City of Torment

by Bruce R Cordell

“Not dead, but sleeping again,” said Raidon

  Seren said, “Oh, that’s just wonderful!” She pointed an accusatory finger at Japheth and said, “Does the Dreamheart retain enough strength to break Raidon’s binding over the Eldest?”

  Raidon shifted his weight, preparatory to drawing Angul.

  Japheth didn’t know the answer to Seren’s question. Maybe. But he pointed back to the shelf. “Perhaps it’s escaped your notice, but Malyanna holds the Dreamheart. She must have taken it from the throne chamber. So the binding has not broken. She didn’t let the Eldest or its servitors have it.”

  Through the air separating them, the eladrin noble’s piercing gaze found Japheth. He knew, even without being able to clearly see her face, that Malyanna scowled at him.

  “Why would she do that?”

  “I … don’t know.” But he suspected. The audacious eladrin might have snatched the stone to use as a bargaining chip against the Eldest. The woman had a dark agenda, and perhaps rousing the Eldest was only part of her plan. Not that he could imagine anything worse.

  The ship’s drift saw them out of the cavity and into the vast subterranean cyst.

  Japheth watched the ledge, even though Xxiphu’s coiling sides competed for his attention. The silhouette he’d identified as Neifion seemed agitated. Almost like he was growing in size … then he unfurled enormous bat wings.

  “We have to go. Now!” He pointed. Neifion’s wings were apparent to all.

  “Your crime will not go unpunished,” Raidon promised. Then he stepped into the ritual circle.

  The moment the monk entered the smeared radius, the ship’s drifting prow straightened. The glowing points englobing the ship pulsed as one, revealing themselves to Japheth as tiny fish.

  Neifion launched himself from the ledge. His black wings brought an answering rustle from Japheth’s cloak. The Lord of Bats sought every last vestige of his stolen strength.

  The ship broke upward, straight toward the vault’s ceiling. Already close, Green Siren punctured the craggy rock, which folded open before them and closed behind.

  Mast-first, Green Siren shot up through solid stone like an escaped festival balloon into empty air.

  Anusha was free of the long nightmare. When she convinced herself she wasn’t merely hallucinating, she considered plunging back into dream, intending to find and help Japheth return to the ship.

  But she was too hyped up to fall asleep, and the mere thought of looking for one of the vials of sleep turned her stomach. She decided that trying to return to her dream form just then was probably one of the stupider plans she’d ever contemplated, given her recent history and circumstances. Japheth had shown himself more than capable. Though it was nearly as hard as anything she’d ever done, she managed to put aside her worry about him for a little while.

  She occupied her attention by wolfing down all the biscuits and hard rations she could scrounge from the travel chest, save for a few pieces she allowed Lucky to take from her hand.

  After that, she lit the lantern bolted to the wall to provide more light. She found the basin, a waterskin, and a clean towel she’d had when she shared the cabin with Japheth before the Dreamheart had pulled her … No. Don’t think about that.

  She sighed as she wiped away the residue of days from her skin and hair. Someone must have tended to her, even fed her, while she lay unconscious. Otherwise she’d have died in her sleep after so long without waking.

  She brushed her hair, wondering what she was forgetting … Yeva!

  What had become of the woman who’d accompanied her through Xxiphu’s bowels? Had Japheth freed Yeva too? If so, unlike herself, Yeva had no body to return to.

  Did that mean the woman was merely dead? “Yeva?”

  No answer.

  Anusha heard excited voices on the deck. She gazed out the porthole.

  “Oh gods, we’re floating.” Indeed, the ship hovered over a gulf of darkness. She’d heard Seren say the ship had been modified to find Xxiphu, but she hadn’t known what to expect. A constellation of tiny gleams surrounded the craft. Even as she finally grasped that the ship hovered within an enormous subterranean cavity, the floorboards creaked. Simultaneously, it seemed as if a heavy person stepped briefly onto her shoulders.

  She saw the vault’s ceiling rush down … no, the ship lurched upward toward it.

  Anusha flinched from the expected impact. When she opened her eyes again, the vast cavern she’d spied through the porthole was gone. Now the glass showed layers of dark material that dropped away one after another. Sometimes the dark matrix was veined by traceries of pale blue, green, and crystal. The continuous but ever-changing consistency of the subsiding material was mesmerizing. It seemed Green Siren had indeed been outfitted to sail on more than seas. She realized she was watching a crosscut through hard bedrock. They were rising up through it!

  “It’s beautiful,” she said.

  “Not nearly as beautiful as you,” said a voice behind her.

  Anusha turned.

  Japheth stood in the doorway.

  The room suddenly seemed warmer.

  A tension she’d been holding in her back relaxed. He was alive! But the anxiety gave way to a wholly new tautness in her chest.

