He looked back at Calder, still grinning. “I will wait for you as long as I can, Captain. How long do you think it will take?”
Calder had no idea.
CHAPTER TEN
When the sky cracks, death can pass either way.
The man in the steel blindfold could come and go as he wished, but Jerri was still a prisoner. That grated on her even worse than his attitude. More than once, she was prepared to leave, but he always said something to trick her into staying.
“Even the basest Elderspawn can wait in the darkness for a week. A servant of the Great Ones must be able to tolerate the dark.”
“I can come and go because I am only a humble messenger. If I were fit to be the guardian of this room, I too would stay.”
Each time he returned, she considered killing him. And each time, he managed to say exactly what would get her to stay. Even though she knew it was impossible, she started to wonder if he was Reading her mind.
That, and the Emperor’s quarters had a full bathroom complete with a toilet and functional plumbing. Otherwise she would have burned her way to freedom days ago.
Now, on what she determined was her sixth day in the Emperor’s Elder-sealed room, her self-proclaimed guide appeared again. He stepped out of the shadows as though he’d been there all along, gold teeth gleaming in the middle of his smile. “Good news, Mrs. Marten.”
The name hit her hard, harder than she would have expected. She’d spent most of her married life on The Testament —and years prior to that, too—where everyone called her by her first name. On shore, no one knew them. Hearing it now, from a fellow member of the Sleepless in the belly of an Elder construct, felt…entirely wrong.
But he had likely said it just to see her squirm, and she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. She threw her braid behind one shoulder and straightened her spine. “What is it?”
“They’re finally coming in.”
He had spent the last six days deftly dodging any question about what they were waiting for. Now…was this it? They’d waited for the Imperial Guard to stop poking at the Elder seal and finally wheel in the big guns?
But what did she care if the Imperial Guard made it in here?
“Are we going to wait here for them?” Jerri asked, finally. She hated to ask him, but she felt entirely out of her depth here. Whatever the cabal had this man doing, she didn’t understand it.
Maybe it was a trick of the light, but her guide was a little harder to see than he had been a moment before. Even his brightly colored robes had dimmed to little more than shadow, and she could only pinpoint him clearly because of the reflections of gold in his jewelry. It was more than a little unnerving, which made her feel more at home. Dealing with Elders was supposed to be unsettling.
“Here’s what I would like you to do, Jyrine,” the man said, gently taking her by the shoulders. She didn’t resist, allowing him to move her a few feet to the right. The soft organic light hanging from the ceiling hadn’t gotten any dimmer, but he was still bathed in shadows, even inches from her face. As he moved, she sensed the movement of a vast bulk behind him, though she saw nothing more than a normal human silhouette. As though he were something massive cramming itself into the shape of a man.
He finally released her when she was standing with her back to the Optasia, facing the door. “Stand in this spot as long as you can, using the full extent of your power to defend yourself. That’s all. When at last you feel like you cannot continue or you are about to lose your life, you can simply…stand aside.”
Gold flickered in the darkness as he smiled.
The Elder seal around them trembled, and a beat of thunder shook the floor. The Guards had begun their attack. Her heart pounded and her breath quickened from a mix of fear, anticipation, and the sheer thrill of adventure. Her earring began to sparkle, gathering green light.
“Who are you?” she asked, not for the first time. He’d dodged her questions before, but now…now, she hoped, he would give her a real response.
“I am…a business partner of your husband’s. I’m the one who arranged for your jailbreak and ensuing expedition through the void. I assigned you here, Jyrine Tessella Marten, and I sowed the seed of this moment long before you were born.”
Jerri fell to her knees, pressing her forehead to the floorboards. “Kelarac, Great One,” she whispered. Only in her most daring daydreams had she imagined that she would someday come face-to-face with one of the Great Ones. This was even better than she’d hoped; Kelarac was actively helping her. He had guided her wisdom closer to his own, so that she could continue serving the world.
“Do you wish to learn from me?” Kelarac asked, and his voice came from all around her.
“More than anything.”
“I know the secrets of time, of the worlds, of the future and of human Intent. With a fraction of my knowledge, you could guide the Empire into a new golden age. Each man an Emperor, each woman an Empress.”
She could picture it as he spoke, as though he were feeding her specific images. A man flexing his Intent to open a solid wall into a door; a woman climbing into a machine shaped like a winged Kameira, and soaring through the clouds; a little boy waving his hand and causing a thousand flowers to bloom in a field.
“The mysteries of this world are keys that can unlock any door,” the Great Elder’s voice went on. “And they will be yours…if you pay the price. And today, I take my price in obedience.”
She stood, green power swirling around her fingertips and lighting the room. She’d never been so ready to fight.
With Kelarac’s knowledge, she could shock the world. Prove to everyone, even Calder, that she’d been right. That she and her father were justified all along.
The Soul Collector laughed fondly, and the door tore open.
Jerri hurled fire.
At first, standing in the courtyard, Calder tried to take on a passive role in the defeat of the Elder wall. The mountain of flesh was not going down passively, lashing out at each of the Guards and Watchmen that dared approach. They were using their armor and weapons to clear the way for the Guild Heads—General Teach marched up with Tyrfang in one hand, keeping a healthy distance from the other humans so that the sheer aura of her weapon didn’t strike them dead.
Bliss skipped along next to her, apparently immune to Tyrfang’s power, the Spear of Tharlos leaning against one shoulder. When she and Teach struck together, it dwarfed anything Calder had seen before, exploding like an alchemist’s charge and sending stinking flesh blasting fifty feet into the air. Calder had to stagger back and hold a hand up over his eyes to block a faceful of Elder gore. They stood in a tunnel slashed in the flesh, black-edged with death and corruption.
But the wall was still growing. They weren’t getting closer to the heart.
Eventually, he knew, they would carve through. They were doing damage faster than the wall could heal, and they wouldn’t stop until they broke through to the center. But at this rate, it could take hours. And Bliss had emphasized speed above all else. No matter what they had to do, they had to reach the inside of the Elder wall as quickly as possible.