Part 30 (1/2)
The spiked cylinder accelerated along the slab. The four men abandoned the rope and ran from the room in spite of the angry cries of the Empress. Tolivar felt the heat scorch the soles of his boots, and a wail like that of a terrified infant was torn from his lips.
Above him, a dazzling white figure sprang into existence. He saw the Archimage Haramis pointing her talisman. His shackles sprang open and his helpless form levitated, flying sideways as the fiery drum, no longer restrained, sped over the place where he had lain.
At the slab's end it swung out on its chains like a glowing pendulum. The Empress Naelore tried to back away from it, too panic-stricken to call upon the magic of her Star. It struck her full in the face. Tolivar, now shrieking for his mother, felt himself lowered to the floor. Beneath the oscillating red-hot cylinder was a thing that writhed and convulsed and would not be still.
The boy's gorge rose as a vile odor of burnt cloth and seared meat reached his nostrils. He fell to his knees, vomiting, then tried to pull himself together as he heard the Archimage call his name. She had freed the other prisoners and was herding them toward the door.
”Tola! Hasten!”
When he faltered, compelled irresistibly to look back at the horror he might have suffered himself, Haramis soared to him and seized his hand. Far overhead, something cracked with a thunderous report and the vaulted ceiling of the torture chamber began to collapse. The Prince flew over the flagstones, through the doorway, and into the corridor, dragged along behind the s.h.i.+ning white cloak.
When he touched down again the floor was solid beneath his feet. The temblors seemed to have ended and the masonry of the corridor held firm. Nearly all of the wall-cressets had fallen from their brackets, but they still flickered in the dust-laden air. Queen Anigel s.n.a.t.c.hed Tolivar up in a joyful hug. The others stood about coughing and exclaiming with relief.
When they had all caught their breaths, Haramis said, ”Sisters, I have something for you, which I liberated from your captors.” In each hand she held a glowing droplet of trillium-amber, strung on simple thongs. Anigel and Kadiya took their amulets, kissed them, and hung them about their necks.
There were no sounds at all from the demolished torture chamber, but faint cries came from the other direction.
Ledavardis, who remembered too well the earthquake that had attended the siege of Derorguila, spoke urgently. ”We must get to open ground quickly. If another tremor strikes, it may bring the palace down around our ears.”
Kadiya addressed the Archimage. ”Can you carry us off by magic?”
”I'm sorry. That would require great strength, and mine was depleted earlier when I rescued the other kidnapped rulers from-”
”They are safe?” Anigel exclaimed. ”Oh, Hara! Thank G.o.d!”
”Then we have no choice but to run for it,” Kadiya decided.
”That way.” Gyorgibo pointed. ”Up the stairs. We can go through the barracks of the Imperial Guard into the north transept of the great rotunda, and thence escape into one of the garden courtyards.”
Haramis said, ”I can still defend us well enough. It is only the magical transport that is temporarily beyond me.”
”Ani, can you walk?” Kadiya asked the Queen.
”The Holy Flower has healed my petty wound. I am hale again-and so filled with bliss that I can scarce help bursting into tears!”
”Restrain yourself,” muttered the Lady of the Eyes, ”at least until we are safely out of here, when you may weep to your heart's content. I may even join you...”
They ran up the narrow stairwell into a barracks anteroom, which showed considerable damage. Several roof beams had fallen and part of a long wall had tumbled down. They picked their way carefully through the rubble. The place was completely deserted save for a lone member of the Imperial Guard, a grizzled fellow in half armor who sat amidst a heap of building stones, covered in dust and clutching his lower leg.
”They've all run off,” he croaked, as Haramis and Gyorgibo discovered him. ”Yonder wall fell on me. My mates must have thought I was a goner. The torturers who went galloping through a few minutes ago didn't give a d.a.m.n. So here I sit with my leg broke.”
