At the Gates of Darkness (8 page)

He considered the situation as he looked at the glowing stone in his hand. “If we stick this back in the base, with the right starting spell, the portal should open, and we can get home!” He reached down and pulled a small bag from the dead elf’s belt and quickly tied it to his own.

“It wouldn’t do any good,” said Arosha. “For the time being, anything that comes through a portal from this world will be killed the second it steps through.”

“Lovely,” muttered Laromendis. “Now what?”

Gulamendis paused, then said, “We go someplace else.”

“Where?” asked his brother.

“Sorcerer’s Isle,” said the Demon Master.

“How do you propose to do that?”

Gulamendis said, “When I was there I was shown one of their rift gates. There are wards there that act as a beacon.” He realized he was now at the edge of his knowledge. Looking at the Sentinel, he said, “How much do you know about portals?”

The wounded elf smiled slightly. “I’ve been watching galasmancers play with those things long enough to have a fair idea of how they work. I can recall the spell that activates them if a crystal is in place, but I have no magic.”

Laromendis said, “We do, and I’ve been through enough of these things for the Lord Regent that I probably know the spell as well as you do.”

Arosha asked, “Do you know how to find a different portal? I could help you tune this to one of our other portals, but I don’t know if I can find one that we didn’t build.”

“Here’s what I know,” said Gulamendis. “According to the human Pug, what they call rifts have an affinity and if there is a rift in existence and you create a second rift, it will tend to follow the first.”

“Tend?” asked his brother in a skeptical tone.

“If you have a better idea, I would welcome hearing it,” said the Demon Master.

“You can activate this gate’s destination?” Gulamendis asked the Sentinel.

“Yes,” said Arosha. “That’s the easy part. Setting a different destination than the one already cast is the hard part. I think I’ve seen it done enough times to have a sense of how to do it, but only to a few other portals, as I said, the ones we’ve built, and they are all now closed. If I open any of them from this end…they’ll all be guarded and worse.”

“What’s worse?”

“The portal could be buried under rock, at the bottom of a lake…” The Sentinel shrugged, though it caused him to wince. “I can only imagine what would happen if you stepped through into solid rock.”

Gulamendis said, “Do you know the way to E’bar?”

The Sentinel said, “This one is already set for the new city.” He slowly rose and said, “It was to be where the last of us fled. But as I said, if we step through archers will be waiting to fill us with arrows before we say a word.”

Gulamendis got a thoughtful look and then said, “We change…something.”

“Something?” asked his brother.

“What?” asked the Sentinel.

“Set it for almost E’bar. If Pug is correct, a new rift should form, somewhere nearby.”

“How nearby?” asked the Conjurer.

The younger brother fixed Laromendis with an exasperated look and said, “I will settle for the same planet.”

“As long as we don’t end up in the middle of the sea…or under a mountain…”

“Can you do it?” asked Gulamendis.

Laromendis nodded. “Setting magic imprints on objects, enchanting them, is a lot like conjuring an illusion—it’s just moving energy over the surface of something, rather than in thin air.”

“Tell me what you need,” said Arosha. “I can adjust this for you—I know how to do it.” The Sentinel indicated he needed help reaching the portal controls and the Conjurer put his arm around the wounded elf’s waist and helped him reach it. Laromendis shot his brother a concerned expression and with a slight shake of his head told him the Sentinel was in worse shape than at first thought. He helped the guardsman stand before the controls, and felt blood drenching his arm where he had held him.

Runes were set in a large patter, and several glowed
with a faint light. “There’s magic in the device, independent of the gate power.” He pointed to the crystal Gulamendis held and said, “That will get the gate open…” He glanced around and said, “Let me study this while you look for another stone. The galasmancer should have it.”

“What stone?” asked Laromendis.

“It may be purple or blue.”

Laromendis did as he was asked and a moment later came up with a purple crystal, half the size of the yellow one his brother still held. “What is this?”

“This is what will close down this portal after we go. The gate will be useless and the demons will have to find another way to E’bar.”

