Darkvision - Bruce R. Cordell [68]
Several natural passages meandered off the wide cavern, some lit, others dark.
"We think this was an old Imaskaran compound," said Sevaera, "hidden here for thousands of years."
Warian nodded, studying the cavern. He could see small outcrops of the very crystal from which his arm was fashioned, and from which all the plangents drew their greater-than-human abilities. The bits of raw crystal he could see from where he stood had to be worth a fortune.
"Seems kind of wasteful to let all this crystal lie about, unless…"
Sevaera nodded. "Yes, we've found a much purer, concentrated source. Shaddon says we no longer need to sift through the dirt and blast through rock-we have access to as much pure crystal as we'll ever need. This pure vein was what allowed the plangent project to move forward."
"Hmm."
Warian cocked his head sharply toward one of the darkened tunnels. Had that been a scream? His aunt hadn't reacted-but the porter also looked curiously at the dark tunnel entrance.
"Aunt, did you hear that?"
"Nothing for you to worry about-we're late, and Shaddon is waiting." So saying, the woman moved purposefully toward another tunnel. Warian shrugged and followed. The porter brought up the rear, still hauling the baggage.
They passed a few dozen side passages, heard a few more worrying noises, and once passed through a mass of air so putrid that Warian had to pull his shirt up across his nose and mouth to filter it. Eventually, they reached another chamber.
Unlike the previous excavation, this one was divided into two areas. One section had been extended by miners, or his grandfather's magic. The newly carved space was expansive and contained numerous wooden workbenches. About half the benches were neatly arrayed with tools of various types that resembled jeweler's and sculptor's adzes, hammers, and carving tools. The other benches contained the same, plus chunks of crystal mounted in vises, each partly carved to resemble some portion of human anatomy.
Warian saw a preponderance of hands, arms, and legs, but also strangely sinuous crystal sculptures. These seemed uncomfortably organic, like something one might confine inside a human body. Looking at them made him feel faintly sick, because he knew that they were probably meant to replace natural organs. It struck him as insanely dangerous now that he saw these raw, unfinished prostheses. A doorway stood open at the far end of the work area.
Warian turned to look at his aunt. How many of these internal implants did Sevaera carry? How much living tissue had she sacrificed to become a plangent? His aunt, watching him, misinterpreted his stare and said, "Soon you'll be updated, Warian, and become fully plangent, like me." Her smile was absolutely predatory.
He swung around and looked at the natural portion of the cavern. It was bare but for a ring of ancient standing stones. Each menhir rose between ten and fifteen feet in height. A gap of perhaps five to ten feet between stones allowed access to the interior, which was empty. But…
Dimness inhabited the ring's center, despite several brightly burning torches mounted just beyond its periphery. It was as if the light were having trouble reaching past the stones to illuminate the center.
"Is that some sort of ongoing spell?" Warian asked.
Several steel carts with wide metal wheels stood lined up along one wall. Ruts in the floor revealed that the carts had entered and exited the ring many times. But there was just enough room for one cart inside the ring. Most of the carts were coated with crystalline