Vhok willed the magic to take hold, but their momentum and the extra weight strained him to his limits. The cambion felt as if he were being crushed from below, but he managed to arrest most of their downward motion.
They hit the courtyard hard enough to send them sprawling.
Vhok felt the breath driven from his lungs, and he lay for a moment, struggling to regain it. White light marred his vision, and his left shoulder ached where he had landed on it. He would have stayed there longer, but the heat of a fiery ray hit the stones near his cheek, and he jumped up to look for cover.
The expansive courtyard lay well below the rest of the palace grounds. It was more of a natural rock garden than a courtyard, a veritable jungle of stone outcroppings, spindly trees, and tall grasses. The walls surrounding the garden rose thirty feet or more and curved inward near the top; climbing them was near impossible. Vhok was relieved to see that there was no evidence of the endless jets of fire and acrid, stinging smoke so prevalent elsewhere on the plane.
"Come on!" Zasian called. "This way!"
Vhok spotted the priest just ahead of him, charging toward an undercut beneath a large boulder. The efreet still fired their magical rays, and the cambion needed no encouragement to follow the human.
Vhok ducked into a shallow hiding place and crumpled down beside Zasian. Both of them gasped, in pain and out of breath.
"We can't tarry," the priest said, ducking his head out for a quick glimpse. "They're already coming over the wall."
"No time to see if she made it?" Vhok asked. "How can we pass through the portal unless we know?"
Zasian give the half-fiend a hard stare. "What other choice do we have?" he asked. "All we've fought for-all we've struggled against-has been to put us in this position. Do you fear to take the final step now?"
Vhok sucked in air. "No," he said after only a moment's hesitation. "She'll be there."
Zasian nodded. "Then let's go. It rests at the far end of this enclosure. If we can reach it, they won't follow." The priest risked another quick glance, ducked back in when a singeing blast smacked against the rock near his head, then said, "Now!"
Together, Vhok and his companion rushed from their shelter. The shouts of pursuing efreet followed them, but they did not slow down. Racing from cover to cover, the pair charged through the undergrowth, using the environment to shield them from their pursuers. Vhok felt the hot burning of a ray strike his back, and he nearly lost his footing as the searing pain overwhelmed him, but he managed to stay upright.
The shouts of the chase never wavered.
All at once, as the two of them raced around a jagged spire of rock, Zasian slowed. Vhok nearly collided with the priest, but he veered to one side just in time. The cambion stared where his companion did. At first, he couldn't see what Zasian had spotted, but then it became clear to him, and he gasped.
A gargantuan serpentine body lay unmoving, coiled around a great chunk of basalt as big as a house that thrust up from the floor of the courtyard only a few paces away. The creature's scales glimmered purple-blue in the orange light of the sky. Vhok could see no sign of a head. He assumed it would lie on the far side of the basalt.
A ray of scorching energy whizzed over Vhok's shoulder. The beam struck the massive flank of the resting serpent squarely. With a shudder, the beast began to uncoil. Its head rose into view, towering over the cambion and the priest.
The snake peered down at the two intruders in its lair. It hissed and opened its mouth, lunging forward to strike.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Vhok swallowed his terror and held still. For the second time, he fought against his instincts. One part of his mind tried to make his body run, but he held his ground. Indeed, he took a step closer to the massive snake, more into the open.
Beside the cambion, Zasian seemed rooted to the spot. The priest muttered something under his breath, and Vhok saw that he held his pendant firmly in one hand.
The snake's head descended toward them, mouth gaping. The maw was large enough to engulf both humanoids.
"Get ready!" Zasian shouted. Vhok had no idea what the priest meant, but the great mouth closed the distance between them before he could ask. "Now!" Zasian screamed. "Jump into it!"
Refusing to dwell on the idiocy of leaping into a giant snake's mouth, Vhok vaulted forward. Together, the duo landed on the lower jaw, just clearing the fangs. The snake clamped its mouth down, engulfing the pair in darkness. Vhok felt tissue and muscle enclose him, smelled the stench of the creature's flesh and venom surrounding him.
The cambion wanted to scream. The sensation of being trapped overwhelmed, terrified him. He flailed about, suddenly desperate to get out. He felt his arm strike Zasian, sensed the priest squirming just ahead of him. Saliva drenched the half-fiend. The snake's insides pushed against him, sliding him along. He was being swallowed whole.
Oh, by the fell fiends, he thought, frantic to be free again, what have I done? Nothing is worth this!
Vhok kept his eyes and mouth shut as he slid along. He couldn't see, couldn't breathe. The sting of acids irritated his exposed skin. The constant pressure of muscle squeezed him, crushed him. He could only wiggle, and just barely.
Please, Aliisza. Be there. Hurry.
Vhok could feel himself swaying, and he wondered if the snake was moving.