“How does it work?” asked Laromendis.

With a slight smile, the pale Sentinel said, “I pull out the yellow crystal, put this one in, hit any mark on the controls…”

“And what?” asked Gulamendis.

“It explodes.”

Both brothers were mute.

The Sentinel said, “We all know I’m dead within minutes. This way is quickest and I serve the People. I can barely stand. You’d better go now, or I won’t be able to close the portal after you. Good fortune.”

Laromendis started to say something, but couldn’t find words. He nodded.

The Sentinel put the yellow crystal in a small depression in the surface of the control panel and it began to pulse with a stronger light. Laromendis repeated the spell he had heard many times, closing his eyes to focus his energies on controls designed to easily receive them. Then he opened his eyes and nodded.

Arosha struck all the runes but one and held up his hand. “I’ve put in the runes for E’bar but one and…” He started to sway on his feet, but gripped hard on the edge of the panel. “Pick any rune save that one.”

Gulamendis didn’t hesitate, just reaching over to blindly pick one and push it. A faint hum was followed by a sudden increase in the pressure in the room, as if they had a huge influx of wind, then a faint thumping sound. A grey void, with colors shimmering across the surface, like oil on water, appeared between the uprights of the portal device.

“Go, quickly,” said the Sentinel, and the brothers hesitated but a second, then stepped through. Certain death was their reward if they remained, and if death waited on the other side of the portal, what was the difference? But a chance awaited and they took it.

Suddenly they were underwater. There was a moment’s disorientation and both brothers had to use all their focus and willpower not to gasp in lungs full of water. It was dark on all sides.

In a lucid moment, Laromendis understood they were not too deep, as he had experienced the pressure of water diving for shellfish as a youth. He blew out a slight breath and felt the bubbles rise up his face. In the gloom, he knew which way was up. He grabbed his brother’s arm and pulled and they both swam furiously to the surface.

They were less than ten feet below the surface, but it felt as if it were a hundred. They broke above rolling combers and found themselves spitting out mouths full of seawater.

Gasping for air, Gulamendis said, “We aren’t dead…yet.”

Looking around, his brother said, “We have time. I have no idea where we are.”

Gulamendis said, “This isn’t Home.”

“How do you know?”

“Demons. I can sense them.”

“How many?”

“A lot.”

The chop of the seawater was relatively mild. The peak to trough was roughly six feet, so they tried to time their
exploration to looking in circles as they crested on the rising water.

“Lights!” said Laromendis.

“Where?” asked his brother as he slid down into a trough and began to rise again.

“That way,” said his brother.

“I can’t see where you’re pointing. It’s as dark as a cave here.”

“You’re right.” He got close to his brother’s face and could barely make him out. There was a faint shine on his face, and he turned to look for the source.

High in the night sky rose a single moon, a slivered crescent, obscured by a heavy mist. “Fog,” said Laromendis.

“Then we’d better make for those lights before they get obscured again,” said Gulamendis. He felt his brother’s hand on his shoulder and felt himself being moved in a specific direction. He didn’t need any more convincing and began swimming in the indicated direction.

Both brothers were not particularly powerful elves, but that still gave them more strength and endurance than humans or the lesser elves of Home. And both had spent years near the ocean, so they were both good swimmers. Both had depended more times than they cared to remember on what they could bring in from the sea if they were going to eat.

“Listen,” said Gulamendis as he paused.

“What?”

“Breakers.”

“Good. I’m starting to get numb and was desperately hoping we saw lights on land and not a passing ship.”

Saying nothing more, they both set out toward the sound of breakers.

Minutes later the two exhausted, chilled elves heaved themselves out of the surf and trudged ashore in the dark. The beach was broad and welcoming, which they both counted as fortunate. A sudden crash into rocks would have almost ended their escape.

“Where do you think we are?” asked Laromendis.

“I have no idea, but with a little luck I might deduce something. We know the worlds taken by the Demon Legion, and if this is one of those, we might be able to come up with another means of reaching home.”

“You always were the one to look on the bright side of things; it’s odd how you ended up spending so much time in caves as a child.”

