Lady Ruin

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

They found the cave entrance precisely where the dolgrim said they would. The hill was barren, rocky, and rather lopsided, as if somewhere in the distant past a mountain had tried to thrust its way up through the earth and had barely gotten started before giving up.

The entrance to the caves wasn’t hard to spot. It lay at the southern base, and the opening was large enough for the soldiers to fit through one at a time, warforged included, though just barely in the constructs’ case. Lirra assumed the tunnels would be narrow, though passable, since Elidyr, Sinnoch, and Rhedyn had been able to make their way through. Lirra felt a rush of anger at the thought of seeing Rhedyn again. Right then she wanted nothing more than to wrap her hands around his traitorous neck and-

That’s right, get good and mad. We’ll be able to use your anger when it’s time to shed blood again …

Hearing the thought-voice’s words, Lirra forced herself to calm down. The last thing she wanted to do right now was give her symbiont a stronger grip on her mind, and if she allowed herself to be carried away by anger, that’s exactly what would happen.

“Here you go,” Ranja said. “As promised. Now that I’ve led you to Elidyr’s lair, my job’s finished, and since there’s an excellent chance that none of you will survive to leave the caves, I’d appreciate it if you could pay me my fee in full before you enter.”

Osten took a step toward the shifter, his hand falling to the pommel of his sword.

“Why you mercenary little-”

Lirra shushed Osten and laid a hand on his arm to keep him from moving any closer to Ranja. But the shifter took a step toward Osten, her features becoming a touch more feral.

“I was hired to do a job and I did it,” she said. “There’s no shame in that, nor is there any in my wanting to be paid for my contribution.”

Vaddon scowled, but he reached inside his uniform and withdrew a purse full of silver from a pocket. He tossed it to Ranja, and the shifter woman caught it easily and made it disappear into one of her own pockets. She then flashed Vaddon a smile.

“Pleasure doing business with you, General.”

“So what will you do now?” Osten asked. “Head back to Geirrid while we risk our lives to stop Elidyr?”

“I think I’ll stick around for a bit longer, just to see how things turn out,” Ranja said. She turned to Vaddon. “I assume you’re going to station some people outside the entrance to guard the backs of those going in. I’ll remain out here with them, if you don’t mind.”

“Suit yourself,” Vaddon said. “But don’t think you’re going to get paid any more for staying.”

“Of course not, General. I’m well satisfied with what I’ve acquired.” Ranja looked at Lirra and gave her a quick smile.

Lirra understood. The shifter spy had gained all the knowledge she needed, and if she couldn’t find a way to blackmail Bergerron, she’d simply go ahead with her original plan and deliver the information to Raskogr. Either way, more silver lay in her future. Before she’d joined with her symbiont, Lirra would’ve reacted to the shifter’s mercenary nature much the same way Osten had-with hostility and derision. After all, Lirra was a Karrnathi soldier, and she performed her duties out of loyalty to her country and a desire to serve its people, not in hopes of lining her own pockets. But now she couldn’t find it in herself to think badly of Ranja. As much as Lirra had been raised by her father, and later trained at the Rekkenmark Academy, to view the world in simplistic black-and-white terms, in the last few days she’d come to realize that, in truth, existence all too often consisted of varying shades of gray. Lirra knew she and the others wouldn’t have gotten this far without Ranja’s help, and she was grateful for the shifter’s aid. And if this was where they parted company, then so be it.

Lirra gave Ranja a nod before turning to her father.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked.

Vaddon raised an eyebrow, and Lirra smiled. “You are in command of this mission,” she reminded him.

Vaddon selected a half-dozen men and women to stand guard outside the cave. Lirra noted that he picked those who had been most seriously wounded during the battle with the dolgrims, and she could well guess why. While Ksana had used her healing powers to repair the soldiers’ injuries, they were still somewhat weak. Better they guarded the others’ rear flank than enter the caves to face whatever threats might lie within.

“The rest of us will go inside,” Vaddon said. “Lirra, you will lead the way and Osten shall accompany you. Ksana and I will come next, and the warforged shall follow us.” He turned to face the remainder of the Outguard. “The rest of you line up in pairs. If the tunnels are too narrow to permit us to walk two abreast, then we’ll go single file. Lanterns out, and keep your swords in hand at all times unless there’s not enough room to wield them efficiently, in which case, sheath them and switch to daggers. Any questions?”

