The Black Shriving (Chronicles of the Black Gate Book 2) (35 page)

Finally the captain said one curt word and turned to continue walking. The whole group moved forward once more.

Iskra looked to Orishin. "What did he say?"

Orishin gave her a sly smile. "He said 'all right'. He is a wise man, the captain. Like all wise men, he knows when to gamble. He is taking you to see Juntosh. He is taking you to see the emperor!"

CHAPTER NINETEEN

They found Bogusch's jaw lying on the ledge beside the platform. At first, Audsley wasn't able to understand what he was looking at; Bogusch's sparse beard and the bloody webbing of muscle and tendons made the jaw look like some small, nightmarish creature, but it the teeth quickly clued him in, yellowed and emerging from gums made pale by blood loss.

Temyl stood with his back against the glass wall, shivering violently and staring at the jaw. With a spasmodic movement he drew his blade, then slid along the glass to where it met the stone wall, and there dropped into a crouch, eyed bulging, sword wavering before him.

Audsley took a deep breath. Aedelbert's claws were digging in through his shoulder pad, and those sharp pinpricks of pain grounded him. He crouched by the jaw, lips pursed, and saw that blood was spattered across the ledge. Not much, but enough to indicate a rough trail. It led, predictably, over the edge into the chasm.

Heart thudding, knees weak, he lowered onto all fours and crawled forward until he could gaze down into the darkness. He almost expected to see Bogusch floating in the air, his eyes feverish and bright over the ruined lower half of his face. Instead, he saw the green halos of light that emerged faintly from each descending cell, fading away into the darkness. Frowning, he tried to focus, and thought that perhaps he could make out the floor. It was far, far below, and, feeling a sudden sense of vertigo, he crawled back and sat against the glass.

"We have to get out," said Temyl. He was still staring at the jaw. "Now. Take the platform to the Portals and get out while we still can."

Audsley swallowed, frowned, and fought to marshal his thoughts. "If we do that, sensible as that course of action may be, we strand Lady Kyferin and her retinue in Agerastos."

"If we stay here," rasped Temyl, waving his sword wildly at the darkness before them, "then there won't be any of us left to open that bloody Portal, will there?"

"Perhaps not." Audsley removed his spectacles and cleaned them on his shirt. "But I fear that isn't sufficient reason to abandon our posts."

Temyl's face was naked with fear and incredulity. "So, what? You're going to stay? How are you going to survive with that - whatever it is - hunting us down one by one? We left Bogusch alone for only a minute! And that's all we find of him?" Temyl sank back into his corner. "We have to get out." He sounded close to weeping.

Audsley knew that he was in a state of shock. He said those words quite clearly to himself:
You are in a state of shock
. That was why he was so calm, and why his mind felt like a serene pool of water. Of course he was terrified, and rightly so, but for the moment he felt detached, analytical.

"What are the facts?" It was how his favorite instructor back in Nous would begin the review of any problem. "Meffrid and Bogusch have gone missing. Given the circumstances, I feel confident in saying they were forcibly abducted. Meffrid disappeared without a trace, while the only trace of Bogusch is his lower jaw, which indicates that he was most likely killed in the process." Audsley tapped his lips in thought. "It's possible another person came through one of the Lunar Gates in the recent past and decided to live here. There is food, shelter, and, if they were able to master the platform as I was, a means of locomotion."

"No person did that to Bogusch," said Temyl, shaking his head emphatically. "You know how strong the jaw muscles are? To tear the bone free like that? Without his having a chance to even scream?"

"Agreed," said Audsley. He imagined fingers puncturing the skin under Bogusch's chin, curling up under his tongue to grasp his jaw, pulling, tearing the muscles and ligaments, Bogusch's pain and frenzied fear... Audsley coughed and stilled his mind. He could feel the fear seeking a way to break through and overwhelm him. "Let us suppose it is not a person. Then what? My next guess would be a demon -"

Temyl moaned and made the sign of the triangle before scurrying across the ledge to climb onto the platform. "Enough with your musings! Let's get to the Portal room!"

Audsley shook his head. "I've told you, I'm not abandoning Lady Kyferin."

Temyl stepped back off the platform and placed the edge of his blade against Audsley's neck. "I ain't asking you. I'm telling you."

Aedelbert hissed as Audsley reached up slowly and pushed the blade away. "A foolish bluff, Temyl. Without me, you can't even get off this ledge."

The guard's eyes darted from side to side and then fixed on Audsley again. "But you don't need that damn firecat of yours, do you?" His voice was low and ugly. "Get us moving or I cut it in two."

Audsley rose to his feet. A deep and savage anger was arising within him. "You threaten Aedelbert?"

Temyl licked his lips, momentarily unsure of himself, then nodded. "Only 'cause you ain't listening to reason. Don't make me do anything unpleasant. Just take us to the Portals and nobody has to get hurt."

Audsley reached up to stroke Aedelbert's head. "I will take us to the Portal room. Not for fear of my life or that of Aedelbert, but so as to be rid of your craven company."

"Fine, whatever, just get us going." Temyl backed onto the platform. "And don't try to tip me off, either. I'll be watching you and your cat. Nothing funny."

"No," said Audsley, stepping up onto the platform. He considered wrapping Bogusch's jaw in his handkerchief so he could bury it somewhere, but chose to leave it behind. "In that we agree. There is nothing funny about this at all."

