Chapter 31

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Outside the barrier Carryn had erected, the wind howled through the shattered windows of the ballroom, picking up glass shards and splinters of wood, pounded down to small bits, and spun them into a vortex that swirled at the room’s center. From inside that spinning black maw, four finger-like beams of light snaked out, roving over the chairs and tables, slithering across the floor. Searching, Marc knew, for him. His heart pounded so hard as he walked into the ballroom it hurt to breathe.

The coils rose the moment he walked in, turning to him as though they could see him. They rose in undulating, crackling unison, sliding toward him. While Carryn had assured him he could recapture Maralt, Marc didn’t know how. He didn’t know if he should let the coils touch him, or not. He felt that death, or something worse waited for him if he allowed it. All he really knew was how afraid he was.

When two of the bands snaked around behind him, his last hope of escape was cut off. Not that escape was even an option. The other ribbons hovered at his chest and he stood, shaking, frozen in place. He cringed when the coils bunched at their apex. They struck.

Pain coursed through him and he felt himself falling. When he thought the floor should have caught him, it didn’t. He couldn’t hear, and he couldn’t see, but unmistakably, came the sensation of movement. He was being taken.

Carryn’s voice followed after him then, whispering clearly through the chaos of his thoughts. “Have faith, Marc. Hold on to faith. That’s all you need.”

“Father?”

Ambrose smiled at him, and nodded. His hand remained outstretched and waiting. “I knew you would find your way here to me.”

“How can you ... How is this possible?”

Something brushed Dain’s arm, burning him and he jerked away. He tripped, fell and crawled backward when he saw more massing to attack. He couldn’t move fast enough, and one of the black coils wrapped itself around his leg. It felt like he was being ripped apart.

“Take my hand, son,” his father said.

Through a haze of pain, he looked and saw a lifeline held out to him. Something inside warned that if he accepted, he’d be condemned. Another voice, born from pain, screamed that if he didn’t, he’d be consumed, now and for all time.

Another coil sank into his side.

“I can protect you from them,” Ambrose said, moving to stand over him. “Take my hand.”

“You can’t be my father,” Dain gasped, and another black strand lanced through him.

“Of course I am. You know where you are, don’t you? I’ve been here, Dain, all this time. I’m the only one who can help you. Take my hand.”

“No. You can’t be—”

His voice was cut off by pain. A pit that hadn’t been there before, suddenly gaped open beside him. Dain was pulled toward it and nothing he did stopped the brink from getting closer. Then he saw what lay in wait for him at the bottom.

A twisting mass writhed in a frigid mist. Souls held in perpetual agony screamed to him, some in warning, more in entreaty. They wanted him in there, so there would be someone else to feed on.

Dain clawed at the ground, fingers sliding over slick, sharp rock, unable to find purchase. His legs went over the precipice. Desperation filled his mind and with his last strength, he grabbed the edge. His grip held, but the coils yanked at him. He felt the muscles in his arms weakening.

“There’s nothing else you can do,” Ambrose said, standing at the edge, looking down at him. He held out his hand. “Come with me, son.”

Dain stared up at him, at his father, his mind whispered, and knew he wouldn’t escape either way. Cold boiled up in biting waves and cut his breath short. He slipped.

“God, help me.” His hands slipped. “Please.”

“Dain!”

He recognized the voice. His hand slipped again as he looked, and he felt the other hand loosen. Marc reached down for him.

“You.” Ambrose turned on him and suddenly seemed panicked. “You’re the one.”

Marc ignored him. “Dain, I can’t get any closer. You have to take my hand.”

“He is the enemy,” his father said, moving a step toward the edge. “He is the one who would see everything destroyed. If you go with him, you’ll never escape. Dain, listen to me. Come with me.”

Marc looked behind him, and Dain saw shapes gathering together, black against the rock. He was faced with a choice of going to a man who claimed to be his father, or a man who claimed to be Marc. Dain didn’t know who was telling the truth.

“Come on, Dain! We don’t have time.”

“That’s what he would have you think,” Ambrose said, his voice more urgent. Dain suddenly thought he sounded desperate. His fingers weakened, slipping again.

He closed his eyes, muscles bunching as he reached up, knowing he’d lose his grip and fall. Even as Ambrose moved at the same time to take him, Marc grabbed his hand, and heaved. They fell onto the rock and the bands withdrew, shrinking it seemed, from Marc.

“Dain, before it’s too late, leave him. He is not for you. Please, son. Come with me. Please.”

