Barb Hendee: Through Stone and Sea

"I do not think so," Chane hissed.

Wynn had to grab his arm, as both he and the captain reached for their swords.

"Journeyor!" the duchess snapped, and then briefly closed her eyes, as if struggling to regain composure. "In Calm Seatt, you and Captain Rodian seemed to have vanquished this … perpetrator … or in retrospect, at least injured it. How?"

Wynn studied Reine's face, not as lovely as some, but fetching in its clean simplicity surrounded by thick chestnut hair.

"Rodian had nothing to do with it," Wynn answered. "Chane and Shade kept the wraith at bay long enough for Domin il'Sänke to hold it for an instant. In fact, the captain and his men nearly ruined our one chance. But I managed to ignite the staff's crystal anyhow."

She paused, anguished again over so many lost lives.

"Our plan should've worked—I watched the wraith ," she said with force, emphasizing what it was, and looked at Chuillyon. "I watched it tear apart in the light. But we merely beat it down enough to save ourselves that night."

Everyone—most especially the captain—listened in silence. He eyed the staff she held.

"The sage should be kept at hand," he said flatly. "Even if the staff proves less than she claims."

Wynn felt Chane reaching around her waist, pulling her back.

His arm tightened, and Shade began snarling. The dog inched through the archway, ears flattening as her hackles rose.

"Too late!" Chane whispered. "It has come!"

Sau'ilahk settled upon the shaft's bottom and peered along the underworld's main passage. Yellowed wisps of vapor drifted down the shaft to coil around him, as if dragged by his descent.

Once his conjured gases had filled the domed chamber, there had been only a brief moment to feed before the last dwarven warrior died. Not one had laid a hand upon the bell rope, but that one taken life was too little. He raised his hands and watched them turn translucent for an instant.

The tip of a steel blade thrust out of his chest.

It flashed aside in a speeding arc as Sau'ilahk whirled about, facing an older female dwarf in black scaled armor. But the lift had not come down.

This Stonewalker had stepped out of the shaft's wall behind him.

She held two long, triangular daggers at ready. Dark blond hair hung around her wide face, which appeared unsurprised that her blade never connected. The chance to feed again made Sau'ilahk lunge.

She did not move until his hand neared her chest.

The instant his fingers penetrated, she struck the shaft's wall with the back of her right hand, still gripping one broad blade.

Sau'ilahk saw stone flow across her body and face.

The feel of her life vanished from him, and he panicked, remembering his arm solidifying when he had tried to take the old one in the main cavern. Sau'ilahk jerked his hand free before the flow of stone reached his wrist. He slid back, out of the shaft into the passage's head.

The Stonewalker had not even flinched, but her face now wrinkled in spite, her eyes glaring.

"Come on!" she challenged in deep Dwarvish. "Take my stone, if you can … you soot-wisp!"

This could not be happening. This was not the way things should be.

She lunged at him.

Sau'ilahk raised a hand to strike and then saw what she did. At each hammering step, the back of her hand holding a dagger grazed the passage wall on either side. The space was too tight. There was no way to get to her so long as she could touch stone.

He spun, fixing on the passage's far end, and blinked.

The instant he appeared there, he flew into the glistening cavern, looking for any near path. The black-haired elder leaped out of the wall on his right.

Sau'ilahk had barely turned when two heavy footfalls slammed the cavern floor behind him. As he spun, a rising deep chant erupted around him. The elder female closed at full speed down the passage, no longer bothering with her staggered wall-touching advance.

He had no time for them. Where was Wynn?

Desperation made him latch upon the only way to find her—the wolf. All he need do was raise the beast's awareness of him. Wynn would follow its lead soon enough.

Sau'ilahk gathered lingering energies to conjury, twisting the air within his form, and created a voice . He shrieked his rage, letting it echo through the cavern.

A long, pealing wail answered.

Sau'ilahk rushed toward the cavern's left opening, and then slowed.

A faded, nearly forgotten memory came to him. He struggled as if trying to advance against a desert windstorm. In place of a wind's whistle and moan, he heard the Stonewalkers' baritone thrum.

What were they doing?

Drawing more power, he burst forward, breaking whatever impeded him. He sailed through the cavern, into the tunnels, following the sound of a majay-hì's hunting cry.

Wynn heard the distant shriek.

Even the duchess twisted about as the captain spun and jerked out his sword.

Less than a breath passed before Shade threw her head up. Her eerie cry exploded at full volume.

Wynn grabbed Shade by the scruff, shouting, "Hold … wait!"

"Make her quiet, now!" Chane rasped.

"Shade, stop it," Wynn urged.

"No … let her howl," someone said, and Wynn looked up.

Cinder-Shard stood in the passage. How had he arrived so suddenly, and from where?

"My brethren heard the black one," he added. "If it runs toward the wolf's noise … so much the better."

Wynn understood—they all thought the wraith would come for her.

"Everyone up the passage and into the next cavern!" he ordered. "Until I am certain where the intruder is, all of you stay near. Do as I command, and do not get in our way."

Wynn released Shade, who ceased howling but still rumbled. Chane pushed past, signaling her to follow.

They hurried down the passage after him, leaving the Chamber of the Fallen behind, and emerged in a cavern lit only by dim phosphorescence. Wynn knew what those dark forms were in that place. Light suddenly erupted behind her.

A cold lamp crystal blazed in Chuillyon's outstretched palm. He closed his hand over it, crushing out the light.

"Do likewise," he told her. "But toss your crystal when I cast mine."

Wynn dug in her pocket, first pulling out the pewter-framed glasses. She tucked these into her grip upon the staff and then retrieved and prepared her crystal. In its briefly escaping light, forms moved among the cavern's columns and the calcified remains of the honored dead.

Bulwark stepped around a figure barely recognizable beneath crusted minerals. Another Stonewalker at the far end moved inward. Both stared toward the cavern's left side, but Wynn couldn't see what they watched through all the obstructions.

She closed her hand, snuffing the crystal's light, as a thrum began to build from two, and then three deep voices. The last, somewhere off to her right, had to be Cinder-Shard.

Chane stood tense before her and reached back, pulling her as he stepped inward and away from the walls around the entrance.

"No!" the duchess whispered.

Wynn glanced back as Reine pulled free of the captain's grip and followed. Chuillyon advanced behind her with a scowl, and the captain hurried out ahead of them.

Shade's rumble rose to a pealing whine. A shout echoed from the cavern's left, sounding far off.

One dimly glowing column off to Wynn's left went black—then returned. Two more did likewise, one after the other, as if something dark passed quickly before them.

Light erupted behind Wynn. The bright spark of a cold lamp crystal arced past her between the columns, and fell to the cavern floor.

Wynn shuddered at a grating hiss rolling throughout the space.

The wraith stood in the cavern's heart and twisted toward the crystal's light.