At the top of the stairway a steady blue light revealed a chamber beyond. The revenant emerged without pausing, while the two men followed more cautiously.
A cavernous hall opened up in front of them, so large that it must have taken up the statue's entire torso. A stone gallery, tiered with steps on the left and a low wall on the right, spread in a crescent shape ahead, a curve that followed the wall. Each tier was perhaps wide enough for five men to walk abreast, and the winding stairway they'd crested opened onto the bottom tier. Even from their low position the two men could easily see over the wall.
In unison, Primate Melovar Aspen and Dain Barden Mensk turned their heads and gasped.
67
EVRIN'S eyes opened weakly as he heard the sound of footsteps break the silence. Dread hit him in his chest as he realised someone had made it past the first of his wards.
Three men stood on the lowest tier of the gallery, facing the pool. No, Evrin realised: two men and a revenant. So that was how they had passed his ward.
The Primate in his white robe stood beside a huge man with wide shoulders and a narrow waist, a commanding figure in blood-splattered armour of bleached leather. The pair walked forward slowly, gazing at the shimmering pool with both lust and fear. A single drop of the essence would kill them, yet they were looking at more wealth and power in one place than any man had seen before.
As they grew closer, Evrin saw that the huge man wore the raj hada of a Dain of the Akari. Of all peoples to get mixed up in this war, the last Evrin had wished to see join the fight were the Akari.
"What is the oval mirror?" the Dain whispered to the Primate.
"It's a portal," Evrin spoke up, answering for him.
Both men jumped when they heard him, while the revenant showed no reaction. Evrin watched them turn to him, knowing what they saw: a broken old man, unable to stand, unable to move, lying prone across the tiers in the far corner.
"You," Melovar said. "The old pilgrim. What are you doing here?"
"Protecting the portal from men like you," Evrin said, his voice weak, but clearly audible. "Stop, please. While you can." He tried to move, but the pain was nearly too much for him, and Evrin closed his eyes momentarily.
"Primate, who is this man?"
"I thought I knew, Dain Barden, but it seems he is more than I once thought he was. Tell me, old man, why so much essence?"
"My name is Evrin Evenstar, and the essence powers the portal, but my seals absorb the power so that the portal cannot be used."
"Portal? A portal to where?" the Dain asked. "How did you cross the pool to place them there? What happens if the seals are removed?"
"I placed the seals there to block the portal, long ago," Evrin said. "If the seals are removed, the portal will open. But you must understand —"
"You haven't answered the most important question," the Primate interrupted, his eyes calculating. "Where does the portal go?"
"Where the Evermen went, of course," Evrin said. "But, Primate, you should know the truth. The Evermen were no gods. They were evil."
"What makes you say such a thing?" Primate Melovar asked.
"Because once, I was one of them."
Dain Barden didn't appear to have heard the exchange. He was staring at the silver surface of the portal in awe. "The Lord of the Night? He is through there? He can return?"
When the Primate's gaze followed the Dain's, Evrin opened his mouth and spoke the words that would activate his final ward. The two men and the revenant were all standing on the gallery's bottom level. There would be no better time.
Symbols appeared on the white surface of the stone, flashing with angry crimson on the lowest tier. A purple haze welled up to the height of a man's knees, transparent like water, fading nearly as quickly as it appeared, but with a power that Evrin knew was deadly beyond belief.
Melovar Aspen screamed, a cry of pure agony that reverberated through the chamber, as first his feet, then his ankles, and finally his lower legs melted away, until the purple subsided and he fell down, staring down at the bloody stumps of his knees in horror.
As soon as Evrin started to speak, the revenant reacted, somehow aware of the nature of what was to come, its memories of life in the Dain's service telling it the Dain must be protected at all costs. The revenant grabbed Dain Barden, and with a surge of lore-enhanced strength, threw him up to the higher tiers of the gallery, before it, too, succumbed. In moments the purple haze had eaten through the draug's legs also, the revenant still and uncannily silent as it fell down face-first and looked up at Dain Barden with its blank-faced stare.
The Dain looked in horror at first the draug, and then the Primate's legs, which were now nothing more than stumps.
The chamber was silent.
Evrin slumped back against the stone in his corner of the room, while the Dain panted, sprawled on the stone steps, turning his wide-eyed gaze on the old man.
The silence was broken by an ear-splitting wail. "My legs!" the Primate screamed.
Evrin sighed. He had activated the last of his wards, yet the Akari was unharmed. "Leave this place, I beg you," he said. "Do not remove the essence, and do not remove the seals. Those on the other side will know the moment the portal is open."
"How will they know?" asked the Dain.
"A beacon on the other side will alert them that the way is open."
"Good," said Barden. "If the beacon's on the other side then you won't be able to stop it."
"Listen to me!" Evrin tried to shout, as loud as he could. "You don't know what you are dealing with. You would visit on the world a horror greater than you can imagine."
"The Lord of the Night is our god," the leader of the Akari said. "We are his chosen people. Perhaps you are afraid, old man, but for me there is nothing to fear."
