Beside her, Corian’s hands moved quickly, his lips silently muttering another spell. A wave of shimmering light rippled away from him in all directions, washing over Persh’al and the halfling before spreading out toward the black spears of stone that had pushed up from the earth. Then the shimmering air disappeared, and the Nightstalker shook his head. “Nobody here.”
“We could’ve told you that,” Byrd said as he stepped around the lowest rise of upturned earth toward them. “This ridge goes on for at least another mile to the west.”
Lumil appeared on Corian’s right, tossing her shaggy yellow hair out of her eyes. “Nothing around the north side.”
Corian turned toward the troll. “Persh’al?”
“With all the magic here, I’m surprised my alarms weren’t going off every half-hour instead.” Persh’al scratched the shaved side of his head and shrugged. “This clearing’s big enough to host decent-sized operations, though. I’m thinking convenience.”
“Yeah, me too.” Corian folded his arms and turned back toward the spires. “Especially if this ridge runs as far as Byrd says it does. Wouldn’t be too hard to reconfigure things into an active tower from here.”
“Nope.” Persh’al cocked his head. “About a week, with the right gear.”
Cheyenne stepped across the clearing to get a better view of the black stone. Those could be teeth in some giant, messed-up mouth.
A dark shadow stirred within the rising spires—just a flicker, there one moment and vanished again behind another fist of black stone the next. She cleared her throat. “When you say, ‘convenience,’ you mean someone might’ve opened this portal on purpose, right?”
All four magicals turned toward her.
“Yes, Cheyenne.” Corian nodded once, his silver eyes narrowed with suspicion. “There’s a chance someone on the other side put a lot of work into opening an unregulated Border portal. Still, without any proof, it’s hard to say if that’s what happened.”
The halfling nodded toward the high ridges of jutting stone stretching farther to the west than she could see. “There might be proof in there.”
Corian turned to study the stone. Another dark shape rose between the black spires, glistening in the morning light spilling into the clearing. The Nightstalker stepped across the open ground toward Cheyenne, followed quickly by Persh’al and the goblins. Every pair of eyes searched for more movement in the newest Border portal.
“I’d say you’re right,” Corian muttered. “Only one way to find out.”
A bolt of silver light shot from the Nightstalker’s hand toward the black stone. It hissed between the two closest spires and struck something. Silver sparks flared as Corian’s magic crackled across its target, flashing between the fists of black stone in both directions. A low growl rose from the center of the stone ridge. That growl quickly turned into an ear-splitting roar, and a massive shape as black as the portal stone rose from between the rocky pillars.
“What the hell is that?” Persh’al muttered.
The beast within the stone heaved, rising above the black spires and casting an even longer shadow across the clearing as it reared above them.
Corian sucked a breath through his teeth. “Not what I was expecting.”
Chapter Seventy-One
A giant tentacle wider than any of the trees around them lurched into the sky, waving in warning. The creature it belonged to let out another howling roar. The ground shook beneath them.
“That doesn’t belong here,” Persh’al murmured, his orange eyes traveling up the length of the threatening, glistening appendage.
Byrd scoffed and shot the troll an exasperated glance. “What gave it away, genius?”
“You know what? I have half a mind to shove you through that portal so you can come back with a detailed report—”
“Watch out!” Cheyenne shoved Persh’al to the side as the massive tentacle slammed down with surprising speed. A spray of dirt and brown grass erupted along either side of the tentacle before it withdrew again.
The troll licked his lips and patted the halfling’s shoulder. “I owe you for that one, kid.”
“Don’t worry about owing me anything. Just—”
Another tentacle shot out from between the pillars and wrapped around Persh’al’s throat. In a flash of silver light, the clearing filled with the song of metal slicing through the air. Black fluid sprayed, and the now shorter tendril flapped madly in the air before withdrawing. The stump of slick, glistening black tentacle loosened from around the troll’s throat.
Corian’s hand was still raised after he’d severed the tentacle with one slash of the very metallic-looking claws jutting four inches from the tips of his fingers.
“Damn the Crown and all this bullshit!” Persh’al struggled fiercely to remove the slimy tentacle from around his neck before he chucked it at the ground. It writhed on its own, then fell still.
“Oh, shit.” Lumil glanced between the severed limb and Persh’al’s throat. Her hand lifted toward the scar around her neck.
“Cheyenne.” Corian stepped out to squarely face the jagged stone pillars, his voice steady and firm in the silence of the clearing as the enormous tentacle waved yards above the tallest spire. “For now, I want you to forget everything I said about keeping that pendant on.”
“Yep.” She struggled with the knot in the thin silver chain around her neck. I need a better way to secure this thing. Lifting the pendant out from under her sweatshirt, she gave it a quick jerk and broke the chain. The Heart of Midnight went into her pocket. Her drow magic flared at the base of her spine as if it had been waiting for its moment of freedom.
“Oh-ho shit.” Lumil grinned when she saw Cheyenne’s transformation from pale Goth human to the purple-gray skin, stark white hair, and pointed ears of the halfling’s drow heritage.
Cheyenne ignored her.
“Any pointers on this one?” Byrd asked, his eyes darting between the massive tentacle and the quickening movement between the stone pillars.
“Yeah.” Persh’al summoned an orb of spitting, whirring blue magic in his palm. “Don’t let those things grab you by the throat.”
A spinning circle of blazing red light appeared around Lumil’s clenched fist as she raised it. “What’s
