“She may not have thought of everything, but she definitely cared. She made a similar escape route in the temple,” Ruby said, taking a deep breath. “So who goes first?”
“Me,” Farris quickly interjected, stepping forward. “I’m made of stone, I’ll crush anyone else if I hit them, and will probably get to the bottom faster.”
Phynis opened her mouth to protest, but Desa spoke first, her voice cracking like a whip. “We don’t have time to argue! Farris, go, then me, then everyone else. Now!”
The golem mage didn’t pause, quickly entering the shaft and disappearing from sight. Desa followed only a few moments later, her voice soft as she muttered, “Hope I don’t hit her.”
Once she was gone, Phynis jumped ahead of the others, hastily slipping into the opening in turn. The darkness was oppressive, and she realized in shock that the sides of the tunnel were as smooth as slick glass, cool against her back and skin. Then she was descending, and Phynis’ eyes went huge as she picked up speed.
The tunnel was no more than three feet across and perfectly round, the sides polished smooth and coated with something that allowed her to slide down it easily. It was also completely dark, which kept her from being able to tell how fast she was going… but the way the air was whipping past her prompted a squeak of surprise as she suddenly turned a corner, fear of what she was doing abruptly gripping her.
A scream echoing from above her told Phynis that she wasn’t the only one who was suddenly struck by terror, but that was a cold comfort as she plunged down the slide. Praying for her safety, the trip seemed to last for a near-eternity, in which Phynis could still feel Sistina’s own pain and fear. That very real fear helped Phynis overcome her own terror. When she slowed down, Phynis felt some relief, just before she was ejected from the tunnel straight into a massive green leaf.
“Eep!” Phynis managed, then she bounced off the soft, springy surface of the leaf, which absorbed most of her momentum before she landed on another huge leaf.
“Phynis, move, before someone else hits you!” Desa called out, extending her hand to help Phynis off the leaf. Phynis took her hand and moved to the side, only a few moments before Amethyst erupted from the tunnel above and ricocheted off the leaf.
“Thanks, Desa,” Phynis gasped, taking a deep breath of air that smelled faintly of smoke over the perfume of flowers. They were standing in a small side cavern off of Sistina’s main chamber, one that Phynis could only vaguely recall having seen, though the leaves they’d landed on seemed new. Farris was standing nearby, and all of their clothing was slightly oily from the slide. One after another, the priestesses arrived, but Phynis rushed toward the main cavern.
“Your Majesty, wait!” Desa called out, rushing after Phynis. On entering the cavern, both of them skidded to a stop, and horror flooded Phynis, her heart feeling strangled.
Sistina’s tree was on fire. All the upper branches had been set alight, the fire burning green, blue, crimson, and purple as it raged, her tree’s pristine bark blackening and curling. Beneath her tree were a handful of figures in gray, one of them with an axe. At that moment he struck Sistina’s trunk again, and Phynis heard the trunk give out a heart-wrenching crack. The upper branches swayed, wavered… and then her link to Sistina went silent as the tree slowly began to fall.
Grief, shock, and pure, undiluted rage flooded Phynis, and she lost all sense of reason as she screamed, reaching out to her magic and pulling. The only thing in her mind was destroying those who’d taken Sistina from her.
Sistina was wracked by pain as her trunk toppled and her attackers threw fire into her core, searing deep into the jagged stump and stoking the fires consuming her ever higher. She’d tried to fight, but without sight or the ability to shape her environment, she was so very vulnerable. While she might not be dead yet, her connection to the tree was rapidly dimming, and with it her connection to the others.
Through what remained of those connections, Sistina could feel the shock and horror coming from Phynis, and more faintly from the Jewels. Farris was the most obvious to her, while Lily seemed mostly confused. Even so, Sistina couldn’t do much. She tried to reach out to them, to comfort them and bid them farewell, but it was just too far.