68
DAIN Barden looked at the pool of essence, the thoughts spinning in his mind. There was no way across. To touch the essence would be to die the most painful death imaginable. Yet what if he only had this one chance? The old man was powerful, whoever he was. If Barden left this place, he doubted he would be able to return.
"I do not wish to die here," the Dain said. Then it came to him. "You," he pointed at the revenant, "remove the seals."
Moving laboriously, the revenant began to crawl forward, using its hands and elbows to pull itself forward. It hauled itself over the wall and with a splash it landed in the pool of essence.
The Dain released his breath when he saw his guess proven correct. The substance couldn't harm a creature that was already dead. Dragging itself along, worming and wriggling through the oily black liquid that trickled over its body as it moved, the draug clambered towards the oval mirror and the three seals that kept the portal closed.
Barden focussed his gaze on the old man as he picked himself up. "If you had any more tricks you would have used them, but," he walked over until he stood in front of the old man, looming over him, "not a word, even so."
Evrin looked up at the Dain.
"Not a word!" Barden said.
The revenant reached the platform of stone steps that jutted from the pool and clambered up to the oval mirror. With a swipe of its arm it knocked away the seal on the left. A second swipe took the seal on the right. Only the third seal on the bottom remained. The silver surface of the portal shifted colour, now tinged with gold.
"Soluara-sonur!" Evrin called out.
The final seal lit up with a flare of heat, bathing the room in red. The revenant began to smoke and burn, finally falling back into the pool, its body destroyed while it was still short of its goal. Evrin closed his eyes.
The last seal was still intact.
Enraged, Dain Barden reached down and grabbed Evrin by the throat, lifting him up high. Evrin barely struggled as the Akari began to squeeze.
A shadow moved. Water dripped to the floor.
Something smashed into the Dain's armoured body with the strength of iron, hitting so hard that it punched through the leather, and he fel
t the snap of at least three of his ribs as they broke with the single blow.
Dain Barden dropped Evrin and turned, just as a second blow hit his jaw with the force of a mountain. When the Dain stumbled, a third punch closed his left eye, and finally a fourth hit his lower chest, knocking the wind out of him before he fell to the ground.
"Where are you?" the Dain said, coughing and spluttering as he rose once more to his feet.
He took his war hammer in his hands and swung it in the air, first hitting left, and then right. Barden's third blow jarred his arms to the bone as he hit something hard.
In front of him a shadow flickered as drops of water fell down from the shape of a man. "Now I have you," the Dain snarled.
He swung his hammer in quick, successive blows, trading strength for speed. There was some… force… that blocked his strokes, but each time the figure's skin sizzled and Barden could see runes outlined, allowing the Akari to see more of his opponent. He could feel his hammer starting to have an effect, and finally he heard a cry of pain when he swung with all his strength at his opponent's chest.
As the air shimmered and the form of a man materialised, Dain Barden saw that whatever his opponent's powers were, the man was young, with red hair dripping wet to his shoulders and a bare chest covered with fading runes. The young man punched at him again, but the Dain was a skilled warrior and he blocked easily. He raised his hammer to strike at the young man's face.
"The portal! No!" Evrin suddenly cried in anguish.
Barden and his opponent both turned to the relic. The Dain couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Primate Melovar Aspen had dragged his broken body into the pool. There was something in the strange power the Primate possessed that allowed him to survive the touch of the essence for the time it took for him to cross the pool and drag himself onto the raised platform.
When the Primate reached the last seal and struck it away, Barden heard a spluttering chuckle come from the Primate's lips.
And even as the Primate's face contorted from the terrible agony of the essence, there was an expression of triumph on his face.
69
SURELY no one could stand such pain? Then Killian thought of the Primate's elixir. Would it keep Melovar Aspen alive?
Killian shifted his gaze and saw that the Dain's mouth was open, their battle forgotten.
What would happen now that the last seal had been struck away?
The Primate's eyes opened wide as he looked at something past Killian and then the screams of Melovar Aspen were forever silenced. An arrow fletched with green feathers suddenly sprouted from the Primate's throat. It was swiftly followed by another that plunged into the Primate's eye, and a third appeared in the centre of Melovar Aspen's mouth.
The Primate fell back down into the pool of essence. His screams were terrible as his insides were liquefied, even as the elixir tried to heal him. The Primate's skin hissed and bubbled as if acid was fighting to escape the confines of his veins, and then his skin began to fall off his body in pieces that were quickly devoured by the essence. He tried to push with his arms, to keep his head above the surface, but then the Primate's left arm fell from his body. The Primate opened his mouth and a stream of red and yellow fluid gushed forth as the pressure inside his body forced what had been his organs out. The screams turned to horrible gurgling moans.
His death was terrible, yet Killian couldn't help but think that this was a fitting end for the ruler of the Assembly of Templars, to be killed by essence.
The Primate's body sank under the surface of the pool, hissing and steaming, bubbling as it broke into little pieces, until it was as if Melovar Aspen had never been.
Killian turned. A dark-haired man in the green silk of a bladesinger stood by the edge of the pool. He carried a bent piece of wood in his hands, shining with activated runes, the string still thrumming from the release of the last arrow. He had angular features and the white line of a scar rose from his jaw line to his left eye. He was perhaps the same age as Killian and a cord tied his long hair back from his face.
