The giant was strong-as strong as many of Monolith's noble brothers and sisters who cavorted yet, uncaring of the fleshy creatures that haunted the earth above the mantle. But Monolith was renowned in the wide Earth Court for his strength and solidity.
Monolith grappled the giant around the legs in a great hug. He powered the legs together even as the green-skinned storm lord smashed at the back of Monolith's head. Uncaring, the prince pushed the giant over on his back. A pale-skinned servitor of Pandorym, one hand pierced with crystal, the other holding a crystal dagger, appeared in exactly the wrong spot. The falling giant crashed down directly upon the man, smashing him flat just as he tried to hurl his dagger across the chamber. The giant's fall cratered the floor, and Monolith was on his adversary even before the shock of the impact vibrated through the giant's full length. He had to keep his weight on the giant's torso.
The giant was down, but not out. The earth lord fended off a staggering blow and took a few directly in the head and face.
Fortunately, his body was more resistant to pummeling than living flesh. And as mighty as the storm giant was, it was still a creature more like a man than an elemental. The giant turned on its side, trying to get away from the prince's grapple-a fatal mistake. Though the giant was stronger than the elemental, Monolith was practiced in centuries of contests with his heavy-limbed kin. As soon as the giant gave the prince his back, the earth lord straddled the giant, grabbed him around the neck, and pulled. The giant's lower back was pinned under Monolith's boulderlike weight. With a savage jerk, Monolith broke the giant's back.
Warian danced away from the titanic figures, barely avoiding the same fate bestowed on Pandorym's newly summoned stooge. Four or five mantis-men remained near the core, not to mention the great smudge of steaming evil that seeped from the cracked silo-was that Pandorym itself? Kiril Duskmourn had just cut down Shaddon, but the Datharathi's head still threatened her. And… A creature, half bone and half void, stepped out of Pandorym's shrouded portal. Blood slicked its shadow-tipped claws, and gore crusted its body in horrible textures. The creature was fresh from a slaughter. Warian moved, and the world around him slowed again, though not as dramatically as before. He was tiring. The creature whirled, not as befuddled by Warian's speed as he would have hoped. It clawed at him, each hand like a fistful of swords. Warian ducked right. His left shoulder was scored, but his prosthesis withstood the cuts. His crystal hand formed a fist, and he slammed it with all the force he could muster into the creature's eyeless, bony face. The monstrosity exploded under Warian's phenomenal strike, blasting motes of shadow and splinters of bone in every direction. Warian gasped. The radiance of his arm failed. He'd used all his reserve, holding none back. Exhaustion curled into his limbs, and haze narrowed his vision. Nausea took him to his knees. He didn't have the strength to be sick. He didn't have the… Warian reeled into oblivion.
The Cerulean Blade tore through several razor-sharp, soul-burrowing strands that spewed from Shaddon's mouth. Turning those strands into so much dust, Kiril tried to plunge Angul into the decapitated head, but Shaddon darted outside her arc. She missed a few strands from Shaddon's next volley. Angul refused to let her feel the pain. Without consequences, anything was possible-any feat, any good work. And any atrocity. Her sword bristled in her hands at this wayward thought, and some of the pain of Shaddon's blows touched Kiril. She gritted her teeth and muttered, "Let me fail here, and these abominations survive." She deflected another burst of night-black tendrils. Her hands wavered on Angul's hilt, but his fire flickered brightly. Shaddon's dead eyes glinted, uncaring, as he vomited up another torrent of darkness. A ribbon cut her cheek, and pain flared. "Damn you, Angul, help me now without messing with my head, or lose your last tie to the humanity your forsook!" The blade flared-in anger? Doubtful Angul could feel that emotion. Shaddon's head, sensing weakness, darted forward, its mouth eagerly wide, its crystal flesh oozing inky death. The head moved close to deliver an awful coup de grace that only physical contact could allow. Angul didn't let her down. Shards of Shaddon's skull and crystal rained across the chamber. Now… what was the vengeance taker bellowing for? Fire? The blade flared its blue flame anew. Kiril yelled a battle cry and ran to the Imaskari's aid. Her blade hadn't abandoned her.
Besides, igniting trolls was something she and Angul could both agree on.
The murk of Pandorym's form strained and quivered. The portal at Pandorym's heart wavered, narrowing further. Ususi didn't falter. She imagined the wall she held blocking the passage to Deep Imaskar as a gag-a gag she continued to cram down the throat of a desperately struggling assassin on whom the tables had suddenly turned. With the ragged edges of her percipience, she noted Shaddon was no more. Zel summoned the courage to enter the room and tend to his fallen nephew.
