by J. W. Webb
They walked on, two intruders trapped in someone else’s nightmare.
Corin’s head hurt. The great voice kept booming on. Like a toll it boomed—ominous and forlorn and relentless.
They were close. Hesitantly they approached the source of the light. Ulani thought he heard movement somewhere behind despite the din. He stole a glance that way but the passage was shrouded in shadow. He shrugged. There was no point in worrying about pursuit now.
Corin froze without warning and Ulani slammed into his back. They had reached an abrupt end to the passage. All around them pulsed a kaleidoscopic fusion of strobing light.
Corin and Ulani covered their eyes from the dancing, dazzling, bewildering glare. Squinting down, they saw that they had only narrowly avoided plunging to their ruin into what appeared to be a vast pit or cavern. Corin blessed whatever instinct had stopped him when it did. One more step and he would have been flying.
Beneath their feet the road fell away as if cut clean by an axe. The light throbbed out in rhythmic shafts and the great voice boomed up at them from somewhere hidden below and beyond.
Eventually their eyes were able to discern what lay before them.
“By Ugara’s hairy nipples, that’s a sight,” Ulani said. Corin just gawped, witless.
They had reached the rim of what appeared to be a giant cavern. Like a vast scooped bowl of light it stretched around, a huge oval drawing their eyes downwards, towards its source.
And there it was at last. Far below their elevated position, huge and diamond bright, blazing like a fallen star. An enormous crystal.
The size of a palace or temple, the crystal’s vibrant light resonated up from the very heart of the mountain. As it pulsed its heart’s rhythm reached outwards in stabbing strobes of diamond light.
The walls of the cavern shook in time with that pulsation, and beyond it the tortured voice boomed its woeful cacophony. On and on and on. Through the throbbing, stabbing glare, Corin and Ulani studied the huge cavern encompassing the giant crystal. At its base were shining columns of stone leading up to the dome of light. Each of these tall stalagmites pulsated in time with the great crystal’s throbbing heart.
An army of frozen warriors, they stood surrounding the crystal like so many sentinels of blazing light. Again Corin recalled the statues outside Kranek Castle. He didn’t dwell on that thought.
Beyond the stalagmites glistened the silvery metallic waters of a lake. Dark and sombre resembling a sea of molten lead. The far shore was hidden from view. They would have to cross that gloomy water before reaching the giant crystal. It wasn’t a comforting thought.
Looking down, it was difficult to gauge distance. It seemed like miles. Corin and Ulani felt like trespassers: paupers in the palace, or else two small children gaping down uncomprehending and incredulous from the parapet wall of a mile-high castle.
“This must be the great cavern Zallerak mentioned.” Corin felt giddy looking down there. Worse, he didn’t have any kind of plan concerning what to do next.
Neither did Ulani. “We must have reached the very centre of the mountain,” the king said. “The answers must lie beneath that crystal. Come on, let’s find a way down.”
Corin couldn’t think of any response to that so he just nodded. For several minutes the two men searched about in vain, seeing no access or break in the cavern’s rim. But at last keen-eyed Ulani spied a narrow stair cutting clean into the side of the cavern, tight narrow chevrons disappearing into the throbbing light below.
“A way down—do you see it?”
“I do but it doesn’t inspire me.”
Ulani slapped Corin’s back. “Chin up, this must be the very birthplace of the gods! Fortunate are we to witness this.”
“If you say so.”
Ulani had forgotten his former dread; instead he was eager to discover what wonders awaited them below. Even the dreadful voices no longer held him in check.
Corin remained nonplussed. “I hope Zallerak’s down there somewhere.”
They hurried across to the stairs, reaching carefully over the lip of the bowl and reeling with the vertigo assaulting them. The stairs were ladder steep and narrow, scarce more than scoops dug in the smooth surface of the cavern’s shell.
The two gingerly made their way down, gripping the rock on both sides and mindful where they placed their feet. One slip would prove fatal here.
