The Paladin's Odyssey (The Windows of Heaven) (37 page)

T

he cartouche key slid into its slot, over the polygon inside the lock. U’Sumi twisted the amulet and stepped back to watch the counter-weighted portal slide to one side. He left Shell-head
tethered to a tent stake amid the ruins, but Taanyx followed him into the blackness.

The tunnel bent in serpentine corkscrews, leaving the afternoon gold of the outside world behind. Not far from where the outer light disappeared, the same greenish glow of the previous night flickered from around further turns. The dim echo of the sea reached U’Sumi’s ears,
as
he imagined himself trapped in some giant conch shell. He
proceeded
until he reached a wall-mounted torch that burned with an emerald flame. Several unlit units stood in slots nearby
, t
heir elements wrapped in some kind of oiled seaweed that burned green from the high iodine content in the algae.

U’Sumi took one and ignited it. Torch in left hand and the blade
Phoenix Fire
in his right, he and Taanyx continued into the gloom.

The twisted tunnel had few side chambers and no forks. After nearly a half
-
hour
,
they entered a large cavern lit by several of the green torches.

Shadow
s
draped the chamber, except for small patches illuminated by the emerald lights.
C
eremonial head-wear and knives decorated in gold filigree winged serpents and long-necked leviathans
cluttered several stone tables
.
U’Sumi
stopped midway through the cavern when he heard a noise from beyond the tables. He circled around, sword ready, to see what it was.

A pre’tween boy lay manacled by his ankle to a chain in the wall at the far end. His captors had attired him in a kind of Temple wear, except his garment was light green, or maybe pale blue, tinted by the torches. U’Sumi approached him silently so as not to disturb him. Taanyx meandered around the tables with the cutlery and masques, emitting a series of low snarls.

U’Sumi practically stood right over the prisoner before he noticed that the boy’s eyes were opened, staring blankly off into space. They reminded him of those in the corpse on the slab. He stooped down, and waved his hands in front of the youngster’s face, not expecting any response.

“Are you here for more practice?” the boy asked in a
passive
,
potion
-induced voice.

“I didn’t realize you were aware of me.”

“I feel like dream-time and I don’t care about stuff.”

“Did they make you drink a potion?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why you feel dreamy and
numb
. Try to fight it. How long have you been like this?”

The Prisoner seemed unable to gather his thoughts. “They took my li’l brother—could’ve been a day ago—and my other brother a-fore that. Thar’s no time here. You’ren’t with’em, are you?”

U’Sumi surmised that the most recent brother had been the body he had seen in the ruins. The kid’s strange dialect was thick.

“No I’m not one of them. They captured my father and my wife-to-be on the same night they took your brother
…
” he hesitated at the indelicacy of finishing the sentence and left it to hang. “I’m here to free them.”

“Take me with you,” the boy said with an eerie detachment. “I might know whar they be holding your people.”

“Is there a key to this manacle?”

“They grab one from by that torch when practice time it is.” He pointed to an alcove opposite the tables then let his arm flop to his side.

U’Sumi retrieved the small metal rectangle and released the prisoner. “What’s your name?”

The boy paused in his reclined position, as if
trying
to recall. “Yafutu,” he said after a few seconds.

U’Sumi paused at the irony.
Yafutu
was a Far Western version of the name
Iyapeti
. He shook away the thought and asked, “
How did you get here
?”

“They took my family’n me the night we put into port. We’re Outriggers from the Bay of Whales—with our own rig and everything. They killed my parents then dressed me’n my brothers in Temple suits. My two brothers they took away. I be last.” At the mention of family
,
a brief trace of sorrow and fear brushed across his face, only
to
submerge again into the soulless apathy of whatever spell the dark acolytes had
bound
on
him
.

An idea began to form in U’Sumi’s mind. “Did they take your boat?”

Yafutu swooned, as if he fought to remain focused on the questions. “Don’t know.
They
captured
us
while
we
climb
ed
to visit the Setting Sun Gates. Our fleet-mates say there was once good magic here. They’re wrong.”

“
Did
the ones
who
took you ever mentioned your boat or shown any interest in where you came from and how you got here?”

The boy looked for a moment as
if
he might break free of his fog. Even stripped of his emotions, he could not meet U’Sumi’s eyes, as if a palpable sense of shame hung over him that loosened his limbs into a slump that was far more than just the effect of some potion. “They show interest only in practice,” he mumbled, and then huddled himself into a tight ball as if some rudimentary self-consciousness were beginning to return.

U’Sumi wanted to ask more, but thought better of it. At least the stimulation of his questions seemed to bring the youngster out of his languor.

“Can you take me to where they are holding my people now?”

Yafutu sniffed and then slowly wobbled to his feet. “Follow me.”

