Stones began to crumble, falling from the ceiling. Cain risked one more look back; crows had come through the window, their bodies beginning to change, feathers retracting, ghoulish features protruding before Cain pulled Leah away from the room and down the stairs, away from their mournful, hungry cries.
Mikulov had nearly come to the end of his strength when he happened to glance up at the tower. What he saw shocked him; a figure tumbled head over heels through the air, robes flapping like a bird’s wings as it plummeted to the ground. At first he was filled with horror, imagining it to be Deckard Cain. But as it hit the ground with a tremendous boom, he realized it had to be the Dark One himself.
How it had happened he did not know, but the body’s impact set off a shock wave of power that rushed through the courtyard like an ocean swell. The effect was immediate and dramatic; almost as one, the undead soldiers dropped lifelessly to the ground like puppets with their strings cut. The connection that had bound them, the magic threads Garreth Rau had created, had been severed.
Mikulov turned back to the tower. The body Anuk Maahnor had occupied was lying motionless on its back—what was left of a simple villager, bleeding from the eyes and mouth.
The stone courtyard shuddered, and a rumbling sound came from beneath their feet. Cullen pointed up at the tower, which was swaying back and forth. “It’s going to come down!” he said, as more cracks appeared around them and the rumbling grew louder. “Run!”
They raced downward, stumbling several times but somehow never falling as the tower trembled violently. More stones came loose above them, plummeting down through space and crashing into the floor below. The steps grew shakier as they went, but they reached the bottom without getting hit.
Cain pulled Leah by the hand through the entryway and out the door, into the courtyard under blackened skies. The entire world seemed to be coming to an end; the ground was littered with bodies, and the stone beyond the steps had split in multiple places, exposing jagged, gaping holes in the earth.
Cain led Leah around the crevasses, then scooped the docile girl into his arms and ran as fast as he could, driven by pure adrenaline as a loud groaning noise came from behind them and the ground began to tremble even harder. He risked a glance back; the Black Tower started to lean as the stone underneath it buckled and twisted, frothy spray exploding up through cracks and sending rocks, dirt, and bones flying many feet into the air.
As the tower teetered on the edge, seemingly forever, Cain sensed a presence rise up above the crows that circled and flapped away from the structure, a great evil that watched with unblinking eyes as the walls came down.
He kept going. They were perhaps one hundred feet away when the bottom of the tower imploded with a tremendous earth-shaking roar. Cain stopped again and turned as the top half toppled over and fell, hitting the ground in an avalanche of stone and mortar. Pieces of rock flew like shrapnel in all directions as a gigantic hole opened up and the base collapsed into the ground, burying the tunnels and caverns beneath it in debris. A geyser of seawater shot fifty feet into the air, and a wail of rage from that unseen presence rose up over everything before slowly dying away, leaving nothing but the last few crows circling aimlessly in a dead sky.
37
Gea Kul, Resurrected
“Over here!”
Cain was startled to find Thomas and Cullen waving frantically at them from across the courtyard, where they stood with Mikulov and a small group of people. Cain was overjoyed to see Mikulov alive; he had thought the worst.
Captain Jeronnan was among them as well. The big man waved too; although he was covered in blood, he appeared to be more or less unharmed.
Thomas hurried over to them and tried to take Leah from Cain’s aching arms. “No,” he said, hugging her fiercely to him. He kissed the top of her head as tears wet his cheeks. The girl was unresponsive but breathing evenly, and color had started to return to her face. Everything seemed to come to the surface at once, and a torrent of emotions poured from him as he fell, sobbing to his knees, cradling Leah to him like a baby.
“You’re all right,” he said over and over, and in his mind he was speaking to his wife and son as well as Leah. “I promise you, everything is fine now. You’re safe.”
Eventually, Cain allowed Thomas to take Leah from him, and he sank back, utterly exhausted, before Mikulov helped him gently to his feet.
They limped over to the others. Cain clasped Jeronnan’s huge hand in both of his, managing a smile, although he felt like he might collapse at any moment. The man embraced him.
“How did you—”
“’Twas the necromancer’s blade,” Jeronnan said. “The creatures met us in Gea Kul, and we put up an honest fight, but they had me by the throat, and they took me down to the ground with them. Thought I was done for. But I managed to get Kara’s knife in a few of their bellies while we struggled, and they ran from it, the cowards. Most of them came this way, looking for the real battle, I would guess. We followed them here.”
“Is it really over?” Cullen interrupted anxiously, peering at Cain’s face. He was bleeding from a scalp wound, and the pinkie on his right hand appeared to have been bitten off. He clutched his hand to his chest and blinked through broken spectacles, his eyes bloodshot.
“I don’t know,” Cain said. “I think for now, perhaps it is.”
He looked back at the ruins of the Black Tower. Somewhere in the rubble lay the remains of Garreth Rau, who was surely dead, having spent the last moment of his life finally standing up for himself in a way he never had before, and saving the world in the process. It was almost enough to make Cain believe in humanity again. But other thoughts were more unsettling.
What had appeared there as the tower collapsed? Had it just been his imagination, or had it been Belial himself, there to witness the end of his plans?
Perhaps, Cain thought, he had been there to witness the beginning.
After exploring some of the ruins left behind by the collapse of the Black Tower, and finding nothing left alive and no signs that the demon horde would return, the small group left for the Captain’s Table. There were perhaps fifteen of them in all; Jeronnan’s group had sustained heavy losses, and those citizens who had survived were wounded and dazed, as if just coming out of a deep sleep.
The day began to lighten as they walked, and when they reached the streets of Gea Kul, a single ray of sunlight broke through the gray clouds, shining directly upon the Horadric meeting place like a beacon of strength. Beyond it was a ruin of collapsed buildings, but this one remained standing. Thomas whispered to Cullen and pointed it out to Cain, who nodded. That, more than anything else he had yet seen, gave him hope that the worst was over, at least for now.
By the time they reached the tavern, the sun had broken through completely, and people were starting to emerge from their houses and hiding places, blinking in the bright light like terminally ill patients who had been given a reprieve from death. Most were emaciated, with telltale bruises on their necks, and they did not seem to respond to anything other than the sun’s warmth. They craned their heads to peer up into the sky, squinting, traces of vacant smiles upon their sunken faces.
Leah, however, remained unresponsive. Mikulov carried her for the first few minutes, and then Cain, in spite of his utter exhaustion, insisted upon taking her in his arms for the rest of the way, while Thomas and Cullen walked beside him. He put her head on his chest and listened to her soft breathing to assure himself that she was still alive.
“I will not let you go,” he whispered to her. “I promise.” For a moment he thought he might have heard her try to speak, but she remained silent and still.