After a moment she shot him a glare, but he was studiously staring ahead.
They came to the edge of the slope and halted, looking down. The descent would be treacherous, jumbled bones, swords jagged with decay, and an unknown depth of ash and dust. The hole at the base was perhaps ten paces across, yawning black.
‘There are spiders in the desert,’ Lostara muttered, ‘that build such traps.’
‘Slightly smaller, surely.’
She reached down and collected a thigh bone, momentarily surprised at its weight, then tossed it down the slope. A thud.
Then the packed ash beneath their boots vanished. And down they went, amidst explosions of dust, ashes and splinters of bone. A hissing rush-blind, choking-then they were falling through a dry downpour. To land heavily on yet another slope that tumbled them down a roaring, echoing avalanche.
It was a descent through splintered bones and bits of iron, and it seemed unending.
Lostara was unable to draw breath-they were drowning in thick dust, sliding and rolling, sinking then bursting free once more. Down, down through absolute darkness. A sudden, jarring collision with something-possibly wood- then a withered, rumpled surface that seemed tiled, and down once more.
Another thump and tumble.
Then she was rolling across flagstones, pushed on by a wave of ash and detritus, finally coming to a crunching halt, flat on her back, a flow of frigid air rising up on her left side-where she reached out, groping, then down, to where the floor should have been. Nothing. She was lying on an edge, and something told her that, had she taken this last descent, Hood alone would greet her at its conclusion.
Coughing from slightly further up the slope on her right. A faint nudge as the heaped bones and ashes on that side shifted.
Another such nudge, and she would be pushed over the edge. Lostara rolled her head to the left and spat, then tried to speak. The word came out thin and hoarse. ‘Don’t.’
Another cough, then, ‘Don’t what?’
‘Move.’
‘Oh. That doesn’t sound good. It’s not good, is it?’
‘Not good. Another ledge. Another drop… this one I think for ever.’
‘Judicious use of my warren seems appropriate at this point, don’t you think?’
‘Yes.’
‘A moment, then.’ A dull sphere of light emerged, suspended above them, its illumination struggling in the swirling clouds of dust.
It edged closer-grew larger. Brightened.
Revealing all that was above them.
Lostara said nothing. Her chest had contracted as if unwilling to take another breath. Her heart thundered. Wood. An X-shaped cross, tilting over them, as tall as a four-storey building. The glint of enormous, pitted spikes.
And nailed to the cruciform-
– a dragon.
Wings spread, pinned wide. Hind limbs impaled. Chains wrapped about its neck, holding its massive wedge- shaped head up, as if staring skyward-
– to a sea of stars marked here and there with swirls of glowing mist.
‘It’s not here…’ Pearl whispered.
‘What? It’s right above-’
‘No. Well, yes. But… look carefully. It’s enclosed in a sphere. A pocket warren, a realm unto itself-’
‘Or the entranceway,’ she suggested. ‘Sealing-’
‘A gate. Queen of Dreams, I think you’re right. Even so, its power doesn’t reach us… thank the spirits and gods and demons and ascendants and-’
‘Why, Pearl?’
‘Because, lass-that dragon is aspected.’
‘I thought they all were.’
‘Aye. You keep interrupting me, Lostara Yil. Aspected, I was saying. But not to a warren. Gods! I cannot fathom-’
‘Damn you, Pearl!’
‘Otataral.’
‘What?’
‘Otataral. Her aspect is otataral, woman!
Neither spoke for a time. Lostara began edging herself away from the ledge, shifting weight incrementally, freezing at every increase in the stream of dust slipping away beneath her.
Turning her head, she could make out Pearl. He had unveiled enough of his warren to draw himself upward, hovering slightly above the slope. His gaze remained fixed on the crucified dragon.
‘Some help down here…’ Lostara growled.
He started, then looked down at her. ‘Right. My deepest apologies, lass. Here, I shall extend my warren…’
She felt herself lifted into the air.
‘Make no struggle, lass. Relax, and you’ll float up beside me, then pivot upright.’
She forced herself to grow still, but the result was one of rigid immobility.
Pearl chuckled. ‘Lacks grace, but it will do.’
A half-dozen heart-beats later she was beside him, hovering upright.
‘Try to relax again, Lostara.’
She glared at him, but he was staring upward once more. Reluctantly, she followed his gaze.
‘It’s still alive, you know,’ Pearl whispered.
‘Who could have done this?’
‘Whoever it was, we have a lot for which to thank him, her… or them. This thing devours magic. Consumes warrens.’
‘All the old legends of dragons begin with the statement that they are the essence of sorcery. How, then, could this thing even exist?’
‘Nature always seeks a balance. Forces strive for symmetry. This dragon answers every other dragon that ever existed, or ever will.’
Lostara coughed and spat once more, then she shivered. ‘The Imperial Warren, Pearl. What was it before it was… turned to ash?’
He glanced over at her, eyes narrowing. He shrugged and began brushing dust from his clothes. ‘I see no value in lingering in this horrendous place-’
‘You said there was a gate down here-not
‘No. Beyond that ledge. I suspect the last time it was used was by whoever or whatever nailed this dragon onto the cross. Surprisingly, they didn’t seal the gate behind them.’
‘Careless.’
‘More like supremely confident, I would think. We’ll make our descent a little more orderly this time, agreed? You need not move-leave this to me.’
‘I despise that suggestion in principle, Pearl, but what I hate more is that I see no choice.’
‘Haven’t you had your fill of bared bones yet, lass? A simple sweet smile would have sufficed.’
She fixed him with a look of steel.
Pearl sighed. ‘A good try, lass. We’ll work on it.’
As they floated out over the ledge, Lostara looked up one last time, but not at the dragon, rather at the starscape beyond. ‘What do you make of that night sky, Pearl? I do not recognize the constellations… nor have I ever before seen those glowing swirls in any night sky I’ve looked at.’
He grunted. ‘That’s a foreign sky-as foreign as can be. A hole leading into alien realms, countless strange worlds filled with creatures unimaginable-’
‘You really don’t know, do you?’
