Bruce Cordell: City of Torment

Through the air separating them, the eladrin noble's piercing gaze found Japheth. He knew, even without being able to clearly see her face, that Malyanna scowled at him.

"Why would she do that?"

"I… don't know." But he suspected. The audacious eladrin might have snatched the stone to use as a bargaining chip against the Eldest. The woman had a dark agenda, and perhaps rousing the Eldest was only part of her plan. Not that he could imagine anything worse.

The ship's drift saw them out of the cavity and into the vast subterranean cyst.

Japheth watched the ledge, even though Xxiphu's coiling sides competed for his attention. The silhouette he'd identified as Neifion seemed agitated. Almost like he was growing in size….. then he unfurled enormous bat wings.

"We have to go. Now!" He pointed. Neifion's wings were apparent to all.

"Your crime will not go unpunished," Raidon promised. Then he stepped into the ritual circle.

The moment the monk entered the smeared radius, the ship's drifting prow straightened. The glowing points eriglobing the ship pulsed as one, revealing themselves to Japheth as tiny fish.

Neifion launched himself from the ledge. His black wings brought an answering rustle from Japheth's cloak.

The Lord of Bats sought every last vestige of his stolen strength.

The ship broke upward, straight toward the vault's ceiling.

Already close, Green Siren punctured the craggy rock, which folded open before them and closed behind.

Mast-first, Green Siren shot up through solid stone like an escaped festival balloon into empty air.

*****

Anusha was free of the long nightmare. When she convinced herself she wasn't merely hallucinating, she considered plunging back into dream, intending to find and help, Japheth return to the ship.

But she was too hyped up to fall asleep, and the mere thought of looking for one of the vials of sleep turned her stomach. She decided that trying to return to her dream form just then was probably one of the stupider plans she'd ever contemplated, given her recent history and circumstances. Japheth had shown himself more than capable. Though it was nearly as hard as anything she'd ever done, she managed to put aside her worry about him for a little while.

She occupied her attention by wolfing down all the biscuits and hard rations she could scrounge from the travel chest, save for a few pieces she allowed Lucky to take from her hand. After that, she lit the lantern bolted to the wall to provide more light. She found the basin, a waterskin, and a clean towel she'd had when she shared the cabin with Japheth before the Dreamheart had pulled her… No. Don't think about that.

She sighed as she wiped away the residue of days from her skin and hair. Someone must have tended to her, even fed her, while she lay unconscious. Otherwise she'd have died in her sleep after so long without waking.

She brushed her hair, wondering what she was forgetting… Yeva!

What had become of the woman who'd accompanied her through Xxiphu's bowels? Had Japheth freed Yeva too? If so, unlike herself, Yeva had no body to return to.

Did that mean the woman was merely dead? "Yeva?"

No answer.

Anusha heard excited voices on the deck. She gazed out the porthole.

"Oh gods, we're floating." Indeed, the ship hovered over a gulf of darkness. She'd heard Seren say the ship had been modified to find Xxiphu, but she hadn't known what to expect. A constellation of tiny gleams surrounded the craft. Even as she finally grasped that the ship hovered within an enormous subterranean cavity, the floorboards creaked. Simultaneously, it seemed as if a heavy person stepped briefly onto her shoulders.

She saw the vault's ceiling rush down… no, the ship lurched upward toward it.

Anusha flinched from the expected impact. When she opened her eyes again, the vast cavern she'd spied through the porthole was gone. Now the glass showed layers of dark material that dropped away one after another. Sometimes the dark matrix was veined by traceries of pale blue, green, and crystal. The continuous but ever-changing consistency of the subsiding material was mesmerizing. It seemed Green Siren had indeed been outfitted to sail on more than seas. She realized she was watching a crosscut through hard bedrock. They were rising up through it!

"It's beautiful," she said.

"Not nearly as beautiful as you," said a voice behind her.

Anusha turned.

Japheth stood in the doorway.

The room suddenly seemed warmer.

A tension she'd been holding in her back relaxed. He was alive! But the anxiety gave way to a wholly new tautness in her chest.

"Beautiful? I'm skinny as a starved child," she said.

"No. You take my breath away." Without light from the porthole, the only illumination in the room emerged from the lantern. Its waving light spilled shadows across the room, over Japheth's body, and across his face. His eyes reflected the dancing flame.

"What do you see through the glass?" he said, pointing to the porthole.

"I don't know! The rock, I guess, as we rise through the earth." Anusha motioned him over. "Come, look with me?"

*****

Japheth entered the cabin and closed the door. In three steps he was across the narrow chamber until he stood just behind Anusha at the glass. He smelled her fragrance, vital again after slowly fading while she lay limp and senseless.

The sight of her nearly melted him.

"Are we finally safe?" she said, face pointed toward the glass so that he studied her profile. He couldn't imagine more shapely features.

"For now. The Eldest remains… partly bound. The worst will not come to pass."

She looked at him, waiting for further explanation.

"I took into myself a portion of the Dreamheart's energy. Energy the Eldest might have used to catalyze its full awakening. It didn't realize I'd done so."

"Why does it matter what it realized?"

"Because," he continued, "it may gain partial Awareness. I had to leave the Dreamheart in the Eldest's possession to assure your freedom."

Anusha furrowed her brow but continued to gaze through the glass. Finally she said, "I'm glad you left that terrible thing behind." "Yes."

She sighed, then leaned back into him. His arms wrapped around her slender form without conscious direction.

Her scent overwhelmed him, and her warmth brought blood to his face. He rested his chin on her damp hair.

Tin glad you're no longer a formless dream," he said.

She laughed.

They watched the mottled earth flow past together, until Anusha tipped her face up and back. He dipped his head and shoulders to bring his lips to hers.

They kissed.

She tasted of joy, and life, and passion.

She turned into him, maintaining the kiss, and embraced him in turn. How long had he hungered to feel her arms around his body? It didn't matter.

The long months of attraction, building desire, and sundered heartache were washed away. Euphoria was a warmth that raced in his veins instead of blood. It seemed to him that her pulse matched his heart's cadence.

Japheth broke the embrace. When his breath was back, he said, "You have become the world to me."

Anusha, also breathing harder, brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. She met his gaze and held it with her dark eyes. In the dancing light, they seemed like the eyes of a tigress avid for the hunt.

A slow grin spanned her face. "Show me," she said.

They collapsed into each other, their lips meeting again, this time with a passion that could ignite a fire.

Their limbs entwined in that most human of all embraces. In his arms, Anusha was a star, a burning angel that cleaved to him.

He said her name in wonder, in worship. He silently vowed to never let her go again.