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Chapter 36 - Nilfheim

The snow slug’s huge bulk enveloped the sled.  Its wet, pungent skin smothered Sumi and Lara like an impossibly heavy cushion.  Lara felt as if all her bones were on the verge of breaking into a thousand splinters.  Then the scales on her skin began to scream as gastric juices oozed out of the slug’s pores as its digestive system anticipated the meal that had appeared out of the icy wastes of the Slith.

          Lara could feel Sumi writhing about on the seat in front of her, fighting for their survival.  She had seen the slug before Lara noticed it and had tried to shoot it with one of the slidoo’s harpoons but the firing mechanism on the right-hand side of the sled had jammed and the harpoon failed to launch.

          Sumi was in pain but her bodily contortions were not her death throes.  She wrenched her body around to reach the rope in the satchel by her knees.  Despite the crushing weight of the slug, she managed to coil one end around the shaft of the other harpoon.  Holding her breath as the gastric juices spurted out of the slug’s underbelly, Sumi hastily thrust the other end of the rope through her belt and passed it to Lara who promptly looped it around her waist.

          Sumi felt her scalp and exposed skin burning and the pain was greater than any imaginable, but still she kept to task.  She fumbled around for the harpoon lever with her left foot.  Finding the small metal footpad, she pushed down hard with her heel.

          The harpoon fired.  It tore through the gelatinous body of the slug as if it were not there.  In front of the pair on the sled a sliver of light opened up followed by a savage jolt as they were hauled right through the body of the disgusting creature and slung out into the cold skies above the city of Nilfheim.  Below them the slug writhed about as its vague nervous system tried to come to terms with what had just taken place.

          Lara felt as if her spine had been snapped in half.  After what seemed like hours but was no more than a few seconds, they reached the apogee of their movement through the heavens.  The sun was low in the sky, shimmering across a vast sea filled with massive ice floes.  On the fringe of this frozen sea, the black, iron city of Nilfheim lay like a stain on a fresh table cloth.  It was a spectacular view but unfortunately for Lara and Sumi, a fleeting one.

          Lara looked at the ground that was racing up to her.  A thousand spells raced through her mind but not a single incantation relevant to their unique situation.  The white ground grew whiter and closer and then all was black.

 

 

Lara lifted her head.  They lay on a small icy hill – hummocks the Sessymrians called them.  Underneath her, Sumi lay sprawled awkwardly in the snow.  She was still unconscious, which was hardly surprising.  A moment before the pair hit the snow bank, Sumi twisted herself under Lara to take the brunt of the impact.

          The witch rubbed her head.  A large lump had risen in the place her forehead usually occupied.  It was very tender to touch and throbbed like another heart.  Lara rolled Sumi over, muttering to herself.  ‘Of all the stupid ideas… ugh, slug spit all over me…’  Sumi was limp in the Moraen’s arms, but Lara could see her breast rise and fall.  ‘Now you stay alive… don’t even think of leaving me alone!’  

          And there Lara stayed for the next half hour, cradling Sumi, all the time muttering half-finished sentences to herself, until…

          ‘That wasn’t so bad, was it?’

          Lara looked down to see the pale face of Sumi grinning up at her.

          ‘Now let’s get on our feet.  Well, let’s get you on your feet.  I’ll –’

          Lara’s prattle was interrupted by a sharp cry from her companion.  ‘Aaurgh!  My leg!’

          They both peered down at the cause of Sumi’s acute discomfort.  Sticking out of the leather pants was a sharp white shard.  Lara almost fainted when she realised it was a bone.  Sumi had broken her leg in half.

          ‘Can you fix it?’

          Lara could hardly even look at the limb, let alone repair it.  She tried a healing incantation and whilst it numbed the pain and stopped the bleeding, it didn’t mend the break.  The injury was too severe.

          ‘We’ll put a splint on it.  I can live with it.’

          They found some discarded strips of timber on a mullock heap on the outskirts of the grim city and made a splint.  Sumi set the bone and strapped the splint to her leg as if she were putting on shoes.  Lara was astounded.  It seemed there were no bounds to Sumi’s stoicism.

