The Demon's Blade by Steven Drake Read Free Book Online Page B

of energy. Your master's power will now diminish. Certainly not all at once, as you have no doubt seen, but slowly, just as he acquired it. As time passes, he will weaken, and the sword will grow stronger."
    "So what does all that mean?" Darien asked. "Will he eventually lose all his power, becoming no more than a mere man? Have I already brought about his undoing? If so, then my death will close the circle, and it will be over."
    The old man shook his head once again and sighed. "As I said, it is not that simple. Much of the energy your master absorbed he has already used to transform himself into his current inhuman form. That can likely never be recovered, as it is a part of him as he exists now, but that is not the worst of it. Though he never bound himself to the blade as you did, he still became connected to it. His bond with the sword is, as it were, a secondary one. Whatever role the crystal played in that was accomplished a long time ago. His bond with the sword, however, will remain until his death, just as yours will."
    "I don't understand," Darien protested, rising to his feet again. "You said that his power would diminish. How can that be, if he is still bound to the sword? Why is my life so important?"
    "Hm-m, I would have thought you clever enough to figure that out by now, but as time is short, I will tell you plainly," the man said, again sounding slightly amused. But a moment after he finished speaking, his amusement vanished, and his expression became grave as death.
    "While you are alive, your bond with the sword is stronger, thus its power will flow into you, even that power which your Master had stolen over time. If you are slain here, your bond will be destroyed, and your master's bond will remain. Even if it were hidden from him, or cast into the sea, or buried beneath the mountains, or entrusted to his enemies, he would control its power until it was bound to another."
    "Does that matter?" Darien frantically grasped for any argument his desperate mind could imagine. "Is not the sword's evil worse than The Master's? There is little question where the greater peril is. If I am killed, then it will be as if I never shattered the crystal."
    "You may be right, and yet you may not," the man replied, his voice sinking as he spoke. "As I said, I do not fully understand how your master managed to establish a bond with the sword without ever touching it, nor do I understand what role the crystal played, yet I do know this. The power of the Demon Sword does not come from enchantments, as is the case with most magical weapons. It contains the souls of demons, how many I cannot say. The crystal is what kept those demon souls from corrupting his mind. Somehow it allowed magical energy to pass through, but kept their souls trapped, unable to dominate his mind as they now seek to dominate yours.” Ezra paused a moment, tapping his staff on the stone, perhaps lost in thought or considering his next words. Finally, he turned to Darien with a questioning expression and spoke again. “Without it, it seems likely your master will no longer be protected from them. If you are killed, there is no way to know what will happen. It may be that the Demon King can find the sword and create another crystal, or remake the broken one. It may be that the demons will overwhelm him before he can do this. It may be that he is arrogant enough to think himself able to control them, or mad enough not to care. You know his mind better than I. What do you think?"             
    Darien realized the truth of the old man’s argument, though he did not want to face it. He fell to his knees again, and hung his head, answering dejectedly. "He declared that he would kill me, when I confronted him in Shade Castle. His hatred and malice are far greater than his reason. If he has any fear of my death, I did not see it. As for the other, I do not know if he can remake the crystal, but I do know that it required a starstone to make, just