Worms' Ending: Book Eight (The Longsword Chronicles 8) Read Free

am sorry, Longsword, I have been distracted…”
    “You cannot afford to be! None of us can. Rak by now will
have taken ship at Sudshear bound for Princetown Harbour, Brock by now will
have sent word to Igorn to ready all his hopes for the crossing of the Ostern,
and the Toorseneth by now will have doubtless learned of the destruction of
Urgenenn’s Tower and are doubtless already plotting the course of their
vengeance against Elayeen and I! Whatever work it is dragging your wits far
from where they’re needed, abandon it!”
    “Forgive me, Longsword. It…” then he tailed off, and sighed,
and Gawain saw the wizard’s shoulders slump.
    “What?”
    “Hmm?”
    “It. What it? It!”
    Again Allazar sighed. “It seems I have acquired my own box
of worms, as you so quaintly describe it. I am plagued by them. But these are
ancient worms and of course you are quite right, it is in the here and now my
full attention is needed.”
    Gawain eyed the wizard, looking for signs of the dreadful
light he’d seen burning in Allazar’s eyes in the black tower beyond the
Eastbinding.
    “What?” Allazar croaked, his expression becoming a trifle
alarmed.
    “Is it Eldenbeard?” Gawain asked bluntly.
    Allazar blinked.
    “Well, is it?”
    “No, I don’t think so…”
    “Good. Only I am plagued by my own worms, and said as much
to E this morning at the watchtower. There was talk of Eldengaze returning, and
frankly, it scared the both of us more than we’d care to admit to anyone else.”
    “Talk of Eldengaze returning? What in sight of the sun could
possibly have prompted such a conversation between you? Were you fighting? Did
you not heed the warnings of elves concerning the dangerous moods experienced
by expectant ladies of the forest-born?”
    “No we were not fighting, and yes I heeded the warnings.
Mostly. If you must know, and you probably should know, which is why I had you
meet me down here after all, I was trying to find a way to broach the subject
of my leaving her again.”
    “You’re leaving?”
    “Don’t squeak, Allazar, it echoes around this cavern like a
bat with its arse on fire.”
    “You’re leaving?” the wizard asked again, shocked. “And us
scarcely two weeks returned from ridding the world of the Toorsencreed’s
eastern stronghold?”
    Gawain sighed. “Yes. As I said, I am plagued by my own
worms. But now they seem to have become one very large one. A great slithering snake
of a worm. I’d hoped to broach the matter to Elayeen gently, but she saw
through me almost immediately. That was when Eldengaze was mentioned.”
    “Mentioned how?”
    “She said that she felt… that she knew , that if she
tried to stop me answering the question which has plagued me since the Feast of
First Choosing, Eldengaze would rise once more. It seems the ancient
bitchwizard is somehow aware of my intentions. Which really rather disturbs me,
even more than your mumbling about the place as though you’re not really here.”
    “What is this snake of a worm, Longsword?” Allazar’s eyes
were wide, and filled with apprehension in the reflected Aemon’s Light from the
lustrous Dymendin he held.
    “You go first. You’ve clearly got something awful plaguing
you, too, and if it’s anything to do with Eldenbeard, then all three of us who
stood together in the circles at Raheen are doubtless now poised on the brink
of some ancient wizard-made precipice; a chasm every bit as wide and as deep as
the Avongard Canyon and carved out by the same crypt-dwelling eldenbastards,
too.”
    Allazar sighed and nodded, and lowered his head, gazing deep
into the lustrous pearl-white of the staff.
    “I have been reading the notes Master Arramin sent
concerning the Morgmetal casket passed down through the ages to our lady. I
became convinced that there was some other message, hidden itself within the
clues which led to the casket’s finding. They were clever, Longsword, oh they
were clever who hid that box from the world! And Master