          They made their way through the outskirts of the city towards its centre where the entrance to Strom Mir lay.  The dark streets were either deserted or occupied by Sessymirians far too concerned with their own troubles to notice the pair of strangers making their way through the city, one of whom left a long trail in the snow like that of a serpent.

          It quickly became evident to Lara and Sumi that their passage into the Endless would not be easy.  The Sessymirians had engaged Caliban’s forces and the fighting had been furious.  A number of miners carried wounded comrades on stretchers.  Some of the mine’s injured were still screaming by the time they reached the surface.  Others limped along, the blood of their battles in the depths of Strom Mir like a warning to any who would dare venture below.  

          Lara stared helplessly as she and Sumi slowly made their way past a group of men whose physical damage was so extensive, it was astounding they were still walking.  One of them, a tall, sallow-faced youth with a bloody rag pressed against his head, had lost an ear.  Another had his arm sliced off at the elbow.  A third man who clutched at his eyes was led along by a grey-haired old man who had the long, white shaft of an arrow still sticking out from his shoulder.  It was clear that all Sessymirians had been called to arms, irrespective of how young or old they were.  As Sumi hobbled along on her broken leg, no-one gave her a second glace – amidst the remnants of so much violence, her injury made her inconspicuous.

          Here and there Lara and Sumi noticed strange, snow-covered piles filling alleyways and cul-de-sacs in Nilfheim’s maze of streets.  It was only when they ventured closer that they realised that these were the bodies of those who had fallen.  The people of Nilfheim were so sorely pressed, they didn’t even have time to bury their dead.

          ‘Did the Ghul do all this?’ Lara asked, bewildered by what she had already witnessed in the dark city.

          ‘Maybe, but I would now guess that Caliban is now using every weapon at his command.  Ghul.  Cabal.  Even Pryderi.’

          At the mention of her race, Lara gazed shamefully at the mound of corpses to her left.  ‘I hope we had nothing to do with this.’

          ‘If by we you mean the Pryderi, I fear you will find that they will have had a hand in the carnage that awaits us.’

          ‘I am no friend of the Sessymirians, but I would never wish this violence upon them.’

          ‘It may work to our advantage.  With all this bloodshed and confusion, we may be able to sneak into the mine unchallenged.’

          ‘Sumi, how will we get down to the breach?  By ladders?  Ropes?’

          Underneath her makeshift cowl, Sumi shook her head.  ‘No.  This mine is far too deep for ladders.  It does have a central platform which is lowered into the mine by chains and pulleys, but we won’t be able to use that.  We’d be seen.’

          ‘So what’s your plan?  How do we get in?’

          ‘We jump.’

 

 

The pair made their way down a long alleyway that led down into the congested centre of the city where the entrance to the mine lay.  A large woman exited a dwelling that opened out onto the narrow walkway and lit a lantern.  She placed the lantern on the ground and took a swig of a bottle she pulled from a pocket in her coat.  Having emptied the contents of the bottle down her throat, the woman growled something incoherent and threw the empty glass flask against the steel wall on the other side of the alley.  The bottle smashed into tiny pieces that fell to the ground where they lay on the snow like jewels upon a white dress.  To Sumi’s dismay the woman turned in their direction and started stumbling down the alley, no doubt headed for a tavern they had passed earlier.

          As she passed Lara and Sumi, the woman held the lantern high and her eyes scanned their faces. She stopped and stared as the pair hurried past.  Sumi saw the woman’s eyes drop towards the ground where her eyes focused upon the long winding trail that Lara’s tail carved in the snow.

          ‘You stinking witch!’ she shrieked.

          Lara spun around.  

          ‘I lost a husband and two sons in the mines,’ the woman spat.  ‘One witch won’t balance the scales but it’ll make me feel a little better.’

          She launched herself at Lara and tackled the Moraen around the waist.  Both women fell to the dirty snow piled up against the wall of the dark alley.  The woman managed to use her weight to her advantage and twisted around so she sat on Lara’s stomach.  She pounded down upon Lara’s face with brick-shaped fists with no sign of stopping.

          Sumi grabbed the woman by her dirty yellow hair and yanked her head back hard.  The woman grunted at Sumi for a moment before returning her focus to Lara who she proceeded to pummel.  ‘Filthy traitorous witch!  I’ll kill you!’

