Dark Sun: Prism Pentad 1 - The Verdent Passage (37 page)

Neeva selected a great, steel-bladed axe from the vault's shelves. “I'm ready.”

Pointing at the hole in the floor, Tithian noted, “That leads to an obsidian-lined tunnel.
The tunnel opens into the lower chamber of the ziggurat. I suspect that's where you'll
find Kalak.”

“You mean we,” Rikus said flatly. He took a curved sword from the shelf and handed it to
Tithian. “If you're going to be a king, start acting the part.”

“Kings don't risk their livesÑ”

“You'll be a new kind of king,” Agis said, prodding the high templar forward.

Rikus gripped the Heartwood Spear; they had found the weapon lying on the King's Balcony,
where the half-giants had left it in their hurry to move Kalak into his palace. “I'll take
the lead. Nok said the spear would protect me against magic and the Way. Hide behind me,
and I'll be your shield.”

Neeva went next, followed by Tithian, then Agis, with Sadira behind him. As he dropped
into the hole, the senator gasped at the eerily beautiful sight ahead of the group. They
stood in a gloomy tunnel lined by bricks of obsidian. A half-dozen paces ahead, a
sparkling stream of golden energy poured from an overhead shaft and flowed down the
passage with a hiss. At the far end,
the
light passed upward through another trap door. From that opening shone a vermilion glow
threaded with thin wisps of scarlet mist. A horrid, deep-throated growl came from the room
above and throbbed down the tunnel.

Holding the Heartwood Spear in both hands, Rikus led the way toward the other end of the
passage. He did not even pause before stepping into the golden stream of radiance, an act
Agis thought to be a little foolhardy.

As Agis and the others followed Rikus into the light, their skin crawled with a ticklish,
pleasant feeling. Tithian's long braid of auburn hair rose into the air and began to
writhe in a sort of macabre dance. The noble sensed his own unbound locks doing the same.
Otherwise, the companions suffered no ill effects. Agis even felt somewhat invigorated.

They had moved most of the way through the tunnel when Rikus cried, “Look out!” He shifted
his grip on the Heartwood Spear, holding it diagonally across his body.

At the far end of the passage, a clawed hand as large as a half-giant's dangled from the
open trap door. The gnarled fingers made a series of gestures and pointed at the
companions. Without warning, a ball of green flame crackled down the passageway. Neeva and
Tithian hid behind Rikus, and Agis huddled as close to them as he could. Sadira pressed
her body against his back.

As the fireball washed over him, everything in Agis's vision turned green and warped as if
underwater. For a moment it seemed as though they were all trapped in a molten emerald.
Then the air itself rushed from Agis's chest, and he could not breathe. Where another
person's body did not protect him, he felt as if his skin were being seared over a bed of
coals. At last, almost against his will, he drew a long, deep breath. His lungs exploded
with scalding pain, making him gag. The fiery air contained a horrible, caustic fume that
made his eyes water and burned his stomach as badly as it scorched his lungs.

An instant later, the fireball passed. The hand still dangled from the opening, gesturing
in preparation for another spell. Rikus lifted the spear to throw, but stopped when Sadira
cried Nok's name and activated her cane.

Agis ducked and pulled Tithian down beside him. Everyone else had sense enough to crouch
on their own.

“Mountainbolt!” Sadira cried.

A deafening boom shook the tunnel, and a sapphire flash streaked over Agis's head. It
struck the hand and exploded into a dazzling spray of blue-white sparks. Shreds of flesh
and bone flew in all directions. An inhuman howl reverberated down the tunnel.

Rikus took off at a sprint, leaving the others standing behind him, astonished at his
boldness. As the mul reached the end of the passageway, Kalak reached down with his other
hand to grasp the trap door. The hand glowed with bright crimson light, and wet, soft
scales covered it.

Before the king could pull the door closed, Rikus thrust the spear through the hand.
Another howl, not quite as pained as the last, rolled down the passageway. The hand
withdrew, dripping black blood. Kalak sent a cloud of yellow gas billowing through the
door. The mul stumbled back to his companions, coughing and gasping for breath. Before the
cloud reached the others, it was carried back toward the king by the golden stream of
energy coming from the shaft behind Sadira and the others.

