Jump to content


Part 16


  • Please log in to reply
No replies to this topic

#1 Guest_Flarn_*

Posted 19 May 2003 - 12:57 AM

Alyndria turned, seeing the man Khalid had earlier suggested. He was a distinguished man, likely in his mid-forties, with closely cropped hair in an exotic, ruddy tinged black which was enhanced by his crimson garments. That he was a noble there was no questioning, for he carried himself with the assurance of one who was used to being obeyed. "You there, I would have a word with you. I am called Lord Jierdan Firkraag, and I bid you stand a moment and hear what I offer. Word has come to me of your actions. I see you as capable and headstrong, with the ability to handle what e'er is thrown at you. Just the type of creature that I am looking for."

The flowery praise, which ought to have been quite uplifting, especially for a young woman so recently out of her teens, set her teeth on edge. Pride was not something Alyndria felt she ought to cultivate in any case, but this direct appeal to her vanity seemed far too deliberate - and would doubtless have clouded the judgement of a less sober individual. She frowned, and saw Nalia's expression mirroring her own. "Your flattery is not needed. I will listen to what you have to say.

Lord Firkraag went on smoothly without skipping a beat. "Certainly you understand that these are dangerous times, and that extreme measures are often called for. That is why I have need of you. I am Lord of a community outside Athkatla, and while I provide for my people as best that I can, there are some things I cannot do. Battle is not my strong point. There are marauders, horrid Ogres and Trolls that must be destroyed with fire or they regenerate. I need a firm hand to push them back. I need you, Alyndria. I offer a grand sum, worthy of a woman of your stature. I offer 10000 gold if you can free my land of this scourge. It is a fortune, you will agree."

Alyndria nodded. The offer did not seem bad - after Nalia's keep trolls seemed, while not exactly routine, certainly a manageable threat. And ten thousand gold was a handsome price - with that she could easily outfit her companions with the best for their bid to rescue Imoen, and still have the funds to finance the rescue. The problem was that the sum *was* a fortune - the man must have money to burn if he was willing to pay such a price for simple troll hunting. "Why me and not some other company? You could have anyone at that price.

Again Firkraag made overtures to her pride - if the sound of his voice had been a physical caress, Alyndria would have been longing for a bath. "Ah, but you would not lump yourself together with common mercenaries, would you? No, I require someone with finesse and skill, as well as strength. You are ideal. You are the choice I make, and the offer stands whether you go now or not. There is no other decision that makes sense. I have no doubt your service will be exemplary. If all goes well, we shall all receive exactly what we deserve. I took the liberty of adding my lands to your map when I spoke to your... retainers last; the Windspear Hills await." Crimson cloak swaying about his body like great wings, Lord Firkraag departed.

Yoshimo leaned on the bar, glancing after the noble with a sardonic arch of one ink dark brow. "Well... I've heard of this Lord Jierdan, Alyndria, if it's any help. He has the coin to back up his offer. He's not reputed to be the nicest noble in Amn, but then who is?"

Khalid nodded, "You already know my thoughts - we can solve this man's problem, and complete our agreement with the dryads."

Not so easily convinced was Nalia, who chewed reflectively on her lip for a moment before venturing. "I... I don't know, Khalid, I've heard about this Lord Jierdan. He's brutal; it's not like him to be so protective of his people. I don't like the sound of this."

Anomen tucked away his new sling and bullets, closing the belt pouch that housed them with a decisive twist of the clasp before glaring at Nalia. "Enough, girl! Whether the ogres prey upon the weak or upon this noble's businesses, it is still an evil that must be crushed! Let us deal the justice that is called for."

"And Aerie," Alyndria asked gently, watching the avariel who hung back, tentative, ever watchful. "What do you think?"

Aerie seemed to shrink suddenly as all eyes turned towards her. "Oh, I...," she made a fluttery gesture with her hands, "I can't say I like him either, but... I think you will do what's best Alyndria."

"The 'ayes' have it, then, I would say. But I think we should stay one more night here - Minsc did say he would be back." She turned to Bernard, handing him a few coins, and then, as an afterthought, a few more. "This should cover the damage from earlier, and this is a little something extra. If our friend comes back - the big one, tell him we will be back to meet him."

