Robert Vardeman - Istu awakened

Erimenes emitted a squeal of rage and began tearing at the fringe of blue hair surrounding the base of his long, narrow head. The sentient glacier's inability – or refusal – to pronounce his name properly enraged him more than the living ice mountain's geological deliberations.

Gloom filled the pass deepened by mist spilling down from the Guardian that formed a grayish layer thirty feet off the canyon floor. Light and warmth seldom penetrated here yet the cliff base was dotted with clumps of small blue flowers that seemed little daunted by the darkness and chill.

The Rampart Mountains had a heart of cold stone; the rocks of the canyon were those Guardian had swept up into himself on his slow advance from the Southern Waste. They had been ground smooth within the glacier's body and eventually tumbled from the face as it rolled ever onward. In time, Guardian would swallow them anew to begin the cycle anew unless climatic conditions did not permit him to continue his involuntary progress along the narrow canyon.

On one of those polished rocks sat Rann, apparently at ease. Watching him as she paced in front of the glacier, Moriana wondered at his outward calm. He didn't take frustration and delay philosophically; none of the Etuul blood ever had. Under normal conditions he should have been pacing even more vigorously than she. Instead he sat quiet and self-possessed.

Moriana wondered what had gotten into her cousin. His demeanor made her doubt he intended treachery. But still, he was too calm.

'Come and rest yourself, cousin,' he said, smiling. 'The glacier will take its own time answering. No amount of stalking to and fro will hurry it.'

She paused, glaring at him more from reflex than anything else. She finally shrugged and seated herself on a rock not too near Rann's.

'I cannot rightfully deny entry to you, Princess, nor to you Irimunas, for you are rightfully Athalar.' The words boomed out, making Moriana jump in surprise. Rann regarded her with calm indulgence. 'But to let so many folk in as you propose? I do not know.'

As before when talking to Guardian, Moriana found herself straining as if this would hurry the words. But that trick of colossal energies released when the World Spirit was summoned by Felarod that had given the glacier life had not otherwise altered its nature. Guardian thought and spoke glacier-fashion. If anything, this speech was a breakneck babble by its standards.

'I have been tricked before,' rumbled Guardian. 'A human named Rann told me he followed to aid you, when in fact he meant you harm and that pleasant, near-sighted fellow with you – Fost, by name.' 'Why can't he remember my name?' grumbled Erimenes.

'Yes, it was a mistake to let Rann into Athalau. His friends burned a hole through my back with a horrid fire sprite.' The ice face shuddered. A sheet of ice split from the glacier with a resounding crack and fell, showering Moriana and Rann with sharp fragments. 'It was worse than the ice worms who gnaw at me from within.' Rann yawned, stretched, stood.

'Prince Rann is a very bad man,' he said. 'You should not judge the rest of us by what he did.'

Another pause. Rann stood with arms crossed while Moriana paced.

'You are right, human,' came back the answer in time, when the sun had begun to bulge from the top of the eastern cliff and burn away the mist. 'But still, so many. Would that not endanger Athalau?'

'As I understand it,' Rann said, placing hands on hips, 'your task was to preserve the city from agents of the Dark Ones. The princess has told you the Zr'gsz have freed Istu and once more ravage the continent. Presently, they will turn their attentions this way.' 'All the more reason to guard my city with zeal.' 'My city, indeed,' grumbled Erimenes.

'Not even one as vast and mighty as you can hope to resist Istu, Guardian,' said Rann. 'But you hold within you the means of defeating him. You hold the Nexus by which Felarod drew up the wrath of the World Spirit. We must reach the Nexus. The World Spirit is the only power great enough to help us.'

The glacier sat in silence, save for the creakings and groanings from deep within as the sun heated the miles-wide expanse of its body. Eventually Rann sat back down. Moriana joined him. The cool cloud had ceased to stream down Guardian's face. It was fast becoming warm. Moriana dozed. 'Very well.'

She jumped at the words. Rann still sat on his rock, as collected as ever. He put aside his scimitar which he had been burnishing to a mirror sheen and stood, awaiting the glacier's verdict.

'My responsibility is clear. I must open a path large enough to permit many people to enter Athalau, that they might use the Nexus to bring down the Demon once more.' Moriana sighed in relief.

'Now, my friends, you must move back. This will not be easy for me and could endanger you if you're too close.'

Moriana and Rann retreated and heard Guardian say, 'So many people. Surely they can put an end to those cursed ice worms.'

Out of sight around the winding of the Gate, Moriana found a chunk of dark quartz that had tumbled from above and sat. Her need for action thwarted by the nature of Guardian, she now found herself drawn irresistibly toward sleep. She heard Erimenes and Rann conversing in low, neutral tones, and let consciousness slip away.

An earsplitting crack awakened her. Others followed in rapid succession, louder and louder, mounting toward a crescendo of noise that dwarfed even the roar of Omizantrim in full eruption. She stared up the canyon, saw clouds of mist and glittering ice crystals billow forth like smoke.

She saw movement from the corner of her eye. Before she could react, Rann was upon her, wrapping steel-cable arms around her and forcing her back against the cliff. Treachery! she thought, unable to fight her cousin off.

Erimenes's satchel swung from Rann's arm, and she wondered if the genie had entered into intrigue with the prince.

Then twenty tons of stone hurtled down, noiseless against the awful tumult, and buried the rock on which she had been sitting.

In time, hearing returned. In the ringing stillness Rann and Moriana picked themselves up from the tangle in which they'd lain at the foot of the cliff. They picked their way through the rubble strewn along the floor of the pass.

'Great Ultimate,' Moriana whispered as they rounded the bend. Rann's fingers tightened on her arm.

It was as if a great maw had yawned wide in the glacier's face. Thirty feet tall, three times that in width, a passageway had been opened into the glacier's guts. Was it Moriana's imagination or could she truly see, far within, a glimmer of that subtle, lovely radiance given off by Athalau? Erimenes was weeping.

'To think that my city might live again,' he sobbed. 'You won't forget the ice worms, will you?' echoed Guardian's voice from the great, dark archway.

The Steppe was carpeted with wildflowers, the white blooms covering the land like early snowfall but rippling like the surface of a lake changing to the whims of the wind. Sitting atop a knoll whose bare skeleton of rock protruded like a lizard's spine, Fost surveyed the straggling line of men and women wading knee-deep through the flowers and tried to sort his feelings.

One hundred thirty-eight Ethereals had followed the crippled Selamyl from their village to take the arduous path to Athalau, leaving behind a handful of the aged and the reluctant. Ten of the travellers had died already. Fost wondered how many more would follow.

There were dark things in the Ramparts, not natural life but one of the grimmer legacies of the first War of Powers. A score of times they had come forth to beset the travellers, occasionally in the daytime and often at night. In the darkness all Fost had been able to make out of the attackers were glowing eyes and gaping maws filled with teeth that glinted wetly in the moonlight. Sometimes the attackers were many and small, but savage. Other times it would be a great, lone beast like the creatures that had come on them during the day. Those had been similar, huge armored things with spiked tails and burning demon eyes. Fost was almost grateful that most of the attacks occurred at night.