“I suspected it might come to this, but I hoped it would not. Now in the name of the Light let me get on with this, or we shall all die here in vain.”
She tossed him the blade and the lightning wand. He held the blade gingerly by its insulated hilt and stuffed the wand into his belt. It was useless to him at the moment since he did not know how to use it.
He glanced around the room taking in the scene of utter devastation. All of the guardians were dead and decomposing with supernatural swiftness, taking the evidence of whatever supernatural tampering had been done to them to the grave. The air stank of rotting flesh and things long dead. The glow of the glittering gateway anchoring the spell hurt the eye if he looked at it too long. The sorcerers lay sprawled in their own blood, smiles etched eerily on their faces.
He glanced at the silver-masked figure of Asea, bowed to her and took up position beside Tamara. Behind him he could hear Asea making preparations. A glance backwards showed him that she was inscribing a circle of power around the gateway in chalk, kicking the bodies of the dead out of her way where necessary.
Whatever she was planning he hoped it would work. He could hear alarms ringing and the sound of men approaching from the distance.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Tamara grinned at him. “I never thought it would be this bad,” she said conversationally.
He took his bantering tone from her. “You call this bad?”
“I have broken into the Palace Imperial in the company of two foreign spies, one of whom is a wanted traitor and the other of whom is suspected of having assassinated a high noble of the realm as well as the Queen of a neighbouring province long regarded as a rightful vassal. Since illegally entering the aforementioned Palace I have slain several more of Her Majesty’s devoted subjects and guards. I am now aiding and abetting in the performance of some doubtless forbidden ritual designed to undermine the power of the spell that is winning the war for Sardea. Have I missed anything out?”
“I could see how your enemies might put a negative interpretation on your deeds, but you missed my point.”
“Which was?”
“You call this bad.”
“Don’t you?”
“Not compared to some of the situations I have been in.”
“Perhaps you would care to while away the time before legions of our enemies appear by describing one or two of them to me.”
“I was once stuck in a coffin plunging from leagues above the clouds along with an unconscious Queen while a Nerghul battered away at the outside.”
“You are exaggerating.”
“Not at all. If anything I understate the peril of the situation.”
“Out of modesty, no doubt.”
“I do not like to boast.”
“Modesty is your greatest asset.” Behind them Asea had begun to chant. The hair on Rik’s neck began to stand as he sensed the flow of mystical power curdling the air behind him.
“When did this happen?”
“After I single-handedly broke into the Serpent Tower and freed the imprisoned heir to the Kharadrean throne. It turned out that the Tower itself was some kind of ancient star-faring vessel and it was returning to the place from whence it came.”
“I am gratified to be in the presence of such a hero.” Rik was certain that he could hear men approaching now. They were coming in great numbers. It would not be long now before the guards arrived. He hoped they were not bringing more of the guardians with them.
“Then there was the time when we broke into the lost city of Achenar, wiped out the last remnants of an Elder race and banished a demon god.”
“I begin to understand why you decided to come along on this mission. To a man of your accomplishments this must seem a mere bagatelle, a thing hardly worthy of your talents.”
“It whiles away an otherwise dull hour in a dull city.”
“I find that, like your presence, oddly reassuring.”
“I am gratified to hear it.” The flow of immense energy around them grew stronger. Asea’s voice was raised to a scream. He took another glance at her. A glowing nimbus of light surrounded her, so bright that it was almost dazzling. Even after he looked away the outline of her form still blazed upon his retina.
“Do you think she is all right?” Tamara asked.
“You would know more of these things than I.”
“I am beginning to doubt that.”
“We’ve escaped from tighter situations than this. We were surrounded by the city guard in Halim. The Quan had closed the seaways to us and the only way from the city was over water.”
“Naturally this provided no insuperable obstacle to a man like yourself.”
“The Lady Asea managed to get most of a company of us out in balloons, wafted over the walls, swamps and water by the power of her magic.”
“Perhaps she might be able to do the same for us here.”
“I am not hopeful.”
“You will have to arrange our exit yourself then.”
“Such thoughts had crossed my mind.”
A mass of uniformed men surged in at both ends of the corridor. They carried muskets and they looked like they knew how to use them.
“It was a bit thoughtless of the Lady Asea to destroy the door to this chamber when she entered,” said Tamara. “Otherwise we could have simply sealed it and barred the entrance.”
“Doubtless she felt the need to make a spectacular entrance.” At the far end of the corridor men raised their muskets. They did not seem at all keen to ask any questions of intruders, merely to fire their weapons.
“Might I suggest that we step back into the chamber and out of the line of sight of these would-be marksmen?”
“A capital suggestion. Let us suit actions to words.”
They threw themselves backwards as the first musket balls peppered the walls all around them.
“They do not seem keen to negotiate,” observed Tamara.
“Doubtless they fear our power,” said Rik. “They know we must have slaughtered the Guardians of the Gate and thus have proven ourselves foes of supernatural strength.”
“Their fears are justified given your amazing exploits in the past. Perhaps it is time for you to stride forth and slaughter them. After that, you can clear the Palace and declare me Empress.”
“I am surprised to hear you voice such treasonous sentiments towards your rightful liege.”
“I apologise. I was merely carried away by the excitement of the moment and your overwhelmingly heroic presence.”
Outside things suddenly went quiet. Rik risked a glance to see why. A monstrous figure advanced down the corridor towards them while the soldiers looked on with horror written on their faces.
“What in the name of the Light is that?” Rik asked.
“It has nothing to do with the Light,” Tamara said. “Lord Xephan has come himself.”
There was fear in her voice that communicated itself to Rik.
Rik had never seen anything quite like Lord Xephan before. Spiked armour encased the Terrarch's form. Something about it reminded him of the Nerghul, that strange creation of alchemy and necromancy. It was a carapace of rotted muscle and fused bone.
Its movement was like watching exposed sinew and cartilage flex and spasm as a patient writhed in agony under a surgeon's saw. The armour seemed alive but a moment's consideration told him that this was the wrong word. It was undead in exactly the same way as the walking corpses created by the plague.
A monstrous crest of bone rose from Xephan’s back, webs of flesh woven between it like some strange sail. They burned with sorcerous power, drawing energy from the Black Mirror. The thing was the product of the darkest sorcery and the mere fact that Lord Xephan dared wear it here told Rik that he was either desperate or supremely confident.
The armour made Xephan much larger and bulkier, at least a head taller than Rik and Rik was a tall man. Only Xephan's face was exposed; its delicate Terrarch beauty incongruous amidst the horror framing it.