“I know I’m not going with you,” Ranja said, “but I have a question: What do you intend to do once you find Elidyr?”

Lirra responded to the shifter’s query. “We’ll destroy the Overmantle and attempt to take Elidyr, Sinnoch, and Rhedyn into custody.”

“And in the extremely likely event that they resist?” Ranja asked.

Lirra’s mouth was set in a grim line as she answered. “If it comes down to that … we’ll do what has to be done.” She turned to look at Vaddon, and though she saw the same conflict she felt mirrored in her father’s eyes, the general nodded. Neither of them wanted to kill Elidyr, but if he gave them no choice …

There was nothing more to be said after that. The Outguard lined up as Vaddon had ordered, and-with Lirra leading the way-they entered the caves.

“They’re here,” Sinnoch said.

Elidyr hadn’t moved from his sitting position since he’d begun work on the Overmantle. He hadn’t slept, hadn’t paused for food or drink. Now he looked up at the dolgaunt with tired eyes.

“So soon? Time truly does fly when you’re enjoying yourself.”

Rhedyn had been sitting with his back against the cave wall, dozing. But at the dolgaunt’s words he leaped to his feet. “Could it be the dolgrims returning?”

“Doubtful,” Elidyr said as he touched an etheric-balancing rod to several individual crystals on the reconstructed Overmantle. “I didn’t expect the dolgrims to stop my brother and his soldiers, just slow them down a bit. It’ll take more than a handful of dolgrims, even augmented as they were, to put my brother and my niece in the ground.” He smiled to himself. “That’s a pleasure I’m reserving for myself.” Elidyr made one last adjustment with the rod, then leaned back to admire his work. “There! That should do it!” He paused. “I hope.”

Rhedyn walked over to stand next to Elidyr, and Sinnoch glided over to join them.

“What do you mean?” the young warrior asked.

“I did the best I could, considering that I lacked the proper parts and equipment,” Elidyr said, a trifle defensively. “Not only was I forced to redesign the device, I had to make certain … improvisations here and there.”

“But it will work, yes?” Sinnoch asked.

“Oh, yes,” Elidyr confirmed. “At least, it will activate. As to what it will precisely do …” Grinning, he touched a switch to bring the Overmantle to life.

Rippling waves of energy poured out of the device, its power filling the entirety of Sinnoch’s cave.

Lirra held her sword in her right hand, and she kept her left free to wield the tentacle whip, so she carried no lantern to light the way. That duty fell to Osten, who stood on her left, an everbright lantern held in his left hand, sword in his right. The lantern’s glow was eerie in the confined space of the tunnel, and the shadows it cast seemed to move with a life of their own. When they’d first entered the tunnel, it was so cramped they could barely walk in single file, but as the tunnel sloped downward, it opened up somewhat, and two people could walk side by side-though the squat, blocky Shatter-fist still needed to walk by himself in order to fit. There was enough room for them to keep their swords out, though if it became necessary to fight, there’d be precious little maneuvering room. They moved in silence, no one speaking, everyone careful to keep from brushing up against the tunnel walls more than necessary, and they were especially careful to keep their weapons away from the walls, lest the sound of steel scraping against stone gave their presence away.

Not that Elidyr doesn’t know we’re coming, Lirra thought. One way or another, she was certain her uncle was aware that they were closing in. After all, hadn’t he sent the dolgrims out to attack them? But she remembered something she’d learned at Rekkenmark: Never give a foe an advantage you didn’t need to. If there was even the slightest chance Elidyr didn’t know they were coming, the Outguard would remain silent.

The tunnel continued to slope downward as they progressed, and Lirra tried to use her new senses to feel the way ahead, casting about for any hint of symbionts or other aberrations. The base of her skull tingled and a familiar nausea roiled in her stomach. She could feel the presence of corruption somewhere out in front of them, and it was strong-far stronger than anything she’d ever felt before. It was repellant, but at the same time strangely alluring. Part of her wanted to turn back and flee in terror, while another part of her wanted to run forward to reach the foul presence as fast as she could.

