Chapter 22 - Bad Dreams

The adventurers emerged from the ruins of Amunator’s temple a short while later, into the now serene forest above.

“A fine night” Yoshimo exhaled, savoring the sweetness of the crisp, cool air. “And not a witch in sight.”

Tired grins were exchanged. The last day and a half had taxed them sorely, but at last it was over.

“Do we continue on, or stop here?”

Theodoric turned to Neracer. He could see concern in the mage’s face, and understood the cause of it. I can’t blame him for wanting to get underway. His companion is in need of further healing. But we are in no shape to travel at the moment.

“We need to rest, my friend. At least for a short while. Sunrise will come in a few more hours. We will all travel better with a bit of rest.”

Neracer nodded. “I can’t deny that. Very well, perhaps a quick nap is in order.”

“Perhaps in the morning we could tend to another need before we depart” interjected Jaheira. “There is a stream not far from here. We could top off our skins, and also bathe.”

“Now * that * is a fine idea, Jaheira” Theodoric grinned, wiping at the shadow dragon blood and the gobs and slivers of undead flesh and bone spattered across his armor. “I don’t imagine I smell very nice right now.”

“You don’t” Jaheira said plainly. “Nor do I, or any of the rest of us, right now.”


“I will take watch” Yoshimo offered.

“You need rest too, Yoshimo” Theodoric pointed out.

The thief grimaced. “After dealing with all of those…things… crawling out of the hag, it will be some time before I can sleep soundly again.”

“I will stay awake for a couple of hours as well” Jaheira added. “A healer should keep an eye on Mazzy Fentan.” Turning to Aerie, she said “you will take the second turn, child. Rest now, I will call you soon. Child? CHILD!”

“Oh, wh-what?” Aerie’s mind had been elsewhere, but it was now completely focused on the druid. “Oh, I-I’m sorry, Jaheira.”

Jaheira let the matter pass, taking a spot by Mazzy Fentan.


*

Too tired to set up camp, or even build a decent fire, the adventurers simply spread their bedrolls out on the cracked stone floor of the temple entrance and collapsed onto them. There was no further conversation, and in minutes everyone but Jaheira and Yoshimo would be sound asleep.

*

Aerie shifted uncomfortably on her bedroll. The hard, uneven stone poked her through the blanket, adding to her aches and pains. Jaheira had cast another healing spell on her wound, which had closed it properly. It was still tender, though, and every time she moved a certain way or breathed a certain way, it sent a painful stitch through her side.

Aerie tried not to think about how she got the wound, tried not to think about the awful, icy pain she felt when the skeleton stabbed her in the back. She was sure she was going to die then. Theodoric had – had done what? He’d healed her a bit, somehow. She would have to ask him how he had done that. Perhaps it was some power paladins had.

She bit her lip in shame at how cowardly she had been in the fight. She almost hadn’t gotten up to fight! She had, but she had hesitated! Oh why didn’t uncle Quayle tell her about this part of adventuring?

A few tears formed in Aerie’s eyes, and pulled her blankets around her face so the others wouldn’t here her weep herself to sleep.


So hot.

It was so hot in the tiny cramped cage. The men hadn’t let her out in days, left her to lie in her own filth. The gnome had still come, bringing her bits of food and water to drink. She hadn’t been able to eat anything for three days, though. It kept coming back up.

Aerie moaned deliriously as she tried to lift her head. She hurt all over, and her wings, oh, her wings. They itched and burned at the same time. And she was becoming aware of a terrible stink coming from them, worse than the filth she lay in or the feverish reek of her sickness.

One of the men had walked by her cage earlier, looked at her, she thought. But she couldn’t be sure. If she could just get out of the cage for a little while, if she could just get out in the air…

“Aerie, young Aerie?” whispered the voice from a thousand miles away.

“Aerie can you hear me?” the insistent whisper was nearer, more urgent.

Aerie groggily opened her eyes. A short, bespeckeled face stared back at her.

“Q-Quayle?” she groaned out.

“we don’t have much time” Quayle said, fidgeting nervously. “Open your mouth, young one.”

“unnnnhhh-wha, wha-?”

Quayle pried open her mouth and inserted a clump of something into her mouth.

“gmph! Wha’re you doimgk?” she garbled, trying to spit the vile tasting herbs out.

“Child!” he hissed. “You must keep this in your mouth, O yes you must! Quayle knows what is to happen, and this is to help you, it is!”

Aerie gave up fighting, more out of exhaustion than agreement. She let the bitter, grassy herbs rest on her gums, aware of a mild, but pleasant numbing spreading from her mouth to the rest of her body. She opened her eyes again and Quayle was gone.

“O bad this is, mmmm!” Quayle grunted angrily from his little tent. He was angry at the stupid hu-mans for enslaving the child so, and for what they were about to do. He was even angrier at the apothecary who would not lower the price of his poppy extract for the gnome’s emergency. Quayle hoped the black lotus he’d given Aerie would be enough to spare the child from the worst of what she faced.


The men came, a whole group of them. One of them unlocked Aerie’s cell while several pairs of rough hands pulled her from the cage. Someone threw several buckets of cold water on her, washing the filth from her but also soaking her to the bone. Aerie was too sick to hear or understand the lewd comments some of them made about her now clinging wet garments.

They carried her over to one corner of the tent, the one where they kept the trained animals. It always smelled so bad over there. She was lain across a wooden bench and her wrists and ankles were tied down.

“Wha-what are you doing to me?” she cried out, a moment of clarity striking her. She screamed when she saw the large saw one man raised.


