The Gates of Night: The Dreaming Dark - Book 3 by Keith Baker Read Free Book Online

speak it. “We fear your fury, but know not why we face it.”
    While the woman’s pale eyes widened a fraction, her hands never wavered. “I tire of this mockery, man of metal,” she said, answering Pierce in the drow tongue. “You have broken my path, and the last of my blood is lost to me. And you boast of your deeds!”
    The point of Pierce’s arrow never wavered, but his voice was soft and steady. “We know nothing of your customs,” he said. “We sought only to save the life of a valued ally, and we would have done the same for your companion if it had been possible. If death is what you wish for, it is a gift easily given. But do not make Lei pay the price for our ignorance.”
    “Kkk.”
The drow made a sharp noise with her tongue. “Your gift of death is as flawed as your gift of life. Do you know nothing of the world that lies beyond? You have shattered my path to the final land, and now I must begin anew.”
    “This was never our intent,” Pierce said.
    The woman narrowed her eyes. “How can you not know these things? You are warriors. Why follow this path if you do not look to its end?”
    Pierce was distracting the woman, but her fingerswere still wrapped around Lei’s throat. Daine could see the pain and anger in Lei’s eyes, and it burned like fire. He still didn’t know what power the woman was holding in reserve, but if he moved swiftly, he might be able to push the distracted dark elf away from Lei before she could move. He tightened his grip on his sword, and a rush of adrenaline flowed through him. He prepared to move …
    … and the sphere shook.
    Previously, the floor had been perfectly stable—none of the motion of a ship, and it was easy to forget that it was a vehicle at all, and not simply some sort of windowless building. This was false security. A second tremor struck, and Daine staggered a few steps, struggling to keep his footing. Lei stumbled and fell to her knees, but the drow woman kept her balance and her grip on Lei’s throat. This was no storm. The second quake was accompanied by a heavy thud, a massive impact against the outer shell.
    “What is this?” hissed the drow.
    “Harmattan?” Daine shouted to Pierce.
    “I think not,” Pierce called back. The room still rang with the sound of the impact, and sigils and lines were glowing with shifting patterns of colored flame. Pierce turned his attention back to the dark elf, speaking in the drow tongue. “We are all in equal danger, and the one you threaten is the only one who can save us. Is this truly the death you seek?”
    The room shook under a third impact, and a passage of glowing words etched into the wall flared and then faded with an eerie fluting. The drow woman remained perfectly poised in the chaos, her right hand coiled back and ready to strike, her eyes narrowed in thought.
    “No.” She released Lei, and the artificer dropped tothe ground, choking and rubbing her throat. Daine rushed to her side, while Pierce continued to cover the dark elf with his bow.
    Lei had pushed herself up on one arm by the time Daine reached her, and was struggling to catch her breath. “Center … of the floor …” she gasped.
    Glowing lines and symbols covered the floor of the chamber, reminding Daine of the pictures he’d seen of wizards constructing prisons for demons or wayward spirits. He remembered Lei sitting in the middle of this vast seal when they’d left Karul’tash, and he helped her reach the center of the pattern. Another impact shook the chamber, and this time there was a fearsome
crack
of shattering glass. Lei sat down, and the cold fire of the mystic pattern grew brighter. Daine could feel a cold tingle against his skin as the magical forces grew.
    “Helkad thelora!”
Lei’s eyes were closed, her skin sheened with sweat. Another
crack
, and fragments of crystal fell from the ceiling. A terrible sense of vertigo swept through Daine, and suddenly he felt
solid
… it was if he had been floating for the