Darkvision - Bruce R. Cordell [112]
"Two timelines? But we exist together-you are my sister!"
"I am your twin to a greater degree than you have ever imagined. I am an alternate you."
"This is a dream! Or you are crazy. Or I am. Has darkness driven me insane with fear? How can you be an alternate version of me, yet have grown up with me in Deep Imaskar?"
Qari cocked her head and said, "How could I not? But moments are precious right now. We've come to that crossroads-you must accept my gift. You must accept my percipience. With it, no darkness will ever blind you again."
"But you need it…"
"Everyone in Deep Imaskar will be dead soon, and me with them, if you do not press forward now. If I give up my vision through the darkness, I may perish, true. But listen. Everything-hopes, worries, fears-all these pale in the face of death. Only that which is important remains."
Qari released Ususi's hands and held hers up before Ususi's face. She put her palms over the wizard's eyes and said, "See, as I have seen."
At long last, Ususi saw again the high, hard celestial lights that haunted her days and nights since she nearly perished on the ship. Beneath their elysian clarity, Ususi's perception would never again be impeded.
* * * * *
Immersed in nothingness, Iahn's consciousness slowly leached away. He had no limbs to flail, no voice to protest, and no magic to dispense. He was an insect in pitch, and soon he'd be extinguished.
A touch jolted the vengeance taker. The single sensation was sufficient for him to find a focus. The sensation grew more pronounced. Something touched his open eyes. He blinked, or he thought he did. Yes… he was on his feet, moving in a daze over some hard surface, but he couldn't see what.
Despite his stubborn nature, he allowed himself to be guided forward, into a sudden, blinding light.
Before him, in a broad hallway lit with Kiril's blazing sword, stood the swordswoman, the elemental with a tiny dragonet perched on one shoulder, and Warian and his uncle. Ususi pushed him forward.
Of the darkness, he saw no sign.
Ahead, a bronze-colored iris stood partially dialed open, and additional light streamed through the crack.
He turned to look at Ususi and blinked. Her eyes were like twin stars, blue-white and twinkling as if at some great distance.
Warian said, "Thank you for saving us from that… that awful blot." The young man's voice was strained and his features pale, as were Zel's, and probably the vengeance taker's as well.
The wizard responded as if to some different statement. "My uskura is lost."
"You pushed us clear of the darkness," Warian insisted, waving behind him. No evidence of the veil of life-sucking night remained, except in memory.
"I didn't push us clear. I saw through the darkness and helped you all do the same. But at what cost, I wonder? My sister may have given up her special sight…" Ususi's eyes, glittering cold and hard, drifted out of focus.
"Your sister?" asked Iahn. "You have news of Deep Imaskar?"
"Slaughter walks the streets, she said…"
The bronze iris at the end of the hallway spun open. Beyond was a spacious, moon-bright hall, but a human figure just inside the opening partially blocked the view.
An icy breeze flowed from the figure, and a black vapor streamed away from its body, tinged with violet light. Iahn recognized the aura of a Pandorym agent.
The figure spoke in the vengeance taker's native tongue. "Imaskari scions, if the dark won't have you, I shall."
It was Shaddon. Before the figure could unleash its lashing ribbons of murderous darkness, the earth lord's long arm delivered a terrific punch, smashing Shaddon back into the glaring white chamber beyond.
Iahn rushed in.
Monolith's blow was mighty, and Shaddon's form smashed against the far side of a great chamber. Many creatures moved about the edges of the room.
He understood then why the chamber was called the weapons cache. The vengeance taker's eyes widened. He ran, aiming neither for Shaddon nor the clot of creatures milling through the chamber. He saw something