I could kill them all if she would just come to me. The thought came unbidden, bubbling from the dark corners into which the Nar’doroc had sunk its claws. Dormael closed his eyes to silence the Nar’doroc’s whispering and nodded his head.
“Let’s go, then.”
As they moved to leave, Dormael saw the Silver Lady standing in an open doorway. He could feel her hungry eyes regarding him, and the sensation brought memories of her vengeful song. As he trotted past the dark portal where she was standing, she was gone.
Gods, what’s happening to me?
The three of them ran in silence, all conversation stifled in favor of saving breath. They were forced to cut through a park dotted with low walls and decorative archways. Dormael’s Kai gave a sudden warning that made the hair stand on his body.
“Stop!” Dormael skidded to a halt. “Something’s—”
The ground rumbled and shook, sending Dormael sprawling to the stone. Allen went down in a clatter of steel, losing his grip on Bethany in the process. She tumbled across the floor and came to rest a short distance away, arms and legs splayed akimbo. Dormael tried to fight to his feet, but the ground was shaking with too much violence for him to gain any purchase.
Shawna had no such problems. She made her way to Bethany on nimble feet and fell atop her body, shielding the girl with her own back. Dormael tried to stand, and he heard Allen doing the same, but the quaking stone kept them on the floor.
There was a crumbling noise as one of the decorative archways tumbled to the ground. A great rumble sounded from behind them as something huge was destroyed deep in the city. Flashes of red energy shone from nearby, and a crack formed along the floor. After a few tense moments, the rumbling subsided and the noise in the ether receded to an angry buzz.
“What in all Six Hells was that?” Allen got to his feet with another rattle of steel. He moved to Shawna’s side and helped her stand, then gathered Bethany in his arms. Shawna gave Bethany a quick once-over, wincing at the blood coming from her nose.
“Magic,” Dormael said. “The spells in the city are failing.”
Allen’s face went white. “Which ones?”
“All of them.”
Allen and Shawna shared a grim expression, but said nothing. They turned and continued toward the tunnel leading to the summit. Dormael followed, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
They ran for what felt like hours. Dormael’s body was battered and bruised, bleeding and busted, and it was starting to affect him. His feet were unsure, and the muscles in his thighs burned with exertion. His armor chafed at his shoulders, felt heavy on his back. Just when he was despairing of ever making it, he spotted the twin pair of statues in the distance.
“We’re almost there!” Shawna called from just ahead. “Keep going!”
They passed the statues with aching slowness. Dormael made the wide staircase leading to the upper tunnels just as his legs lost their strength. He came to a halt with a series of awkward steps and almost pitched to the stone, but saved himself at the last instant. He bent over and took a series of gasping breaths, trying to still the mad beating of his heart. His friends came to a halt beside him and Allen laid Bethany on the stairs.
“Do you think D’Jenn will make it?” Shawna looked back toward the rumbling city. “I thought we’d see him by now.”
Dormael stood and wiped sweat from his brow. “He’ll be here. Let’s get into the tunnels first, find a place to hunker down. We’ll give him a bit to catch up.”
“What about—” Allen was cut off by another bright flash of crimson light.
Dormael moved to Bethany’s side, but the quake was centered farther away. A shaft of red lightning burst through the stone floor between the two giant statues at the city’s entrance. It struck high on the cavern wall and sent stones the size of barrels tumbling into the buildings below. The energy arced into the statues, flashing between them in climbing, spidery tendrils of energy. The ground at the entrance heaved and separated. Sparkling motes rose from the cracks like embers from a roaring fire.
There was a shriek of bending metal, another loud crack of stone, and the male statue toppled to the shattered ground. Wisps of crimson energy crawled over the statue’s surface and the magic went silent. The light faded, leaving the distant rumble of crashing stone.
“Fuck the gods!” Allen stared at the destruction. “We could have been under that thing just now.”
Shawna took a deep breath and turned to the rest of them. “We weren’t, that’s all that matters. Let’s get to the top of the stairs before it gets worse.”
Howling rose from a distant part of the city.
