Darkvision - Bruce R. Cordell [92]
Had Warian been standing, he probably would have fallen from the path. As it was, his heart jolted and doubled its rate.
Zel landed on the path, yelling, and scrabbled along the stone as if he couldn't figure out which direction was down. Just like Warian had fumbled and groped before he got his bearings.
"Hey! Uncle, calm down!" He suppressed a chuckle and grabbed for one of Zel's hands. "If you keep this up, you'll knock us both off. Stop it!"
"Warian!" Zel ceased his mad antics, blinked, then grabbed his nephew by the shoulders. "By the four dooms, I'm glad to see you!"
"What happened? I had your arm. Why didn't we appear in this crazy place at the same time?
"Don't know. You were pulling me along against the… the… Sevaera's whirlwind. Then you disappeared as you passed into the ring. I almost got sucked back into Sevaera's damned maw. But after you disappeared, she let up. I followed you."
Warian nodded. "Sorry I left you behind. I've never been through one of these before. I don't really understand it. Speaking of which, I don't see a way to go back through from this side."
"Who'd want to? She's waiting back there. Hey," Zel looked closely at Warian. "How're you? You look beat."
Warian was bone tired, true. But not as exhausted as he'd feared after using his arm. Figuring out how to ration the prosthesis's energy had saved his life, he was sure. "I've been worse."
Assisting each other, they both stood.
"Why did she stop after I went through the ring?" wondered Warian.
"She, or whatever was in her, doesn't care one whit about me. You seem to be the prize, Nephew."
Warian rubbed his forehead. "My arm. It's immune to the control that Shaddon has over everyone else with Datharathi prosthetics."
"Shaddon, and that thing that had Sevaera."
Warian nodded.
"Another thing I don't understand," said Zel, "is this place. Isn't this where the controlling entity comes from? We might have gone from the cauldron straight into the fire, but it really doesn't seem too bad here. Yet…"
Zel's eyes widened as he took the time to gaze around the emptiness that stretched without limit in every direction.
The air was sharp and cold, like the air just before dawn, but not damp. A faint odor tickled Warian's nose, like the smell after a thunderstorm. But mixed in was the smell of something rotten, closer. Something had died near them, and recently.
Warian pointed out floating motes of earth and stone as they drifted all around. Most contained disintegrating constructions.
"Amazing! Isn't this amazing? I've never seen anything like this. It's incredible!" Zel forgot about their predicament as the floating ruinscapes captured his imagination.
"See that one?" Zel pointed. A perfect cube, each face a mirror, tumbled through the darkness, tracking a path from nowhere to oblivion. "I wonder what's inside? Treasure of some sort, eh?" Zel chuckled.
"Now that's an odd one." Warian's uncle jabbed his finger into the void. Distant lights reflected on the shimmering, fluctuating surface of a misplaced lake. Lapping, splashing waves on the surface were faintly audible as the globule sailed high overhead and away again.
"Zel-"
"Better not mess with that one!" crowed Zel, his finger finding yet another object. A slab of transparent glass about twenty paces long and half as wide tumbled below them. As it spun, Warian caught a sudden whiff of carrion, different from the rotten odor he'd smelled earlier. Caught in the slab's center, like a fly in amber, was a monstrous humanoid creature apparently formed of moist earth. Its legs were short and thick, and its arms tapered to bony claws. Teeth, rotting scraps of cloth, and bone shards protruded here and there from the muddy flesh. A dirt-encrusted skull provided the creature with a leering grin. The slab whirled away into the dark.
Warian grabbed his uncle's shoulder to get his attention. "We should get out of here before Sevaera, or whatever's riding her, decides to come