Karrti looked far more horrific than Jessa had pictured it. The documents in the Archive had fallen short of preparing her for the full horror of seeing it so close.
When she’d listened to those accounts from the Archive, Jessa had scoffed at the people who’d been so witless they’d stopped trying to escape and let Karrti take them. Now, faced with the immensity of the demon’s menace, she knew what it was to be struck through with fear. An odd feeling of acceptance settled over her. The urge to flee, to do anything to avoid the demon, drained away. After all she’d been through, this would be her fate.
A burning sensation made every nerve cry out, but it was not Karrti. She had almost forgotten about the Serpentstone, and its claim of ownership over her. If it came to a battle between the Orufasu and Karrti, would her body be the front line?
When that faded, she was able to move, to think, and to realise she wanted more than anything to live. Filled with renewed energy, she was pleased she could now behold and measure this enemy, rather than have the threat lurking unseen above their heads.
She may end up destroying herself trying to defeat it, but she had to take that risk.
Fortifying herself with a few gulps of air, she looked upwards again. The monster was suspended above them like a spider in its web, and yet at the same time it crouched on the edge of the Fissure, suggesting the other side existed on a different plane from where she stood. Her head spun just trying to make sense of it.
Karrti wasn’t directly above the centre of the chamber, where the Serpentstone waited on its plinth. Still too close, but after the dire warnings from Amacet and Niedde, she tried to be thankful for any sliver of reprieve.
She tried not to groan when a green tendril of energy rose over her head, wavering in the air as the Orufasu tested the demon’s reaction. Breaking the fatalistic trance the demon laid on her had not been a defensive action—it was merely marking its territory.
They had to act, without hesitation, to do whatever was in their power to prevent these two deadly forces from wreaking havoc on their world.
Amacet’s warning rang in her mind; if they succeeded, all the people in the chamber would die. Not just herself and Sarnd, but Betharad, Elian, Kavilas, Oreno, and the custodians. Perhaps more; given the power she’d already witnessed, she had no trouble imagining a ring of devastation sweeping outwards, engulfing Naerun and every other town that lay in its path.
And if they did nothing, and the demon emerged?
They were graced with no good choices here.
A movement to one side made her turn; Niedde was walking towards the demon. She wore an expression of undiluted concentration, bordering on rapture.
This prickly woman might work at the Academy and possess a great deal of knowledge Jessa could only guess at, but she was having major doubts about Niedde’s sanity. Even with the abilities of a fully trained custodian, standing right beneath the Fissure and Karrti was an idiotic idea.
“Niedde!” barked Amacet. “Get back here!”
Niedde flapped her hands at him behind her back, never breaking her study of Karrti. “This is fascinating! It is extremely rare for any custodian to gain such an opportunity to observe a creature from another world so closely.”
“I know that as well as you do, you fool! But getting yourself killed will be no help to anyone's research.”
A figure rushed past her and grabbed Niedde by the arm, and it took a moment for Jessa’s stunned brain to register. It was Urzed!
Surely he was dead? But he was very much alive, though his stance was shaky, and blood oozed from his nose and made a huge dark stain on his shirt. He held his sword to Niedde's neck.
Before Jessa could draw breath, the Orufasu flashed, so bright it blinded her, though it was behind her. When her sight returned, a line of fire stretched from the Orufasu to Urzed, bathing the Enjeb leader in its strong virescent hue. Urzed neither flinched nor cried out, perhaps oblivious that the Stone had connected itself to him.
From Urzed, another line of green fire began to reach up towards the opening of the Fissure where the demon waited. As it did so, the lines started to crackle and spark, filling the air with their noise. Their colour flickered from green to a dark, reddish-purple and back again. Urzed’s skin and hair began to smoke, and she expected the Enjeb leader to collapse. But he showed no concern that he was now a link in this alarming chain.
From time to time, the lines broke apart, to be recast an instant later. Relchen cried out, “It looks like they’re maintaining a connection through Urzed—that could be what’s stopping them from making direct contact with each other!”
A surge of pride flooded through Jessa at the cleverness of the Serpentstone. She crushed it to nothing.
“Karrti may be able to use that connection to pull itself through,” said Amacet.
Urzed forced Niedde to her knees and bellowed, “Karrti! My lord! At last you are here. Accept my offering to your glory!” He raised his blade above the woman’s head.
