City of Torment

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The Year of the Secret (1396 DR) Green Siren, Beneath the Sea of Fallen Stars

Raidon directed the ship downward, piercing Faerun's rocky foundations. He concentrated upon the needs of each moment, finding that the deeper Green Siren descended, the more difficult his task. The thread connecting his symbol and the city of Xxiphu remained constant, but the "terrain" through which they traveled grew ever more treacherous.

On several occasions, the ship's path intersected air-filled hollows. The first time, Green Siren lurched and fell several man-heights before Raidon realized the danger. He yanked the mental reins yoked to the gleamtail jacks.

Instead of smashing into the floor of the unexpected vault, the ship descended as gently as a petal. He had dealt with several such hollows since the first one. However, each time they pierced a new kind of environment, the ship reacted unexpectedly.

He started upon finding Seren and Thoster standing near him, trying to get his attention.

"Uh, yes?" said Raidon.

Seren said, "Thoster's suffering from poor parenting. How long before we arrive at our destination? I think I can… ameliorate the affliction of his birthright if we have an hour to spare."

The monk shook his head, feeling dim-witted. He didn't have the first idea what the wizard meant. He said, "What are you-"

A knot of harder mineral bumped the whole ship to starboard. Green Siren threatened to keel over, but Raidon's quick adjustment brought the deck level again.

The captain had grabbed the mainmast, but Seren had toppled over.

"What was that?" Thoster said.

"A symptom of your interruption," said Raidon.

Seren picked herself up. She said, "If I didn't know you better, I'd think you were being petty. Now, do we have an hour?"

"Probably," said Raidon. "Now leave me. I'm sure you can handle whatever it is."

Thoster grinned and doffed his hat. Seren opened her mouth as if to argue, but then said, "Very well."

Raidon closed his eyes and instantly dismissed them from his consciousness.

They had already spent the better part of a day descending. His constant adjustment of the gleamtails was having an effect. Several of the tiny fish summoned from the Chaos had fallen from the school and gasped out their last on the planking. Seren had said the protective aura generated by them would last a tenday before it dispersed. Raidon was certain they had about half that much time, given his direct experience.

Thankfully, he sensed that the aberrant taint he traced was close. Perhaps only a few hours to go.

*****

The sound of Angul groaning brought Raidon back to the moment. He'd lost himself in the mesmerizing descent. The Sign burned with proximity. Xxiphu was nearly close enough to touch!

He called out, "Captain Thoster! Seren!"

The wizard was seated on a pile of coiled hawser that lay on the deck along the railing. She closed a slender tome, then stood and slipped the book into a haversack. She said, "Are we there?"

Raidon said, "Close. Where's the captain?"

"Thoster's closed in his cabin with the ship's healer. After our session, he required a few stitches." Seren turned to a nearby crew member and said, "Go tell your captain we need him."

Raidon slowed their descent to a crawl while they waited. "Your session?" he said.

Seren sighed. "It's not important, Raidon. I handled it, like you asked."

The monk nodded, recalling the one-sided conversation. Something about the captain needing some kind of affliction removed?

When the captain showed up on deck, he was shrugging into his coat. The left sleeve of his linen shirt was pulled back, leaving room for a wide layer of bandages around his forearm. Blood marked the bandages. In his hand dangled a leather cord.

"Feeling better?" said Seren.

The captain scowled and said, "I suppose, but no thanks to you. I didn't know you'd be taking a sample!" Seren said, "Remember to keep that amulet close. It'll keep your change in check. Probably."

Thoster just shook his head.

"Prepare yourselves and the ship," Raidon said. "The aboleth city is moments away."

Thoster nodded. He slipped the amulet around his neck. Raidon noticed a fan of fish scales hanging at the cord's end. There wasn't enough time to pursue the questions that sprang to his mind.

The captain turned slightly to address his crew. "Listen up! Get this tub shipshape! Prepare to ram and to board!

It may be some godsforsaken alien temple we'll find, but by Shar's black heart, I guess monsters bleed the same as men and elves!"

Green Siren plunged through the ceiling of a massive vault half drowned in an oily sea. The cavern was pierced by an obelisk wider than several city blocks and ten times as tall as it was wide. Its foundation was drowned in murky fluid, and the upper end was jammed into the ceiling. Rookeries, balconies, inscriptions, runes, and other features gaped like hungry mouths all across its face.

