Aliisza watched Kaanyr pace from one side of the rotunda to the other. She could see the cambion's mood grow fouler with each lap. Beyond him, barely visible in the dim light, her arcane cage still stood, holding the creature that had once been Micus and Myshik. The aberration had finally ceased his attempts to batter his way out. He sat near the back of his enclosure, watching Kaanyr.
Aliisza rested against one of the columns between Tauran and Kael, with the planetar nearby. Zasian stood over all three of the wounded companions, watching over them.
Aliisza and Kaanyr had decided to move the three unconscious forms into the center of the chamber, where the priest could tend to them more easily. Kael bucked and groaned when they removed Aliisza's sword protruding from his gut, but he did not otherwise awaken, and Zasian managed to close the wound with his unusual healing power. The half-drow seemed stable, but Aliisza refused to leave his side until she was certain he wasn't going to succumb to his injuries.
From time to time, the priest would place a hand upon one or another chest, close his eyes, and murmur something Aliisza couldn't quite make out. He had been at his vigil for quite some time, and Aliisza marveled at how he kept it up. Her own body ached with fatigue.
"Is he ever going to waken?" Kaanyr asked, standing in the middle of the chamber and staring at Zasian.
The man cringed and shook his head. "I don't know," he answered. "I'm trying. This one"-he pointed at the planetar-"is badly hurt and I can't seem to heal him. But those other two are much better. They should be awake by now, but for some reason, they just aren't. I don't understand."
Kaanyr's sigh echoed through the room. "This is ridiculous! We're getting nowhere!"
When Aliisza didn't answer him, he returned to pacing. Aliisza glanced over at Zasian. He was watching Kaanyr with a mixture of fear and curiosity, his eyes wide. The strange childlike innocence that the priest exhibited continued to intrigue Aliisza. Beyond her distrust of the man, the youthful attitude belied the maturity of his face. If it was a hoax, he was carrying it off perfectly.
"I just wish I could remember," Zasian said as he returned to monitoring Kael. "I must have done something very bad to make him so angry at me."
Aliisza just watched the man next to her. Finally, when he looked up, she said, "Be glad that you can't."
She turned her attention back to Kaanyr. He returned her stare, but his mind seemed far away. Aliisza rose to her feet and crossed the floor.
"Hey," she said, taking Kaanyr's hand in her own. The preternatural warmth of his skin felt good. She had forgotten how much she used to seek out his touch. "What is it?"
Kaanyr shook his head, "It seems like we've been out here for days. Who knows? Maybe we have."
"And?" she prompted, pulling the cambion around to face her squarely. "What of it? We already agreed that waiting for Tauran to wake up was the best choice. Perhaps Tyr will have seen fit to grant his blessings to Tauran once more. But even if he hasn't, we won't be any worse off. Just be patient."
"I'm just so tired of feeling… helpless."
Welcome to my world, Aliisza thought, but she resisted the urge to snort in derision. Standing close to him, sharing that moment, felt familiar and comfortable, and she didn't want to lose it. Instead, she just watched him. Her mind flashed through a series of memories, of a happier time for the two of them, back in Amarindar, when they were master and mistress of their world. A lifetime ago, Aliisza mused. Several lifetimes, perhaps.
When she turned her attention back to Kaanyr, she was surprised to find him smiling at her. She could tell by the twinkle in his eye that he was thinking lascivious thoughts.
Aliisza returned the grin, though she felt slightly embarrassed. Must have been thinking the same things I was, she thought. "What?" she asked him.
"I was just remembering when you used to come find me in the throne room," Kaanyr said. "How you used to sit on my lap and squirm, trying to distract me, and I'd pretend not to notice just to aggravate you."
Aliisza chuckled and punched Kaanyr gently in the arm. "Infuriate me, is more like it," she said. "I should have known." She rolled her eyes playfully, then stepped into his embrace and snuggled there. "Mmm," she purred.
"Let's go," Kaanyr said abruptly, that old mischievous tone in his voice. "Just you and me, right now. Let's just take off into that silver void and find our old lives again. What do you say?"
