City of Torment by Bruce R. Cordell

Author:Bruce R. Cordell [Cordell, Bruce R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Forgotten Realms
ISBN: 9780786956142
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Publishing
Published: 2010-01-26T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Year of the Secret (1396 DR), Xxiphu

Anusha’s feet lost contact with the balcony. Someone was screaming. She realized it was herself. Terror ruled her.

Her thoughts loosened and evaporated like dew in the morning sun. Anusha’s form too, starting with the golden armor, began to unravel into a mist of nothing.

A hand found hers and squeezed. Anusha grasped back with desperate strength. It was an instinctual response, her identity was peeling away, and—with it—reason. Horrified, she was aware of each memory as it smoked up and away toward a waking monstrosity hungry for minds.

Yeva jerked her down, off the balcony and once more into the slimed tunnels of brooding Xxiphu.

The moment she passed the threshold, Anusha’s dream form solidified. She gasped, Tin Anusha!” She’d nearly forgotten. Yeva dragged her another twenty or so paces down the tunnel, away from the balcony exit.

Moisture filled Anusha’s eyes. Dream tears, anyhow, as understanding washed over her at how narrowly she’d just escaped her end. She’d almost awakened from her dream. But the focus of her mind was now centered on the Eldest instead of her physical body or even the center of the orrery below. Waking would entail her mind and soul being eaten by and incorporated into an ancient horror. She’d have been consumed, gone forever.

Her situation was unbelievable. She was still alive, but how was she going to escape? Anusha couldn’t leave the cursed city. If she did, she would start to wake up again. She couldn’t stay either. Sooner or later one of the aboleths capable of seeing her would find her. Or the Eldest would fully rouse and call her to itself in an instant.

Tm doomed,” she whispered from where she lay on the tunnel floor.

Yeva shrugged and said, “We’re all doomed. Some of us just struggle at the end of fate’s thread longer and harder than others before it is yanked. Beyond that, eternal nonexistence is everyone’s destiny.”

Anusha shook her head, gazing out through the false hope the tunnel exit offered. “I don’t think that’s true.”

Yeva said, “What else, then?”

“When we die, we go to a better place.” The yellow-hued woman said, “Many things are possible.”

Anusha nearly screamed. “But I’ll be denied finding that out if the godsdamned monster on top of this godsdamned city eats my soul!”

Yeva blinked, then said, “True. The same holds true for me. If your mind falters, my mind dies too. I haven’t even the hope of a body to return to. A moment ago, before I pulled you back, I faded too.”

Anusha wanted to throw herself down and give up. Or run in a random direction screaming away her concerns and sanity in a blind panic. If her fate was death, it would be so much easier to get it over with.

A deeper, dispassionate part of her knew she wouldn’t do any of those things. There was no one to surrender to.

That same, stark knowing reminded Anusha that giving in to fright was guaranteed not to lead to a happy outcome. She wouldn’t consciously betray herself so.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.