City of Torment

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

The Year of the Secret (1396 DR) Leaving Xxiphu

Japheth witnessed Raidon Kane complete the binding. He perceived the great shock of negation expanding up from the freshly scribed hundred foot-diameter seal and penetrating the Eldest. The beast groaned, even in its petrified slumber, as if crying out against the injustice of the world.

But the tendril of awareness that dealt with Japheth insisted the warlock stick to his deal.

Japheth agreed and continued to hold the personality fragment to its end of the bargain, even as the elder servitors of Xxiphu swirling below Japheth's feet raged at their failure. He maintained his position and shouted, over and over again, even as his voice cracked, "Release Anusha Marhana! Release her!"

And just like that, Japheth felt Anusha's focus slip free. Yeva's too! "Yes!"

Anusha's focus sped away, seeking its rightful mooring. Yeva's foundered. He'd expected that and offered the homeless spirit a temporary roost in the dark confines of his rod. Though he couldn't see it, he felt the spirit of the strange woman take up residence within it.

The ritual concluded. He plunged toward the floor.

He instinctively reached out to grasp for a support where none existed. Wasting time clawing at empty air almost proved his death. But a moment before his brains were dashed out upon the floor of the throne chamber, he plunged into the gaping discontinuity of his cloak.

And stepped out into a rounded tunnel dripping with phosphorescent slime.

A sprinting man avoided colliding with him with a spectacular leap that cleared Japheth's head by inches.

The man rolled into a landing, was back on his feet a moment later, and turned to regard the warlock. "Japheth," he said, "you should not have come here."

"Raidon Kane," said Japheth. "We can argue that later. Right now about twenty-odd aboleths, each the size of a dragon, are coming down this corridor. We must go!" The monk regarded the warlock a heartbeat longer, then said, "The woman, your friend, was with me a moment ago in her intangible shape. She seems-"

"I released her, Raidon! I did it!" He raised a fist and grinned. "Now come on! Show me the way to your ship!

Seren told me you outfitted Green Siren to bring you here."

The monk's face, normally an expressionless mask, wavered between resignation and anger. The half-elf didn't look well. His wild expression suggested he was on the edge of a mental break.

A scream of abolethic fury and a flash of red light behind Japheth lit the monk's face. It was enough to engage Raidon once more.

"This way. You will have to keep up with me. Perhaps we can catch up to Seren and Thoster. They went ahead-I haven't been this way before."

Raidon sprinted off down the corridor.

Japheth followed. He immediately fell behind.

He hadn't traversed more than a hundred yards when he detected a change in the timbre of the pursuing aboleths. Perhaps it was the star pact that gave him insight into the sounds. Or maybe it was because he knew why a passel of despairing servitors of Xxiphu, bent on murderous revenge, would suddenly give up the chase.

He knew why they exulted instead. He'd given them a gift beyond measure.

Or at least they would initially assume he had.

Right now, they rejoiced that their progenitor wasn't dead. They rejoiced because they believed they had the key to resuming their rousing chant where they'd left off.

Soon enough, the aboleths and the Eldest's slumbering, yet all-too-active subconscious would realize his deception. He hoped he could get out of the terrible city and back to Green Siren-where, the stars willing, Anusha waited- before then.

Despite his deception, the warlock had still provided the aboleths a prize that would prove all too useful. He regretted it, but not enough that he would have decided differently if given the chance to do it over.

Japheth ran.

Despite his earlier implication, Raidon did wait up for Japheth. Every so often the monk paused at the edge of a pool of slime where an aboleth yet slumbered. As the warlock caught up, the monk plunged Angul into the cavity, killing the monster before it even realized its peril. An expression of grim satisfaction hardened the monk's face each time.

When Raidon had his blade out, Japheth stayed clear. With the new pact, Japheth suspected the Blade Cerulean would see him as essentially no different from an aboleth or other aberrant creature. The weapon was insane.

And Japheth suspected, the more he watched the half-elf, so was the wielder.

The tunnel spit the gasping Japheth into a cavity whose far side was open to the massive vault that surrounded Xxiphu. Green Siren hung unsuspended in the air just feet from a protruding stone shelf. Seeing it hovering without support, save for a few slack ropes tied to the shelf, gave Japheth a momentary rush of vertigo.

Sparkling gold and red points of light swirled around the ship.

Raidon, Thoster, Seren, and several crew were also visible, including the first mate. Raidon was boarding. Seren stood on the deck of Green Siren nearest the shelf. Thoster's strong voice was directing the crew to cast off.

Japheth ran to the gangplank and crossed.

Raidon gave the warlock a hard look as he pounded across the plank. Japheth was glad to see the monk had sheathed Angul once more.

"Let's get out of here," Japheth said.

"Cast off." yelled Thoster.

The crew severed the last lines holding the ship. Green Siren drifted away from the shelf, toward the open air of the hollow.

"Raidon," said Seren, "will you control the ascent?" She gestured to a ritual circle smeared onto the main deck.

The monk continued to stare at Japheth, but nodded. Then he said, "And you still have the Dreamheart safe, Japheth?"

"I had to give it up."

"What?" Seren gasped. Her face lost all color. Raidon snorted, as if he'd already guessed. Japheth tensed, ready to defend himself if the monk went for him. The tableau held for several heartbeats, until an exclamation by three crew members drew their attention back to the increasingly distant stone shelf.

Two humanoid figures and one shadowy hound stood on it.

Japheth sucked in air. Even at the large and growing distance, he recognized the figures as Malyanna and Neifion.

Malyanna lifted something over her head. A spherical object.

"What kind of boneheaded stunt did you pull out there, lad?" said Thoster. "Is that-?"

"It's the Dreamheart!" said Seren. "It doesn't matter," said Japheth. "Why not?" asked Thoster.

"Because I locked up a portion of the Dreamheart's strength. They can't use it to its full power." He didn't volunteer that he'd switched pacts and had locked up a portion of the stone's essence within himself. That was what kept him safe from the crimson road. He fancied he detected the tendrils of influence he'd stolen locked in opposition with the demonic power of his addiction, striving one against the other but equally matched. As long as that struggle persisted, neither could muster the strength to claim the warlock. It was a delicate balance.

"Are you mad?" Seren asked. "The stone still has power, no matter how much you've drawn off."

"Perhaps your meddling is the reason the Eldest did not die as I intended," said Raidon.

"It's not dead?" said Thoster, his brow crinkled with concern.

"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 eriglobing 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.

Tin 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.