Aliisza felt her smile turn sad as she pulled back to look him in the eye again. "You know I can't do that," she said, "and neither can you."
Kaanyr nodded and said, "I know, but would you if we could? Is there still enough of the old you in there somewhere that you could see yourself slipping away with me, starting over again, without… without all this?" He gestured around the two of them. "We didn't have such a bad life together, did we?"
You're just figuring this out now? Aliisza fumed. Only now, after using me as your personal skeleton key? She looked away and fought her frustrations at her lover's misguided ambitions. Instead of answering his question, she asked, "Where would we go? How would we escape this?"
Kaanyr shrugged, and a look of consternation crossed his own face. "I don't know," he said. "Does it matter? I just thought-"
"I'm sorry," Aliisza said, realizing she was spoiling the moment. "Yes, of course I would go with you. If none of this was happening, if there weren't other lives dependent on us for survival, and we could just slip away, steal back our place in the world, I would go with you." Maybe.
Kaanyr's smile returned. "I miss us," he said. "I really do."
That time, Aliisza couldn't help herself. "Then why in the Nine Hells would you do what you did to me?" she asked, her voice plaintive. "Why would you put me through all this? I never crossed you. I deserved better." She looked down, biting her lip.
Kaanyr laughed, then, a deep, long chuckle that made him shake. Aliisza glared at him, but she knew why he was laughing. That didn't make her any less angry about it.
When he finally caught his breath, he said, "You may never have crossed me, but you were hardly loyal, wench. You plotted your own course all the time, my instructions be damned." He saw her fury and softened his tone. "But that's exactly why I loved you so much," he said, taking her face in his hands. "That's what always drew me back to you, time and again. You may have kept your own counsel more than I would have liked, but you always had spirit."
Aliisza tried to cling to her anger, but his praise made her blush, and she couldn't help but smile. "You always knew how to flatter a girl," she said. "You know, maybe, after all this"-she gestured around the ruined chamber-"is over and we get away from everything, we can-"
A thump in the floor interrupted Aliisza. Kaanyr felt it too.
"What was that?" he asked, spinning in place.
"Let's find out," Aliisza said and walked to the opening in the wall.
As she strode to the hole and peered out, another thud, stronger than before, reverberated through the rotunda. It came from overhead, and it dislodged a chunk of stone from the fractured ceiling that landed very near Tauran's head before bouncing away.
"What is that?" Kaanyr demanded, moving beside her.
The other bubbles that had been drifting along beside their refuge had gathered together. They all jostled one another as they bobbed and flowed in the wake of the massive bubble with the mysterious figure inside. To Aliisza, it felt as though the current they followed had picked up speed, and the wash streaming behind the massive form had grown more turbulent. She had nothing by which to judge it, of course. No landmarks drifted by to give her any sense of speed or scale. It was just a gut instinct.
"I think we're getting close to something," Aliisza murmured, trying to stare in the direction she thought they were traveling. The effort was made more tricky due to their constant rotation in the void-it hurt her head too much to try to imagine the rotunda doing the spinning. "It feels like we're about to go down a drain or something."
"Wonderful," Kaanyr grumbled.
He turned and cast a withering glance at Zasian. "Is the bubble going to hold?"
Zasian shrugged. "He's dying. I can't stop it, only slow it down."
"How much time do we have?"
The priest shrugged again. "I don't know."
Aliisza could sense that he was afraid of saying the wrong thing. "Leave him be," she admonished when Kaanyr started to stomp toward Zasian. "We've got enough to worry about without you putting him in a panic again."
Kaanyr stopped, but he continued to glare at the priest. "He's lying. I know it. I just can't figure out what he's up to."
Aliisza sighed. She had long since given up trying to figure out the veracity of Zasian's behavior. If it was a trick, nothing they had said or done yet had caused him to slip up.
She turned back to the view beyond their little shelter. They had stopped spinning, and everything beyond her jagged little window remained in view. When she spotted something dark on what might have been a horizon, she blinked in a double take.
Could it be?
She waited and watched, not trusting her own vision enough to call Kaanyr over. After a few more moments, though, she was certain.
