Stardeep_ The Dungeons - Bruce R. Cordell [84]
"Still no contact from within," uttered the lead construct. Cynosure equally inhabited all five mobile idols, while at the same time inhabiting all the rest of Stardeep. His power was vast. It frightened her to think Telarian had managed to insert his own twisted control over the powerful sentient artifact.
"In we go," she replied. As the lead construct moved to the barracks door, she quietly uttered words of hardening and strength, such that her own skin took on a hardness akin to stone.
A gasping, wide-eyed Knight's apprentice met them at the door. A young elf, not yet a month out of Sildeyuir, the apprentice had never seen one of Cynosure's statues walking about, let alone a group of five. All color drained from his face, and he tried but failed to produce any sound to greet Delphe.
"Where is Telarian? Is he within?" demanded Delphe.
The apprentice blinked and shook his head. He finally gained enough control over his voice to say, "He was, but he just rode out-he took most of the Knights with him, to counter the attack!"
"What attack?"
The apptentice stuttered. "Wha-you don't know? Telarian said-"
"Tell me what Telarian said, and where he has gone," she commanded.
He nodded. "Keeper Telarian perceived an attack against Stardeep launched from Sildeyuir itself, through the ancient tunnels of the underdungeon. Telarian led the Knights to oppose the Ttaitor's allies who seek to sneak in upon us all unawares."
"Which allies of the Traitor did Telarian indicate are moving against us-do they have a name?" she asked. Not that she expected anything but lies from the diviner's mouth. What was shockingly, horrifyingly apparent was that Telarian had emptied the barracks of an elite fighting force of more than two hundred Empyrean Knights. Two hundred Knights, whom he was apparently leading into the forlorn, unmapped tunnels whose existence predated the building of Statdeep, and Sildeyuir itself. For what purpose? Did he hope to sap Stardeep's strength by leading its defenders into an ambush?
One of the constructs stepped past the apprentice before the elf could answer Delphe, its metal footfalls echoing like a boulder-fall as it moved to investigate. The elf turned to watch the construct with wide eyes.
She repeated, "Apprentice-who attacks us, according to Telarian?"
"I… I am not privy to that information, Keeper. I suppose… it was nilshai who attacked-they are growing more aggressive all the time."
Delphe paused. Was that possible? Certainly it could be, but then the image of Telarian's face as he grasped Nis visited her. It was the face of a betrayer. All words that emerged from her fellow Keeper's mouth were now suspect.
She asked, "Did they go on horse?"
The apprentice shrugged. "Yes. He said the tunnels were wide enough to allow a mounted company swift passage for many miles."
Moments later, a construct different than the one that had rushed past the apprentice spoke with Cynosure's voice. "Only apprentices, smiths, and like support staff yet populate the barracks."
Delphe, already looking at the darkened archway leading into the underdungeon, was at a loss. Why had Telarian sent the Knights tearing off into the twisted tunnels beneath Stardeep on horse? The underdungeon tunnels connected, eventually, back into Sildeyuir, but that which lay between was unmapped, and worse, was demonstrably lethal. Threats lurked in those ancient warrens whose origins reached further back than Stardeep's delving. Traps fueled by ancient magic, and the restless spirits of those who had once lived there. The detente of a thousand years was based on the fact that no dwellers of those warrens ever wandered up to bedevil
Stardeep, and