The door swung open, accompanied by a metallic scraping, and Krael stood in the doorway, a triumphant smile on his face.
“It damn well took you long enough,” Janik said.
Krael gestured to the floor at his feet. Scattered around him were all the weapons the zakyas had taken from them—Janik’s short sword and Dania’s long one, Auftane’s mace, and Sever’s silver-black adamantine blade, as well as the pouch of wands that Auftane carried. His own massive flail was already tucked into his belt.
“I had to kill a guard, retrieve the key, and liberate our weapons,” Krael said. “I think I accomplished all that rather quickly, truth be told.”
Krael stepped back as Janik retrieved his sword. He slid his slender blade into its sheath, then stooped to get Dania’s and Auftane’s weapons.
“That’s quite a sword you have, Dania,” Krael said. “Even the hilt bites.”
“Holiness hurts,” Dania said.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Krael said, rubbing his hands together. Janik thought he caught a glimpse of terrible burns on the vampire’s right hand, but they were healing even as he looked.
Janik handed weapons to his friends and led them into the outer chamber, leaving the warforged to pick up his own sword. A zakya lay dead near an open door on the opposite wall. The creature looked shriveled—even its thick fur could not hide the way its flesh clung to its bones. Janik suspected it had been perfectly healthy before Krael got to it, and his stomach churned with revulsion. He tried to look away, but his gaze was drawn to its staring eyes, bulging in their sockets.
Auftane’s voice shook Janik out of his morbid observation. “Where did you find our weapons?” he asked Krael.
“Heaped on a table in the next room. The guard was stationed there but he came running when I opened the door. It’s entirely possible that there was a second guard who ran the opposite direction to raise an alarm.”
“Great,” Janik said. “Then we need to move. Where do we go, Krael?”
“This way,” Dania answered, starting out the door. Janik shot her a quizzical glance, but she did not see it. She was moving slowly, her head cocked slightly to one side, her eyes not quite focused. Auftane and Mathas waited for Janik’s lead, but Krael shrugged.
“That’s what I was going to say,” the vampire said. “We’ll find Maija on the lowest level.”
“Dania,” Janik said, hurrying after her and grabbing her shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“You don’t hear it?” Dania said, facing Janik but not really looking at him. “It’s calling me.”
What in Khyber? Janik thought. He gripped both of her shoulders and brought his face close to hers, trying to force her eyes to focus on him. “What’s calling you, Dania? Is that a voice you should be listening to?”
“I … think so,” Dania said vaguely. “It’s confusing.” Her eyes suddenly focused on Janik. “I hear them both, Janik, the binder and the bound. Come on, we need to move!” She turned and continued walking. With a quick glance back at the others, Janik followed, drawing his sword as he walked.
Wait a moment, he thought, and looked back over his shoulder at Krael.
Sure enough, the vampire had the same distant expression that Dania wore. Did he hear the same voices? Seeing Janik look back, though, Krael caught himself and flashed a toothy grin at him. Janik shook his head and hurried to keep up with Dania.
Dania was nearly across the next room, which was more of a wide hallway than a chamber. A few quick steps brought Janik right up behind her as she reached the door at the far end and threw it open.
Despite her distraction, Dania’s reflexes were still razor sharp. She brought her shield up in a flash to block an arrow, and another glanced off an armor plate at her shoulder. Janik held his lantern up to light the room beyond, and nearly dropped it in surprise.
He could not see the archers. All he saw was the giant.
18
The Rajah’s Prison
The huge creature—a hunched, misshapen thing—stood a few paces from the door. Its skin was mottled gray, with splotches of pink like the scars of recent burns and patches of thick hair growing in haphazard places. Its eyes were widely spaced and uneven, and its drooling mouth had only a few teeth. The great hump on its back nearly scraped the ceiling of the large room. If it could have stood erect, Janik figured it would have stood more than three times his own height. One massive hand was clenched around what had been a stone statue—legs were still visible where the giant gripped it, but the rest was chipped and worn into a featureless club.
A gallery circled the upper level of the room, and Janik guessed the archers were perched up there, taking cover behind the columns that lined its edge. Yes, he saw them, peering around the columns as they pulled back their bowstrings for another volley.
Ignoring the archers and the arrows that clattered around her, Dania charged forward to engage the giant. Inspired by her, Janik found it hard to be afraid, despite the size of the brute, and he advanced behind her. The giant swung its stone club in a wide arc as they approached. Dania jumped back and the club swept the air in front of her chest, while Janik hit the floor and rolled forward under the giant’s reach.
Janik came out of his roll facing the giant’s knee. The monster tried to hit him with its club, but Janik easily dodged the awkward swing. The giant kicked at him, missing him with its foot but managing to brush his head with its rock-hard kneecap. Janik spun away from the blow, ducking between the giant’s legs and slashing at its hamstring with the tip of his blade. He cut, but not very deep, and the creature wheeled to face him again, kicking clumsily at him as it turned.
That gave Dania the opportunity to close in past its wildly swinging club, and Sever charged up beside her. Their blades swung as one, biting deep into the giant’s legs. A blast of lightning from Mathas’s fingers engulfed the giant’s upper body, and Janik took advantage of its distraction to come in close and drive his sword up into its belly.
The giant howled as a gout of blood splashed down on Janik. The stone club clattered on the floor, and for an instant Janik thought he had dealt a mortal wound.
Then the giant’s arms closed around him, pulling him off the floor and squeezing him against the bloody wound in its gut. Janik’s arms were pinned to his sides, his sword hanging uselessly from his hand, and he struggled to breathe with the giant’s arms clenched around his ribs. He dropped his sword and started kicking, hoping to connect with a tender spot and startle the giant into letting him go. He heard Dania shouting, trying to capture the giant’s attention, and felt tremors rumbling the thing’s body as she and Sever continued hacking at it. The giant wheeled around to kick at them, but its grip did not weaken.
Janik’s lungs started to burn and he changed his tactics. Instead of kicking blindly, he tried to bring his legs up between his body and the giant’s, hoping to work himself free of its grasp. It almost worked. Feeling its grip slipping, the giant wrapped one meaty hand around Janik’s neck and shoulders. Janik’s head swam as the beast swung him like a club at Dania. His legs crashed into her chest, and she sprawled backward onto the floor.
Over the top of the giant’s fist, Janik saw Sever slash with lightning speed, taking advantage of the creature’s reach to cut its wrist. The adamantine sword bit deep and the behemoth released Janik with a howl of pain, sending him flying through the air. He slammed to the floor just behind Dania, dizzy and gasping for breath.
He lay helpless, the room spinning around him. Sever had the giant’s attention, his blade whirling, lines of blood trailing every time it connected with the giant’s flesh. Dania forced herself to her feet, and Mathas sent another arc of lightning to engulf the giant. Auftane stood right behind the warforged, touching various parts of Sever’s strange plated body and causing them to glow with a series of spells. His spells had a visible effect—Sever did not weaken or tire, and kept the giant almost entirely on the defensive. It had not managed to retrieve its stone club from the ground, a minor victory in itself.