Instantly, Killian knew this was Ella's brother. Their hair was different but the features were the same. Ella's description hadn't done her brother justice. It was written in the lines of his face: this was a warrior who would fight to his last breath in the pursuit of his ends. Killian doubted even the powerful Dain of the Akari would be a match for Ella's brother, Miro.
Miro fitted another arrow and then turned, holding both Killian and the Dain in sight. "No one is to move," the bladesinger said, his voice firm, and Killian knew he meant it. "I don't miss."
"The seals!" Evrin's cry brought Killian's attention back to what the Primate had done. "The beacon!"
The last seal was gone; the Primate had struck it away, and now the three seals lay on the stone just below the tall oval mirror. The way was open. The beacon would call.
The sound came all at once.
Dain Barden dropped his hammer and put his hands to his ears, his face twisted at the deafening note that resounded through the chamber.
Killian, the runes on his body now faded, put his own hands against his head.
The sound grew until Killian thought his head would detonate, and then fell again until it had nearly stopped altogether. It rose once again to the volume where Killian could hardly think and the pain was like an orb bursting inside his head.
The next time the sound fell Killian looked at Evrin.
"It must be stopped," Evrin gasped. "Now that it has activated, it can only be stopped from the other side. The seals must be replaced, but they won't work if the beacon isn't stopped."
Killian turned back to Miro. With a shock he saw that two more people had entered the chamber, but he had eyes only for one of them.
Ella stood side by side with a man from the Hazaran desert, his bearing regal and gold thread in his clothing. The desert man held Ella protectively behind him, and instantly Killian knew that this man loved her.
Ella and Killian's eyes met, and as their gaze touched he felt she was looking inside him. He had never spoken about his life with anyone in the way he had with Ella. No one had ever cared to ask.
Killian wanted Ella to live in a world free from men such as the Primate. Whatever doom was on the other side of the portal, Killian wanted Ella to be safe from it. He knew there was no other option.
The beacon could only be stopped from the other side.
Calmly Killian walked forward. For some reason the intensity of the beacon's call no longer hurt him. He reached the wall around the pool and stepped over it, plunging first one leg, and then the other into the oily black liquid.
Where the essence touched his skin, Killian felt a strange tingling sensation, but nothing else. He walked forward, wading through the essence, towards the oval mirror of shimmering gold that stood twice the height of a man.
Towards the portal.
"No. No!"
Killian heard her somehow, even above the deafening wail of the beacon. He turned and looked at her. Ella gazed back at him, pushing the desert man away as she came forward, crying out as the Hazaran held her back. "No!"
Killian reached the centre of the pool. At the foot of the shimmering portal he could see the seals resting where they had fallen to the stone of the platform.
Killian climbed the stone steps, retrieving the seals, and hanging each on the portal where they had been before, where Evrin would be able to activate them behind him.
Killian turned to Ella again, and he knew she would hear him. "I love you," Killian said.
He was making a journey that would have no return. Without another glance behind him, Killian stepped forward, through the burnt gold of the portal's curtain.
Into the unknown.
70
WHEN Ella saw the glowing stairway in the base of the Sentinel's pedestal, she realised she might already be too late.
The prince grabbed her hand, holding her back when he saw she was about to enter the sunken stairway.
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"Please, we need to hurry," she said.
"You do not know what's in there," he said.
A piercing sound came from everywhere at once, and both Ella and Prince Ilathor put their hands to their ears. When the volume ebbed Ella shook the prince's restraining hand away and rushed headlong down the stairs, barely cognizant of her surroundings as she ran down the corridor and started to climb the spiralling stairs at the other end.
It would have taken Killian some time to swim to the Sentinel. Had he made it here in time to keep the relic out of the Primate's hands? Had he met Evrin, and were they now fighting the Primate together?
What would she find at the end of these stairs?
"Slow down!" the prince cried from behind her.
Ella didn't bother to reply. Looking up, she saw blue light above her. Feeling her heart race and her stomach clench with fear and dread, she ran up the last few steps.
Then she was out.
It took Ella a moment to take stock of the scene in front of her. The cavernous chamber curved high above where the Sentinel's shoulders and head must be. She was probably at the level of its waist, and where she stood there was a crescent-shaped gallery with tiered steps facing an expansive pool. Ella instantly knew the liquid was essence.
At the far end of the gallery an old man — Evrin — lay prone in the corner. Nearby stood a tall warrior in the garb of an Akari, staring, as Evrin was, at the pool. Ella realised that not far away from her Miro held an arrow pointed at the Akari, but his eyes were also on the pool.
They were all staring at Killian. Ella could see that the protection of the runes she had drawn on his skin had faded. His body looked bruised and battered.
"It must be stopped," Evrin said, his voice wheezing. "Now that it has activated, it can only be stopped from the other side. The seals must be replaced, but they won't work if the beacon isn't stopped."
The Hidden Relic (The Evermen Saga, Book Two) Page 40