The bartender nodded - although he seemed shifty as the rest of the crowd, Alyndria still felt a bizarre urge to trust him. There was something oddly familiar about him though she couldn't rightly place it.

**********

Alyndria set down her pack with a sigh and juggled the substantially smaller weight of her purse. Yes, thanks to the Adventure Mart, they were much poorer than when they had left, though it was a feeling Alyndria had grown accustomed to.

The expenditure had been worth it - Nalia and Aerie had bracers to supplement the defensive capabilities of their robes, and Anomen's eyes shone nearly as brightly as the new suit of full plate she'd bought for him - coincidentally, and alas, most expensively, the last suit of its kind Ribald had in stock. She looked down at her own purchase guiltily - one of the wands they'd liberated from Irenicus' dungeon. Ribald had cleaned it and restored its charges while they had been gone, and its price had, of course, increased exponentially. She tried to justify the cost - cloudkill spells had always posed an unwarranted challenge to her.

Regardless of the quality of investment, the simple fact was that the money was all but gone and now there was no question but for them to complete another quest to recover it.

Wearily she glanced around the bar, sipping the thin, all but tasteless tea she'd managed to coax from Bernard when the owner wasn't looking. Alyndria had not had the chance to speak to him, but his sharp-eyed gaze sent shivers down her spine. Added to that was the fact that Minsc had not yet been back.
What kind of an adventurer was she anyway? An unwilling one, granted, but after a day like this one, she felt more akin to a substance scraped from an adventurer's boot.

And the day was far from over.

Taking another sip of her tea, she saw Anomen approach, his own mug brimming with a similar concoction. Settling down between her and Aerie, he took a swallow of his drink and grimaced at the taste. "There was no sign of your friend yet, my lady?"

Alyndria rubbed her temples. "No, nothing. People saw him leave, but no one can say where he has been since."

"I'm sure he will be fine, Alyndria," Aerie whispered, "but I'm worried about him too."

"Maybe he has left us," Alyndria mused. "In the beginning he did join only because we were willing to help him find Dynaheir, and then stayed because our goals were the same. Now with her gone... maybe, maybe he just has to move on. But I thought it was more than that, I thought we were friends..." /Despite the poor job I made of it./

"Excuse me, my lady..." Anomen cleared his throat. "Dynaheir?"

"Minsc's witch," Khalid explained hesitantly, "as Minsc explained it, it is a custom in Rasheman, a Ranger and a magic user travel in pairs, fighting evil, often for many years. She was killed recently..." Alyndria saw a muscle in his left cheek twitch, the small, faint scar there pulling tight for a fraction of a second. He didn't have to mention Jaheira - she was there, a shadow in his darkly slanted eyes.

Anomen frowned. "That is grim indeed. If your friend were here I would offer my sympathies - it is no easy thing to lose someone who has been at your side for so long... someone you can trust... It is a rare and priceless thing in this corrupt world of ours." He took another drink from his tea. "If I might ask, my lady, how did you come to Athkatla?"

"Under duress," Alyndria replied, and went on to tell him the tale of their kidnapping, and their story up 'til the present... and, after some internal debate, included the part about her sire. Yoshimo knew, and Aerie, but Nalia had so far been unaware. Still, especially after Minsc's disappearance, Alyndria felt she needed to banish all her secrets - if they were to lose more people it would be better to do it now while everyone was relatively safe, instead of in the midst of a crisis... instead of later, when she had grown to care for them, to believe she could trust them not to abandon her.

Anomen's face grew more and more grim with Alyndria's telling. By the time she had reached truth of her heritage, his hand was white knuckled upon the cup he held, and when she revealed the discovery of Jaheira, coupled with Khalid's hesitant contributions of what he guessed Irenicus had been doing to assess her divinity, the pottery in his hand cracked, spilling tea onto the scarred tabletop.

"That is quite a tale," Anomen said, when she had finished. "I had heard rumours that there was one who had come among us, but never in my wildest imaginings would I have picked it to be you."

Nalia, dear Nalia, was typically, bravely sceptical, despite the colour which had drained even further from her wan cheeks. "Are you *sure* you are what he has told you - even your guardian's letter, he could have been wrong, couldn't he?"