Corin was reminded of the worn steps cut into the cliffs above Kashorn. But this stair was steeper by far than they had been. The memory of that earlier trip tugged at him. Despite their predicament his mind wandered during the descent. So much had happened.
Corin thought of Bleyne and Roman, both gone now. He longed to smell the sea again; it seemed so long since he’d heard the crash of waves. He thought of Shallan and hoped she was safe. Would he see her again? Corin doubted it.
Enough. Focus on the task ahead.
Tenuously and painfully slow, they made their descent toward the great bowl of light. The throbbing heart of the crystal lit up their faces and dazzled their eyes. Shadows chased back and forth across the walls in a frantic, flickering dance. It was surreal.
At some point the light grew steadier as if the giant crystal was aware of their approach—two flies creeping down the cavern wall. It shimmered and glowed as though the moon itself were trapped within.
Down they worked, Ulani grunting and Corin mouthing silent expletives. Try as he might Corin could see no happy outcome to this venture.
The cavern seemed endless. It was as though they’d ventured uninvited into the lost halls of the gods. Enchantment hung like gossamer in the chilly air. Invisible cords hinting at dark power. And all the while the constant morbid drone of horrid voices rose and fell in resonance. Even Ulani’s expression grew grim.
Down they journeyed, swifter now, both anxious to reach the base. The voices (still invisible) were all around them. Cruel alien words echoing about their heads and battering their senses. They dared not cover their ears lest they fall. Then Corin spied the base at last. Ulani grunted approval, they were nearly down. Then something made Ulani stop. Carefully, he turned, looked up at the high stair and swore vehemently. Corin arced his head back but couldn’t see.
“What is it?”
“We have company,” said Ulani. Corin turned, looked up. Far above, almost hidden by the throbbing glare, he saw a dozen or so tiny figures descending toward them. Corin shook his head in disbelief when he recognised the foremost figure. Hagan Delmorier.
Does that bastard never quit?
They hurried down that last stretch, no longer caring whether they slipped on the treacherous stone. A yell from above announced Hagan had spied them.
The chase was on. At last Corin and Ulani reached the final step. They plunged headlong into the cavern’s basin making for the dazzle of the crystal heart, unable to see anything clearly in that glare.
They ran, weaving haphazard between the stalagmite sentinels. Corin eyed them with suspicion as he ran past but they remained cold impassive stone.
They reached the silent waters of the lake. It spread out before them, like an ominous pool of quicksilver. Metallic and motionless—its surface sheened by light, but the depths below dark and portentous. The lake’s shoreline lapped silent against the base of the cavern. No evidence showed of any way around. The giant crystal floated like temptation just beyond that mercury expanse, seeming close but indefinable. The metallic sheen of the lake caressed the dark distant shore, fading into gloomy nothingness at either side.
Corin glanced back. Hagan was halfway down.
“Any ideas?” Ulani scanned the lakeshore before looking back toward the distant bead of the stairs. They could both hear Hagan yelling. The mercenaries would be upon them soon.
“No.” Corin felt a familiar sense of panic welling up inside. The source of that panic came from the distant voices, (dog-voices, he now realised) baying somewhere out beyond the lake. “How many men do you see?”
“Nine…m
aybe ten. It’s hard to tell.”
Fuck you, Hagan. We haven’t time for this. Again Corin slid Clouter free of its sheath. They were trapped by the lake shore. Corin squared his jaw, determined to take out as many as he could, then skewer his former dicing partner from throat to groin. They had five, perhaps ten minutes.
Ulani nudged his arm. “Surely that’s a boat!”
“What?” Corin gaped at the lake and saw nothing.
“Coming towards us from far across the water.” Ulani pointed out across the lake. Corin followed his arm’s direction until eventually he spied tiny movement far out on the water. In moments they defined a small craft steering towards them at witchy speed from out of the light.
The craft was shadowy and hard to see beneath the glare of the crystal. A lone figure guided it. The boatman even more difficult to define beneath the brightness.
But Corin had a nasty feeling he knew this ferryman. There would be a price for their crossing—he felt certain of that. They said nothing, just waited for the boat to arrive.
