Cain's Last Stand (Ciaphas Cain Book 6) by Sandy Mitchell

Author:Sandy Mitchell [Mitchell, Sandy]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2011-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

‘Well?’ Felicia asked, stepping aside to afford me a better view. ‘What do you think?’

‘I’m not sure,’ I admitted cautiously, taking another step forward to stand beside her. Mindful of the nausea which had assailed me whenever I’d got too close to the Shadowlight before, not to mention the mess that was left of Killian after he’d fallen under its baleful influence, I still kept a fair amount of distance between me and it, though, you can be sure of that. To my faint surprise I still felt no ill effects, but, determined not to push my luck, advanced no further. ‘What’s that thing it’s standing on?’

‘We’re still not entirely sure,’ Felicia acknowledged cheerfully, ‘but it’s impressive, isn’t it?’

‘Impressive is hardly the word,’ I agreed, as levelly as I could. Terrifying would be closer to the mark, if you asked me. The whole thing seemed utterly unnatural, and I could practically feel the presence of the warp in the room with us, coiling about the artefact like a serpent preparing to strike.

But I’m getting ahead of myself; I suppose I should have started out by describing the thing. Without setting down the unsettling effect that the sight of it had on me first, however, it would be difficult to convey how profoundly disconcerting it was to look upon; something no mere description of its physical form could possibly hope to do.

The first thing I recognised was the Shadowlight, of course, still looking like a slab of polished stone, roughly the size of a data-slate, into which light seemed to fall like water into a sponge. This time, however, it was resting in a narrow slot cut into the top of a pedestal of shining crystal, which held it upright, more or less level with my belt buckle, surrounded by three polished spheres of some strange blue mineral which looked uncannily like solid water, roughly the size of my fist. These all rested in circular depressions in the glowing surface of the crystal pillar; other holes, identical in size and shape, were left vacant, and I pointed them out, more to show I was paying attention than because I expected to understand what they meant. ‘Looks like you’ve got a few more of those ball things to find before you can complete the set,’ I said.

‘Hm,’ Felicia replied. ‘We thought that too, at first, but then we realised the spheres are controls of some kind. Look.’

Before I could protest, she’d reached out with a mechadendrite, and plucked one from its resting place, depositing it in another depression close to its original position. I couldn’t have said why, exactly, but my skin prickled, as though there was a static charge in the air, and for a moment I felt a faint throbbing against the inside of my temples, like the ghostly presentiment of a forthcoming headache.

‘What did you do?’ I asked, fighting the impulse to draw my weapons again in response to the air of untrammelled sorcery which had suddenly permeated the room.

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