Dormael tossed Allen his spear and grabbed Bethany from the stairs. He turned and started upward, blowing deep breaths like he was running a foot race. Shawna and Allen followed.
They reached the mouth of the tunnel and Dormael almost collapsed to the stone. He stopped and laid Bethany against the curved tunnel wall and moved to look out over the vast staircase. There was no sign of D’Jenn, and even while extending his exhausted senses to their limit, Dormael could not hear his song in the ether. The city was burning with unspent magic, which made it hard to hear anything with his Kai.
He cheated death last time. He can do it again.
Dormael took a deep breath. “We have to try and hold this tunnel. The toppled statue might slow the horde down for a moment, but it won’t—”
The words fled his mind as his eyes caught sight of something below. Beneath the ruins of the statue, amongst the cracked and shattered stone, walked the Silver Lady. Her gaze went deep into Dormael’s being, piercing his soul. He was too far to make out an expression on her face, but he could feel a dark amusement coming from her, like a disturbed child plucking the legs from an insect.
“What’s wrong?” Shawna came up beside him. She placed a hand on his shoulder and tried to peer into his eyes. “You look like you’ve seen—”
The Nar’doroc burst to life, its song filling the air. Dormael’s knees buckled. His stomach heaved. He felt stone under his hands and realized he’d fallen. He tried to speak, but all that came out was a string of nonsensical words. His own voice came to his ears muffled, as if a pillow had been placed over his head.
“Dormael!” Shawna’s voice was distant.
Hands tugged at his body. Dormael’s world lurched as someone tried to lever him to his feet. He tried to push the song of the Nar’doroc away, but it pervaded his senses and drowned him in its presence.
SUNDERED!
The Nar’doroc ripped free of Dormael’s satchel. Sharp metal tentacles whipped at the air, scoring lines in the stone. Shawna shouted in alarm and dove to the side, crying out in pain as one of the tendrils slashed the back of her shin. The Nar’doroc levered itself from the stone, moving like an insect with spindly legs. It lashed out with an angry cut at Allen’s head, but Allen rolled under the strike and came up cursing.
REUNITED.
Dormael tried to rise, tried to summon his Kai, but it was no use. The song of the Nar’doroc held him to the stone, as if he was crouched under the weight of a waterfall. Dormael screamed through his teeth, but he couldn’t summon the strength to move.
Shawna screamed a warning and Dormael looked up. The Nar’doroc crawled over the floor in Bethany’s direction, its gems burning with angry light. The youngling lay helpless against the stone, unconscious to the danger.
Dormael’s heart seized with fear. “Bethany!”
Allen dove at the Nar’doroc, but a silvery tentacle slammed him against the opposite wall. Allen hit with a thunderous crash of steel-on-stone and slid to the floor in a heap. Dormael tried to summon the strength to rise, but his legs wouldn’t listen to the frantic screams of his mind. Shawna rose from her crouch and tried to reach Bethany, but it was no good.
The Nar’doroc wrapped Bethany in choking tendrils, picking her up from the floor. Shawna screamed in wordless terror and jumped for Bethany’s hand, but the Nar’doroc was too quick. It l
ifted Bethany into the air and skittered down the tunnel like a bug fleeing the light. Its song faded with the glow of its gems, taking Dormael’s heart with it.
No! Not Bethany! Not her!
The mind-numbing effects of the Nar’doroc’s song faded with its presence, and Dormael was able to get to his feet. He rushed to Shawna, who was rising from the stone. They went to Allen together and pulled him to his feet. Allen’s helmet was dented, but he yanked it from his skull and cursed as he kicked it down the tunnel.
“We have to go after her!” Dormael summoned his Kai and used magic to bring his spear to his hand.
Allen nodded. “We can’t leave that thing to do something to her.”
“Can either of you run?” Shawna glanced in the direction the Nar’doroc had fled. “I’m faster than either of you, but I don’t think I can face that thing alone. I wouldn’t know what to do.”
“I’ll run until my bloody lungs give out. Let’s go!”
