Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 2.43.

Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 2.43.

We walk through a long passageway and Jan is running up ahead constantly checking for traps, yet all he manages to find are two secret entrances along the left wall. We leave them for now, and continue to move until we reach another door at the end of the corridor.

“There will probably be some guards behind the door,” I whisper, “Viconia, perhaps you could… distract them?”

“Why not, jaluk,” Viconia winks, “I am glad that my skills can be of use to you… and the party of course…”

Jaheira only frowns at this statement and Viconia opens the door and enters the room in front of her. I hear a guard addressing her angrily, but after a short exchange the voices of men become excited and I hear laughing coming from inside.

This seems like a perfect time to pounce and just as we crash through the doors, Viconia uses the confusion to her advantage and quickly hits one of the guards on the back of the head and he collapses to the ground. That leaves four more guards for us to deal with and seeing that two of them are mages, Jaheira quickly starts chanting and I know that a very, very nasty spell is coming…

As Jaheira has finished the casting, the air around us is buzzing as thousands and thousands of insects appear from nowhere and start to pester our enemies, biting them and crawling inside their armor and making the men scream and run around in panic. The mages find that any spell casting is impossible as the insects make them loose all concentration and they become an easy prey for us… soon five dead bodies stain the wooden floor with their blood and we can finally examine the room we are in.

Alongside the farther wall are large pens, full with men and women of various different races, ages and sexes. Much to my dismay I see many children amongst them…

“You there! You are obviously not aligned with Lehtinan and his men!” an impressively huge man, looking like one that is accustomed to frequent fighting, shouts, “please, I beg of you, free us!”

At first I feel somewhat peculiar, hearing such a mighty looking warrior pleading so desperately, but slowly I apprehend the hopelessness of his situation and the fact that he is probably more concerned over the women and children. Many of them look like they are in need for healing which is not a surprise, given the atrocious conditions in the cells they are held in.

“Jan, quickly, pick those locks,” without wasting time needlessly, I don’t even bother to reply to the enslaved man and Jan quickly gets to work.

“Your attempts will be futile, little man,” the large fighter speaks, “you will not be able to open these cells without a key. Please, go and retrieve it from the Beastmaster… he is at the animal pens, on the right side of the fighting pits.”

Jan shrugs his shoulders and acknowledges that he is powerless against this particular lock. It leaves us with no other options than to obtain the key from this Beastmaster…

“Very well, my large friend,” I speak, “we will return with the key shortly and set you all free.” We open the doors leading to the pit area and carefully move forwards, hugging the wall so that the guards, audience or the pit announcer do not spot us. Everyone around is still excited about the last fight and does not pay any attention to what is happening around them, I see that the desecrated body of the poor dwarf is still lying in the pit.

Unnoticed, we track a half-circle around the fighting area to reach another hallway, as we enter it I notice that on the sides of it are huge cells filled with wild animals and monstrous creatures. They are being held in atrocious conditions and are probably being starved to increase their hunger for flesh and beaten to further enrage them for the fighting in pits… I can almost hear Jaheira gritting her teeth and hissing, the sight of animals being tortured is especially painful for her to see.

A man is standing at the end of the corridor - he is holding a readied bow in his hands and a large, graceful leopard is standing beside him, looking at us as if sizing up its prey.

“Halt! What is your business here?” the man asks us in a loud voice.

“We came to retrieve a key to unlock the slaver pens, but now that I have seen the atrocities you have performed against these animals, I think I will thoroughly enjoy killing you as well,” I snarl menacingly, drawing my two-hander and preparing for a slaughter.

“That is what you think, fool!” Beastmaster yells and pulls a hidden lever on the wall, “My loyal Tabitha! At them!”

