Volinette's Song (21 page)

Though the building was no emptier than when they’d left, it seemed much more desolate now. Somewhere high above them, a rage-fueled howl echoed through the tower. A chill ran down Volinette’s spine and she glanced at Baris. He looked back at her, his brown eyes dark. He shrugged.

“I told you,” he whispered.

“That was above, hopefully below will be better.” She crept toward the stairs leading down from the entrance level.

“Yeah, because things always get better the further underground you go.”

Volinette wanted to scold him, but in truth, she couldn’t blame him for his pessimism, or even argue with it. There were bodies, both human and demon, on the stairs leading down into the bowels of the tower. She did her best not to look at them, but she noticed that Baris studied each one, his eyes lingering until they’d passed them by.

“Why do you look at them?” she asked softly as they neared the landing to the inquisitor’s level.

“Because I want to know what we’re up against. The ones who died by claw or fang don’t scare me much. It’s the one who’ve been obviously killed by magic that scare me. I don’t want to run up against anything that’s more skilled than I am. I’ve seen how that game ends.”

Volinette saw the haunted look in his eyes and wondered if he was thinking of the dark-haired girl from their time in the makeshift dormitory. Her death had been gruesome, and if that was weighing heavily on Baris’s mind, it might explain the morose turn he’d taken. That, or the fact that there was a very real possibility that they might die down here.

“Down!” Baris shoved her out of the way just ahead of the claws that rang against the cold glass of the wall beside her.

Sharp claws raked deep furrows in the magical glass, and Volinette knew she’d have been dead from that initial blow if Baris hadn’t been with her. He summoned and fired his missiles, the gleaming light flying straight and true into the humanoid form in front of them. She slipped into the Sphere just long enough to gather the memories of forgotten flames and cast a fireball of her own. The demon’s roar died aborning as the fire engulfed it.

“Thanks,” she said to Baris as they stepped around the charred corpse.

“Don’t mention it.”

The
n they stepped onto the landing on the Inquisitors’ level, and into hell.

Chapter Twenty-One

Slick with blood, the obsidian floor of the landing was almost like walking on ice. Raw, red chunks of meat were scattered around. They might have once been human, but Volinette didn’t want to know. Even Baris kept his eyes trained straight ahead as they carefully navigated across the carnage. Working their way over to the wall, they followed the curve of the tower, leaning on it as much for support as for the knowledge that they hadn’t actually departed Solendrea for a darker, twisted realm, something more a part of the Deep Void.

Though human corpses were plentiful, there were very few demon bodies amongst them. The walls were scored and cracked by claws, but there was little indication that much magic was used. Whatever had happened here, had happened quickly and without warning. It also meant that there might be more waiting for them down here than Janessa and the old man in the cell nearby.

Slipping into sphere sight had given her an instant headache. The jumbled mess of living memories was too much for her to sort out. She’d fallen out of concentration almost as soon as she switched. It would take days, maybe even weeks, for the psychic imprint of the events that had happened here to calm to the point where sense could be made of things. In any event, it wasn’t going to do them any good now.
Without being able to rely on sphere sight to alert them to any hidden dangers, and the Seer’s Cube a broken memory, they’d have to explore things the hard way. With their eyes and minds, and without the aid of clever magic to help them along.

“What a mess,” Baris hissed. Volinette wondered if he meant the floor or the
Sphere, but decided not to ask for clarification. She didn’t want to know.

Three long corridors set out from the landing. Volinette knew that the middle corridor was the one that had the door to the dungeon at its terminus. One of the other two led to offices, the storeroom
, and privy she’d discovered earlier. She assumed that the other led to similar offices, but she couldn’t know for sure. That lack of knowledge set her teeth on edge. There was no telling what they’d find down that corridor, or what might be waiting there for them to pass by on the way to their final destination.

“Middle corridor, all the way at the end, there’s a door,” she whispered, pointing to the hallway in question. Baris just nodded. His eyes had taken on a dull glow. He’d called on the power of the Quintessential Sphere and was holding it in reserve. It wasn’t much, but it might be enough to give them the edge if they came across something unexpected. Concentrating on the power of the
Sphere, she summoned her own memories of light and fire and held them in abeyance.

They stood at the open end of the corridor and looked down it. It might only have been about sixty feet long, but it seemed like it went on for miles. Every doorway was a gaping maw, waiting to slash them with razor sharp teeth as they passed. Volinette took Baris’s
hand and they crept down the corridor. They picked up their feet and put them down with such care that they didn’t make a sound. It was an agonizingly slow process, only allowing them to move a couple feet per minute. Beads of sweat stood out on Baris’s forehead, which was furrowed with his effort.

