"Ambassador." One of his mercenary chiefs stood in the doorway to Laquatus's chamber. "Emperor," Laquatus corrected him. He sipped his wine. "We are forcing Llawan's guard away from the mouth of the chasm. We should have room to bring out the behemoth shortly." "Excellent. Keep me informed." "There is one other thing, Amb… Emperor." "Yes?"
"Llawan's command ship has left the edge of the battle." Laquatus rose and struggled to keep his voice calm. "She is abandoning the field?" He had expected more of a fight before she accepted defeat.
"No, Emperor. She is joining the battle."
"That cannot be. She would never…" Laquatus stopped as the chief pointed to the scrying screen. It clearly showed a host of Cabal serpents battling a host of Llawan's cephalids. It also showed Llawan's yacht and the obvious positive impact it had on her troops' morale.
"Why, that reckless, soft-skulled witch," he said, amused. This was even better than he had dreamed. Defeating Llawan's army would earn him the throne, but killing Llawan in the process would ensure that his reign lasted for the rest of his naturally long life.
"Take us farther into the chasm," he said. "Oh, and Veza? I heard you trying to contact that psychic octopus. I'm very disappointed." He turned to one of his mercenaries. "Kill her." The mercenary drew his knife and advanced on Veza.
She had been waiting for this, fully aware that Laquatus would have detected her pleas to Olshatn. Veza was not a warrior, but she trusted her own speed and strength when compared to that of a surface dweller. The man's knife flashed, and Veza stunned him with a sharp blow across the face. Blood flowed, but the mercenary did not fall. Laquatus and the rest of the bridge crew laughed. "You're fired," Laquatus called to the bleeding mercenary, and the man growled in anger. He drew his sword.
Veza didn't wait for Laquatus to order more mercenaries into the fight. She ran from the room and hit the flooded corridor in a running dive. The laughter stopped, and Veza heard more bodies break the surface of the corridor as the mercenaries pursued. She pressed on, confident that no human being, no matter how well enhanced, could swim faster than a mermaid.
She had been in and out of the ship numerous times, and she knew she could make it at least as far as the edge of the chasm. Better to die randomly in the battle as a subject of the empire than as a coward on a traitor's command vessel.
Veza found the exit hatch and opened it wide. The last thing she heard before plunging into the frigid waters of the chasm was Laquatus's amplified voice, echoing throughout the ship.
"Burke?" he said. "Retrieve the prisoner."
CHAPTER 26
Chainer made his way back to his chambers. He did not go unchallenged, but he might as well have. A small band of Nantuko pounced on him as he came off of the platform, but they were quickly collared and absorbed. Chainer broke a few bones with weighted chains as he went, but for the most part the fighters gave him a wide berth, and the spectators ran at the sight of him.
One of the First's toys was buzzing as he opened the door. It was a handheld mirror with a talking octopus in its glass. Chainer made a half-hearted stab to figure out what she wanted, then shattered the mirror over his knee. He had more important things to occupy his time.
The Mirari was where he left it, under the pyramid of paper in the corner of the smallest room. No one dared enter his chamber after he had deposed the First, and he doubted anyone would have believed him audacious enough to hide it there anyway. He took the glowing black sphere in his hands, and once again marveled at the depth of the power it contained. He should have used it to find a way to kill the First. Cabal City was nothing to him now, and worse, it was an obstacle. He would have to tear it all down before he could build it back up again properly.
Chainer drew the power into him and began to shape it. What he had in mind was complicated and would happen on a scale undreamed of even by the most fervid dementist. He reached out into Cabal City and beyond to Aphetto. His mind flew out past Krosan, across all of Otaria, and beyond into the depths of Mer. He could see and feel every dementia caster there was, each of them linked by their power and their oath to the Cabal. He felt a few dead spots in his continental sweep, a few individuals who could not be contacted. Fulla, for example, and a handful of casters in Aphetto. Perhaps the truly disconnected were beyond even the Mirari's reach.
No matter, he thought. He had more than enough. The Cabal taught them the ways of power, and they in turn used that power to benefit the Cabal. But the Cabal was dead now, just waiting to be buried. It was time for a new covenant, one that Chainer would enforce.
All across the land, he felt casters stop, freeze, and remain rigid. Skellum had always said that a master needs pupils, and in one stroke Chainer had more than any master who had ever lived. With the Mirari, he could enter each of their minds and commandeer them. He could occupy all the dementia space there was and turn it toward his goals. He could assemble the largest and most diverse army of dementia monsters that had ever been.
"Like this!" he cried, and he was suddenly back in his own dementia space even as he remained in his chambers. Both locations superimposed on top of each other, fusing and separating over and over. It was as empty there as it had been when he first arrived, and Chainer suddenly felt very small and lonely. He had been expecting a multitude, and he was unnerved by the complete lack of company. Where had they all gone?
He heard a fresh scream nearby, and he appeared back in his chambers. They were all around him. Sprawled across his floor and spilling out in to the hall, visible in the courtyard outside his window and throughout the streets of Cabal City, a million monsters or more howled and hunted and rampaged and roared. Twisted nightmare versions of people, animals, birds, snakes-fantastic beasts of the forest and terrifying monsters from the depths all lashed out at themselves and the world around them. Chainer had opened the floodgates of his mind, and the Mirari was keeping them open.
Chainer laughed and sat on the pile of paper with the Mirari in his lap as the entire city wailed in horror.
"The Cabal is here," he cackled, "and nowhere else."
Kamahl had never seen such chaos. It became difficult to tell who was real and who was a summoning, and impossible to tell which side they were on. Harpy fought angel, zombie fought trooper, and all manner of things that never had names fought beasts from the forest that had never been seen. Kamahl did not consider himself a brilliant man, but he knew how to learn from experience. An out-of- control catastrophe spelled Mirari, and a flood of monsters spelled Chainer. Kamahl concentrated. He could feel the sphere's presence. His former partner had finally fallen victim to the Mirari's curse. It was not hard to locate the Mirari, and Kamahl made his way through the killing floor as fast as his wounds permitted. There were plenty of victims to go around, and Kamahl encouraged a few of the monsters to find easier pickings with the tip of his sword. Before long, he was at the end of the long hallway that led to Chainer and the Mirari.
"Chainer," he bellowed. A hissing snake man attacked him, and Kamahl burned its throat out where it stood.
"Is that my old friend and partner?" Chainer's voice called back.
"Come on out, 'old friend.' Let's finish this."
The flood of sprawling monsters pouring out of the chamber door momentarily increased just before Chainer came through it. The creatures fled past Kamahl without looking at him. They were far more interested in getting away from their master.