It beached silent scarce yards away. Its lone occupant gestured with a bony hand, bidding them clamber aboard.
And what choice did they have?
Hagan’s angry cries were close. The mercenary and his men had reached the cavern floor and were racing this way.
Corin took seat in the boat, Ulani beside him. Both looked pale. The boatman ignored them and commenced poling his pale-faced passengers toward the distant glowing dome. Once again the mercenaries’ shouts were left behind.
Their guide’s shadowy features were hidden from view by a long dripping cloak, his face concealed beneath a deep hood. The passengers said nothing. Both were awed by the power and menace radiating from their pilot.
Corin caught the cold gleam of a pitiless eye observing him shrewdly from under that hood. He recognised the Huntsman and shivered. Corin turned his gaze away.
Leave me be.
For a time the tiny figures of Hagan and his men could be seen at the shore waving spears and gesticulating. They soon faded from view as the silent craft slid effortlessly along the metallic surface of the water.
Far above their heads the crystal-veined roof of the cavern reflected back the dome’s brilliant light. The cave was even vaster than they had imagined, its circumference supported by huge arches of rock. Miles apart and half a mile high. The roots of the mountain, their feet lost far beneath the water.
Like some vast cathedral of the gods, the cavern expanded beyond the confines of reality. Time appeared frozen in this place. Corin, bedazzled, felt as though he’d tumbled inside a cosmic dream.
Closer now, the giant voice boomed like judgement and the other dog voices rose and fell in their continuing snarly chant. Corin reached down. He trailed his hand through the leaden water of the lake. He shuddered, pulling it out quickly. The water’s embrace was slimy and cold as death.
“Do not touch the water!” The boatman’s voice sounded like gravel sliding down a scarp. The single eye mirrored the lake’s bitter surface. It stabbed at Corin from beneath that wide-brimmed hat.
“Why do you help us, Huntsman?” Corin’s voice was almost inaudible. Beside him Ulani’s strong face looked gaunt. But the boatman didn’t respond. Just turned away continuing his work with the pole.
The craft slowed to a stop. They had reached the far shore.
Their pilot steered close, poling onto the shingle. Without further word the two men leapt off the small boat, both keen to distance themselves from the ferryman’s unsettling gaze.
Corin glanced back but ferryman had already turned his craft and was heading back swiftly across the lake at speed.
“We had better run,” Corin said. “That spook is returning for Hagan and his boys. I wish I knew what his game was. I mean, why aid our enemy?”
“Who can guess the mind of a god?” muttered Ulani. “I’m certain he has his motives. We’ll most likes never be any the wiser.”
“He gives me the creeps.”
More weird stalagmites loomed over them as they left the far shore of the lake. Soon its waters had vanished behind. Corin questioned whether lake and ferryman had actually existed at all. This whole place felt like an illusion. It was difficult to keep a sense of reality and time.
Focus—have to hold strong.
The crystal orb towered in front of them. An immense dome of light. It throbbed and pulsed with urgent speed, as though knowingly apprehensive of what would soon come to pass.
Corin shielded his eyes from the glare. He was well accustomed to the desert sun but this crystal colossus flared like a fallen star. Each throb of diamond light burned into his aching brain.
And still the great voice boomed continually from somewhere ahead, its heavy resonance resounding all around them as they hurried toward it. The other voices were clearer too, Corin could discern fell words uttered in some archaic canine tongue. The air of the endless cavern was deathly still. It was as though some weighty spell was about to be wrought.
“Shit!”
Ulani had stopped abruptly in front of him. The king grabbed Corin’s arm just in time, yanking him back from oblivion. Blinded by light, they had failed to notice they’d reached the brink of another precipice.
This drop descended deep into what must surely be the roots of the mountain—immeasurably far below. More worn steps led down dangerously steep. But this time they didn’t hold back. Both men sensed time was running out. Both knew whatever they had to do had to be done soon.