The elf swordswoman torched the body of a gray troll. Iahn stood nearby, firing crossbow bolts at the mantis-men if they dared to poke their heads from cover. The earth lord, Prince Monolith, stood over the body of a fallen giant, near the gap where Pandorym's influence seeped from its jacketed silo. Pandorym's influence… something nagged her. She turned the full attention of her star-bright eyes, Qari's gift, on the boiling darkness of Pandorym and saw the facade for what it was. What she perceived as Pandorym was only the entity's evil nimbus-the true mentality of the creature still lay entrapped in the partly disengaged canister, thick with the entangling magic of an ancient era. The nimbus wasn't Pandorym-it was Pandorym's herald. But left to fester, it would eventually leverage enough power to pull itself free of its containment. On the other hand, if Pandorym's canister could be resealed in its silo, the nimbus that leaked from the gap would cease. "Prince Monolith, seal the gap!" Ususi yelled, straining to maintain her spell. Hearing her, Pandorym redoubled its struggle. Her barrier nearly skittered from her mental grasp. She sensed dozens of powerful presences gathered just on the other side of Pandorym's portal-Deep Imaskar's attackers had returned to the edge of the bridge through which they'd arrived. Trolls, mantis-men, shadow efts, and other creatures pressed against the wall. And an illithid!
All were trying to cross the gap and defend their master. Ususi was determined they would fail. She wouldn't let them through. "The gap?"
The earth lord took a tentative step toward the raised circle in the floor, through which Pandorym's influence streamed. "This?" "Yes!
Close it! Quick!" Ususi stumbled, one hand out, the other on her forehead as her spell came under even more violent attack. "There are dozens, maybe hundreds of servitors on the other side of the portal, in Deep Imaskar-they're trying to return here. And they will if they break through my containment!" The earth elemental shook his head, not understanding what the wizard was saying. But he squatted next to the gap to study it. Iahn ran forward, as did Kiril, though Ususi doubted either's strength would matter. From wherever it had been hiding, the crystal dragonet darted down to land on the earth elemental's shoulders. It chimed encouraging tones into Monolith's ear. The prince put one great hand on the edge of the raised canister and clutched the lip of the silo with the other. The wide canister, partially unjacketed, with its mechanical locks only half engaged, resisted the earth lord's attempt to close it. The inlaid Nadir crystal lines across the top of the canister lit up, but the radiance wasn't purple-it was yellow. The entangling magic wasn't dead-it sought to reengage. The citrine radiance penetrated the cloud of blackness.
Pandorym's nimbus roiled and boiled, and tendrils of night snaked out to point threateningly at Prince Monolith. But without its servitors to do its bidding, Pandorym's aura was toothless. It would remain so if Ususi could continue to hold the portal. "Try again!" the wizard commanded. "Help me!" yelled Prince Monolith. Iahn and the elf took up positions along the edges of Pandorym's prison vessel. The elemental's mineral thews contracted with a sound like a rock fall in a ravine.
Kiril and the vengeance taker cursed and grunted with effort. With a lurch and click, the canister popped back into place, sealed. The portal into Deep Imaskar slammed
shut. Ususi staggered as her spell collapsed. The lines of yellow Nadir crystal that inlaid the surface of the canister surged as if living things, knitting and extending themselves in racing lines of arcane fire until they completely covered the silo, their severed ends rejoining to form a perfect circle of warding. The spiral of void and destruction came untethered.
It whirled faster and faster, wild streams of violet midnight, a vortex of dust and dark, draining away into the ultimate spaces beyond the worlds. With a last furious scream, Pandorym's shadow faded into history's depths.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Clouds gathered, white on ivory, on the horizon. The day's last blinding rays infused the storm with ominous highlights. Ususi looked across the trackless Raurin Desert from a balcony high on the Palace of the Purple Emperor. "Iahn is late," Zel fretted. Ususi turned to regard Zeltaebar Datharathi. "Vengeance takers follow their own schedules. They are not so much late as… deliberate," Ususi responded. "He said he'd return today. Here comes day's end. I don't see how we can get a trade covenant brokered between Deep Imaskar and Vaelan if timetables can't be-" "Uncle!" broke in Warian. The young man with the crystal arm was seated on a comfortable bench on the balcony. The bench, one of several, and other items of comfort, had been delivered several days ago by Datharathi skyship. They represented sample merchandise that Deep Imaskar might wish to trade for, according to Zel. On a small table next to Warian, playing cards were arranged in several small stacks. Brightly painted dragons of various hues were visible on each card. The Datharathis-those few who survived destruction by Pandorym-had been quick to see an untapped trade opportunity in Deep Imaskar. Even Warian seemed interested in his family business, now that it tottered close to dissolution. Of all the senior family members, only he and Zel survived-he because his prosthesis predated Pandorym's release, and Zel because the man had been too paranoid to accept the implants. Seated next to Warian was the elf, Kiril Duskmourn. Ususi watched her curiously. She was surprised that the swordswoman lingered in the palace, especially with the duty she proclaimed, on a daily basis, she had to fulfill. Prince Monolith had departed soon after their victory, taking with him a sorely wounded dwarf geomancer named Thormud Horn. The dwarf's peculiar dragonet familiar, Xet, remained with Kiril, much to the elf's apparent displeasure. Ususi had exchanged only a few words with the geomancer before he left, but she'd thanked him for bringing such potent allies as Monolith and Kiril to their aid. The dwarf had been gracious but sickly. The earth lord had rushed him away to administer healing and rest, possibly far below the mantle, where the elementals reigned. "Are you even listening to me?" Zel asked her. Ususi shook her head. "Iahn will return soon enough. Probably with an artificer or planner in tow with whom you can make your deals. In the aftermath of all the destruction and chaos in Deep Imaskar, they'll be desperate to trade for food and goods. But see to it you don't take advantage of Deep Imaskar's problems…" Zel held up his hands and nearly spluttered. "… because I doubt Iahn would look kindly on that sort of profiteering." "Don't worry, Ususi," said Warian from his seat.