"Impossible!" said Seren. Her face was slack with incipient terror. The wizard moved so she actually stood next to the monk, inside the ritual circle. Raidon was relieved she didn't try, unconsciously or not, to wrest control of the gleamtails from him.

The half-elf concentrated to slow Green Siren's descent. He saw a gallery high up along the face near where the obelisk plunged into the ceiling. The opening looked wide enough to hold the entire ship.

But Green Siren was heavy, and he'd learned the gleamtail jacks were least adapted to air. The deck sawed left, then right, as Raidon tried to stop the craft's downward trajectory.

"What're you up to?" said Captain Thoster from his left. "Trying to shake me off my own ship?"

Raidon glanced at the man. The privateer had both hands wrapped around the railing. His wide hat tipped over and began to fall. The captain released one hand and snatched it before it descended more than a couple of feet.

Then Thoster's eyes grew round in surprise as he gazed into the abyss.

"What is it?"

"That damned kraken!" said Thoster. "It's down there in the water!"

"Gethshemeth?" said Seren. "How can that be?" "Damn your spells, how should I know? I ain't a wizard! I…"

The captain gasped. He smashed his hat down on his head, then snatched his sword from its sheath.

"It's coming up to give us a kiss," Thoster yelled. "Our little gleamtails ain't the only thing that's' learned how to swim in air."

Angul released a howl of fury from its sheath on the monk's back. A couple of nearby crew looked around for the source of the atonal noise.

Even without touching it, Raidon sensed the sword urging him to confront the kraken. But if he released the leashed gleamtails, the ship might fall out of the air.

"Seren, take over," he said. The wizard's pale skin had taken on a greenish cast at the news of Gethshemeth's presence. But she nodded and stepped nearer.

The monk released control of the ritual even as Seren took it up. Green Siren jerked down and to port, then hovered, slowly turning in place.

"Do you have it?" Raidon asked.

Seren nodded.

"Make for that gallery," he said, pointing toward the high cavity he'd spied. "I'll deal with Gethshemeth."

Raidon leaped from the circle to the railing in one movement He kicked one foot between the spars ta anchor himself.

He dragged Angul from his sheath. The sword exulted, catching fire immediately. A pulse of certitude surged into Raidon's blood.

He leaned over and saw a monstrous thing approaching from below. It was a creature meant for watery abysses, but Gethshemeth hurtled up through moist air as if born to it. Tentacles slapped and grasped upward, pulling the scarred bulk behind. Eyes like twin fire pits burned with mad hatred. Raidon saw the stump of the tentacle he had severed when-he'd fought the creature tendays before, the one that had held the Dreamheart.

Something had grown back in its place. It was an irregular, splotchy globe sprinkled with a dozen tiny eyes, all blinking stupidly. Even through the unyielding conviction Angul woke in Raidon, the tumorlike growth brought a taste of bile to his lips. Angul, seeing what Raidon saw, screamed his outrage against the insult to the world's natural order. The blade's fire leaped higher, and the symbol on Raidon's chest burst into flame. Its hue alternated between the lighter cerulean hue of the Sign and the darker blue fire of a spellscar.

The display didn't slow the approaching creature. In moments, the rising kraken's tentacles would wrap around Green Siren.

Raidon knew, from the time he'd spent in the ritual circle's center, that the gleamtails could not hope to hold aloft both the ship and a kraken of Gethshemeth's size.

"Knowing is dust unless action follows after," Raidon muttered, one of the proverbs of Xiang Temple.

He grabbed one end of the hawser Seren had earlier used as a stool. The other end of the coiled rope was tied to a stanchion. Good. He dived off the side of the ship. A line of blue fire traced his path downward.

Half-elf and kraken met below Green Siren. Angul struck some kind of invisible ward surrounding Gethshemeth, producing a clap of thunder. The creature's ward shattered, deflecting Raidon's trajectory. Instead of plunging the Blade Cerulean directly into the base of the writhing tentacles, the monk tumbled off course.

A spiral of tentacle wide as house caught him across the back. Pain clutched him only for a heartbeat before Angul sucked it away. But in the moment of disorientation, he lost his hold on his lifeline to Green Siren.

