'I released her, Raidon! I did it!' He raised a fist and grinned. 'Now come on! Show me the way to your ship!
Seren told me you outfitted Green Siren to bring you here.'
The monk's face, normally an expressionless mask, wavered between resignation and anger. The half-elf didn't look well. His wild expression suggested he was on the edge of a mental break.
A scream of abolethic fury and a flash of red light behind Japheth lit the monk's face. It was enough to engage Raidon once more.
'This way. You will have to keep up with me. Perhaps we can catch up to Seren and Thoster. They went ahead-I haven't been this way before.'
Raidon sprinted off down the corridor.
Japheth followed. He immediately fell behind.
He hadn't traversed more than a hundred yards when he detected a change in the timbre of the pursuing aboleths. Perhaps it was the star pact that gave him insight into the sounds. Or maybe it was because he knew why a passel of despairing servitors of Xxiphu, bent on murderous revenge, would suddenly give up the chase.
He knew why they exulted instead. He'd given them a gift beyond measure.
Or at least they would initially assume he had.
Right now, they rejoiced that their progenitor wasn't dead. They rejoiced because they believed they had the key to resuming their rousing chant where they'd left off.
Soon enough, the aboleths and the Eldest's slumbering, yet all-too-active subconscious would realize his deception. He hoped he could get out of the terrible city and back to Green Siren-where, the stars willing, Anusha waited- before then.
Despite his deception, the warlock had still provided the aboleths a prize that would prove all too useful. He regretted it, but not enough that he would have decided differently if given the chance to do it over.
Japheth ran.
Despite his earlier implication, Raidon did wait up for Japheth. Every so often the monk paused at the edge of a pool of slime where an aboleth yet slumbered. As the warlock caught up, the monk plunged Angul into the cavity, killing the monster before it even realized its peril. An expression of grim satisfaction hardened the monk's face each time.
When Raidon had his blade out, Japheth stayed clear. With the new pact, Japheth suspected the Blade Cerulean would see him as essentially no different from an aboleth or other aberrant creature. The weapon was insane.
And Japheth suspected, the more he watched the half-elf, so was the wielder.
The tunnel spit the gasping Japheth into a cavity whose far side was open to the massive vault that surrounded Xxiphu. Green Siren hung unsuspended in the air just feet from a protruding stone shelf. Seeing it hovering without support, save for a few slack ropes tied to the shelf, gave Japheth a momentary rush of vertigo.
Sparkling gold and red points of light swirled around the ship.
Raidon, Thoster, Seren, and several crew were also visible, including the first mate. Raidon was boarding. Seren stood on the deck of Green Siren nearest the shelf. Thoster's strong voice was directing the crew to cast off.
Japheth ran to the gangplank and crossed.
Raidon gave the warlock a hard look as he pounded across the plank. Japheth was glad to see the monk had sheathed Angul once more.
'Let's get out of here,' Japheth said.
'Cast off.' yelled Thoster.
The crew severed the last lines holding the ship. Green Siren drifted away from the shelf, toward the open air of the hollow.
'Raidon,' said Seren, 'will you control the ascent?' She gestured to a ritual circle smeared onto the main deck.
The monk continued to stare at Japheth, but nodded. Then he said, 'And you still have the Dreamheart safe, Japheth?'
'I had to give it up.'
'What?' Seren gasped. Her face lost all color. Raidon snorted, as if he'd already guessed. Japheth tensed, ready to defend himself if the monk went for him. The tableau held for several heartbeats, until an exclamation by three crew members drew their attention back to the increasingly distant stone shelf.
Two humanoid figures and one shadowy hound stood on it.
Japheth sucked in air. Even at the large and growing distance, he recognized the figures as Malyanna and Neifion.
Malyanna lifted something over her head. A spherical object.
'What kind of boneheaded stunt did you pull out there, lad?' said Thoster. 'Is that-?'
'It's the Dreamheart!' said Seren. 'It doesn't matter,' said Japheth. 'Why not?' asked Thoster.
'Because I locked up a portion of the Dreamheart's strength. They can't use it to its full power.' He didn't volunteer that he'd switched pacts and had locked up a portion of the stone's essence within himself. That was what kept him safe from the crimson road. He fancied he detected the tendrils of influence he'd stolen locked in opposition with the demonic power of his addiction, striving one against the other but equally matched. As long as that struggle persisted, neither could muster the strength to claim the warlock. It was a delicate balance.
'Are you mad?' Seren asked. 'The stone still has power, no matter how much you've drawn off.'
'Perhaps your meddling is the reason the Eldest did not die as I intended,' said Raidon.
'It's not dead?' said Thoster, his brow crinkled with concern.
'Not dead, but sleeping again,' said Raidon Seren said, 'Oh, that's just wonderful!' She pointed an accusatory finger at Japheth and said, 'Does the Dreamheart retain enough strength to break Raidon's binding over the Eldest?'
Raidon shifted his weight, preparatory to drawing Angul.
Japheth didn't know the answer to Seren's question. Maybe. But he pointed back to the shelf. 'Perhaps it's escaped your notice, but Malyanna holds the Dreamheart. She must have taken it from the throne chamber. So the binding has not broken. She didn't let the Eldest or its servitors have it.'
Through the air separating them, the eladrin noble's piercing gaze found Japheth. He knew, even without being able to clearly see her face, that Malyanna scowled at him.
'Why would she do that?'
'I… don't know.' But he suspected. The audacious eladrin might have snatched the stone to use as a bargaining chip against the Eldest. The woman had a dark agenda, and perhaps rousing the Eldest was only part of her plan. Not that he could imagine anything worse.
The ship's drift saw them out of the cavity and into the vast subterranean cyst.
Japheth watched the ledge, even though Xxiphu's coiling sides competed for his attention. The silhouette he'd identified as Neifion seemed agitated. Almost like he was growing in size….. then he unfurled enormous bat wings.
'We have to go. Now!' He pointed. Neifion's wings were apparent to all.
'Your crime will not go unpunished,' Raidon promised. Then he stepped into the ritual circle.
The moment the monk entered the smeared radius, the ship's drifting prow straightened. The glowing points eriglobing the ship pulsed as one, revealing themselves to Japheth as tiny fish.
Neifion launched himself from the ledge. His black wings brought an answering rustle from Japheth's cloak.
The Lord of Bats sought every last vestige of his stolen strength.
The ship broke upward, straight toward the vault's ceiling.
Already close, Green Siren punctured the craggy rock, which folded open before them and closed behind.
Mast-first, Green Siren shot up through solid stone like an escaped festival balloon into empty air.
*****
Anusha was free of the long nightmare. When she convinced herself she wasn't merely hallucinating, she