          Sumi slammed the palm of her hand against the back of the woman’s neck knocking her out immediately.  ‘Somehow,’ she said as she dragged the woman into the darkest part of the alley, ‘somehow I don’t think you’re welcome in Nilfheim.’

 

 

Although Lara had lost count of the extraordinary things she had done since leaving the Bregon Woods on the back of a flying lobbsle, there was little doubt that jumping into Strom Mir with nothing but a thin piece of silk between her and dying was one of the most terrifying.  She was astounded to learn that many miners started every working day in this way.  Sumi, who told her this, did not mention that hundreds of miners who had died when their chutes failed to open on the way down.

 

 

After the battle with the Kaggen months before, the breach in the floor of Room 391 had lain silent and undisturbed under countless tonnes of frozen rubble.  The Kaggen’s inadvertent destruction of the room seemed enough to keep the Ghul at bay.  And then, on the day Lokasenna Hagen left Nilfheim bound for the Assembly of Nations in Cessair, a scratching sound was heard from beneath the fallen stone and ice.  For ten days the sounds continued, never abating, always growing louder.  Then on the third day the loose rubble on top of the mound blocking the breach started quivering as if something underneath was about to emerge.  And then it stopped.  All sound.  All movement.

          Gangs of miners were brought down to Room 391 and two hundred members of Nilfheim’s shock troops stood in one line from cavern wall to cavern wall, all facing the buried entrance to the Endless, waiting.  There were over three hundred Sessymirians at the base of Strom Mir when the chaos began.  The mound of rock and ice imploded as it was ripped away from underneath and then from the darkness beyond came the Kobolds.

          Though half the size of the Sessymirians guarding the breach, the Kobolds were more than a match for the shock troops.  The ferocity of their onslaught was extraordinary.  The Kobolds fought without fear.  Many times in the attack, a Kobold would drop his guard, enticing an opponent into attack, just to give another Kobold an advantage.  Their attack was beautifully coordinated.

Deep within the Endless, hundreds of leagues away, Succellos controlled the Kobolds like a monstrous puppeteer.  She allowed her puppets just enough mental liberty to express themselves in the violent show, but not enough to question their actions.

          Over the weeks that followed, countless Ghul poured through the breach and from the shafts above came every able-bodied Sessymirian to hold back the flood.

         At first – despite the relentlessness of the Kobolds and Ghul – the Sessymirians had the upper hand.  They had discovered the Ghul’s susceptibility to fire and worked hard to exploit this weakness.  But fires and mines did not mix and the Sessymirians were limited in how many blazes they could light in a place comprised of more ice than metal.

          Nilfheim's small cadre of bowmen had been brought down to fire volleys of arrows dipped in oil and set alight. This tactic stymied the Ghul’s attempts to infiltrate the mines, but it was – at best – a temporary solution. Wooden arrows were in short supply in Nilfheim; the Sessymirians could not hope to continue this defence for much longer.

          In contrast, the Ghul seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of bone shafts that their archers used to whittle away the Sessymirian troops.

          It looked bleak for the people of Strom Mir. Whilst the Sessymirians had no qualms about killing the Kobolds they were confused about the presence of a new enemy – the Pryderi.

          Some of the miners had seen Moraens before, but most had only heard of them in stories.  At first, the sight of the women with their long writhing tales and flowing skirts of silk intrigued the local Sessymirians who held their fire as the coven of witches made their way up into the shattered remains of Room 391.  This cessation of hostilities did not last long.  When all the witches had assembled amidst the frozen rubble of the cavern, accompanied by a platoon of Ghul infantry, they launched a mystical broadside that killed at least fifty Sessymirians in the space of a few seconds.  Spells of all descriptions were hurled across the cavern resulting in an array of injuries, deformities and death that had never been witnessed before.  The remaining Sessymirians fled abandoning Room 391 to Caliban’s forces.

          The miners made their way down long empty passageways until they arrived at a vast cavern known as Room 333 which was just over half a league from the breach. Here they had assembled a huge barricade that was one hundred yards across and fifty yards high – the last line of defence.  If the Ghul, Kobolds and Pryderi got past the barricade, the only thing that separated them from the city of Nilfheim above was Strom Mir’s entry shaft.  Some Sessymirians had argued that the mine should be abandoned.  They argued that the platform that brought the miners to the surface should be raised to the surface so that Caliban’s army could be denied access to the city, but this idea was quickly dismissed for two reasons – firstly, the miners were fiercely proud and did not want to hand the ice colliery over to the invaders without a fight; secondly, no-one really believed that something as simple as a mine shaft would be enough to halt the progress of the Ghul.