They hurried down, at last reaching the base of a ledge hovering close to the face of the giant crystal itself—its own base at least a mile below. An egg shape dome, it rested in the scoop of a massive pit—its bottom impossible to define in the brightness. An obelisk of pulsing light, the crystals’ argent glow blazed down on them in fury.
But even as they stood gaping the light softened to a pale sheen of silver, and stabbing strobes withdrew back into the core. The crystal faded and shadows appeared, taking shape before their eyes. Corin and Ulani gasped in shared wonder.
At last they had reached the owner of the booming voice.
Chapter 32
At the Forge of Croagon
There He stood bathed in light, writhing in pain and torment. A giant so broad He appeared squat: so huge He defied their senses. The tortured face almost reached the ledge where they stood spellbound. His bare feet and lower legs lost below in shadow.
Behind the giant, carved deep into the crystal’s base, blazed a forge cavernous and vast. It was from here that the light emanated and pulsed.
Croagon’s Forge. Blue and white fire roared up to meet them as they watched, too stunned to move. Both Corin and Ulani were lost for words. This was a scene beyond anything either had imagined.
And the giant was aware of them. Croagon the Smith God. He turned His terrible countenance upon them and they were afraid. That anguished face was a ruin of twisted scars, laced across a flat boneless nose. Dark gaping sockets were ridged by heavy shelved brows, these loosely fenced by thick oily coils of matted grey hair. The steely locks tangled down the naked scarred back of the titan, vanishing in His midst.
As Corin and Ulani looked closer they could see that the giant’s wrists were bound cruelly to the sides of the fathomless pit by two heavy chains, and that Croagon’s huge corded sinewy arms were stained with dark blood from where He tugged endlessly at the manacles.
Despite Croagon’s blindness the giant was aware of their approach. He seemed to be weighing them up in His mind. But then the other snarling voices rose up in a seething surge from the base of the forge far below.
Corin, reaching out and looking down, could just make out three tiny cloaked figures standing there. They stood at the giant’s tethered feet, a triangle of spellcraft, assaulting his body from their outstretched claws.
The voices were twisted with evil. Like hot knives they worked their thaumaturgy upon their captive. Again the giant cried out in dreadful pain. A terrible sound, deafeni
ng the two onlookers and shaking the foundations of the mountain, tearing great lumps of rock loose from the cavern’s walls.
Corin was knocked to his knees by the violent shaking all around. Ulani lay sprawled.
“Who are those sorcerers?” The king looked more shaken than Corin.
“Urgolais—dog scum. Friends of Zallerak.” Corin tried to grin through the familiar fear eating into him. He had to grit his teeth to force the next words out.
“I suspect that’s Morak down there and two of his pals; see how they torture the giant. He must be the one we’ve come to see. The Smith God. We’ve made it, Ulani.”
“Almost.” The king gained his feet again and commenced forcing his numb legs into action. “Come on, waiting here achieves nothing, and that Hagan friend of yours can’t be far behind.”
“Don’t remind me.”
Shaken yet undeterred they descended the final leg of the stair. Down and down they plummeted into the pit containing the huge crystal. The orb’s light had faded to a dull sheen and its pulsations eased again, as if awaiting their approach.
Time dragged on the stair. They felt exposed and vulnerable and were halfway down when a shout from above announced Hagan’s arrival at the edge.
Bastard hasn’t wasted any time.
But Corin was no longer concerned with Hagan. There was worse awaiting them below—much worse.
Down they fared. All through that descent the Smith God writhed in his bonds as the hideous chanting of the dog-lords rose and fell like wind howling through an icy tunnel. Corin and Ulani were level with Croagon’s hips; the giant’s face lost in the shadows above.
Corin, looking down, could see the cowled sorcerers clearly. Was Morak one of them? He wondered if Dog-face would look up and fry him just for larks, or else send a spell up to swat Ulani and him like flies from their tenuous perch.
Fortunately the cloaked figures were preoccupied. The three spell-weavers seemed unaware of Corin and Ulani’s approach, concerned only with the completion of their task. Then suddenly Corin noticed another figure emerge some yards beyond the plinth where the Urgolais sorcerers stood in triangulation.