Something hard struck him in the head. Zasian's boot, he realized. The priest was trying to kick.
My blade, Vhok thought, past the point of panic. Got to reach Burnblood! Cut my way free!
But of course, his arms were immobile, pinned against his body.
He was going to die, digested within the snake.
Aliisza quaked in the water, watching the storm dragon hover over her. She hadn't expected him to speak to her. That wasn't part of the plan. Zasian had never mentioned it.
She wondered what to do next. She wanted to flee.
Instinct overcame rational thought and she turned and began swimming away. She paddled furiously with Kael's strong muscles, pulling for all she was worth toward the shore. It was so tantalizingly close, and yet so far away.
The dragon zoomed past and drew up before her, blocking her path. "Answer me, little creature, or I shall slay you. Who told you to come and splash around in my pool?"
Aliisza turned away, swimming in another direction. Like a fish fleeing a bird of prey, she wanted only to escape.
The dragon dived into the water behind her.
Aliisza realized it was worse than having the wyrm hovering over her, for she could not sense where the beast was until too late. She stifled a scream and turned to draw herself toward the edge. She kept reaching down with her toes, hoping to find the solid bottom in the shallows. At the same time, she was petrified of poking her foot down into the dragon's gaping mouth.
The creature surfaced beneath her. But he did not eat her. Instead, he thrust her upward with his snout, tossing her high into the air. She sailed away from the shoreline, out into the middle of the pool. She brushed past one column, then struck a second one. The blow drew a gasp of pain from her, and she felt a few of her ribs crack. The alu slid limply down the column and into the water.
The dragon swam to her, his head barely out of the water, only his eyes and the top of his snout visible. As he drew close, he rose a bit and spoke again.
"Are you going to answer me, puny thing? What brings you here, to my private sanctum? Tell me, or I will devour you."
Aliisza blinked and tried to gather her breath. She could barely muster the strength to stay afloat, but she turned and began to swim away. Every stroke sent shooting pains through her midsection. She quaked but did not look back.
The storm dragon sighed. "Very well," he said. "I warned you."
Aliisza screamed as the huge wyrm pounced on her.
The beast's jaws engulfed the alu and clamped closed around her, leaving her in utter darkness. The force of the strike gathered water into the creature's mouth along with her, and she slipped beneath the su
rface of it. She tried to flail about, to pull her head into air, but the dragon's tongue was drawing her down, toward its throat.
It was swallowing her alive.
No! Aliisza silently screamed. Let me out! Oh, please, Tauran, find me!
The alu tried to claw her way to the front of the dragon's mouth, but contracting muscle all around her forced her the other way. Flailing in panic, Aliisza inexorably slipped into the storm dragon's innards.
A sense of dread and finality crashed over her, and she began to black out.
No! she thought, remembering, fighting the hysteria that gripped her. She glided to a stop and smelled the horrible, burning odor of the dragon's digestive acids all around her. There is a way out!
Aliisza held her breath and kept her eyes clamped firmly shut as she fumbled for the flask she had tucked away. Frenzied horror left her shaking, nearly unable to work. When her hands closed on the container, she yanked it free.
Grasping the stopper, she opened the flask and dug the mushrooms out with her fingers. She scrabbled to get hold of the top one, but she had packed them in so tightly that she had difficulty catching hold.
Idiot! she cursed herself. Too many!
Finally, as her lungs were beginning to ache, the first few mushrooms slipped into her hand. A tiny spark of hope kept her going. She upended the flask and felt more of the fungus drop into her palm. She flung the mushrooms everywhere in that absolute, engulfing darkness.
Finished, Aliisza tossed the flask away and felt around, frantic to find her way out. Her lungs burned with the need to breathe. She couldn't hold on much longer.
The wyrm lurched and Aliisza pitched backward, falling. She bumped against something that did not feel like spongy stomach. It felt like… cloth. And a belt. Someone else was inside the dragon with her.
Kaanyr.
Or Zasian. Maybe both of them.
Do something! she wanted to scream. Spots began to swim before her blind eyes, and the blood pounding in her ears was growing deafening. Everything burned. Her skin was on fire. Perhaps she hadn't brought enough mushrooms.
She was going to die.
The dragon lurched and Aliisza heard a great gurgle all around her. Then, suddenly, she felt the stinging flesh of the creature's stomach press in on her, tighten around her.
She opened her mouth, no longer able to hold her breath, and sucked in a lungful of foul odor and searing liquid. She gagged and fought not to breathe again, but her body was no longer under her own control.
She shot forward, her body gliding through a tunnel like a snail being squirted from its shell. She rushed onward and in the next instant felt a blast of cool mist on her burned skin. She shuddered and sucked in welcome air as she hurtled through it. She hit water with a jolting splash and the burning acid washed free.
