Pool of Radiance_ Ruins of Myth Drannor - Carrie Bebris [106]
She read faster, her tongue tripping over the unfamiliar syllables. Suddenly, a ball of light burst into being and grew steadily to the size of a door. She’d done it! She’d opened the gate.
“Corran! Athan! Now!”
The warriors heard her cry and retreated toward her. As the cultist unleashed his spell, the three of them dove into the portal.
The gate collapsed.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
She couldn’t breathe.
“Kestrel? Is that you?” Corran rose, lifting his heavy bulk from where he’d landed on top of her. She struggled to inhale some air. His weight had knocked the wind right out of her lungs.
“Y… es.”
Though she could barely gasp out the word, she would not have spoken louder if she could. They’d spilled out of the gate just as it imploded and wound up sprawled in the corner of a dank, earthen room. No cultists occupied this small antechamber, but she could hear hundreds of voices chanting nearby.
“Thank the gods you all made it here,” said another familiar voice. Ghleanna picked up Corran’s shield and handed it to the paladin. “We had begun to fear we’d have to take on the archmage alone.”
“We?” Athan asked. “Faeril and Durwyn are here as well, then?”
“Right here,” responded Faeril’s disembodied voice. Durwyn also spoke up, though both invisible speakers used muted tones.
Kestrel passed her hand in front of her eyes to test the sorceress’s spell. Fortunately, she too remained invisible. With a deep breath, she rolled off her stomach, sat up, and assessed their surroundings. The rough-hewn room appeared to have once served as the entryway to a vast chamber beyond. The pile of rock and rubble on one end suggested that they’d arrived on the other side of the cave-in Pelendralaar had caused earlier. Through the sole doorway drifted a monotone mantra droned by countless voices.
Above it, in macabre counterpoint, rose an all-too-familiar babble of lapping water. The Pool of Radiance.
Kestrel’s collarbone vibrated in time with the sinister chant as she crept to the doorway. Corran approached even more cautiously, taking care to stay as hidden as possible. The sight that greeted them stole her breath once more.
The antechamber opened into a vast cavern. The floor of the cavern was well below the antechamber, joined together by a long slope. At the cavern’s center lay the Pool of Radiance. Amber light infused its water, which gently lapped its banks in a peaceful motion that belied its lethal nature. Hundreds of cult sorcerers and fighters lined the pool’s perimeter, their squads assembled with military precision.
At the far end of the cavern, on a recessed ledge overlooking the pool, stood Kya Mordrayn. The Gauntlets of Moander hung from a belt at her hips. Beside her, a stone pillar rose out of the ledge to about waist level. The Sapphire of the Weave rested atop it, pulsing with brilliant blue light. The illumination dappled the cavern walls and bathed the archmage’s face, lending it a deathly paleness that contrasted sharply with the expression of intense concentration she wore. Her eyes stared unblinking at the gem as she cupped it with her dragonlike claw.
Mordrayn was locked in communion with the Mythal. Tiny blue-white flames danced around the edges of the Sapphire, bathing the gem in supernatural fire. The flames also licked Mordrayn’s claw, but the archmage either did not feel their heat or could not respond. She stood entranced by the sapphire’s aura, her mind one with the Weave.
There was no sign of the dracolich Pelendralaar. Yet.
Kestrel listened closely to the sounds emanating from the cavern. The sapphire-at least she thought it was the gem from this distance-emitted a low hum. The cultists droned in time with the stone’s pulsations. Though Kestrel couldn’t distinguish the arcane words, they resonated with blasphemy.
She backed away from the opening, her heart racing. This was it-their only opportunity to destroy the Pool of Radiance. There would be no second chances.
“We are so outnumbered I don’t even want to think about it,” she said as she and Corran returned to the others. “The