The Legacy Quest Trilogy by Steve Lyons

Author:Steve Lyons [Lyons, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Steve Lyons
Published: 2011-12-22T23:02:05+00:00

They must have been directly over the ballroom, because the floor hummed with the sound of music and laughter from below. Rogue smiled as the music was abruptly curtailed and the laughter turned into screams. Nightcrawler’s distraction, right on time. She pictured him bouncing around the room, perhaps landing on the heads of a few party guests, teleporting from spot to spot in clouds of sulphurous smoke until nobody could be quite sure how many of him there were. He wouldn’t harm anybody, of course, but the guests didn’t know that. The appearance of a blue-skinned demon in their midst was causing chaos. It would certainly lessen the number of innocent bystanders in the building, and provide a distraction to boot.

Cyclops navigated his way sure-footedly around a labyrinth of passageways until the X-Men emerged onto a landing. It was lit but deserted, so he hurried across it and found another secret panel in the opposite wall. It opened into the side of a vertical shaft, which extended down into the darkness for as far as Rogue could see; certainly far beyond ground level. Curved metal rungs were set into its side at intervals, but the X-Men could make faster progress without them. Phoenix lowered herself and Cyclops into the depths while Rogue followed under her own power.

Black, scummy water filled the bottom few inches of the shaft. Hovering above it, Cyclops slid back another panel but found only a rock wall behind it. One of Selene’s modifications, clearly. With a scowl, he curled up his fingers and operated his visor.

The wall was not thick, and it blew apart beneath an onslaught of red energy. Fragments ricocheted around the confined space of the shaft, but Phoenix’s telekinesis ensured that none of the X-Men were hit.

The first thing that struck them as they stepped into a tiny, stonewalled cell was the heat. It was dry and oppressive; it wrapped itself around them and filled their lungs as they breathed. Rogue wrinkled her nose in distaste at the distinctive odor of brimstone. She found her eyes drawn to a set of manacles, which were tied by chains to a ring bolted into the floor.

There was a small window, but it was barred and shuttered from the far side. The door was made of thick wood; Cyclops took one look at the sturdy lock before he shot it out.

The trio of X-Men emerged into an enormous, dank cavern. Even the light from its wall-mounted braziers could not dispel the shadows in its distant heights and its myriad nooks and corners. Dark alcoves and narrow passageways led off in all directions and at various heights, and Rogue counted another twelve doors. She could hear noises—scratching and skittering—but no matter where she looked, she couldn’t see what was causing them. She caught only a few vague, disconcerting blurs of movement with the corners of her eyes.

“I’ll say one thing for Selene,” she whistled. “She sure knows how to stamp her mark on a property. She’s given this whole place a makeover in ‘Early Inferno’ style.

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