Where the Enemy Sleeps

"If you don't know where we are," Renai said as she and Imoen followed Jaheira from the duergars' shop back to the small library, "how do you know that this is the way out?"

"I know," Jaheira answered. The three women threaded their way through the musty bookshelves and entered a long dank hallway. From the shadows jumped a grubby little kobold, brandishing its sword at them only to be eviscerated with one clean, absent-minded swipe of Jaheira's scimitar. "Tell me," she said to Renai as she sheathed her blade, "what can you tell me of where we are now?"

Renai studied the dark passageway and the rusted metal door at its end. Everything about the place was exactly like every other she had seen so far, except for a rich, heavy, putrid aroma riding the air that made Renai want to rub her nose. Finally, she ventured, "I smell ... garbage?"

"Exactly." Jaheira looked pleased.

Renai and Imoen exchanged puzzled looks. "How's that a good thing?" Imoen asked.

"Because we have not had its scent before. Obviously we are getting somewhere!" Jaheira rolled her eyes and put her hand on the door handle. "I swear, child, you have not an ounce of your grandsire's tracking ability. It is a simple thing, to know where you are in relation to where you are not."

Renai put a hand over her nose to block some of the garbagy scent that rushed from the room when Jaheira opened the door. Imoen pinched her nose shut and closed her eyes and didn't open them when Renai nudged her in the ribs. "It doesn't make sense, but she has a point. C'mon."

"I don't want to walk around in garbage," the pink-haired girl groaned, but she opened her eyes. "Isn't there another way, Jaheira?"

"Fah," Jaheira snorted and led them down a small set of stairs into the piles of muck and waste. "And it was my thought that you had character. Look, there is the egress there." She pointed to a closed door across the way. "You are torn and filthy as you are. What is a little garbage?" As she picked her way through the piles of rubbish, she said, "In truth, there is one small detail that concerns us, and that is only if in this dump resides a ... "

A gray-hided beast burst out of a large pile of refuse in the center of the room, waving its tentacles and gnashing its teeth as it leaped at them. As one, the women screamed and drew their weapons. "Oh yeah, Jae, one tiny little detail!" Renai yelled, trying to pull her quarterstaff away from the otyugh's tentacled grip. "Just a trash monster, don't know why we'd find one in the garbage!!"

"The odds were even either way!" Jaheira shouted, hacking away at the otyugh's tough skin. The creature roared and snapped at them, seemingly unaffected by their blows. Its stench was overwhelming, bringing tears to Renai's eyes as she tried to keep away from its grip and its bite.

Behind them, Imoen darted away from the beast and picked what looked like a dead mouse and a small glass tube. Retreating to a safe spot, the girl furiously rubbed the mouse's fur against the tube and screamed, "Aduro incurso inimicus!" The words made Renai shudder. Instead of Imoen's girlish voice chanting the arcane words, she heard His sinister voice ringing out the spell meant to hurt and maim. This spell must have been his favorite, for he threw it at her so often.

As if sensing her inattention, the otyugh wrapped its tentacle around Renai and pulled her to its mouth, biting down on her shoulder with its razor-sharp teeth just as a small spark erupted from Imoen's hands, transforming into a lightning bolt that burned through the foul beast. Renai's scream of pain as the monster dropped her was lost in the shrieks of Jaheira and Imoen as they ran helter-skelter through the small room, trying to avoid the bolt of electricity as it bounced off the metal walls and seared through the otyugh again and again.

The lightning bolt and the otyugh died at the same instant. Renai, lying in pile of particularly slimy muck, tried to sit up but couldn't. The bite wound on her shoulder stung, burning her blood and turning her stomach enough to weaken her knees.

Jaheira quickly knelt beside her and laid her hand on Renai's forehead, muttering what sounded like a prayer for healing. Cool magic washed through Renai's body and centered on the wound, making it smart as her skin wove itself back into one whole piece. Jaheira murmured another prayer, and the magic sluiced through Renai again, but she could feel no effect. "There," Jaheira said. "That is all I can do for you. The bite of an otyugh can make you ill, and I cannot stop that."

"That sounds so hopeful," Renai groaned. Imoen ran to Renai's side and helped her up. Still sick to her stomach and weak, Renai kept her arm draped around Imoen's bony shoulders as they slowly walked through the trash. "Anything else we need to watch for, Jae? Perhaps an ankegh or two? Dragons?"

"Madmen only from this point on, I should think," the druid replied dryly. She tugged at a lock of Renai's dark hair. "Is that not enough for you?"

Imoen stuck her tongue out at Jaheira, and Renai followed suit. Jaheira snorted and ran up the opposite stairs. "She thinks she's so smart," Imoen muttered.

