Sentinelspire - Mark Sehestedt [54]
She walked to the nearest wall and pointed where the wall met the ceiling and the floor. Horizontal slots were cut in the stone. Very narrow-even a mouse would have trouble squeezing through. Lewan could not guess their purpose.
"I hadn't noticed them," said Lewan. "I woke only moments before Ulaan came with my clothes."
"Ah," said Talieth, and her smile turned mischievous. "And she does command one's attention, does she not?"
Lewan blushed. "I dressed myself after she left the room. She returned long enough to offer food. When she left, I dozed some before the earthquake woke me. I went out to the balcony. I… I never spent time examining the room."
"And a young man of the wild such as yourself is surely unused to such splendor. True?"
Her words might have seemed condescending-especially from a lady of her bearing-but Lewan heard no such thing in her tone.
He shrugged. "I'm sure I would have noticed them eventually. What are they?"
"Another of the fortress's wonders-if perhaps one of its more indulgent," said Talieth. "In high summer, the Wastes are damnably hot, even here on the mountain. But these slots are openings for a series of tubes that wind throughout the fortress. Far beneath us, they connect to a portal, a doorway to a world of endless cold, where the winds could flay the flesh from your bones. This air is channeled throughout the fortress in high summer, so that even on the hottest day, our rooms are pleasantly cool. And there are more wonders. You've lived through the winters here, yes? On the coldest days, your breath turns to snow. Not here. Other portals connect to a world of fire, so we never lack for heat. The Dome of Fire near the southern wall has many of these channels, and we can funnel fire into wondrous shapes through crystal as old as the Imaskari."
Lewan took it all in. Much of it seemed too strange to believe, but Talieth spoke with such candor.
"What does all this have to do with me?" asked Lewan.
"Ah, my point, yes," said Talieth. "I said that my father believed that the Imaskari put Sentinelspire to sleep by channeling her fire and fury elsewhere."
"Yes?"
"What do you think would happen if those channels were closed?" said Talieth, her voice going very quiet. "Or worse, what if they were reversed?"
"You mean," said Lewan, with dawning horror, "the mountain might…"
"Wake up? Oh, yes. With a vengeance. But it's far worse than that, Lewan. I have only the faintest understanding of the arts my father has bent to his will. He not only plans to reverse the channels, but he has been building the mountain's power-and power from other worlds as well-so that this eruption will be like no other in all the history of the world. You've seen the Firepeaks to the north?"
"Yes," said Lewan. "I've been there."
"Even at their fiercest, they are guttering candles compared to what will happen if my father wakens Sentinelspire. Sentinelspire will be a lightning bolt. A hundred lightning bolts. The destruction will be… catastrophic. Not just for Sentinelspire, but for all Faerыn."
"Why?" Lewan asked. "Why do such a thing? That's-" "Madness," said Talieth, her voice low, almost a whisper so that she had to lean close to be heard. "Yes. My father has gone quite mad. I can only guess at his reasoning. Revenge? Perhaps he wishes to strike back at a world that slew his god and robbed him of power? Perhaps he has some plan I cannot see. I don't know. But I know that he must be stopped."
"That… makes no sense," said Lewan. "If he destroys the mountain and all the lands around…"
"Oh, he isn't planning to kill himself," said Talieth. "He plans to use the portals to be far away. He and anyone he deems worthy."
"So what is he waiting for? Why not tomorrow? Why not today or right now?"
"Such power isn't like clapping your hands, Lewan. I know only a little of the Imaskari magics, and I know less of the ways of the druids. But I know that