They exited the chamber into another passage just outside the torch glow, nearest the manacle platform. Yafutu walked like a living corpse, stilted, drawing will from an outside source—in this case, fortunately, from U’Sumi. Taanyx padded silently alongside, wary of their new companion. They twisted further downward through more tunnels doubtless carved by drainage waters
from
when the lands had first risen above the endless sea. Echoing ocean waves grew louder as they went.

A tight turn brought them to another chamber filled with ensconced green crystals that amplified the light of the seaweed torches.
R
ight, a grotto pool foamed with black ocean water, connected by some undersea passage to the deep bay outside. Something large and fast swam in there, for U’Sumi noticed a dark shape break the surface and heard the puff of a blow-hole. He would have looked closer, except
he
then
saw what lay beyond the pool.

The
huge jade idol of a gryphon with outspread wings
of gold-laced bronze
filled the
other end of the
hall
beyond the undersea tunnel
. The
dark
pit of agitated water
extended into
the stone floor between
the idol
and U’Sumi
, narrowing the passage between them
. Chained to a pedestal beneath the gryphon’s wings
,
his father
and T’Qinna
sat
, seemingly unharmed.

A’Nu-Ahki shouted,
“Look out for the mirrors!” when U’Sumi stepped into the chamber.

“What mirrors?”

Three hooded fighters stepped into existence from thin air in front of U’Sumi.
S
tunned by what appeared to be
sorcery
, he
soon
realized that his father had referred to reflectors placed to
multiply the illumination of the crystals and torches. From his vantage point at the portal, the large glass-metal mirrors also concealed swordsmen.

“Stay behind me!” he warned Yafutu, as he launched himself toward the hooded swordsmen and raised
Phoenix Fire
in battle for the first time.

The strange berserker dance U’Sumi had experienced in the Balimar Straits trench many months ago overcame his movements. Time everywhere else slowed to snail pace and left him free to wreak havoc. His grandfather’s careful swords
-
manship training took over, transforming him from a gawky ‘tween into a combat seasoned veteran formidable in his own right even without the savage anointing.

Taanyx, ears boxed and
muscles tensed
,
leapt
at the throat of another fighter. The tremendous release of compressed feline energy
looped past the man’s uselessly flailing blade
and
whipped around
him in a twisting melee of fangs and claws. The fighter went
down
in a spray of blood
,
his throat
ripped open by
the sphinx
’s
razor-sharp talon
s
.

U’Sumi spun, using
the
oiled
seaweed torch
in
his other hand
as a flaming club against the remaining hooded foe. More cloaked guards stepped
out
from behind other mirrors as
he
dispatched the last of the first three, forc
ing
him
to divide his attention between them.
U’Sumi
pressed forward, a searing phantom that scorched and battered on one hand and swirled the air with
enraged
metal on the other. One after another
,
the hooded figures fell to his rampage.

A bizarre and terrifying laughter filled the cavern, enveloping everything in its dark echoing mirth. U’Sumi almost paused, frightened by the sound, only to realize that it came from his own throat. He leaped ahead, hacking and laughing, jabbing and roaring. One corpse after another tumbled underfoot, their lives released into Underworld’s black maelstrom beneath his hand. Five
…
six
…
seven
…
he lost count, vaguely aware that he was not alone in racking up a tally.

The sphinx
bit
a deep gash in the throat of her latest victim, and left him to bleed, choosing yet another prey for her next pounce. She flew from attacker to attacker,
talons flared,
harassing their attempts to converge on U’Sumi as
if
the
y had worked out the
tactic
together
before hand.

In the background
,
T’Qinna call
ed
out for the sphinx to watch out for this or that swordsman or to bolt left or right, parry, and attack. U’Sumi
believed her now;
she literally could speak to the animal
,
and
the sphinx
understood
her
.

As
U’Sumi
pushed
onto the narrow section of the floor,
where the pool
reached
nearest
to
the wall on his left
, he began to entertain hope that he could reach his father and T’Qinna. One by one
,
the last
f
ew
sw
ordsmen either fell back to
ward
the idol or crumpled beneath his sword or Taanyx’s fangs and claws. When
enemy
reinforcements
stopped appearing
from behind the mirrors, his hope grew to assurance.

Then everything changed.

The dark pool exploded with a
thunderous splash, followed by a black mass that flew up from the depths and slid across the flag
-
stones to cut
off
U’Sumi from the altar. Slapping flippers and coiled-snake neck on a
spade—
like
body, the dripping creature careened sideways into
the retreating
marauders and
a
remaining
mirror.

Glass shattered everywhere, as
the creature crushed
two
m
e
n
to death against the wall beneath
its
writhing middle. Another
man
screamed
until steel-trap jaws
snapped
him
up by the arm
and
hurled him with the flick of its head into the
black
foaming pool. There a seething brood of young dismembered the shrieking man until the water frothed purple in the
garish
emerald light.