Stardeep_ The Dungeons - Bruce R. Cordell [119]
She said instead, "Cynosure's statue in the Throat just fell to Telarian."
"What must I do?"
"Return to the dark gulf. You must return to the sword. Find Angul! Find him, and yourself in him-pull away from all that is dark, undecided, and nihilistic. Be Angul again…" A sob escaped her, breaking her soliloquy.
The shade before her said, "I don't fear to return-the sacrifice was already made. I merely thank the guardians of Sildeyuir and the Sign that we were given this moment. Remember me, Kiril Duskmourn."
As Nangulis turned away, she murmured, "Until the day I die."
Telarian grasped a font of puissance, wondrous and overwhelming. He couldn't contain his joy as he wielded the conjoined blades. He'd never felt so free, so alive, so compelling. It was intoxicating!
He would have jumped and yelled in triumph if not for Cynosure. It had landed a strong initial blow, but Angul-Nis wiped away the damage before the crumpling pain could propagate through his flesh. His shredded clothing revealed fresh scars twining his forearms. He laughed-emblems of his coming triumph!
His eyes found the construct as it finished healing Delphe. He frowned. It charged him, one hand out as if to embtace him in a grasping palm. The idol moved swiftly for something that should have been slow and ponderous. But Angul-Nis revealed what Telarian must do. He thrust the blade forward cross-body, its tip down, deflecting the fist to the right and scoring it with flame.
The construct pulled its hand back, but not quickly enough to prevent Telarian from whipping Angul-Nis around and delivering a tremendous stroke to its wrist, severing the hand.
"Telarian, you are misled," came Cynosure's voice. "Can't you see it? The Traitor has you in its grip. You do not hinder him; you aid his greatest hope!"
Telarian suspected Stardeep's warden attempted to distract him. It knew it couldn't stand up to the wielder of Angul-Nis. He laughed, advancing. Delphe and Cynosure truly believed he was misled. Their lack of imagination and foresight was the reason he'd been forced to act alone. They were the ones tesponsible for aiding the Traitor by their opposition to his plan. Through their policies, if left unchecked, Xxiphu would eventually rise. They would never have allowed him to release the Traitor to his death-they would have argued that few alive could stand against him. True. But with Angul-Nis, few things were impossible.
He swung the conjoined blade in a scything whirlwind. Cynosure couldn't retreat quickly enough, and was caught in the blade-vortex. An explosion of blue-white flames and stone shrapnel heralded the statue's dissolution. So much for Stardeep's security.
To Telarian's right, the monk wielded an amulet of the Sign as if a cestus. With Delphe's aide, he was successfully staving off a Well-born avatar-a dream of the Traitor's hope of freedom. By the same token, the avatar, with its evolving fotm, firmly focused Delphe and the Sign-wielding monk away from him. Telarian's path to the Well was unimpeded. He walked to the edge and peered down.
All the previous times he'd glanced into the Well, he'd seen only empty space, and at the bottom, fire. With the conjoined blade in hand, he saw deeper, heard clearer, and understood more. Tentacular shadows streamed up the well, thick as sea grass. Abolethic melodies brooded and cajoled, swelling into a chaotic babble of sound that clawed at his certainty of purpose. Visibly containing and constraining the hot tor were the chains of Stardeep's bonds, those which kept the Traitor secure. Bonds that could be severed.
He saw where he must cut to end the Traitor's confinement. Even as understanding flooded him, Angul-Nis bucked and shuddered in his hand. He fumbled the blade and nearly dropped it down the Well.
Telarian swore, but retained his grasp on the blade. As his heartbeat stuttered in response to the slip that almost cost him