Silvan and Jin darted away. Madrid turned to run, but Jayesh remained motionless. He'd once again turned to stare at the pyramid, since it was the only thing visible in the gloom. Madrid had the sense that if he let him, Jayesh would stand there, entranced, until this Zulmak thing arrived and ate him. He grabbed the warlock's arm and dragged him back up the path. Jayesh awoke and ran with him.
"Thanks," he gasped. "I can't … the pyramid's calling to me, Madrid. I can't block it out."
Their Ghosts shone their lights on the path ahead, winding its way upward through the solid rock. The lights of Silvan and Jin bobbed ahead of them, casting long shadows behind them. Beyond this fragile speck of illumination lurked the Hive and the Darkness. It seemed to loom over them, blacker and more menacing with every step they took.
They rounded a corner and emerged in a cavern drowned in darkness. A bridge lay across it, which they had crossed earlier. Now as their lights played along it, they picked out the nightmares of dead Guardians-hundreds of them. The spirits hung in the air over the bridge, and the Guardians' lights only picked out portions of the bodies: here a leg falling apart into fragments, there a helmet. Tattered cloaks and torn robes billowed into the light, stirred by an unfelt wind. The dead Guardians stared down at them, judging, condemning, like an audience attending a play they disliked. As the fireteam pushed forward, the nightmares drifted aside, not quite touching them, but the sense of dislike grew into outright animosity. Bitterness and hostility poured into the minds of the Guardians.
Of the whole team, only Madrid had already faced and fought a nightmare. He was also the only one who had heard Riven's whispers and been driven over the brink by them. As new whispers began in the depths of his mind, he responded with the defenses that Silvan had sensed back in the Dreaming City. He simply thought, "No." He held that word between himself and the whispers. "No." It was a single negative, a refusal to listen, a focal point. The whispers persisted, but he no longer paid attention to them. That lingering No held them off. His Ghost Rose sensed it and added her own strength, shielding his mind with her Light.
The fireteam pushed forward, Jin in the lead. He moved at a jog, cradling his hand cannon and peering through the nightmares for enemies. Of the group, he alone seemed entirely unaffected.
Next came Silvan, hands raised as if to ward off a blow. She cringed this way and that, ducking around the condemning, staring nightmares. "Just let me through," she whimpered. "Stop it, just let me through!"
Jayesh halted for a second and drew a sharp breath, as if about to scream. Then he followed behind Silvan, keeping his head down, looking only at the bridge. His Ghost helpfully directed his light at Jayesh's feet, lighting the way. Madrid brought up the rear, holding that No in his mind against the psychic assault.
When the chanting voices began in the darkened distance, Madrid and Jin reacted first. "Run!" they both yelled.
The motion trackers in their helmets began to flicker red, indicating approaching enemies. Thralls shrieked before and behind them, pouring onto the bridge.
"Get in the air!" Madrid yelled, and leaped.
All Guardians gained the innate ability to jump superhuman heights, aided by their Light. Warlocks, who wore the lightest gear, could float like graceful birds. Hunters could run and jump multiple times in midair, creating an extra stairstep for themselves out of Light. Titans used Light to lift themselves, like a jetpack. They tended to come down like a ton of bricks on the heads of their enemies.
All four Guardians leaped and soared along over the heads of hundreds of angry thralls. More nightmares drifted out of the Guardians' way, revealed by their lights at these new altitudes. They must have been surrounded by clouds of them. Jin landed first, using his weight to flatten a group of thralls who clustered together. Light flashed and bodies flew off the bridge in every direction. Madrid landed next, ran a few steps to maintain momentum, and leaped again.
Silvan and Jayesh flew all the way to the end of the bridge. They landed right in front of a witch that appeared suddenly in the darkness. Like Hashladun, she wore red chitin armor and had a glowing dome instead of three eyes. She screamed in such fury and hate that Madrid saw stars. To Jayesh and Silvan, who were nearest, it was like a concussive blast. Jayesh staggered, holding his head. Silvan wilted to the ground, arms wrapped around her helmet. Jayesh tried to pull her to her feet, but he could barely stay standing himself. Madrid aimed his scout rifle at the witch and fired as he descended. His shots sparked off the witch's shield, but she retreated into the gloom, already conjuring black magic with both clawed hands.
Madrid hoisted Silvan off the floor. She was limp, unconscious. "Shoot her with your heal gun, kid."
"I can't," Jayesh said shakily. "My Light is gone. Nothing left to shoot."
Madrid slung Silvan over his shoulder. "Do I need to carry you, too?"
"Uh, no," said Jayesh with a sheepish grin in his voice.
"Then fly like a warlock and I'll see you at the surface."
Jayesh ran a few steps and leaped into the blind darkness, following Jin, who was still moving. Madrid followed, lugging Silvan.
