chapter Twenty-One
The Doom That Came to Thalarion
Chapter Twenty-One
Carried on the shoulders of three Ter-men, Eldin was not unconscious when he was borne from Lathi's throne room. He could feel an egg rising on the back of his head, true, but that was only a temporary thing. He had come to his senses as soon as he was picked up, and now he was taking particular note of the route his bearers took through the paper-built maze to-
-To where?
Was he to be simply disposed of, he wondered, or would it be a grandiose thing? Whichever, he wouldn't go quietly. But for the moment it were best that he lie still and firmly fix in his mind's eye the tortuous ways that led back to the throne room and his fellow adventurer, David Hero.
"Hero-hah" thought Eldin, and he was almost tempted to snort. And the eidolon Lathi, luscious little plum, making eyes at the young idiot. Why, by now he was bound to be making eyes right back at her!
Before Eldin had time to conjure more than two or three erotic pictures of Hero's present pursuits with the Queen of the hive, he was tossed rudely into the black throat of a deep, well-like pit. Some twenty feet down he struck bottom-a mercifully spongy bottom, though sprinkled here and there with hard bits-and lay still while he got his wind back. The place was lighted with the same fungous blue glow of the upper tunnels, which light was supplemented by the rather more rotten luminescence of-
Decaying corpses!
Eldin quickly scrambled away from a pile of stinking cadavers and miscellaneous bones, only to be drawn back a moment later as his curiosity got the better of him. The stench was terrible, and while his fall hadn't harmed him certainly this reeking atmosphere soon would. Gingerly, with his naked foot, he turned over skeletons and kicked aside leering skulls.
The place was a veritable ossuary, a boneyard, and it was plain to see that Thalarion's Ter-men had no favorites when it came to unwanted visitors. No, for the bones and cadavers were of almost every sort and species of dreamland's denizens. There were the skulls and tattered loincloths of the tiny brown people of Kled, and the larger, big-boned corpses of rangy men of Inquanok. There were recently dead, softly-rounded remains of black men of Parg-doubtless escaped slaves from some galley on the Southern Sea-and even homed skulls of the evil, squat, wide-mouthed denizens of Leng's forbidden plateau.
How they had come here and why-that was anybody's guess, but plainly they had all ended up the same way. Yes, and now it seemed that Eldin the Wanderer was to share a like fate. He was not ready to give in so easily, however, and so tried scaling the walls. But the stuff of the walls simply would not take his weight; it came down in handfuls whenever he got a good grip, so that it seemed if he continued he must surely bury himself.
Just then, as he paused to think again, he felt a tremor in the pulpy, paper foundations of the place. He stood stock still and silent, waiting, and after a moment there came another subterranean shock. A small earthquake, perhaps? A series of them? Or had a couple of Thalarion's fretted spires rotted through and toppled down onto the city? Eldin hoped so, and also that a good many Ter-men had been crushed or smothered, but he doubted it.
He was still pondering the mystery when, a moment later, there echoed from on high the sounds of a struggle and a voice he had thought never to hear again. Shouting her defiance, gasping and crying all at the same time, Aminza was giving someone an awful lot of trouble up there. The sounds came closer, and with one last shriek of defiance Aminza was pitched down into the hole. Eldin, directly beneath her, was able to catch hold of her arms and so cushion her fall a little, but still they were both dashed down to the pulpy floor.
Then, quick as a flash, Aminza had elbowed him in the ribs, was up on her feet and had her back to the wall. Eyes blazing in the blue-glowing gloom, she cried: "Come on then, whoever or whatever you are. Come and get your eyes scratched out!" And she held up her hands before her, fingers crooked and ready to strike.
"Damn me, girl," Eldin wheezed, getting his breath back where he sat on a broken skull, "I'm not sure I want to marry you after all!"
"Eldin?" she gasped. "Eldin?"
"Aye, it's me all right," he said, climbing wearily to his feet and staggering as a third tremor set the whole city shaking. "But what the devil's happening, girl? Are you in some way responsible for these shocks that keep rocking the place?"
"Not me," she cried, flinging herself into his arms. "I don't know what it is-but it feels like the city's about to fall down about our ears!"
"Well, at least we'll be together if it does," he answered. "Now then, you'd best tell me how you come to be here."
Breathlessly she explained how from the heights of the Tree she had seen the dreamers taken prisoner, and how then she had slipped away from the Tree and followed the column of Ter-men to Thalarion. From the hills she had watched them enter the city, had then sneaked closer and crept inside. She bore no weapon with her, no plan of action in her head, but only knew that she must rescue her friends if that were at all possible. If not, then she would share their fate. A body of Ter-men had picked her up almost immediately and had obviously deemed it wisest not to take her to the eidolon Lathi. The Queen would not tolerate another whole female in her hive. Thus she had been dumped into the pit, there to starve and join the bones of them who went before.
