“Well said and well met again, Clinton Slade!”
14. The Sound of Music
No sound had ever been so welcome as that deep, reassuring voice. “Rokhaset! You made it!” Jodi shouted triumphantly, taking three Lisharithada out with the accompanying swing.
“Indeed, Jodi Goldman.” I could now make out that at least part of what I’d taken for reinforcements of the Lisharithada were Rokhaset’s assault forces, driving towards us like a wedge against the increasingly desperate Lisharithada. “And it gives me great joy to see that not only have you arrived, but that also the mikhsteri H’adamant has worked surpassingly well on you.”
“OW!” I shoved the one that had just hit me out of the way. “Yeah, and without it we’d have been dead before we got here. Great stuff.”
The enemy were now in serious disarray. They couldn’t decide whether the two invisible slayers or the larger number of Nowëthada were the biggest threat, and that made them hesitate at the wrong time. Jodi and I turned and started plowing our way towards the door on the far side, knowing that Rokhaset and his troops were backing us up and if the ones behind us tried to drag us down, he’d carve right through them and get ’em off our backs.
Now there wasn’t any mistaking the panic in the voices of the Lisharithada. The situation had gone from bad to impossible. There just weren’t enough of them left to deal with Rokhaset’s forces on top of the unknown, invisible killers that had devastated their guarding force. Seeing how Rokhaset and his people proceeded onward—steadily, but nowhere near as fast or efficient as our devastating attack—it was pretty clear that he’d told the truth about just how little chance he and his people had stood alone. That, to me, confirmed we’d chosen right to take his word on this mission. There wasn’t any way he’d expected events to take the turn they had, but he’d clearly planned on this assault anyway. Plus, his people had had several chances to do us in at different points, and hadn’t.
Suddenly, the Lisharithada morale broke. The ones in front of us threw down their weapons and sprang aside, running for the exits—there were, I could see, three ways out of here besides the sealed door we were headed for. And even the ones behind us and around Rokhaset’s people were now fleeing, stampeding out the doors with desperate speed.
“Well, I think they’ve decided that’s enough.”
Rokhaset joined us. His posture had not relaxed. “They do not usually retreat even when being beaten.”
“And how often have you had invisible, superhuman, apparently invincible assistance? C’mon, Rokhaset, everyone has a breaking point.”
“True enough, Clinton Slade. I find your presence unnerving, and you are my ally. Perhaps indeed it is that invisible assistance which overwhelms their courage.”
“Last door. I hope we can get it open from this side.”
Rokhaset nodded deliberately. “I assure you it can be opened, especially by those assembled here. Be prepared; the interior guard will have been alerted, and they will fight to the end.”
“Let ‘er rip. Let’s blow this joint and see if we can get home in one piece.”
The Nomes gathered around the door, poking at the mechanism, which was apparently jammed. After a jabbering conference, Rokhaset turned back to us. “The door is not entirely disabled. They did not have the time to do so, and those inside cannot do so without considerable effort. Stand by; we shall open the door—now!”
Something broke inside the wall—we could hear it and feel the vibration through the soles of our boots—and the door ground its way upwards. The doorway to our destination was open.
Stepping forward, Jodi and I peered in. It was a low but tremendously wide room, maybe ten feet high but with regular buttress columns supporting a span so large that our weakened lights couldn’t reach the other side, even with the increased sensitivity of our eyes. At regular intervals around the room were crystalline shapes of bizarre design. The nearest one was a sort of curved double-trumpet shape rising from one side of a six-foot-high dais, thirty feet across, carved in a spiral fashion with rippled indentations along it. I started for it, raising my bar and watching for the interior guard.