He and the end of the rope continued to fall past the kraken's bulk. Raidon kicked backward desperately, trying to flail his open hand toward the rope's end before its length played out. The braided hemp of the rope slapped across his palm. Not an instant too soon-

The slack in the rope gave out. Raidon's plunge jerked to an arm-wrenching stop. White fire blossomed in his shoulder, forearm, and fingers, pulling a scream from him. But he didn't let go. Angul wouldn't allow him that luxury.

The monk dangled at the cord's end like a cat toy displayed for the kraken's play. Angul whispered in his mind, Draw the beast in. I will end its aberrant life.

Gethshemeth hovered in the dank air, midway between Raidon, who now hung below it, and the barnacled keel of Green Siren above. The tiny heads of several crew appeared over the railing, their eyes wide with fear.

Lure it down to us, Angul urged.

Raidon complied. He concentrated on his spellscar. The Sign of his adopted order pulsed. Shafts of cerulean light lanced the kraken's bulk. Where the light touched Gethshemeth, its skin seared and smoked.

The creature pirouetted in the air, a motion made obscene by the creature's unnatural bulk moving so delicately.

It turned its full attention.to Raidon.

Angul fed more energy to the monk. New strength rippled through the half-elf s muscles, starting in his hand and spreading quickly through the rest of his body.

When it reached his chest, his Sign responded with another pulse of radiance that needled the tentacled hulk anew.

Gethshemeth roared. Like branches in a tornado, its arms lashed wildly as it dropped on Raidon.

The monk's eyes were riveted on the tentacle bearing the grotesque blinking tumor. Even as he was caught up and squeezed, he focused past the sound of bones breaking in his chest and legs.

He called on his Sign and the sword and surged forward, struggling through the battering, squeezing arms. A swing of the Blade Cerulean, and the misshapen nodule spurted free. Greenish purple ichor geysered, and all the eyes pocking the growth rotated in their sockets as one, attempting to fix Raidon with their mismatched gaze.

Some kind of fell influence lived in those eyes… but gravity pulled the severed pod down and away too quickly.

Gethshemeth's tentacles spasmed and released Raidon. The monk clung to the supporting rope.

The creature's mouth opened wide. It was horribly akin to a human's but much larger. A noise like a baby's wail issued from it, sending prickles up Raidon's scalp.

Even as Angul's influence began to reknit Raidon's damaged bones and sinews, Gethshemeth shrugged its colossal tentacles. It coughed out three arcane syllables. The great kraken's outline turned fuzzy and uncertain, and then it was gone. Air fell into the space the kraken's bulk had occupied, creating a final thunderclap.

Raidon hung alone beneath the floating hull of Green Siren.

Monk and sword voiced a simultaneous shout of fury. Gethshemeth had fled. You were not fast enough again, Angul chided. Had I made contact, I would have prevented it from displacing. Instead of arguing, the monk meditated on his Sign. Both the sword and the Sign were tools created by the ancient order of Keepers. But the Sign was pure, Angul was tainted. With the Sign's strength, he carefully disentangled the sword's wants and desires from his own.

He finally gathered the will to sheathe Angul. It burned and shook, but was rendered powerless.

Raidon wound an arm and his upper body into the hawser so that he no longer had to support all his weight with just one or even two hands.

He rested, swaying gently in empty space. He was content for the moment to be alone in the dark air and to study the vast facade of Xxiphu. The runes and relief sculpture slowly crept across the primeval structure's face.

The many openings remained empty of activity, though some glowed with the faintest hint of purplish light.

Other than the slithering inscriptions, he detected no movement or sound. The half-elf was grateful the city appeared to be, at least on its exterior, asleep.

Appearances could be deceiving, he knew. His Sign, born of an ancient Seal, tingled with constant feedback.

Aberrations were moving inside Xxiphu.

The rope jerked. He glanced up. Even more heads craned over the railing where his lifeline connected. He heard Thoster shout something, then many hands began to haul on the rope.

When Raidon was back on deck, the captain clapped him on the shoulder. "You're crazy. But you saved my ship."

"Yes. But Gethshemeth escaped again."

"Ho! But you put the fear in it! It won't cow us again with its size and power. That's the last we'll see of that beast, I warrant." An unnatural glee possessed Thoster. His smile seemed too bright to Raidon. A sheen of sweat glistened on the captain's forehead.

