Keith Baker - The Gates of Night

Entering the tower, Pierce braced for battle. War was his purpose, and he felt a thrill as he prepared to engage the enemy. He’d calculated plans for a half dozen scenarios, based on the number and nature of enemies awaiting them.

But the chamber within the hall was silent and empty.

There were no guards, no beasts out of nightmare-at least, none that he could see. The floor was soft muscle, but Pierce felt the scrape of ivory against his feet. The room was utterly dark, and while Pierce’s vision was sharp enough to assure that there was no movement in the room, he could see little else.

A pale light took shape behind him. Lei, binding cold fire to her gauntlet. Now they could see the room’s barrenness. No furniture, no banners, nothing but flesh and tooth. Then Pierce took a good look at the center of the chamber. The floor of the room was one vast mouth. Pierce had just stepped onto the edge of a pointed tooth larger than he was. He didn’t know if the maw could open fully, but if it could, they’d all tumble down into whatever lay below.

Daine caught his attention, urging Pierce to move back against the wall, away from the massive mouth. Daine gestured upward. Long fangs protruded from the walls of the chamber, and Pierce saw that they formed a staircase, rising to an opening in the ceiling above them. The tower wasn’t that large, and this upper chamber would be its apex. The object of their search must be above.

Unless it lies below , Pierce thought, glancing at the grinning maw stretching across the floor. He thought Shira might respond, but she remained silent.

Daine wrapped his fey cloak around him as he ascended the stairs. He was shrouded in shadows, and Pierce almost lost sight of him. He followed close behind. The long teeth were slippery and felt all too fragile beneath Pierce’s feet, but despite his concerns, the stairs held his weight and he ascended into the upper chamber.

Six tusks rose from the fleshy floor of this room, curved pillars of ivory spread in a circle around the center of the chamber. Twice Pierce’s height, each was easily wide enough to provide shelter for an enemy. Daine gestured to the right and proceeded to circle slowly to the left, staying close to the wall. Pierce followed the signal, moving carefully along the wall.

Nothing.

The center of the chamber, the space between the tusks … there was nothing there. No monsters, no glowing orb, just a mosaic of interlocking teeth, drawn from dozens of different creatures.

Pierce continued to circle the tower. When he rejoined Daine, they could determine their next course of action.

But by the time Pierce reached him, Daine was already dead. His throat had been severed, a deep wound that cut through to the spine, almost decapitating him. Another blow had pierced his heart, puncturing chainmail and going straight through back and chest. His eyes were wide and shocked. Blood flowed from his injuries, but the fleshy floor soaked it all up.

There was no time for fear. Whatever had done this had moved swiftly and silently. Pierce hadn’t even heard Daine’s body fall to the ground. There would be time to mourn the loss of his captain later. Now he needed to defend the living.

Lei? Pierce had yet to fully grasp the use of the telepathic bond he now shared with Lei, and he wasn’t entirely certain how to activate it. Danger .

No response.

Keeping his back to the wall, Pierce moved swiftly to the stairwell. He could see the light of Lei’s cold fire at the top of the stairs. And as he drew close, he saw a hand in a glowing gauntlet, lying severed on the floor.

Lei!

“You think this is painful?” the voice came from behind one of the ivory pillars. The figure that stepped into view was barely visible, her skin covered with shifting patterns of darkness. “You still have much to learn about pain.”

Pierce set his flail whirling, and the golden ball burst into light, burning with a heat as intense as his own fury. Indigo stood exposed before him, and adamantine blades slid from the sheathes in her forearms.

“You cannot be here,” Pierce said, anger warring with doubt. “You cannot dream.”

“You forget, brother,” she said. “You tried to bury me in a vault beneath Xen’drik, the same vault from which you plucked your metal companion. Did you think she was the only one?”

Pierce saw the jeweled sphere embedded in Indigo’s chest-a sphere almost identical to Shira. Is this possible? he thought, but there was no response from within.

“I may be trapped forever in the Monolith of Karul’tash,” Indigo continued, slowly circling him, “but I was given one final chance to see that you pay for your betrayal. I told you, Pierce. If I die, she dies with me. And now she has.” She spread her arms wide. “So come, brother. Will you not finish what you began?”

“No,” Pierce said. His thoughts were in disarray. He could have ensured Indigo’s destruction before they left Karul’tash, when he’d allowed her to survive in an inert state. “You do not understand what you have done. The fate of Eberron itself-”

“Means nothing to me,” Indigo said. “You saw to that. Why should I care what happens to the world beyond my prison? All I wanted was for you to feel my pain, and that is done. Come, Pierce, let us die in battle. That is all we ever had.”

No , Pierce thought. Lei and Daine, presumably Jode-they were all dead. Nothing could be done for them. It was over. What good would another death do?

“Perhaps you should keep this,” Indigo said. “Something to remember her by.”

She kicked Lei’s severed hand across the floor, and it struck Pierce’s foot.

And something within him broke.

Pierce was not given to anger. Battle was a matter of careful calculation-until now. Pure rage drew him across the ivory floor, and his flail was a streak of light. Swift as she was, Indigo wasn’t prepared for the fury of his assault, and the ball smashed into her chest, denting her armored plates and scorching the cords below. She staggered back, and Pierce raised his flail to finish her. Before he could strike, she flew forward, arms outstretched. Her adamantine blades should have dug into his torso, but he felt no such impact. Instead, a fire spread throughout his body, tearing him apart from within. The agony was terrible-and all too familiar.

Lei! He cried out in his mind, and then pain drove out all thought.

A thought was all it took for Lei to weave cold fire into her gauntlet, conjuring a faint light to drive back the shadows. Her eyes widened as she saw the vast mouth set into the floor. Pierce stood on the very edge of a tooth, and it was all too easy to imagine that maw opening wide and swallowing them all.

Daine gave her a questioning look, and Lei pulled her goggles over her eyes and studied the room. These lenses were a tool designed to locate and analyze magical auras. If there were magical defenses in the chamber, the goggles would help her find them. The lenses were certainly an unusual gift to receive from a faerie queen. They bore marks of Cannith design and seemed well worn. Of course, Lei had seen an identical pair less than a day ago, after she fell into the river of truth, and saw her young mother in Xen’drik. Could these goggles have belonged to Lei’s mother? How would they have fallen into the hands of the Queen of Dusk, and why would she give them back to Lei?

These questions wouldn’t be answered in Dal Quor, and Lei turned her attention to the task at hand. She saw no signs of glyphs or wards, and she gave Daine the signal for safety. He in turn gestured to Pierce, and the two warriors ascended the disturbing flight of stairs.