"Brave but foolish," Eldin growled, hugging her to him in the gloom. "It seems the old Tree was right about us, eh?"
She nodded her head against his chest in agreement and a little sob escaped her trembling lips. "Oh, Eldin!" she whispered.
"Don't be frightened, girl," he patted her abstractedly. "Things will turn out all right-I think."
She looked about at the contents of the pit, staring hard as her eyes grew accustomed to the shadows, then once more buried her face in Eldin's chest. "If only it wasn't so gloomy," she sobbed. Then-"Eldinl" she cried, and danced away from him in a sudden fever of excitement.
"Eh? What?" he cried. "What's up, lass?"
"Your pouch!" she answered. "I've brought your pouch. I'd forgotten about it till now. Here-" and digging a hand into her shirt she came out with Eldin's waterproof pouch.
He took it from her, thumbed its contents through the outer skin and slowly shook his head. "I know what you're thinking, girl, but forget it. If I struck a light down here, with all these rotten gases swirling about- whooshl-the place would go up like tinder, and us trapped in the middle of it. No, I can think of better ways to die. Here, put the pouch away."
As she took back the pouch the ground shook yet again, and this time the piled bones and mummies literally erupted in a cloud of decaying debris. Something groped upward from the floor, swayed in the bluish light, fell writhingly against the pair where they crouched beside the wall.
"What the devil-7" Eldin snarled, then relaxed with a great sigh of relief as a voice in his mind said:
"I've found you-at last!"
"The Tree!" cried Aminza, her hand on the shuddering root.
"Part of him, at least," said Eldin, and to the Tree: "Was that you shaking the city?"
"Indeed. Did I not tell you that my roots had already discovered Thalarion, finding the soil beneath the city dry and dead? It offers them little or no resistance. I only hope I've strength enough to complete my task-which is to bring demon-cursed Thalarion to the ground!"
"We'll do more than that, old friend," cried Eldin out loud. "But first-can you get us out of this pit?"
"Wait," answered the voice in his head as the root withdrew. A moment later it reappeared, bursting through the wall close to the very top of the pit. Down it snaked to where Eldin and Aminza could grasp it.
"Climb, climb!" cried the Tree's voice in their heads.
"You first, lass," said Eldin, pushing her from behind. "Up you go." To the Tree he said, "How much damage do you think you can do?"
As Eldin began to climb, the Tree answered. "I can destroy Thalarion-though that will be the end of me. There are bound to be survivors, and I know what they'll do to me. At least I'll go in a blaze of glory!"
"Very brave and very foolish," answered Eldin with a savage grin as he climbed out of the pit directly behind Aminza. "Tree, what prompted you to do this?"
"You and Hero were willing to give up your lives for me, and Aminza was willing to die for you. And so-"
"So you're willing to bum in order to give us a chance, eh? But what if Thalarion has no survivors?"
"How can that be?"
"You just do your bit, old twig," grinned Eldin, "and leave the rest to me!"
"What else may I do to help you?" asked the Tree.
"You can try to find Hero and see if he needs a helping hand-or root," the scarfaced dreamer answered. "And you'd best be on your way now so that I can get this thing started. How many of you-er, much of you-is there under the city anyway?"
"A lot of me," answered the Tree. "And for now, farewell."
The root withdrew, was gone in an instant, and now the two stood alone at the edge of the pit ... for a second only. For as the tremors began again, stronger now and more insistent, so a pair of Ter-men emerged at a run from the mouth of a nearby passageway. For a moment it looked as if they might go on their way, but then they saw Eldin and Aminza at the edge of the pit. They had scythes and lifted them up as they rushed upon the pair.
Without ceremony Eldin shoved Aminza to one side. He snatched at the first Ter-man's scythe arm, pulled, ducked and lifted all in one flowing motion, drawing his attacker up onto his brawny back. They were after all not used to fighting, these Ter-men, and Eldin held his victim across his shoulders in a wrestling hold as he spun, knocking his second assailant flying. Then, tossing the dizzy creature from his shoulders into the pit, he turned and kicked the second Ter-man in the throat as he made to get to his feet. With a gurgle that told of a smashed windpipe the Ter-man fell back. Eldin snatched up his fallen scythe, pounced on him and dispatched him with a single stroke.