  “Beautiful? I’m skinny as a starved child,” she said.

  “No. You take my breath away.” Without light from the porthole, the only illumination in the room emerged from the lantern. Its waving light spilled shadows across the room, over Japheth’s body, and across his face. His eyes reflected the dancing flame.

  “What do you see through the glass?” he said, pointing to the porthole.

  “I don’t know! The rock, I guess, as we rise through the earth.” Anusha motioned him over. “Come, look with me?”

  Japheth entered the cabin and closed the door. In three steps he was across the narrow chamber until he stood just behind Anusha at the glass. He smelled her fragrance, vital again after slowly fading while she lay limp and senseless.

  The sight of her nearly melted him.

  “Are we finally safe?” she said, face pointed toward the glass so that he studied her profile. He couldn’t imagine more shapely features.

  “For now. The Eldest remains … partly bound. The worst will not come to pass.”

  She looked at him, waiting for further explanation.

  “I took into myself a portion of the Dreamheart’s energy. Energy the Eldest might have used to catalyze its full awakening. It didn’t realize I’d done so.”

  “Why does it matter what it realized?”

  “Because,” he continued, “it may gain partial awareness. I had to leave the Dreamheart in the Eldest’s possession to assure your freedom.”

  Anusha furrowed her brow but continued to gaze through the glass. Finally she said, “I’m glad you left that terrible thing behind.”

  “Yes.”

  She sighed, then leaned back into him. His arms wrapped around her slender form without conscious direction. Her scent overwhelmed him, and her warmth brought blood to his face. He rested his chin on her damp hair.

  “I’m glad you’re no longer a formless dream,” he said.

  She laughed.

  They watched the mottled earth flow past together, until Anusha tipped her face up and back. He dipped his head and shoulders to bring his lips to hers.

  They kissed.

  She tasted of joy, and life, and passion.

  She turned into him, maintaining the kiss, and embraced him in turn. How long had he hungered to feel her arms around his body? It didn’t matter.

  The long months of attraction, building desire, and sundered heartache were washed away. Euphoria was a warmth that raced in his veins instead of blood. It seemed to him that her pulse matched his heart’s cadence.

  Japheth broke the embrace. When his breath was back, he said, “You have become the world to me.”

  Anusha, also breathing harder, brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. She met his gaze and held it with her dark
eyes. In the dancing light, they seemed like the eyes of a tigress avid for the hunt.

  A slow grin spanned her face. “Show me,” she said.

  They collapsed into each other, their lips meeting again, this time with a passion that could ignite a fire.

  Their limbs entwined in that most human of all embraces. In his arms, Anusha was a star, a burning angel that cleaved to him.

  He said her name in wonder, in worship.

  He silently vowed to never let her go again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  The Year of the Secret (1396 DR)

  Green Siren on the Sea of Fallen Stars

  Green Siren burst from beneath the surface of the water like a leaping dolphin. The ship’s prow fell back level with the horizon and the keel crashed down into the water, spawning frothy waves that raced away in all directions.

  Raidon stepped clear of the ritual circle. The smeared perimeter was hardly even recognizable.

  The shimmering penumbra surrounding the ship wavered, dulled, and finally collapsed. A rain of tiny, jewel-like fish dropped into the water, drained and dying after swimming so far and long away from their home. Green Siren was a ship capable of sailing only water once more, and hardly the worse for wear despite her incredible journey.

  He rubbed at his eyes until he saw sparks against blackness. Mortal exhaustion, physical and mental, tried to drag him to the planking. Out of habit, he resisted. Voices in his head screamed at him for all his sins. It disturbed Raidon that all the voices sounded like his own.

  A distant rumble brought several hands to the starboard rail. Fingers pointed to the west, where a storm brewed.

  Clouds boiled out of clear air over the horizon, piling one atop the next until a thunderhead towered over the sea. Exclamations rang out among the crew, who, by their chatter, had never witnessed a storm appear so suddenly. Neither had the monk. He frowned.

  A wind out of the west slapped Green Siren, scattering the crew to trim the sails under the direction of the captain’s harsh calls. It smelled first of salt, then rancid fish.

  Raidon squinted into the wind and watched the storm build.

  The water beneath the storm moved in a great circle. The Cerulean Sign on his chest cooled. The monk’s frown became a scowl.

  The swirling water dipped at its center. The concavity deepened until a vortex of whirling water lay across the waves, so wide that its mouth was visible even over the miles that separated it from Green Siren. The spinning walls danced with phosphorescent glimmers.

  A long shape burst up from the vortex, shooting skyward in defiance of its catastrophic bulk. Gasps of dismay broke from every mouth.

