Maggie Furey - Aurian

Shia glared at him. “Would you like to try?” she said pointedly.

Anvar sighed. “I’m sorry, Shia. I don’t know what to do, either. We’ve been all around this thing, and there isn’t an entrance anywhere.” He gazed up at the steep, glassy sides. “And she couldn’t have climbed—”

His words were drowned by the deafening roar of an explosion. The cone blazed with a piercing viridian light, the entire edifice rocked right down to its foundations. Anvar and the others were thrown down as the earth cracked and lurched beneath their feet. A great wind seemed to come from nowhere, howling and shrieking between the city’s buildings and whipping up choking clouds of dust and debris.

Anvar struggled unsuccessfully to rise. “She is in there!” he cried, above the noise of the sudden storm. “She must be! Great Gods, what has she done this time?”

Anvar pressed his body flat to the ground as the earth shuddered and heaved. Nearby he could see the others, all similarly flattened by the force of the tearing gale and the quaking surface beneath them. He choked on the wind-borne dust, and rubbed his streaming eyes to see Raven nearby. The winged girl, unable to fly in the storm, was whey-faced and weeping with terror. Even as he watched, a gust caught her beneath her wings and half lifted her from the ground, rolling her over and over. Bohan grabbed her wrist as she slid past, his weight providing an anchor for the winged girl who caught at his clothes with her free hand and clung to him, her face contorted in a silent shriek.

A hideous grating sound from above his head drew Anvar’s attention upward. Before his horrified eyes, a network of gaping cracks snaked up the tower’s green sides. “We have to get away from here!” he screamed, trying to scramble to his feet only to be thrown down again by the keening wind that snatched his words away.

Shia, because of their mental link, was the only one who heard him. “How?” The one word was harsh with fear.

The cracks were widening, and to his dismay, Anvar saw that nearby buildings were suffering the same fate. The circle of destruction was spreading out from the tower to engulf not only the entire city, but the tortured bones of the mountain itself. He flung himself to one side, as the ground tore apart beneath him in a widening fissure. Too late! Anvar screamed as the earth crumbled beneath him, pitching him headfirst into the yawning chasm whose edges were already closing back together.

Pain shot up his leg as a strong grip closed around his ankle. Anvar lurched to a halt, dangling upside down over the closing gap. Faint as he was with terror, he hardly felt his other ankle being seized, knowing only that he was being pulled to safety as the jagged lip of the chasm gouged painfully into his stomach and ribs, ripping his thin desert robe. The grinding edges of rock snapped shut, missing his trailing fingers by inches. He felt himself being hauled roughly to his feet—and came face-to-face with Aurian.

“Get inside!” She shoved him toward a doorway—an aperture in the face of the green tower that had not been there before. Shia was crouched inside, her face creased in a snarl. Bohan, fighting the gale with all his strength, was tugging the winged girl toward the entrance. Anvar felt Aurian’s arm around him, forcing his faltering steps up the spiral corridor that wound into the heart of the disintegrating building. With a quick glance back to see that the others were following, she dragged him forward. Choking showers of green dust fell from the crazed ceiling above, blinding them. Anvar’s feet slid and stumbled as chunks of emerald erupted from the cracking floor. Aurian suddenly halted, cursing, and he saw that the way was blocked by a cave-in. Before Anvar could blink, the Mage had raised her free hand, holding something that blazed with a dazzling green light. There was a blinding flash, an explosion of magic that knocked him clean off his feet, and the passage was clear once more. Aurian wrenched him upright, almost pulling his arm from its socket, but Anvar pulled back, frightened by the unbelievable intensity of the power he had just witnessed. “What was that?” he shrieked.

“Staff of Earth,” Aurian replied brusquely, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, “Come on!”

The Mage hauled the astounded Anvar along until they entered a circular charnjjer where a golden mosaic glinted through the fallen dust on the floor. Pulling him across the chamber at a half run, she pushed him against the far wall. His heart lurched as he felt himself falling—he put out his arms to save himself—and his hands passed straight through the stone as his body was gripped by the viscous substance of a portal like the one in the oasis.

Once he had passed through into the darkness beyond, familiarity gave Anvar the presence of mind to scramble out of the way of the entrance, so as not to impede the others. Shia was next—he could feel her coat, gritty with dust as she brushed past him, spitting and snarling—followed by an hysterical Raven. The winged girl was shrieking at the top of her voice and striking out blindly in terror. A flailing wingtip caught Anvar in the face as she struggled, but though he wanted to reassure her, he was wheezing helplessly, unable to catch his breath, and crippled by a stitch in his side. He felt a warm, sticky trickle of blood down his ribs and belly where the skin had been torn on the edge of the chasm. Like all flesh wounds, the abrasions stung furiously, exacerbated by the sweat that drenched his body. Though he was stunned by Aurian’s revelation, all he could see was the jaws of the chasm closing . . . closing . . .

Raven’s struggles had ceased. Bohan was comforting her with his silent, solid presence. The chamber was becoming cramped with a further pressure of bodies as Aurian joined them. “Cover your eyes!” Her voice rang through the darkness. The flash of Magelight was visible even through Anvar’s closed eyelids and shielding hands, but for a dreadful moment nothing happened. He fought a stifling panic, imagining himself trapped and crushed within the collapsing tower. Suddenly, after what seemed an eternity, his stomach leapt into his throat as the chamber began to lurch unsteadily downward in a series of shuddering jerks. “Thank goodness! I thought we’d left it too late, for a minute.” Aurian’s matter-of-fact voice was like balm. With a sigh of relief, Anvar let himself slip into oblivion.

“There, my friend—does that feel better?” It did. The damp cloth was soft and cool against Anvar’s face, washing away the gritty dust that clogged his eyes and mouth. He opened his eyes, and saw the plump, comforting face of Eliizar’s wife. “Aurian, he wakes,” she called.

Anvar was reassured by the cheerful ring in her voice— until he saw the Mage. Aurian had changed\ She filled the whole of his consciousness, looking taller, fiercer, more vibrant and more beautiful than he had ever seen her, glowing from within with an awesome power that surrounded her like a cloak of light, Anvar swallowed hard. This was a Goddess—some mighty Queen out of legend! This was not his Aurian!

“What—what happened to you?” He got the words out with difficulty, awed by her presence and fighting an urge to shrink away from her. “You’re different.”

Aurian shook her head. “It’s the same old me, I’m afraid. Do I look so dreadful?” Her smile was replaced by a fleeting frown.

“No. Not dreadful.” Somehow, her uncertainty was reassuring to Anvar. “Magnificent!”

The Mage grimaced. “And that’s given everyone such a shock? Eliizar nearly fainted away at the sight of me.”

Anvar knew she was evading his question. “What happened to you?” he persisted.