Temple Hill - Drew Karpyshyn [112]
The illumination from the staff's tip couldn't fully pierce the black veil behind them. Whatever was charging at them would remain unseen until the last possible second. Behind him, Corin heard the soft rustle of Lhasha's silks as she continued her path, so intently focused on choosing the safe route that she hadn't noticed Corin was no longer at her hip until they were separated by several yards.
Only then did she turn around to see what was holding up her companion. Even as she was about to ask what was wrong, the creature from the darkness exploded into view.
It was a man, nothing more. One of the soldiers from the battle, bleeding from his many wounds, his eyes glowing with crazy fire. His face was frozen in a rictus of insane fear, his eyes nothing but pupils, dilated to their full size by the man's reckless charge through the pitch-black tunnels.
He didn't even seem to notice Corin, didn't react at all to Lhasha's shouted warnings to stop. He came straight forward, stumbling along, arms flailing wildly as he scrambled to escape whatever unseen demons he imagined still pursued him.
He barreled right into Corin, knocking the warrior off balance, causing the one-armed man to lose his footing. The crazed soldier tripped over Corin's knee, and was sent sprawling across the floor-triggering the trap.
Even Corin's untrained ears could make out the unmistakable sound of gears grinding and high tension steel springs releasing. Corin's reflexes and instinct for survival were the only thing that saved him. He dived forward at the sound, tucked into a ball, and rolled out of harm's way-back down the part of the tunnel they had already come from.
From behind him he heard a booming crash, the sound of thunder or an earthquake. He hopped to his feet and spun around to see the consequences of the trap.
The crusher was aptly named. Two huge chunks of granite had slammed together, sealing the cavern and instantly pulverizing anything that happened to be caught in between the tons of solid rock. A trickle of blood seeped out from the barely visible seam where the two colossal blocks of stone met, and a single foot of the crazed runner jutted out from the side Corin was on, twitching for a brief second before going still and limp.
Lhasha was nowhere to be seen. Corin ran up to the stones, yelling out her name. "Lhasha! Lhasha! Are you all right!''
"I'm all right," she called back, much to his relief. "I'm on the other side. Fendel's here, too. Are you hurt?" Her voice was somewhat muffled by the wall of granite between them.
"No!" Corin yelled back. "I jumped clear. Is there any way to open these things up again?"
For nearly a minute there was no reply-Corin assumed Lhasha and Fendel were examining and discussing the mechanics of the trap, trying to figure out a way to re-open the tunnel.
"Corin?" Fendel called out finally. "There doesn't seem to be any way to move these rocks. Looks like this trap was a one-shot deal."
The gnome paused, giving the warrior a chance to reply, but Corin didn't speak. There wasn't anything to say, really. Fendel filled in the silence soon enough, anyway.
"Do you have some light? You're not stuck back there alone in the dark, are you?"
"No," Corin yelled back. "I've still got your fancy glowing stick here in my hand. I can see all right."
"Good, good," the gnome sounded relieved. "Hang on to that pole. There's things in the dark you don't even want me to tell you about." The gnome took a second to think before continuing. "Just stay where you are. Don't move. The tunnel we're in branches off just ahead, I think one of them might eventually lead us back to you."
There was no point in arguing with the gnome's advice. The granite blocks were impassable, and Corin knew the odds of him finding his own way out were next to nil. Corin suspected that Fendel had an uncanny ability to maintain his sense of direction and perspective, even while trapped in an underground maze.
"It could take us a while to find