Extinction

He heard the clank of metal striking stone dimly, through ears filled with the sound of a labored, pounding heart. The pain was as intense as if someone had filled his gut with boiling water. He crashed to the ground, barely managing to break his fall with one outstretched arm. Clenching his stomach with his other hand he slowly forced his head up, intending to look the worm in the eye before it swallowed him whole.

At least, he thought as the poison pounded in his temples, he would pay with his own life for having caused Halisstra to lose hers. He would die beside her?a slow, painful death was exactly what he deserved.

To his surprise, he saw that the worm was not pressing its attack but had drawn back against the far wall. He must have wounded it more grievously than he'd thought. Then, to his horror, he saw a bulge form in the worm's side?and disappear. A bulge that could only have been made by a creature moving inside it.

Halisstra! She was still alive!

He saw that the tip of the songsword was still protruding from the worm's cheek and he realized she had nothing to save herself with.

Ryld tried to rise, tried feebly to reach for Splitter, but found that his body no longer obeyed his will. Each breath only increased the roiling agony in his gut, and the air around him seemed to have become tinged with gray. The arm he was using to support himself collapsed, and the floor rushed up to strike his face. The stone, he noticed dully, felt cool against his burning cheek.

Chapter Thirty-one

Pharaun peered in the direction Valas was pointing and at last saw what had prompted the mercenary's warning. Far across the Lake of Shadows, a storm was churning the surface. The water twisted in an enormous circle, as if flowing down a drain. Above the whirlpool was a waterspout that must have been a hundred paces high. The top of it bobbed up and down against the ceiling, scattering clouds of bats with each touch.

The storm was still some distance away but was approaching rapidly. Pharaun measured its progress as it passed through one of the beams of sunlight, and estimated its advance at the speed of a riding lizard running full out. Already he could hear the low rush of spinning water. That the storm was magical he had no doubt. Had it always been there?or had something triggered it? Their use of the portal, perhaps?

The others had spotted it as well. Quenthel stared at the storm with a clenched jaw, the serpents at her hip softly swaying. Jeggred turned his head from side to side, sniffing the humid air. Danifae took one look at the storm, then glanced out of the corner of her eye at Quenthel, Valas, and Jeggred in turn. Pharaun noted where those glances lingered: on the amulets each wore that would allow them to either levitate up through one of the holes in the cavern ceiling or?in Valas's case?step through the dimensions to escape the storm.

Catching her eye, Pharaun held his hand up in a reassuring gesture and signed, Wait.

Then he turned to Valas and asked, "Did the rogue who told you about the portal mention anything about this?"

Valas shook his head. "He didn't linger here. As soon as he reached the cavern he levitated straight up and out." As he spoke he glanced up at the nearest of the sunlight-limned holes in the ceiling as if measuring the distance to it. Then he gave a resigned sigh and stared grimly at the approaching storm.

Quenthel, meanwhile, had turned her attention to the wand Danifae had recovered from the treasure vault and was experimenting with different command words. Jeggred, crouching beside her, pawed at her sleeve and muttered something?and received a backhanded slap for disturbing his mistress. The draegloth prostrated himself at her feet, whimpering his apologies. Quenthel ignored him and continued to try to find the wand's command word.

Pharaun rolled his eyes. At the moment, the storm was a more pressing problem than trying to find the ship of chaos, but Quenthel's muttering was getting on his nerves.

"It's probably a word in the duergar tongue," he told her. "Try 'treasure, or 'seek' or something like that. And turn the wand around?you have to hold the forked end for it to work."

Quenthel's serpents hissed with irritation, but she did as he suggested, turning the wand and switching to the guttural tongue of the duergar. Meanwhile, the storm whirled ever closer. The sound of it had grown loud enough that they had to raise their voices slightly, and its breeze stirred Pharaun's hair.

Danifae shifted nervously.

"If we're still here when the storm hits, we'll be smashed against the rocks," she said.

"Or drowned," Valas muttered, glancing below at the waves that were already starting to lap against the bottom of the cliff.

"You're forgetting my teleport spell," he told them. "One quick incantation, and we'll be back in the World Above. The only question is, where to go?"

Valas squinted against the swirl of mist that was starting to strike the ledge.