Her end was upon her, and sorrow flowed through Sistina, trying to remember what had happened before. So many fragments of prior lives had never been recovered, and now they never would be. If she could have shed tears, she would have. Still, she’d died or nearly died enough times. It was time to meet her end with at least a hint of dignity.
So as the flames destroyed still more of the tree that contained her consciousness, Sistina tried to avoid the urge to curse her attackers and rail at the gods. As the fire removed the last vestiges of thought, she felt Phynis’ anger erupt… and shock flooded her for an instant as she felt the elven queen seize Sistina’s power for her own.
Lily stumbled down the stairs as quickly as she could, panic surging through her. Sistina’s pain had been all too obvious to her, and what had happened was clear to the young woman. Kitten had been telling her that someone had gotten into the entrance to the dungeon, and she cursed herself for not even thinking about securing the door. For so long she’d thought that Sistina was invincible, and now…
The elf glanced down at Kitten anxiously, the young panther limp in her arms, unconscious but still breathing. When the strange gong-like sound had echoed through her head, Kitten had fallen to the ground. It was only with difficulty that she’d managed to get the poor creature’s attention, and a strange… spark, almost like static, had discharged between them.
Swallowing hard, Lily wished that she’d practiced with her dagger more, but Sistina had rescued her more than once. No matter what danger the dryad was in, she wouldn’t abandon her.
Phynis wasn’t thinking about anything. She was staring across the cavern in rage, and power surged through her like magma in a volcano. The power wasn’t her own, either, she could sense that clearly. Shimmering with elemental force, the power was something Phynis had felt, had seen before. This was Sistina’s power, and with it returned a memory that had almost completely vanished, worn away by shock and time.
She remembered the shimmering tapestry of Sistina’s domain, and the tree at its core. She remembered the violet figure of darkness, the promise that Sistina had made… and she remembered how the dryad had used her power. Phynis didn’t have Sistina’s finesse, nor the training of Desa, but she knew how to cast basic spells, and she’d practiced extensively over the winter. With the power at her command, well, it would have to suffice.
“Look away from me,” Phynis told the others, glowering as she began to cast a spell, the first she’d ever learned.
“Hah! Take that, you damned tree!” Edward spat on the flames raging in the tree’s stump, the man limping, injured by no less than half a dozen near-deadly attacks.
“Stop it, Edward. We’ve got to get out of here before the adventurers get here,” Xaris interrupted, satisfied but shocked by the difficulty of the job.
The tree had been unbelievably resilient, taking dozens of fire bolts to even ignite, and it had fought back the entire time. This explained the price the Archon had placed on destroying the dungeon, but even so, it had been more difficult than anticipated. Normally dungeons were helpless after the disrupter was used, from everything that he’d heard. He pulled out the teleportation crystal and glanced off to the side, pausing as his eyes narrowed. “What’s that over there? I think—”
In the distance, nearly a dozen figures—adventurers?—stood, several of whom had brightly colored hair that made them stand out. He could barely see them, and was just considering what to do when the world lit up like a thousand suns had dawned at once, with a searing radiance that made his vision flash white, then go dark with an intense pain he couldn’t even begin to describe. The others cried out as well, though none as loudly as him.
Xaris didn’t realize he’d dropped the teleportation crystal for a long moment, and he fell
to his knees, searching as he spoke, tears dripping down his face. “I can’t see, can anyone else?”
“I can—duck!” Rene began, but before Xaris could react, a frozen lance of ice struck him in the chest, punching straight through him with a spray of blood.
“What in the hells was that?” Edward demanded, blinking to try and clear the bright spots from his eyes. Fortunately, he hadn’t been looking directly at the distant figures when the blinding flash of light had hit them, but he was having trouble seeing. As his vision cleared, he froze on seeing Xaris’ body sprawled on the ground. “Shit! Where’s the teleportation stone?”
Oliver was on Xaris before Edward or Rene, quickly going through his pockets. “Dammit, what the hell was he thinking? It was right here…”
“There it is!” Rene exclaimed, stepping forward to pick up the crystal. All of them flinched and ducked as another shower of icy spears came down all around them, ice chips clipping them and drawing blood.
