Depths of Madness - Erik Scott De Bie [91]
Past the cathedral, she saw a curious building shaped like a sun, which seemed to be turning, so slowly she almost did not realize it. It radiated some sort of golden light through cracks in the stone, as though it were the sun itself. Then the disk whipped them away, circling the city faster and faster, higher and higher.
"Wonderful!" Slip cried.
"Yes," Twilight agreed. She pulled the halfling closer, away from the edge. "Wonderful until you fall."
Looking upon that city of wonder, Twilight could not help a spot of pity. Surely this view would have been stunning centuries ago, when all the people within had lived, cried and laughed, hated and loved…
"Look!" Slip shouted, and Twilight did.
The disk circled about the buildings, making its way back to the leaning central tower-the High Tower. Twilight couldn't suppress a twinge of uncertainty-after all, the mythallar could fail at any moment and send them plunging down.
"Are you controlling this?" she asked Liet.
"I don't-" Liet's brow furrowed. "Maybe. I did think about the tower."
"Well, by all means, carry on. Thinking never hurts." The faster the better.
Whether or not the youth controlled the disk, they did indeed float to the tower. Approaching from a new angle, Twilight saw more accurately its fate. It bent against and away from the ceiling of the cavern like a tree growing under a rock, and about thirty hands-about twice Twilight's height-from where it met was a flat space. The disk hovered near and did not move.
Relieved, Twilight took a step onto the curled tower, observed that it was stable, and motioned for the others to join her. Whatever enchantments held up the strange structure must have still operated, for though the tower was bent and curled, it held firm.
Better, they were well within reach of the cavern ceiling.
"Davoren, Gargan," Twilight said. "Find us a way out."
The goliath drew out a great maul he had found in the Netherese smithy. For once, the warlock did not argue. He simply raised his hands and sent burning blast after burning blast into the stone, cracking and chipping the hard earth for Gargan to knock free with the hammer. He looked just as tired of this place as any of the others. Twilight did not like the way he fingered that blasting scepter at his belt, though. What was he planning?
Though the work must have taken nearly a bell's length to accomplish, it felt like a moment, so anxious were they. Davoten's blasts heated the rock, and Gargan hammered the stone again and again. Slowly, bit by bit, they burrowed up, and up, and…
There came a great crack, like the splitting of a thousand crossbeams of great wood, and the stone split apart. Twilight looked up.
Then she dived to avoid the blinding avalanche that showered down. It struck her back, burying her as it poured, and poured, and poured. All went dark, and she was buried alive.
Erevan! she shouted in her mind-by reflex, unintentionally. She supposed she should be thankful she hadn't done it aloud, for her mouth would have filled with sand.
There was, of course, no response.
Blast you, wretch, Twilight thought. You're going to pass up the moment the impossible happens-when I call upon you for aid?
But there came nothing, not even what she expected: the tiny laughter of a wild elf who found himself entirely too amusing. She really was alone.
Typical, Twilight mused. She knew she was about to die, but that was all she thought. Typical,
Then it set in-blindness. She saw neither light nor dark, just white.
She was lost. Alone.
Then Twilight did scream-and choked. She thrashed, swimming in sand, dying, abandoned. Out of control-out of her mind. Lost.
A breath later, a hand grasped Twilight's wrist. Liet, she thought.
She latched onto it like a line tossed over