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2 Elven Star, vol. 2 of The Death Gate Cycle.

THE HAND OF CHAOS xvii

power of the Kicksey-winsey. But Death's Gate remained closed; the Kicksey-winsey didn't work. The citadels are empty, deserted. Their lights shine feebly, if at all.

ABARRACH

I traveled next to Abarrach, world of stone.

And it was on this journey I picked up my unwanted traveling companion: Alfred, the Sartan.

Alfred had been navigating Death's Gate in a futile attempt to locate Bane, the child I'd taken from Arianus. Alfred bungled it, of course. The man can't walk without falling over his own shoelaces. He missed his destination and landed in my ship.

At this point, I made a mistake. Alfred was now my captive. I should have returned him immediately to my lord. Xar would have been able to elicit, painfully, all the secrets of this Sartan's soul.

But my ship had just entered Abarrach. I was loath to leave it, loath to travel back through Death's GateЧa fearsome, disturbing journey. And, to be honest, 1 wanted to keep Alfred around awhile. Passing through Death's Gate, we hadЧquite unintentionallyЧswitched bodies. For a short while, I found myself in Alfred's mind, with his thoughts, fears, memories. He found himself in mine. Each of us returned to his own body, but I know I was not quite the sameЧthough it was long before I could admit it to myself.

I had come to know and understand my enemy. And that made it difficult to continue to hate him. Besides, as it turned out, we needed each other for our very survival.

Abarrach is a terrible world. Cold stone on the outside, molten rock and lava on the inside. The mensch the Sartan brought here could not long live in its hellish caverns. It took all our magical strengthЧboth Alfred's and mineЧto survive the blistering heat rising from the molten oceans, the poisonous fumes that fill the air. But people live on Abarrach.

And so do the dead.

It was here, on Abarrach, that Alfred and I discovered debased descendants of his raceЧthe Sartan. And it was here we found the tragic answer to what had happened to his people. These Sartan on Abarrach had begun to use the forbidden art of necromancy. The Sartan were raising the dead, giving them

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a semblance of cursed life, using the corpses of their own people as slaves. According to Alfred, this arcane art was prohibited anciently because it was discovered that whenever one of the dead is brought back to life, one of the living will die untimely. Either the Sartan on Abarrach had forgotten the prohibitionЧor were ignoring it.

Having survived the Labyrinth, I thought myself hardened, inured to the sight of almost any atrocity. But the walking dead of Abarrach still haunt my darkest dreams. I tried to convince myself that necromancy would prove a most valuable skill to my lord. An army of the dead is indestructible, invincible, undefeatable. With such an army, my lord could easily conquer the other worlds, without the tragic waste of the lives of my people.

I very nearly ended up a corpse myself, on Abarrach. The thought of my body continuing to live on in mindless drudgery horrified me. I could not bear the thought of this happening to others. I resolved, therefore, not to tell my lord that the art of necromancy was being practiced by the Sartan on that wretched world. That was my first act of rebellion against my lord.

It was not to be my last.

Another experience happened to me on Abarrach, one that is painful, perplexing, irritating, confusing, yet inspires me with awe whenever I recall it.

Fleeing pursuit, Alfred and I stumbled into a room known as the Chamber of the Damned. Through the magic of that chamber I was transported back in time, thrust again into another body, the body of a Sartan. And it was then, during this strange and magical experience, that I encountered a higher power. I was given to know that 1 was not a demigod, as I had always believed, that the magic I controlled was not the strongest force in the universe.

Another, stronger force exists, a benevolent force, a force that seeks only goodness and order and peace. In the body of this unknown Sartan, I longed to contact this force, but before I could, other SartanЧfearful of our newfound truthЧswept into the chamber and cut us down. Those of us gathered in that chamber died there. All knowledge of us and our discovery was lost, except for a mysterious prophecy.

When I awoke, in my own time, in my own body, I could only imperfectly remember what I had seen and heard. And I

THE HAND OF CHAOS xix

tried very hard to forget even that much. I didn't want to face the fact thatЧcompared to this powerЧI was as weak as any mensch. I accused Alfred of attempting to trick me, of creating this illusion himself. He denied it, of course. He swore that he had experienced exactly the same thing that 1 did.

I refused to believe him.