"Here, lass," he grunted, turning to Aminza. "Take this." She gingerly accepted the crescent blade, twisting her mouth at sight of the thin yellow fluid which served the Ter-men as blood.
"No good going all squeamish now, Aminza," Eldin told her. "There's some damned rough work ahead and I've no doubt you'll need to do your bit. Now then, give me back my pouch, will you? I think we'll have a little more light on the scene."
He tore fragments of paper from a wall, struck sparks from his firestones, tossed the makeshift brand into the pit behind him. With a rush and a roar that hurled both of them flat, a huge column of flame instantly gouted up from the pit and rivers of fire ran rapidly across the high ceiling.
"I told you it would be a hot one," Eldin yelled, gathering up the girl. "Come on, let's go!"
With Eldin slightly in the lead, they ran along the passage which led back to the throne room. As they went the glow of the fire behind them lit the way ahead for a short distance, panicking three Ter-men where they already stumbled to the now continuous shuddering of the foundations.
Without pause Eldin snatched the scythe from one of them, cut down the second and knocked aside the third; then grabbed Aminza's hand once more and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Whenever they came to a junction of passageways, there they would halt for a few seconds while Eldin set fire to die walls; but now at last they approached the throne room proper.
Here, in die maze of passages, corridors and tunnels which surrounded Lathi's chambers, a large number of Ter-men and maids were rushing aimlessly about in a frenzy of panic. Eldin and Aminza, for all that they stood out like sore thumbs, found themselves almost totally ignored-but die scarfaced dreamer was never one to be ignored for very long.
With a whoosh and a roar he set fire to one last junction of burrows, then dragged Aminza after him under the high sculpted archway which he recognized as the entrance to Lathi's throne room. They came to a breathless halt just inside the room and took in the scene at a glance.
The place was awash with a sea of milling Ter-men and maids; and atop the dais steps Hero battled desperately against huge odds, using catlike speed and brute strength to hold the steps against a crush of scythe-wielding Ter-men.
"Hero, catch!" roared Eldin, and sent a scythe whirling through air, straight to the hand of the younger dreamer. And after that confusion turned to chaos.
Within seconds die archway was blazing and Eldin and Aminza were battling their way through Lathi's dazed and disbelieving minions toward Hero. By the time they reached the foot of the dais its steps were already awash in the yellow blood of slain Ter-men. Atop the steps, berserk as any Viking ancestor of die waking world, Hero was drenched with the stuff where he stood astride a pile of Ter-men bodies.
What with the siime on the steps and the now crazed heaving and bucking of die floor, it was hard work on the part of Aminza and Eldin to make it to Hero's side; but at last all three stood together. And up through the floor burst the Tree's roots, writhing and wriggling, adding to the chaos, flinging papery debris everywhere as they tore out the very foundations of Ladii's domain.
Eldin deliberately grasped at a root that broke from the wall close by, and was immediately in communication with the Tree. 'Tree," he yelled out loud, "we're finished here. Now how do we get out?"
"My creepers," the Tree responded at once. "I have two of them directly above you. Just let me give this place one last shake-there!"
The throne room was wracked by tremendous tremors which had the three clinging together for support, and a moment later a great jagged crack appeared in the floor and ran up the wall. Huge areas of die ceiling began to cave in and daylight at once flooded the place. Down from above snaked a pair of tough green creepers which pounced on Eldin and Aminza and hauled them aloft. In another second the creepers were back, this time to lift Hero out onto the city's sagging, sliding roof. In one hand he now carried two wands, one of which glowed with a golden light. Behind him as he alighted on the treacherous roof, a great gush of flame sent a mushroom of smoke into dreamland's late-afternoon sky.
'Tree," cried Hero where he hung onto the creepers, "it's time we all got out of here. I don't quite know how you, Eldin and Aminza managed all this, but I do know we're in for a scorching if we don't get moving!"
"I can still help," answered the Tree. "Just hang onto my creepers, all three of you, and run as hard as you can. You run and I'll pull, and with luck you'll be out of the city before it falls flat."
They needed no second urging but hung on grimly as the Tree's stout creepers dragged them across Thalarion's shuddering, crumbling roof; and all about them the spindly spires of the city were falling into ruin and sending up clouds of dust and rags of shredded paper. Flames gouted up from a dozen points, raced over the roof, licked at the three where they leaped and stumbled through sinking, settling acres of disintegrating paper.
And at last they were sliding down the outer domes, stumbling over dead, dry soil, running for the hills as behind them, roaring its death-agonies to the darkening sky, Thalarion became a mighty, raging inferno....