          And so the barricade was built across Room 333.  The cavern was easily accessed from numerous sections of the mine which meant it provided numerous escape routes should the barricade fall.  It was also one of the most established areas of the mine.  Beams of iron criss-crossed the ceiling and all of the walls were plated with reinforced steel which meant the Sessymirians could light fires in the room without fear of melting the cavern around them.  The area was well-ventilated which would vent the plumes of smoke that would inevitably rise out of the fires the miners would light to keep the Ghul at bay.

          Since the departure of Lokasenna Hagen, Vila Helstrom had taken command of Strom Mir.  It was he who had decided that Room 333 would be the most suitable place to stand their ground against the Ghul.  He did not assume the title of Foreman.  The miners simply addressed him as Captain and this suited him.  Behind his back many of Strom Mir’s workers still referred to him as the Keeler – the distinctive scars running across his face where his flesh had been gouged by one of the Keelii made it difficult to ignore Helstrom’s colourful past.

          Despite their horrendous casualties over recent days, he had proven to be an excellent leader to those who believed in taking a stand against Caliban’s troops.  He had put out the call for every piece of flammable material that could be found in Nilfheim to be lowered down into the mine and added to the barricade.  He had also arranged for vats of leviatha oil to be brought to Room 333.

 

 

As the last of the miners retreated behind the barricade, the Keeler ordered massive steel nets be strung up across the room between the barricade and the tunnel entrance that led to the breach.  The nets were made of a thick steel mesh that could support the weight of tonnes of Cold.  It would take the Ghul some time to break through them.  The Keeler was not sure whether they would pose a problem for the Pryderi.  

          ‘When the enemy comes in here, take down the witches first!’ he yelled to his troops from his position high up on the barricade.

          Caliban’s forces had not yet arrived in the cavern but the Keeler could hear their approach reverberating down the tunnel at the far end of the room where the steel nets had been placed.  ‘The nets should create a choke point, but do not concentrate your fire upon the Ghul.  See a witch, kill a witch.’

          ‘See a witch, kill a witch!’ the Sessymirians shouted back with chilling fervour.

          ‘We can take down the Ghul with fire, but the witches might not be so easy to kill.’

          The Keeler had been to Bregon as a child and he remembered the Pryderi as being a timid race whose magick was similarly unimpressive but what he had witnessed back at the breach was a show of mystical power beyond anything he could have imagined.  Something had changed.  The witches had become powerful and were willing to use that power in the most uncompromising fashion.  He was surprised at their preparedness to kill, but in the back of his mind he knew that the Sessymirians’ treatment of the Moraens gave the witches no reason to consider the people of Nilfheim as allies.

          ‘Captain, the bins are in place,’ reported a young miner by the name of Lars who had climbed the barricade to join Helstrom.  He pointed at two massive iron containers that had been raised on winches and hauled across the ceiling so that they hung above the barricade.

          ‘Yes.  I see,’ the Keeler replied looking up at the rectangular containers high above his head.  Each bin was tethered to thick iron chains that ran back across the ceiling through a pulley system that was controlled by a panel of levers near one of the entrances to the room.  ‘Are the bins full?’

          ‘Yes Captain.  Every drum of oil we could find has been poured into them.’

          ‘Do not tip them till I give the word.  Do you understand Lars?’

          ‘Yes Captain,’ the youth responded.  He quickly clambered his way back down the barricade and took his position by the levers.

          The Keeler cast his eyes across the barricade with a sense of pride.  Everything was in place.  The barricade itself was lined with anyone who had access to a bow, slingshot or bola.  Earlier, a number of zealous miners had also taken their place atop the barricade armed with lumps of Blue Cold.  Though Helstrom was impressed with their desire to obliterate the enemy, he had to ask them to hand over the volatile Cold before they brought the entire mine down around their ears.

