Darkvision - Bruce R. Cordell [120]
The prince put one great hand on the edge of the raised canister and clutched the lip of the silo with the other.
The wide canister, partially unjacketed, with its mechanical locks only half engaged, resisted the earth lord's attempt to close it. The inlaid Nadir crystal lines across the top of the canister lit up, but the radiance wasn't purple-it was yellow. The entangling magic wasn't dead-it sought to reengage.
The citrine radiance penetrated the cloud of blackness. Pandorym's nimbus roiled and boiled, and tendrils of night snaked out to point threateningly at Prince Monolith. But without its servitors to do its bidding, Pandorym's aura was toothless. It would remain so if Ususi could continue to hold the portal.
"Try again!" the wizard commanded.
"Help me!" yelled Prince Monolith.
Iahn and the elf took up positions along the edges of Pandorym's prison vessel.
The elemental's mineral thews contracted with a sound like a rock fall in a ravine. Kiril and the vengeance taker cursed and grunted with effort.
With a lurch and click, the canister popped back into place, sealed.
The portal into Deep Imaskar slammed shut. Ususi staggered as her spell collapsed. The lines of yellow Nadir crystal that inlaid the surface of the canister surged as if living things, knitting and extending themselves in racing lines of arcane fire until they completely covered the silo, their severed ends rejoining to form a perfect circle of warding.
The spiral of void and destruction came untethered. It whirled faster and faster, wild streams of violet midnight, a vortex of dust and dark, draining away into the ultimate spaces beyond the worlds. With a last furious scream, Pandorym's shadow faded into history's depths.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Clouds gathered, white on ivory, on the horizon. The day's last blinding rays infused the storm with ominous highlights.
Ususi looked across the trackless Raurin Desert from a balcony high on the Palace of the Purple Emperor.
"Iahn is late," Zel fretted.
Ususi turned to regard Zeltaebar Datharathi.
"Vengeance takers follow their own schedules. They are not so much late as… deliberate," Ususi responded.
"He said he'd return today. Here comes day's end. I don't see how we can get a trade covenant brokered between Deep Imaskar and Vaelan if timetables can't be-"
"Uncle!" broke in Warian. The young man with the crystal arm was seated on a comfortable bench on the balcony. The bench, one of several, and other items of comfort, had been delivered several days ago by Datharathi skyship. They represented sample merchandise that Deep Imaskar might wish to trade for, according to Zel. On a small table next to Warian, playing cards were arranged in several small stacks. Brightly painted dragons of various hues were visible on each card.
The Datharathis-those few who survived destruction by Pandorym-had been quick to see an untapped trade opportunity in Deep Imaskar. Even Warian seemed interested in his family business, now that it tottered close to dissolution. Of all the senior family members, only he and Zel survived-he because his prosthesis predated Pandorym's release, and Zel because the man had been too paranoid to accept the implants.
Seated next to Warian was the elf, Kiril Duskmourn. Ususi watched her curiously. She was surprised that the swordswoman lingered in the palace, especially with the duty she proclaimed, on a daily basis, she had to fulfill. Prince Monolith had departed soon after their victory, taking with him a sorely wounded dwarf geomancer named Thormud Horn. The dwarf's peculiar dragonet familiar, Xet, remained with Kiril, much to the elf's apparent displeasure. Ususi had exchanged only a few words with the geomancer before he left, but she'd thanked him for bringing such potent allies as Monolith and Kiril to their aid. The dwarf had been gracious but sickly. The earth lord