Free Into The Dark Flame (Book 4) by Martin Ash

Urch-Malmain smiled thinly, a nerve at the corner of his mouth twitching rapidly. 'There is no reason why I should reveal that to you.' He paused, turning again to the milling vapour, then went on: 'Most recently I sent a young man through. The entities reported that, as far as they could tell, his passage had been without untoward incident. And someone who might be of interest to you came here in his place. The omens were good, then. But the entities considered it a matter of chance and could not guarantee such success again, not as long as Ascaria continues to disrupt the harmonies of the passage.'
       'Someone of interest to me?' queried Leth.
       'I think so.' He turned away. 'We will discuss that at another time.'
     
     
     
    ii
     
       An hour had passed. Leth stood alone at a window of the Tower of Glancing Memory, his brain seething with questions. In the far distance misty blue hills rose, meeting the sky at a point beyond his perception. Away to his left was the shimmering enigma of the Shore of Nothing, its strange sands a haze of colour in the Orblight. The gleaming red cliffs curved away into the distance from which he had come; before them the End of the World, the void that he could not contain or bear to look upon. And beneath him, falling away dizzyingly from the foot of the tower, was the Death Abyss, its far-off depths concealed beneath a blanket of dense, broiling grey mist.
       There dwelt Ascaria, Urch-Malmain had just told him. There lay his children, and his goal. High above, directly over the Abyss, as if in corroboration of Urch-Malmain's sentiment, was the World's Agony. Closer now; it no longer shone with a piercing golden light; its lucence was the colour of blood. And the sky had darkened, not with the approach of night but more as though reflecting the sombre, unknown character of the great Abyss over which it hung.
       'Have you made your decision, Swordbearer?' came Urch-Malmain's voice from behind him.
       Leth felt his heart in his throat. Without turning around he said, in a solemn voice, 'I think the decision has been made without me. What choice do I have? I will not rest until I have found my children.'
       'A noble sentiment. But in itself it is not enough. You must slay the Great Sow and return here if you intend to find your way back to your home.'
       Now Leth turned. And you will be gone, the portal closed, its entities dispersed. Vanished, as if it had never been.
       'It is a dangerous way,' said Urch-Malmain. He stood at the far end of the chamber. 'But I will provide help. You will not travel alone.' He gestured to where four of the tall, pale, black-armoured warriors stood facing him with their backs to the wall. Their expressions were blank, though fierce. 'They are Abyss fighters. They know the way. They were once Ascaria's.'
       'How is this?' asked Leth.
       'From time to time she launches forays against me. That is, she did. She was quick to curtail her actions when she saw that I was. . .' Urch-Malmain pursed his lips and wriggled his fingers, seeking appropriate words, '. . . changing her troopers' minds.'
       'Is it so simple?'
       'To put someone into reverie? It's like hypnotizing chickens. Somewhat against my preferences, though, for it obliges me to place my person in very close proximity to the subject in order to arrest his or her gaze with my own. Such intimacy is an affront to my nature.' He gave a shudder. 'The process of relieving a person of his or her entire memory track and replacing it with another takes somewhat longer, of course, but I am relieved of the necessity of touching them or gazing into their horrible eyes. 'Now,' he jerked a finger at the warriors, who filed quickly from the chamber, 'you will have others with you besides these grim visaged fighters.' He nodded towards the far end of the chamber.
    In the shadows beneath an overhead gallery a man lounged upon the edge of a table. Leth had not been aware of him before.