Sarah
didn’t know who the little girl and her strange companions were, but it was
obvious that they were familiar with Rosetta and, like so many before them, did
not intend to include her on their Christmas card lists.
“Ah,
I have heard tho much about you,” said the tall, darkly dressed man in a
surprisingly high-pitched voice. Despite
the absurdity of how he said the words, his distaste was palpable. He took a step forwards, manoeuvring himself
so as to stand between Doctor Barkham at the girl.
“Not
a pleasure that we share,” the Doctor replied.
“Can I take it from the ridiculous evening suit and speech-impediment
that you are, in fact, a vampire?”
“Lord
Blood Dragon,” the vampire replied.
“Excellent.”
It
was hard to tell who was winning this war of spiked sentences, but Sarah wasn’t
interested in finding out.
“Rosetta. We did what we came here to do. Shouldn’t we be making our way to the next
Obelisk?”
“You’re
activating them as well?” the girl – Annabella – asked. There was a slight quaver to her voice and
she hadn’t taken her eyes of Doctor Barkham, but at least she was no longer
whispering. Sarah couldn’t help but find
the girl a little creepy.
“No,
child,” Rosetta replied, “we just decided to take a tourist trip through the
forgotten dungeons of Labyrinth whilst the world falls apart. Of course we’re activating them! It’s what any sane Philosopher would do.”
“You
are hardly sane,” the Stoneskin replied.
He looked a lot like Frostfire, apart from his deeply glowing red
eyes. Of course, even after everything
she had been through Spiketails all looked pretty much alike to Sarah.
“I
suppose it is all relative, but if
you think I’m mad, just wait until you meet Tiberius.” She paused, glanced at the three strangers,
then added, “I suppose you’re all the Former
Baron’s lackeys, then are you? For once
he and I might see eye to eye on something.”
“I
doubt that very much,” the Stoneskin said, making the words seem as solid as
granite.
“Oh?”
Rosetta raised an eyebrow, “You don’t think so?
Do we not all want rid of this
ridiculous tentacular pestilence that calls itself a god? Are we not all seeking freedom to be able to do what we please? Are we not standing in this very chamber with
the same purpose in mind – the activation of the obelisks, Lakhma’s nemesis.”
“And
don’t we have a deadline to meet?” Sarah added impatiently.
“A
deadline?” the vampire turned her way for the first time, “What deadline?”
“Oh,
you mean you weren’t aware?” Doctor Barkham asked with mock innocence, “I
suppose that’s the difference between amateur research and the resources of the
Noble Society.”
“I’m
thure there ith ample time for you to be thmug about it later, Counteth, but I
will wepeat my quethtion: What deadline?”
Sarah
saw the cold look in Doctor Barkham’s eyes, knew that this was not going to be
a short conversation and answered herself.
“Once
the obelisks have begun to be activated there is only a limited amount of time
to activate them all or else they will deactivate permanently.”
“It
was a failsafe built into the weapon by the original designers,” Doctor Barkham
expanded. “It was designed to ensure
that, if anything went wrong, or if any one faction of their alliance should
become corrupted, the weapon could not be used against them. Ideally they should be activated at the same
time, but, since we do not have that luxury, we must work within the deadline.”
“So
how long do we have?” asked the Spiketail.
“Once
the first Obelisk has been activated we should have a total of twelve hours to
activate the remaining obelisks, which, by my count, gives us about eleven
hours and forty-nine minutes left.”
The
three in the doorway shared a look and Sarah felt her heart sink.
“Yeth,”
the vampire began, “about that…”
Sarah
was growing ever more impatient as the trio began to tell their story. She didn’t want to know any more about
delays, she just wanted to get the whole thing over and done with. She was tired of working with Doctor Barkham,
tired of living in a world which was not her own and tired of looking up at the
sky and seeing nothing but dark clouds and tentacles.
And
then the vampire mentioned Ellis and she remembered what she had been trying to
do when she first came to Shadow – the entire reason for this misguided
misadventure. Could I actually be almost there? she thought.