Screaming echoed off the walls of the corridor and seemed to slam into them from all sides. It was a hideous sound that sent them both into a wild panic, pelting toward the end of the hall. Almost to the end, Volinette remembered what she’d seen in the Seer’s Cube. There was so much iron and steel that neither of them would be able to cast. They’d be trapped up against the door with no way to defend themselves. Neither one of them had a knife hanging on their belt.

Volinette grabbed Baris by the collar, hauling him back with all her strength. He stumbled backward, knocking her off balance and sending them both sprawling on the cool glass floor. Heavy footfalls slapped toward them from the far end of the corridor, and Volinette’s head snapped up to face the demon bearing down on them.

Vaguely shaped like a woman, it had two heads atop a pair of stunted necks. Wrinkled breasts lay flat against its chest like empty flour sacks. Its dusky gray skin was drawn drum tight across its bones, making the ribs and joints stand out in stark relief against the lights in the corridor. All four of its eyes were locked on them
. It seemed to recognize that they were vulnerable.

Opening both mouths, the hideous creature screamed again. A tidal wave of sound barreled toward them. The wave lifted Baris and Volinette inches off the ground and threw them back, closer to the door at the
end of the hall. She could feel the pain of the steel lancing into her chest, as if a white hot needle pushed through her breastbone. The pain in her head was different, a dull ache with an almost subliminal hum that made it hard to think.

As soon as the banshee stopped to draw breath, Volinette scrambled forward, sparing only a moment to check over her shoulder to see if Baris was following. He was, but he’d gotten a late start. She was out in front of him by several feet. Every fiber of her being protested moving toward the thing that glared at them with menacing eyes. She wanted to turn and run the other way, but she knew that wasn’t an option. It was kill, or be killed.

A bolt of light streaked past her. Baris might have been farther behind, but he wasn’t wasting any time going on the offensive. The banshee dodged to one side, neatly avoiding the projectile, but it was enough time for Volinette to do what she needed. She slipped into the Sphere, slowing the world around her. Summoning the living memories of geysers and whirlwinds, she waited for the sphere-song.

“Sing through me,” she said in the timeless void of the Ethereal Realm, and the Quintessential Sphere answered.

The notes that left her were as pure and true as any she’d ever sung. The memories and magic flowed out of her, merging with the melody that burst from her lips. Tendrils of blue-white light encircled the banshee, trapping it in a cage of ethereal energy, singing in harmony to the words coming from the sphere. It screamed a third time, but this time the sound seemed muted, as if coming from a great distance.

As Volinette’s song reached its crescendo, the writhing tendrils of magical music snapped up, slamming the banshee into the ceiling of the corridor. Its necks snapped like brittle twigs, the body compressing down to a fraction of its former height as blood and gore spurted from splits in the flesh. As the magic dissipated, the corpse fell to the floor with a wet smack and was still.

Baris walked up beside her. He looked at the corpse, then to Volinette, and back again.

“Remind me never to make you mad.”

She glanced at him sideways. “Aren’t you glad you decided to come with me?”

“Oh, yes.” He said drily. “Thrilled. Especially since you left out the part about the door that wants to kill us as well as keep us out.”

“Isn’t getting Janessa back worth a little pain?”

“No.”

Volinette sighed. “There’s still time for you to go back.”

“No, thank you. I think I’ll stay with the scary
Quintessentialist who kills things with her jaunty tunes.”

“Then stop complaining
, and let’s get Janessa and get out of here.”

The closer they got to the door, the worse the pain became. By the time they were ready to open it, it was all they could do to remain on their feet. The agony was so intense, it threatened to drive them to their knees.

“Open…it…already…” Baris grunted, his eyes narrowed slits against the pain.

Volinette braced herself for the jolt to come and grabbed the handle of the door. Fire flashed up her arm,
burying itself in her chest. She screamed, and yanked as hard as she could.

Nothing happened. No matter how hard she pulled, the door wouldn’t come open. She let go of the handle that seemed to be searing itself into her flesh and bounded back away from the door. Far enough that she could think. She watched Baris try the door himself, crying o
ut in much the same way she had. He, too, admitted defeat and retreated to a safe distance.

“All this way and the damn door is locked?” Baris kicked the wall of the corridor, then swore and grabbed his foot. He hopped around cursing for a full minute. In any other situation, Volinette would have found his antics hysterical. Now, she was furious with him.

