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cavern, fanned by wild winds now roaring through the maze of connecting tunnels to fill the sudden vacuum. |
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Out of the corner of my eye I saw Polly. One moment she was there, the next she wasn't; only a charred, deformed, grotesque shape remained. |
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The walls began to rupture, spewing massive chunks of jagged granite and cascading a violent rain of rocks and debris down on the frenzied beasts. |
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My only refuge was the small space between the two stone supports for Sate's sepulcher. I buried my face in my arms, felt the searing heat and prayed. |
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There was a chain of explosions. Boulders and chunks and fragments of the subterranean world synthesized into a deadly rain of destruction. |
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And just as suddenly, it was over. |
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It was the ultimate irony. The sarcophagus of Sate, Ancient of Ancients, Force of the Consummate Evil, had been my protector. |
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The area was a choking world of dust and fog, the damp grayness rushing in to fill the void and mingling to form a mask, a cloud, a cloak. Then there was silence. |
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The carnage was indescribable. |
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Everything had been destroyed. |
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Slowly, almost frantically, I began to inch my way out from under the sepulcher and |
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