“Dammit, the crystal’s broken!” Oliver spat out, and Edward looked closer. Frustration flooded through him as he saw the spider web of cracks from where the crystal had hit the ground and how it no longer possessed the soft silver glow it had before. The other man continued bitterly. “There goes our main escape route!”
“Shut up, Oliver! We still can get out. No one’s seen our faces, so all we have to do is get outside and they won’t have a clue,” Rene interrupted, gesturing her head toward a nearby tunnel. “I’ll damned well guarantee there’s guards up top, so I’m going out through the dungeon.”
“Fuck that, I’m going back up—” Oliver began, rising ever so slightly and starting for the tunnel they’d entered through. The moment he was exposed, a brilliant beam of light lanced across the cavern and punched a hole through his head effortlessly. On a taller man it would’ve hit in the chest, but the small man fell to the ground, twitching.
“I’m with you, Rene,” Edward spoke quickly, nodding at the woman.
Tossing the crystal aside with a hiss, Rene jumped a log and started running from their attackers. Both of them ducked as another beam of light and a shower of ice spears nearly caught her, but Edward took the chance to follow and take cover in the burning trees around them.
He barely spared a glance for the burning tree behind them, no longer caring about the life of their target.
Chapter 19
“Sistina! No, no no…” Phynis cried out, her tears flowing freely as she fought to approach her beloved’s tree. The raging fire was scintillating with more colors than any simple fire she’d seen in her life, from silver to raging gold to white. The heat was unimaginable, making it hard to get anywhere near the blaze. Phynis spat out, her voice almost breaking in her sorrow, “Those bastards! I wish we’d been just a little faster, maybe then we could… could have…”
“Sistina may still have a chance, Phynis,” Farris interrupted, the golem’s eyes darker than normal. “Diamond, if we contact the temple, they could bring the relics necessary to revive the recently dead, no? Perhaps you could recall her soul before it passes on?”
“I’ll put out the fire,” Desa quickly spoke, blinking back her tears. “It’s all I can do.”
As the Captain began to weave her spell, Diamond shook her head solemnly, her voice trembling. “If it were anyone else you’d be right, Farris. The problem is that Sistina died once before. She was once mortal, then became a demon. A soul isn’t meant to go through their judgement twice, not unless they enter the cycle of reincarnation. If an angel or demon dies, truly dies instead of merely having a mortal shell destroyed, their soul dissolves and dissipates into nothing. She will end, Farris.”
“Then what can we do?” Phynis begged, turning to them as tears streamed down her face, her eyes swollen. “She saved me once, we have to save her!”
Desa didn’t allow the distraction to interrupt her, conjuring a thick cloud of icy fog that descended on the shattered stump of the tree, trying to quench the flames. The fire wasn’t dying easily, though, burning through much of the fog before it even began to dim.
“I… that’s right, she did save you, Phynis!” Farris murmured, her eyes brightening as she spoke more excitedly. “I don’t have the power to perform the spell she did, but you might be able to provide it. I—”
All of them flinched as a faint sensation washed over them, almost as if a string attached to them had been pulled taut. Phynis’ eyes went wide as she felt the tension in that ‘string’ grow stronger, seemingly coming from her abdomen. She quickly reached down to pull up her blouse, revealing the blue slave brand that adorned her flesh glowing brilliantly. The ‘string’ seemed to fray, as if its anchors were coming loose, and as it did, the brand began to fade, growing translucent and indistinct.
“She’s passing on! Diamond, can you hold her soul together? Keep her from dissipating?” Farris asked, turning to the priestesses once more.
“We… we have a number of spells, and we can try,” Diamond replied, anxiety clear on her face. Looking at the other six priestesses, she offered her hands to them and asked, “Please, sisters?”
