### 253

You unsheathe your Kai Weapon and stalk towards the nearest rune, the one that is fixed into the top of the crystal bell-chamber. Gradually you increase your pace as you draw closer and, with cat-like grace, you spring into the air and strike the black stone a single devastating blow. There is a loud explosion and a splash of fiery green sparks erupts when your blade cleaves the evil stone in two. As your feet return to the ground, you hear the thundering crash of fragmenting crystal. Suddenly the air is filled with crackling bolts of green fire and a terrible shriek assails your ears. Instinctively you roll away from the collapsing chamber and cover your head with your left arm as shards of broken crystal cascade around you, like a rain of deadly daggers. When the deluge ceases, you raise your head and look with fearful expectation at the devastated remains of the chamber. Flickering trails of green fire sputter and die among the heaped crystal shards, and the column of dark mist that inhabited its core now swirls around the remains like a small tornado. From its core there comes a hideous shriek and a lance of cold fear stabs at your heart when suddenly you recall having heard this terrible sound once before. This dark shadow is Zorkaan the Soultaker, the entity that you encountered at the clearing in the Grochod Forest, the evil presence that you disturbed as it fed upon the psychic remains of the innocent Slovian prisoners slain and buried there. The whirling shadow of Zorkaan gathers speed and, with a parting wail, it shoots upwards and disappears through the aperture in the hall’s domed ceiling, into the very eye of the raging storm.

The noise of the exploding bell-chamber and the hellish shriek of Zorkaan alerts Vandyan to your presence in the hall below. You see him raise a glowing silver disc clasped tightly in the palm of his right hand, and then he spits out a vile curse that chills your blood.

Turn to 340.