Kingdoms of the Night (The Far Kingdoms) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch

solution of the mystery. To be truthful I’m not yet sure where the pieces she found to the puzzle fit, but I am certain that they are pieces.”
    “I don’t care how much you studied, or how far you traveled,” I said. “You were wasting your substance. If you will only draw back you’ll see your fascination with Janos Greycloak has made you twist the facts to meet your dream of emulating him. Forget it, my dear. Take your talents, your energy and your intelligence and devote them to making your own life, not someone else’s. I was there, my good lady.
    “Janos and I walked that road shoulder to shoulder. We buried comrades. We overcame much. But in the end we succeeded. We found the Far Kingdoms. How can I deny what I saw with my own eyes?”
    “Deny this, then,” she said. And revealed the object hidden in her palm.
    It was a small silver figurine. I recognized it immediately — Janos once had its twin strung on a chain. Janela’s fingers twisted and the figurine dropped, until it too hung from silver links. It was the likeness of a beautiful dancing girl, hands stretched above her perfect head, one holding a feather, the other a veil frozen in mid-twirl. The maiden’s face was alight with happiness as if she knew the next leap would set her free and she’d fly away like a bird.
    As if drawn by a magical force my hand stretched out to take it. Janela let it fall into my open palm.
    “Behold,” she said, “I give you... the Kingdoms Of The Night!”
    As soon as the dancer touched my flesh she came to life. She pirouetted, her gossamer costume swirling about the naked form beneath, giving tantalizing glimpses of her slender limbs and small, shapely dancer’s breasts. But this was no courtesan’s dance of seduction. She seemed innocent, unaware she might be an object of passion as well as art.
    At first the dancer was similar to the magical talisman Janos once used to convince me the Far Kingdoms really existed. Except his figurine was tarnished and broken — deformities that eventually vanished the closer we came to Irayas. But as I watched the scene began to change. I goggled as glorious music swelled and the maid’s surroundings and audience misted into view — this was a sorcery far beyond the one Janos had so prized.
    She was dancing in a courtroom of tremendous wealth. The tapestries were rich beyond measure. The walls they hung from were smooth, milk white and as lustrous as a rare gem. As royal musicians played in a pit beneath her dancing platform noble men and women — in exotic costumes whose like I had never seen — craned for a better view of the dancer’s artistry. Overseeing it all was a handsome monarch and his beauteous queen. They sat on twin thrones made from the same milky gem as the walls.
    The king was young, with long muscular limbs. His features were fair, sharply defined, his beard gold as the band he wore for a crown. The queen was also young, her skin the color of ivory and she had long black hair that tumbled from beneath a simple emerald crown. I saw the king lean over to whisper to the queen. She smiled, and her beauty became so dazzling that if I had been a young man that smile would have broken my heart.
    Even in miniature the power and sophistication of that court humbled me. I felt as small, ignorant and barbaric as when Janos and I had first stood before King Domas in far Irayas. But with that feeling came a flush of anger that here was knowledge my own people had been denied. I yearned to visit that court and set matters right.
    Janela whispered: “Look closer, my Lord.”
    I scanned the scene, searching for what I’d been too bedazzled to note before. And then I saw him — lolling in a favored viewing box near the throne.
    He was a demon dressed as a man. He had the snout of a wolf and the brow of a great ape, which beetled over a single yellow eye. As I watched he extended a taloned paw. Dangling from it was a single rose and I felt my flesh crawl, for somehow