          The Keeler looked behind him at the base of the barricade where hundreds of Sessymirians had gathered armed with axes, swords and clubs.  These men and women could not see over the barricade to the tunnel from which would spill Caliban’s army, so they waited in silence, preparing their minds for the battle to come.

          Behind these brave, desperate people were the hulking shapes of five catapults that had been ripped from the city’s battlements where they had performed nothing more than an ornamental role for the past fifty years.  Each catapult had been lowered down the man shaft and trundled into the massive cavern where they had built the barricade. Many Sessymirians had laboured through the night to recalibrate the catapults so they shot over the barricade but not into the roof or walls of the cavern.  Each catapult was armed with blocks of stone so heavy, it had taken almost thirty men to load them.  

          The Keeler scanned the room for possible weaknesses in the defence and finding none, he turned to face the tunnel at the far end of the room.  ’We’re ready,’ he said to himself, and for a short time, he almost believed it.

 

 

They did not have to wait long for the enemy to arrive.  The Ghul entered first and immediately set about trying to dismantle the steel net that covered the tunnel entrance like a sieve.  Some Ghul tried to squeeze themselves through the net but quickly found themselves caught in the tight mesh.  The Ghul were followed by the Kobolds who wasted no time in trying to work their way under the steel net.  The Sessymirians had fixed the mesh to the floor of the cavern with long iron bolts.  The Kobolds set about digging up these bolts and worked with such industry that it would not be long before the net was little more than a decorative hanging.

          Behind the Kobolds massed the Pryderi.  The Keeler couldn’t count the number of witches in the tunnel but he knew it was enough to completely wipe out the remaining miners if they were permitted to get closer.

          ‘Shoot the witches!’

          The Keeler didn’t have to give the command a second time.  The cavern was filled with projectiles being fired into the tunnel on the other side of the mesh.  He punched the air in satisfaction as a number of witches dropped to the frozen floor of the tunnel with arrows and knives in their scaly flesh, but his euphoria was short-lived.  Within seconds, the projectiles started bouncing off an invisible barrier the witches erected.

          The response was swift.  From the mouth of the tunnel burst a colourful array of retaliatory spells.  Most of these splashed against the barricade, but a number found their targets.  The Keeler heard agonised screams shoot out from the lips of his comrades as they were hit by all manner of offensive magick.  To his left, an old miner’s head burst open like a pok pok fruit.  To his right, a young boy shrieked as his skin was ripped from his body.

          The Keeler quickly gave the signal for his troops to drop down behind the barricade.  The whoosh and thud of five catapults successively launching in the confines of the room filled the air.  The first four boulders slammed into the invisible barrier, unable to penetrate it, but their impact was felt by the witches trying to maintain the mystical wall.  The last rock to be fired by the catapults pierced the weakened barrier and hurtled through the metal net the Kobolds had managed to release.  It pounded into the tunnel killing all the Pryderi who had gathered there.

          The Keeler scurried back up the barricade to assess the situation.  If he thought that he had seen everything Caliban was willing to throw at the Sessymirians, he was wrong.  The worst was yet to come.

          It squeezed from the tunnel leading to the breach, giving no thought to the dead Pryderi that lay there, straining the rock and ice.   It was the most astounding thing the Sessymirians had ever seen.  It had two angular heads with only one eye on each.  It had no mouth or nose or ears.  Its skin was dark purple and glistened as if it had just crawled out of a lake.  A thick coat of shaggy, purple hair covered much of the creature’s body, hiding its ten short legs and heavy paws.  It reached up with one of these paws and tore the steel net down from the roof of the cavern.  This done it shook its long body and out from underneath its thick coat sprang a thick pair of purple wings.  The beast was called the Anthropog and like all its kin in the Cabal, it was deadly.

          The creature flew over the barricade and wheeled around the cavern.  A number of Sessymirians took aim at the beast and fired but it simply ignored the arrows which were lost in its shaggy coat.  It made no attempt to attack the miners, but it didn’t have to.  From its wings a trail of tiny purple spores floated in the cold air, filling the space like dust motes in a ray of sunshine.  These spores slowly made their way towards the floor below.  Though the Sessymirians had no idea what the spores would do, they knew instinctively that it would not be good.  Some of the miners made for tunnels that fed into the room, but the cavern was terribly crowded, a fact that contributed to the panic that quickly followed the Anthropog’s arrival.

