“Let us hope the guard at that gate finds it satisfactory,” Shiara said. She leaned close and whispered in the ear of the homunculus. Wordlessly the thing turned and strode up the path toward the cave.
“It even has my walk,” Cormac said as the thing climbed to the cave mouth.
“It is your true double.”
The homunculus went fearlessly to the cave mouth and stepped in without breaking stride. Shiara and Cormac held their breaths for three long heartbeats. Then there was a terrible bellowing roar from the cave and the sounds of swift combat. They saw movement in the darkness and then a tiny brown thing came flying out of the cave to bounce off the opposite wall of the valley.
“A demon in truth!” Cormac breathed. “How do you slay such a one?”
“With a more powerful demon,” Shiara said, still transfixed by what they had seen.
“You don’t have one of those in that bag of yours do you Light?”
“Not likely. But if it cannot be slain, then perhaps it can be immobilized.” She set down her bag and rummaged around in it. “First we must know more about it.”
“You’re not going to send another homunuculus of me into that, are you? It does me no good to see myself slain.”
“That was the only mandrake root I had. But let us see what happens with something different.”
With her silver wand she sketched a quick design in the dirt and spoke a single phrase. Now another warrior stood before them, a tall lean man with dark hair, a lantern jaw and icy blue eyes. He was dressed in a mail hauberk and carried a two-handed sword over his shoulder.
“Donal to the flesh!” Cormac laughed. “He looks as if he just stepped off the drill ground at the Capital.”
“No flesh, just an illusion. Now let us see what the demon makes of this one.” She spoke to the thing and without a word it turned and started up the ledge.
At the mouth of the cave the false Donal halted and bellowed out a challenge that made the valley ring. There was no response. It approached the entrance and thrust over the threshold with its great sword. Again nothing. Finally it strode bodly into the cavern calling insults to whatever was within.
Once more Cormac and Shiara held their breaths. But this time there was no sound of battle from the cave.
After a minute the illusion returned to the cave mouth and waved to them.
“It didn’t go for it.”
“But that does not make sense,” Shiara protested. “The illusion was indistinguishable from the homunculus.”
“Not to the demon,” Cormac observed.
“Yes, but I don’t see why the demon would attack a homunculus and a dragon but not an illusion. It doesn’t . . .” she stopped short. “Fortuna, a true name! The homunculus had a true name but the illusion did not.” She turned to Cormac with her sapphire eyes wide. “That thing can sense a being’s true name!”
“Dragons don’t have true names,” Cormac protested.
“Adult dragons do. Oh, not juveniles such as our cavalry ride, but when a dragon becomes a full adult it acquires a true name. The homunculus had a true name just as any demon does. That is how you control them. But the illusion did not.”
Cormac eyed the cave mouth. “A very pretty problem then.”
“Worse than that,” Shiara said. “The demon did not know the true name of homunculus and I doubt the dragon stopped for conversation before entering the cave. Yet the demon killed them both.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning it distinguishes beings with true names from beings without them. But that it does not have to know a thing’s true name to find it and kill it. It is enough that a thing has a true name.”
Cormac gave a low whistle. “No wonder it is tied so tight to that cave. With that power it could seek out and destroy anyone in the World. Light, do you suppose the demon itself is the treasure?”
“I doubt it. I think the demon merely guards the treasure.”
“It must be treasure indeed to have such a guardian.”