communicating its presence by touch. The circle's influence flowed from the deck into him, tingling at first, but leaving in its wake a feeling of… something larger than himself. While his body stood in the circle, he sensed a newly forged link to a second body, a phantom form whose shape was that of a great sphere. A sphere whose surface was forged by schooling creatures plucked from the Elemental Chaos.
With hardly more effort or forethought than it took to move his own limbs, he propelled the sphere down through the darkening waters. And Green Siren plunged farther and farther into the cold depths of the sea.
Raidon shook free from the illusion, though not completely. He thought it unwise to risk losing contact with the ritual, but he wanted to keep tabs on the ship and the protective globe with his own eyes. The hollow in which the ship rode remained perfectly intact. The tiny gleamtail tailfins worked tirelessly. Whatever property allowed the creatures to swim the variable landscapes of the Chaos was being lent to the ship and crew.
'I ain't never seen the like,' murmured Captain Thoster. Raidon didn't start at the comment, even though he had failed to notice the man standing so close, just beyond the edge of the ritual circle.
'How do you suppose the little monsters are keeping the air fresh enough for my crew?'
Raidon said, 'Ask Seren, Captain. I have to concentrate, or I'll lose the way.'
Thoster grunted and moved off, muttering that he should check the rum supply.
Raidon promptly dismissed the captain from his awareness. What he'd said was true. It was proving difficult to simultaneously direct the gleamtail-shrouded Green Siren while also following the guidance of the Cerulean Sign. With his hand upon the symbol, he could faintly sense the direction in which Xxiphu lay. But the more he focused on that guidance, the less he was able to feel the phantom shape of the protective sphere he steered. He had to juggle both perceptions in his mind, moving back and forth between them quickly enough that he wouldn't quite lose hold of either.
Raidon's straight-line dive toward the sea floor shallowed until Green Siren's trajectory angled west and down in equal measure. A couple of times Raidon noticed other aquatic creatures nearby. Some were nearly as large as the encapsulated ship, but all moved quickly away from the plunging vessel.
Finally they approached the sea floor. He sensed it as a slightly denser plain of substance, but really no different from the water above it, at least from the perspective of a gleamtail jack.
Green Siren plunged into it. Keel-first, the ship burrowed downward.
The silt and stone parted as if they were nothing more than filmy veils.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Year of the Secret (1396 DR), Xxiphu
Anusha's feet lost contact with the balcony. Someone was screaming. She realized it was herself. Terror ruled her.
Her thoughts loosened and evaporated like dew in the morning sun. Anusha's form too, starting with the golden armor, began to unravel into a mist of nothing.
A hand found hers and squeezed. Anusha grasped back with desperate strength. It was an instinctual response, her identity was peeling away, and-with it-reason. Horrified, she was aware of each memory as it smoked up and away toward a waking monstrosity hungry for minds.
Yeva jerked her down, off the balcony and once more into the slimed tunnels of brooding Xxiphu.
The moment she passed the threshold, Anusha's dream form solidified. She gasped, Tin Anusha!' She'd nearly forgotten. Yeva dragged her another twenty or so paces down the tunnel, away from the balcony exit.
Moisture filled Anusha's eyes. Dream tears, anyhow, as understanding washed over her at how narrowly she'd just escaped her end. She'd almost awakened from her dream. But the focus of her mind was now centered on the Eldest instead of her physical body or even the center of the orrery below. Waking would entail her mind and soul being eaten by and incorporated into an ancient horror. She'd have been consumed, gone forever.
Her situation was unbelievable. She was still alive, but how was she going to escape? Anusha couldn't leave the cursed city. If she did, she would start to wake up again. She couldn't stay either. Sooner or later one of the aboleths capable of seeing her would find her. Or the Eldest would fully rouse and call her to itself in an instant.
Tm doomed,' she whispered from where she lay on the tunnel floor.
Yeva shrugged and said, 'We're all doomed. Some of us just struggle at the end of fate's thread longer and harder than others before it is yanked. Beyond that, eternal nonexistence is everyone's destiny.'
Anusha shook her head, gazing out through the false hope the tunnel exit offered. 'I don't think that's true.'
Yeva said, 'What else, then?'
'When we die, we go to a better place.' The yellow-hued woman said, 'Many things are possible.'
Anusha nearly screamed. 'But I'll be denied finding that out if the godsdamned monster on top of this godsdamned city eats my soul!'
Yeva blinked, then said, 'True. The same holds true for me. If your mind falters, my mind dies too. I haven't even the hope of a body to return to. A moment ago, before I pulled you back, I faded too.'
Anusha wanted to throw herself down and give up. Or run in a random direction screaming away her concerns and sanity in a blind panic. If her fate was death, it would be so much easier to get it over with.
A deeper, dispassionate part of her knew she wouldn't do any of those things. There was no one to surrender to.
That same, stark knowing reminded Anusha that giving in to fright was guaranteed not to lead to a happy outcome. She wouldn't consciously betray herself so. And it wouldn't be dignified!
She half smiled at herself and felt better for it. She said, 'Thank you for pulling me back, Yeva. You did save me. Sorry to fall apart like this.'
'I reacted very the same earlier, remember? You calmed me. I'm glad to return the favor.'
Anusha replied, 'Maybe I should-'
Something fiery and swift passed the balcony, sweeping highlights of orange and yellow illumination down the tunnel. Anusha had the distinct impression the object she'd glimpsed possessed wings of molten fire.
*****
Mapathious drew near the end of its journey and, with it, the term of its current contract. The unstable passage it traveled, composed of briefly unraveled planes and stretched reality, began to fray. The ring on the angel's finger pointed to a great cavity in the earth. The hollow vault was many miles deeper than any other subterranean passage it had ever visited. Mapathious was intrigued.
The angel sheathed its sword. The interdimensional tunnel collapsed. Mapathious flashed into the cavern whose lower third was filled with an ancient sea. An obelisk was caught in the space like a spike hammered askew. A frieze writhed on the age-worn exterior. The inscriptions shifted and changed even as Mapathious drew closer. The angel recognized the style to be similar to those of its order, and it nearly dropped its burden in realization. Its earlier fear was prophetic.
This was a fragment of the Citadel of the Outer Void. A fragment lying below the world like a seed waiting to germinate. By the way the exterior images crawled as if half alive, the angel guessed the seed was sprouting.
The ring guiding Mapathious's exploration vibrated with proximity. She to whom it was connected lay within one of the balcony-like cavities along the obelisk's side. The angel altered its course.
It would drop the trek bell upon that very balcony. That would conclude the terms of the expedition. Then it would flee back to the higher domains, where it would warn its order of Xxiphu's existence.
Mapathious passed the balcony once, bleeding off velocity with its wings open wide. As it circled back to drop the bell on the narrow ledge on the obelisk's vast face, something emerged from the ancient sea far below.
Something big, with too many arms by far.
*****
The curved interior of the bell tilted and bucked without warning. Japheth clutched for a handle but banged his hand instead. A massive jolt threw him off the bench. The warlock's vision skewed sideways, and his head rapped against something unyielding. Stars exploded and his body went limp. He fell out of the opening in the bottom of the trek bell.
