The Gates of Night: The Dreaming Dark - Book 3 (4 page)

Dozens of rings floated around the central pillar, a myriad of metals and widths. The rings rose and fell, spinning in different directions and speeds.

And then there were the spheres: twelve crystal orbs drifted around the pillar. From the ground, it was easy to imagine them as a strange form of decoration. But Daine knew better. These were planar carriages, each one designed to carry passengers to another level of reality.

“One’s missing,” Lei said.

“Lakashtai,” Daine said. “And somehow, I don’t think she’s going to come back on her own.” He gestured at the tables scattered around the room, altars
covered with glowing crystals. The magic exceeded his skills, but earlier Lei had used these to control one of the spheres. Daine could see her exhaustion, and he hated to make her exert herself, but there was no choice. “I need you to get this thing working again.”

“You want to know where Lakashtai went?” Lei said.

“For a start.”

Lei hobbled toward the bank of lights, leaning on her staff. Daine sprinted around the column, and what he saw made his heart sink. He’d brought two allies into the tower, and these warriors had helped them defeat the firebinders. One of these soldiers lay on the ground before Daine, the injuries so severe that it took Daine a moment to identify the corpse as that of the man, Shen’kar. Half of the dark elf’s body had been sheared away, and the rest of corpse was covered with cuts, as if he’d been caught in a storm of razors—or Harmattan’s whirling shards.

Damn it
. Daine had spent more time fighting the savage dark elves than as their ally, but over the last hour he’d come to respect Shen’kar—and whatever their differences, no warrior deserved to die like that.

“Captain.” Pierce had a body in his arms. A woman, limp, her pitch-black skin covered with cuts. The other dark elf. “She is seriously wounded, but her condition is stable.”

Daine nodded. “Follow me. What did you find?”

“The gate remains open. The wards are in place. And the Sulatar elves are still camped at the perimeter of the magical defenses; I saw at least three of their flying sleds.”

“Wonderful.”

They found Lei working at the crystal consoles. “Status?” Daine said.

“I can’t recover the sphere that Lakashtai used to escape,” Lei said. “But she went to—”

“Dal Quor,” Pierce said.

“That’s right,” Lei said, surprised. “How did you—”

“Later,” Daine said. “Once we don’t have that trash heap on our tails. I was hoping we’d be able to leave out the front door, but that’s impossible.”

“I can deactivate the wards—”

Daine shook his head. “There’s an army camped out there, waiting for their high priest to return and lead them to the promised land. Even if we found some way to get past them we can’t just leave this place in their hands. Who knows what we’ve already unleashed by helping Lakashtai? Besides, if your rusty friend can’t lower the wards himself, we’re doing the world a favor by keeping him here.”

Lei frowned. “So you’re saying we just give up?”

“You know me … I love to give up.” Daine forced a grin. “Come on, Lei. You’re our resident magical genius. You’re the one who told me what these orbs are.”

“Carriages to other planes. You want to leave in one of the orbs?”

“Want to? No.” A vision of Shen’kar’s ravaged corpse flashed through Daine’s mind. “But it’s better than the alternative. Can you do it?”

Lei looked down at the panel. “I … I think so. But where do you want to go?”

“Since when am I an expert on other planes? I want to go
home
, Lei. For now, I’ll take anywhere that’s not, say, a pit of endless fire.”

“Even a plain of endless ice?”

Daine blinked. “That’s the only other option?”

“Well, it’s a possibility. I can’t access all of the spheres. It must have something to do with the current
conjunctions of the planes. And there’s hardly any point to going to Dolurrh in an effort to avoid death.”

Even Daine had heard of Dolurrh, the plane where the souls of the dead were drained of all memories of their former lives.

“Use your best judgment. But do it quickly!” Perhaps it was his imagination, but he thought he could hear the sound of metal on metal coming from the distant chamber where they’d left Harmattan.

“Perfect!” Lei said. Light flared around her hands, and one of the enormous orbs descended to the floor. “Well, not perfect, but given the alternatives …”

Now Daine was sure of it: a metallic roar came from the hallway. “Let’s go!” he yelled, sprinting toward the orb.

A portal had opened in the side of the massive opalescent sphere, and Daine vaulted up and through it. The interior was a disappointment. Aside from a tall ledge running around the edge of the chamber, the room was completely featureless; Daine couldn’t see any way to make the sphere move. But that wasn’t his job. Lei was right behind him, and Daine pulled her up and inside.

Lei sat crosslegged at the exact center of the chamber, and the room lit up. A complex geometric pattern spread out around her, traced in lines of fire. Runes and sigils appeared on every surface. Each letter was as long as Daine’s hand, a reminder that this was the work of giants. Lei studied the walls. She muttered a word in a harsh and unfamiliar tongue, and one of the glowing symbols on the wall flared brighter for an instant.

Pierce was at the portal. He handed the injured elf to Daine. Beneath her chitin armor, the woman was a
waif and seemed like a feather in his arms. A moment later, the warforged was aboard.

“Lei! The door!” Daine cried.

“I’m working on it!”

Now the roar was growing louder, a hurricane howl combined with the gnashing of metal on metal. “We’re about to get another passenger!”

“I’m trying!” Lei said.

They saw him: a glittering cloud, steel death racing toward them.

“Hul’kla’tesh!”
Lei cried.

It couldn’t have been any closer; a handful of steel shards fell to the floor as the portal snapped shut. A terrible scraping sound came from the walls, metal gouging at crystal.

“He’s all around us,” Lei said.

“Then get us out of here!”

Lei closed her eyes, her hands set against the floor. Patterns of color danced over the floor, and they felt the orb rising.

