Bruce Cordell - Key of Stars

Reflected in a sheen of oily slime on the ground, he saw a woman in golden armor gutting an aboleth, then a gelatinous insect, and then a four-headed leech in quick succession. He marveled, because he couldn’t see her except in the reflection. Then she was gone again.

A figure made of iron, much dented and scraped, topped the stairs. It commenced projecting bolts of psychic energy into the backs of the aberrations that sought to swarm the green scaled giant.

Arrowing away from Taal and toward the base of the Far Manifold was Raidon. Raidon moved like a shark through a wave-tossed sea, with his sword as his dorsal fin, blazing like a cerulean beacon. Aberrations either scrambled out of his way or died on the blade.

And there was the Lady of Winter’s Peace-she who’d bound him in his own misplaced sense of duty for centuries, at least according to how much time had passed in Faerun. She was locked in mortal combat with a leviathan bat!

“Time for you to die, Malyanna,” Taal said. “And, by my hand, I … hope!” He grinned, because he’d almost said, “I swear!”

Taal ran after Raidon. The monk from Faerun had a large head start, and would reach Malyanna before Taal could. But not by much.

Raidon swept the Blade Cerulean through the flesh of something with too many arms drenched in red slime. It fell directly in his path, its limbs suddenly a frenzy of whipping branches in its death throes. He leaped over it. A surge of strength from Angul as he jumped lent his feet wings. He whisked over the heads, eyes, and waving tentacles of half a dozen creatures before they realized he was near.

The monk came down in a clear space, rolled twice, and was on his feet running forward again in one continuous movement.

A gangling horselike creature without a face tried to scramble out of Raidon’s way, so he ignored it, until one of its dozens of flailing hooves caught him in the shoulder like the blow of a mace. The force spun him around, and Angul lopped off the offending leg without his conscious direction. A heartbeat later, the pain of the strike was also smoothed away by the Blade Cerulean, and Raidon rushed on.

He reached the raised dais of pitted metal directly in front of the Far Manifold. The crystal’s overpowering size, the horrific images that squirmed behind it, and the crack that marred its face, promising apocalypse, finally gave the monk pause.

Malyanna stood before the gate as if it were merely a backdrop prepared for her presence. The woman’s eyes were flickering points of starfire. She wielded the Dreamheart in one hand like a mage’s implement. From it emerged erratic bolts of pale energy. The bolts struck a massive bat lying twitching on the ground at her feet.

Was it Japheth? Raidon wondered. No, it was Neifion, fighting Malyanna!

The giant bat shuddered. Neifion screeched out an invocation, and his bat wings burned with shimmering emerald light. Neifion leaped at the eladrin noble, and attempted to encircle Malyanna in his ensorcelled wings.

Raidon jumped onto the dais. Between them, he and the Lord of Bats-

A shadow sunk teeth into his neck, and a black paw raked his side, scraping away a swathe of skin. He’d forgotten about the Shadowfell mastiff.

The shadow hound shook its head, its hide rippling night, as it tried to snap Raidon’s neck.

The monk twisted, and drove his elbow into the side of the dog’s face with all of his weight.

Tamur howled, and its jaws relaxed. The monk spun away. Warm, sticky blood poured down his arm and torso, and a wave of dizziness made the monk falter. Where blood ran across his spellscar, it flashed into coppery steam.

The thing had nearly torn out his throat! Raidon thought.

We have no time to deal with this beast , said Angul. The blade sent a jolt of energy through its hilt, and Raidon’s pain and weakness lessened. He assumed the rent in his neck was closing.

Tamur didn’t wait-it advanced on Raidon with its hackles up and its teeth bared. Its growl was distant thunder. It had no fear of the aberration-burning fire; it was a creature of Shadow.

The shadow mastiff yelped in surprise as blood, red as the monk’s own, burst from its side. The dog tried to bite the empty air, but found no purchase for its teeth.

Another slash opened on the dog’s flank. It proved too much. Tamur bolted, its tail between its legs, blood pooling behind it.

Raidon was as surprised as Tamur. “Who-?” he started to call.

“It’s me, Raidon!” came a disembodied voice. Anusha!

“Where’s Japheth?” she said. He didn’t waste time trying to locate her exact position-his regard returned to Malyanna and Neifion’s conflict.

“Answer me!” came the woman’s voice from directly in front of him.

“He’s here,” Raidon said, “He’s alive. He’s somewhere off that way.” He waved to where he and the warlock had been set down on the ziggurat’s top by the griffon.

“Oh gods, thank you,” she murmured.

“Malyanna used the Key of Stars to unlock the Far Manifold,” said Raidon. “The crack is the precursor of the portal giving way completely. I don’t know why it hasn’t. Maybe the warlock is using his powers to hold it in check?”

“He is?” asked Anusha.

“Something is slowing it,” said Raidon. “Which may give us a chance!”

He took a step, but weakness made his legs tremble. His focus kept frustration at bay.

“Heal me, Angul,” he urged the sword. “Completely!”

Your head was nearly off , the sword returned. Bide a moment longer .

Raidon saw that Neifion had regained the air. The archfey folded his wings and dived at Malyanna. The woman scrambled to the side, but one massive wing cracked across her sternum. The blow knocked her head over heels across the dais. The Dreamheart went flying from her grasp. She landed in a heap, but her smile never left her face.

She rose, her limbs coming down to her sides as her head rose up, as if she were being drawn up by an invisible string. For some reason, the sight clawed at Raidon’s focus.

The Lord of Bats stood where Malyanna had before he’d sent her sprawling. “Close the gate, bitch of Winter’s Peace, or I will take every last drop of your blood,” he said.

The archfey advanced.

“Blood is overrated,” Malyanna said.

She glanced down. Raidon thought she’d look for the Dreamheart, but she seemed fascinated by the oily sludge seeping through the Far Manifold’s crack. It was glossy black, but within it, Raidon saw winking stars, nebula, and the hint of space without end.

The eladrin extended a toe as if testing the water.

“Acamar, corpse star and eater of your kin; lend me your all-devouring regard!” she yelled.

Rivulets of darkness poured up her leg. In a twinkling, Malyanna was covered head to foot in a shroud of night. She had become an eladrin-shaped puncture in the air. A cold wind howled, as the very air around Malyanna was drawn in.

Neifion halted. “What blasphemy from the Hells’ nethermost crater have you called upon yourself?” he said, his tone incredulous.

The thing that was Malyanna had no mouth but darkness. Her eyes were twin celestial whirlpools, one red, one blue. Her elaborate gown, which she’d somehow managed to keep pristine up to that moment, began to shred and tatter, as if mere contact with the midnight flesh was anathema to normal matter.

Malyanna’s voice rang in the air, sourceless. “You should have stayed true to our alliance, Neifion,” she said.

The avatar in Malyanna’s shape raised a hand, its palm facing Neifion. The howling wind increased tenfold, and the Lord of Bats was drawn across the intervening space.

Raidon felt the same tug of attraction, but the dais’s solid edge against his shins allowed him to resist the pull.