Rem stood
over the vault and took a deep breath. The others wondered whether he was very
steady on his feet. Hardacre stood nearby, grim faced and tense.
‘Are you sure that you feel well enough to do this, Master Healer?’ he
asked
Rem nodded grimly. He bent down to examine the hole. This was the
widest one that they’d come across and the way down looked the most precarious.
Big slabs of masonry crowded over it and many of them looked poised to fall
over into the hole. It looked to Kath like someone had tried to topple the
rocks inside but then abandoned the effort.
‘This has strange smell’
murmured Rem from his crouching position. The roaring sound from this hole was
louder than any of others. The party was quailing – the cool armoury and a bit
of supper were beginning to look very attractive.
‘Rem?’ said Kath, gently, ‘let’s do this tomorrow’
Rem stared at Kath uncompromisingly. He stood up and began fiddling in
his bag.
‘We do this’ he grunted, ‘then not have to do tomorrow’
Permitting no further discussion, Rem began to hum his beautiful
wordless song. The surface of the taint
began to shimmer, just as with the others. However, this time the shimmering
was more clearly violent. All the watchers retreated further behind their rock,
except Hardacre who took some steps forward, held his arms out and was
whispering under breath. Around him the dust of the ruins seemed to gather like
a mist of flies.
The membrane across the hole ruptured suddenly. Out from the hole came
the taint – a massive shape looking a little like a poorly fashioned bear, but
much bigger, towering over Rem. It sprayed blood in a shower around itself and
made directly for the healer. Rem faltered briefly and then he began singing
much louder. All the watchers could see the pain and anguish in his face. Kath
leapt out from her hiding place but Viola, much faster and nimbler than her,
had drawn her sword and was already half of the distance towards the taint.
Hardacre turned towards them.
‘Stop!’ he shouted, ‘you’ll get yourselves killed. Wait, at least!’
Rem’s loud, strained song was holding the taint, but it was struggling
to get free. A pool of blood was accumulating on the floor. The spray was
within a few inches of Rem’s hands.
Hardacre shouted at Rem.
‘Can you hold it, Master Healer?’
Rem looked back at Hardacre and shook his head violently. The taint
began to fight free – the splatter of gore spraying out over Rem’s shoes.
Hardacre sighed and then shouted ‘anrheithia!’
The fog of energy that had been accumulating around Hardacre broke free
and streamed out into the taint. There was a moment of horrible silence; then
the taint screamed and began to inflate hideously.
‘Get down!’ ordered Hardacre.
The taint exploded. It sent its payload of blood everywhere. All that
it touched steamed, as if acid had been poured on to the rubble. Rem was
covered with the blood, but he had in his right hand the unstoppered grey
potion that he normally used to disrupt the taint membrane. He lifted it up and
poured it over himself as quickly as he could. Where the blood had begun to
corrode his flesh the potion stilled it; on the floor beneath his feet the rubble
fizzed, but he was saved.
The others rushed to inspect him. He had several burn marks, but he had
avoided the worst of the effects. The others had small amounts of blood
splattered on them, but only enough to cause them slight irritation and some
holes in their clothes.
Rem was tottering on his feet, but he had enough energy to nod
respectfully at Hardacre.
‘Rem sorry’ he said, ‘I try too hard. Will not be so stupid again’
Kath helped him down on to the ground where he sat swaying slightly.
Kath stroked his head.
‘Make your mind up, you mad old thing’ she said, ‘it’s all or nothing
with you, isn’t it?’
Rem smiled weakly.
Hardacre’s face was lined with worry. He stood watching Rem and Kath
for a few seconds.
‘That was foolish all round’ he said, frowning, ‘we all got a bit
carried away. I’m going to take Master Healer back to the armoury vault. You
tidy up here and then come back as soon as you can.’
Hardacre and Kath helped Rem to get on to his feet. Hardacre then began
to guide him gently in the direction of the Armoury Vault.
Viola started to pick up the various objects that Rem had dropped from
his bag. While this was happening Kath went to the top of the hole and stared
in. ‘I wonder what’s down here?’ she said, to no-one in particular.
‘What?’ asked Viola, ‘are you ready to go?’ She was slightly peeved
that Kath hadn’t helped her at all.
Kath grinned at her.
‘Shall we have a quick look, Vee?’
Viola stared at her, shaking her head slowly.
‘No. Come on – we should be going back’
‘They’ve all been perfectly safe’ said Kath, ‘I want to do something
useful today!’