Height alone didn’t stop Harmattan. They could still hear the flurry of steel striking the walls of the sphere.

“Hang on!” Lei yelled. She sang a chain of harsh syllables, words flashing across the walls as she spoke.

And they fell out of the world.

T
his vehicle has just transitioned through a planar barrier. Your companions are suffering from vertigo and nausea as a result
.

As always, Pierce
knew
Shira’s thoughts as much as he heard them. When he looked at Lei, her discomfort was a simple fact. Glancing at the dark elf warrior, Pierce could sense the extent of her injuries, how she hovered on the edge of death. He carefully set the injured woman down on the ledge that circled the chamber.

“Was that it?” Daine said. The scraping sound of Harmattan’s attack faded away, and the glowing lines on the floor pulsed.

Lei opened her eyes. “Yes,” she said. She lay back against the floor, her legs still crossed. “We’re safe now.”

“Safe? We seem to have very different ideas of safe,” Daine said, scratching his back. “Still … good work, both of you. Where are we?”

“Nowhere.”

“And how far is that from somewhere?” Daine said.

“About as far as can be. Until I complete the sequence and open the door, we’re caught between worlds. We’re … hypothetical, if you will.”

Ethereal
.

“Ethereal,” Pierce said, echoing Shira’s thought.

“That’s right. We can stay here as long as we want.” Lei spread her arms, stretching against the floor. “I’m completely exhausted. If I’m going to tend your wounds—or help our drow passenger—I’m going to need some sleep first. We should be safe here.”

“Should
be?” Daine said.

“Nothing’s certain.” Lei shrugged. “I’m not exactly a seasoned planar traveler. It’s possible there are, I don’t know, crystal orb-eating ethereal whales drifting about—”

There are no crystal orb-eating ethereal whales
. Pierce refrained from sharing Shira’s observation.

“—but if so, I’ve never heard of them. And if something does attack us, I could finish the transition with a word.”

“And then we’ll be somewhere,” Daine said.

“Yes.”

“And that will be?”

“Thelanis.”

Daine sighed and sat down. “I hate to disappoint you, Lei, but I don’t even know if that’s a city, a country, or a plane of existence.”

“Ignorant savage.” Lei sat up. “It’s a plane. Have you heard of the Faerie Court?”

“A magic realm filled with baby-stealing spirits, bottomless cauldrons of gold, and sinister hags who curse arrogant princesses?”

“You don’t have to go to Thelanis to find a hag,” Lei said. “But that’s the one. According to the stories, it’s much like the world we’re used to. There’s just more magic around. Spirits in the water and the trees, that sort of thing. What’s important is that it’s supposed to be one of the easiest realms to travel to or from. The reason we
have so many faerie tales is because people accidentally fall into the realm, or because the spirits of Thelanis—the fey—make their way to Eberron. So not only is it not a lake of fire or endless tundra, but with luck we should be able to find a path home.”

It’s not quite that simple
. Again, Pierce chose to ignore the alien thought.

“It’s not quite that simple,” Daine said. “Sovereign and Flame, what have we
done?
Tashana, Lakashtai … I don’t know what to think.”

“So don’t,” Lei said. “Sleep.”

Daine sighed, but he finally nodded. “You’re right, I suppose.”

“Was there ever any doubt?” Lei pulled blankets and pillows from her pack; the magical satchel held an astonishing amount of supplies, and within moments Lei was laying out two bedrolls.

“Do you have enough for three?” Daine said. He’d made his way over to the wounded drow woman and was studying her wounds. He carefully lifted her off the ledge.

“I only packed for the two of us.” Even Pierce could hear the slight chill in Lei’s voice. It wasn’t much of a surprise. Daine had had dealings with these dark-skinned elves, or drow as they appeared to be called. But Lei and Pierce had been captured by drow, Lei almost killed by them. This woman had helped to rescue them, and it was clear that she was of a different tribe from their enemies. But the half-drow Gerrion had also rescued them from one enemy, only to betray them at the end. This woman was a stranger, and after Gerrion and Lakashtai it was hardly surprising that Lei would be suspicious of strangers.

Then Pierce noticed something—an anomaly, a
trivial detail that had slipped by even his keen eyes in the excitement.

“My lady,” he said. “Your hand.”

She glanced over at him. “What?”

“You are no longer injured.”

Lei dropped the blanket, and Daine almost dropped the woman he was carrying as he rushed to Lei’s side. She held her hand out, as if it were a treasure. Earlier in the day, the warforged Hydra had severed the smallest finger on her left hand. Her glove was still damaged, but her finger was fully restored. She wiggled it in wonder.

“I … I didn’t even notice,” she said. “I think it’s been back since I woke up. I knew something felt strange.”

“How is this even possible?” Daine said.

“I don’t know,” Lei said, shaking her fist happily. “And you know what? I’m not going to think about it until I’ve slept for, oh, a few days.”

“Well, I don’t feel right about leaving an injured woman on the hard floor,” Daine said, carefully laying the dark elf down on one of the blankets. “So I suppose you and I will just have to share.”

“Or
you’re
going to have to sleep on the hard floor,” Lei said. But she was smiling, and she let Daine pull her down to the other blanket.

Lei and Daine slept. The wounded elf still lay unconscious. Pierce studied the patterns on the walls. He always felt a vague discomfort when his companions were asleep. Even though he knew the experience was both harmless and necessary, it was completely foreign to him. The only time a warforged lost consciousness was if it was critically damaged, wounded so badly that
it would need to be repaired before it could awaken. Early in his life, Pierce had assumed that sleeping humans were injured, and he’d been concerned that his companions might never awaken unless treated by a healer. He quickly learned better, but nonetheless, watching others sleep had always made him uncomfortable.