wall before the arrow arrested his movement, leaving him to hang helplessly on the wall.
Aeron rose from his kneeling stance, letting the bow fall to his side with a grim smile of satisfaction. Distantly, he noticed that the eerie light from the stone was etching his shadow against the wall with fierce intensity.
He heard Eriale hiss in dismay behind him. "The stone! Aeron, look at the Shadow Stone!"
He turned his back on Oriseus and instantly threw up an arm to shield his eyes. The raging power inside the stone was no longer confined to the space inside its ebon facets; great glowing cracks had appeared in its substance, like a dam that was beginning to fail. The pounding rhythm of the stone's heartbeat shook the walls and floors, crumpling and warping the very air of the room. Intuitively he realized that it could not endure the tremendous magical energy that was being channeled into it much longer, and that he didn't want to be nearby when its tolerance was surpassed. He blinked his eyes clear and glanced around the chamber.