Ruby Shadows (Born to Darkness #3)(126)

Laish cursed and stepped between me and the searching tentacles. He hacked with long, controlled movements—severing many with his sword but he couldn’t get them all. The ones he missed found him instead of me, wrapping like whips around his legs and dragging him back to the Abyss.

“Oh my Goddess,” I whispered, feeling frozen in place. The end of the still-twitching tentacle was still wrapped around my waist, oozing black blood all over my green robe, but I couldn’t move—I could only watch.

Laish slashed more desperately at the writhing tentacles with his sword. Some fell away but then, the whole pit suddenly erupted—it seemed like a thousand—ten thousand tentacles were waving in the air, fastening themselves to Laish, wrapping around his arms and legs and waist and throat, dragging him down, dragging him into the Abyss.

“Laish,” I gasped, my paralysis breaking at last. Pushing the dead tentacle off my waist, I rushed forward. I might be angry with him and frightened of the person he had become but that didn’t mean I wanted to see him dragged into the bottomless pit that had no ending and no beginning to rot for eternity.

He was fighting hard, slashing in every direction with his flaming sword, his broad wings pumping the air desperately as he shouted words of power. But the words didn’t seem to have any effect on the ancient, evil creatures. Then one of the tentacles managed to wrap around the hilt of his sword and yank it out of his hand. I saw it fall, flaming into the pit until its light faded to nothing. And then Laish was clinging to the lip of the Abyss, his hands scrabbling desperately, trying to find something to hold on to, some way to keep from being dragged down forever.

“Laish!” I cried again. I grabbed for Kurex’s bridle and tried to hand it to him. “Here—let Kurex pull you out!”

“No,” He panted, refusing to take them. “You’ll need him and he is not…not strong enough to withstand the Ancient Ones.”

“Well we have to do something!” I was crying now though I didn’t know why.

“There is nothing to do.” His flaming eyes looked desperate but resigned. “Go back to Belial. He will help you get home.”

“No!” I insisted. “I’m not giving up!”

Suddenly I remembered the thrak in my hand. Raising it above my head, I started to bring it down hard on one of the slimy black tentacles pulling Laish down.

But somehow, despite the tentacle wrapped around his arm, he caught my wrist before I could strike a blow.

“No—you cannot spare any more of your soul.” He wrenched the black blade from my hand, leaving me with nothing.

“What are you talking about?” I demanded. “Let me stab that thing for you—you told me you can’t use the thrak yourself!”

“Gwendolyn, get back from the edge—it’s not safe!”

“No!” I shouted stubbornly, tears of frustration stinging my eyes. “No, I can’t just watch you get dragged down. Let me help you, Laish—tell me what to do!”

Clearly he saw how stubborn I was prepared to be because he turned his attention to the big horse neighing and pawing the ground beside me.

“Kurex,” he commanded. “Save your mistress! I charge you with her safety and her life.” Suddenly the tentacles writhing around him gave a tremendous jerk. He’d been head and shoulders above the lip of the pit, now he was yanked down until I could barely see his face.

“Laish!”

“Forgive me,” he said, meeting my eyes with his flaming ones. “What I told you was true—I love you, Gwendolyn. I will never stop lov—” And then the tentacles gave another awful yank and he was gone, sliding down into the Abyss. His burning eyes, filled with sorrow and pain, were the last thing I saw and then…nothing.


“Laish—no—Laish!” I tried to rush forward again but something was pulling at the back of my robe, dragging me backward. I didn’t understand what it was until I heard Kurex snorting behind me. The giant horse was pulling me away—pulling me out of danger just as he had when I’d been dragged into the Drowning Pool in Stygia. But this time I didn’t want to go.

“No, let me go! Let me go!” I cried, fighting to get back to the edge of the Abyss. I don’t know what I thought I would do if I got there—I had no weapons, no way to cast a spell, no defenses if the monsters of the Abyss decided they wanted me, too. I only knew I couldn’t just stand there and see Laish dragged down and away and know I would never see him again.

But my screams and protestations did no good. The big horse wouldn’t let go. He dragged me all the way back to the tent, away from the seeking tentacles, and somehow shoved me inside it, standing guard at the entrance and blocking my way every time I tried to get out.

At last I collapsed on the bed and cried. Laish was gone—really and truly gone this time. And he might have turned into a huge, beautiful, frightening being that looked completely alien but still, I didn’t want to see him go. Maybe in time I could have gotten used to that—as I had gotten used to his dragon. But now it was too late—now he was either dead or trapped forever in the Abyss.

I would never see him again.



Chapter Thirty-two

Gwendolyn





I don’t remember much about the trip back across the Sunless Sea. My mind was a blur of grief and images and most of all questions—none of them answerable. Why had Laish sacrificed himself for me? How had he been able to shut the door? Why had he refused the help I tried to offer? What was I going to do without him?