At the Gates of Darkness by Raymond E. Feist Page B

abandoned since the end of the Great Uprising. There was nothing there.”
    Pug said, “Even your Kingdom annals were not privy to what took place below the city after the sacking of Krondor and the final victory at the Battle of Nightmare Ridge.”
    Pug paused, gathering his thoughts. Then he said, “During the Chaos Wars, the Dragon Lords fashioned a mighty artifact that was called the Lifestone. I never had the opportunity to fully study it, as it was deemed so dangerous we left it—” He considered the wisdom of revealing the true whereabouts of the Oracle of Aal, and decided not to burden his companions at the table with that information. “It was hidden in a deep cavern below the city.” He looked at the High Priest and said, “I believe the Lifestone was constructed from captured life elements, as you have described.”
    The High Priest snorted. “Ishapians! I knew they were keeping something from us. Long have we been curious about what happened at Sethanon at the end of the Great Uprising, and why King Lyam never attempted to rebuild that city. The official reasons were that it was no longer an important stop along a trade route, or that it was cursed…” He shook his head and sighed.
    “The Ishapians knew only what we told them,” confessed Pug. “All we knew was the Lifestone was a vessel of great power and the demon Jakan was determined to reach it.”
    “But why?” asked Amirantha. “What use would a demon have for that artifact, no matter how powerful it is?”
    “If we can deduce that,” said High Priest Marluke, “then we might understand why your mad brother is so interested in wholesale slaughter and death magic and what that has to do with this demon he serves.”
    Amirantha sat back and sighed. “Perhaps, but I don’t think so.”
    “Why?” asked Pug.
    “Let me ponder a while longer before I venture any more speculation,” answered the Warlock.
    “Can’t we, I mean you, study this Lifestone now?” asked Jim.
    Pug shook his head in the negative. “It was destroyed before the demon could reach it.”
    The expression on the High Priest’s face revealed distress. “Destroyed?”
    Pug raised his hand in a placating gesture. “Perhaps that’s the wrong word. The elf queen’s son, Calis, managed to unbind the confining magic, and the trapped life energy within was set free.”
    The High Priest appeared almost delighted at that news. “A blessing! Those souls were freed to resume their journey to Our Mistress!” He looked eagerly at Pug. “What was it like?”
    “Difficult to describe, Holy Father. A crystal to all outward appearances, the Lifestone pulsed with green energies, but when it was…unraveled is the only word that fits, a flurry of tiny green flames…floated away, in all directions.”
    The High Priest sat back and said, “In the ages of our temple, no such manifestation of the actual act of translation has been documented. Occasionally we have reports from one of our priests, priestesses, or lay brother or sister, and a few have reported glimpsing a tiny green flash.” He sighed in resignation. “There are so few overt signs of thereality of what we do. Those of us who have been blessed by a visitation from our Goddess…” He looked at his wine cup and took a sip. “It is difficult at times to convince the faithful. So few actually have experienced the divine.”
    Pug resisted the urge to remark on that, as he felt he had had more than his fill of experiencing the divine. Several encounters with both Lims-Kragma, and Banath—the God of Thieves, Liars, and a host of other malfeasances—made it clear the gods were as real as the chair upon which he sat, so faith was never an issue, but he certainly felt as if he was their creature at times, and that left a sour taste in his mouth if he dwelled upon it too long.
    The door opened and an elderly woman in the garb of a priestess entered, followed by a younger woman in similar attire. “You called for me, Holy