What is it? she mentally asked the tentacle whip.

Chaos.

She leaned close to Osten and whispered in his ear.

“Do you feel that?”

“I feel something,” he whispered back. “Whatever it is, it’s setting my teeth on edge. Too bad the shifter isn’t here. Perhaps she could make something of it.”

A second voice whispered in Lirra’s other ear. “It’s good to know I’m appreciated.”

Lirra turned to her right, startled to hear Ranja speaking, but no one walked there. At first Lirra feared she’d only imagined the shifter’s voice, that perhaps it was a new sort of mind trick the tentacle whip was playing on her. But then she realized what Ranja had done. The woman had used one of the magical toys she employed to render herself invisible, and then she’d sneaked past the other members of the Outguard until she’d reached the front of the line where Lirra and Osten were.

Lirra smiled. When going into battle, it was always good to have a surprise or two prepared for your enemy, and with any luck, Ranja would prove to be one hell of a surprise for Elidyr.

They continued onward, and the tingling in her skull and her nausea grew stronger as they walked, along with the strange compulsion to keep going forward. She raised her hand and made several gestures to let her father know they were getting close, even if she wasn’t entirely certain close to what. Vaddon answered with a single gesture that meant Message received, before silently relaying Lirra’s message to the warforged, who passed it back to the soldiers behind them, and so on. Within moments, everyone in the tunnel knew the time for battle was close at hand, and they did their best to mentally prepare themselves for whatever lay in wait ahead. Lirra had experienced the last few moments before battle more times than she could remember. Some soldiers became nervous and had to work hard to calm themselves. Others drew on their nervous energy to get their minds and bodies ready to fight. Still others attempted to visualize what the intitial encounter with the enemy might be like and what moves and countermoves they would make. Some simply emptied their mind of all extraneous thought, trusted in their training to carry them through the battle to come, and concentrated on simply putting one foot in front of the other.

Lirra became aware of a light not far ahead of them. At first, Lirra thought it was the glow from an everbright lantern, but the color was all wrong. Instead of a yellowish hue, this light was a shifting combination of colors, something like a kaleidoscope. She feared that they were too late, and Elidyr had activated the Overmantle, but then she remembered that the device’s crystals had pulsed with blue-white energy. What they were seeing ahead of them looked very different.

Ranja’s voice whispered once more in Lirra’s ear.

“Want me to run ahead and take a look?”

Lirra was tempted. Intelligence-gathering was more often than not the key to victory. But she didn’t fully understand the scope of Elidyr’s new powers, and she didn’t want to risk the shifter being detected by him. What good was a secret weapon if it was no longer secret? Better that Ranja approach Elidyr with the rest of them. That way, even if her uncle did possess some means of sensing the invisible shifter, there’d be a chance he’d be too distracted by the appearance of Lirra and the others to notice her.

Lirra shook her head once to let the shifter know she should stay close, and they continued cautiously moving down the tunnel toward the shifting lights. The tingling and nausea increased to the point of pain, and the feeling that she had to go forward and see what lay ahead became so strong it took all of her will not to break ranks and dash down the tunnel. It helped that she knew it would only be a matter of moments before she finally saw whatever it was that both repelled and attracted her so.

They reached a bend in the tunnel, and when they turned, they saw that the tunnel opened upon a large cave, roughly dome-shaped, with long stalactites hanging from the ceiling that reminded Lirra too much of teeth. In the center of the cave stood Elidyr, Sinnoch, and Rhedyn, the Overmantle lying on the floor next to them, its glowing crystals filling the cave with shifting, multicolored light. Lirra knew that the Overmantle was the source of the dueling impulses she felt, and she sensed that something was different about the device now. Different, and very, very wrong.

“Welcome everyone!” Elidyr called out. “You got here just in time! Come in, come in! You don’t want to miss the show, do you? Not after you traveled all the way from Geirrid to get here.”

