the prince's grapple-a fatal mistake. Though the giant was stronger than the elemental, Monolith was practiced in centuries of contests with his heavy-limbed kin. As soon as the giant gave the prince his back, the earth lord straddled the giant, grabbed him around the neck, and pulled. The giant's lower back was pinned under Monolith's boulderlike weight. With a savage jerk, Monolith broke the giant's back.
Warian danced away from the titanic figures, barely avoiding the same fate bestowed on Pandorym's newly summoned stooge. Four or five mantis-men remained near the core, not to mention the great smudge of steaming evil that seeped from the cracked silo-was that Pandorym itself? Kiril Duskmourn had just cut down Shaddon, but the Datharathi's head still threatened her. And… A creature, half bone and half void, stepped out of Pandorym's shrouded portal. Blood slicked its shadow-tipped claws, and gore crusted its body in horrible textures. The creature was fresh from a slaughter. Warian moved, and the world around him slowed again, though not as dramatically as before. He was tiring. The creature whirled, not as befuddled by Warian's speed as he would have hoped. It clawed at him, each hand like a fistful of swords. Warian ducked right. His left shoulder was scored, but his prosthesis withstood the cuts. His crystal hand formed a fist, and he slammed it with all the force he could muster into the creature's eyeless, bony face. The monstrosity exploded under Warian's phenomenal strike, blasting motes of shadow and splinters of bone in every direction. Warian gasped. The radiance of his arm failed. He'd used all his reserve, holding none back. Exhaustion curled into his limbs, and haze narrowed his vision. Nausea took him to his knees. He didn't have the strength to be sick. He didn't have the… Warian reeled into oblivion.
The Cerulean Blade tore through several razor-sharp, soul-burrowing strands that spewed from Shaddon's mouth. Turning those strands into so much dust, Kiril tried to plunge Angul into the decapitated head, but Shaddon darted outside her arc. She missed a few strands from Shaddon's next volley. Angul refused to let her feel the pain. Without consequences, anything was possible-any feat, any good work. And any atrocity. Her sword bristled in her hands at this wayward thought, and some of the pain of Shaddon's blows touched Kiril. She gritted her teeth and muttered, 'Let me fail here, and these abominations survive.' She deflected another burst of night-black tendrils. Her hands wavered on Angul's hilt, but his fire flickered brightly. Shaddon's dead eyes glinted, uncaring, as he vomited up another torrent of darkness. A ribbon cut her cheek, and pain flared. 'Damn you, Angul, help me now without messing with my head, or lose your last tie to the humanity your forsook!' The blade flared-in anger? Doubtful Angul could feel that emotion. Shaddon's head, sensing weakness, darted forward, its mouth eagerly wide, its crystal flesh oozing inky death. The head moved close to deliver an awful coup de grace that only physical contact could allow. Angul didn't let her down. Shards of Shaddon's skull and crystal rained across the chamber. Now… what was the vengeance taker bellowing for? Fire? The blade flared its blue flame anew. Kiril yelled a battle cry and ran to the Imaskari's aid. Her blade hadn't abandoned her.
Besides, igniting trolls was something she and Angul could both agree on.
The murk of Pandorym's form strained and quivered. The portal at Pandorym's heart wavered, narrowing further. Ususi didn't falter. She imagined the wall she held blocking the passage to Deep Imaskar as a gag-a gag she continued to cram down the throat of a desperately struggling assassin on whom the tables had suddenly turned. With the ragged edges of her percipience, she noted Shaddon was no more. Zel summoned the courage to enter the room and tend to his fallen nephew.
The elf swordswoman torched the body of a gray troll. Iahn stood nearby, firing crossbow bolts at the mantis-men if they dared to poke their heads from cover. The earth lord, Prince Monolith, stood over the body of a fallen giant, near the gap where Pandorym's influence seeped from its jacketed silo. Pandorym's influence… something nagged her. She turned the full attention of her star-bright eyes, Qari's gift, on the boiling darkness of Pandorym and saw the facade for what it was. What she perceived as Pandorym was only the entity's evil nimbus- the true mentality of the creature still lay entrapped in the partly disengaged canister, thick with the entangling magic of an ancient era. The nimbus wasn't Pandorym-it was Pandorym's herald. But left to fester, it would eventually leverage enough power to pull itself free of its containment. On the other hand, if Pandorym's canister could be resealed in its silo, the nimbus that leaked from the gap would cease. 'Prince Monolith, seal the gap!' Ususi yelled, straining to maintain her spell. Hearing her, Pandorym redoubled its struggle. Her barrier nearly skittered from her mental grasp. She sensed dozens of powerful presences gathered just on the other side of Pandorym's portal-Deep Imaskar's attackers had returned to the edge of the bridge through which they'd arrived. Trolls, mantis-men, shadow efts, and other creatures pressed against the wall. And an illithid!