“You’re not my father.”

“I was taken just as you were and brought here. You’re toying with forces you don’t understand. This man will bring ruin to everything and everyone you love. He’s one of them!”

Marc picked Dain up and stepped in front of him. He was suddenly distracted, frozen in place as he stared, head tilting back to look at the thing coalescing before them. It grew to tower over them, armored with scales and winged. From its mouth, a foul breath choked them. In its clawed hand, a scythe glistened. Its eyes were black and filled with hatred.

“What ... what is that?” Dain stammered.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Marc said, stepping back as the beast moved. Behind them, the pit opened, and whispering moans filled their minds.

“Dain,” Ambrose said, moving a step closer. “There’s no way out. Only I can keep you from it.”

The beast hissed, and a scream issued from its mouth that locked his mind.

“Hold on to me,” Marc said, and Dain could feel him concentrating.

“I already tried that. It won’t work,” he said, but he held on anyway.

Surprise almost made Dain let go when he found that he wasn’t holding onto a man any more, but a transmuting body that lifted him off his feet with him clinging to its back as it rose. He should have known. Memories of dreams best never remembered came in. He held on tighter, knowing that the world had just changed, reality shifting on its head.

Wings unfolded behind him, blue and edged with white. Its entire body was blue, and emblazoned on its breast, the Telaerin crest shone brightly. The light of it cut through the dark. Three powerful sweeps of its wings lifted them off the crag floor, and up into the free skies. A gold harness, studded with sapphires and diamonds met his hand as Dain slipped from the force of their ascent. He grabbed hold of it, falling half way down the broad shoulder of a dragon.

His amazement was cut short when he looked down, and saw the other creature rising after them. “I think you better hurry.”

“Be quiet, Dain. I don’t think you want me to lose this right now.”

“It’s coming up fast.”

“I see him!”

“Him? Who?”

“Who do you think? It’s Maralt! Now shut up!”

They cleared the top of the plateau. Marc suddenly swerved sharply and Dain almost lost his grip. Panic settled in his mind as he struggled to hold on. A searing blast of light shot by close enough that the charge seemed to leap at them. The heat of it blistered skin. Marc swerved again, swinging Dain all the way around to the other side, but they missed another bolt.

Dain felt the change in momentum the next time, just a moment later. Marc stopped in midair, the wings of the dragon form he had chosen, working furiously to slow them down. Try as he did to stay where he was, Dain was thrown forward. He thought his arms would rip off his body this time. His hand was torn free. Beneath him the abyss opened.

One giant foreleg came up underneath him, pushing him up and he was able to get under the harness, which effectively took up the slack and pinned him down. It also allowed him to see what was coming at them in the moment it took Marc to dive sharply away. A pulse of light energy, originating from Maralt’s clawed hand, erupted overhead. Below them the crag opened, and they were driven steadily down into it. Suddenly, the stone floor vanished and the entire circuit of stones was filled with a boiling mass of outstretched coils. Only the altar remained above it. Dain heard an aching moan rise, filling his ears, and the coils beneath surged in response.

Marc was too preoccupied with evading the dangers lashing from above to notice how quickly they plummeted. Dain stared down, and they kept dropping, swerving in an increasingly erratic manner. He started to question whether the man posing as his father had been right, and if escape really wasn’t possible. Unbidden, Ambrose’s offer to save him came into his mind.

“I can still help you. It’s not too late.”

“Marc, look down, would you?” Dain asked as calmly as he could.

Marc didn’t answer. Their descent continued, slowing finally at the last possible moment. Dain saw what they were aiming for and didn’t know why.

They set down at the heart of the tumult. Dragon claws latched onto the altar. The moment Marc had it, he strained upward again. Dain realized he meant to take their heartstone.

It lifted away from the shelf and they climbed. Dain felt the effort it took, the muscles of the great beast bunching under the weight. It was still the will of a man driving them upward, and for an excruciating moment, it seemed the strain would prove too great. Immense cold flowed up to hamper them. Dain couldn’t breathe at all, the frigid air burning his lungs, and he heard the same struggle in Marc. In increments, they lifted. Dain looked up as he realized that the lightning had stopped. He didn’t see Maralt anywhere.

By the time they reached the lip of the crag, the strain on Marc was painful to hear. The body of the dragon shook with each sweep of its great wings. They gained some height, but Dain knew that could change. He didn’t think they’d get another chance if they fell down into that hole again.

