In Thy Name

Chapter 16 - Ice and fire

The door closed behind them, either by magic or by the hand of an acolyte invisible in the dark, and all was utter blackness.

Then they were drawn along by the length of cloth they held in their hands, feet shuffling on the stone floor to avoid tripping, the angling and turning of the cloth the only warning that they were going up or down stairs or around a corner. Selengged tried to keep track of where they were going, but in the absolute darkness it was impossible to tell how much time had passed, how far they had gone or even which direction they had turned, not to mention trying to keep up with the Doorkeeper without tripping. It was difficult to keep her feet straight at all, as the complete darkness made her feel she was floating in nothingness. She found closing her eyes helped a little.

Sometimes she thought she felt a breeze and a ghostly caress of cloth as someone brushed past her, silent as a spirit, or she caught the scent of food cooking or incense burning, but these sensory illusions quickly passed, leaving her in nothingness again. The soft cloth of the acolytes' robes and their padding footsteps made no sound. Only the scrape of her boots on the stone floor was real, and the tugging length of cloth under her hands.

Then, they emerged into a cavern; though all around them was still darkness, she felt that they were in a much larger space. The cloth in her hands jerked several times insistently, and she let go, then swayed a little as one of her clues to the world around her disappeared.

Just as she caught her balance, two white flares suddenly lit up in front of her. Between them was a stone throne on a low dais. The throne's back rising toward the ceiling in a ripple of scales and ended in a dragon's head with tongues of stone flame curling out its nostrils and around its fangs. On the throne sat another figure in black, if possible slenderer and frailer than the Doorkeeper. Her sword, too, was slung across her back, and three tassels swung from the hilt. Her face was hidden by a fine veil inside her hood.

Kuya and Selengged each dropped to one knee and bowed their heads.

The figure on the throne rose to her feet as easily as a young maiden, although it was rumored that the Sibyl had been alive at the time of Ithirien, ten centuries before. With a casual grace, she reached over her shoulder and drew her sword, the sound ringing loud in the silent room.

"Your sword," she said in a voice that was ethereal and silvery, yet cold with command.

Kuya reached for his gladicifer, but Selengged stopped him with a gesture. She unslung the bundle of her ruined sword, drew off the blanket, and then scooted on her knees to the foot of the dais, where she held it up with her head bowed.

The Sibyl touched her blade to the length of twisted metal, and Selengged felt it sing faintly. A cold tingle passed over her body, and very far away, she felt great power touch her soul, with a jolt, yet dull, like being punched in the gut underwater.

"What is this?" The voice held a shrill note of anger. "Cold and dead metal. No—this is a pathway."

A cold current of power rushed through Selengged, like icy fire racing down her arms. It swirled within her, seeming about to tear her apart with its turbulence, and then it rushed out again, and away, along a thin thread like the line of a thought. It drew her along with it, through the outer darkness, to a cold and silvery shape, like a scrap of crystal, that she felt she should recognize. But before she could decipher it, the silver shape loomed up huge in front of her like a wall of ice, and then became a cage of ice, a block of ice enclosing her. Ice that spread on all sides until no light came in, frozen darkness all around—and then the darkness began to rush and roar.

You are the one, the darkness boomed. You should have been mine. Those cowards! Those traitors! How dare they flout me? How dare they hold me back? I shall not be denied! And the roar rose, rushed around her like a cyclone, tore at the edges of her being, still trapped in the ice.