Glass Throat - Chapter 6

The simplicity struck her first. The inside of the Mirrorhold was one big room. There was the slightest darkening of shadows at the back that hinted at a passageway opposite the entrance.

“Almost like a cavern,” Elia muttered.

Despite being made of glass, there were few flat surfaces. The glass had an almost organic curve to it. The dusk from outside slowly filtered through the glass, providing them enough light to see by. Barely.

Ardevan cleared his throat. “I wonder how we get to the lighthouse on top?” he asked, quietly.

“I can’t see any way yet,” Thaelon whispered.

They’re speaking quiety — they must feel it too, Elia thought. There’s something in here. A presence.

The drumbeat continued, louder now that they were inside. And she could hear a rhythm too. Thump thump, long pause, thump thump, long pause. On repeat.

Elia walked in slowly, the lantern hanging lifeless at her side. She was taking measured breaths, trying to regain her strength. She would wait until they needed it to light it, as every instinct screamed that she was going to need all of her strength.

The walls weren’t smooth, as she’d imagined from the outside. Faint black lines veined through the glass, like frozen lightning, and wherever she touched the surface, the glass was warm — almost feverish.

Serida pointed to a far corner. “I see what looks like a wooden ladder over there.” Elia couldn’t see anything. The prosecutor must have keener eyes than her.
As they got closer, they saw that it had once been a ladder, but much of it had been wasted away.

“Acid?” Ardevan asked.

Thaelon nodded. “Looks like it.”

“There’s something else,” Serida said. She crouched over the ladder and yanked something out of the wood, before holding it up for Elia.

Elia leaned in. It was a small twin tailed comet. It looked to be made of sigmarite, in the same colours that they all wore. Elia grunted.

“Vornus?” Serida asked.

“Maybe.” Elia shrugged. She took another look around the chamber. The shadows were so thick she could nearly touch them. “Probably.”

Tirra lightly tap-tap-tapped on her shield. A faster rhythm than the Mirrorhold’s drumbeat. Elia looked at her.

Elia snorted. She’s nervous, she thought. A youngspark, that one. Even among Stormcast, Elia was unflappable. After all, she wasn’t called the Iceheart for nothing.

“No rooms other than this main one,” Ardevan said. “Just a straight corridor forward. And downward.”

A slight breeze wafted past them from the entryway, almost pushing them deeper into the Mirrorhold.

Elia grunted, and kept walking.

~

After about 60 feet, a side passage forked off the path. It was covered by a glass door.

“Rykhar?” Thaelon asked.

Rykhar hung his hammer on his belt and walked up to it, and tried to grab the edge of the glass door and pull. It didn’t budge. He put his shield across his back and grabbed with both hands. Grunting, he strained until until his feet started to slip. It didn’t budge.

Thaelon nodded and kept walking forward. The passage bent down and they continued along it for another 20 feet until it branched again.

Thaelon indicated to Rykhar and Tirra.

Rykhar took off down the left passage while Tirra took the right. Within moments, they were out of sight, lost to the shadows.

Elia could feel a breeze again, pushing past her face and continuing out to the entrance. The air smelled musty.

“Wait,” she said. “Wasn’t the breeze going in the other direction earlier?”

Ardevan nodded. “You’re right. Something feels off.”

“Of course it does,” Serida snapped. “Nothing has been right since we got to Ulgu.”

“Hold on, do you see that?” Elia asked.

Ahead of them, through the glass wall, they could see something outlined. It seemed to be pulsing.

“What do you see Serida?”

“A mass of darkness.” She leaned forward. “And it seems to be pulsing in time with the drumbeat.”

Tirra came trotting in. “It opens up. Maybe a hall or cavern. I can’t see well, but based on the sounds my steps were making, it was massive.”

Rykhar arrived then too. “Same on my side.”

Elia raised her lantern and lit it slightly. It didn’t illuminate the mass at all. She narrowed the shutter so that all the light focused forward, and then willed it brighter. The familiar drag on her strength returned instantly, like a slow bleed.

The mass of darkness spasmed. And then kept spasming. Badumn, Badumn, Badumn. The drumbeat had changed.

The grounded started to shake underneath them.

“Earthquake?” Rykhar asked.

“Get out, now!” Elia yelled. She cut the lantern, and sprinted with the others up the slope and towards the entrance to the Mirrorhold.

Partway up, the ground really started to move. Tirra tripped. Elia stopped and ran back to help her up. “RUN!” she screamed at the young stormcast.

They were 30 or so feet behind the others, now.

She saw the others reach the entrance to the Mirrorhold and then disappear from view.

Elia got to the doorway moments before Tirra. Looking out, she could see the other stormcast on the ground 40 feet below her.

Tirra slammed into her back, and the two of them started to go over the edge.

In the time it took them to topple, the floor underneath them had already raised another 5 feet from the others.

“Serida!” Elia screamed.

Serida and Cassivar spread their wings and took off.

Elia plummeted. She could feel Tirra next to her and gave her a big shove, creating a little more space between them. Cassivar angled to the side, putting himself on a collision course with Tirra.

Serida reached out her arms and Elia grabbed them, her plummet turning into a cartwheel as she swung around Serida, both of them spinning like circus performers. Her arms nearly came out of their sockets, but with a grunt she managed to hold on. Serida banked and brought them down to the ground.

She could see Thaelon looking up and past them. “What in Sigmar’s name is going on?” Elia asked him.

Thaelon just pointed up behind them.

Elia turned. The Mirrorhold was gone. She looked up.

The Mirrorhold was there, suspended in the air about 150 feet off the ground. But it wasn’t floating, it was connected to what looked to be a neck and then a body.

Two massive legs stood nearby ending in paws with sharp glass claws.

Elia could just make out a knot of darkness pulsing in the centre of the chest.

The beast was as tall as a stormkeep and three times as long.

It may not have been a godbeast, but it was the biggest thing that Elia had ever seen.

It raised its head, and clamped its jaws. Elia could hear the sound of splintering ironoak. A few moments later, the shattered doors rained around them.

The monster tilted its head and howled.

The howl shook the mountains around them. Elia was forced back a step. She raised a hand to her ear. It was bleeding.

“What do we do?” Tirra yelled.

Rykhar pointed his hammer at it. “Destroy it!”

“We need to make it back through the stormgate,” Ardevan said. “Warn them not to send any others.”

“It took us weeks to get here,” Tirra said. “We’ll never outrun it!”

Serida looked at Elia and then Thaelon. “Thaelon?” she asked.

But before he could answer, the beast decided for them.