The Fate of the Dwarves - By Markus Heitz Page 0,190

comfort while the defenders on the walls were fighting for their lives?

The lift cabin turned up and they pushed the grille aside and got in.

To their surprise the lift traveled down, not up, as the young magician had directed the machine.

“Is it broken?” Bandaál moved the handle a few times and the cage’s descent slowed.

“Perhaps there’s someone else wanting to use it?” Sanda counted the marks on the shaft wall as they passed; they had reached the ground floor. The lift jerked to a halt—but there was no one standing waiting.

“Where are we?”

“By the entrance.” Sanda looked out. “Hey? Anybody there? Did someone want to come up top with us?”

Then the cabin was jolted. One of the transmission chains had broken, slamming onto the roof of the cage and unreeling noisily. The whole cage structure creaked and bent under the extra weight and the cabin started to crumple.

“Get out!” Bandaál ordered, giving his sister a push. Before he could follow her, the second chain broke and the lift shot down into the darkness.

Sanda stumbled forward into the corridor, heard the infernal crash behind her and whirled round. She saw the second chain flying past and heard the bang and clank of the impact; the chains were still unreeling and burying the lift and her brother with it. He was right down at the bottom of the fortress lift shaft.

“Bandaál!” she shrieked in alarm and went over to the shaft, where the ends of the chain were snaking past. One last clank and then quiet. Far below her she could make out the steel-gray shimmer of the broken cabin and the chain links. “Bandaál!”

The dwarf-girl turned and was about to head for the stairs—but someone called her name. The voice came from the shaft.

She turned quickly, leaned over and used her hands as a loud hailer. “Bandaál! Hang on!”

A beige shimmer of light coming from above made her lift her head. She froze with terror and could not turn away.

Five paces overhead the leader of the monsters hovered in mid-air. Countless fingers of light shot out from his vraccassium armor to meet the walls of the shaft, as he sank gently down. He had his hammers stuck in his belt; his right armored gauntlet was glowing and held a torn length of glowing chain links. The lift’s collapse had not been an accident.

Still held aloft by the beams, he gradually reached Sanda’s level and walked toward her. The soles of his boots met stone with a metallic clank. He crouched down by the dwarf-girl.

His left hand took hold of Sanda’s chin, forcing her head round so that she was staring her adversary directly in the disfigured face. She noticed a turquoise smoke diamond in the palm of the gauntlet. Horror was starkly obvious in her eyes but she was unable to make a sound.

The dwarf’s face moved, and folds developed around his eyes in semblance of a smile, although any real expression was impossible because of the mutilation. He tossed the length of chain down the shaft, then ran the back of his gauntleted hand through her hair, along her neck, across her breast, down to her waist. Then he stood up without letting go of her chin, pulling her upright.

Sanda could do nothing to defend herself. The very sight of him, the smell of stale sweat and festering wounds and the slight pulsating throbbing that went through her from his touch, all left her unable to move. His magic power, she registered subconsciously, was greater than anything she had ever felt before. Not even the artifact could outdo this.

The dwarf made a moaning sound, then looked down the shaft and stretched out his free hand. He released a rust-brown beam from the smoke diamond completely destroying what was left of the lift. The metal melted in the magic onslaught, bending and oozing to the ground in molten droplets.

“No!” shouted Sanda, terrified for her brother.

The dwarf let go of her chin and hit her across the face so that she fell against the wall and slid to the ground. At the same time he raised the other arm without interrupting the ray of light. This blasted out great chunks of the shaft wall, until the entire edifice shook.

He grabbed Sanda by the nape of the neck and set her on her feet, pushing her along ahead of himself. As soon as she made any slight movement of defiance he gave her a shock that flooded every organ in her body with