"Self-sacrifice," Cavatina whispered. Had the drow been drugged? Compelled by an enchantment to offer himself to the creatures? Or had he been one of Ghaunadaur's followers, going willingly into the maws of the slime god's minions? She'd heard the fanatics sometimes did that. She shook her head in disgust.
Cavatina decided to see where the drow had come from. She made her way around the edge of the cavern to the tunnel he'd just come through. The magical barrier surrounded that tunnel, too. Like the cavern, the tunnel had numerous cracks in it-cracks that extended to the magical barrier. She worked her way around the tunnel, looking for a gap large enough to pass through. There wasn't one. She expanded her search. The magical barrier, she learned, enclosed an enormous space-an area that might be almost as large as the Promenade itself.
By pressing herself against the shimmering green glow here and there and peering through cracks, Cavatina could see what lay inside the rest of the space. Most of the areas she peered into were natural caverns like the first, but a few were proper rooms, cut from the native stone. One of these held an enormous iron scorpion that turned restlessly, its stinger tail scraping the ceiling of the too-small room.
"A scalander?" Cavatina mused aloud. Was this the one Meryl had babbled about? It had been down here a long time, judging by the accumulated grit on its body and the numerous gouges its stinger had scraped in the ceiling.
Cavatina continued to explore the limits of the magical boundary. Tunnels led away from the central caverns, each surrounded by a tube-like extension of the magical barrier. All dead-ended after a short distance except one: a tunnel that led past what looked like a recent lava flow. Just beyond this point, a staircase slanted upward. It was enclosed by the glowing green barrier too.
Cavatina climbed through the stone beside the staircase, and found herself in an abandoned mine tunnel with a ceiling level with her chest. That told her she was in one of the oldest sections of Undermountain, far below the Promenade: the ancient mithral mine excavated twenty-six centuries ago by the dwarves of Melairbode. Bluish light rippled through the wall and disappeared. Even this deep, there were traces of Faerzress.
The portal that led back to the Hall of Empty Arches lay somewhere within these mine tunnels-though Cavatina doubted it would be much help. Even if she did manage to find it, she doubted it would transport her while she was in ethereal form.
The magical barrier extended only as far as the top of the stairs, which ended in a simple, open arch, just high enough for a dwarf. Inside the arch, the magical barrier was a different color. Instead of green, it glowed with a golden light that shaded to green at its edges. On the other side of this barrier, at the top of the staircase, sat an enormous gray ooze. It pressed itself up against the barrier that filled the arch, attempting-and failing-to force its way out.
Cautiously, Cavatina touched the golden barrier. It blocked her, just as the green glow had. She glanced up and down the mining tunnel, wondering which way to go next. She spotted scuffs in the dust on the floor-someone had crawled away from the staircase-and decided to follow them. She walked along, in solid stone from the waist down but with her head and shoulders inside the tunnel, trusting to Eilistraee to guide her steps.
A short time later, she spotted a second dwarf-sized arch, this one plugged with stone, just like those in the Hall of Empty Arches. Two drow sat next to it, their backs against the wall. Cavatina moved closer, trying to see who they were. She didn't recognize the male, who turned out to have a horribly scarred face and ruined eyes, but she recognized Leliana at once. The Protector was naked from the waist up. Her chain mail tunic and a warped and blackened sword lay on the floor next to her.
Another puzzle piece from Meryl's garbled story dropped into place. This was where Leliana had disappeared to. Whatever she'd been doing, she must have hoped to return through that portal to the Hall of Empty Arches-only to find that it wasn't active.
Leliana looked strained and exhausted. As Cavatina watched, she made the sign of Eilistraee's moon and prayed. "Aid me, Lady, in my dance. I've done battle in your name; the moonlight within me has waned. Turn your face to me, and fill me with your light that I might return safely to my place of sanctuary."
Cavatina touched her on the shoulder. "Leliana? Can you hear me?"
Leliana paid her no heed. The male, however, turned his head. One hand groped blindly for Leliana and bumped against her arm. His fingers moved swiftly. Lady. I sense something. A creature draws near.
Cavatina blinked in surprise. "Can you hear me?" she asked. If he could, perhaps she could use him to alert the battle-mistress to the planar breach. But the male didn't respond to Cavatina's touch on his shoulder. There! he signed, pointing with his other hand.
Not at Cavatina, but at something behind her.
She turned.
"What is it?" Leliana whispered to the male. "I can't see anything."
Cavatina could, however. An ooze was flowing out of the wall, not half a dozen paces behind her. It quivered a moment, bulging first this way, then that. Then it moved toward the spot where Leliana and the male sat. Part of its body remained inside the wall; it was moving through solid stone!
It was ethereal. Just like Cavatina.
She'd heard of such creatures. Able to shift between physical and ethereal form at will, they were deadly opponents. Unless Leliana and her companion moved away from this spot-quickly-the ooze would engulf them. It would slither over them, resume its material form, and consume them, unless Cavatina stopped it.
She smiled. The ooze might just be her passage out of here.
She stepped into its path, sang a hymn that would shield her from its acid, and kneeled, her sword tucked tight against her body. She cringed as the creature touched her shoulder, dribbling acid onto her, but she held fast. The ooze recoiled, then suddenly bulged forward, engulfing her.
And squeezed.
The pain was excruciating. Pressure drove the air from Cavatina's lungs. Tendrils of ooze forced their way into her ears, pressing against her eardrums until they rang in agony. Still more tendrils slid into her nostrils, plugging them.
Eilistraee, she silently cried. Strengthen me. Lend your might to my sword arm.
She thrust her weapon away from her, driving it into the ooze. Then she twisted in a kneeling pirouette, wrenching her weapon around with her. The singing sword pealed in muffled joy as its blade bisected the ooze from within.
The ooze shrank away in alarm. Cavatina followed, staying within its flesh, and felt a sudden lurch as the creature entered the material plane. At the last moment, she remembered to duck. Even so, her head scraped the ceiling of the mine tunnel.
She'd done it! Passed back into the Prime Material Plane in the belly of the ooze.
Now she needed to carve her way out of it, before it squeezed the life out of her.
Through a gelatinous blanket of flesh, she saw Leliana rise to her knees and grasp her sword, an alarmed look on her face. "Another ooze!" the Protector shouted-her voice muffled to Cavatina's ears. Then Leliana sang. Her hymn smashed into the ooze, sending shudders through it. Yet the creature continued to squeeze Cavatina, undeterred by the magical assault.
Cavatina had no air left in her lungs. The ooze forced its way down into her throat. Gagging, she hacked at the thinnest section of its body-the side opposite the spot where Leliana and the male crouched. Cavatina's knees scrabbled on the acid-slick floor. Had it not been for her spell, her clothing and armor would have dissolved by now, and her flesh with them. Behind her, she could hear the male's muffled shouting.
The ooze squeezed harder. Spots of bright light crackled in Cavatina's vision. She felt a rib crack. She thrust again with the sword and felt its point break through the outer skin of the ooze, into the air beyond.