Touchstone shook three times, each more strongly than the last.
The clouds closed in.
“Get going,” said Holm.
Rix and Glynnie crouched beside him. Rix held out his hand and Holm took it.
“I’m not leaving you here to die all alone,” said Tali.
“I’ve only a minute or two left,” said Holm. “Clear out or you’ll be spending eternity with me.”
The colour was gone from his face and the tone from his flesh, leaving him grey and haggard.
“Don’t go,” she said. “I need you.”
“You did once, but you don’t any more.” He smiled at her. “It… it’s been good, Tali. You’ve helped to heal me, more than you know.”
“I couldn’t do the most important healing.”
“You did that months ago.” He closed his eyes then said, as if from far away. “Go, go!”
“Holm, wait,” said Tali, tears streaming down her face.
“He’s gone,” said Rix. “He was a good man, one of the best, and he gave everything for us.”
They bent their heads in farewell. Rix picked Tali up and began to carry her down. Glynnie followed, wincing as each step jarred the knife wound in her shoulder.
“I should have given you my healing blood,” said Tali, mortified. “I didn’t even think.”
“It’s all right,” said Glynnie. “Rix bandaged it up.”
The shaking grew wilder. When they were halfway down, the sky cleared like a window rubbed free of dew and Tali saw, way beyond the mountains, a vast area of land between Lake Yizl and the Red Vomit collapse and fall in.
A great chasm formed there. The land cracked on the other side, between the chasm and Lake Caulderon, and lake water flooded down into the chasm. Explosive jets of superheated steam burst up for thousands of feet. The ground and the lakes disappeared behind the clouds of steam. Within seconds she could only see the tops of the three Vomits.
Lightning flashed, then black ash erupted and the northern side of the Red Vomit blew out in a monumental eruption. A black cloud of steam and ash boiled up; boiling lava blasted out in all directions, obscuring all the land.
And racing their way.
Rix began to run. Tali was sure he was going to slip on the mossy steps and carry them both over the side.
“Careful,” cried Glynnie.
“If we’re not in shelter when that cloud gets here,” said Rix, “we’re dead.” He ran faster.
As they reached the bottom of Touchstone, the land seemed to bounce like rubber. Peculiar patterns appeared in the sky, and colours Tali had never seen before. Rix ran towards the standing stones, some of which had toppled, then stopped. Errek was drifting back and forth there, scanning the ground.
“Looking for something?” said Rix.
“Incarnate. It should be close to where Lirriam fell—around here somewhere.”
Rix could see no sign of a body among the rocks, but there wasn’t time to look for one. And no point.
“If you survive what’s coming,” said Errek, “find Incarnate—and destroy it.”
“Why?” said Rix.
“There isn’t time to explain.” He looked between the standing stones. “What’s that still doing here?”
A few hundred yards further on, a shadowy portal was slowly whirling above a steaming crater, sixty feet across and half filled with rubble, evidently where the wyverin had fallen.
“Did Lyf make that for us, do you think?” said Glynnie. “Should we go through?”
Rix hesitated in front of the eerie portal. The hair stood up on his bare forearms.
Errek materialised in front of them. “Keep well away from it. There are worse worlds than this one. Terrible worlds.”
“How do you know?” said Tali faintly. The pain in her head was worse than ever. Unbearable pain.
“My memories are coming back. Fly, fly to Garramide.” He vanished.
“Should we make sure the wyverin’s dead?” said Glynnie.
“How could any creature survive such an impact, against solid rock?” said Rix, his fist tightening on the hilt of the talon blade. “And if by some chance, or magery, it isn’t dead, I’m not going anywhere near it.”
He ran, carrying Tali, to the point where they had tethered the horses. The horses left by Grandys’ party were close by. Glynnie mounted. Rix passed Tali up to her, climbed into his own saddle and they raced back to Garramide with their riderless horses, and the Herovians’, galloping behind.
Tali hardly had the strength to open her eyes. When she did, the boiling black cloud already covered half the sky and the light was a lurid greenish-yellow.
“Is this the end of the world?” she said.
No one replied. When they were halfway across the plateau she saw the scattered remnants of Grandys’ army stampeding down the escarpment. Rix and Glynnie pounded on, in rain which was turning grey, for it was now three parts water and one part ash.
They reached the front gates of Garramide. Nuddell, who had seen them coming, ordered the gates opened. They rode in, Rix saw the horses safely delivered to the stables, then staggered inside, carrying Tali.
He took her down to the lowest level of the castle, where everyone was gathering. All the doors and windows were shuttered, and the emergency supplies of food and water were in place. They closed the stone doors and settled down to await their fate.