They climbed a steep path away from the bridge, then entered a hall lined with pillars and arches. Their lights illuminated dense cobwebs laced between the pillars and a floor trampled and smeared with the tracks of the denizens of the evil city. Jayesh landed and ran, and for a moment there was reprieve from attack.
At the end of the hall was a rough staircase that wound upward. Madrid fell behind his team, impeded by Silvan's weight. He used his Light to leap up the staircase, feeling the burn in his muscles, breathing hard. His shoulder and back were beginning to ache.
Beyond the staircase was a hall that had been broken long ago in some earthquake. The floor was up-ended in huge chunks, and deep cracks riddled the floor. The grimy footprints of the aliens marked the quickest path around and through. But Madrid, with half his vision blocked by Silvan's body over his shoulder, couldn't watch his footing. He misstepped and fell into one of the fissures.
He landed in ankle-deep water and barely saved Silvan from sliding off his shoulder. Rose, who had been acting as his flashlight, zipped after him with a cry. "Guardian!"
"I'm all right," Madrid told her as she rejoined him. "How do I get out?"
Rose played her light around. The fissure had been about fifteen feet deep. It had opened up a lower level passage, which was flooded with dirty water and Hive filth. She aimed her light along the tunnel. "That way. It might even be a shortcut."
Over his radio, Jin called, "Madrid? Lost visual, buddy."
"I'm all right," Madrid said. "You and Jayesh go on, I'm trying an alternate route."
"Don't get lost."
"I won't."
Madrid sloshed forward as the screams and howls of more thralls echoed up the passage. "Rose, find out from Silvan's Ghost why she isn't waking up."
"He says she's wandering," Rose replied, her voice trembling. "That witch did something to her mind. He can't reach her until we escape this Darkness."
"Right." Madrid hurried onward, the stinking water soaking his boots and pants. Something wrapped around his ankle, and he looked down. Gleaming in the light was a segmented, slimy Hive worm, its split jaws nipping at the tough leather of his boot, seeking a purchase. He kicked it off with a shudder of horror. As he waded onward, he realized that the water was alive with worms, all of them wriggling to the surface to investigate the beam of light from his Ghost. He stamped with each step, feeling the rounded bodies of the worms crunch underfoot. Part of him found this disgusting, but the greater part of his psyche found this satisfying. Each worm he killed would never have a chance to infest a Hive thrall and enable it to pass energy up through the echelons to the gods. His only concern was that none of them bite him, because worm venom was notoriously deadly to Guardians.
The tunnel wound on and on, staying at the same level, neither rising nor falling. The worm infestation grew thicker. His helmet HUD displayed an alert warning him of high methane levels.
Then the passage split in three directions. Down each passage was another branch. Black water trickled down most of them, thick and slow as tar.
Madrid stopped, panting, his shoulder numb from Silvan's weight. "Rose, which way?"
"I … I don't know," the Ghost said softly. She flew a short distance from him, playing her light down each passage. When she returned, she tilted her shell in a way he recognized as worried. "I can't reach our team. The rock is too thick. And I can't see far down any of these passages. It's a maze."
"What do we do?" Madrid asked. He stepped sideways to avoid a tangle of worms that were slowly gathering around his ankles.
"I guess we explore," Rose said. "We might follow the water-"
Silvan's Ghost appeared in a flash of light. Bramble zipped around them, taking in their surroundings. He returned to hover in front of Madrid. "Where is he? I came out to fight him!"
"Who?" Madrid said. "There's nobody else here."
"That dead guardian!" Bramble exclaimed. "He's talking to Silvan and he's so disturbing! Make him stop!"
"You mean the nightmares?" Madrid glanced around, but no nightmares appeared. It seemed even they weren't interested in Hive sewers.
"No, he's real," Bramble snarled. "I'm going to find him!" He opened his shell and expanded into a sphere of blue Light. He pulsed three times, furious and reckless. The worms began to writhe, jaws snapping above the water.
The third pulse seemed to wrap around a spot in the air a few feet away. The light warped and bent, as if seen in a concave mirror. In the middle of that warp appeared a spark.
Madrid backed away from it. It was a ball of light, fizzing with energy like lightning. It wove and bobbed in midair, warping the light around it.
"There he is!" Bramble exclaimed. "Get out of her head, Toland! I'm warning you!"
A male voice only chuckled in response. It echoed as if coming from a great distance.
"You're Toland the Shattered?" said Madrid, staring at the spark. "But you died along with the rest of Eris Morn's team."
"And the cold railed against the warmth for which it hungered," Toland replied. "I hunger for all the Light in the sky. For what do you hunger, Guardian?"
Madrid nearly answered, then caught himself. Toland had been exactly like this in life, too. He loved talking in riddles and poetry, drawing in unwitting opponents to be crushed by his intellect. When he'd betrayed his fireteam to their deaths, Madrid hadn't been surprised. Toland had been banished for insane obsession with the Hive, and nothing had changed.
"I need a way out," Madrid said.
