Amber and Ashes - Margaret Weis [117]
The earth trembled at our wrath. Quakes leveled the city and split the Tower of High Sorcery of Istar in half. Fire gutted it, destroying the Hall of Sacrilege. The Tower fell into ruins which were carried down to the bottom of the Blood Sea along with the rest of that doomed city.
“There lies the Tower to this day,” Chemosh concluded, “and inside those ruins lie many of the world’s most powerful holy relics and artifacts.”
“Wishful thinking, I am afraid, my lord,” said Mina. “They could not have survived such terrible destruction.”
“I don’t know about the other gods”—Chemosh smiled cunningly—“but I made sure that my own artifacts were safe. And I have no doubt that the others did the same.”
“You sound very certain, my lord.”
“I am certain. I have proof. Soon after Istar’s destruction, I went searching for the Tower, only to find that the Gods of Magic had hidden it from sight. Zeboim is Nuitari’s twin sister and cousin to the other gods of Magic. They went to her and convinced her to use the powerful turbulence of the maelstrom to bury the Tower far beneath the ocean floor, so that no eyes—mortal or immortal—should ever discover it.
“ ‘Now,’ I asked myself, ‘why should the gods of Magic go to all this trouble to hide a ton of charred and blasted rubble? Unless there is something inside the rubble that they do not want any of us to find …’ ”
“Your holy artifacts,” said Mina.
“Precisely.”
“And now that the Maelstrom has subsided, you can go in search of them.”
“Not only can I go in search of them, I can search without fear of interruption. If I had so much as dipped a toe into the surf, Zeboim would have known it. She would have raced from the far corners of the heavens to stop me. As it is, she is nowhere to be found this fine day. I may do what I like in her ocean—piss in it, if I want—and she does not dare protest.”
Chemosh clasped Mina’s hand, entwined her fingers with his. “Together, Mina, you and I will seek out the fabled and long-lost ruins of the Hall of Sacrilege. Think of it, my love! Hundreds of holy artifacts down there, some dating back to the Age of Dreams, imbued with godly power that is unimagined in this ‘Age of Mortals.’ And unattainable. There are artifacts belonging to Takhisis down there. Though she is gone, her power lives within them still.
“Artifacts of Morgion, Hiddukel, Sargonnas. Artifacts belonging to Paladine and Mishakal. I plan to distribute these powerful relics among the Beloved, who are traveling across Ansalon, on their way here to receive them. When that is accomplished, my followers will be the most formidable and powerful in all the world. I will then be in a position to challenge the other gods for rulership of the heavens and the world.”
“I would go with you to ends of that world, my lord, and I would gladly see the wonders that live in the ocean depths, but as I forget you are a god, you forget that I am not,” Mina said, smiling. “I can swim, but not very well. As for holding my breath—”
Chemosh laughed. “You do not need to swim, Mina. Or hold your breath. You will walk with me upon the ocean floor as you walk upon the floor of our bedchamber. You will breathe the water as you breathe the air. The weight of the water will sit as lightly on your shoulders as a fur mantle.”
“Then you will transform me into a god, my lord,” said Mina, teasing.
Chemosh’s laughter ceased. The expression in his eyes was deep and fathomless, darker than the sea-depths.
“I cannot do that, Mina,” he said. “At least, not yet.”
Mina felt a sudden jolt of fear, a bone-jellying terror such as she had experienced standing on the treacherous broken stairs of Storm’s Keep, staring down far below at the jagged, razor-edged rocks and the foaming, hungry water. Her throat closed; her heart shivered. She wanted, suddenly, to turn and flee, to run away. She had never felt terror like this, not when the fierce dragon Malys was diving down on