          With the net no longer blocking their way, the Ghul raced across the cavern floor and scuttled up the barricade, followed by the Kobolds.  The Keeler gave the signal to his people to light the fire.  With the help of a number of strategically placed blocks of Cold, the barricade erupted in a brilliant blue blaze.  Black smoke billowed around the chamber eventually finding its way to the ventilation shaft at the far end of the room.

          Where the spores made contact with the miners’ flesh, they altered what they touched, incredibly turning flesh to stone.  The effect was highly specific as the miners quickly discovered when they put their hands out to shelter the rest of their bodies from the falling spores.  Some of them watched in horror as their hands and forearms transmogrified into a heavy grey stone.  These were the lucky ones.  The more unfortunate miners died instantly as their heads turned to stone unable to be supported by their fleshy bodies.  One of the miners dived out of the wayward path of the spores only to find his feet turned to stone.  He tried to drag himself from the cavern but his feet were too heavy.  If the Ghul broke through, he would be left at their mercy – and the Ghul had no mercy to give.

 

 

Lara and Sumi emerged from a small side tunnel which led into the room next to one end of the barricade.  A number of Sessymirians were huddled on the floor of the tunnel but they were too panic-stricken to even notice the presence of the two strangers.  Although she was shocked by the scene that filled her vision, Lara had enough presence of mind to act.  She could see the purple spores floating through the air, changing all they touched into stone and she realised that this posed the greatest danger to the miners.  The two-headed creature that released the spores was not directly harming anyone and the barricade that was burning to her right would keep any Ghul in the cavern at bay until it had exhausted itself.

          Lara closed her eyes and stuck out her hand as if she were clutching at the air in the vast chamber.  Suddenly the cloud of spores was swept aside as if a mighty wind had entered the cavern and caught it in its grasp.  The spores swirled about on an invisible current and then were sent from the room, disappearing up the ventilation shaft alongside the pall of smoke that poured out from the fiery barricade.

          The Sessymrians who had survived the spores cowered against the walls of the cavern.  Some pushed their way into the tunnels whilst other despondently wandered around the room picking up the stony remains of comrades who had fallen under the Anthropog’s attack.  In the middle of the room stood the Keeler.  He stared out across the room watching his stunned countrymen searching amongst the rubble for pieces of petrified limbs that had broken off.  In a perverse way, they looked as though they were collecting kindling for a fire.

          In light of what they were opposing, the defenders of Strom Mir had not fared too badly, but as soon as the fire in the barricade died, any remaining Ghul would rampage over the ashes and slaughter the Sessymirians.  They would be supported in their efforts by the Kobolds, not to mention the strange beast that continued to glide around the room.  The Keeler had no explanation for the wind that had granted the Sessymirians temporary relief from the falling spores but he could not count on it continuing, nor could he hope for any other intervention.  He had to finish the fight and do so quickly.

          He lifted his left hand as a signal to Lars, the young man who had spoken to him earlier about the bins of oil suspended above the cavern.  Lars had not been affected by the Anthropog’s attack and remained focussed on his single duty – to release the containers when given the sign.

          The Keeler dropped his left hand and a second later two massive levers were drawn back setting in motion a mechanical sequence that ended with the release of a thick latch holding the bins in place.  The front edge of each bin swung downwards and thick leviatha oil spilled out over the barricade.

          The dense black smoke that filled the cavern obscured the full impact of the Keeler’s last desperate act.  As soon as the oil met the fire on the barricade, it combusted.  The resultant blaze swelled across the room and billowed out into adjacent tunnels and alcoves.  No-one in Room 333 survived.  The Ghul were incinerated instantly followed by the Kobolds.  Even the Anthropog was reduced to ashes by the cloud of searing fire that swallowed up the entire cavern.

         Whilst they Sessymirians had defeated their enemy and stopped the incursion of Caliban’s forces into Nilfheim, it had been at terrible cost.  Not a single Sessymirian who had gone to Room 333 that day would ever return to the city they had protected, including the brave keeler Vila Helstrom.

 

 

Lara and Sumi would have died had not Lara thrown up a bubble around them the moment the oil splashed down upon the barricade.  The protective sphere was much larger than the one she had created when Sumi had set the Hollow Hills alight back in Scoriath.

