When the Primate's gaze followed the Dain's, Evrin opened his mouth and spoke the words that would activate his final ward. The two men and the revenant were all standing on the gallery's bottom level. There would be no better time.
Symbols appeared on the white surface of the stone, flashing with angry crimson on the lowest tier. A purple haze welled up to the height of a man's knees, transparent like water, fading nearly as quickly as it appeared, but with a power that Evrin knew was deadly beyond belief.
Melovar Aspen screamed, a cry of pure agony that reverberated through the chamber, as first his feet, then his ankles, and finally his lower legs melted away, until the purple subsided and he fell down, staring down at the bloody stumps of his knees in horror.
As soon as Evrin started to speak, the revenant reacted, somehow aware of the nature of what was to come, its memories of life in the Dain's service telling it the Dain must be protected at all costs. The revenant grabbed Dain Barden, and with a surge of lore-enhanced strength, threw him up to the higher tiers of the gallery, before it, too, succumbed. In moments the purple haze had eaten through the draug's legs also, the revenant still and uncannily silent as it fell down face-first and looked up at Dain Barden with its blank-faced stare.
The Dain looked in horror at first the draug, and then the Primate's legs, which were now nothing more than stumps.
The chamber was silent.
Evrin slumped back against the stone in his corner of the room, while the Dain panted, sprawled on the stone steps, turning his wide-eyed gaze on the old man.
The silence was broken by an ear-splitting wail. "My legs!" the Primate screamed.
Evrin sighed. He had activated the last of his wards, yet the Akari was unharmed. "Leave this place, I beg you," he said. "Do not remove the essence, and do not remove the seals. Those on the other side will know the moment the portal is open."
"How will they know?" asked the Dain.
"A beacon on the other side will alert them that the way is open."
"Good," said Barden. "If the beacon's on the other side then you won't be able to stop it."
"Listen to me!" Evrin tried to shout, as loud as he could. "You don't know what you are dealing with. You would visit on the world a horror greater than you can imagine."
"The Lord of the Night is our god," the leader of the Akari said. "We are his chosen people. Perhaps you are afraid, old man, but for me there is nothing to fear."
68
DAIN Barden looked at the pool of essence, the thoughts spinning in his mind. There was no way across. To touch the essence would be to die the most painful death imaginable. Yet what if he only had this one chance? The old man was powerful, whoever he was. If Barden left this place, he doubted he would be able to return.
"I do not wish to die here," the Dain said. Then it came to him. "You," he pointed at the revenant, "remove the seals."
Moving laboriously, the revenant began to crawl forward, using its hands and elbows to pull itself forward. It hauled itself over the wall and with a splash it landed in the pool of essence.
The Dain released his breath when he saw his guess proven correct. The substance couldn't harm a creature that was already dead. Dragging itself along, worming and wriggling through the oily black liquid that trickled over its body as it moved, the draug clambered towards the oval mirror and the three seals that kept the portal closed.
Barden focussed his gaze on the old man as he picked himself up. "If you had any more tricks you would have used them, but," he walked over until he stood in front of the old man, looming over him, "not a word, even so."
Evrin looked up at the Dain.
"Not a word!" Barden said.
The revenant reached the platform of stone steps that jutted from the pool and clambered up to the oval mirror. With a swipe of its arm it knocked away the seal on the left. A second swipe took the seal on the right. Only the third seal on the bottom remained. The silver surface of the portal shifted colour, now tinged with gold.
"Soluara-sonur!" Evrin called out.
The final seal lit up with a flare of heat, bathing the room in red. The revenant began to smoke and burn, finally falling back into the pool, its body destroyed while it was still short of its goal. Evrin closed his eyes.
The last seal was still intact.
Enraged, Dain Barden reached down and grabbed Evrin by the throat, lifting him up high. Evrin barely struggled as the Akari began to squeeze.
A shadow moved. Water dripped to the floor.
Something smashed into the Dain's armoured body with the strength of iron, hitting so hard that it punched through the leather, and he felt the snap of at least three of his ribs as they broke with the single blow.
Dain Barden dropped Evrin and turned, just as a second blow hit his jaw with the force of a mountain. When the Dain stumbled, a third punch closed his left eye, and finally a fourth hit his lower chest, knocking the wind out of him before he fell to the ground.