"Are you fevered?" Raidon asked.

The captain said, "Aren't we all?" The man turned to see to his crew.

Worry wrinkled the monk's brow, but other concerns pressed far harder.

"Seren, how goes the navigation?" he called.

The wizard had stopped Green Siren's rotation sometime during his brief exchange with Gethshemeth. Raidon saw the blank look of concentration on the woman's face- probably a mirror of his expression as he'd guided the ship's descent through the earth.

After a few moments, Seren replied, "We're moving. It took me awhile to figure out how to get the gleamtails to rise, they'd rather sink. But I've got it now."

Raidon realized the ship was indeed increasing its altitude, albeit slowly. Moreover, the gallery he'd earlier pointed out to Seren was noticeably closer.

"YouVe done well," he said.

He moved to the ship's bow. The city's horrid face loomed larger. The writhing inscriptions didn't bear looking on for too long, so he found himself constantly flicking his eyes away. He couldnt discern if the shapes were actually moving, or if their convoluted shapes merely suggested animation.

Finally they reached the gallery.

The massive cavity engulfed the ship. A shelf along the interior side was hollowed with several secondary tunnels- some so small a human would have a hard time crawling into them, and one so large the ship could have almost fit down it. The light of the gleamtails threw golden and reddish highlights off the dark stone. A smell akin to rotting fish enfolded them. The odor was mixed with other spices Raidon couldn't identify.

"Tie up!" yelled Thoster. Several crew members grabbed up coiled ropes, but only stared nervously at the dark stone platform that had to serve as their pier. None moved to comply.

Seren said, "The gleamtail jacks will maintain Green Siren in this position, even if I leave the ritual circle."

"I'm sure," said the captain, implying by his tone that he was anything but confident. "I wager it'll do no harm to tie up as well, eh?"

Seren shrugged.

Raidon leaped over the side onto the platform. The air was moist and suffused with tiny particles of light. He walked the shelf from one end to the other, avoiding stone columns that speckled the floor. When it was apparent that monstrous creatures were not beating a path from the tunnels to swarm him, the crew clambered over the ship's side to join him. They tied up Green Siren using some of the larger columns as bollards.

"What now?" said the captain, his eyes almost eager. "We move into the city and discover its heart," said Raidon. "We need to find the creature from which the Dreamheart was carved. If fate is kind, we'll find it before its progeny wake it. Somewhere in this massive structure, aboleths are singing to rouse their father. We must find that chamber and kill the children before the parent can open the rest of its eyes. If destiny is on our side, perhaps we may even hope Angul can slay the Eldest as it sleeps defenseless."

Everyone just looked at the monk. Finally the captain asked, "What odds do you give on the warlock showing up down here and interfering with us?"

Raidon blinked. "Why would he do that?"

Thoster said, "He's connected to this place as much as you-he carries the Dreamheart."

"His presence here seems unlikely. You experienced how difficult a time we had finding and reaching Xxiphu-and I had the Cerulean Sign to guide me. Yes, he has the Dreamheart, though it won't do him any good if we slay the Eldest before all its eyes are open."

The captain said, "I think you're wrong, Raidon."

"What's this about, Thoster?"

The captain clapped! Raidon on the shoulder. "I like to be prepared for contingencies. Think about it-why'd the warlock take off with the Dreamheart to begin with? Because of the girl. If Japheth had got her free from the stone, she'd have woken up by now. She hasn't. Which I think means-"

"That her mind isn't in the Dreamheart," finished Seren, her tone incredulous. "Otherwise, someone with Japheth's arcane connections would have freed her."

"Exactly," said Thoster. "My guess is her mind was sucked down here!"

Raidon shrugged. "Could be. It doesn't change our plans."

"Well, perhaps we should we pack her up so we can carry her easily?"

"Anusha? No, of course not. Bringing an Unconscious person into the city would be a nuisance at best, and a danger to all of us trying to keep her safe in a fight. We'll put your dog in her cabin to watch over her."

Thoster rubbed his chin. "Well, I suppose that's fine."

"Are you worried about facing Japheth?" Seren asked the captain.

"No," said Thoster. "At least, not since your ritual." He put his hand on the amulet cord. "Still, how often does a fellow walk into a primeval relic filled with half-petrified monsters older than gods?"