and I will have to trust yours. Perhaps we should join our strength to overcome this Pandorym?'
'You believe them?' snorted the elf woman. 'I want to know who released Pandorym if these relics of the empire didn't do it.' She glared at Ususi. 'It was my grandfather,' said Warian. 'Shaddon Datharathi. He found his way into a forbidden plane where this tower, until recently, slept through the centuries. Greed drove him. We're here to help put right his mistake.' 'Sounds good enough for a trial partnership,' interjected Monolith. 'What do you say, descendants of Imaskar?' Ususi considered, nodded, and said, 'Help us out of this pit, and we'll compare strategies.'
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Another set of circling stairs. It wasn't far now. The Imperial Weapons Cache was ahead. And, presumably, Pandorym. The stained corridors, translucent stairs, sealed chambers, and dozens of fascinating but ultimately unimportant features of the Purple Palace were behind them. As were the most vicious protests of the elf woman who called herself Kiril. She'd finally accepted Prince Monolith's opinion, but distrust still lay openly across her face whenever Ususi looked back. Of course, Iahn wasn't much better. Because Ususi was of his lineage and knew something of his ways, the wizard saw the vengeance taker's behavior for what it was. She could see Iahn's distrust in the way he carried himself, how he kept his hand always ready on the hilt of his weapon, and how he consistently checked the behavior of the elf and elemental as they traversed the dark corridors of the tower. He was on knife-edge alert, ready to assassinate the rough-speaking elf and at least damage the elemental lord at the first hint of betrayal. To everyone else, he probably seemed stiff and unfriendly. The two Vaelanites were likewise quiet, or perhaps merely tired, and at the very least, emotionally drained. The one with the prosthesis was running on willpower alone. Ususi hoped the slow walk would help renew the young man's energy. Iahn had offered him some morsels from his pack to keep his strength up. Warian's facility with his arm could prove pivotal in dealing with Pandorym. His sister's death colored all Warian's utterances, or lack thereof. Ususi knew she would suffer the same way if Qari were to come to harm. Perhaps Ususi's sister was in danger even now, back in Deep Imaskar. If only she could see what was happening there! But dealing with Pandorym in the palace was the quickest, surest method of stopping the entity's forces… she fervently hoped. No. No, she knew her course was the right one, but would they be quick enough? Would they even be successful? It was all she could do to force herself ahead instead of back to the gate into the Celestial Nadir, and from there directly back to the foot of the Great Seal, using her keystone to forge a way.
'Explain again what this Pandorym is, and what your great-to-the-gills grandparents did to anger it,' insisted the hard voice of the elf swordswoman, continuing a conversation Ususi thought was complete.
Ususi took a deep breath and said, 'It is an entity too powerful to be controlled or even destroyed. The ancient Imaskari were under siege from their slaves' avenging deities. They were desperate. A powerful Imaskaran imperial faction lured Pandorym from a distant dimension beyond the local cosmology. In a fashion I do not understand, they caged Pandorym and threatened its release in this world as a way to dissuade the gods from destroying the Imaskari Empire. Apparently, the threat wasn't taken seriously, or the Imaskari were destroyed before their threat was issued. Either way, Pandorym remained forgotten and confined for millennia. Until miners from Vaelan found a gate into the Celestial Nadir, found the palace, and partially released Pandorym.
Pandorym, once released, dropped the palace back into the world, onto its original foundation.' 'These miners…' began Kiril, but the wizard snapped up a hand to deflect the elf's question. Ususi wasn't about to reveal the relationship between Warian, Zel, and Datharathi Minerals to this revenge-obsessed elf warrior, especially one who carried a blade of considerable potency. Ususi's magic-sensitive eyes watered whenever she looked directly at it. The wizard said, 'What's important now is to bind Pandorym anew into whatever cage it slipped from. The fact that we still walk freely in these halls should be assurance enough that it has reclaimed only a fraction of its potential power.' Kiril replied, 'Sounds like a familiar tale. I know something of binding wickedness.' 'Really? What?' asked Zel. 'Let's just say that well-meaning accomplishments rarely go unpunished.' Zel waited for more, but seemed unwilling to press. Kiril lapsed back into silence. They curved around another bend in the corridor and faced darkness. Ususi's hand went to her mouth. 'No…' Night blocked the passage ahead. So complete was the blackness that the magical radiance of Ususi's orb dimmed as its farthest rays fell into the dark chasm. A cold breeze cooled her flesh, and the howl of a distant wind conjured the image of desolation. Shadows rippled, and tendrils of darkness emerged, dissolved, and reappeared, as if attempting to cross the intervening space and pull all of them into its insatiable void. 'I dreamed… I have dreamed this!' the wizard insisted. She backed up.