In his little tent, Quayle covered his ears against the screams. It hadn’t been enough. Anger welled up in him. He swore to himself that one day, he would put a stop to the ignorance of the big ones running the circus. One day he would make things right for everyone, he could. One day…


“no more, please no more!” begged Aerie, half-mad with pain. She fought to free herself from her bindings as she saw the man brink over a flaming brand…


Aerie bolted upright in her bedroll, screaming at the top of her lungs.

“NOOOO HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP ME PLEEEEASE!!!”


*


Minsc settled into his blankets, giving Boo a cracker and a pat on his tiny head. He laid down to sleep, then propped himself up on one elbow, studying his hamster companion. Thoughts of the recent fight with Umar filled his mind.

The hag had kept coming, despite everything he had thrown at it. Minsc knew that his end had been very near, he knew that he would have died had Aerie not intervened when she did. Minsc did not so much mind that, though he would always much rather kick evil’s butt than for evil to kick his. No, what troubled Minsc now were the final thoughts in his head before Aerie saved his life.

Dynahier had been a good witch, and a good friend to Minsc. Minsc had been happy with that. But there had been more, Minsc knew that now. He knew it ever since the moment he thought the hag was about to kill him. Minsc had cared for Dynahier, in a way that Rashemani bodyguards were not supposed to care for their witches. Minsc’s head swirled when he thought about it. It did not make sense to him. He wanted to ask Boo for advice, but the hamster had nestled himself in his pack, and was sound asleep. So Minsc did what every good Rashemani warrior would do in this situation. He would get some rest so he could buttkick evil in the morning.


“Dynahier!”

Minsc was in a blind rage, pulling against the bars of his cage with all of his berserker strength. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t force them. He pressed his face against the bars and reached as far as he could, trying vainly to reach his witch.

The Rashemani witch was fighting off a dozen goblins, using the last of her magic and the last of the strength in her battered, abused body to fend them off. She fought bravely, as bravely as any Ice Dragon Lodge berserker would have. But she had faced too much already, in freeing herself, in battling the other creatures, to stand much longer. The goblins swarmed over her, pulling her down.

“NOOOO, DYNAHIER!!!” he’d cried into the mass of hairy creatures swarming over her. Their clubs and blades were already dripping with her blood, but still they struck, their frenzy driven by their cruel delight. Minsc slammed his head against his cage, determined to break through.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!!” screamed the big ranger, just minutes after falling asleep.


*


“You will come, but you will come too late.”

“Imoen?!?”

The ghostly thing that was his childhood companion looked at him sadly. All around her, figures from the past, both friend or foe. Gorion, Sarevok, pale shadows of their former selves. Imoen herself froze in place and the color drained from her body. She became a thing of alabaster, not even the slightest blush left in her girlish mouth.


“She clings to her old life, as if it really mattered.”

“YOU!”

Theodoric spun about to see the hated sorcerer as ghostly as Imoen had been. “You! I’ll kill you for all you have done!”

Theodoric charged at the image of Irenicus, only to have the world around him shatter like a pane of mirrored glass.

The cage! He was in the cage again!

“We’ll try this again, shall we? Now, godchild, tell me: how many lights do you see?”

Theodoric tried to shut the sound of the voice out of his head. It was persistent.

“Perhaps you need an incentive. Yes, I think we must motivate you to cooperate.”

Theodoric felt his left hand being dragged out. Something cold and sharp gripped his forefinger.

“Do try to hold still. Anything less than a clean cut will be difficult to reattach.”

Screams echoed throughout the chamber, his screams. Even then he couldn’t quite drown out Irenicus. But something else could. Something….

“NO, I REFUSE!” howled Theodoric as he leapt to his feet, the sword of Amunator in his hand.

*

Neracer stretched and curled up in his blankets, both grateful and guilty for their warmth. He looked over at Mazzy several times before falling into a fitful sleep.


Cerwiden pulled back a lock of raven black hair that had fallen in her face. Her cool green eyes were in stark contrast to the sweltering heat of the day. Grunts and the clang of weapon on shield and armor, and the sickening thud of weapon against flesh could be heard just yards away.

“I’m not so sure about this” Neracer said.

“Neither am I, but what else can we do?” the druid replied. We will need help if we are to breach the temple, and there will be plenty of strong sword arms in this place.

“Swords that just might find a way into our own backs” Neracer said warily.

“We will have to be on our guard for treachery, yes. But I believe we must do this, and do it now.”

Neracer nodded. “Of course, of course. It will not be long before…before the temple is discovered by others. We are agreed about the cover story?”

Cerwiden nodded, her delicate, pale skin and delicate features burnt red by the blazing hot sun. “We dare not reveal the temple’s true nature. It is for the greater balance we do this.”

Neracer said nothing, knowing full well the implications of what could happen if they failed. At the same time he suspected the druid had additional agendas beyond the obvious one. Or perhaps he was being paranoid. Or perhaps he was just projecting guilt over his own hopes.

In the fighting pit, a ferocious orc had just bested his opponent. He stood before the cheering crowd and held his axe aloft, howling in triumph.


“Well, that one certainly has style” Neracer joked, turning to Cerwiden. She smiled, the tiniest bit of mirth reaching those lovely eyes. At that moment, her smile began to melt, her face falling, falling….

“NOT AGAIN! NOT AGAIN!!!”


*

“HELPMENOOODYNAREFUSENOTAGAIN!!!”

Yoshimo and Jaheira jumped as the rest of the party woke up screaming and shouting at the top of their collective lungs.

“What’s wrong, what’s happening?!?” Jaheira demanded.

Blank looks all around. For a time, silence ensued. Finally, Theodoric spoke.


“If no one has any objections, perhaps we should get underway for the village now, instead of waiting for sunrise.”

No one had any objections.