Jessa suppressed the urge to yell out, He’s lying! He plans to betray you! She had no desire to attract the attention of either the Enjeb leader or his ravenous demon-god.
She was struck by the realisation that all their enemies—the Stone, Urzed and Karrti—were distracted by each other, providing what might be her and Sarnd’s sole chance to put their plan into action. They were well past time to worry whether anyone in the chamber would survive.
“Sarnd!” she urged, all caution forgotten. But her brother was already turning around to the Stone at the same time. Betharad and Relchen were close behind them.
Their older sister pulled them both into a fierce but brief hug, and whispered, “Whatever happens now, I know you are not evil! And... remember I love you both so much.”
Neither Jessa nor Sarnd could find the words to answer, and then Relchen placed his hands on Betharad's shoulders and said, “Ready? Hold on!”
She grasped one side of the Stone, surprised to find it warm and almost silky under her fingers. It caressed her mind, soothing her, beckoning her to fall into its embrace...
No—I will not let myself get lost again. I am not its creature!
Sarnd’s jaw clenched, and she did the same. Together they lifted the Orufasu from its plinth.
She had not expected it to weigh so little, this object of immense power. All the same, the Stone resisted their efforts. Her hand grew warm, then hot, and a feeling of alarm began to batter at her mind; the Stone realised they were a threat to it. It was too late to turn back now.
But oh, how it burned! Both painful and glorious, it tempted her to surrender to its pull, to float away in the ecstatic agony. She bit down on her lip until the salty tang of blood helped her to resist.
Through the Stone, she could feel the burning lines of force that connected it to Urzed and Karrti, and she marvelled at how they pulsed and tensed. At the far end, she caught the scent of the demon, expectant and avaricious.
A struggle was playing out between two titanic powers, but for now they were held in perfect balance. She was sure it would fail soon.
She and Sarnd swung the Stone backwards, though it felt like they were pushing against the river in full flood. A little more, and they would be ready to throw—
A hard and angry strength clamped around the inside of her head like a set of jaws, and she staggered, almost letting go of the Stone. Through the intense pain that flooded her, she could feel Sarnd experiencing the same, ferocious assault.
The Orufasu had stopped attempting to claim them as its own and comfort them like a mother. It was now trying to destroy them.
A knife was being shoved through her head and down into every part of her body. The force of it jerked and gyrated as it tried to split her apart like dry wood, making each nerve scream. She wanted to scrunch herself up and wrap her arms around herself until it all died away. Or until she died, if that was the only way to make this stop.
Why do you betray me?!
The accusation reverberated through her, intensifying the pain to the point where her vision swam and she expected she was about to shatter into countless shards. Was she on her feet still? It was too hard to tell.
The only way to make this end was to give in, to surrender herself to the Stone. After that, nothing would matter ever again.
Then Betharad squeezed her arm, the pressure of her hand warm and solid, and through it she felt a different strength that could only be Relchen, as he started to push back against the Stone. It felt so small, so inadequate against the power of the Orufasu.
But all they needed was a little more time.
She held on to that connection, like she was pulling on a rope. It helped her stand up straighter and force her way through the Stone’s assault, though it did little to lessen the pain. She sensed, rather than saw, Sarnd’s movement as he did the same.
A pulse of dark, hungry energy from Karrti above almost unbalanced them, and it seemed Urzed’s demon-god was gaining the upper hand. It was enough to distract the Stone, and the resistance against them faltered.
With a great heave, the twins flung the Orufasu towards the Fissure. They had no chance to aim it anywhere in particular, so they had to hope this would be enough, whatever it smashed into.
As the Stone left her hand, a great wrenching made her think she was being ripped from her body. Through their connection she knew Sarnd felt it too, and they staggered and lost their footing. Only Betharad and Relchen held them up.
Flaring an incandescent green, the Orufasu seemed to stop, suspended in the air just short of the Fissure opening for a long moment. The barrier was still in place after all! She braced herself for the Stone to bounce off and land back in the chamber, leaving it free to resume its terrible vengeance against them.
She wanted to cry out in relief when the Stone resumed its trajectory once more, but her mind was inundated by a desperate and angry cry:
No! No! No! No! NO!! NO!!!!
The lines of viridescent light intensified to an eye-searing brilliance before they snapped with the sound of a million lightning strikes. An impossibly loud boom echoed through every part of her being. Pain exploded all over, and she was lifted off her feet and thrown backwards as the world turned pure white.