Chapter fifty

The Imperial vault at Melloreis

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.