"Soon, Lord Casus," a soft voice answered. "Soon."
Karas started, nearly dropping the strongbox. Slowly he turned.
Standing just behind him was a female he recognized: Cabrath, of House Nelinderra. Her face was clean of the death's head paint she habitually wore, but she looked no better for it. Her lips were a narrow slash, her nose a second, vertical slash, and her eyes mere slits. She wore black robes trimmed with purple. She toyed with a bone-handled dagger whose blade was a tapering glimmer of blue energy. The harsh light glinted off the silver rings on her fingers.
Karas was surprised to see her there. He'd assumed she'd died with the rest of the Crones when Kiaransalee's cult in Maerimydra was overthrown.
A bone-white aura wavered around her, chill as mist in a graveyard. It brushed against Karas-he didn't dare flinch, lest Cabrath realize something was wrong. Its brief touch left him feeling sick and weak. In another moment, he thought, he would faint. Tumble and slide down the slope in front of him into the voidstone and be consumed.
Staring at the orb was better than looking into Cabrath's terrible amber eyes. Karas tore his gaze away from her. The voidstone was black again, unmarked by visions.
Cabrath drifted around in front of Karas, her hair streaming back toward the voidstone. Her body was translucent; Karas could see the voidstone right through her. She was dead.
She tilted her head at the voidstone. "Feed him."
Karas hesitated, even though he knew there was little he could do. In death, Cabrath had become something more than the mere priestess she had been. As a spirit, she could slay him with a touch, with a word, between one heartbeat and the next. Any spell he tried would die on his lips before he could complete it.
He tossed the strongbox at the voidstone sphere. Cabrath moved to intercept it. As the box passed through her ghostly body, she threw out her arms and shrieked with wild laughter. For just an instant, she seemed solid again, corporeal, except for her aura. She spun in place and watched the box strike the larger sphere and disappear, releasing the chunk of voidstone it held. Her gaunt face held a look of first eager anticipation, then disappointment.
"Go!" she shrieked over her shoulder at Karas, not deigning to look at him. "Find more!"
Karas bowed. As he started to back away, a section of the voidstone bulged outward. Horror filled Karas as he realized the chunk of voidstone he'd just added might tip the balance. Were the armies of the undead minotaur about to be released?
The bulge in the voidstone erupted. A figure tumbled out, screaming like a thing damned. She was a massive female drow, twice as large as Q'arlynd, with a bestial face, matted hair, and spiderlike legs protruding from her chest. Cabrath whirled, barely dodging the tumbling form. The newcomer sailed past her and crashed into a wall. Cabrath glanced between the bestial female and the voidstone, a shocked look on her face.
The demonic drow scrambled to her feet. She stared wildly around-at the hollowed-out temple, at Karas, at the voidstone, at Cabrath. Then she threw back her head and shrieked with laughter, a sound as brittle as breaking glass.
"Lolth!" she cried. "I'm your plaything no longer. I've won! I'm dead!"
Karas stared at the voidstone. It was smooth and spherical once more. The skeletal legions were not issuing forth from it. Not yet. And Cabrath seemed just as surprised by what had just happened as Karas was. The spirit stared at the demonic drow, a puzzled frown on her face.
Slowly Karas backed out of the temple. He'd find a quiet place, report to Qilue-and let her decide what to do next.
CHAPTER 12
Leliana halted the group when she spotted Brindell running back through the tunnel. The halfling's eyes were wide with terror. Unlike a drow, she wore her emotions where everyone could see them.
Brindell skidded to a halt in front of Leliana, her copper-colored hair damp with sweat. "A wave," she gasped, fear making her forget to use the silent speech, "of putrid flesh. It's headed this way, dissolving everything in its path."
"Mother's blood," Leliana whispered. She could hear it, even then. A bubbling, gurgling sound, overlaid with a faint, sizzling hiss. She turned to the mages, several paces behind her, and signaled for them to turn back.
But we're almost there, Gilkriz protested.
According to the map… His hands fluttered to a halt as he stared at something behind Leliana.
Leliana spun. The thing Brindell had spotted was in view. It looked like a waist-deep puddle of bruised fat, wide enough to fill the tunnel from side to side. Veins as thick as legs bulged as it oozed forward-one broke, spraying the tunnel walls with red. Boils rose on the surface of the thing and erupted with wet pops. The monstrosity was still a hundred paces away, but even at that distance Leliana could smell the stench of corruption.
"Join my prayer!" she shouted. "Drive it back."
The priestesses burst into song, lifting the miniature swords that were the symbols of their faith. "By sword and by song, we command thee. By moonlight be driven back…"
The monstrosity surged on, unaffected by the priestess's prayers.
Leliana lowered her holy symbol. If they couldn't stop this thing, they'd be forced to retreat through the shaft they'd just climbed to reach this tunnel. A shaft that led only down. A deep shaft. Before they reached bottom, the monstrosity would be spilling down on top of them.
A streak of frost shot past Leliana's shoulder: one of the wizards, casting a spell. Ice crystals blossomed across the leading edge of the putrid wave, freezing it. An instant later, however, the ice cracked and the monstrosity surged forward again. As it came on, a rat burst from a crack in the tunnel wall just ahead of the oozing mass and scurried up a timber, trying to escape. The putrid mass flowed after it, climbing the wall. The rat shrieked as it was enveloped and dissolved. The timber it had tried to climb fell to pieces and was also consumed.
"Out of the way!" Gilkriz yelled, shoving past her. "Kulg!" he cried, slamming his stiff-fingered hands in front of him as if they were a gate closing.
With a rumble and a thud, the tunnel ahead slammed shut. A wall of solid stone stood where an open passage had been a moment before, blocking the monster's path.
Brindell let out a whooping cheer. "Praise be to Eilistraee! We're safe."
The others were more restrained; they merely murmured their relief.
"That's it, then," Leliana said. She turned her back on the wall. "We'll have to go another…"
She paused. What was that sound?
There it was again. A faint noise, coming from the shaft they'd just climbed.
Tash'kla ran to it and peered down. Another one! she signed-as if maintaining silence would save them. Coming up the shaft!
"Gilkriz!" Leliana barked.
The conjurer nodded. He ran over to where Tash'kla stood and repeated his spell, bringing his hands together. Rock groaned, bulged. The top of the shaft slammed shut.
Brindell glanced back and forth between the blocked tunnel and the plugged shaft. "Now what?"
Leliana looked around. What indeed?
She noticed the human wizard standing slightly apart from the group, intently studying a portion of the tunnel wall. "What is it, Daffir? Have you spotted something?"
He turned, leaning on his staff. "A doorway, hidden by magic." He pointed. "Here."
The dark lenses hovering in front of his eyes hid his expression, but his voice had a strained sound Leliana didn't like. "Where does it lead?"
"To death. And… freedom."
"Whose death?" Gilkriz asked, striding forward. He peered at the wall, his face illuminated by the Faerzress glow.
Daffir shrugged.
"We certainly can't stay here," Tash'kla said. "We'll run out of air." She raised her sword in both hands in front of her; the blade hummed softly. "I'm ready to face death, if it means finding a way past those monsters."