"Kaanyr," she said. When he joined her, she pointed. "What is that?"
Kaanyr stared at the darkening line for several long moments before he spoke. "It looks like land," he said. "And we're drifting right toward it."
"This doesn't make any sense!" Eirwyn shouted, slamming the book down upon the table. Her voice echoed through the great chamber and came back to mock her. "In my mind, I can see this place as clearly as the Court, and it's not to be found anywhere in these books. Why not?" She closed her eyes and pressed her hands to her lids, rubbing them.
Beside her, Oshiga shifted. "Perhaps we are simply not meant to find this information," he said. "Not all divinations are meant to be."
Eirwyn lowered her hands and glared at the celestial being. "You're not helping," she said crossly. "I know this is part of the dream I've been having. Even though I can't recall anything else about it, I know it has something to do with this place. Maybe we're just not hunting for it the right way. Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
Oshiga drew himself up and said haughtily, "Quite certain. But let's start again, from the beginning. Describe the place you see in the most exacting detail as you can muster. Leave no feature out."
Eirwyn sighed and calmed herself. Yelling at him isn't helping either, she told herself. "Very well," she said. "Up close, it appears to be a crystalline fortress, roughly formed. It sits dark and brooding upon a plateau. Although it is night, a green glow fills the sky. It's very eerie. The glow comes from what I can only describe as a snowstorm composed of jagged green shards or flakes. The place feels very sinister and… alive. It's hard to explain any better than that."
"Go on," Oshiga said, furiously scribing into a blank book that rested before him. "Tell me more."
"From a greater distance, the plateau is actually a floating island, much like many of the places here in the House. But this feels dark and sinister. It also feels abandoned, or… incomplete."
"Which is it?" Oshiga pressed. "Abandoned or incomplete?"
Eirwyn sighed. "I'm not sure. I can't tell. It's just not clear enough. But I know it has something to do with my lost vision!"
Oshiga held up his hand to forestall another outburst and continued to write. Finally, when he was finished, he set down the quill he had been using, held his hands over the page, and began to chant.
Eirwyn watched the archon, careful to remain quiet to avoid disturbing him. He had used that method three times already to attempt to discern where in Erathaol's great library they should research her mysterious fortress, but every time, they had hit a dead end.
Oshiga finished his chant and turned the page. A listing of texts and their locations within the library appeared on the page. The archon scanned them for a moment, frowning.
"We have three new sources to examine, plus five more that appeared previously. I'll retrieve the new ones." He rose from his seat. "You should begin again on the sources we already have."
Eirwyn tried not to sigh. I'm doing that too much of late, she decided. She nodded and pulled the magic book toward her, selecting the first resource from the list and flipping through it.
"I think he's very near death," Zasian said from behind Aliisza.
Aliisza had been watching as the landform had steadily grown larger. The priest's words sent a chill down her spine, and she turned away from the gap in the wall. She saw Zasian kneeling over the planetar, with his ear pressed to the celestial creature's mouth.
"He's barely breathing," Zasian said. "I don't know how much longer. Not long."
From across the room, Kaanyr rose from the spot where he had been brooding by himself. His brief moment of affection with Aliisza had not held his bad mood in check for long, and she had left him alone. Kaanyr moved toward Zasian and his three patients and stared down. He was not frowning quite as much as he had been before.
Aliisza knew what he was thinking. If the planetar dies, the bubble pops. One way or another, we're forced to act. She grimaced at her consort's impatience.
The alu turned away and checked the confines of the bubble. It was definitely shrinking, she saw, and she took a step back from it where it formed a "window" in the broken wall that allowed her to see into the Astral beyond.
Can we breach it and survive? she wondered. Even if we can, how do we travel?
Aliisza wracked her brain for memories of tales of great sorcerers and demons traveling the plane. She had heard the stories, but rarely did they explain much about the magic involved in moving through the silvery void. And she had done no research at all in her years of magical training.
And with magic behaving so erratically, who knows what's even still true anymore?
