Download Sleeping Beauty - Harper Voyager Books

unburned, clad in a new hide.Even burned and brittle the hook-briar took its toll on me as Istruggled through. By the time I reached the corridor of ash I ranwith blood from a hundred wounds, the last of the nu-skin exhaustedearly in the escape. The rain came heavy now, but warm, sluicingdown across my body in a crimson wash. I stood in the mud andash and let it clean me.I returned to the cave, still hot, the stone ticking as it cooled, notrace of Hakon save a stain around the blackened stand. Wincing atthe heat beneath my bare and bleeding feet I made my way alongthe dark corridor and found my sword. And thus dressed I left thebunker.At last, before my strength failed once more, I picked my wayaround ancient remnants of razor wire and came to where the topof a sunken pillar of Builder-stone emerged from the mud. The stonehad been cracked by the fire’s heat and a little less than a foot of itlay exposed. Despite the weathering and corrosion it took moreeffort that I thought remained in me to slide the top to one side. Thehollow interior stretched down beyond sight, the inner surfacecrowded with myriad crystalline growths, all interconnected with aforest of silver wires, some thick, some finer than spider silk. Manyof the crystals lay dark, but here and there one glowed with a faintlight, visible only in the shadow.‘Don’t.’ Kalla’s voice, weak and pulsing from the interior.I pried a rock from the muck about me. A heavy chunk of whatmight once have been poured stone. Grunting with strain I lifted itto the lip of the column. It would fit down the inside with an inchor two to spare.