“Quick thinking, Rikus,” Agis said, still wheezing from the effects of the green fireball.
“I don't know what we'd have done if Kalak had closed the door.”

The mul acknowledged the compliment with a grunt, then asked, “Anyone hurt? You all look
pretty rough.”

Agis noticed that the fireball had burned away the robe on his arms and legs. The exposed
skin was red, with white blisters forming in several places. Tithian was in much the same
condition, as were the two women.

“We're fine, Rikus,” Neeva said. “Get on with it.”

The mul led the way to the end of the corridor, then looked up at the narrow opening. “We
can't all go up at once.”

“I'll lead the way,” Agis offered, stepping past Tithian and Neeva. “With both hands
injured, Kalak won't be casting many spells or fighting with weapons. That leaves the Way,
my area of expertise.”

Rikus nodded. “You're right,” he said, holding the spear out. “Take this.”

Agis shook his head. “We can't afford the risk that I'll lose it,” he said. “I can hold
him long enough for the next person, even without the spear.”

“That makes sense, butÑ”

“I can do this, Rikus,” insisted Agis.

The mul regarded him for a moment, then nodded. “If you say so.” He leaned the spear
against his shoulder and formed a stirrup with his hands.

Before Agis stepped into it, he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. “Be careful” Sadira said.

Smiling, the nobleman handed Sadira the sword he had taken from Kalak's treasure vault.
Rikus gave Agis a boost, and he shot up into the secret chamber.

The room felt as hot as a furnace. Though its intensity did not compare to Kalak's
fireball, Agis's lungs ached when he inhaled, and the heat scorched his skin-especially
where he had already been burned. The chamber was fairly large, built entirely from glazed
brick and filled with whorls of the translucent golden energy that rushed in from the
shaft. Dozens of paintings decorated the walls and ceilings, portraying a huge dragon as
it ravaged estates, caravans, and even whole cities.

So much dark blood covered the floor that Agis wondered how Kalak could still be alive.
The black pools bubbled and steamed, sending wisps of greasy brown vapor to roll along the
ceiling until they reached the center of the room, where a shaft rose toward the distant
sky like a massive chimney.

Dozens of obsidian globes lay strewn over the floor. They varied in size from that of a
small faro fruit to a huge melon. Scattered among the glassy balls were half-a-dozen empty
husks, shaped like thick-bodied worms and made of soft, pinkish scales. The smallest of
the husks was just over five feet in length, the largest more than ten.

Kalak himself lay on the far side of the room. His serpentine body, now more than twelve
feet long, was covered with glowing scales that lit the whole chamber with their fiery
radiance. The king paid no attention to Agis, for he was squirming and thrashing about,
trying to free himself of his latest husk.

Realizing they had caught Kalak at a particularly vulnerable time, Agis reached through
the opening in the floor and motioned for the others to follow. Sadira handed him his
sword.
As the others climbed into the room, the senator moved toward the king.

He could barely recognize Kalak in the grotesque larva writhing on the floor. The old
man's face had flattened into a serpentlike oval, and his ears had disappeared entirely.
Reptilian scales now covered his wrinkled head. The golden diadem of Tyr's kingship lay
discarded on the floor beside him. While his neck had grown long and sinuous, his arms and
legs had all but disappeared. At the moment, they seemed no more than withered and useless
vestigial limbs. Boiling black fluid oozed from the spear wound in the dragon larva's
chest, from the stump at the end of its right arm, and from the hole in its left hand.

As Agis approached, the larva paid him no attention. It seemed to be in horrible pain,
both from its wounds and the process of shedding its skin. It slowly opened its mouth,
revealing two rows of jagged teeth. The repulsive beast placed its mouth on an nearby
obsidian globe as large as its own head. To the noble's amazement, it swallowed the black
ball. A spherical bulge slowly began to work its way down the beast's long throat.

Rikus and the others crept up behind Agis. They studied the gruesome beast for a moment,
then Sadira said, “Let's kill him while we can.” She raised her cane and started forward.

The larva stopped writhing and whipped its head around to face them, the dark pits of its
eyes flaring with anger. “Kill me, foolish girl?” it sneered, puffs of black steam leaking
from its mouth. “Perhaps five hundred years ago, but not now.”