Lirra and Osten stepped into the cave, and the moment they crossed the threshold, Lirra felt better. The tingling at the base of her skull and the nausea were still there, but they’d lessened. Lirra assumed Ranja accompanied Osten and her into the cave, though since she couldn’t see the shifter, she didn’t know for certain. Vaddon and Ksana came next, followed by Longstrider and Shatterfist. Vaddon ordered the warforged to remain with him, and he commanded the rest of the Outguard soldiers to spread out around the cave and surround Elidyr and his companions, and they hastened to do so.

Elidyr watched with amusement as the soldiers took up their positions, but he made no move to interfere.

Vaddon stepped forward, sword in hand, but held down at his side.

“I’m going to give you one chance to surrender, Brother. Shut down the Overmantle and come with us-please.”

“Or what? You’ll kill me?” Elidyr reached up with his crawling gauntlet to scratch the head of the stormstalk draped around his shoulders. “It’s a little late for that, Vaddon.”

Lirra felt the presence of new aberrations approaching, but she couldn’t see any. There was something strange about the way the light given off by the Overmantle played upon the cave walls though. It made the stone seem hazy and indistinct, as if it were mist instead of solid rock, and she thought she could almost make out amorphous, shifting shapes within it. A strange mixture of scents filled the cave as well, the smells at once foul and sweet, stomach-turning and enticing.

“What’s the Overmantle doing, Uncle?” she asked.

“I’m so glad you asked,” Elidyr said, smiling. “It was too damaged for me to restore it to full functionality-not with the tools and equipment currently in my possession-so it’s unable to open a portal to Xoriat. However, I was able to make some alterations so that it can do the next best thing. Here, in this cave, our plane of existence and Xoriat’s intersect. A permanent crossing cannot take place, but within the confines of this cave denizens of both dimensions can coexist and interact, for as long as the Overmantle is active, that is. Not exactly what I’d hoped for, but then it should prove sufficient.”

“Sufficient for what?” Lirra asked.

Elidyr’s smile turned into a grin. “To see all of you dealt with. Then, with no one hounding me any longer, I’ll have the time I need to completely repair the Overmantle so that it can open a true portal to Xoriat.”

The sensation of approaching aberrations grew stronger, and Lirra looked about the cave, searching for any sign that something was coming. There could be other ways in and out the cave that were hidden from her eyes. With the strange visual effect caused by the Overmantle’s light, it was so difficult to tell … Then she noticed a pair of large round shadows on the walls on opposite sides of the cave. Shadows that were cast by nothing she could see … shadows that grew larger with every passing second.

Lirra shouted a warning but it was too late. A pair of large floating orbs emerged from the walls as they crossed over from Xoriat to this in-between place that Elidyr had created, stone walls parting for them as if they were nothing more than curtains of cloth easily brushed aside. The creatures were eight feet wide, with a single central eye and a large tooth-filled maw. Ten stalks emerged from the top of the orb in a hideous parody of hair, and atop each of the stalks was a smaller eye. Lirra recognized the monsters from Elidyr’s briefings in the early days of the symbiont project-beholders.

The creatures knocked down a handful of soldiers as they entered the cave, and they immediately spun around to begin attacking those members of the Outguard stationed around the cave’s walls. Rays of energy lanced forth from the beholders’ eyes, the beams striking a different soldier before they could mount a defense. Lirra remembered that each of a beholder’s eyestalks was capable of casting a separate spell. One soldier fell to the cave floor, asleep, while another collapsed, dead. One turned to stone, while another disintegrated, leaving no trace that he had ever existed. To her left, a few doubled over, bleeding from wounds that magically appeared on their bodies, while beyond him, a woman suddenly turned on her comrades, plunging her sword into her companions’ flesh before turning her blade against herself. Two were tossed high in the air by an unseen force to be impaled on the stalactites above, while others moved slowly, as if time had suddenly frozen to a near stop for them.

The beholders’ attack took only seconds, but in that time they managed to take out almost every soldier that ringed the cave walls.

“Shatterfist, Longstrider!” Lirra shouted, and the warforged needed no more encouragement than that. Each of the constructs selected a beholder and charged forward to meet it.

“Stay out of their main line of sight!” Lirra called out. She remembered that the gaze of a beholder could create an antimagic effect if trained upon an enemy, and while she had no idea whether that could affect warforged, she didn’t want to find out.