Viola shook her head again, but Kath started to move anyway. She jumped
into the hole and lit a torch. Viola could see the orange light flickering in
the hole.
‘Kath – don’t be foolish’ she said and scrambled up to follow her.
When Kath looked down the stairs she was initially disappointed to see
that they were just as in all the other vaults, leading down to a door. For a
moment she considered turning back but then she realised that this door was not
the same as the other ones – it seemed to be made of metal.
‘Viola, come and have a look!’ she called up the stairs, only to see
Viola scrambling down to get her.
‘Kath, come back – this is really stupid’ said Viola, grabbing at her
sleeves.
Kath pulled away from her and pointed down the stairs.
‘Look!’
Despite herself, Viola looked down as Kath lifted up her torch. There
was something odd at the bottom of the stairs – a silvery door with engravings
on it.
‘Light yours too, Vee’ Kath said
Viola hesitated but curiosity had got the better of her. She lit the
torch and they took a few steps down. Their flames illuminated a large
metallic door. On it, in dark green, was
a huge engraving of an elephant, with upturned horns and trunk, standing in a
gesture of threat. The engraving filled the whole shining door, and the green
ink, or whatever it was that made the lines, seemed to flow through it like
little meandering streams. At the base was written in the same green ink, in
archaic elven:
From Ophia Uchbena- for the western elves
at their doom.
Viola, from her position halfway up the stairs, was struggling to read
the inscription through the dust and smoke that seemed to have accumulated at
the bottom of the stairs. Kath was transfixed, even though she too could not fully
read the inscription, but she could tell exactly what she was seeing. She looked at Viola and then raced down the
stairs, fumbling with her bag to get out her Dwarven Magic tools.
Viola noticed, but too late, that what was at the bottom of the stairs
was not dust and smoke, but a pale white cloud-like substance that filled the
space just in front of the doors, clinging to the floor and walls, as if
enclosed in an invisible vessel. It didn’t look at all like anyone should walk
through it.
‘Stop, Kath!’ she shouted, ‘there’s something there…’
Kath blundered down the stairs, unseeing, and ran into the middle of
the translucent white cloud. There was a large wet pop, like someone rupturing
a tight water skin, and then the white gas began, very slowly, to spread
upwards, condensing into much denser white smoke as it rose. Kath dropped to the floor and disappeared
from view inside the rapidly-forming cloud. Viola looked down in horror.
‘It’s a trap’ screamed Viola.
But the gas wasn’t interested in hurting Kath. Instead, it flowed on past her and began to
creep up the stairs, forming as it did a leading point and two trailing edges,
so that it looked like a white arrowhead.
‘What the hells is that?’ shouted Kath, staring up at the coalescing
shape, which was now about the size of a large seagull. It had begun to move
purposefully up the stairs, still travelling very slowly, but noticeably
speeding up. Viola drew her sword and swiped at it but it slipped past her –
her weapon swinging through apparently empty air.
Viola and Kath watched, astonished, as the white arrowhead made its
way, rapidly accelerating now, to the top of the stairs. They ran after it.
Once it had reached the hole at the top of the vault entrance it rose a little
way into the air and then paused briefly, still in its arrowhead form.
‘Get Laurence’ Kath shouted, ‘quickly …’
Viola sprinted away. Meanwhile, Kath tried to reach up to pull down or
disrupt the cloud, but it was still just as insubstantial as it had been down
in the vault. It was changing shape again now; the wings of the arrowhead were
stretching until it became a flat semicircle of white, throbbing light. It was
very wide now, much wider than a man’s length, and it began to rotate in the
air, responding, it seemed to some instinct or signal. It stopped, paused for
about five seconds and then began to move across the ruins, starting very
slowly and picking up speed as it made ground. Kath ran alongside it jumping
and swearing at it, throwing rocks and shouting. It moved inexorably on.
Kath saw, out of the corner of her eye, Hardacre standing with his
cloak flapping and his arms raised, shouting incantations to try to bring it
down.
‘Stop it if you can – it’s a Tlaxacan alarm cloud!’ he shouted, ‘It’s
probably set to go and alert someone ’
It changed neither speed nor direction as it raced across the ruins.
Kath ran on with it towards the east gate, but was powerless to prevent it from
escaping from her. Once it had swooped through the gate the cloud tilted
upwards and roared into the sky. Three seconds later it was away, streaking
through the late afternoon sun. There was a huge boom in the sky, far off in
the south-east, and then all was silence, as it sped on its way, faster than
sound, onwards to Tlaxaca.