It fixed its hateful gaze on the sorceress, and Agis realized immediately the dragon-king
was about to attack. If had let them come this close only because it intended to use the
Way and finish them all at once.

Five battering rams, each carved in the image of a horned dragon's head, appeared in front
of the larva. It took Agis an instant to
realize that they were mental constructs and not physical, for there was so much energy in
the room that they had taken on the appearance of a material form.

The noble knew that he possessed the skill to resist the direct, overwhelming attack the
king intended to make, but if his friends were to survive, he would have to try something
desperate. Agis visualized a sand dune and opened a pathway from his power nexus to the
room itself.

Kalak's rams shot forward. In the same instant, the entire chamber seemed to fill with
sand. Three of the king's attacks plowed to a stop instantly. The one in front of Rikus
simply disappeared as it approached the Heartwood Spear. Only the ram directed at Sadira
forced it way through Agis's psionic sand and hit its target. The sorceress was knocked
across the room and slammed into the wall, collapsing into a heap.

A terrible wave of fatigue and dizziness came over Agis. His knees buckled, and he let the
defense drop. When he fell to the floor a moment later, he landed in a hot pool of the
king's blood.

Rikus rushed to the dragon larva, followed closely by Neeva and Tithian. Using his free
arm to shield his face against the heat of the beast's body, the mul stepped toward the
head. He motioned the high templar to the midsection and Neeva to the tail.

Kalak did not move as the trio approached, apparently as exhausted by the psionic combat
as Agis. But as Rikus lifted the spear, the larva raised its head. “You can't believe I'll
let you strike.”

“I don't believe you can stop us!” Neeva said, swinging her axe.

She sent a three-foot section of tail skittering across the floor. Kalak roared in pain,
then Rikus thrust his spear at the larva's neck. The dragon-king smashed its massive head
into the mul's side and knocked him off balance. Before Rikus could recover, the beast
sank its sharp teeth deep into his massive chest and lifted him from the ground. The mul
screamed and dropped the spear, beating at the king's scale-armored head with his bare
fists.

Neeva hefted her axe to strike again, but this time the larva was ready. It slapped what
remained of its mighty tail across her face. The blow shattered her nose and sent her
tumbling across the floor, unconscious and bleeding.

Tithian's face blanched to the color of alabaster. Without striking a blow, he dropped his
curved sword and backed away.

“Coward!” Agis cried, vainly attempting to stand.

“If Rikus and Neeva can't kill it, what do you expect
me
to do?” the high templar countered, moving toward Neeva's prone form.

Agis took several deep breaths and concentrated on drawing as much power as he could
through his energy nexus. He rose to his knees.

At the same time, Tithian picked up Neeva's axe. The gladiator lay unconscious in a pool
of her own blood, her chest heaving with quick, shallow breaths. Gripping the ancient
weapon, more from fear than from courage, the high templar moved to Sadira's side. She
moaned and sat up, holding her head.

Tithian looked from one wounded rebel to another, Rikus's screams echoing off the glazed
brick walls, filling his ears. It seemed as though there were a hundred muls in the room,
each dying a particularly horrible, painful death.

At last the high templar hefted Neeva's huge weapon. To Agis's surprise, Tithian rushed
forward and brought the flat of the axe down on a ball of obsidian. It shattered into a
dozen shards. The high templar moved to the next one and smashed it, too.

“What are you doing?” the senator cried weakly.

“There's more than one way to fight,” Tithian answered, moving away from the noble. He
went to the corner farthest away from the dragon and smashed another black globe.

Agis remained puzzled only a moment longer, for Kalak abruptly tossed the mul's savaged
body aside. “Stop!” the king cried. “I command it!”

Tithian smashed another ball. “Why should I?” he shouted. “Will you spare my life? Will
you give me control of Tyr when you're gone?”

The king crawled slowly but steadily toward the high templar. “You know better than that,”
it hissed. “But I will promise you a painless death.”

Tithian smashed another sphere, then rushed to a different corner of the room.

“You are a high templar!” the king cried. “You must obey your king's demands!” The beast
changed directions and followed Tithian, turning its back to Agis.