But
of course that was not all they had to say and whilst Sarah wanted nothing more
than to interrupt the screeching, lisping undead, she knew now that what they
had to say could be important. And it
was.
“How
long ago was that?” Doctor Barkham asked impatiently.
“Easily
four or five hours,” the Stoneskin – his name was Rockspark, according to the
vampire – said.
“Then,
indeed, we have a problem.” Doctor
Barkham let out a growl or frustration before continuing, “We were doing just
fine at this on our own, but now there’s no we way can make it around all the
other obelisks in enough time, even counting the one your friends have so
foolishly activated before its time!”
“That
might be tho, but we were not the only party thent to activate other
obelithkth.”
“Yes,
there were four groups sent out a couple of hours ago. Assuming they have been successful we should
only have one more obelisk to find activate.”
“To
find, you say? You mean you don’t even
know where it is!”
“No,”
Rockspark replied calmly, stoic as a cliff-face, “but I’m going to assume you
do.”
“And
why would I tell you?”
“Do
we not all want wid of thith widiculous
tentacular pethtilenthe that callth itthelf a god?” Blood Dragon mimicked – a
sound so ridiculous in itself that Sarah had to stifle a laugh. She knew Rosetta would not find it so funny.
The
Countess of Skullbridge flushed and for a moment Sarah thought she was going to
retaliate, but then she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and smiled. It was a cold smile, just a twist of the lips
and when she opened her eyes all the usual cruelty was there. I hate
her, Sarah thought for the millionth time, then, as was becoming second
nature, she turned her thought into a prayer: God, let this be over soon.
She still didn’t know from one moment to the next whether or not she
really believed, but seeing Rosetta’s cruel nature on a daily basis had only
made her more desperate to seek the company of someone else, even if it might
be some imaginary deity.
Only, I don’t think of you like that at all,
now, do I?
“Okay,”
the Doctor said at last, “so what do you know about the final obelisk?”
“We
know that it’s somewhere in the vicinity of Shalereef and that it’s not
actually where it needs to be to work
properly,” replied the Stoneskein
“We
have thomeone looking for it now.”
“You
know that much and you don’t actually know where it is?” Doctor Barkham laughed. “You don’t really know anything about these
obelisks, do you?”
Through
bleary eyes and tears still falling, an elderly engineer and a bereaved brother
made their way through mechanisms and traps, to a chamber with a pit and stones
that sang a song of light and movement, and another obelisk had come to life.
Beneath
an island in the middle of the ocean, a trio of pirates made the final few
connections on a wall of puzzle tiles, the blocks moved and another obelisk had
come to life.
And
in the endless caverns beneath Echofalls, in the Sacred Temple of the Deeps, a
crowd of confused, yet awed Draconics watched a prophet and her two male
companions, shatter the crystal altar and reveal the ancient stone
beneath. The lights on the stones began
shining long before the angry creatures could reach them and stop the
sacrilege, the vibrations in the Aether from the obelisk far beneath sending
them fizzling into nothingness in seconds.
And another obelisk had come to life.
There was only one left.
“These
obelisks are not mere toys! They were
built using the last remnants of the technologies of the ancients to defeat a
god – a being as big as Shadow itself!”
Doctor
Barkham turned to face Rockspark.
“Think
back to the last time you were visiting the pathetic hovel your Former Baron
calls his Grand Chateau. What features
dominated that landscape? Now, imagine
an obelisk, imagine one big enough to spear a god! Think of its shape. What might you find near Shalereef that even
vaguely resembles such a thing?”
The
look of realisation in Rockspark’s hot eyes was plain for all to see, as was
the look of superior triumph it gave Rosetta.
“You’re
starting to understand, now, aren’t you?” She said, taking pleasure in every
word. “Go on,” she continued licking her
lips, “say what you see”
And
the Stoneskin said, “A pyramid.”
Hullo all, sorry it's a day late - I'm going to blame the cold, just 'cos I can.
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