“Stop it! Do you want to have every demon in the tower down here on top of us?”

Her harshly hissed reprimand sobered him abruptly. He stopped jumping about and stood still, his head cocked to one side, listening. She listened too, but heard nothing. It seemed that they weren’t in danger of any threat in the immediate area.

“Adamon’s office,” she said, thinking aloud. “There must be a key in Adamon’s office.”

“Oh. Hell. No.” Baris shook his head wildly. “We’re not going back up to Adamon’s office and then coming back here. That’s not happening. So you summon up thoughts of butterflies and fairy farts, or whatever it is you do to make the
Sphere sing to you, and you open that damn door.”

“I can’t br
eak down the door! Adamon will—”

“Will what? Blame you for something the demons are going to do anyway?” Baris lost what control of his temper he had left. “OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!”

“Well you don’t have to be rude,” she snapped. She turned back to the face the door and slipped into the Sphere. Wind and waves seemed most appropriate, forces that pushed and moved inexorably forward. The song was brief, not even a song so much as a melodic phrase, but it did the job. When she opened her eyes, the door lay splintered in pieces no larger than a toothpick. The metal banding was twisted and thrown into the corridor beyond, and the fittings were tossed around like a child’s discarded toys.

“Now,” Baris said striding forward
, “let’s get Janessa and get the hell out of here.”

They ran down the corridor, ignoring the pain that lashed at them each time they passed a cell or got too near the railings that ran down the walls. As they got near to the end of the hallway, Volinette raised her hand.

“Slow down, I want to check on the old man who was here. We should rescue him too. He was raving when they brought me in, but no one deserves to die down here. Not even a madman.”

They approached the cell slowly, but they needn’t have worried. It was still locked tight, as were all the cells. The demons hadn’t cared enough with what was beyond the door to penetrate it, so things were as they had been when she’d
last seen them. Well, almost.

The old man who had been huddled with his blankets when Volinette had seen him
last, now lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling. His eyes were dull and glazed. Never again would he be troubled by anything in the physical realm. His loss stung Volinette deeply, though she couldn’t say why. Tears sprung to her eyes and she swiped them away with the back of her hand. She’d made the right decision, coming down here. No one deserved to die this way, not Janessa, not anyone. Baris glanced at her, but said nothing.

They moved to the last set of cells and Volinette peered through the bars. Janessa still sat against the far wall, mostly hidden by shadow. For a brief, horrifying moment, Volinette thought she might be dead too, but then she saw the girl’s leg move. The chain attached to the leg dragged across the floor, the metallic ring seeming far too loud in such a confined space.

“Get her and let’s go,” Baris whispered under his breath. He glanced over his shoulder toward the door, and it wasn’t difficult for Volinette to guess his worry.

“Hello?” Janessa said, her voice small and timid. In fact, she didn’t sound like Janessa at all. She sounded like a scared little girl. “Is someone there?”

Volinette looked at Baris and he looked back at her. Somehow, she hadn’t planned for this part. Why was she so certain that Janessa would even accept her help? What if she told them that she wanted to stay in the dungeon and take her chances, what then? The entire ordeal now seemed to be as foolish as Baris had made it out to be from the start. A lump in her throat made it hard to swallow. She wasn’t sure how she was going to speak around it. She cleared her throat.

“Um, Janessa? It’s Volinette and Baris. We’re…uh…here to help you.”

Silence. The only sound in the dungeon was the grating of Janessa’s chains sliding across the floor as she got to her feet. Now the girl was entirely hidden in shadow. Volinette had a vision of a demon in the darkness. A demon that had torn off the girl’s legs and was speaking with her voice. Volinette put the thought out of her head, forcing the fear that was welling up inside her down deep into her belly. There would be plenty of time to be afraid later. Now, she had to finish this.

Janessa stepped into the pale light cast by the torch bracketed in the corridor. Her hair was askew, unkempt, and greasy. Her eyes were haunted, deep pools of darkness surrounded by swollen, dark skin. She’d been crying. A lot, by the looks of things. She walked to the limit of the chain, close enough to the bars of the cell that she could grab them with both hands. Aside from a little wince, there was no indication that she felt the pain of the metal against her flesh at all.

“No one’s been here for a long time,” Janessa said absently, as if she were only half paying attention to the words she was saying. “There was a fight, I think. Something happened. There was shouting. A lot of shouting. Then there was screaming. There was so much screaming that I thought it might never end, but then it did…and the quiet was worse. Then I wished that the screaming would come back.”