The Gates of Night_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [16]
The room shook under a third impact, and a passage of glowing words etched into the wall flared and then faded with an eerie fluting. The drow woman remained perfectly poised in the chaos, her right hand coiled back and ready to strike, her eyes narrowed in thought.
“No.” She released Lei, and the artificer dropped to the ground, choking and rubbing her throat. Daine rushed to her side, while Pierce continued to cover the dark elf with his bow.
Lei had pushed herself up on one arm by the time Daine reached her, and was struggling to catch her breath. “Center … of the floor …” she gasped.
Glowing lines and symbols covered the floor of the chamber, reminding Daine of the pictures he’d seen of wizards constructing prisons for demons or wayward spirits. He remembered Lei sitting in the middle of this vast seal when they’d left Karul’tash, and he helped her reach the center of the pattern. Another impact shook the chamber, and this time there was a fearsome crack of shattering glass. Lei sat down, and the cold fire of the mystic pattern grew brighter. Daine could feel a cold tingle against his skin as the magical forces grew.
“Helkad thelora!” Lei’s eyes were closed, her skin sheened with sweat. Another crack, and fragments of crystal fell from the ceiling. A terrible sense of vertigo swept through Daine, and suddenly he felt solid … it was if he had been floating for the last day and never noticed it, and gravity had suddenly returned. The light from the glowing inscriptions faded, and Lei let out a deep breath. Her breathing was still a little ragged, but her expression remained calm. It appeared their journey was over.
He turned back to the drow woman. “You!” he said. Daine’s sword was still in his hand, and as his anger swelled within him he could swear that the hilt grew warmer in his hand. “So, you still want to die?”
Though unarmed and outnumbered, the dark elf showed no signs of fear. She met his gaze; he kept his blade level, ready to strike at the first motion. At last, she spoke. “This man of metal speaks truth,” she said. “This is not the death I seek. Where is the storm of razors?”
Harmattan? “We left him behind when we fled the monolith, and he’s not getting out.”
“Then let us return!” she said. “If it is your enemy as well, let us fight together once more. Let us face our destiny together!”
“Or we could not return, leave him trapped in the monolith, and go on to live long and fruitful lives,” Daine said.
The woman hissed. “You are a warrior. You fought the firebinders. And yet you would walk away from this enemy?”
“For now,” Pierce said. “Only a fool fights a foe he knows he cannot defeat, and we have found no flaw in his armor. This one is our prey, and in time he will fall, but this hunt will be a long one.”
“Then I will join you,” the woman said. “I must defeat this creature if I am to find my way to the final land. Let me fight by your side, and I may forgive the wrong you have done me.”
We saved your life, ungrateful wretch, Daine thought. But they were in an unknown land, and whatever her flaws, this woman was a skilled warrior. “We accept your gracious offer,” he said. “What was your name again?”
“Xu’sasar,” she replied. “A child of the scorpion, blessed by three moons.”
“How do you feel about ‘Xu’?”
The woman hissed again. “You outlanders despoil all that you touch. I suppose that it is only natural you should destroy the beauty of my name.”
“Xu it is, then. I’m Daine. This is Pierce.”
“And I’m Lei.” The darkwood staff flashed in the dim light. The thrust caught Xu’sasar directly in the throat, and the staff struck with tremendous force. The dark elf flew back against the wall. Lei had pulled her staff from her pack while the others were talking, and now she stood next to Daine, the point of the weapon leveled at the drow. Daine could swear