The Shattered Land_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [151]
“I can destroy the heating enchantments. Hmm. It seems the gate system has a rather … chilling effect. Let me try something else.”
A second line of light faded off of the walls.
“Yes!” Lakashtai said. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, slowly letting the air flow out of her lungs. “I can feel again.” She stretched out a hand, rotating slowly in place.
“There,” she said. The central chamber was like a great wheel. The passage to the surface was but one of the spokes, and there were five more tunnels spreading out from the chamber of gates. Lakashtai paused, pointing to the northeast. “This is the way we must go.”
Daine considered. “The wards should keep any more firebinders from following, but I don’t like the thought of leaving this place unguarded. Pierce …”
“I should accompany the explorers, captain. It is possible that the information I now possess will be needed.”
“Go,” Shen’kar said. “Xu’sasar and I will remain and watch from the shadows. We have fought our battle. Now you must fight yours.”
Daine nodded. “All right, Lakashtai,” he said. “Lead the way.”
“So what kills a hundred giants?”
The hallway was cold and dim. The only source of light was the glowing inscriptions on the walls, and Lei’s efforts in the chamber of gates had caused many of these to fade into darkness.
Lakashtai was in the lead, lighting the way with a cone of light from her eyes—an effect Daine still found unnerving. They’d encountered the corpses of half a dozen giants as they progressed down the hall; one wizard was sprawled on top of a long scroll, a sheet of parchment that must have been eight feet in length. They had been able to avoid most of the corpses, but two guards had fallen side by side, and the explorers had to climb up and over the dried remains.
“I don’t see any signs of violence,” Daine continued, “They’re just … dead.” He had sword and dagger out and ready; the massive corpses raised his hackles, and it was all too easy to imagine that the withered faces were watching them pass.
“The battle they fought came to an end centuries before the final fall of Xen’drik,” Pierce said. “These magi were battling dreams and tampering with the boundaries of the planes themselves. It is dangerous to tamper with reality: I believe that they paid the price, and that those giants who survived the war wisely chose to leave this place as a tomb.”
Lakashtai glanced back at Pierce for a moment. “You seem to know a great deal about the conflict, Pierce. Do you know what was built here?”
“No. My … memories do not extend to the end of the war. I only know of its purpose: a forge to build a weapon to end the war stretching across the dimensions.”
“Let us hope that it did,” Lakashtai said, “and perhaps we’re about to find out.”
The hallway came to an end at a wide archway. A guard lay across the passage; he was wearing a coat of crimson chainmail, and each link was the size of Daine’s hand. An obsidian greatsword lay on the ground next to him, over ten feet in length. Lakashtai leapt over the corpse without even touching it; her strength had returned, and she seemed more alive than she had since they’d left Sharn. Daine wasn’t feeling so spry; he simply ground his teeth and climbed up over the giant’s chest.
The room beyond the arch was smaller than the chamber of gates, but it was no less spectacular. The walls were studded with translucent spheres, ranging from the size of a man’s head to a vast orb that was at least eight feet across. For a moment, Daine thought they were made out of glass, but as he drew closer he realized that they were far too fragile. They were soap-bubbles formed from traces of light, glowing with the faint essence of a dying coal. He almost reached out to touch one, but reason and the memory of eerily untouched corpses triumphed over curiosity.
“What are they?” Lei whispered.
“Dreams,” Pierce and Lakashtai answered together. They glanced at each other, and Pierce inclined his head.
“The purest essence of dreams,” Lakashtai continued. “Every living creature that sleeps