Storm of the Dead - Lisa Smedman [112]
Q'arlynd caught his arm. "Stop that."
Zarifar lowered his hands and blinked. "Oh, hello, Q'arlynd. Where did you come from?"
Q'arlynd crouched and peered into the hole. Though the stonefire bomb had blackened and melted the stone next to it, the door itself was unblemished. Not so much as a streak of soot marked it. The hole was about ten paces deep, the length of the rod Piri had just hauled out of it. Kraanfhaor's Door, Q'arlynd saw, was just as thick.
He touched the front of the door. The stone under his fingers was cooler by far than the hot air that filled the corridor.
Q'arlynd nodded down at the stonefire bomb. "That isn't going to work."
"That's what I told them," Baltak boomed.
"We've proved one thing, at least," Piri said. "The stone that makes up that door exists in some sort of extradimensional space. Each time the stonefire started to reveal the far side of the door, it extended farther."
Alexa picked up a wooden tray and began sorting through the glass vials it held. "I tried several different acids on the door itself, but none made even the slightest mark."
"Frost won't crack it, either," Baltak boomed. He slapped a hand against the door. His fingers ended in claws, clear and glistening as ice. They scritched against the door as he drew them across it. "The stone can't even be scratched."
"There are patterns," Zarifar said. "I tried to identify them, but I can't quite…" His fingers traced lines in the air. "They seem so familiar, and yet…" he shrugged and let his hand fall, "they elude me."
"Excellent!" Q'arlynd announced.
The others stared at him blankly.
"Listen to you-you're working together. Well done."
His students glanced sidelong at one another when he said that-wary that he'd been talking between the lines. Had they let down their guard, shown some vulnerability, done something wrong?
Q'arlynd chuckled. "Well done," he repeated. "And I mean just what I say."
It was the truth. Leaving his apprentices on their own had been the best move he could have made. Had he remained there, he would have directed their experiments, led them along by the nose like rothe. Instead they'd tried to come up with solutions on their own. Fruitless attempts, but attempts just the same. Their initial decision to work together might have been motivated by a desire to keep an eye on each other, but that didn't matter. They'd become a team.
And since Q'arlynd knew how to open the door, they'd reap the rewards.
The anticipation nearly made Q'arlynd giddy.
He realized he was smiling. He set his face in a more serious expression. A smile could be an unnerving thing, to a drow. It usually preceded some sort of painful punishment.
"Eldrinn," Q'arlynd said, "your staff. It's time to open this door."
"You really think the staff is the solution?"
"We'll know that soon enough."
"I can't believe it!" Baltak shouted. "Q'arlynd knew how to open it, all along."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Piri asked, his voice thick with suspicion.
"It was a test," Q'arlynd answered, "of your willingness to work together. You passed."
He took the staff from Eldrinn. As the others crowded around, he closed his eyes. It took a moment to block out the rustles of their clothing, and their rapid, anxious breaths, but soon he achieved full concentration. He drew the staff toward himself and touched his forehead to the crystal at the center of it, just as Daffir had done.
"Show me the past," he whispered. "Show me how the Miyeritari opened this door."
Despite Q'arlynd's concentration, he heard Alexa's surprised murmur, "It can do that?"
Q'arlynd waited several moments, but nothing happened. No visions popped into his mind, no voices whispered in his ear. He tried for several moments more, with his eyes open. Nothing.
Heat prickled his cheeks. Daffir had never uttered a word when using the staff, but perhaps there was some silent mental command that was required. Eldrinn had assured Q'arlynd there wasn't,