The Tyranny of Ghosts_ Legacy of Dhakaan - Don Bassingthwaite [91]
The tiefling nodded and whispered a word. The embroidered lines of his long vest shifted, the bulging pocket with the shaari’mal reappearing. Tenquis extracted one of them and passed it over. Geth weighed it in his hand, examining it closely. There was no sign that it had ever been part of a larger, shattered whole. The purple byeshk was heavier than might be expected, but Wrath was the same. The symbols carved into the disk were similar to those on Wrath too. There would have been no denying the relationship between them even if he hadn’t felt the sword’s sense of familiarity.
Maybe, he thought, there was a deeper similarity. The sword had a memory and a kind of awareness. The Rod of Kings certainly did. Maybe there was an awareness in the disk as well. He frowned and concentrated on it. Hello? he thought at it.
“What are you doing?” asked Tenquis.
He felt his face grow warm. “Trying to connect with it the same way I connect with Wrath,” he said. He shook his head. “I don’t feel anything, though.”
“You couldn’t feel anything when you held the Rod of Kings either,” Ekhaas reminded him. “Maybe Wrath blocks the shaari’mal the same way it does the rod.” She held out her hand. “Give it to me.”
He twitched it back. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Tariic only held the rod for a moment the first time, and he was lost to it.”
“I’ve already touched one of the shaari’mal,” said Ekhaas. “Before we got them out of the floor. I didn’t feel anything then, but maybe it needs more.”
Geth looked around at the others, then held out the byeshk disk. Ekhaas took it and wrapped her hands around its notched edge. Her face creased in concentration. A moment later, the creases grew deeper. Geth felt a flicker of worry. “Ekhaas?”
She opened her eyes. “Nothing.”
“There’s magic in the disks,” Tenquis said. “I know there is. If I had time to study—”
From the ruins behind them came a sudden crash, like a heap of rubble thrown aside. The muted wail that had faded into the background of Geth’s awareness rose again with shocking, angry clarity. The shifter sprang to his feet and vaulted up to the top of an unsteady wall. Back toward the center of Suud Anshaar, a column of dust had risen in the moonlight.
Had risen and was being sucked back down. Geth cursed and leaped to the ground. “We don’t have time for anything,” he said. Ekhaas nodded and tried to return the disk to Tenquis, but the tiefling was already sealing the pockets of his vest again. She stuffed it into a large pouch at her belt. Geth hurried over to Tooth. The hunter’s eyes were open, though clouded with pain and staring in the direction of the wail.
Geth ducked under his arm and heaved him to his feet again. “Ready for another run?” he asked.
“Geth,” Tooth said weakly, “you saved—”
The shifter bared his teeth. “Don’t thank me yet.”
They set off at the fastest pace Tooth could manage, which wasn’t very fast to begin with and rapidly grew slower. The hunter’s breath was a hard rasping; Geth felt the rise and fall of Tooth’s chest against his side. The hunter’s face was hard with determination though. A rock turned under his feet, and the bandaged remains of his arm banged into an age-pocked column. His face turned pale instantly, but he didn’t cry out.
“Just keep going,” Geth urged him and started watching the ground ahead with greater care, trying to put the wails that echoed through the ruins out of his mind.
Ekhaas and Tenquis strode to either side of them—Chetiin had run ahead once more. Ekhaas looked back frequently, then finally said, “I think I could stop it again.”
“No,” said Geth flatly.
“I know a spell that makes the ground slippery. If I could cast it over a wide area, that construct wouldn’t be able to get any traction. It wouldn’t be able to move—”
“No!” Geth glanced up at her. “You took it by surprise. You can’t risk doing that a second time. I don’t want anyone getting within range of those tentacles again, unless we’re forced to stand and fight.”
Ekhaas’s ears flicked,