          ‘Thank-you!’ mouthed Sumi as the flaming oil swirled around them, lifting the mystical bubble and pulling it out into the smoke-filled cavern.  The oil had filled the room, turning it into a lake of fire.  Through the flames the pair floated on the eddying black liquid, with no control over where they were headed.

          Lara was deep in concentration.  She knew if she faltered now, they would be engulfed by the conflagration just as the Sessymrians, Ghul and Kobolds had been.  If the pair of them had any hope of survival, she had to maintain the bubble which bobbed on the burning oil like a gillygull upon the sea.

          Within moments of the great bins being tipped upon the blazing barricade, Lara and Sumi found themselves being carried by the surging black tide across Room 333 and out into the tunnel leading to Room 391 where lay the entrance to the Endless.

 

 

Lara and Sumi quickly waded to the shore of a vast subterranean lake.  It was lit by the soft red glow of the surrounding rock.  Once their eyes adjusted to the suffuse light, they could see a path wending its way around the broad expanse of water to a Ghul camp.  Thick shards of bone had been crudely fashioned into piers and tethered to these were strange, green boats.

          ‘I was hoping we would find boats here!’ Sumi said with a jubilant note in her voice.  ‘This is how the mariner Gerriod Blake made his way out of the Endless.  If we take a boat, we can make our way to Caliban.’  She raced off towards the strange vessels.

          ‘Sumi – they’re not boats,’ Lara cautioned.  ‘You know that don’t you?’

          ‘Yes, but these creatures didn’t harm the mariner.  We have no reason to believe they will harm us.’

          ‘I hope you’re right!’ Lara grumbled.

 

 

As soon as they climbed into the nearest vessel, its long grey-green arms swung out from its sides and clawed at the surface of the lake.  Lara sat at the back of the vessel, clearly unsettled by the fact they were entrusting themselves to such a bizarre creature.

          Before long they were out in the middle of the lake, heading towards a point where the dark waters disappeared into a culvert at one end of the lake.  ‘That is the right way,’ Sumi said with surprising certainty.  ‘It leads south-east and that is the direction we must take to Caliban.’

         Lara was astounded but confused by Sumi’s confidence.  ‘How can you be sure which way is north and which is south?’

         Sumi shrugged.  ‘I don’t know, but it feels right.’

          ‘Sumi, we can’t afford to risk everything upon a hunch now.  We are far too close now to take risks.’

          ‘Lara, this entire mission has been a risk.  We have armed ourselves as much with chance as we have with weapons of steel.’

          ‘That’s all very poetic but –’

          ‘Look there!’ Sumi exclaimed, her eyes fixed on a figure on the far side of the great lake.  Though the person was far away, her features were far too distinct for Sumi to have any doubts about who it was.  Her skin was severely burnt but the dark birthmark surrounding her left eye could still be seen.  Her left arm ended in a stump into which had been sewn a spike of bone, replacing the one of steel Tagtug had ripped from her flesh.

          ‘Lokasenna!’ Lara gasped.

          A cold smile greeted them.  Lokasenna’s white teeth contrasted against her blackened skin.  Her long, blonde locks had been burnt away leaving a bald skull that resembled a piece of coal.

A mirthless laugh exited from the Sessymirian’s charred lips.  ‘Sumi Kimura!’ she cried from the distant shore.  ‘We could be taken for twins!’

          Sumi had forgotten all about her burnt face but now she was facing the woman who had held her head against the scorched earth of the Hollow Hills, the memory of that night came flooding back.  ‘Lara, kill her for once and for all.’

          ‘I can’t, Sumi.  I’m exhausted.’  For a moment, Lara was fearful their strange boat would steer them towards Lokasenna, but it continued ploughing through the water, speeding towards the culvert at the far end of the lake.

          ‘We still have your daughter, Lara Brand,’ Lokasenna called contemptuously.  ‘You will stand down from this mission immediately.  End this folly and you and yours will be permitted to live.’

          Lara leaned over the bony side of the vessel and shouted defiantly, ‘No! You have proven yourself to be utterly untrustworthy, spawn of Caliban!’  

          ‘Lara, my father has need of you.  You know this.  This is the only reason you have been kept alive. He has watched you grow into a formidable force.’

