The Howling Delve - Jaleigh Johnson [107]
Dantane's voice was coldly mattet-of-fact, but he was right. Meisha accepted the truth, though it filled her with a profound anger and disappointment in her former teachet. "Are they still linked?" she said. "Is that why Varan opened the portal and cast us down here? Is the demon fighting him for control?"
"Fighting him, fighting the dwarves," said Dantane. "There may be hope for us and your master, if that's the case."
"But if the demon escaped from Varan's spell, why is he still down here? Why has he not tried to get to the surface?"
"Can't you feel it?" Dantane asked. "The demon's aura? It's everywhere."
Meisha nodded. "I've felt it ever since I was a child. I still wake at night blanketed in the dread and the cold. I just never had a name for it before. What does that have to do with the demon's escape?"
"He doesn't want to escape," Dantane said. "From the dwarves, yes, and from Varan's control, but the Delve has been absorbing the demon's essence for a century or longer. The Delve has become part of him-the ideal hunting ground. I suspect all the demon wants is something worthwhile to hunt."
"Through Varan, he's gotten everything he needs," Meisha said bitterly. "All he has to do is pick us off one by one."
"An appealing fate for the Shadow Thieves that may have followed us," Dantane said. "In fact, without the demon's interference, we might have died at their hands."
"Astounding how the gods sott matters out," Meisha muttered. "This way," she said, leading Dantane on to the next testing chamber. "We have to move quickly. We don't know where the demon is now."
As with the other chambers, raised rock platforms dominated the next room they entered, but the entire back wall of the cavern had gone, plucked from the surrounding stone like a cork from a wine cask. Darkness, impenetrable by her spell light, stretched down a long passage Meisha had never seen before.
"A permanent tunnel of darkness," Dantane said. "Small wonder your master concealed this entrance. There will be traps and wards, unless he cleared them himself."
"Let's hope so," Meisha said. "We'll have enough to wotry about when we find the jarilith." She took stock of het weapons. Her stilettos were gone, but she still had one dagger. Fire crackled in her mind. "Ready?"
Dantane nodded and srepped forward. They were almost to the mouth of darkness when they heard the demon roar.
Talal didn't look back. He knew the creature had turned to pursue them. He could heat the sizzle-click of his paws hitting the stone. The beast's huge sttides would have overtaken them immediately if the passage hadn't kept making sharp corners.
Morgan swung around a bend and came up short, shouting, "Too narrow!"
Talal fetched up behind Laerin. He saw the bigger man wedged between two slabs of stone. Beyond lay an open chamber.
"We can't go back!" Laerin shouted, before he plowed into Motgan from behind.
Morgan's tunic ripped as Laerin's weight pushed him through the narrow gap. The half-elf followed, and Talal, grateful for once to be the slightest, had no trouble slipping through the crack.
In the chamber beyond flowed an underground river.
Talal stopped and stared at the black watet darting with shadows under the torchlight. The river rushed from a fissure in the northwest corner of the room, flowing out through a wishbone shaped crack at the opposite end. On the other side of the water, the cavern dead-ended.
Morgan crouched at the river's edge. He splashed handfuls of water on two wicked slashes across his chest where the stone had cut into his flesh. "That's got it," he wheezed. "Game's over before it began."
Talal looked at Laerin. "We're trapped," he said. "Maybe if we double back-"
A loud keening drowned out the test. Talal went down in a protective crouch, while Laerin and Morgan turned to see what had made the sound.
Curved claws raked the stone, stabbing through the gap in