“Of course,” Amethyst replied firmly, stepping forward and taking her hand. The others each took a hand in turn, none of them calm, but only Emerald actually looked terrified. The seven priestesses began to murmur a spell in unison, just as Sistina’s connection to their brands snapped.
From the dying, multi-colored flames rose a brilliant white star, burning brighter as it escaped the tree itself. Phynis felt a deep sense of familiarity to the star, and her heart felt like it seized when she saw it growing still brighter. An old saying she’d heard came to mind, as she murmured, “A star burns brightest before it goes out.”
“Not if we can help it,” Farris stated, offering a hand to Phynis. “Your Majesty? I need your help. Desa, please put out the fire. If it isn’t put out, we’re going to have an even harder time with this.”
“Trying,” Desa replied through gritted teeth, sweating profusely as she tried to maintain her spell.
From the Jewels came an aura of light, wrapping around the star and constricting tightly. The star seemed to fight against it, but the priestesses managed to overwhelm it, their combined strength forcing the star to dim, trapping it as they continued to murmur their spells. Phynis took Farris’ strangely soft stone hand and asked, “What do I need to do?”
“I need you to let me draw on your mana. The spell that Sistina used to heal you took so much that there’s no chance of me powering it on my own,” Farris explained, then took a deep breath before admitting softly, “Assuming I can pull this off. While I know how to cast the spell, it partially relies on knowing how to fix the body, and I don’t know nearly as much about trees.”
“Please, just… just do your best,” Phynis told her, looking up at the soul of her love in fear, trying to relax enough to let Farris draw on her mana.
“Of course. I’m going to do everything in my power,” Farris murmured, closing her eyes and starting to draw a torrent of energy from Phynis’ mana reserves.
As she looked at the dying flames and the shimmering orb of Sistina’s spirit, Phynis murmured softly, her voice almost breaking, “Don’t leave me, Sistina.”
Daniel could barely suppress the waves of surprise he’d felt as the adventurers had rushed through the halls of the dungeon. True, the trip had been a mad dash, but Sina had been an unerring guide so far, leading them down a maze of tunnels and through several sets of rooms that had been shocking in their complexity.
First they’d reached the cave where the bears lived, and Daniel had cringed at the sight of nearly forty of the massive, deadly cave bears, along with at least a dozen young bears sprawled about the large, verdant cavern. The bears had been unconscious, which was fortunate, and the cavern was filled with plants that must be good for them to eat. Quickly enough they passed that room and entered another chamber, this one with massive beehives and the bees which had proven to be an annoyance in their delves, though nowhere near
as much as the wasps.
Fortunately, they hadn’t had to go through the room where the wasps lived. The deer had been a bit of a shock, but that had made a certain amount of sense. The wolves that they encountered from time to time had to eat something, and it certainly explained where the venison that the cooks purchased from Sina over the winter had come from.
Even stranger were some of the dungeon floors they’d crossed. Sina led them through safe areas, but there were areas with seething magma pits nearby, as well as rooms with fragile-looking bridges over spikes. The guardians weren’t active, which was the only reason Daniel wasn’t worried about dying that very moment.
As they entered a room with dozens of stone pillars, and the unmoving figure of what looked like a stone golem engraved with hundreds of runes, Sina skidded to a halt, frowning as she spoke. “I thought I heard something. This room doesn’t have traps, the golem was considered more than enough of a threat.”
“I hear footsteps. At least two pairs, light by the sound of them,” one of the men Daniel didn’t know murmured.
“Spread out. If it isn’t someone we know is allied with the dungeon, we stop them,” Albert ordered, pulling out a metal rod. The Guildmaster swung the rod, which telescoped outward into a platinum-etched brass staff, his face grim. “Try to take them alive, but I’m not too concerned if there’s breakage.”
“Right,” Penelope replied calmly, as she and most of the others spread out.
Daniel glanced at the others, then sidled toward Sina, along with most of his group. He felt somewhat out of place, but he softly asked, “Sina? Are you alright?”
Halls of Power (Ancient Dreams Book 3) Page 12