          ‘Do you think at this late hour I would submit to Caliban?’

          ‘You will find he can be very persuasive.’

          Before Lara had a chance to answer, she and Sumi were swept from the cavern and down the torrent that flowed through the narrow culvert.  

 

 

Sumi sat up in the strange boat and stuck a hand down the side of one of her boots.

          ‘What is it?’ Lara asked, concerned about the frown that had appeared on Sumi’s face.

          ‘My feet – Lara, I can’t feel my feet.’

          ‘Since when?’

          ‘A few days ago. I fear I have frostbite – they’re completely numb.’

          ‘Let me see.’

          Lara crouched down and cradled her companion’s broken leg upon her coils.  She unwound the leather band from Sumi’s makeshift hide boots.  A malodorous smell emanated from Sumi’s foot and it took every ounce of self-control Lara possessed not to indicate how pungent it was.  As she slowly slid the boot off, Lara prepared herself for the worst.

          Sumi’s foot was completely black.  Flakes of darkened skin dropped across Lara’s lap.

          ‘Oh, Sumi!’ Lara gasped.

          ‘How bad is it?’

          ‘It’s bad.’  The skin was loose and looked as if it had been flayed from her bones. Sumi had lost two toes on her left foot.

          Lara checked the other foot.  ‘You have lost five toes altogether.  The others are not far behind.’

          Sumi took it in her stride. She gazed down at her legs.  ‘I imagine the gangrene has well and truly set in.’  She pulled her boots back on, seemingly unconcerned over the terrible development.

          ‘Sumi, take your boots off.  I will try to heal you.’

          ‘No Lara.  The time for that has passed.  I am beyond your magicks.  I will complete the mission and I will make sure you see your baby girl again.  Do not waste your energy on me – you will need it for the battle ahead.’

          Sumi had analysed her position.  She knew the frostbite was too far developed to stop its progress.  There was no magick or remedy for such a malady.  This was not a fight she could win.  Her defiant spirit had been replaced by a sense of tranquility.  She knew she would die before she saw her homeland again.  She would die in the Endless.

          ‘I don’t understand,’ Lara exclaimed.  ‘What about your thermanaesthesia?   I didn’t think you could be affected like this.’

          ‘My thermanaesthesia is an inability to feel heat or cold but my body still reacts just as yours does. I can be exposed to extreme cold and die.  It’s my brain that doesn’t understand, not my body.  It’s not a talent; it’s a disability.’

          ‘It helped get us here,’

          ‘Perhaps, but it also means I’ll be of little value to you in the fight ahead.’

          ‘Sumi, you could never be of little value to me.  You are the most valuable person I’ve ever met.’

Sumi didn’t know what to say so she just rested her head upon Lara’s shoulder and closed her eyes.  She was happy.  It would not be long now.  She would be seeing Trojanu soon.  Much sooner than she had expected to.  It would not be long, but she had something to do first.  Lara Brand would be reunited with her daughter.  That was all that mattered now.

 

 

As they raced through the subterranean network of rivers, countless anxieties and fears began to crawl over Lara like a swarm of invisible insects.  It was to be expected.  The long journey was coming to an end and there was less chance of success than there had been at the start of the perilous quest.  She hoped to be the one to repay Caliban for his horrendous crimes, but ultimately, she was far less concerned with his fate than she was with that of her daughter.

         She loosened her blouse and saw that her Birthstone still shone brilliantly.  Seeing the blue glow that signified her connection to her baby girl was as reassuring as ever, but it was not enough to quell her fears.

         As she laced up her blouse, her hand brushed over a thin object she had secreted in her cloak weeks earlier.  Her heart quickened as she pulled it out and examined it in the phosphorescent half-light of the Endless.  It was the leaf she had picked up back in Scoriath, in their encounter with the Drasili.

 


 

‘Why do you keep the leaf?’ she asked.

          ‘I don’t know.  Perhaps… perhaps it’s a reminder of what I must strive for: to persevere, to endure… to remember.’  

 


 

The leaf was still green although it had been weeks since it had fallen from the tree that sired it.  It was an inspiring sign.  In the dark, hard world of the Endless, where nothing grew but hatred and despair, she would be like the leaf.  She would stay green.  She would endure.