Ascendancy of the Last - Lisa Smedman [130]
Leliana fainted.
* * * * *
Laeral blasted apart the final golem with her wand and shouted to those priestesses and Nightshadows who still remained on their feet. "Hurry! Leliana needs our help!"
She spun to enter the mound-finally, the way was clear-but halted as she heard several of Eilistraee's faithful cry out at once. They stood, staring up at the sky, stricken expressions on their faces. One of them pointed with a shaking hand. "The moon!"
Laeral glanced up. The moon was gone. How? She shuddered, then pulled herself together. Qiluй needed her. Too many precious moments had already been consumed by the battle with the golems.
She leaped over the fallen golem, into the mound. She spoke Qiluй's truename under her breath. Perhaps, even in stasis, Qiluй might hear it. "Ilindyl! I'm coming, sister!"
Too dark; she couldn't see. With a thought, she bathed her body in a sheen of silver light. As she passed through the second chamber, a demonic voice roared in triumph, up ahead. "I'm your Lady Penitent no more!"
Laeral plunged into the tunnel leading to the third corridor. Just ahead, she saw Leliana, crumpled on the floor. The priestess's magical sword lay on the ground beside her body. From the chamber beyond came the sharp clank of metal on stone: another blade, being dropped to the floor?
Laeral readied the components of a spell as she ran. "Stay strong, sister. I'm nearly there!"
A demonic figure leaped to its feet as Laeral burst into the room: Halisstra. Snarling, squinting against the glare of Laeral's silver fire, Halisstra hurled a broken sword hilt at Laeral, then leaped at her and spat out a deadly word. One clawed hand raked Laeral's hip, tearing it open. Laeral felt the power of the magic word bore through her. A less powerful wizard would have instantly withered and died, but she was sustained by Mystra's magic. The wound in her hip instantly healed. She slapped Halisstra with a hand, and shouted a transmutation. Halisstra ceased moving, her face frozen in an anguished snarl.
Laeral hurried past her. She fell to her knees beside two corpses, each missing its head. One was Cavatina, the other, Qiluй, her body no longer demonic. The amulet Laeral had given Qiluй lay in a puddle of blood, next to her head. Laeral touched her fallen sister's corpse. Already, the body was growing cool. "Oh, sister," she mourned. "What have I done?"
From behind her came a groan, and the scrape of metal on stone. Laeral whirled-but it was only Leliana, picking up her sword and staggering to her feet. The priestess walked with uncertain steps into the chamber. She shied around the time-frozen Halisstra, but never once looked in her direction. Her eyes, wide and horror-filled, were locked on Qiluй's headless corpse.
"Eilistraee!" she keened.
"Pray for her," Laeral urged. "Bring her back."
"I can't!"
Anger made Laeral's silver fire flare brighter. "Pull yourself together, priestess, and pray!"
Leliana fumbled with the holy symbol hanging around her neck. She wrenched its chain over her head, and hurled the miniature sword down at Laeral's feet. "I can't!" she screamed.
The holy symbol was deeply tarnished, black and brittle looking. And Leliana herself had changed. Her skin was brown; her hair, black.
Laeral realized the priestess was crying. From the distance-somewhere outside the mound-she heard the sobs and wails of the other faithful.
Laeral rose. "One of the others will have a holy symbol. You can-"
"Don't you understand?" Leliana shouted. "Eilistraee's gone! She was inside Qiluй when she was killed with the Crescent Blade. I saw Eilistraee die!"
A shiver of horror coursed through Laeral. She understood-suddenly, and with frightening clarity-the omen she'd witnessed outside. A missing moon, a vanished goddess. That was terrible enough. But there was something that stuck even closer