Into the Abyss полностью

When the waiter had set down the hot steaming mugs, he noted that Boggy placed a couple triangular coins on the table for the waiter who took them without comment. Tom nodded thanks to Boggy, who simply smiled, neither wanting to interrupt Rupert’s steady stream of questions.

Tom took a small sip of the coffee substance and nearly gagged. Boggy simply noted his reaction and smiled. Talk about a vile brew that only a cabbie would like, Tom thought. The stuff was a cross between hot chocolate, coffee and maybe vodka or some other hard liquor. Whatever it was, it had to be the most bitter thing he’d ever tasted in his life. Given the burning sensation he quickly felt in his stomach, he decided that it would be something Edwyrd wouldn’t like, and in fact would probably kill him. On the other hand, it was about the only thing he’d tried as a demon, that didn’t require receiving grievous injuries, that seemed to have much effect on his demon body.

An odd thought crossed his mind. If the ambient temperature of the Abyss was about the boiling point of water, then how was this coffee simply steaming? In his mouth it felt like coffee or hot chocolate, it was hot. So exactly how hot was this stuff?

He shook his head after the second swallow as he began to feel the effects of a massive caffeine rush. Whoa, Tom thought. Shaking his head a bit, he continued to look around the room. He shifted his eyes into demon sight. Suddenly curious how much magic was present in the room. Actually, except for a slight glow from the surroundings there didn’t seem to be a whole lot. He could see auras of various colors and intensities surrounding the patrons, but not much on any objects.

One thing he noted on a few of the other customers were what looked something like black umbilical cords. These cords seemed to extend from somewhere near the center of their bodies and extend out through their auras. After that they seemed to just taper off and fade into the air around them. He looked at his companions searching for such a cord. Rupert didn’t have one, nor did Boggy. No, on second thought, Tom thought he could detect a faint black line inside Boggy’s aura, but it didn’t extend out. Further, unlike the others, which faded at one end, Boggy’s was all fuzzed out and seemed to just abruptly terminate. He looked down at himself and was suddenly surprised to see he had one of the cords.

His extended from his sternum out into the air in front of him and then faded off. That was really strange, thought Tom. He had no idea what it could be. He’d really never noticed it before. Of course, he’d never really looked at himself with demon sight before either. Now that he knew what to look for, it was quite obvious. In fact the more he concentrated on it, the more clear it became. Was it some product of the Choco-Coffee that caused him to see it? Where did it go?

Carefully, so as not to appear too weird to Boggy and Rupert, who were busy lost in some tale of Boggy’s, Tom reached out and tried to touch the cord. It was rather amorphous but he could almost touch it if he really concentrated on touching it. Thinking back to the things he’d tried with the link he sort of made to Tizzy and to the time he traced the summons from the priest, Tom tried to concentrate on following the umbilical cord to its other end.

It was hard, harder than the previous thing’s he’d tried along this line, but suddenly he got an unmistakable impression of a tower room. A tower room and a presence in that room. A presence he recognized immediately. It startled him and caused him to break his concentration, bringing him back to reality. It was Lenamare on the other end! The black cord was some sort of link to Lenamare. Tom was stunned by this revelation. Was this what bound him? He was so startled by the thought that he missed the casual question Boggy asked of him. Quickly he cleared his mind and tried to concentrate on what his friend was saying. He’d sort this out later.

Jenn wobbled down the dimly lit stone corridor, wondering if she was going to drop before she reached her room. The last several hours had been quite taxing to say the least. It had taken a while to find a large, empty, out of the way room in the underground complex with an extra doorway suitable for the gateway, and large enough to house a small army.

After finding it, she had spent the next couple hours playing lackey to Hortwell in setting up the runic gateway, while Lenamare kibitzed in the background. Then bringing all of Zilquar’s people through, getting them set up and supplied, posting guards to ensure privacy, working out details like food, water and toilets. She was just glad it was over, for now.