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one could see him so that he could stay close to Mommy. And he waited to see
her.
He had his cape. He was Superman. And Daddy told him to take care of Mommy.
Jake was ready.
Dalchi
Seolar, in his bubble, saw the ground rip open like a wound beneath him as the
first of the dark gods touched Baanraak s mound. He watched fire blast out and
up not gaseous fire, but fire that spurted and popped and oozed like sludge,
like white-hot molten metal poured from a forge. And shoving, squirming,
clawing its way out of that blazing hellhole came a light-sucking horror with
a ring of eyes that burned white as the fire that gave it birth. It had the
look of embodied shadow, of places where living things could not traverse. It
held to the merest suggestion of form Seolar thought he saw arms and legs in
multitudes, but he could not look at the horror long enough to be sure. It
would have been at home in the worst hell of any world, but from the reactions
of the dark gods who saw it shouldering its way up to tower above them, it was
no stranger to them.
Big, Seolar thought. Big, oh big, oh gods. Standing on the ground, it would
have been able to look into the tower on the fifth floor of Copper House with
ease. It hadn t been that big at first. It couldn t have been.
It swallowed the dark god that triggered the trap almost without thinking,
then scooped up as many close to it as it could reach and tossed them in its
mouth, the way a child would scoop up spilled sweets.
In its birthing, it crushed the opening to the cave, and Seolar cried out for
Lauren and Molly, trapped inside but then green claw-tipped hands dug through
from beneath the rubble, and a head poked out, and then a body, and the second
monster formed a new opening as it emerged onto the battlefield. Glistening
green scales like plate armor, a body heavy and solid as the mountain, teeth
jagged as serrated blades. And behind it came another a thing that skittered
out on spider legs, but that made even the most hideous and deadly of spiders
seem tender and charming playthings by comparison. And behind that, another
horror, in another form.
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Seolar, stunned by the spawning of hell before his eyes, did not realize his
danger until the first and worst nightmare turned its face toward him. It
opened its mouth and let out a scream that froze his blood in his veins. All
he could think was Away.
The magical tether he d formed for himself snapped and he soared skyward, out
of reach of the monster. Out of reach of all the monsters.
And then he realized that he had the gate. That he was the only retreat for
his men, for Lauren, and please, God, for Molly.
The monsters had the dark gods in hand. He needed to clear his people from the
battlefield Lauren would not need an army. All she would need was a way home,
and even after his people were safely out of harm s way, Seolar could provide
her that.
The horrors had gone back to feeding on the dark gods. And there it was the
friendly fire Lauren had hoped for one dark god setting his weapons against
other dark gods. And Seolar found it much less welcome in reality than he had
in his imagination. He noted which of his people were closest to danger. He
aimed himself for a clear patch sheltered a bit by trees and rocks and raced
the shield and the gate within it down to the ground as fast as he could.
His men saw him coming, and he willed them to hear him. Retreat, he told them.
You re done here now get out.
His men came at a run, keeping to cover as best they could, but mostly just
watching the sky for incoming attacks. When the first reached him, Seolar
shoved them through the gate. Each time it flickered a bit, but held. He
prayed to gods he no longer believed in that it would hold long enough to get
everyone through. He prayed, too, that his men would run faster Baanraak s
monsters, perhaps wearying of a diet of dark gods, were beginning to look his
way.
To his left, up toward the rise, he caught a flash of green fire from the
corner of his eye. He turned away from his men, who kept moving into the gate
as fast as it would take them, and saw Lauren burst out of the wall of light
at a dead run. Even from where he stood, he could see the glint of gold in her [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]