Suddenly it was Miranda climbing down and Calis said, “Erik, you next.”
Erik complied, and was followed by de Loungville; then the rope fell. Calis leaped the twenty and more feet to the stone floor, landing as lightly as if he had jumped only a few. He found his company spread out down the tunnel, backs against the wall. Calis moved past and said, “Follow me,” when he reached the other end of the line.
The men fell in, and Erik took up a position at the rear, glancing back at the struggle. A strange hissing scream cut through the air and Erik judged one of the magicians had been taken by the demon.
They came to a small chamber, barely large enough to hold the company. Calis said, “Listen, everyone. Something has changed the balance of forces we find opposing us and we need to discover what this new agent is.” He glanced about, “Boldar?”
“Yes?” asked the mercenary.
“You put a name to that thing. What do you know about it?”
Boldar’s helm turned in Miranda’s direction and she nodded once. “Tell him.”
Boldar removed his helm. “It’s a mantrecoe, in the language of the priests of Ast’hap’ut, a world I’ve visited. I’ve never seen one, but I’ve seen temple paintings.”
Boldar paused, as if considering his words. “Other worlds live by other rules,” he began. “On Ast’hap’ut, they’ve had . . . dealings with these creatures. Ritual sacrifices and invocations, and a sort of worship.
“On other worlds they’re considered creatures from a different energy plane.”
“Energy plane?” said Calis.
Miranda spoke. “A lot of beings exist out there in the universe in places that follow different rules than this world does, Calis. You’ve heard your father speak of the Dread?”
He nodded and no small number of the men made signs of protection against evil. “He defeated a Dread Master once.” The Dread were the stuff of legends, along with the Dragon Lords. The Dread were considered the mightiest of the creatures of the void, the soul-suckers and life-drainers. The tread of their foot withered the grass, and only the mightiest magic could defeat them.
“Well,” continued Miranda, “that creature out there, that demon, is similar; the universe it lives in is governed by different laws from our own.” She glanced back down the tunnel and said, “It’s not as alien to our sense of how things work as the Dread may be, but it is different enough that its presence means some very difficult days are ahead.”
“How did it come here?” asked Calis.
“I don’t know,” Miranda answered. “Perhaps we’ll find out ahead.” She pointed at the tunnel leading away from the struggle.
Calis nodded. “Let’s go.”
He led the way, with Erik, Boldar, de Loungville, and the others trailing behind. “At least we understand why we found some untouched pockets of young here and there,” said de Loungville.
Erik nodded. “That thing is too big for some of the chambers.”
Boldar said, “It might not always have been that way.”
“What do you mean?” asked Calis, not stopping as he moved through the dark tunnel. They had returned to their single torch in the center of the line and Erik found it odd hearing his voice in the gloom.
“It may be that this creature slipped through a dimensional scission.”
“Scission?” said Calis.
“Rift,” supplied Miranda. “That might make sense. If a tiny demon came through unnoticed and spent some time gathering its strength, preying upon the unwary in these tunnels until it could raid the outlying crèches . . .”
“But that doesn’t answer how it got here, or why,” said Calis.
They moved quickly down the tunnel until it suddenly emptied into a large chamber. A half-dozen other tunnels also entered, and before them rose up gigantic double doors of ancient wood.
The doors were open and they moved through the doorway into the biggest hall encountered so far. Erik’s eyes had difficulty understanding what he saw. It was a temple, but unlike any human temple he had ever encountered. “Mother of all gods!” said one of the men coming into the hall behind Erik.
A full hundred yards of floor stretched out before them, and everywhere they looked, torn and mutilated bodies were strewn. The stench was nearly overwhelming, even to men who had been smelling the stink of dead for days now.
A thousand torches had once lit the room to what must have been brilliance, but presently only one torch in ten still burned. The hall was rendered into gloomy darkness and flickering shadows that danced on every surface, giving the room an even more terrifying aspect than it would have held.