"I think it's because she's old." Renai pushed off from Imoen and found she could stand on her own again. The door at the end of the room led to another long, dark hallway. "But I think mostly it's just because she's bossy."

"And smug."

"And irritating."

"I can hear you both!" Jaheira called. She was standing at the opposite door, waiting for them with her arms crossed.

Renai and Imoen looked at one another. "Good,"; they shouted back in unison, then broke into giggles, which turned to guffaws when Jaheira started tapping her foot. Even in the darkness, they felt her acid glare upon them as they hurried up the hallway to join her, but for once, it didn't bother them.

"If you are quite finished," Jaheira said, arching her eyebrow at the two girls, then shook her head and opened the door. It swung open silently on oiled hinges and revealed a room so different from the rest of the dungeon they gasped at the sight of it. Thick ivory carpets covered the floor of the round room, and rich tapestries depicting woodland scenes hung against the walls. In the far corner was a soft round bed, made with silks sheets and a plush down, royal blue coverlet. Directly across from them in the marble fireplace burned a fire made of blueleaf wood, its indigo light casting a soothing pall across the room.

"Where the enemy sleeps," Jaheira murmured. Renai saw that huge knobs of gooseflesh had broken out on the druid's arms and Imoen's face had turned an even whiter shade of pale. Trying to ignore the bile rising in her throat, Renai prodded the carpets in front of her before she took a step forward into the lair.

A mewling cry broke from Imoen's throat, and she pushed past Renai and ran heedless of hidden dangers to the bed. Dagger drawn, the girl threw herself onto the mattress and stabbed it violently, shredding the cloths covering it and sending up a furious storm of feathers into the calm air. "You monster!" Imoen cried as she rent the blankets and sheets with her fine stiletto. "How can you! We sleep in cages and you sleep here? No comfort for you anymore! Monster!"

Jaheira shook her head. "Come, we must stop her!"

"Are you kidding?" Renai said through clenched teeth. "If I had a blade on me, I'd join her. Let her be."

"We have not the time for such childish displays!" Jaheira snapped. "Our captor or his minions may arrive at any moment! Surely you understand this."

Jaheira began to cross the floor, but Renai grabbed her arm. "So what happened to you, then?" she asked.

"I do not know what you mean. What has that to do with such useless acts of vandalism?"

"The torture, I mean. You've seen what He's done to us. What did He do to you?" Renai did not know what was in her eyes to make Jaheira look at her so fearfully, but she did not care.

"I ... nothing. He did not touch me," Jaheira said softly. She squared her shoulders and met Renai's gaze. "But I watched him take you away and bring you back, so hurt you could not cry. I watched him kill Dynaheir."

"How wretched for you." Renai released Jaheira's arm and looked again at Imoen, who was still trashing the bed. "Must have been horrible."

In a low voice filled with haughtiness, Jaheira growled, "You do not know how terrible that was for me."

"He tied me to a table and sliced my arm open with a blade," Renai said over Jaheira's cold voice, marveling at how calm her words were when inside she was screaming. Something dark and powerful was stirring in her heart. "And then He put rats on me and let them chew away at my arm. And then for giggles later, He put me in a cage that was so small I couldn't stand or sit or lie down and then threw lightning bolts at me. Do you get it yet or shall I continue? I have lots of stories."

Jaheira's angry face had turned a sick shade of white. She gestured at Imoen, who now was taking the small knickknacks from the shelves and smashing them against the wall. "This resolves nothing."

"If it makes her feel better, what does it matter? Leave. Her. Alone." Renai held Jaheira's stare, willing herself not to cry out, or strike the druid for daring to look at her so. Finally, Jaheira blinked and lowered her eyes.

"I did not mean ..." she sighed. "I am simply worried. For Khalid, and for us. That is all. If I seemed uncaring, it was not my intent. I wish only for us to leave whole and sound."

Jaheira's near-apology so surprised Renai that the blackness threatening to overtake her vanished. Across the room, Imoen rage had finally ebbed and she sat crouched on the floor weeping into her hands. "I know," Renai said as she crossed the room. She nodded at a space on the carpet and said over her shoulder, "Don't go over there, I see a trap in the rug. Careful." Jaheira nodded and shuffled off toward a dark room attached to the bedroom.

When she sat next to Imoen on the rug, the girl threw herself into Renai's arms. "It's all right, Imie," Renai whispered into Imoen's hair. "It's all right, we're all good."

"I'm sorry," Imoen sobbed. "I just ... hate him so much! I hate him! I want him to hurt like he hurt us!"

"I know. C'mon." Renai wiped the tears from Imoen's cheeks. Her face was flushed, hot to the touch, and the pain in her eyes was like daggers in Renai's wounded heart. "Feel better now?"

