The Gates of Night: The Dreaming Dark - Book 3 (3 page)

Lei blinked. The warforged were speaking, but there was no time to listen. Pierce needed her. There had to be an answer. Physical force was useless against Harmattan. He could reform from any injury. His body wasn’t a body at all. It was a mass of shards held together by magical force.

Held together by magical force
.

No time to waste. Lei visualized a pattern in her mind and traced it on the palm of her left glove. As exhausted as she was, she found a last ember of energy within her, just enough power to complete the ritual.

The warforged hadn’t noticed her. The blue warrior had one of her blades leveled at Pierce’s face, the
threat unmistakable. Offering a prayer to Onatar, Lei clenched her fist and made a swift throwing motion.

Only the faintest ripple in the air marked the passage of the energy she’d released—until it struck Harmattan.

Agony tore through Lei. She’d woven a charm of abjuration into her gauntlet, a burst of power that could shatter other spells. During the War she’d used this technique to counter the arcane blasts of enemy sorcerers. But she’d never touched such a powerful force. It was as if she’d tried to snuff a candle with her fingers and found her hand in a bonfire. Dousing this flame seemed impossible, and every instant the pain grew. But she wouldn’t let go. She remembered Harmattan’s mocking words, the pain as his servant Hydra cut off her finger, and she clung to that rage, using it as a pillar against the pain.

Harmattan shattered, as if a figure formed of sand struck by a mighty gust of wind: His body dissolved, scattering mirror-bright shards across the floor.

Indigo responded instantly. As Lei struggled to her feet, the warforged assassin was already turning toward her. Under normal circumstances, Lei’s powers might have proved a match for this foe; she had destroyed one of the warrior Hydra’s bodies earlier in the day. But she was drained. The attack on Harmattan had used her last reserves, and she didn’t have the energy to fuel any form of artifice. In her current state, a battle with Indigo would be brief and unpleasant.

But even as Indigo turned to face Lei, there was a flash of metal and the warforged tumbled to the ground.

Pierce!

Freed from Harmattan’s grasp, Pierce brought Indigo down with a well-placed kick. Lei felt a wave of
relief—but it soon turned to fear. Indigo regained her feet, and the warforged fought in earnest. Pierce lost his flail, and with Harmattan’s fall Indigo fought more fiercely than before. Lei winced as a well-placed thrust sheared through Pierce’s left shoulder. For a creature of flesh and blood the wound might have been mortal, but Pierce continued the fight. Nonetheless, the outcome wasn’t in doubt. Weaponless, Pierce could slow Indigo but not stop her.

“Run, my lady!” he said as he dodged another blow. “Take Daine and go!”

Indigo hissed in fury, and her next blow shaved a layer of mithral from Pierce’s chest.

I’m not leaving you to her, Lei thought. She reached into her satchel, the magical bag that held her gear. She was too weak to wield her staff, but there had to be something …

There
. Her fingers found a long wand. She smiled, drawing the weapon. It might have proven useless against Harmattan, but Lei had a hunch that Indigo wasn’t so durable.

Unfortunately, what Indigo lacked in armor, she made up for in speed. Indigo danced around Pierce, never staying in one place for more than a second, and the last thing Lei wanted to do was hit Pierce.

Now!

Pierce pulled back, and there was a boom of thunder as Lei released the lightning bound in the wand. The energy lit the chamber with a brilliant burst of light—but when Lei’s vision cleared, Indigo still stood. The warforged had completely evaded the bolt of energy. She charged at Lei, her black blades spread like wings, ready to shear through flesh and bone. And Pierce was too far away to help her.

A chill ran through Lei’s heart. Her instincts screamed
flee
, but the warforged was faster than she was—and there was nowhere to run. There was only one chance. As Indigo swept toward her, Lei steeled her nerves, raised her wand, and released the final charge of energy.

This time the bolt caught the warforged squarely in the chest. Indigo staggered backward, arcs of electricity crackling around her limbs. The blue enamel of her torso blackened and scorched, but she remained on her feet.

What is this going to take? Lei kept the wand pointed at Indigo. It was drained of power, but the warforged didn’t know that. Lei struggled against exhaustion, fighting to keep her fear from showing on her face. Try me.

Indigo watched her warily. She was clearly hurt, but she’d managed to dodge the first blast. She might be able to dodge another.

“Enough.” It was Pierce. “You can’t win this. Don’t make us destroy you.”

Was that a note of sorrow Lei could hear in his voice? Or desperation?

“You already have,” Indigo said, her eyes fixed on Lei, but her words were for Pierce. “I trusted you. I thought you were … my brother. But you choose this one over me. Not once but twice.” Her armblades retracted half an inch, then extended again. A nervous tic? “Perhaps you will destroy me this day. But she will die with me.”

Indigo spread her blades, leaping forward in a blur of blackened metal. But there was another flash of motion, another flare of light. A foot of steel burst through her abdomen. Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but it seemed to burn with an inner radiance.

Daine’s sword.

Whether the lightning bolt had caused more damage than it appeared or some unknown magic was hidden in the gleaming sword, the blow brought the warforged to a halt. Indigo gazed down at the blade. Then she fell to her knees, the sound of metal on stone curiously muted. The light faded from her crystal eyes and she collapsed, deadly grace reduced to inert wood and metal. And there, behind her, stood Daine.

Lei fell into his arms, giving in to her exhaustion. She lay against him, her eyes closed, finding comfort in his warmth. She knew he was speaking, but the words just washed over her in a comforting wave. Then a thought penetrated her weary mind and jerked her back to the world.