Alyndria sighed. "I suppose. Though in truth there is but one way I can think of to find out." Sarevok's body rose in her memory, sprawled upon the ground, gouged with wounds, studded with arrows, crisped and discoloured and eaten away by magic... She closed her eyes for a moment, rubbing at the corners of her eyes with her thumbs, trying to banish the vision. "When we killed my bro - Sarevok, his body remained but a short time, before it dissolved, turned into dust. If I am what he is, I will do the same. So if ever anyone has a doubt," she laughed mirthlessly, "you know what to do. After all, if I am mortal, you can simply raise me again."

"Never have I heard you speak such foolishness." Though his tone was hesitant, there was unmistakeable fire in Khalid's eyes as he stared levelly towards her.
Alyndria felt the sting of rebuke, conveyed by a mere look. It was easy to forget sometimes that this man who seemed so young had travelled with her father - her true father - and, just like Gorion, his words were sobering, centering.

She nodded in acknowledgement. "You're right, of course, I apologize."

"I am not offended," Anomen offered tentatively, looking at Khalid as if to mitigate the older man's censure. "Your reaction is understandable, given your... unique situation. I won't lie to you, my lady - I was told to be on the lookout for one of your kind, and now that you have revealed yourself to me, my loyalty to the Order will not allow me to keep this secret from them."

Aerie gasped in outrage nearby, and Nalia had her lips pursed in a manner which reminded Alyndria suddenly of the young woman's sour 'Aunty' Delcia, but Alyndria merely smiled weakly. "I understand. I was prepared for that - the Order will not be the first organization to keep watch over me, and I doubt it will be the last."

"Perhaps you misunderstand, lady Alyndria," Anomen added hurriedly. "Your secret... I will not speak of it to anyone else - the Order, we are not some gossiping conclave of washerwomen who will bandy such things about for all and sundry. I must tell them, yes, but I promise that whatever comes, I will see that you are judged fairly - I feel, though I have known you but a short time, that you are the kind of person who would do the same for me."

"Thank you, Anomen, I do understand." Alyndria traced the network of scars in the tabletop, thinking, not for the first time, that if she had not been called as she had, she might have found herself very comfortable serving as a Watcher. To judge by the examples she had met so far, those who served the Vigilant One possessed a clarity of thought which very few others could claim.

"My lady, your thoughts have taken you far away from us - where have you gone?"
"Nashkel," she replied, "I visited my first Temple of Helm there. We spent quite a bit of time in Nashkel, helping to set things right. At the time there was a man, wanted for the murder of his entire family, and we undertook to bring him back to stand trial for his crimes.

She could see it in her minds eye, their trek through the wild lands, not knowing what they might find.

**********

They came upon him in a clearing, surrounded by fallen soldiers. More, no doubt, which had come before them to bring back their lost commander. Whether for the bounty on his head, or merely for the sake of peace, their reasons for coming could never be spoken now - they would take those, and all the knowledge they had borne before, into the silence of the grave.

The object of their search held court amidst the carnage, wearing tarnished, rusted, bloodstained armour which must have once been bright as theirs. "I pray you left a trail of crumbs to lead us all back again," said the man, looking up from an intent contemplation of a severed head, staring into its dead, half-open eyes as though he could reach some sort of communication with it. "The others did not, so they have decided to stay." He tossed the head behind him, suddenly careless, his tone turning jovial as he regarded Alyndria's company. "Shall we try to find the way home together?"

Alyndria swallowed as the evening wind swept through the clearing, carrying towards her the odours of rotted flesh, and the madman's own unwashed and filthy body. "I would like that."

"I pose to you a riddle," said the madman, raking a hand through the greasy hanks of his hair, "the answer to which I once knew, but now cannot perceive. Remind me, and we shall all return unto the day. Fail, and stay with me in the dark, forgetting whence we came...."

Behind her she heard someone pull an arrow from their quiver, sensed the tension of her companions.

"It has neither mouth, nor teeth," said Brage. "Yet, it eats its food steadily. It has neither village, nor home, nor hands, nor feet; yet it wanders everywhere. It has neither country, nor means, nor office, nor pen; yet it is ready for fight - always. By day and by night there is wailing about it. It has no breath, yet to all it appears."