"No." Hiccupping, Imoen wiped her nose with the back of her hand and rubbed away more tears. "I'm sorry I'm being such a baby. I'll try to be more strong. Like you," she whispered.

"I'm not strong, I'm just too busy to break down right now. Just wait until we leave." Renai forced herself to grin and got up, pulling Imoen to her feet. "I'm going to go completely mental the instant we"re safe. Then you can take care of me."

Imoen gave her such a fierce hug that Renai lost all the air in her lungs, then sniffed loudly. Sighing, she turned and went to the spot in the carpet where Renai had spotted the trap to deactivate it. I'm not strong, Imie, Renai thought bleakly. It's just that if I let go for an instant, I'll lose myself completely. And I can't let that happen.

"Look at this," Jaheira called from the adjacent room. "Come see what I have found." Imoen was gently pulling a poisoned needle from a trap worked into a wall cabinet. Reassured that the girl was fine, Renai walked through the piles of debris and feathers and joined Jaheira in the dark room.

The druid was standing before what looked to be a large metal doorway, attached to a contraption like none Renai had ever seen. "What is that?" she asked.

"I believe it is a portal of some kind." Jaheira pointed to a small slot attached to the frame. "All we must do is find what key controls this device, and perhaps we may enter it and escape to freedom."

"Yeah?" Renai studied the device. Plain brass framed the doorway, which she now saw was not open but made of glass. A jumble of wires and gadgets were attached to the frame at odd intervals, all connecting eventually a small box behind it that hummed ominously. "Where does it go?"

"I do not know. But I suspect that anywhere would be better than here." Jaheira probed at the key slot with a fingernail.

"Unless it throws us into a dragon's hoard. Or the Abyss. Or the Underdark. Do we really want to take a chance?"

Jaheira snorted and pursed her lips, then cut an amused glare Renai's way. "Your optimism astounds even me. How you received your reputation as such a cynical individual, I shall never fathom."

"All right, all right. Put the sarcasm away, smart ass, before you hurt yourself." Renai rolled her eyes, but she was grinning. "So let's find the key, shall we?"

"Renai! Jaheira! Look!" Imoen cried from the bedroom. Alarmed, Renai and Jaheira bolted from the machine and raced to Imoen's side. The girl was standing at the lip of a third doorway, opposite from them , pointing at something and bouncing up and down like a child at a petting zoo. "Dryads! Look! Do you see them?"

In a small indoor garden filled with low leafy bushes, small scrubby oaks and wilting flowers stood three dryads, staring at Imoen. Even in the dimness, Renai could see their wild beauty. She walked forward hesitantly, then grabbed Imoen's arm as the girl tried to race to them. "Let's not scare them, huh?" she whispered. The wide-eyed Imoen nodded dumbly.

Though they were thin and wan from the lack of pure air and sunshine, the dryads' skin was a faint shade of tan, and strung through their long locks of green hair were thin strands of red. They're preparing for autumn, even under here, Renai realized. It was Eleasis when we were taken. If it's not fall yet, maybe we weren't here that long? Or perhaps it was a year. It felt like a thousand. Renai shuddered and pushed the thought away.

As soon as the three women moved into earshot, one of the dryads cried out, "Help us!"

"Save us!" another cried. The third moaned wordlessly, a haunting sound that echoed Renai's pain and desperation. "Who are you?" Renai asked.

"We are His captives," the first said. "I am Ulene." She pointed to the one beside her. "That is Cania, and nearest you is Elyme. He keeps us here." In their voices, Renai heard the way they said He, giving to it the same added importance and terror she had given Him in her own mind.

"He wishes that we would instill emotion in him, but we cannot," Cania sighed, in a voice like the wind through the top branches of a stout oak. "He has tried to use us to replace Her, but we cannot."

"He is barren within." Elyme said mournfully. "Irenicus does not even love her. He cannot love."

"Irenicus," Jaheira repeated, nodding slightly. "So that is our captor's name. How fitting a name for him."

"It is a name of evil, of death," Ulene cried. She took a single step forward. "Please, help us! He holds our trees, and without them we cannot live. With them, we are trapped here in his foul embrace. We cannot live much longer like this, without the sun, without the wind."

Cania lowered her lovely head. "We beg of you," she whispered. "Save us. You are the only ones to hear our pleas in so long. You are our first, our only hope."

Renai stepped forward and reached out to touch Cania's hand, but Jaheira grabbed her by her collar and held her back. "Careful, child. Dryads are mischievous and may seek to charm us to do their bidding. One cannot be too careful near them." Renai shook off Jaheira's grip and glared at her, but Elyme sighed.

"The druid speaks true," she said. "We are known to toy with mortals. But we are not now. And we would not with you. Please. Help us."