Suddenly all of the cell doors spring open and the hallway is filled with all sorts of animals and monsters, such as lowly gibberlings, a large troll and a minotaur. We find ourselves completely surrounded and as a large lynx jumps on me I am forced to cut the poor animal open with my sword…

“No! No!” Jaheira cries impulsively, even though she realizes that there is no alternative other than to kill in order to avoid being killed. She starts chanting a prayer and Viconia and I are forced to protect her so she does not get distracted during the casting of the spell.

Meanwhile Jan has disposed of the small, annoying gibberlings and now he hits the minotaur with a couple of magic missiles. The beast roars and comes after Jan who decides not to get involved in hand-to-hand combat, but swiftly jumps into one of the empty cells and once inside locks the door behind him. Now, being in safety he proceeds to pepper the minotaur with crossbow bolts, while the stupid beast struggles to reach Jan through the cell bars.

Jaheira completes her prayer and as a result the large black panther that has been reaching for my neck suddenly turns her attention towards our other assailants and starts to lash at the large and ugly troll. Jaheira casts the same spell once again and now a huge brown bear is lured to our side and quickly he grabs Tabitha’s neck in his massive jaws and crushes it with an impressive crackling sound.

Seeing his loyal friend dying, Beastmaster becomes enraged himself as he drops his bow and draws his sword instead. Whilst Viconia and I are involved with holding back the troll, Beastmaster charges, ready to pounce on me unexpectedly, but Jaheira, who has run out of charm spells intercepts him and stuns him with her shield. She doesn’t waste much time in killing the despicable man and the last thought on his mind is that he probably should not have messed with an irate druid… The last of our opponent, the large troll, dies soon afterwards and the short, but bloody battle is over.

I press the lever again to let Jan out of his cell and amidst Viconia’s comments about his dashing bravery he starts to search Beastmaster’s body. Soon enough he hands a key and a bow over to me – the latter seems to be very finely crafted indeed. I am about to turn and leave this place when I feel Jaheira tugging at my elbow.

“We can not leave them…” her voice trails off to a whisper as she looks to the two charmed animals, both of them looking so peaceful, the large cat is licking its paw and purring softly.

I know what Jaheira means – these animals have already been twisted and corrupted, once the charm spell wears off they will become extremely dangerous and uncontrollable. Not that the nobles in the hall next to us would not deserve their wrath, but still… they are a potential threat and they could easily kill someone who is innocent. I think that to kill them to spare these animals any further suffering would be the most compassionate solution, the Amnish guards that would kill them sooner or later regardless, will not give them the easy and peaceful passing they deserve.

“Bastards… only humans are capable of such… such…” her voice breaks off as she leans down on her knees beside the unsuspecting brown bear and draws her scimitar.

“Don’t do it, Jaheira,” I bend down and grab a hold of her hand, not allowing her to perform the cruel, but necessary act, “Go outside and wait for me. I will do it, I promise to be quick about it…”

Without any objections she rises from the floor and leaves to wait for me in the hall outside. Viconia and Jan still stand in the corridor, looking at me with surprise.

“I can do it, if you wish, abbil,” Viconia suggests, “I would not feel any remorse.”

“Thanks, Vic, but no,” I reply, “As a ranger I know how to kill them so that they won’t feel too much pain. You simply do not have that knowledge. Now go and wait for me outside.”

As they leave me to perform this sickening task and I turn my attention to the large bear, the animal leans with his head close to mine and sticks out his large, pink tongue to lick my cheek…

I don’t even bother to stop or hide the tears trickling down my face when I leave the room. Once outside in the main hall I see that Viconia and Jan have already headed back to the slave room, only Jaheira is waiting for me, standing with her back against the wall. In her eyes I see gratefulness for taking this burden off her shoulders, but seeing the tears flowing down my face she can’t hold back from crying either.

A sudden lapse of weakness overcomes us as we hold each other. Slowly we slid against the wall and downwards, to end up sitting on the floor, her head pressed against my chest, mine buried in her hair… The tears that flow freely are not only for the slaughtered animals though… more than for all the cruel choices we have been forced to make.