Another jostling bump made her stumble a step toward the border of their safe haven. She caught herself easily, but the glance she got beyond the confines of the ruined rotunda startled her.
The argent void had vanished, replaced by a shimmering curtain of color that rippled all around them. The strange multi-hued veil blocked the alu's view of anything else. It flashed and shifted, and it reminded Aliisza of the first moments after she had regained consciousness.
A storm of magic, she thought, frightened.
Then the curtain was gone, and they were falling.
The bubble was no more, and the Astral Plane had vanished. In its place, brooding red sky met black water at the horizon. The rotunda, reduced to a collection of unstable stones no longer held together by the planetar's magic, began to crumble apart as it tumbled toward that murky sea.
Zasian shouted in alarm.
Aliisza used her wings to rise up and hover, then she whirled to see the priest flailing as the floor beneath his feet broke apart. He, along with the three comatose figures he had been tending, became four more bits of debris falling from the sky. Near them, Micus thrashed and howled as his prison careened downward with him still trapped inside.
In a panic, Aliisza shot forward, winging toward all of them, desperate to save them.
Before she had time to contemplate the consequences of her act, she conjured magic. It began as a welling of energy deep in her gut, a swelling of power that blossomed and burst from her. The ominous blue glow accompanied it, swathing her surroundings in azure light. She sought control of the potent energy, shaped it and guided it, all the while bracing herself for the pain she feared would accompany it.
Aliisza created an invisible surface beneath the four tumbling figures. It held them aloft. At the same time, she willed the magical cage surrounding Micus to vanish. The abomination took flight, veering away from the ruined chamber. The remaining stonework of the ruined rotunda plummeted away, reduced to little more than a rockfall.
Pain and sickness filled Aliisza's limbs. Intense cramps wracked her muscles, and she nearly curled into a ball from it, fighting the urge to retch. She panted from the agony. She thought of releasing the arcane energy in order to bring blessed relief. Can't let them fall, she thought, gritting her teeth and fighting the urge.
Micus soared past Aliisza on his mismatched wings. He glared at her, hatred filling his eyes. He still had Myshik's powerful war axe, and he gripped it tightly as he swooped by. Aliisza watched him bank into a wide turn. He was coming around for another pass.
To her left, a tremendous splash threw inky water in a torrent into the air. Some of the cascade drenched Zasian and the others. When the waves subsided, a great mass floated within the darkened sea. Aliisza thought it looked like a huge man, but she couldn't take the time to get a good look at it.
Kaanyr, hovering upon his own innate magic, descended into view near her. "Can you get them to shore?" he asked, pointing.
Aliisza looked to where he indicated and saw a rocky stretch of gray beach not far from where they all hung in the air. Fighting the exertion of maintaining her magic, she nodded. "Just keep Micus away from me," she gasped.
She guided the invisible platform toward the beach. Zasian crouched upon it, hands and feet splayed apart for balance. He looked at her, wide-eyed with fright, then he whipped his head around, staring at everything else. The three prone figures remained sprawled at his feet.
Kaanyr unfurled the magical cloak he had acquired in Dweomerheart and pushed himself forward into flight. He angled his direction to head off Micus, who had climbed to a higher altitude and was starting a dive toward them. Aliisza wanted to watch the impending clash, but the pain racked her body too much. She clenched her eyes shut to fight it and focused all her concentration on getting the rest of them to safety.
Flying behind her conjured conveyance, Aliisza steered the magical surface to a bare spot of beach and set it down as gently as she could. Even with her efforts, though, her control faltered from the pain and sickness she felt, and the arcane platform winked out when the figures upon it still sat a few paces in the air. They all went tumbling to the soft sand in a heap.
Aliisza dropped to the beach nearby and crumpled, retching. Gods and devils, she thought as she emptied her stomach. Must… never… do that again. She panted for a moment until both the pain and the ominous blue glow subsided. When her stomach ceased heaving, she flipped over onto her back and caught her breath, staring up at the carmine sky.
Blood red clouds roiled across it, churning and obscuring whatever sun lit the place. A hot, foul wind blew over the gray sand, carrying a stench of something decayed with it. A vague sense of distaste, something strange yet oddly familiar, filled Aliisza's senses.