Before anyone could take a step, vicious snarling reverberated from the stairway. Howls cut through the darkness, hot and close. Dormael shared a grim look with Allen and Shawna.
The Garthorin had caught up to them.
A Web of Lies
The temple at the center of the city was lit up like a bawdy tavern at midnight.
The pillars encircling the curved dome of the temple, which had earlier been humming with quiet power, were now shining like beacons. Glowing lines of crimson, gold, and azure painted designs across the floor, illuminating pathways leading to the temple walls. The temple itself had more glowing symbols written into its surface, making odd, blocky designs shine from the stone.
D’Jenn had never seen anything like it. The place looked like an Infuser’s nightmare, with magic running through channels, shaped by runes, empowering layer after layer of complicated spellwork. D’Jenn slowed his steps as he tried to absorb the sight.
Who were these people? This was far beyond the Conclave’s capabilities, yet there existed no record of this civilization D’Jenn had ever seen. An entirely different magical language, an understanding of power beyond comprehension, forgotten to the march of time.
He approached the temple with caution, careful to avoid the glowing lines on the ground. He could sense power thrumming all around him, but the nature of its movement was too complicated to discern. D’Jenn resisted the urge to plunge his magical senses into the mind-bending twists and turns of the ancient spell forms, and regretted for the hundredth time that he didn’t have time to study this place.
If the destruction continues, no one will ever see this place again.
D’Jenn started toward one of the dimly lit openings in the side of the temple. He kept his eyes on the pillars, certain they would spew fire in his direction, but the columns stood silent. The golden light from their runes pushed back the dark, and magic emanated from them in a gentle hum. His skin crawling with tension, D’Jenn continued past the glowing sentinels.
When he was almost to the temple door, a barrier of red, transparent light sprang up before him. D’Jenn stumbled back, summoning his Kai, but what confronted him was the image of a stern-faced woman, in her middle years. Her body was made from the same werelight of the barrier, and the image flickered like the surface of a disturbed pond. Her hair was pulled back from her face by an intricate piece of jewelry. She wore a robe made of folded cloth, and even in the monotone shades of transparent crimson, D’Jenn could see detailed embroidering in the folds. She blinked at D’Jenn and spoke, her voice appearing in his mind rather than his ears.
"Atsulio len-dastri menkala. Rayn-kennet brithvulin rakas! Brishtanavin."
D’Jenn stared back, bewildered. His eyes flickered back to the pillars, and he wondered if they were poised to vaporize him should he answer incorrectly. D’Jenn cleared his throat.
Eindor’s blighted eye—what now?
Before D’Jenn could open his mouth, there was a flash from one of the nearby columns. The image of the woman flickered again, still blinking at him, and blew apart into sparkling motes of energy. The barrier went with it, and a section of complicated spell-work behind it surged with energy. The magic sparked, fizzled, and half of the glowing lines around the temple winked out.
No earthquakes this time. That's an improvement.
D’Jenn took a careful step forward, testing for a reaction from the spells in the stone. When nothing happened, he continued toward the temple door. Soft golden light beckoned from within.
The inside of the temple was alive with activity. D’Jenn slid to a halt just inside the entrance, marveling at the light and movement around him. An image was conjured onto the inner walls of the temple, portrayed in full, vivid color while producing its own light. The image moved, as if the viewer were spinning in a circle, showing a thriving city tucked in the shadow of a forested mountain. Terraced farms dotted the hillside, with busy workers moving between rows of crops. The viewpoint was depicted from high above, and the workers were the size of ants. The city was vast, full of elegant buildings reaching for the sky. Expert architecture dotted the scene, with buildings made of shining white marble, and even some that seemed to be made of glass.
In the center of the room, where the statue of the old woman had stood, was the woman herself, now in full, rich color. She stood atop the dais and fixed D’Jenn with a wide, matronly smile. She held her right hand out to him, palm up, then balled the same fist over her heart and gave him a short bow.
By the gods’ own teeth!
