Stardeep_ The Dungeons - Bruce R. Cordell [121]
Only Telarian remained, now bound as the Ttaitor was bound, in chains of eldritch force. Unlike the Traitor, Telarian was subject to the needs of air and nutrition. Given enough pain, his heart would fail.
The Traitor concentrated on the blinking, confused diviner whose mind had proved so ripe for instruction. A mind still open to suggestion, capable of seeing a higher reality, a reality beyond the physical. Though the Traitor couldn't touch the diviner, he could influence the diviner's mind. What the Keeper believed to be real would be real. It was the malleable teality he had hoped to extend to all the world with the Abolethic Sovereignty's rise. For now, that reality was reserved for one.
The elf screamed as the Ttaitor extended a nest of writhing, tooth-rimmed appendages.
Failure demanded payment.
He began to extract his due.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Stardeep, Throat
Gage was entranced by the fiery depths of the hollow cylinder. Empty but for an explosion of flaring, frustrated prominences. He turned and sheathed a blood-stained dagger. Backstabbing the insane elf and pushing him into the hole earned him a moment's respite. He removed his borrowed Knight's helmet. Kiril, apparently roused from whatever stupor had held her, appraised him with obvious surprise.
Her expression was every bit as bewildered and confused as he'd hoped. He grinned-priceless! You couldn't steal that kind of satisfaction.
"Gage of Laothkund-how?" asked Kiril. "I left you in the Yuirwood."
"Aye, but I didn't turn back as you instructed. I followed." "Why?"
The thief grinned. "I was angry you sent me away, angty you wouldn't listen or accept my apology. I decided I would show my sincerity by helping you whether you wanted my aid or not."
"You followed us into Sildeyuir, and then into Stardeep's outer tunnels? That must have been difficult."
"An understatement," replied Gage. He recalled again the stone spider, and he shuddered.
Kiril nodded, moved closer, and put a comradely hand on his shoulder. "Thank you…" Her attention shifted, and lit on the guttering blade Angul. Her eyes became glassy.
"Kiril Duskmourn!" came a glad hail. Gage and the swordswoman turned. The lone remaining Keeper approached, the monk Raidon at her side holding his lambent Sign.
The Keepet said, "I am Delphe. Thank the Cerulean Sign you listened to my plea."
Kiril shrugged. "Telarian's failure of patience revealed him. If he hadn't attacked me with Nis, I might have appeared in the Throat as his ally, not his enemy. He didn't know that, though, and your arguments made him doubt the strength of his own lies."
Delphe replied, "His lies… his subversion by the Traitor is Stardeep's most significant failure in all our order's history. And all along, he thought he was the one serving a higher purpose. An unbelievable tragedy." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Light from the Well blossomed orange and green, giving her skin a pallid cast.
Delphe moved closer and looked down. "I wonder what's going on down there… Cynosure?"
"Yes, Delphe?" The response emanared from the empty ceiling.
"The boundary layer is distutbed. How close did Telarian come to achieving his goal?"
"Too close. We must forge anew the constraints the diviner severed, else we risk the remaining bonds becoming unraveled."
Delphe looked at her newly healed hand and muttered, "A difficult task without my most potent tool-"
"You may borrow this, if you require its strength," interrupted Raidon, holding out his Sign. "It was my mother's, though now I begin to doubt she was ever a Keeper here. It may be she had it illicitly, and passed it to me without knowledge of your order."
Delphe smiled. "Whoever she was or is, I hold no grudge- if she hadn't