Tim Waggoner - Lady Ruin

“The rest of us will go inside,” Vaddon said. “Lirra, you will lead the way and Osten shall accompany you. Ksana and I will come next, and the warforged shall follow us.” He turned to face the remainder of the Outguard. “The rest of you line up in pairs. If the tunnels are too narrow to permit us to walk two abreast, then we’ll go single file. Lanterns out, and keep your swords in hand at all times unless there’s not enough room to wield them efficiently, in which case, sheath them and switch to daggers. Any questions?”

“I know I’m not going with you,” Ranja said, “but I have a question: What do you intend to do once you find Elidyr?”

Lirra responded to the shifter’s query. “We’ll destroy the Overmantle and attempt to take Elidyr, Sinnoch, and Rhedyn into custody.”

“And in the extremely likely event that they resist?” Ranja asked.

Lirra’s mouth was set in a grim line as she answered. “If it comes down to that … we’ll do what has to be done.” She turned to look at Vaddon, and though she saw the same conflict she felt mirrored in her father’s eyes, the general nodded. Neither of them wanted to kill Elidyr, but if he gave them no choice …

There was nothing more to be said after that. The Outguard lined up as Vaddon had ordered, and-with Lirra leading the way-they entered the caves.

“They’re here,” Sinnoch said.

Elidyr hadn’t moved from his sitting position since he’d begun work on the Overmantle. He hadn’t slept, hadn’t paused for food or drink. Now he looked up at the dolgaunt with tired eyes.

“So soon? Time truly does fly when you’re enjoying yourself.”

Rhedyn had been sitting with his back against the cave wall, dozing. But at the dolgaunt’s words he leaped to his feet. “Could it be the dolgrims returning?”

“Doubtful,” Elidyr said as he touched an etheric-balancing rod to several individual crystals on the reconstructed Overmantle. “I didn’t expect the dolgrims to stop my brother and his soldiers, just slow them down a bit. It’ll take more than a handful of dolgrims, even augmented as they were, to put my brother and my niece in the ground.” He smiled to himself. “That’s a pleasure I’m reserving for myself.” Elidyr made one last adjustment with the rod, then leaned back to admire his work. “There! That should do it!” He paused. “I hope.”

Rhedyn walked over to stand next to Elidyr, and Sinnoch glided over to join them.

“What do you mean?” the young warrior asked.

“I did the best I could, considering that I lacked the proper parts and equipment,” Elidyr said, a trifle defensively. “Not only was I forced to redesign the device, I had to make certain … improvisations here and there.”

“But it will work, yes?” Sinnoch asked.

“Oh, yes,” Elidyr confirmed. “At least, it will activate. As to what it will precisely do …” Grinning, he touched a switch to bring the Overmantle to life.

Rippling waves of energy poured out of the device, its power filling the entirety of Sinnoch’s cave.

Lirra held her sword in her right hand, and she kept her left free to wield the tentacle whip, so she carried no lantern to light the way. That duty fell to Osten, who stood on her left, an everbright lantern held in his left hand, sword in his right. The lantern’s glow was eerie in the confined space of the tunnel, and the shadows it cast seemed to move with a life of their own. When they’d first entered the tunnel, it was so cramped they could barely walk in single file, but as the tunnel sloped downward, it opened up somewhat, and two people could walk side by side-though the squat, blocky Shatter-fist still needed to walk by himself in order to fit. There was enough room for them to keep their swords out, though if it became necessary to fight, there’d be precious little maneuvering room. They moved in silence, no one speaking, everyone careful to keep from brushing up against the tunnel walls more than necessary, and they were especially careful to keep their weapons away from the walls, lest the sound of steel scraping against stone gave their presence away.

Not that Elidyr doesn’t know we’re coming, Lirra thought. One way or another, she was certain her uncle was aware that they were closing in. After all, hadn’t he sent the dolgrims out to attack them? But she remembered something she’d learned at Rekkenmark: Never give a foe an advantage you didn’t need to. If there was even the slightest chance Elidyr didn’t know they were coming, the Outguard would remain silent.

The tunnel continued to slope downward as they progressed, and Lirra tried to use her new senses to feel the way ahead, casting about for any hint of symbionts or other aberrations. The base of her skull tingled and a familiar nausea roiled in her stomach. She could feel the presence of corruption somewhere out in front of them, and it was strong-far stronger than anything she’d ever felt before. It was repellant, but at the same time strangely alluring. Part of her wanted to turn back and flee in terror, while another part of her wanted to run forward to reach the foul presence as fast as she could.

What is it? she mentally asked the tentacle whip.

Chaos .

She leaned close to Osten and whispered in his ear.

“Do you feel that?”

“I feel something,” he whispered back. “Whatever it is, it’s setting my teeth on edge. Too bad the shifter isn’t here. Perhaps she could make something of it.”

A second voice whispered in Lirra’s other ear. “It’s good to know I’m appreciated.”

Lirra turned to her right, startled to hear Ranja speaking, but no one walked there. At first Lirra feared she’d only imagined the shifter’s voice, that perhaps it was a new sort of mind trick the tentacle whip was playing on her. But then she realized what Ranja had done. The woman had used one of the magical toys she employed to render herself invisible, and then she’d sneaked past the other members of the Outguard until she’d reached the front of the line where Lirra and Osten were.

Lirra smiled. When going into battle, it was always good to have a surprise or two prepared for your enemy, and with any luck, Ranja would prove to be one hell of a surprise for Elidyr.

They continued onward, and the tingling in her skull and her nausea grew stronger as they walked, along with the strange compulsion to keep going forward. She raised her hand and made several gestures to let her father know they were getting close, even if she wasn’t entirely certain close to what. Vaddon answered with a single gesture that meant Message received, before silently relaying Lirra’s message to the warforged, who passed it back to the soldiers behind them, and so on. Within moments, everyone in the tunnel knew the time for battle was close at hand, and they did their best to mentally prepare themselves for whatever lay in wait ahead. Lirra had experienced the last few moments before battle more times than she could remember. Some soldiers became nervous and had to work hard to calm themselves. Others drew on their nervous energy to get their minds and bodies ready to fight. Still others attempted to visualize what the intitial encounter with the enemy might be like and what moves and countermoves they would make. Some simply emptied their mind of all extraneous thought, trusted in their training to carry them through the battle to come, and concentrated on simply putting one foot in front of the other.

Lirra became aware of a light not far ahead of them. At first, Lirra thought it was the glow from an everbright lantern, but the color was all wrong. Instead of a yellowish hue, this light was a shifting combination of colors, something like a kaleidoscope. She feared that they were too late, and Elidyr had activated the Overmantle, but then she remembered that the device’s crystals had pulsed with blue-white energy. What they were seeing ahead of them looked very different.