A gust of wind hit them just above the rim. Marc almost dropped the altar and Dain wished he would. It was too heavy for him. A malignant force emanated from it in nauseating waves that slowed him and sapped his strength. But it was also their safe passage. Without it, they wouldn’t get out, or keep the lashing charges from blasting them out of the sky. Marc struggled against the violent currents, and finally lifted above them.

His head drooped down, grey eyes opened to slits, and he breathed in shuddering spasms. Dain wished there was something he could do to help him. “What are you going to do with it?”

“I don’t know,” Marc said, struggling to keep them up. “I have to get Maralt back. He’s gotten loose, Dain. It’s the part I had and what the others had contained. All of him. I don’t know if I’ll be able to hold him, if we make it back at all. Dain, if I can’t, if I tell you I can’t, you have to ... I’ll be able to keep him with me long enough so he won’t get into anyone else. You have to promise me—”

“No,” he said, realization coming in. “No way. I—”

“Listen to me. You have to promise me this. If I tell you that I can’t do this, you have to make sure I don’t survive it on the other side.”

Dain knew what he was asking and didn’t think he could do it. He didn’t want the responsibility of killing a man he cared for as much as his own brother. “You’ll never leave this place, Marc. Never.”

“They can’t get out either. Not yet. Not ever, if I stay. If I don’t live, if I don’t exist on the other side, they don’t either. Maralt will be contained. Please Dain. Swear it. Please. If I can’t hold him. Please.”

It took Dain too long to answer and Marc seemed to weaken, beating the air to keep them up and moving. “All right. I swear it, on my life and yours. But it isn’t going to happen that way. You’re going to get out of here. Both of us. You have to swear you’ll try, or I won’t do it.” He looked up at him, the face of his friend so clearly mirrored in the dragon’s strong head. “Swear it, Marc. You have to keep trying.”

“I’ll get you out of here, Dain. I swear it.”

“Nope. You get us both out of here. That’s the deal.” A strange sort of grumphing rumble reached him and Dain looked up at him again. “Are you laughing?”

“Better than crying.”

Dain had to agree with that while weariness filled him. The black bands had sapped his strength to the point he found movement difficult. He shivered, teeth chattering from the cold wind that blew over him. “You just had to make it a dragon.”

“Seemed appropriate, and I needed something with wings.”

“I would have gone for the XR-30. Less wind in your face and warmer.”

“The XR-30 doesn’t have an engager beam. Are you cold?”

“The XR-30 has shields, Marc. You could have blasted the altar apart with the lasers, and yes, I’m cold. Where are we going?” He looked up at the night sky, filled with stars from one end of the horizon to the other. They were so far up, they seemed to be surrounded by small, fiery points of light. “Forget that. Tell me where we are.”

“I’m looking for water. Something deep. I don’t know where we are.”

Dain frowned, trying to make himself more comfortable. The harness dug into his side, and he was freezing. “What’ll stop them from getting it back?”

“They have to know where it is.”

“Where do you suppose Maralt is?” Dain asked, his eyes closing briefly before he forced them open. He didn’t think he should sleep in this cold, even if he could.

“I think he’s following us. Which is another reason why I have to get him back. So he can’t tell them.”

“Another reason why you can’t end up staying here. They’ll get the altar back.”

“Won’t matter then, Dain. Not with me in here with them.”

“Then what’s the point of taking it?”

“I’m not sure exactly, except it seems to be working. They aren’t trying to suck us back into that pit, or whatever that place was. There’s a lot of their power in it. I can feel that much. Not having it will weaken them, instead of weakening us. And Carryn said something that made me think of it.”

“Carryn? What did she say?”

“Have faith.”

“Typical,” Dain grunted. “Guess that might be a prerequisite on your way to the Gates of Hell. When did she say that?”

Marc hesitated. “She’s with Dynan right now. They’re keeping you alive at the moment.”

“Dynan is going to go insane if this keeps happening.”

“I think he’s getting used to it.” Marc grunted then, and brought up his forelegs, folding them into a kind of cradle. “Why don’t you take a rest? This may take a while. I won’t drop you.”

Dain smiled at that, and eased himself down into the arms. It was far less windy, but only slightly warmer. He still felt an evil will trying to reach him, but it was less now. “Are you all right?”

“Better. I’ll make it. Go to sleep.”

Weariness pulled at him, making his eyes drag closed. He fought it for a moment. “Marc, no matter what else happens, thank you, for coming to get me.”

Marc hummed at him, which sounded more like a purring growl, and Dain smiled. A second later, exhaustion took him away.