"The items we've provided so far are gifts, to show our good intentions. Once your city has had time to get back on its feet, we can begin to talk in earnest." Ususi nodded. "All in good time." Zel turned from badgering the wizard and focused his attention on the swordswoman. "What about you, Kiril? Given any more thought to my proposal? Perhaps this Sildeyuir realm of yours would also like to trade with Vaelan. I could work a deal that would greatly benefit both parties." Warian sighed, but didn't interrupt. Instead, he returned to fiddling with his cards. The elf raised a single eyebrow as she regarded Zeltaebar. "You weren't really listening to me, if you think I have enough influence to open the hidden realm to trade. Or if you think I give a damn about trade in the first place." Zel reddened, but pressed on. "Right. You were saying something about a citadel-that it was time you returned? I'm sorry, what was it called? Deeprock? No?
Understar?" "Stardeep," corrected Kiril. The elf reached for the flask on her hip, spun off the top, and sipped. Even from where the wizard stood at the balustrade, she smelled the bitter tang of hard spirits.
The elf returned the flask to her hip and said, "It's not the kind of place that is interested in barter or luxuries. It's a prison. The less said, the better. Catch my meaning, tradesman?" Kiril fixed Zel with an ominous scowl. "Hey, I can take a hint!" Zel backed away and dropped onto the cushioned bench next to his nephew, muttering. The wizard was curious about the swordswoman's bitterness and veiled references. Kiril was adept at saying just enough to rouse interest about her past, before the span when she worked for Thormud. Then she'd invariably clam up, curse, and threaten anyone who asked questions. A story was hidden in her evasions, but not one Ususi had the energy to pursue. Not when she had her own newly minted dream to follow. Ususi looked back across the darkening sky. Since Pandorym's entrapment, she'd explored the palace a little. What she'd found amazed her. The entire edifice was a powerful relic of her vanished ancestors. Some of its chambers seemed bigger on the inside than out.
She'd sealed the weapons cache, but other chambers and vaults within the palace promised to reveal less dire secrets. Truth be told, with her discovery of the palace, her impetus to continue her original quest-locating each of the twenty gates into the Celestial Nadir-had waned. The palace alone would take years to fully plumb. Plus, its size and peculiar qualities offered unique opportunities. The seed of an idea, rooted days earlier, continued to grow in her imagination.
She wondered again-was it time for Imaskar to expand? The city behind the Great Seal would be rebuilt, of course. But perhaps the attack signaled the need for another colony of Imaskari to establish itself.
Perhaps even on the surface from which they'd fled nearly four thousand years earlier. She chuckled. She considered the Palace of the Purple Emperor as the location of her imagined colony. Her exploration of the palace had unearthed startling revelations. She'd discovered how to move the entire structure! Using magical controls in the emperor's suite, she could shift the palace to a kinder location in Faerun than the center of an inhospitable desert. But, before Ususi allowed such grand dreams to sweep her away on a new quest, she had unfinished business to attend. Each day she spent exploring the palace was another day she put off going home. She had to return to Deep Imaskar. She owed it to her people; she owed it to herself. She owed her sister Qari for her life. Without Qari's gift, when she'd flailed in Pandorym's gulf of darkness, they'd all have perished, or worse.
But the price for accepting her sister's gift was steep. Ususi suspected Qari was utterly severed from the world, blind and perhaps suffering. Ususi had run long enough. She would return to Deep Imaskar and help Qari as she was able. She would return her special perception to her sister, if possible. After that, she would reveal her grand plans to the lord apprehender. With or without his blessing, Ususi resolved to bring a kernel of Imaskar back to the surface. In that moment, High Imaskar was born. Whether in folly or in grace, only the future would disclose. The, gray clouds reared above the boundary separating day and night, in whose shadow grew a restful twilight of cooling desert sand.
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