All were trying to cross the gap and defend their master. Ususi was determined they would fail. She wouldn't let them through. 'The gap?'
The earth lord took a tentative step toward the raised circle in the floor, through which Pandorym's influence streamed. 'This?' 'Yes!
Close it! Quick!' Ususi stumbled, one hand out, the other on her forehead as her spell came under even more violent attack. 'There are dozens, maybe hundreds of servitors on the other side of the portal, in Deep Imaskar- they're trying to return here. And they will if they break through my containment!' The earth elemental shook his head, not understanding what the wizard was saying. But he squatted next to the gap to study it. Iahn ran forward, as did Kiril, though Ususi doubted either's strength would matter. From wherever it had been hiding, the crystal dragonet darted down to land on the earth elemental's shoulders. It chimed encouraging tones into Monolith's ear. The prince put one great hand on the edge of the raised canister and clutched the lip of the silo with the other. The wide canister, partially unjacketed, with its mechanical locks only half engaged, resisted the earth lord's attempt to close it. The inlaid Nadir crystal lines across the top of the canister lit up, but the radiance wasn't purple-it was yellow. The entangling magic wasn't dead-it sought to reengage. The citrine radiance penetrated the cloud of blackness.
Pandorym's nimbus roiled and boiled, and tendrils of night snaked out to point threateningly at Prince Monolith. But without its servitors to do its bidding, Pandorym's aura was toothless. It would remain so if Ususi could continue to hold the portal. 'Try again!' the wizard commanded. 'Help me!' yelled Prince Monolith. Iahn and the elf took up positions along the edges of Pandorym's prison vessel. The elemental's mineral thews contracted with a sound like a rock fall in a ravine.
Kiril and the vengeance taker cursed and grunted with effort. With a lurch and click, the canister popped back into place, sealed. The portal into Deep Imaskar slammed shut. Ususi staggered as her spell collapsed. The lines of yellow Nadir crystal that inlaid the surface of the canister surged as if living things, knitting and extending themselves in racing lines of arcane fire until they completely covered the silo, their severed ends rejoining to form a perfect circle of warding. The spiral of void and destruction came untethered.
It whirled faster and faster, wild streams of violet midnight, a vortex of dust and dark, draining away into the ultimate spaces beyond the worlds. With a last furious scream, Pandorym's shadow faded into history's depths.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Clouds gathered, white on ivory, on the horizon. The day's last blinding rays infused the storm with ominous highlights. Ususi looked across the trackless Raurin Desert from a balcony high on the Palace of the Purple Emperor. 'Iahn is late,' Zel fretted. Ususi turned to regard Zeltaebar Datharathi. 'Vengeance takers follow their own schedules. They are not so much late as… deliberate,' Ususi responded. 'He said he'd return today. Here comes day's end. I don't see how we can get a trade covenant brokered between Deep Imaskar and Vaelan if timetables can't be-' 'Uncle!' broke in Warian. The young man with the crystal arm was seated on a comfortable bench on the balcony. The bench, one of several, and other items of comfort, had been delivered several days ago by Datharathi skyship. They represented sample merchandise that Deep Imaskar might wish to trade for, according to Zel. On a small table next to Warian, playing cards were arranged in several small stacks. Brightly painted dragons of various hues were visible on each card. The Datharathis-those few who survived destruction by Pandorym-had been quick to see an untapped trade opportunity in Deep Imaskar. Even Warian seemed interested in his family business, now that it tottered close to dissolution. Of all the senior family members, only he and Zel survived-he because his prosthesis predated Pandorym's release, and Zel because the man had been too paranoid to accept the implants.