The old woman raised from the bow and spread her hands in a welcoming gesture, showcasing the spinning vista on the walls. She said a few words in an unrecognizable tongue and went back to standing in her original position. Her form remained in full color, but her body went still.
D’Jenn was chilled.
Why would these people go to the trouble of constructing such intricate illusions just to have them greet someone at the door? The old woman’s bow raised other questions—questions D’Jenn had no time to contemplate. He spared a moment to commit the spinning illusion on the wall to memory before heading for the tunnel leading below.
The lower halls were as dark and hollow as they had been before. The mechanism tripped by Bethany’s magic hadn’t spread to these quiet corridors. D’Jenn was forced to summon a light as he trotted downward, listening to the whisper of magic around him.
He burst into the containment room as another magical surge was building. He came down the stairs with cautious steps, eyes darting around the chamber. The source stone was blazing with an angry red light, flickers of wispy energy arcing over its surface. The concentric rings, which had before been slowly turning, were now spinning fast enough to sever a hand. Their motion made a blur in the air around the stone, leaving ghostly streaks of light from their glowing runes.
The silvery material in the pool was boiling with activity. The tendrils growing up the chamber walls glowed with energy, and hairs of red lightning arced between the filaments. Blackened scars ran along the wall, as if something had burned a path over the stone.
The noise was intense. D’Jenn’s Kai screamed in his mind. The sound hurt his teeth, made his arms and legs want to seize with cramps. It took every bit of discipline D’Jenn had to keep the sound from blinding him.
He stepped forward, but the air resisted him. With each strained step, D’Jenn pushed against an invisible wind. The air grew warmer, and his skin burned with the heat. He was forced to summon his Kai and throw his magic against the resistance. There was no form to the spell, only the desire to keep moving forward.
With slow steps, D’Jenn reached the pinnacle of the central platform.
The power coming off the source was almost blinding. D’Jenn could feel it in his senses like a tiny sun. It filled the room with so much magic D’Jenn could feel it on his skin, could sense it with his baser instincts. Standing so close to the stone forced him to lean into the invisible wind, lest he be blown to the edge of the room. D’Jenn shielded his eyes with his fo
rearm and opened his mind to the whirling storm of magic around him.
If I don’t stop the buildup of energy, I’ll be consumed in the storm.
For the first time in years, D’Jenn had no idea what to do. The magic built around him until the air was alive with heat. D’Jenn screamed as his body erupted in shooting flashes of pain. His head felt like it was coming apart.
D’Jenn tried to pull himself together, tried to form a coherent thought. His mind was all blinding pain and deafening noise. His ears rang, sending a pair of ghostly needles straight to the center of his skull. D’Jenn fell to his knees, but managed to stay upright by applying more force from his Kai.
The hair stood from D’Jenn’s head. There was an odd floating sensation in his mind, a tightening in his stomach. The light in the stone grew to blinding intensity, reaching his eyes through the hand shielding them.
D’Jenn held the shattered pieces of his mind together as the pressure in the room built. His thoughts were hazy, indistinct, but he pulled them together under a single, forceful purpose. Materializing against the blinding backdrop of power was a single realization.
Act now or be destroyed.
With a scream, D’Jenn summoned the last of his magical energy. He powered the spell with every bit of emotion, every scrap of instinct, and every bit of will he could muster. Forming his magic into a razor thin spike, he thrust his power into the energy whirling around the source.
The rings blew apart, chiming like a giant bell. Lightning erupted from the stone, arcing around the room in multiple deafening strikes. The sound of tearing rock assaulted D’Jenn’s ears, but he rolled over and covered his head on the walkway. There was another flash, the sound of shearing metal, and the room went quiet.
D’Jenn opened his eyes and rose from the walkway. Furrows had been carved in the wall in random directions. The silvery, liquid metal in the pool had frozen in random peaks and valleys. Crimson flickers of energy still ran over its surface, rushing through the tendrils growing into the wall. The air was still thick, still tasted burnt, but D’Jenn could no longer feel the storm of building energy.
The City Under the Mountain (The Seven Signs Book 4) Page 38