  Lightning sizzled down from the clouds and limned the massive obelisk in eye-searing white. The flash revealed the thing that crowned the obelisk. It was the Eldest. Unmoving and stiff as stone … but free of the rocky catacomb that had entombed it since it fell to Toril so many ages past.

  Even before answering thunder boomed across Green Siren, the calamitous bulk of Xxiphu completed its skyward leap. It lodged in the thunderhead’s belly.

  Raidon touched the sign on his chest. The symbol wakened to blue fire.

  He murmured, “As I failed Ailyn, and the child I cut down in the city, so I failed you.”

  Imprecations yammered in his ear as if from a hundred throats, though none of the nearby freebooters seemed to hear. The monk listened to all the voices, achieving a kind of focus by taking in the sound without concentrating on any individual voice, until their combined fury, fears, and maudlin inanities became as the sound of the surf, crashing and falling behind his thoughts.

  The world would discover soon enough the depth of Raidon’s failure. Then more than imaginary voices would decry the half-elf—at least until their calls for retribution against the one who failed to save them turned to cries of horror.

  Xxiphu hovered above the Sea of Fallen Stars swaddled in the storm’s heart.

  This ends Book II of the

  Abolethic Sovereignty.

  The story concludes in

  Book III, Key of Stars.

  DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  Anusha Marhana (a-NOO-shah mar-HAN-a) Once the spoiled daughter of the Marhana merchant family, Anusha’s dreams proved a little too real. She learned she could fashion a body composed of dream and walk and interact in the waking world. Anusha is the younger half sister of Behroun Marhana. She does not share her older brother’s designs on nobility.

  Captain Thoster (THAWH-stir)

  The captain of the pirate ship Green Siren. Thoster is generally considered to be without conscience but not without his own peculiar sense of honor. He often boasts his blood is “unclean,” though what he means by such claims remains unclear—but that is becoming less true.

  Japheth (JA-feth)

  A pact-sworn warlock with abilities that defy common wizardry. He “walks the crimson road,” and thus his soul is forsworn. He manages to avoid his ultimate destiny through abilities derived from his pact with the Lord of Bats.

  Raidon Kane (RAY-dun KAYN)

  A Xiang Temple-trained warrior who is competent in any fight, but particularly so when battling monsters not born of the natural world, thanks to his implements: the sentient sword Angul and the Cerulean Sign that is spellscarred onto his chest.

  Seren Juramot (SEH-ren)

  A female wizard who relearned the knack of casting spells in the wake of the shattered Weave more quickly than many others. Seren is a mercenary wizard who seems primarily motivated by the bottom line.

  Other Characters

  Ailyn (AYE-lyn)

  Adopted daughter of Raidon Kane. Died in the first hours of the Spellplague.

  Behroun Marhana (Bh-ROON mar-HAHN-a)

  The Lord of the Marhana merchant family with schemes on nobility, troubled by few qualms in his efforts to achieve such status. Behroun is the older half brother of Anusha Marhana. He is allied with Malyanna.

  Dhenna Shavres (DEN-na) (SHAV-ris)

  The proprietor of Rose Keep, once a Red Wizard enclave, now an independent reseller of esoteric items.

  Gethshemeth (geth-SHEH-meth)

  A greater kraken that once abided in the misty depths of the Sea of Fallen Stars. Gethshemeth possessed the Dreamheart for a time and was changed by it, until the relic was taken. Now the kraken is drawn to the rousing city of Xxiphu.

  Lucky (also known as Blackie)

  The ship dog aboard Green Siren privateer vessel.

  Mapathious (ma-PAY-thee-us)

  An angel of exploration.

  Malyanna (mal-YAN-a)

  A woman who presents herself as a noble eladrin of the Feywild. However, her deeds not only belie her race’s reputation of genteel civility, they actively argue she may be something far more dangerous.

  Morgenthel (MOOR-gen-thel)

  A bounty hunter seeking Seren for her apparent betrayal of her previous allegiance.

  Neifion (NEH-fee-on)

  An enigmatic elder creature native to the Feywild to whom Japheth swore his pact. Usually referred to as the Lord of Bats. Of a class of creatures sometimes called archfey.

  Yeva (YEE-vah)

  A lost soul caught by the Eldest’s condensate memories. Freed by Anusha and saved from dissipation by her, Yeva befriends the dreamwalking girl and uses her mental powers to aid Anusha while she wanders the corridors of Xxiphu.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Bruce R. Cordell is an author of novels and games. He has over sixty listed credits, including several published novels and short stories. Besides writing, Bruce has a keen interest in martial arts, reading, and a wide variety of other activities. Bruce keeps his blog at www.brucecordell.com.

  Abolethic Sovereignty

  Book II

  CITY OF TORMENT

  ©2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC

  All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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  Published by Wizards of the Coast LLC

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