Alyndria shivered as the man spoke - each vision seeming etched into his eyes, making them all seeing, though blinded by madness. She knew only to well of what he spoke, it stood by her side, had walked with her since Candlekeep, breathed down her neck even now, waiting if she chose wrongly. She uttered but a single word, praying she was right. "Death."

No one spoke.

Brage continued to stare at her, until Alyndria was sure she had been mistaken. Then, gradually, suddenly, she saw the seeming glaze of his eyes melt away as he began to look around like one waking from a dream to a reality far more terrible than a nightmare. "The end of night, where the light shines unto mine eyes and I can see clearly once again! What have I wrought!? 'Tis horrible, HORRIBLE!! I will welcome the block that must await me at Nashkel! How could I live with what I've done!" He stumbled, suddenly blinded by tears as he had been by madness, falling to his knees before Alyndria and clasping her around the waist. "Please, you must guide me to the town that I might pay for my crimes! I fear I can keep my senses for only so long, and I must not be allowed to do this again! Too many good people have lost their lives to me! Please..."

**********

"We took him back," Alyndria whispered, "but not to Oublek, not to face the block as he seemed to want so much, but to the Temple of Helm. We had taken his belongings from him, you see, and the sword that he carried was very powerful, and extremely unlucky, cursed in fact, so that any who carried it would fly into a murderous rage from which they could never recover. The priest at the Temple examined it, and knew it as well as I. He decreed that Brage still had much to give, and that his path was to be atonement, not punishment - I think the latter would have ultimately been kinder, and yet..."

"Sometimes what seems a kindness is in fact a disservice," Anomen finished for her.

Alyndria nodded. "I have seen... It is always easier to die than to live. I often think of Brage, and wonder if he will ever find peace in his soul again." She shook her head, "but this is a grim subject for new friends. I was only thinking that you reminded me... I can think of worse hands to be in than one who follows Helm, what He sees, I can only placs my hopes with the gods who can truly, rightly see someone like me... So there, both of you know my story, Anomen, you are staying, correct?" The Watcher nodded. "But what about you, Nalia," she asked gently, "I cannot be fit company for one so gently born. What do you see?"

"What I always have," the auburn-haired girl replied quietly, "a friend when I needed it most."

**********

The group shared a few more cups of tea, and much lighter conversation before Alyndria finally had to admit that everyone was bone-tired and there was no choice left but to rent a room for the night. There was no help for anything else either. If Minsc did not return by morning, they would have to set out on this part of the quest without him, and hope that he would be alright. He had taken care of himself before their meeting in Nashkel, which was somewhat reassuring, but Alyndria was reluctant to unshoulder the responsibility she had taken for him. He was her friend, and friends simply did not turn from one another. She had few enough as it was.

Between prayers and memorizing spells for the journey ahead, it was a long time before Alyndria finally settled into a troubled sleep. Perhaps it was the remembrance of Brage that made her so uneasy. She had known her share of nightmares, and more than her share since leaving Candlekeep - but this most recent series of dreams preyed on her mind even more than any which had gone before. Irenicus. He would not relinquish his hold on her. He haunted her, even now, with spectres of the power he believed was hers to wield. Even dared to suggest that she might have saved those she had lost, Dynaheir, Jaheira... that she might save Imoen who even now languished somewhere unknown... but all these things only if she embraced the evil power that he believed it was her birthright to command.

In the dream a demon tore her down - she could feel him rending her flesh. Then all at once, she was whole again, and Power coursed through her dream self - her other self, for she had a sense of being two people, one who watched and one who felled three monsters, each more terrifying than the last, with barely a thought. She saw the dream Alyndria laughing in triumph, even as she knew it for the lie it was. /I tried, don't you see, I tried calling on Him... and nothing came of it. I tried to bring Jaheira back - if I'd had such Power, I could have.../

*Ah,* whispered Irenicus' voice, from a place deep inside of her, a place she dared not look, *but did you truly want to?*

Alyndria looked down on her arms, saw the scars begin to open, to bleed, a tide of red spilling down over her hands, pooling on the floor, a crimson mirror, which held not her face, but Jaheira's, eyes burning with accusation...




0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

Skin Designed By Evanescence at IBSkin.com