Kaanyr settled to the ground beside her and furled the magical cloak. He knelt down next to her and placed his hand upon her shoulder. "You look awful," he said, his tone gentle. "There's something you are not telling me, Aliisza. What is it?"
Aliisza shook her head. "I'll be fine," she said, surprised at how weak her voice sounded.
Kaanyr's face grew stern. "Don't lie to me," he said. "This strange power of yours is killing you. I want the truth."
She tried to give her consort a defiant stare, but his expression never wavered. "Very well," she said at last, closing her eyes in defeat. "I'll tell you what I can. Just let me rest a bit, first. What happened to Micus?" she asked, changing the subject.
"Gone," Kaanyr replied, "but not for long, I fear."
"Good," Aliisza said, thankful for even a brief chance to rest. "Just give me a moment."
"We may not have a moment," the cambion said.
When Aliisza opened her eyes again and looked up at him, Kaanyr was staring at something in the other direction, down the beach. She stood and peered that way, too.
In the distance, a small band of beings moved toward them. Aliisza squinted and saw the muscle-bound ebony creatures spread broad, leathery wings and take flight. Wicked black horns sprouted from their heads, and they waved vicious weapons overhead as they closed the distance. Whatever they were, they were spoiling for a fight.
The hulking beasts followed a somewhat smaller but no less fearsome leader, also black and winged, although its body shimmered as it flew, the effect of shiny black scales. A tail fluttered behind it.
Aliisza swallowed hard, recognizing the source of the foul ambience of the place at last. "Devils," she murmured. "Not good."
"Hey!" Zasian said from behind Aliisza. "Look!"
She turned, expecting to see that Zasian had spotted the same group of interlopers, but the priest pointed in the opposite direction.
The black waves of the sea had pushed the form of the great human figure Aliisza had seen before up onto the beach. The figure was indeed a man, though larger than any giant Aliisza might have imagined. The top of his head, resting on the gray sand, appeared so gargantuan that she imagined it rising fully three times her own height. A bedraggled, graying beard covered his wizened face, and his once-fine clothes marked him as noble.
Or a god, Aliisza thought, suddenly terrified, for she recognized that face from her vision within the Eye of Savras.
Azuth.
Is he slain too? she wondered. Can such possibly be? What is happening to the universe?
Aliisza turned away. Somehow, looking upon the face of a god, even one that might be dead, hurt. "We need to go," she said, trying to rise. "Now."
"I agree," Kaanyr said, standing beside her and still looking at the gargantuan deity, "but where?"
"Anywhere. Let's just get off the beach."
"How are we going to move the others?" Kaanyr asked. "We'll never outrun those fiends trying to carry them, and there's no way you can muster that magic trick again. You're exhausted as it is."
"I'll just have to," she said.
"No," Kaanyr said, grabbing her shoulder. "Don't."
"What choice do we have?" she demanded. A part of her beamed at his concern.
Kaanyr looked at her helplessly and shrugged.
"Very well, then," Aliisza said. She grimaced as she prepared to conjure the magic once more. She dreaded the pain and suffering. For a moment, she wasn't certain she could muster the willpower to subject herself to it again, but all it took was a glance down at Tauran and Kael's still forms to convince her. She drew a deep breath and braced herself.
A howl from a ridge of rock higher up the beach interrupted her.
A second horde of creatures swarmed into view.
Dozens of muscular, pasty-skinned humanoids took flight on matted feathered wings. Aliisza could see three red eyes blazing on each of their faces, and rows of sharp teeth filled their gaping mouths. Each thick arm ended in a deadly barbed claw that reached and grasped ahead as the creatures swooped toward the oncoming black-skinned fiends.
A crimson-skinned humanoid with a howling, feral-eyed hyena head led the newcomers. A snake protruded from the side of the monster's neck. The creature held a massive axe aloft as it screamed a war cry and commanded its charges to attack. He spoke in a language Aliisza understood all too well.
"Demons," she breathed. "Where in the blazes are we?"
