Unwilling to Acquiesce – Part 5

The door to the chamber bursts open with an explosive boom, which resounds throughout. Adamant, the Chaos Sword held high, charges into the room and bellows a challenge.

“All right you bats-with-delusions-of-grandeur, have at you!” he cries.

As the mephits, which have been flitting about the room recover their wits, they quickly fly down to engage the charging knight. Adamant is suddenly bathed in a cascade of rainbow luminescence, the power of a radiant mephit. The glowing lights are so intense that they can cause mortal beings to pass out. Adamant however has the fortitude to resist the assault and heads directly for the first of the summoning devices, trailing the four little winged beasts. Through the doorway behind him, Imoen, Jaheira and Yoshimo crowd their way into the room. Jaheira guards the other two with her quarterstaff, as Yoshimo and Imoen take aim with bows. The thrumming of bowstrings soon joins the chittering cries of the mephitis.

In spite of his grandiloquent entrance, Adamant’s moves are neither wild nor random. With a cool precision born of life-long training and battlefield experience he lands precise, powerful blows upon the summoning device. Metal wires twist and crack and shattered pieces of crystal fly up in a spray of tiny shards. Even as the power fades from this first device, Adamant is moving on to the second. As he ducks between the two machines there is the sound of an arrow in flight, followed by a piercing cry; the cloud of harrying beasts is reduced by one.

Taking careful aim with each shot, Yoshimo and Imoen prove their worth as archers, pegging away at the bat-like mephits as they hound Adamant. For his part the young knight makes absolutely no moves to defend himself against the creature’s magical assaults. Instead he trusts to his companion’s aim. For the most part his trust is well founded, but by the time the final machine has been destroyed, he has been burnt twice by fire mephits; once in the early stages of the attack and once again as the final machine conjured a replacement mephit before Adamant had a chance to destroy it.

Yoshimo’s is the arrow which transfixes the lately summoned fire mephit and he smiles openly with pride.

“I can dance on the head of a pin as well,” he boasts.

“I do not see what you have to be so proud about!” retorts Jaheira. “You killed no more than Imoen and she is a mage.”

A cloud passes over Yoshimo’s expression and for a fleeting moment his eyes speak of something dangerous and deeply hidden. Then he laughs and Jaheira is only more infuriated. Adamant returns, rubbing at his scorched side but with a calm look on his face.

“So this was your plan?” asks Yoshimo with a wry smile. “Place yourself in danger and trust to your allies to get you out of it.”

“Something like that!” Adamant smiles as well.

“ ‘Bats-with-delusions-of-grandeur, have at you’?” Imoen quotes Adamant with a raised eyebrow.

“What did you expect me to say?” Adamant asks in response.

“Perhaps a cry to Helm,” Yoshimo offers as an alternative battle cry. “Or ‘For the glory of Amn!’” He brandishes his bow heroically.

“She knows me better than that,” says Adamant, shaking his head in disagreement with Yoshimo’s suggestions. “If I hadn’t needed to draw their attentions, I might not have said anything at all.”

Lost in conversation, the three do not notice that Jaheira has been drawn away from them by the sight of something at the other end of the room. With fragile steps, like a child walking towards certain punishment, the druid makes her way gradually to the tortured corpse lying strapped to a large wooden table. The table top is dark with ingrained bloodstains. Bits of flesh and bone lay scattered about, as though picked apart by an animal. As she draws closer, Jaheira’s mind struggles to keep out the inexorable realisation that is bludgeoning its way into her consciousness. She gazes down at the body of her husband, Khalid.

“No!” she screams. “It is a lie! It is not him.” With her words she scrabbles to deny the reality which is falling, avalanche-like, upon her.

The three companions run to their friend and are struck by the bodily destruction there upon the table. As horrible as the sight is, Imoen’s response is almost equally unbearable.

“Oh,” she says in a detached voice. “I saw him die.” With a gathering horror in her voice, she relates how it was that the mage Irenicus made her watch as he killed Khalid through vivisection. As Imoen’s tale continues, Jaheira raises her hands to stop her ears.

“Enough!” she cries. “I will hear no more!”

“This was a comrade of yours?” asks Yoshimo with genuine concern. “You have my sympathy.” He tries to put his hand on Jaheira’s shoulder, but she shrugs it away.

“You fool!” she screams, ostensibly at Yoshimo, but possibly also at the body on the table. “He is my husband! The completion of who I am! If he is dead then…” Her voice cracks and trails away. Her head bows in defeat.

“Perhaps if we can get him to a temple,” offers Adamant quietly. “The gods may return him to you.”

“No.” Jaheira can barely manage to whisper her answer, shaking her head wearily. “Not when the body has been so…so mutilated. The spirit has been driven away and will not return.” With a deep sniff, she straightens her shoulders and looks Adamant in the eye. There are tears running down her face. Never in all the time that he has known her has Adamant ever seen her weep for any reason. It is clear that her control, though deeply shaken, will swiftly return. He does not waste his time offering emotional aid that she would no doubt refuse.

“We should go,” Jaheira says, calm returning to her voice. Imoen and Adamant realise that she will mourn later, possibly even for the rest of her life, but that for now, Jaheira will be as stout a comrade as anyone could wish. Yoshimo does not know her that well however.

“She does not waste much time mourning, does she?” he says, under his breath but loud enough for all to hear in the still chamber. “One wonders how much this man truly meant to her.”

Imoen and Jaheira turn on him, glaring in anger for his insensitivity. It is Adamant who reacts most vehemently though. He slams his boot into Yoshimo’s stomach, winding the bounty hunter. Then he seizes him bodily and thrusts him back against the wall. Adamant’s vambraced forearm presses against Yoshimo’s throat, the hard plate steel crushing his windpipe.

“I am more than happy to have you as a companion,” Adamant says tersely, through gritted teeth. “But if you ever violate Khalid’s memory or the memory of his marriage again I will bring your run of luck to an irrevocable end. Do you hear me?”

Struggling for breath and wondering if he might soon pass out, Yoshimo nods desperately. He is in no doubt concerning Adamant’s ability to make good on his threat. With a swift motion, Adamant releases Yoshimo, allowing him to collapse to his knees, coughing painfully and gasping air. Standing over him, Adamant offers his same hand to help the bounty hunter up to his feet.

“Shall we go?” asks the paladin pleasantly. When Yoshimo nods, Adamant turns to the others, and they make their way through the far door, leaving the broken ruins of what was once Khalid behind them forever.