Shatterfist and Longstrider approached the aberrations from the side. The beholders began to swivel toward the attacking warforged, but they were too late. Longstrider leaped into the air and slammed a kick into the side of a beholder’s head, sending it spinning. A second leap, and Longstrider landed atop the beholder, his weight dragging it toward the ground. Once on the floor, Longstrider began kicking the creature to death with his spiked feet. Shatterfist reached up to grab his beholder by the jaw, then slammed the aberration face first against the cave floor. He then started using his hammer-hands to pummel the creature to a pulp. Within seconds it was over. The beholders were dead, and the two warforged were covered with gore.

Elidyr clapped. “Well done! Though quite frankly, given how ugly the damned things are, it’s not much of a loss.”

“Enough talk,” Vaddon growled. “Longstrider, Shatterfist, destroy the Overmantle!”

If Lirra understood what Elidyr had said, the Overmantle’s power made this cave an in-between place where two dimensions overlapped. If the Overmantle was destroyed, the two dimensions would become separate once more, and no further aberrations would be able to cross over from Xoriat to attack them.

The warforged didn’t hesitate. The two constructs turned toward Elidyr and charged. Elidyr watched them come, seemingly unconcerned. Lirra wondered if it was because her uncle was too mad to fear them, but an instant later she saw the true reason why he wasn’t afraid. Another figure stepped through the cave wall, this one roughly the size and shape of a human, though its rubbery greenish-mauve flesh glistened with slime. The creature’s head looked like a four-tentacled octopus that possessed a pair of bloated white eyes. It wore a black robe that was tattered in places, and it moved with sinuous, inhuman grace.

Fear gripped Lirra as she recognized this creature. It was an illithid, sometimes called a mind flayer. Its sobriquet was well-earned, for according to what Elidyr had told the members of the symbiont project, the creatures possessed highly developed psychic abilities and could shatter minds.

The illithid stretched out a four-clawed hand toward the warforged, and its eyes glowed bright as it unleashed its power at the charging constructs. Warforged might have been created magically, but they were still living beings with minds of their own-minds that were vulnerable to psychic attack. Realizing the illithid was a more immediate threat than Elidyr, Shatterfist and Longstrider turned toward the loathsome creature, but it was too late. The illithid’s mind blast struck them full on, and the two constructs stumbled and crashed to the cave floor, stunned. With a single move, two of the Outguard’s most powerful members had been neutralized.

Elidyr smiled and gestured toward the surviving members of the Outguard. “Feel free to attack whoever you like next.”

But before the illithid could select another target, crisscrossing trails of long wounds appeared on its chest, running from shoulder to waist. Black blood gushed from the injuries, and the illithid let out an ear-splitting eerie screech, its mouth tentacles writhing in agony. Its eyes glowed once more before the creature turned and fled toward the cave wall, back the way it had come, and it passed through the stone as if it wasn’t there, returning to Xoriat. An instant later, Ranja appeared on the floor, lying unconscious where she’d fallen after the illithid had managed to stun her.

Elidyr gazed upon the fallen shifter and shook his head in mock sympathy. “It must be so frustrating for you all, to come this far and to feel victory in your grasp, only to have it slip away in the end.”

“Don’t start celebrating your victory just yet, Uncle,” Lirra said. She, Vaddon, Ksana, and Osten-the last of the Outguard-closed ranks and stood with weapons ready. Vaddon spun his sword into attack position, Ksana gripped her halberd with both hands, Osten held the handle of his sword in a white-knuckled grip, and Lirra grasped her own sword tight in one hand while she used the other to lash her tentacle whip in the air.

“Yes, yes, you are all impressive warriors,” Elidyr said. “Especially you, my dear niece. But you don’t seriously think you have a chance of winning, do you? From the moment I activated the Overmantle, you were defeated. All we’ve been doing here these last few moments is putting on a show for the amusement of my master.”

At first Lirra didn’t understand what Elidyr was talking about, but then she recalled what he’d told them when they’d first entered the cave.

“The Overmantle has turned this cave into a place where our world and Xoriat overlap,” she said. “Here-and only here-creatures from both realms can meet. And that means the daelkyr lord you’re trying to release …”

“Is on his way,” Elidyr said, grinning.