The white-skinned things outnumbered the ebony fiends two to one, and they flew at the other creatures, who appeared just as eager to join the fray. In a matter of moments, the sky above the six castaways swarmed with white and black bodies clashing, screaming as they fought and died.
The crimson demon rushed to attack its own counterpart, the scaly-skinned devil. They slammed into one another with a vicious clang of weapon on weapon and became embroiled in a fierce battle of their own, whirling and slicing at one another as the war between their subordinates raged in the background.
For the moment at least, neither collection of fiends paid any attention to the six castaways sitting on the beach below.
"It's the Blood Rift," Kaanyr murmured, staring at the fight in awe. "How did we end up here?"
"What difference does it make?" Aliisza said, scrambling to her feet. "Once the fight's over, whoever wins is going to turn on us. We must leave!"
As if to punctuate her point, one of the ebony devils darted out of the swarming maelstrom and swooped close to where Zasian and the unconscious bodies of Kael, Tauran, and the planetar lay. The priest shrieked and cowered. The devil pulled up and hovered, staring down at the still form of Tauran. Recognition gleamed in his eyes, and he gave a shout of triumph as he drew his trident back for a killing thrust.
At that moment, two of the white demons swooped in and bowled the devil over. He went tumbling through the air and flopped into the shallow water along the shore several paces away. The two white demons jumped on him and shredded him with their claws. Black blood and chunks of flesh spurted and flew everywhere as they rent the devil. When their prey was nothing but a pulpy mess, the two demons took to the air again and went back into the battle, seeking new opponents.
"Come on!" Aliisza said, conjuring a magical doorway. She hardly noticed that the outline glowed a deep blue instead of the familiar red. It matched the emanation shining from her own body. "Push them through!" She bent down to hoist the planetar up and carry the celestial through her portal. "We have to get out of here!"
Kaanyr shook his head as Aliisza instead staggered, overwhelmed by the gut-wrenching sickness that slammed into her. "It's no use," he said, pointing. "The fight's over."
Aliisza coughed and nearly vomited, but she managed to peer in the direction Kaanyr showed her. The demons were all but finished with the devils. The last few black-skinned creatures were down, overwhelmed by the pasty, hairless fiends. To one side, the crimson hyena-headed thing slammed its axe into the shoulder of its foe, taking the devil's arm off. Another stroke removed its head. When its enemy fell dead, the demon turned and sped straight toward the six stranded observers.
"Then you'd better hope," Aliisza said, crumpling to the ground and gasping for breath, "that they're interested in negotiating."
Kaanyr cocked his head to one side. "That's not a half-bad idea," he said.
The crimson demon settled to the sand in front of Kaanyr. His white-skinned followers gathered around them and formed a circle to prevent anyone from escaping.
Beside Aliisza, Zasian curled up into a tiny ball and cowered.
"You are far from home, lord," the crimson demon said. "And you consort with wretched angels." The demon pointed at Tauran's form. "I shall enjoy flensing you for your treachery."
"Do that, and your own lord will gut you like a pig and roast your innards. I come with important news."
"Come?" the demon asked, looking at Kaanyr warily. "Why here?"
"We are lost, trying to return to the Abyss. Help us, and you shall be rewarded."
"Lies," the crimson thing said, smiling. He looked to his underlings. "Let us feast upon their tender flesh!"
"I have been to the angels' plane," Kaanyr said, backing up a step as the demons closed in. "I have spied on them. They are fools, and I know where they are weakest."
"Kaanyr!" Aliisza growled under her breath. "Don't!"
"Hush, fool alu," Kaanyr whispered back. "I know what I'm doing!"
"Tell me," the demon leader said, "and I will let you live."
"Oh, no," Kaanyr said. "It is for your master's ears only. Kill me, and he will not receive my report, and you will be the one he punishes for it."
The demon cocked his head, considering. The snake growing from his neck writhed and hissed. Finally, the red-skinned beast nodded. "Very well," he said. "We will take you to meet Her Eminence. And when she has finished torturing you for everything you know, I will teach you not to speak to me in such a manner."