Harmattan
.

She pulled back from Daine. “We have to get out of here.”

Daine frowned, laying his hands on her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

She looked over at the archway, at the shards of metal scattered across the floor. “He’s not dead. I don’t know how long the effect will last, but we may only have minutes to spare. Maybe less. If he recovers—I can’t do it again. I can’t.”

Daine scowled at the remnants of the warforged leader. “Well, that’s good news.” He squeezed her shoulder and smiled, though she could see it was forced. “Pierce, let’s go.”

Pierce stood over Indigo’s body, staring at the fallen warforged. After a moment he pulled the sword from her back. He joined Daine and Lei and presented the blade, handle first. He said nothing.

Daine sighed as he took the sword. He glanced around the room, searching for anything they might be leaving behind. His gaze passed over Tashana’s corpse, the fallen Indigo, and the remnants of Harmattan. Was there a flicker of movement? A shift among the metal shards?

Lei pulled at his arm. “We need to leave. Now.”

“I know. But …” He looked around again. “Where’s Jode?”

I
n their final battle, Tashana had torn into Daine’s left arm. Her shadowy claws had cut through chainmail with ease, leaving deep gouges in the flesh below. Yet this wound wasn’t bothering him; if anything, his arm was numb. Instead, he was troubled by a burning sensation across his back. He’d noticed it the instant he’d awakened: soreness and itching, as if he’d rolled in fireweed. But there was no time for back scratching.

“Where’s Jode?” he said.

Lei and Pierce glanced at him, shock and concern painted across Lei’s face.

“Jode is … dead, Daine.”

“It’s a long story. But I was just talking to him, and here I am, so I assume …” He glanced around the chamber. “Jode!” he called out. His voice echoed off of the walls.

“You were just
talking
to him?” Lei pulled her staff from her satchel and leaned heavily upon it. “Daine, he’s
dead.”

“I know!” he snapped. His back itched, and he considered scraping off the skin with his dagger. “I was dreaming, and he was there, and he said—”

“You were
dreaming?
Are you even listening to yourself?”

“I’m not imagining this! It was
him
. The vial I was carrying, the liquid, it must have—”

A loud rattling interrupted him … a shiver running through the shards of metal scattered across the floor.

“We don’t have time for this!” Lei said. “That thing could pull itself together at any moment. And I don’t have the strength to bring it down again. We need to get out of here now!”

“She is correct.” Pierce had abandoned the shattered remnants of his flail in favor of his longbow, and he had an arrow nocked to the string. “Whatever you may believe, Jode is not in this chamber. And we are in poor condition to fight any foe, least of all this one.”

“You’re right,” Daine said. He knew his encounter with Jode had been more than just a dream, and he’d assumed that Jode would just …
appear
when he woke up. But Jode wasn’t here, and this wasn’t the time for analyzing dreams. He took a deep breath, clearing his thoughts and considering the situation. “If these two made it inside, perhaps their little friend with the spiked arms is here as well. Pierce, take point. Scout the path to the front gate, then return to the central chamber. We’ll meet you there.”

Pierce leapt across the shards and disappeared into the hallway. Following the motion, Daine’s gaze was drawn to one of the pieces in the rubble. He plucked out an object battered and scorched, but quite recognizable. The head of a warforged soldier.

As he picked it up, two sensations swept over Daine. The first was a sense of familiarity: staring at the face and the sigil engraved into the forehead. He
was certain he’d seen this soldier before. And now it occurred to him …

Greetings, Daine. It’s been a long time
.

The creature knew who he was. How?

At the same time, a wave of energy flowed out of the head … a faint, numbing tingle. As the sensation spread across his body, the links of his chainmail began shaking and pulling against him, as if caught in a powerful magnetic force. Daine tried to let go of the head, but he couldn’t pry his fingers loose. The pressure on his armor grew greater, and the shards around him began to rustle.

“Lei!” he called.

Before he’d even completed the word, the stinging pain replaced the mystic tingle. Lei had smashed the head with her darkwood staff, catching Daine’s fingers in the process. The head struck the nearest wall with a satisfying crash. The force pulling at Daine’s armor disappeared, but as he rubbed his hand, he saw one of the metal shards skid across the floor toward the head, immediately followed by another.

“Are you hurt?” Lei asked.

Great, he thought. First I’m a madman, now I’m a fool.

He clenched his injured fist; the pain helped shield him from his embarrassment and the burning across his back. “Let’s catch up with Pierce,” he said. “I’m beginning to see why you want to get away from this thing.”

The two sprinted out of the room. Behind them they could hear the sound of metal on stone, as an ever-increasing stream of shards flowed across the floor toward Harmattan’s head.

Time was running out.

Daine was injured. He wanted to tear the skin off of his back. An unstoppable monster followed them. The mystery of Jode was heavy on his mind. And he was doing his best to prepare for whatever enemy might unexpectedly appear.

But the heart of the monolith still took his breath away.

Karul’tash was a hollow tower, an astonishing work of engineering. Daine could barely see across the central chamber, let alone spy the distant ceiling. He’d seen tall towers before. He’d spent much of the last year in Sharn, and the central spires of the city dwarfed the monolith. But it wasn’t the size of the tower that was so impressive. It was what lay within. An obsidian column filled the center of the chamber, covered with glowing sigils and inlaid with a dozen metals and gemstones. The sheer mass of the cylinder was astonishing, making it all the more impressive that it hovered suspended in the air, a good ten feet off the chamber floor.