Aliisza sank beneath the water, vigorously scrubbing the acid from her face. She needed more air. She shoved against the water and surfaced.
Gulping pure, fresh air was the most joy the alu had experienced in a long time.
When she could breathe again, she opened her eyes. The dragon writhed before her, as though in agony. He shook and jerked, regurgitated. A form flew from his mouth, along with a spray of mushroom bits. The figure splashed into the water near Aliisza.
It was Kaanyr.
The dragon roared and spun away, still twitching. He dived into the water and vanished, and Aliisza felt the fear again of not knowing where he was. She wanted to swim to shore, but she had no idea where that might be. Instead, she began stroking through the water toward Kaanyr.
The cambion thrashed and coughed in the water. Aliisza drew up just out of his reach and watched him flail. She did not want him to grab her and drag her under in his panic. Finally, he grew calmer and began breathing normally.
He opened one eye and peered around. He spotted Aliisza and both eyes flew open wide.
"Who in the Nine Hells are you?" he demanded. "Where's Zasian? Where's Aliisza?"
Remembering her altered form, the alu smirked. "You're looking at her," she said, the unfamiliar and masculine tone still strange in her ears. "It's me, you wretch."
Kaanyr peered at Kael's face for a long time, wary. "Aliisza?" he asked. "Why do you look like a drow?"
The alu shook her head. She wasn't sure how to explain to Kaanyr that she had given birth to another lover's son. "Long story," she said. "I'll explain later. We have to get out of the water before that storm dragon returns."
"Where's Zasian?" Kaanyr asked again. "Did he make it out?"
"Oh, yes," a booming voice said, echoing through the mist. It was that of the storm dragon. "I did, indeed."
Aliisza spun in the water, looking for the creature. Kaanyr spotted it first. The great wyrm was floating behind the alu, with only his head above the surface. His glare sent a chill down the alu's spine.
"Thank you so much for the timely rescue, Aliisza," the dragon said. "You shaved it very close."
"Zasian?" Kaanyr asked. "Is that you? What happened?"
"No, it's a trick," Aliisza muttered. "I fooled it with the mushrooms, and it's trying to gain revenge."
"Yes, Vhok it's me. I am one with this beast for now. We made it through. Or rather, I made it through. You two merely helped. Thank you for all your assistance, but now our ways must part. I have things to do, and you two must remain here."
"I don't-" Kaanyr began, but Aliisza understood.
"Dive!" she screamed. "Get away from it!" She spun and tried to submerge, but with her broken ribs, she wasn't fast enough. Kaanyr was too confused to react at all.
A tingling struck Aliisza then, a wave of energy that overwhelmed her. Every nerve in her body seemed to overload with sensation, crackle with agony. The alu screamed and went rigid, then sank below the surface of the water.
As she slid downward, vanishing into the murky blackness, she lost consciousness.
Aliisza opened her eyes, and stared up at Tauran's face. The angel stood over her, a worried look on his mien. The alu noticed that he was disheveled, his clothing torn, and a bloody gash crossed his chest. Beyond him, she saw the night sky, and she could hear the muted rumblings of thunder. She was still in the storm dragon's lair.
Kael stood beside the angel, staring down with his garnet eyes. Aliisza was in her own body, and it took a moment for the alu to understand. She gazed at her son, getting a closer look at his face for the very first time. His eyes showed an intelligence that reminded her of Pharaun.
They also revealed a deep sadness.
He knows what I did to him, Aliisza realized. Then another thought swept through her: Why am I not dead, drowned? Kaanyr!
The alu sat bolt upright. Her head pounded with the sudden motion.
"Easy," Tauran said, helping her. "You need some time. Switching between bodies can exhaust you."
"Kaanyr," she mumbled, feeling as weak as the angel suggested. "Where-?" She looked around and spotted the cambion lying near her. "Is he-?" she asked.
"He'll live," Tauran said, and she could hear the sternness in his voice.
Aliisza sighed and leaned back. She wondered what the point was. Surely after her betrayal, Tauran would deliver final justice to both of them.
"What happens now?" she asked, gazing wearily at the deva. "What are you going to do with us?" She drew a deep breath, steeling herself for his answer. "Why save us if you only intend to put us to death?" she whispered.
Tauran said nothing for a moment, but a faint grimace crossed his face.
Aliisza stared hard at him. "What? What happened?"
"Your third companion," the angel said. "The priest."
"Zasian," Aliisza answered, feeling rage suffuse her. "The Banite. He used us to come here. He betrayed us."
"Yes. Zasian. But not a servant of Bane." The angel looked away, and for the very first time, Aliisza saw real fear and doubt on his face. "Zasian serves Cyric," Tauran explained. He looked back at Aliisza and his gaze filled her with dread.
"I need yo
ur help," he pleaded.
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The Gossamer Plain eo-1 Page 27