His brother tried to chuckle, but couldn’t quite work up the energy. “There!” he said suddenly, pointing to lights that dotted the side of the hill above them, then were again consumed in mist.

“Torches, I think,” whispered Laromendis. Without another word they started moving up the beach, cautiously in the dark. Like all of their race, they were far better equipped to see in the dark, their night vision rivaling that of most cats, but no matter how acute their eyes might be, they still needed some light and there was very little.

Instead the land was shrouded in a murky haze, and they had to work their way cautiously on a path that led upward, perhaps a game trail. Movement was slow, as the way was littered with rocks and bramble.

Gulamendis kept his voice low and said, “There are a lot of demons nearby.”

His brother whispered, “We need to get off that beach. If there are demons around, we need to find a place to hide until we can get some idea of what to do next. You were the one who told me some of those fliers can see in the dark.”

“Thanks for reminding me,” the Demon Master whispered in return. “Not many, and none of them like to fly in fog. Too easy to run into something unyielding.”

They reached a small switchback and continued up the hillside. As they got to higher ground the fog thinned and a few minutes later they broke clear of it. The sky on the other side of the cliff they climbed was aglow, and they crouched instinctively against any sentries.

Looking back the way they came, the trail vanished a few yards below them into a low-lying bank of heavy mist. Both brothers had lived on the coast enough to recognize the heavy marine air that would roll in at sundown, only to burn off by midmorning. Natural barriers like this cliff face could hold it in place if it wasn’t thick and even when it was, it wouldn’t extend very far inland.

Reaching the top of the bluff they saw no sign of any other living thing, but both moved with a hard-won, exhausted caution. Neither had much left for a fight or a dash. Besides, where would they flee? Back down the trail in the fog to a beach they knew nothing about?

The bluff swept away on either hand as they came to a cut at the top of the trail and found themselves on tableland. Even without fog, there was little light as the sliver of moon provided only faint illumination.

Scrub and a few scrawny trees dominated the landscape, giving them a tangle of shadows and patterns of dark grey and black, and their only sense of those shapes was provided by the distant glow in the sky beyond.

“Demons?” asked Laromendis quietly.

“No closer,” answered his brother.

“I suggest we just sit and wait for dawn.”

Gulamendis squatted on the ground, then slowly put his legs out. After a moment he said, “No,” and rose quietly.

“No, what?” asked his brother, on the verge of sitting.

“You rest. I’ll stay awake.”

“Why?” said his brother, though obviously he didn’t care to argue much.

“You spent the last three days spinning illusions while I just pointed a wand now and again. We both know I have no control over demons as long as the demon captains or lords are present, and even if I could command one, there are dozens running around.

“No, you need rest more than I do, and if we need talent tomorrow, it will be your conjurations, so you need to
be rested. If we can find a place to hole up tomorrow, then I’ll sleep.”

“You have no idea how long until dawn. The sun could have set an hour ago.”

“I have no idea how long night is on this world, either, but it doesn’t matter. Sleep and I’ll keep watch.”

Not wishing to argue any more, Laromendis put his head down on his arm. It wasn’t the first time he had been forced to sleep on the ground, but right now he welcomed the hard soil beneath him as if it were a soft feather mattress.

Gulamendis was as exhausted as his brother, despite his claims otherwise, but struggled to stay alert. The sense he had of nearby demons made it far easier, and while he knew he flirted with the edges of exhaustion, he still managed to stay alert.

Hours dragged by and the Demon Master shivered while his clothing dried on his body. He wondered how his brother had fallen into slumber so quickly, then laughed silently at the thought; had he the opportunity, he also would have been fast asleep on the ground.

He studied the sky. He knew little of the sky on any world, really, as it wasn’t an area of interest, and the idea that he might recognize a constellation or other astral sign and discern their location wasn’t more than an idle thought.

He moved and hummed absently, to keep awake while his brother slept. He wondered at the strange course of events that had brought him here, and in a strange way made him closer to Laromendis than they had ever been.