Extinction - Lisa Smedman [56]
Where is the door? asked Sluuguth.
Gromph indicated a patch of darkness that seemed more solid than the rest and sent, Dispel its magic, then push.
Sluuguth did as instructed. Previously invisible runes sparkled as light burst inside the diamond dust that had been used to inscribe them. When the light vanished, Sluuguth pushed open the door, revealing Gromph's office.
The chamber was a mess-the aftermath of Gromph's battle with the lichdrow Dyrr. The enormous desk at the center of the room was gouged in several places by the whirling blades the lichdrow had conjured, and the marble flagstone floor was cracked where Dyrr's staff had struck it. One of the bookshelves was a smashed ruin, and the scrolls that had tumbled from it had been trampled. As a sign of his disdain for the archmage's wizardry, the lichdrow had left them where they were after trapping Gromph in the sphere.
The perpetually burning red candles, set into wall sconces made from skeletal fists, still provided illumination, and a plushly upholstered chair behind the desk had survived relatively unscathed. A harder wooden chair on the other side, where a visitor would sit, lay on one side, its legs splintered. Beyond it was a door of black marble, incised with glowing silver runes.
As for the spiderstone golem that had fought in an effort to defend Gromph, the only thing left of it was a severed stone arm, lying forlornly in a corner.
Still hovering in the shaft, Sluuguth pointed and thrust the tip of one finger into the room. Immediately, one of the office walls erupted in a triangle of flame as an invisible sigil released a fire elemental. Sluuguth's magic, however, was swifter. A bolt of energy leaped from his fingertip and struck the elemental, freezing it. The fire elemental hung, trapped from the waist down in the wall, its arms extended over its head. Only its eyes moved. White-hot flames blazed at Sluuguth as the illithid at last stepped into the room.
You didn't warn me about that, the illithid said, tentacles waving as it nodded at the frozen elemental.
No need, obviously, Gromph answered. Now let's get down to business. Free me. Place the sphere on the chair behind the desk.
Tentacles twitching as its face grimaced into what might have been a smile, Sluuguth laid the sphere on the chair cushion. Then, without further ado, it began to cast a spell. Its three-fingered hands began a series of gestures-Gromph thought he recognized a portion of the imprisonment-negating spell, but the somatic component seemed more complicated than it need have been-and sound crashed in on Gromph from all sides as the sphere broke apart.
For an instant he was twisting between dimensions, his body bursting free of the magic that had confined it, his ears ringing as if he were a clapper inside a bell and he was sitting in his chair. Eyes gleaming in triumph, he started to lift a finger in the minute gesture required to activate a second invisible sigil on the wall. Interlocked ellipses would suck Sluuguth into a two-dimensional prison.
Stop.
Gromph's finger wouldn't move. Nor could he even imagine moving it any longer. Something had a vicelike grip on his mind and was crushing his will. Gromph could sense Sluuguth's foul-feeling, tentacled presence.
Heart suddenly beating faster, the archmage realized what must have happened. In casting the spell that gave Gromph his freedom, the illithid had woven in a second spell, one that had slowed Gromph's body. It had given Sluuguth just enough time to cast the mind-dominating spell that held Gromph in thrall.
Gromph sat motionless in his chair, awaiting the illithid's next command. Had he been able to, he would have groaned in frustration. He had been careful not to think about the sigils on the walls. The first one was meant to give Sluuguth a false sense of security after the illithid so summarily defeated the fire elemental-as Gromph knew