So there! Renai mouthed at Jaheira, then turned to the dryads again. "Of course we will help you, if we can. What can we do?"

Hope appeared in the dryads' sad eyes. "The seeds of our trees lie in the possession of the dark dwarf, Ilyich," Ulene said. "If you can acquire them and take them to our queen, who lives in the Windspear Hills, she may replant them and free us."

"These seeds?" Imoen showed the dryads the pouch she had picked up from the duergar. "Boy, now I am glad I didn't eat them."

"Yes." Cania's smile was so beautiful Renai wanted to weep with happiness. "Our seeds. Look, sisters, our hope." She looked at Renai. "We cannot thank you enough for promising to undertake this endeavor."

"No thanks are needed," Jaheira said before Renai could reply. "We were the Shattered One&'s captives. We do not mean to leave others behind us." She put her hand on Renai&'s shoulder. "So I have promised already."

Behind the dryads, Renai saw a light shining through what seemed to be frosted windows. "What's that?"

Ulene sighed again. "It is Her room. He keeps many of Her treasures there, many things to remember Her. But it instills nothing within Him."

Renai arched her eyebrow at Imoen. "Be right back," the human girl said. She gave the dryads another wide-eyed stare and hugged the velvet pouch holding their seeds to her chest before heading to the light.

The light led to another small bedroom made up in a similar style as the first. Aqua carpets covered the floor, and flowered silks and satins decorated the delicate furniture. "What is this place?" Imoen breathed, pausing to stare within. "This is so beautiful. Can this belong to him, too?"

"I don't know, Imie," Renai said. The room felt like a small haven of peace amid the dungeon's horrors. But it was cold and dusty, obviously unused. "We'll wonder later, all right?"

"Um. Right." When Imoen crossed the threshold to enter the room, an alarm of clanging bells made all of them - except for the dryads - jump and brandish their weapons.

"Blast, child, what did you do?" Jaheira snapped. She began shifting from one foot to the other, her eyes darting about as she looked for someone to strike.

"Nothing! OW!" Imoen cried. A snap and a small flash erupted from the room. After a moment, she sheepishly called out, "I'm fine! My fault! Just a flesh wound."

"Be careful!" Renai called over her shoulder as she wandered back toward His bedroom. "And hurry! I don't want to know what those bells mean!"

After a few moments, Imoen emerged from the room. "Look, I found keys!" In her hands were a small blue key shaped like a bolt of lightning and a slim key with a single tooth made of gold. "Where do you think they go?"

To that portal beyond, I hope," Jaheira said. She snatched the keys from Imoen's hands and stalked back toward the first room.

Renai turned to the dryads as she backed away. "I promise we'll help you. If I do nothing else when I leave here, I'll take your seeds to your queen."

"We know you will," Ulene smiled. "We have no hope for ourselves. But we will hope for you." She blew Renai a kiss that was redolent of fresh spring leaves, then the three dryads faded back into the bushes.

Tears sparkled in Imoen's eyes. "What he did to us," she whispered. "It's not as bad as what he's doing to them. He's got their lives. They don't belong here."

"Neither do we." Renai put her arm around Imoen and hugged her as they walked through His room to join Jaheira at the portal. "We're so close to getting out. Don't worry. We're coming back for everyone who's still here."

Just as the reached the portal, a low growl grated from His room. The three women turned and beheld two clay golems, massive artificial constructs twice Renai's size and twice her width, standing in the doorway to the portal room. "All who disturb the master's possessions must be destroyed," one golem mumbled.

"Oooh, that's what the bells meant," Imoen moaned.

Renai poked Jaheira hard in the ribs. "Let's go, Jae. Now." The golems tried to enter the doorway in the same instant and became stuck shoulder to shoulder.

Jaheira fumbled with the keys. "A moment," she snapped.

"Jae, we don't have a moment!" Renai notched an arrow into her bow as they golems freed themselves from the doorway. The arrow would do nothing to them, but she could do nothing else.

"I am aware of that, thank you! A moment! I think I have it!"

"Jaheira, hurry!" Imoen screamed.

Before Renai could move or even draw back her bow, the golems were before them. One balled its hand into a fist and threw at her head a punch that Renai knew would knock her head from her shoulders. "Jae!" she screamed.

The room disappeared in a flurry of white light.

For a moment, Renai could not breathe, could not see. Then she was violently thrown forward, her fall stopped by the hard planks of a dusty wood floor. Before she could get up, something heavy landed on top of her, followed by something else even heavier.

"You see," Jaheira gasped, "I told you I had it."

Just as Renai managed to sit up and shove Jaheira and Imoen off her, a voice caught her attention. "So, meian," it said kindly, "there is some sanity in this place after all."