ceiling really would crush him unless he moved now. In the end Bestion made the decision for him, dragging Silus to his feet before hurrying him out of the room.
In the cloisters the walls shook and the sound of breaking stone was almost deafening. When they stumbled out of the temple and into the courtyard they could see that the city was shaking itself apart.
People were fleeing from their homes as they fell around them, some having no choice but to scramble from windows to drop to the street two stories or more below. Not all of them managed to drag themselves to safety before they were buried beneath falling stone.
A strong wind blew down towards them from the upper levels of the city, bringing with it a foul stench.
A panicked tide of acolytes and priests flowed around Silus and Bestion. Most chose to head to the upper levels of Morat, fleeing towards the docks, but some went running down the terraces to the lower levels; throwing frightened glances behind them while trying to dodge the detritus that rained down around them.
'We must get to the docks.' Bestion shouted. 'The only safety will be out on the water.'
Silus's first thought, however, was to the safety of Katya and Zack. They were still at the palace and, if the rubble from the collapsed buildings continued to tumble into the centre of the Morat, they'd soon be buried in the avalanche.
Silus made for the steps but an explosion threw him to the ground as the remains of an inn collided with the side of the temple, demolishing the cloisters. He got to his feet and was about to battle onwards when — through the thickening fog of brick dust and debris — he saw his wife struggling up from the lower levels, Zac clutched to her breast. Behind her followed the rest of the crew.
'Thank the Lord.' Silus said, embracing Katya. 'We have to get to the Llothriall. Bestion, follow us.'
But when Silus turned to address the priest, there was no sign of him. He only hoped that he wasn't amongst the tangled corpses trapped in the temple ruins.
There was no time to check, however, as the tremors that had besieged the city intensified. The stairs leading to the upper levels cracked as they raced up them. Silus looked back once to see that Morat had become a vast landslide; its beauty lost in a vortex of tumbling stone.
As they crested the last terrace, Silus almost stumbled as he saw what lay ahead.
'Holy Lord! What is that?' Win said.
A dark wall of flesh rolled across Morat, consuming everything in its path. Already the docks had disappeared into its black gullet and as it ate it made a horrendous sound. The sun reflected from its wet hide and Silus wondered what manner of creature the Chadassa had called to their aid.
There was no escape. Behind them the city continued to fall apart and ahead of them it was being consumed at an alarming rate. Silus had just a moment to consider what had become of the Llothriall before the creature was upon them. He reached out and took Katya's hand, but his grip was wrenched away as he fell into darkness.
His pulse was loud in his ears as he awoke. Something damp covered his head like a hood and when Silus opened his eyes all he could see was a weak, milky glow filtered through a web of veins that beat in time with his heart. His throat burned. Something was holding his jaws apart. He bit down on an obstruction that felt like bone encased in gristle and a bitter taste filled his mouth. Silus tried to raise his hands to pry away the hood, but found that they had been encased in something that felt like warm, moist flesh.
He wasn't sure how much time passed before the tube in his throat was withdrawn and the hood was peeled away.
Silus found himself in a room that was made entirely of flesh. Great bony ridges supported the ceiling and the floor beneath him rose and fell as the walls pulsed. To either side of him sat several figures, their hands sunk to their wrists into the floor and their heads covered in fleshy hoods that grew from the walls. Fat, ridged pipes extended from the walls and into the hoods, suspended from which were veined sacs that hissed and wheezed as they contracted and inflated. Even though their faces were covered Silus recognised Win and the crew of the Llothriall. Katya and Zac weren't amongst them.
Silus tried to pull his hands free of the grip of the floor but the more he pulled, the tighter the grip became, until the bones of his wrists began to grind painfully together.
'Dunsany! Kelos! Wake up.'
A portion of the far wall flexed and dilated open like a vast sphincter. A Chadassa stepped through the opening and into the room. The door folded closed behind it with a sound that made Silus's guts turn.
'What have you done with Katya and Zac?' he shouted, pulling against his restraints, a fresh surge of hatred for the Chadassa flowing through him.
'Belck has them now. They are no longer of your concern. I am to prepare you for the Queen.'
'I'd rather kill myself than breed with your kind.'
'If you resist us then the things we do to your woman and her grub will make this seem but a pleasant dream.' With that the Chadassa put its hand against the wall and barked several words in a harsh, guttural language.
The hood encasing Win's head contracted and the Archduke cried out, thrashing against his bonds. The hood was so tight now that Silus could see Win's features clearly through the taut material. The expression he saw was one of uncomprehending terror. Blood trickled down Win's neck as the bones of his skull shifted and cracked.
His screams quickly fell silent. The hood relaxed its grip. Win slumped against Dunsany.
The Chadassa turned to Silus. 'Now come, follow.'
Silus's hands were released and he got numbly to his feet. The sphincter-door peeled open and the Chadassa was already halfway through when Silus tore the pipe free from Win's collapsed hood, his fingers almost slipping on the bony ridges. He ran at the Chadassa and encircled its throat with his left arm, before jabbing the pipe into its right eye, the black orb giving way easily to the jagged edge.
The creature screamed and scrabbled against Silus's hold, its claws tearing shallow trenches into his arm. Silus ignored the pain and rammed the broken pipe into the Chadassa's eye again and again until it dropped to the floor, its cries loud in the confines of the flesh chamber. Silus knelt on the creature's chest and, leaning down hard, he pushed the pipe as far into the Chadassa's eye socket as it would go. There was a loud crack and the pipe met with little resistance as it entered the soft meat of the Chadassa's brain.
Silus remained crouched over the creature for a moment, listening for the approach of more of its kind. But there was no sound of footsteps and, so, Silus got to work freeing the prisoners.
The hoods did not peel easily away from their heads and Silus was careful less he harm his companions in any way, but soon he had the first of them free. He gently extracted the breathing pipe from Dunsany's mouth, stepping back when he vomited copiously onto the ground.
'Am I dead? Is this the seven hells that the Faith used to threaten us with?'
'No, Dunsany, I can assure you that we are very much alive.'
Dunsany noticed the corpse of the creature, and then Win's body.
'That… that's…'
'Yes, it is. Now help me get your hands free before they have a chance to do the same to the rest of us.'
Using a section of broken pipe, they managed to dig Dunsany's hands from the floor. As he tore at the flesh of the room, Silus thought that he could hear squeals of protest coming from somewhere distant. When he peeled the hood from Jacquinto's head the chamber shuddered. Pores began to open up in the floor and through these oozed a sticky clear substance, while the door to the room began to shrink.
'Come on, we're leaving now!' Silus shouted, giving the crew no time to orientate themselves.
The hole of the door was almost too narrow to struggle through as the last of them left the room, and Kelos and Silus had to pull Father Maylan through the folds of flesh that had begun to close around his body. He tumbled through as the door sealed itself behind him and soon the chamber was lost behind a wall of unbroken flesh.
'I feel strangely reborn,' the priest said, getting to his feet.
The corridor in which they now found themselves was made of a material that looked like raw steak. Above them, arches of bone supported the ceiling where thick red cables ran through the flesh, pulsing to a steady beat that echoed down the passageway. Silus put his hand to a wall and it twitched away from his touch.
'Wherever we are,' he said, 'this place is alive.'
'We need to get out of here quick.' Jacquinto said. 'We have no weapons and there are bound to be more Chadassa on us at any moment.'
'What if we made weapons?' Silus said.
