The image of the door disappeared. As the Baron resumed his complex conjuring, Tina saw a dark shadow take shape before him, grow, and become a hooded figure over two meters tall. The wizard’s chanting grew more frantic until he was screaming in magical tongues and gesturing madly, as if he were arguing with the creature he had shaped.
Suddenly he ceased. Breathing heavily and sweating, he took a moment to wipe his forehead and neck with a silk cloth he materialized, but his eyes never left the summoned thing, which had now fully solidified but remained still.
The Baron chuckled guardedly. He moved quietly behind the sacrificial post where Tina was held helpless. He leaned around to whisper in her ear, constantly watching the apparition as if it might suddenly strike.
“Meet your guardian, Tina! I’ve instructed him that he may harm you but not kill or maim you, and he knows what I mean. He’s very strong and intelligent, much more so than any other I summon. I risk him only because his tenure here will be short, and he and I both know it. Few summon Az’sroc to this plane, and fewer still live to tell of it.”
Tina stared at the motionless hooded being facing her without a visible face. She writhed in her bonds, wishing she could hide herself from it.
“Here is the source of my power, Tina,” her captor went on. “What or who it is, I do not claim to know. But he brings magic to our realm, powerful magic!”
Eyeing the somber figure cautiously for a moment, he continued more hastily, “I’ve told him of you, and he’ll serve you as he’s served me, and my father and grandfather before me. Only when the drug releases you will you remember his name, Az’sroc, and then you’ll be able to say it and summon him. It’ll be easier with the amulet, though it’s not necessary.”
The thumping at the first floor door began again. Perhaps their besiegers had found something to interpose between themselves and the flaming devil spittle. In three strokes, the pounding was succeeded by a splintering crash. As Tina heard heavy steps tramp through the first floor, the Baron spoke unhurriedly.
“When your time comes, summon Az’sroc with care. No Rostov has ever known his motives, and all of us have feared him. We never knew if we truly controlled him or he merely indulged us. But he is power, power incarnate! You’ve quested for it; now I’ve given it to you. May you enjoy the fruits of your search.”
And finally, still faster, fainter, more fearful, and somehow more hopeful than before, “I leave you now. May God have mercy on my soul!”
His voice rising on those last two words, the Baron gestured one last time and disappeared from the seeming temple.
For a while Az’sroc stood motionless before Tina. Below them she heard shouts of “Fire! Help!” and the commotion became more frantic. Her resulting efforts to free herself could not have succeeded at the best of times, but now the drug reduced them to mere jerks and squirms.
Then Az’sroc advanced on the girl. A huge skeletal hand reached out from its dark cloak and plucked at the amulet, hanging below the straps that bound her arms. Tina suddenly found the strength and will to scream and thrash violently, trying to avoid the touch of that unnatural appendage. But she could not.
When in her wild movements a bone-hard finger pierced her tender skin, Tina froze. A thin stream of blood trickled down, creating tiny feathers of red through the pearls of sweat on her naked stomach’s white skin. The creature held the amulet lightly, turning it over once with small clicking and scraping sounds.
In a voice creaky, whistling, and chilling, but entirely clear, it said, “I know this amulet. Now I know you, too, and I will protect you. It was Baron Rostov’s wish that I serve you, Kristina Lackov, as I have served him.
“When he consulted with me years ago, I picked you to serve and protect as I have served and protected him.
“Understand that you have no choice in this matter, even as the Barons Rostov had no choice when I began to serve them generations ago.
“Understand that I serve you to further my own ends.
“Understand that you will never know those ends, and you will never know what I may demand of you in return, but I will demand.
“Understand that I am power incarnate. I am not a teacher. You will have almost infinite magical power, but you must learn to use it by your own means.
“Understand further that you will have only one freedom—the freedom to release me by passing my service on to another who will further my cause.”
Slowly the creature released the amulet, the bony hands clicking as he did so.
“I will soon depart again, but before I go, I will protect you.”
Tina believed what it had said to her, and she shuddered.