The Archimage stooped and touched the limb with her talisman. The guard uttered a surprised oath and began poking and prodding at the place where the wound had been. ”Blessed Matuta! You've fixed it, sorceress!” He jumped up, then regarded her with sudden confusion. ”But if you're one of them-where's your Star?”
”She needs none,” said a quiet male voice.
Haramis rose and turned slowly about. Orogastus stood in the far doorway of the ruined anteroom. He wore the silver-and-black vestments of his guild and its Star medallion, but lacked the forbidding starburst mask. His visage was furrowed with stress, his long white hair hung free, and on his brow was the Three-Headed Monster. A scabbard at the sorcerer's side held the Burning Eye, and his right hand rested upon its triple pommel.
”Leave us!” he commanded the cringing guardsman, who fled.
Haramis said, ”So you have found us, Orogastus. I thought you would.”
”I knew of your presence as soon as you materialized in the torture chamber. I had been seeking you for hours.”
”Then you know that Naelore is dead.”
His well-formed lips tightened in anger. ”The fool! Believe me-I did not know what she planned. I suppose she hoped to coerce you into giving up your talisman.”
”She intended to present it to you,” Haramis told him, ”and thereby win your love.”
He made a gesture of exasperation. ”Love? Love her? What arrant nonsense! All I thought of, from the time I bonded the two talismans to myself, was finding you.”
”So you could work upon me your own form of coercion? Still... I am relieved that you did not approve the torture.”
”The man who would have done such a thing is no more, Haramis. Why can't you believe it?” The sorcerer came toward her, arms outstretched. ”Why can't you understand-”
”I understand you quite well, just as I understood that prideful wretch, Denby Varcour, who created you! You are both manipulators of human emotions and deeds, consumed with arrogance and vainglory.”
His arms dropped again to his sides and his tender expression turned to one of desolation. ”My love for you is honest and I am not afraid to proclaim it. You love me, too-yet all you can do is revile me, giving me no chance to explain myself.”
Kadiya interrupted firmly. ”This tender reunion-and its mutual recriminations- must wait. You, too, must realize that there could be another great quake at any moment. The city itself might be devastated! You must do something.”
The pale eyes of Orogastus darted sidelong. ”I cannot control the movements of the earth with my talismans. I tried earlier, when the tremors were milder, and had no success.”
”That is because the earthquakes are only a symptom of the world's great imbalance,” Haramis said, ”as is the colossal mud-flow hurtling down from the mountains.”
”What mudflow?” The sorcerer, Kadiya, Ledavardis, and Gyorgibo spoke all at once. Anigel and Tolivar only stood open-mouthed.
Haramis lifted her talisman. ”Brandoba lies directly in its path. Behold!”
Half of the ruined room seemed to dissolve away, and it seemed that they stood on some towering precipice above the Forest of Lirda. The dawn sky was invisible in low-hanging storm clouds, which obscured the heights of the wooded foothills like a curtain partially lowered. Surging out from under that curtain, filling the Dob River valley as though it were some green trough, was a churning ma.s.s that looked from a distance like gray porridge.
”Dark Powers forfend!” whispered Orogastus. ”I had no idea... Talismans! How far away from Brandoba is the front of the flow?”
Six leagues.
”It will be here in less than half an hour,” Haramis stated. ”When it comes, it will bury the city.” She brandished her talisman again and the vision disappeared.
Gyorgibo groaned. ”My poor people. My poor country.”
King Ledavardis shot him a glance of comprehension. ”Yes... you are the emperor now.”
”Emperor of oblivion!” He stood with hands on hips, glowering at both Orogastus and Haramis. ”What happens now? Will you waft your Guildsmen away from danger, Star Master? Will the Archimage likewise rescue those she loves, leaving Sobrania and its contemptible barbarians to the onslaught of the mud?”
Orogastus said to Haramis, ”Will we?”
The Archimage's gaze swept over her sisters and the others, who waited in silent apprehension. Should they be told the entire truth of the situation? They would have to know soon, but perhaps not yet. Not if there was any inkling of hope, no matter how small.