cleric intended to hang back and let the experiment run its course, but Lirra knew that at the first sign any of the volunteers needed her, Ksana would spring into action. Elidyr’s face was wild with joy, like a Karrnathi child receiving his first weapon on Blades’ Day Eve. Sometime during the proceedings, Sinnoch had lowered the hood of his robe, and the dolgaunt observed the scene around him with a sly, inhuman smile that disturbed Lirra more than anything she’d witnessed since the experiment began.
Suddenly both the symbionts and their hosts grew still and lay motionless on the tables. The psychic screams of the aberrations died away, and their absence felt as if a great pressure had been removed from Lirra’s mind. As the hosts continued lying there, the Overmantle still feeding streams of mystic energy into the tables, Lirra feared that something had gone dreadfully wrong with the experiment, and that the men and women were dead. But then, almost in perfect unison, the four volunteers sat up, their expressions beatifically calm, and Lirra allowed herself to hope that the Overmantle had worked, and the hosts were in full control of their symbionts. If it were true, if Elidyr had finally succeeded, then perhaps Bergerron would continue to support the Outguard’s work, and they could-
Before Lirra could finish her thought, the hosts leaped off their tables and rushed toward the guard standing closest to them. The guards were still off balance from having experienced the symbionts’ psychic screams. They had dropped their handling rods to cover their ears, and while the psychic screams were over, none of the guards made a move to draw their swords as the hosts approached.
“Arm yourselves!” Lirra called out in warning, but it was too late.
All four of the guards wore Elidyr’s enchanted armor, and the spells worked into the metal should’ve repelled the symbionts or at least slowed their attack, but for some reason the armor’s magic had no effect and the hosts didn’t so much as pause as they closed in. None of the guards wore any protection for their heads or faces, for the Outguard had needed none before, and it was a lapse the hosts exploited with swift, ruthless efficiency. The woman with the tongueworm opened her mouth, and her symbiont shot forth like a striking snake, its barbed tip striking one of the guards just below the left eye. The flesh there instantly became swollen and discolored, and the guard stiffened as the tongueworm’s paralytic poison took hold. As the tongueworm flew back into the woman’s mouth, the host walked forward, drew the paralyzed guard’s sword, and laid open his throat with a single savage swing of the blade.
The man with the crawling gauntlet slashed open a guard’s throat with the symbiont’s razor-sharp claws, while the woman with the stormstalk sent a crackling burst of lightning from her symbiont’s eye directly into the third guard’s face. The man screamed as his flesh blackened and his hair caught fire. He fell to the ground, crying in agony, and the woman moved in to finish him off with a second burst of lightning. Osten stepped toward the last guard, the tentacle whip lashing out and wrapping around the woman’s neck. Osten yanked back hard on the whip, and there was a loud crack as the guard’s neck broke. The whip uncoiled and the woman slumped to the floor of the chamber, dead.
Not only had the Overmantle failed to give the hosts control of the symbionts, the reverse had somehow taken place-the symbionts had complete control over their host bodies. More, the energy fed into the aberrations by Elidyr’s device seemed to have made the symbionts stronger than normal. It had taken them only a few seconds to slay the guards, and the hosts-or rather, the host bodies under the symbionts’ control-turned toward Lirra and the others.
Elidyr gazed with stunned disbelief at the carnage the hosts had wrought.
“This can’t be happening!” the artificer cried out.
Standing next to him, Sinnoch pointed toward the air several feet above the Overmantle.
“I believe you have something slightly more important to worry about, Elidyr,” the dolgaunt said with a sickening grin.
Everyone’s eyes-including those of the symbiont-hosts-turned toward the point in space Sinnoch had indicated. The air rippled, distorted, and then a seam opened … at first it was a small tear only a few inches long, but it soon began to widen until it measured more than a foot in length.
“What is it?” Lirra demanded.
“It’s a portal,” Elidyr answered in a frightened whisper. “To Xoriat.”
A chill raced down Lirra’s spine at her uncle’s words. She was looking at a hole in space … a doorway between this world and the Realm of Madness. What awful things lay on the other side of that door-and what if those things chose to come through?
“I thought you said the Overmantle would only create a small portal to Xoriat!” Lirra said.
“That’s right!” Elidyr stared up at the slowly widening portal in complete bewilderment. “I … I don’t understand!”
“You don’t need to understand!” Lirra snapped. “You just need to close it!”
“Right.” Elidyr didn’t sound very sure of himself, but he began frantically manipulating the Overmantle’s crystals. Sinnoch continued to stand next to the artificer, but the dolgaunt made no move to assist him, Lirra noted.
Lirra turned to Vaddon, Ksana, and Rhedyn. “We need to deal with the symbionts before they start moving again. We’ll each take one and do whatever is necessary to stop them.” Her expression was grim. “Understand?”
They nodded and drew their weapons as they chose a target and began their approach. Vaddon headed for the man with the crawling gauntlet, while Ksana made for the woman with the stormstalk and Rhedyn for the woman with the tongueworm. That left Osten for Lirra. Despite what she’d told the others, she was determined to stop the tentacle whip without harming Osten if she could. Twice Lirra’s actions had resulted in Osten being taken over by the symbiont, and she felt it was her responsibility to make up for those errors in judgment-and if it should come down to her having no choice but to kill Osten, then she’d make sure to do the deed as swiftly and painlessly as possible. She owed him that much at least.
The host bodies remained standing motionless and gazing upon the portal to Xoriat. As the symbionts were creatures born of madness and corruption, they doubtless could sense what lay on the other side of the rent in space, and they stood watching almost reverently, as if they were waiting for something to emerge. The thought chilled Lirra, but she pushed it aside. They were lucky that the symbionts were mesmerized by the portal, but there was no telling how long they’d remain like that, and Lirra and the others had to take advantage of the situation while they had the chance.
As she moved toward Osten, she couldn’t resist sneaking a quick glance at the portal hovering in the air above the Overmantle. It was two feet long and nearly a foot wide, and Lirra could see through to what lay on the other side. But what she saw didn’t make any sense. Swirling images, some blurry and indistinct, some so clear and sharp that it almost hurt to look at them. Things that appeared to be geometric shapes one instant, only to shift into amorphous blobs the next, and then into something so nightmarish it defied description after that. Sounds came through as well-mad laughter, grating low-pitched words spoken in a language she’d never heard, cries like those of exotic animals from deep within the darkest jungles of Xen’drik. Smells filtered into the chamber through the portal too-the foul stink of swamp gas, the cloying odor of thick perfume, the rank stench of decay, the oversweet smell of fruit on the verge of spoiling, and the coppery tang of blood.
The Realm of Madness, indeed, and Lirra found herself almost giggling at the thought. She immediately clamped down hard on the urge.
Careful, soldier, she told herself. The influx of disorienting sensations coming through the portal was starting to affect her mind, and she needed to maintain control of her thoughts. Otherwise, she risked succumbing to madness.
She started to tear her gaze away from the portal, but just as she did she caught a glimpse of a pair of hands reaching through-inhumanly long fingers covered in hard gray armor that reminded her of an insect’s shell with pulsing red muscle visible between the segments. The sight of those alien hands filled her with fear and loathing so strong that for an instant she wanted nothing more than to drop her sword to the floor and flee the lodge in terror. But she kept a tight rein on her emotions and forced herself to look away from the portal. The fear subsided then, though it didn’t entirely leave her. She didn’t know what the creature reaching through the portal was, and she didn’t
She started toward Osten.