"The Light comes here to die," Toland replied. "The worms consume it and bring forth Darkness. Do you know their names?"
"I just want out," Madrid said doggedly. "Can you show me the way?"
The spark zigzagged in midair, then shot away down the right-hand branch. "I will be your Virgil," Toland said, his voice receding. "Follow but do not trust, Guardian. I mean you no good."
"At least he's honest," Madrid muttered to the two Ghosts following at his shoulder.
"Toland always was," Rose said softly. "It was the truths he spoke that were so horrifying."
They followed the spark along a winding passage that grew more and more narrow. Then Toland shot upward. Madrid looked up and saw another crack in the ceiling, like the one he'd fallen down. Toland hovered above it, waiting.
Madrid gathered his strength and leaped, then leaped again. He left the sewer and landed on dry, solid stone once more. He'd emerged from a fissure in a room he recognized as only a few minute's walk from the Hellmouth itself.
"Thanks," he said to the disembodied Guardian.
"Extend me no gratitude," Toland replied. "Nightmare and death await. Darkness encroaches upon the penumbra. When you descend to your nadir, there you will find answers."
Madrid turned away without answering and hurried for the surface.
Silvan sat at a table with Dredgen Yor.
It was a pretty table with a lace tablecloth, a centerpiece of flowers, and a silver teapot. She poured a cup for herself and for her enemy.
"Thank you," he said, accepting it. His hands were dirty, wrapped in cloth strips instead of gloves. "Tell me, little one. What is hope?"
Silvan stirred a lump of sugar into her tea. "Hope is what we have left when all seems lost."
"Hope is for fools," Yor replied. "There is nothing to hope for. The Traveler lies dead. The Darkness comes. You have seen its strength. You have felt its power."
"But the Darkness can't win forever," Silvan replied. "That would upset the balance. There must be Light for Darkness to exist."
"Darkness was born first," Yor replied. "Light was second. And then they were sundered."
"As it must be, if there is to be order from chaos," Silvan replied, sipping her tea. It was bitter. The sugar barely made a difference.
Toland arrived and took a seat at the table. Silvan poured him a cup of tea, too. He was dressed in the shattered bones of humans and animals, and they rattled when he moved.
"Why are you here?" Dredgen Yor asked him. "You are not welcome."
"We share likeness, you and I," said Toland. "Together we seek power over the Darkness. Together we discover that power is the Darkness. The Hive learned this eons ago."
"I accepted my end," Yor replied. "You rejected it and exist as pathetic energy. Where is your throneworld?"
"It exists," Toland replied. "It will grow. What of your legacy? A circle of rogues and murderers who play at seeking power. The fire has destroyed their ranks."
"Nothing ends," Yor replied. "This little one must learn that. See the sweet grief that festers in her heart. See the sadness that has left her vulnerable. Hope is her enemy."
"I'm pretty sure you two are my enemies," Silvan said. She was having trouble thinking straight. Her eyes were closed. She struggled to open them.
"I am not your enemy," Toland said. "Neither am I your friend. But my sight reaches farther than this fool's. Hope is a madman's dream, yet I dare to dream it. I do not hope for triumph, but rather for satisfaction and the end of all things."
"I see far enough," Yor said, setting down his empty cup. "The Light exists to be fed upon. It is energy, and energy is life. But hope … that is folly."
"These three remain," Silvan said. "Faith, hope, and love."
Toland and Yor laughed at her.
"The warlock speaks of faith," Yor said. "What is faith, little one?"
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for," Silvan said. "The evidence of things not seen."
"Faith and hope entwine in yet more folly," Yor said. "And you speak of love. The greatest folly of all."
"Idiocy," Toland agreed. "Love is a front for the self to feed upon others."
"Neither of you have ever known love," Silvan said. "You rejected it long ago. Love is the constant sacrifice of self for the good of others. The greatest love of all lays down its life for it's friends. No Darkness can overcome that."
Yor and Toland both growled.
"The girl speaks nonsense," said Yor.
"Agreed," said Toland. "Typical of a woman. They're filled with silly, romantic ideas."
"It has nothing to do with being a woman," Silvan snapped, slapping the table. "Listen to you two! You're the foolish ones. You turned your backs on everything good. You were both chosen by the Light, and you rejected it! You have both committed unspeakable blasphemy, rejecting the very love that offered you a second chance. There is no third chance."
Toland smiled and sipped his tea. But Dredgen Yor rose to his feet. "You poisoned the tea, I see. Very well. But you'll not be rid of me so easily."
Silvan looked at the empty package of arsenic beside the teapot. No wonder the tea had been bitter.
Beside her, Bramble said, "Time to come home, star-child." His voice was warm and affectionate, like the personification of a hug.
Silvan looked up and saw that Dredgen Yor and Toland were sculpted out of ice. The cups were clear ice, the table blue ice, and Toland's smile was colder than a glacier. She turned away from them and went home with Bramble.