Darkvision - Bruce R. Cordell [108]
Needing no further encouragement, Zel yelled at the top of his lungs, "Hey! We're in here! Help!"
With one final boom, the whine failed completely. The cracks in the protective marble dome ceased multiplying. The deep-pitched noises sounded again, and comprehension dawned on Warian. He heard,"… ruined the crushing plates. Something is caught inside."
Another voice, this one much harder to hear through the stone, yelled, "Blast, blood, and rot! What do you care? It's probably another crystal puppet."
The first voice said, "I can travel as easily through the stone of the structure as through the passageways in between. If you feel that my choices are not perfect, perhaps you should consider…"
Ususi pointed to the dome, and with a flash and a pop, it disappeared.
Standing over them, amidst the rubble of shattered walls, was a massive animate sculpture. The creature was like a man made of fused boulders. It wore, or more accurately, sprouted from its head, a crown of uncut rubies and diamonds. It stood nearly three times Zell's height, the tallest of the group.
The silhouette of a mail-clad elf looked down at them from the lip of the pit. This one said, "Now, look! I told you to ignore it, but you had to mess with it. Just like before!"
A tiny creature flew down into the pit to alight on the shoulder of the great earthen being. Warian realized it was another animate sculpture, this one like a tiny dragon carved of reddish glass. It opened its mouth and pealed a series of tiny, bell-like chirps. The sound was reminiscent of laughter.
Ususi stepped toward the great earthen entity and said in Common, "Greetings. I am Ususi Manaallin. Thank you for disrupting these encroaching walls. We would have been crushed. We are in your debt. But who are you? You don't seem to be in thrall to Pandorym…"
Warian tensed.
"I am Prince Monolith. I am in no one's thrall. The question is, what are you doing in this ancient tower of malignancy?" Iahn moved as quickly as a snake to stand protectively next to Ususi, one hand on his dragonfly blade, still sheathed.
Ususi replied, "That was my question for you. We are here because this structure was built by my ancestors."
The figure from above yelled, "So this is all your fault!" Warian now recognized the one above to be a woman, though he'd never seen an elf, male or female, quite so broad of forearm and rough of voice and manner.
"What blame do you place on us?" inquired Iahn, his voice ice. Warian judged the vengeance taker was only a jibe or two away from launching a physical attack against the newcomers.
The elf pointed at Ususi. "She just said your ancestors built this place. You must be Imaskari, hiding all these centuries when everyone thought you were dead. I've spent the better part of two months tracking down this tower because of the fell influence it released into the earth! Did you release it? My friend Thormud lies sorely wounded, or dead, because if it!"
Iahn bristled, but Ususi said, "Pandorym is what we call the evil you speak of. It is even now using the greater part of its strength to destroy my homeland, and may have already done so. We have not released it. We are here to destroy it."
His face suddenly hot, Warian interjected, "My sister died to bring these opponents of Pandorym here! Don't suggest they're in league with the master of this tower, or you dishonor Eined's name!"
The elemental called Monolith raised both of its giant hands, palms outward, and said, "You are not of this tower, I sense, but are newly come to it, like us. I have saved your lives, I think, from these crushing walls. That should prove our good intentions. For now, my friend and I will have to trust yours. Perhaps we should join our strength to overcome this Pandorym?"
"You believe them?" snorted the elf woman. "I want to know who released Pandorym if these relics of the empire didn't do it." She glared at Ususi.
"It was my grandfather," said Warian. "Shaddon Datharathi. He found his way into a forbidden plane where this tower, until recently, slept through the centuries. Greed drove