She was close enough to determine a destination. Where would be safest to “touch down”? A cavity too small for a kraken to squirm into, she decided.
She saw an outcrop protruding from a covered balcony midway between Xxiphu’s tip and foundation. Without giving it too much thought, she made for it, climbing hand over hand on her dream rope.
The last few tens of feet were the hardest. She dreaded actually having to set foot on Xxiphu again. But she swallowed, and pulled herself up and over, onto the rough balcony of black stone.
The balcony was empty. An orifice plunged into the dull black wall, providing entry into the city. The opening was empty as far as she could see, but its lightless convolutions caused the hair on the nape of her neck to rise. Or perhaps it was the tide, still trying to claim her. Thankfully, the draw was hardly any greater here than when she’d first noticed it. Her mind remained her own.
Anusha gazed back down over the side. The sea was so far below that she had a hard time finding Green Siren. It was almost lost in the shadow of the storm over the water. But seeing it made her feel better. It was the one friendly, familiar point in a panorama of horror. As long as she could see the ship, she knew she could return to it and her sleeping body with a thought.
She forced herself to look away and focus on the irregular city entrance. Even its shape repulsed her. Maybe she should find a different way in? There were many to choose from on the obelisk’s exterior.
Of course, what would an opening into a city of aboleths have to look like in order to seem appealing? She smiled at her own expense. She was here to spy on the aboleths. Time to follow through. She approached the entrance-
A shadow drew her attention up.
A blaze of blue-white fire flickered high overhead. A balcony closer to Xxiphu’s crown burned with a head-splintering light. She heard a cry of anger, faint in the high distance. A woman’s voice.
Anusha looked up Xxiphu’s uneven side. The city’s exterior wall almost looked like … an expanse of flat earth. And why not? She imagined it was so. With a nauseous twist, her perspective shifted.
Anusha sprinted “across” the plain of dark stone, up the city’s vertical wall. The balconies and other entrances in Xxiphu’s side were pits and sinkholes to be avoided. In her peripheral vision, distant runes writhing along the obelisk seemed like great snakes coiling across a desert wasteland. She ignored them and kept running. Ahead, the strange radiance died away.
Eventually she reached the balcony that had burned. The balcony bottom jutted out of the “ground” like a boulder, the portion facing her a pocked black expanse. She slowed to a walk, double-checked to make certain her dreamform was invisible, and peered around to see who or what was there.
It was Malyanna, as Anusha had guessed from the sound of the voice. The imperious eladrin’s face was drawn in pain and anger. The material of her gown was scored, blackened, and rent on her upper left shoulder, as was her pale skin beneath. Blood seeped from the ragged flesh, forming narrow rivulets that flowed down her side and dripped on the black stone.
A man with red hair tended Malyanna’s wound. He wore a black robe belted at the waist, but his arms were bare. The tattoo of some kind of hunting cat curled down one arm.
A huge dog shadowed the far side of the balcony, working with shockingly white teeth at something caught in the fur of one leg. If she squinted, she could see the resemblance between the creature and Lucky. Except that thing was far bigger, more vicious, and shadows clung to it like waving banners.
Lying in the center of the balcony was a twisted stone statue of a humanoid caught in some horrific transformation. Anusha went cross-eyed as she tried to trace the object’s lower half, so she shifted her gaze back to Malyanna.
“That damned warlock!” screamed the eladrin. “We should have stayed to finish him and that damned half-elf off. Look at this!” She gesticulated with her free hand to her wound. “I can’t remember the last time I was so wounded!”
Anusha put a hand to her mouth. The three had encountered Japheth, and recently. What had been the outcome?
“He used your own power against you,” the man said.
“Taal, please keep your insights to yourself unless they actually pertain,” Malyanna replied.
The man named Taal nodded. He made as if to speak, but cocked his head instead.
Anusha became aware of a low warning growl. She looked at the huge mastiff, but it was busy licking its paws.
“An enemy is near,” said Taal.
Anusha fixed her eyes on Taal. The man placed one hand on his tattoo. The growl, she realized, had been exactly like that of a wild cat!
“Something?” Malyanna pressed.
Taal allowed his gaze to range around the balcony. Anusha hunkered down until only her eyes remained above the level of the railing. Was the man able to sense her despite her immaterial status?
“My totem indicates we are watched,” Taal said.
The eladrin sniffed. “I don’t doubt we are under observation by half a dozen aboleths this very moment,” she said. “Don’t trouble yourself about it. Finish up, will you?”
Taal returned his attention to Malyanna. He placed a hand over the angry wound and closed his eyes. When he withdrew it three heartbeats later, the rent flesh had closed. While still discolored, it was obvious the eladrin was no longer in danger of bleeding to death.
She stepped away without a word of thanks to Taal to study the disfigured statue. Her pupils grew wide, and a grin stretched her mouth. “We finally have it,” she said.
It? Anusha thought. Was the horrible stone sculpture special? It couldn’t be the Key of Stars, could it? Anusha wished Yeva were here. Maybe she would know the statue’s significance.
“You’re certain?” said the man. “What if Carnis lied? He was always a betrayer at heart-”
“After all these years, you’re getting cold feet, Taal?” said Malyanna.
The man shrugged. “My oath compels me to serve,” he replied.
She nodded. “Of course it does,” she said. “That’s why I chose you. Now then … It’s time.”
Taal sighed.
“Time,” continued Malyanna, “to reacquaint the Eldest with the Citadel of the Outer Void.”
“How?” Taal asked.
“Despite that I put the Lord of Bats on his scent, Japheth is still alive,” Malyanna said. “Which means the essential spark the warlock stole to power his new pact remains missing. So the Eldest yet slumbers, and its vast power lies unused.”
Taal gave a cautious nod.
“So, the Eldest won’t object if I siphon a bit of its strength so I can open the way,” the eladrin continued.
Malyanna made a fist, and waved her other hand over it in a circular motion. She opened her fingers. A dark, circular object appeared, nestled in her grip.
The Dreamheart!
Anusha’s breathing hitched. She should do something! Summon her sword and knock the vile thing from Malyanna’s hand, or strike the woman’s head from her neck!
Yet the sight of the stone paralyzed her. If she got too close to it, it might snag her mind, wizard charm or no, and seal her fate for good. She should have acted sooner!
The eladrin noble stared at the sphere as if it were a scrying ball. She crooned a high-pitched chant laden with barbed consonants and keening vowels.
Splintering white light accompanied a raucous crack of thunder so close the balcony shuddered. Anusha tried but couldn’t tear her gaze from Malyanna and the piece of poison heavy in her hands.
A seam on the stone parted, an eyelid shuttering open. Malyanna’s gaze met the Eldest’s eternal stare.
“Storm’s worsening, Captain,” said Mharsan. A sudden, stiff breeze pulled the woman’s silver braid nearly straight out from her head.
Thoster peered up through the rigging. The thunderheads swaddling Xxiphu’s bulk flashed and rumbled with accelerating rage. The black clouds smeared and elongated, reaching out windblown arms, as if to encircle the floating obelisk. It almost looked like a whirlpool trying to form, but in the air instead of the sea.