Crypt of the shadowking - Mark Anthony [118]
Caledan almost faltered as he played the fourth note, but he clenched his fingers tightly about the pipes and forced himself to breathe. The music continued. The entire chamber was beginning to resonate with it. Each of the notes echoed off the dark stone, interweaving with the others. He played the fifth note, then the sixth. He was trembling now. The sound of the echoing song was growing deeper, more complex.
The Shadowking took a step forward. Its cloven hoof cracked the stone of the dais. It took another step, and more stone crumbled beneath its ponderous stride. It reached out a claw, straight toward Caledan. The last outlines of its twisted face coalesced. It opened its maw to let out a roar of triumph, and a crimson flame burst to life in its eyes. After a thousand years of entombment, the Shadow-king lived again.
Bow to me! a vast and ancient voice thundered within Caledan's mind. Terror clawed brutally at his heart. Bow to me, I am Darkness!
Caledan shook his head against the crushing power of the voice, struggling to stay upright. Summoning his last few shreds of will, he played the final note of the shadow song.
The vast harmony that echoed about the crypt was suddenly complete, becoming a single chord of deep and ancient power. The music soared to a deafening volume. Caledan fell to his knees, dropping the pipes and covering his ears. The others did the same.
The Shadowking shrieked with a fury so monstrous and incomprehensible Caledan thought the sound of it would drive him mad. Then, with a clap of thunder, the Nightstone that beat in the Shadowking's chest burst asunder in a spray of dark, crystalline shards. The Shadowking began to waver and grow indistinct. Its darkness faded into a hazy translucence.
Finally, with a last shuddering sigh, the Shadowking flickered and was gone, like a shadow on the wall banished by the light of a single candle.
Caledan looked up to see Kellen. The boy's face was expressionless. Caledan gripped his hand, then Kellen flung himself into Caledan's arms, sobbing. Caledan held him tightly. "It's all right, Kellen," he said softly. "I'm here now. It's all right."
"Caledan, I think you'd better come here."
It was Estah. Her voice sounded tight. Gently, Caledan pushed Kellen away and rose.
The healer knelt at Mari's side. The Harper lay unmoving, her fiery hair spread out beneath her on the dark stone, her face deathly pale.
"Is she…?" Caledan managed to ask, choking on the words.
"She is not dead," Estah said.
"Then you can use your medallion," Caledan said urgently, kneeling beside the halfling. "Use it, Estah. Please. Heal her for me. For all of us."
Estah shook her head sorrowfully. "I don't know if my magic can help her, Caledan. She is not dead, nor is she alive. It's almost as if her spirit is somehow caught in the gateway between this world and the next."
"It is the enchantment of the tomb," Morhion said. He ran his fingers across the stone of one of the basalt columns. "I can feel it lingering in this place."
"Then let's get her out of here," Caledan said. He lifted Mari's limp form in his arms, taking a few steps forward. Suddenly the floor lurched beneath him. Only Ferret's hand kept him from falling. There was a cracking sound, followed by the tumult of falling stone.
Caledan gasped. The crack in the dome of the ceiling gaped wide and jagged now, and other cracks spread outward from it. Suddenly one of the buttresses lining the perimeter of the tomb slumped, sending massive blocks of basalt crashing to the floor. The onyx shattered like glass beneath the force of the boulders.
"The crypt is collapsing!" Caledan shouted above the roar of the cave-in.
"The vibrations of the song must have weakened the dome," Morhion cried.
The floor lurched again. With a sound like lightning a crack opened in the center of the tomb. The companions scrambled away from the edge of the widening chasm. They watched as the massive