He took hold of the sword's hilt and commanded the platform to rise. They sped out into the chasm, flying between the two honeycombed walls, and slid smoothly back into the passageway that led out into the great central airshaft. The moaning howl of the wind caused the hair on the nape of Audsley's neck to stand on end, and he had to fight an urge to glance around wildly in search of an impending attack. Instead, he focused on the Portal tunnel below, descended, and took the platform all the way in to land beside one of the twisting columns.

Temyl nodded approvingly. "All right. Good. Now, open up a Portal to Ennoia somewhere. I know Ser Wyland won't understand this business any more than you do."

"Yes. Ennoia."

Audsley stepped off the platform and began scanning the runes over the doors. He could send the man anywhere. Bythos, perhaps. His own quiet form of treachery. How would Temyl know until it was too late? But no, he wouldn't besmirch his own sense of honor for a petty redress. Temyl would reap the fruits of his betrayal when he died and was cast down by the Ascendant to some lower station.

"Here," he said, stopping beside a Portal. "This should suffice."

He took a deep breath, studied the runes closely, and then coughed out the painful sounds -- but nothing happened. He felt Temyl shift impatiently by his side.

Audsley studied the runes again, modulated how he would pronounce the second one, and again spat forth the agonized sounds. This time the runes flared to life, burning a vicious red, and the stone surface melted into liquid black ink.

"Very good," said Temyl, gliding forward. "Thank you for that, Magister. Most kind."

Aedelbert hissed and spat out a tongue of flame just as Temyl lunged forward, intending to skewer Audsley in the gut with his blade. Instead, the guard yelped and drew back, reflex causing him to throw his arms up in front of his face. His heels hit the bottom of the Portal, and he fell back ignominiously into the black ink and disappeared.

Audsley gasped. He'd not seen that coming, not in a million years. "Oh, thank you Aedelbert. Oh, my precious friend, what would I do without you?" Aedelbert slipped down into his arms and accepted Audsley's caresses with dignity. "That cur! But why? I'd opened his Gate. Why...? Ah."

Covering his trail. Preventing the truth from reaching whoever came after. The coward!

Audsley held Aedelbert tight and backed away from the Portal as it once again reverted to stone. What a beast of a man.

"It's just you and me now, Aedelbert," said Audsley. "Well, and whatever is hunting us." He turned to survey the stark and fearsome expanse of the room, the hundreds of corpses, the ever-present mist. "Just the three of us in all of Starkadr."
Four,
he thought, if he included the blade.

Aedelbert thrust his head up to rub it against Audsley's cheek, purring deep in his chest as the magister scritched behind his wings.

"Our foe has only struck when one of our number stood alone. Which means I must be on my guard henceforth, though what I could do if this fiend presents itself, I don't know. I don't even have a sword."

Aedelbert considered him, then gave a dismissive
mrhao.

"Yes, well, I know that a sword wouldn't be of much use. But, still, as a prop it could instill a false sense of confidence." Audsley cradled Aedelbert close. The dark was pressing in all around him. He turned quickly, but nothing was there but corpses as far as the eye could see. "Don't you worry, Aedelbert. I'll take good care of you, I promise."

What now? Would a defensive measure suffice? Should he attempt to barricade himself in some defensive corner until it was time to venture back down here to open the Agerastian Portal? No, if he was truly facing a demon, any blockade that he could create would easily be swept aside.

"Erenthil was loosing demons in hopes of turning back the Order of Purity," whispered Audsley. "Perhaps one such still roams these halls. That statue that Temyl spat upon in the uppermost room... Ah, Temyl, you have served us ill from the beginning! So, say that we face such a creature of untrammeled power and malice. How do we defeat it? The Sin Casters had means, I'm sure. After all, they imprisoned the demons to begin with. But to what end? I don't know. I don't know."

Audsley backed against the pillar. It felt good to have stone behind him as he stared out into the gloom. What he wouldn't do to have Tiron here! Or Ser Wyland, or Asho and Kethe. But no, it was just him.

Think, Audsley. Think!

"There has to be a solution. If this demon was released by Erenthil centuries ago, it was so that its power could be directed against the invaders of Starkadr. Does it see me as such? If so, there is precious little I can do to convince it otherwise. I am no Sin Caster, by any means."

But there was something... Something he'd read. "Bound them into objects of war," he whispered. That was what that solitary librarian had written in her journal.

Audsley's gaze settled on the blade imbedded in the platform. "Is that what you meant?"

He walked up onto the platform, knelt, and gingerly took hold of the hilt. Immediately the shadow presence leaped into being within Audsley's mind, only to be speared by a dozen lances of searing sunlight till it was transfixed in place. Audsley closed his eyes to focus more completely, and carefully withdrew a lance, allowing it to fade away into nothingness.

Who are you?

I am nothing. Merely your abused slave, whipped and impaled upon -

You are a demon. Aren't you?

There was a long silence. Audsley could almost feel the presence - no, the demon - thinking.

Is that your conjecture?

It is. You were bound by the Sin Casters, then freed and bound again into this sword. Why?

Audsley heard the demon snarl and plunged the lances of light deeper into its shadowy corpus.

Ah! I will speak!

Feeling slightly nauseated, even though it was a demon he was tormenting, Audsley withdrew the lances of light a fraction.

Indeed, I am become what your kind names a demon, though your taxonomy is primitive and your understanding limited by your own perception of reality. I do not know how long I have been bound, but it is true, I was placed within this blade so as to lend the platform on which you stand the power of flight.

A thousand questions bubbled up within Audsley, but he forced himself to remain focused.

Why were you bound? And to what end?