Iahn's sudden hands upon her shoulders turned her about so she faced away from the unnerving abyss. 'What do you see?' he asked, his tone conveying worry, even if his eyes retained their usual pristine clarity. 'Is it more than an enchantment of shadow?' She croaked, cleared her throat, and tried to speak. 'It… it is something I've faced in my dreams for… more years than I can name.' She stole another peek at the apparition at her back and shuddered. 'It's my nightmare, here now, alive in the world.' 'How can that be?' demanded Kiril. The swordswoman pushed forward to stand alongside Iahn. She was as tall as the taker, and perhaps broader of shoulder. 'I don't know,'
Ususi responded. But she did know. It was the doom she and her sister Qari had shared since they were children. They would one day face darkness, irredeemable and absolute. And here it was. 'Ususi, we must press forward if we are to breach the weapons cache,' Iahn said, taking one of her hands in both of his own. 'Dissolve this magical gloom and reveal the threat Pandorym truly poses. Are you truly so afraid of the dark?' 'It's not the dark-it's what the darkness hides!' she yelled in the vengeance taker's face. But as she spoke, she wondered if it were true. Her lifelong nightmares had conditioned her to quail in the face of utter gloom. Pandorym's mind and essence were things of darkness made manifest, and it blocked her way forward. She took a deep breath, fighting to impose calm. She could flee, true, and let Deep Imaskar fall by allowing Pandorym to go unopposed. Or she could deal with the murk that blocked their way. It couldn't hurt to try to dissolve the gloom in greater light, could it? Ususi reached up and tapped the jewel that hovered overhead, muttering encouraging thaunemes of amplification. Responding to her magical plea, the illumination of her orb waxed. Ususi swiveled to face her nemesis.
Radiance poured from her free-floating light, meeting the darkness like an ocean wave meets a rocky coast. The gloom splintered and fell back… then drank down the light entirely. The distant wind suddenly screamed in Ususi's ear, and the darkness pounced. Light guttered and failed. Ususi's voice choked up, and her limbs were swaddled in oblivion. Her lifelong nightmare was back, this time all too real. The darkness, after these long, empty years, finally got her. When the wizard was snatched away, Iahn yelled 'Ususi!' and plunged into the blackness. Warian moved forward, but his uncle held him back. 'What can you smash if you can't see?' The elemental lord thundered at the swordswoman, 'It obeys the rules of darkness, I deem, even if it is possessed of something more nefarious. Burn it away with Angul!'
Kiril's hand went for the lesser blade she carried on her belt.
Monolith cried, 'It must be Angul. No time for half-measures!' The elf's hand wavered, then diverted to Angul's sheath. Kiril pulled Angul forth and gasped. Runes on the unclothed blade burned with blinding intensity and blue flame. The advancing margin of darkness reversed itself. With a posture forged from blade-given surety, the elf stepped forward a pace, then two. The darkness roiled and flailed against the perimeter of Angul's glow, and Kiril moved forward another step. Here and there, the sphere of brilliance surrounding Kiril dimmed, and lightless tendrils slid inward along invisible fractures.
Another step forward and the sphere shrank to half its size.
Undaunted, Kiril advanced. The roused dusk swallowed her. As if energized by enclosing Angul's brilliance, the face of the black wall swelled. Zel, Warian, and even Prince Monolith fell back, but too slowly. All were engulfed. When the perimeter receded to its original position, the hall was empty. No evidence of intruders remained to mar the ancient stone floor of the Purple Palace.
Ususi rolled over and over, impelled by a force with no substance.
She spun through a screaming void of spiritual emptiness. How had she escaped the darkness during her last dream, when wakefulness had been denied her? Qari! Her sister had come into her dream, saving her.
Would a memory of her sister offer aid now? She fastened upon the idea of Qari and tried to shout her name, though the use of her voice was denied her. A glimmer of cool, blue radiance broke upon her mind. It wasn't true
