Miranda cried, ‘We must pull back!’
Stunned by the sight of the Black Mount, General Alenburga now ordered, ‘Withdraw!’ To the four young captains who waited to carry out his instructions he said, ‘Head south. There’s a knoll near a stream that feeds into the river. Grab as many maps as you can carry and take them there.’ To Kaspar and Erik he said, ‘Gentlemen, it’s time to go.’ To Miranda he said, ‘Madam, if you and your magical friends can shed any light on this development, sooner is better than later.’
The commanders of the Tsurani army made an orderly, but hurried, departure.
Miranda felt confident that the sphere wouldn’t expand again for a while, but her curiosity was piqued. She closed her eyes while others around her beat a hasty retreat, and sent her mind forward.
She encountered the mystic anti-scrying magic she had been repulsed by previously, and sought once more to neutralize it. She had discussed this problem with several other magicians while they were resting, and had got several useful suggestions. She realized one point made was possibly the most cogent: it wasn’t a barrier, but rather a counter-spell, one designed to harm, injure, or kill should intrusion be pressed. If that was the case, she could counter it, as long as she was willing to endure some discomfort.
She forced her mind to conjure up the strength of will to push her mystic sight through the barrier and felt a sharp stab of pain as she did so. She battled the pain and erected defensive spells of her own to counter the attack on her mind, and then she looked at what was occurring inside the sphere. The revulsion she felt as her mind registered the scene before her caused her to recoil instinctively. She almost fainted as she tore her mind back to this side of the barrier.
An unknowable time later, she found Erik von Darkmoor standing over her and Miranda realized she was lying on the ground. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked calmly in the midst of the organized chaos.
‘I saw…’ she said weakly as the old warrior extended his hand to help her to her feet.
‘What did you see?’ he encouraged, supporting her by one arm.
‘We must…’
‘What?’
Her eyes were unfocused and her thoughts were cloudy. She said, ‘We must leave.’
‘We are leaving,’ he said. ‘We’re pulling back to regroup.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘We must leave… this world.’
‘Miranda,’ he said calmly as he walked her down the hill to where a lackey held his mount, ‘what are you saying?’
He saw her wits return and despite her obvious exhaustion, her eyes were wide and her features became animated. ‘Erik! They’ve opened… I don’t know what to call it. It’s not a rift as I know it, but rather… a tunnel! It’s some sort of passage between the two realms, and it’s occupying almost the entire inside of that sphere!’ She looked back at the monstrous Black Mount that rose up into the late afternoon sky like terrible dark boil on the surface of the planet. ‘The mouth of the tunnel is this vast pit, only a hundred or so yards inside the edge of the sphere. It must expand as the sphere expands.’ She squeezed her eyes shut, and took a deep breath. ‘Most of your troops… they must have fallen into that void… tunnel, whatever it is.’
‘Gods,’ he said softly.
‘Erik,’ she said, looking around and realizing that Alenburga and Kaspar had already departed. ‘You have to tell them. Everyone… we must evacuate as many people as we can. There are Deathpriests inside that thing, stunning those who fell inside, your men, and they had Deathknights throwing them into the opening of the tunnel…’ She closed her eyes as if willing herself to remember. ‘Erik, they’re feeding it. They’re using your soldiers to make it stronger, make it bigger.’
Erik’s face drained of colour. ‘And when it gets strong enough, it’ll jump again?’
‘Yes,’ said Miranda, almost unable to frame the word. ‘The sphere will get bigger… and bigger…’ Her voice grew softer and she started to wobble on her feet. ‘Until it covers this whole world…’
‘But it can’t keep growing… forever.’
Miranda’s face was ashen. ‘No, it only needs to get big enough to let something come through from the other side…’
‘What?’
‘The Dark God of the Dasati,’ she whispered. Miranda went limp and only Erik’s firm grip kept her from falling to the ground.
‘You!’ he shouted to a nearby soldier. ‘Get a litter! Bear her to the Supreme Commander!’
‘Yes, sir,’ said the Tsurani Strike Leader he had addressed.
Erik looked at the sphere as he waited. Against the armies of the Emerald Queen at Nightmare Ridge he had survived with what he had. This time, however, he felt a sense of helplessness. This time maybe no one would survive.