Haldren shouted the last syllable of his spell, but at that instant Darraun held up a wand and yelled a word of his own. A brief flare of light and smoke was the only manifestation of Haldren’s spell.
“Traitor!” Haldren hissed, glaring at Darraun beneath bristling eyebrows. “Spy! I never trusted you!”
“You didn’t have to,” Darraun said, running forward with his mace over his shoulder and his wand in his other hand. “I still learned everything I needed to know.”
Senya grinned at Rienne. “What do you say we let these two sort out their differences?” she said, jerking her head toward Haldren and Darraun. “And we can sort out ours.” The elf charged, the point of her sword low to the ground.
Rienne stood still, her sword loose in her hand. “Please tell me you’re not going to fight me in a jealous rage over Gaven.”
“A jealous rage?” Senya said. “No.” She closed with Rienne, bringing her sword up in a thrust at Rienne’s heart. Rienne lazily swung Maelstrom up to knock Senya’s sword aside, and the elf’s momentum took her around to Rienne’s right. Rienne turned to follow her.
“What differences, then?” Rienne said, settling into a good defensive stance and awaiting Senya’s next move.
“Remember the dwarves in Vathirond? The ones you brought to apprehend us? They nearly killed me, you know.”
Rienne felt a pang of guilt. That had been her fault, though not the way Senya thought. “I didn’t bring them. They followed me.”
“I don’t care.” Senya lunged, more carefully this time, but she was not at all prepared for the way Rienne fought. Maelstrom beat her sword point to the ground, and Rienne stepped on the blade, yanking it from Senya’s hand. Rienne’s next step landed on Senya’s shoulder, and Maelstrom traced a shallow cut in the elf’s neck as Rienne went overhead and landed behind her.
Rienne’s new position gave her a clear view of Darraun and Haldren. The sorcerer had still not dismounted, and his horse pranced sideways in a circle around the changeling, keeping Haldren effectively out of Darraun’s reach. Another spell shot from Haldren’s hand only to fizzle in the air, met by something from the artificer’s wand. But Rienne could see that Darraun was tiring.
Senya circled, then stooped to retrieve her blade from the ground. Rienne saw her opening-Senya’s defenses were down. But at the same moment, Haldren spurred his horse forward to run the changeling down. Instead of attacking Senya, she ran toward the others, placing herself carefully between Senya and Darraun.
Senya charged again. Rienne stepped to the side and spun as she went past, deflecting the force of Senya’s charge upward. The elf’s own momentum carried her through the air to land at Darraun’s feet, right in Haldren’s path. The horse neighed and reared, and Haldren had to fight to keep his seat. Darraun charged forward and swung his mace into Haldren’s knee. The sorcerer screamed and fell to the ground.
The pull on Gaven’s mind was tangible, as though the tentacles had touched him, wrapped around him, and drawn him in. He staggered forward, unwilling, but unable to resist. He felt he could not balance on his feet unless he kept stepping forward. He tried to lean back, against the pull, but sensed immediately that he would fall backward unless he lurched forward again. He stumbled and felt something bang against his arm, sending a tingle of warm energy through his skin.
The Heart of Khyber. He stretched out a hand and grabbed it, then lost his balance and fell to the ground. The Soul Reaver stepped closer on its spindly legs, and Gaven raised a hand to ward it off-the hand that held the Heart of Khyber.
The Soul Reaver recoiled, and Gaven felt the pressure on his mind ease. He scrambled to his feet, keeping the nightshard between himself and the monstrous abomination, and hefted the spear in his other hand. A sick, burbling hiss came from the Soul Reaver’s mouth as it crouched, wary of Gaven’s next move.
“Does this frighten you?” Gaven said, thrusting the nightshard forward. “Or is it the spear, foreordained for your doom?”
I am your doom. Pain assaulted every nerve in Gaven’s body, an unbearable agony worse than any trauma of body or soul he had ever experienced. His body urged him to flee, to get as far as he could from the source of the pain, to never draw near it again. He turned to run, but the Heart of Khyber held him like an anchor. He would have dropped it in order to flee, but his hand seemed unwilling to release it. It was cool in his palm, an oasis from the pain, and he tried to draw on that coolness to assuage the agony. A soothing chill like water spread out from his hand, and in a moment the pain was gone.
I will destroy you, the Soul Reaver said, and my hordes will spread over the surface world like a plague. Nothing will stop them!
A vision accompanied its words, startlingly real, much like the visions that had haunted Gaven’s dreams in Dreadhold and even his waking since his escape. He saw an unending stream of horrible monstrosities pouring out of the chasm far above him, unleashing devastation far worse than anything the world had experienced in the Last War. It was a vision of the world overcome with madness and horror.
Doubt began to gnaw at the roots of Gaven’s mind. How could one man hold back such a tide of devastation? To do so would require greater power than even he wielded-would it not require the power of a god?
Gaven roared, and thunder shook the earth around him. Sheets of lightning shot out from the tunnel walls to engulf the Soul Reaver, lifting it off the ground and holding it in the air as wave after wave of storming fury poured into its sickly flesh. Still howling, Gaven charged forward, leveling his spear at the Soul Reaver’s chest.
The Eye of Siberys bound to a branch of ash…
…among the bones of Khyber…
The Storm Dragon drives a spear into the Soul Reaver’s heart.
My hand on the spear, Gaven thought as he plunged it into a body that was shadow given twisting form.
CHAPTER 51
One sharp kick from Rienne’s foot sent Senya sprawling facedown on the ground. The elf groaned, but she did not move again. Darraun had overheard only snippets of the banter between the two women as they fought, but it was enough to make him curious what had happened in Vathirond. He wished he’d been there to see it.
Haldren stirred, so Darraun slammed his mace into the sorcerer’s skull rather harder than was probably necessary, sending a trail of blood arcing from the sorcerer’s mouth. Darraun had been itching to do that almost since he first laid eyes on Haldren in Dreadhold, and he took great pleasure in watching the old man slump into unconsciousness. The artificer put his hands on his knees and paused to catch his breath-and to think hard about what he had to do next.
At that moment, the earth shook violently, nearly knocking him off his feet. Rienne kept her balance easily enough, but fear clouded her face. “Gaven!” she breathed, and she turned to stare back at the Crystal Spire, still piercing the sky with its unearthly light.
“Go!” Darraun said, reading her thoughts on her face. So transparent. “I’ll take care of these two.”
Rienne hesitated only a moment before bolting to Haldren’s horse and throwing herself onto its back. It didn’t seem to mind at all, and eagerly ran out of the valley, heading back into the heart of the storm.
“So what am I going to do with you two?” Darraun said to the bodies at his feet. He put his hands on his hips and stared down at them, then began looking around the nearby field of battle. “Let’s see what we have to work with.”
Writhing shadows gripped the Eye of Siberys and sucked it into darkness, yanking the spear from Gaven’s hand. The Soul Reaver’s blank white eyes opened wide. Gaven stumbled backward and stared up in disbelief at the creature transforming before him.
Dusky gray flesh became translucent, hard as crystal, with smoky veins of darkness twisting beneath the skin. A core of molten shadow churned around the Eye of Siberys in its chest, where the spear had torn cloth away and penetrated the skin, as if it were dissolving the dragonshard or absorbing its power. Finally the eyes-pale white orbs that bulged in their bony sockets-began to glow with rich golden light, as if the Eye of Siberys had traveled
