All That Glitters...26

Chapter Twenty-Six

"I was informed that the marquis had given orders that I was not to be disturbed! State your purpose - quickly!" The telepathic projection carried just a hint of a threat. For emphasis, the creature flexed its gaunt, leathery frame, and displayed its long claws.

"You must be the evil Thrall Master!" Minsc shouted.

Its eyes narrowed. "I am the Master of the Thralls...and you do not work for the marquis." With incredible speed, it spun about, snatching a staff from its place on the wall. It hurled a spell in the same motion: though there was no visual effect, something hit Cel's magic barrier and sparked off, illuminating the protective sphere for just a second with a flare of pearly light. The creature then waved the staff and shouted a few words, which set the air in the room to churning and sent powerful gusts of wind toward the party.

"Nabassu," Cel said quietly. "We have to get near it before it starts gating. I know tanar'ri, and this one probably thinks it can take us all by itself. Hopefully we can kill it before it realizes that it can't." Kal nodded, and led the party forward.

The nabassu's pet wyvern came off of its roost and dove, screeching, toward the party. The rustling winds summoned by the staff then coalesced into visible cloudy forms, which followed it. The wyvern hurtled harmlessly above their heads, but a second later, a focused blast of air crushed in one of the already-weakened side-plates of Kal's armor and another knocked Viconia off her feet.

"Air elementals," Cel warned.

"I see that," Kal replied quickly. "Yoshimo, Minsc, you're on the elementals! Jaheira, Viconia, take the wyvern - Aerie, help Minsc!" And Kal dashed directly at the nabassu. He didn't like dividing his forces this way - much better to take them out one by one - but if Cel was right, and he hadn't known her to be wrong often, that nabassu had to die quickly. Facing one demon was bad enough - he didn't want to take on more.

The nabassu saw the leader of the group heading right for him and set himself to meet the charge. He saw the rings of light on the ground, but as yet had not connected them with the presence of a holy sword. Certain magical items easily blocked the simple silence enchantment that he had cast. The nabassu dismissed the protection as mostly irrelevant. That was his first mistake.

When he saw the warrior enter his paralysis aura without being affected, he was slightly dismayed but not surprised. He was experienced enough to know not to count on his aura to win his battles for him. Instead, he preferred surprises - like the pebble in his right claw, enchanted to burst into a fireball when it was crushed. Even the strongest mortal would be surprised and injured enough by the fireball to let him go for the kill, he thought. That was his second mistake.

He didn't live long enough to make a third. Kal reached him and the nabassu crushed the pebble, filling the air about them with sheets of roaring flame.

Kal burst through the fireball, flames roaring about him like wings, completely unaffected and still focused directly on the tanar'ri. And before the nabassu could react, Kal took its arms off with precise swings - Cel to the right, Daystar to the left. He spun - the first time he had executed a spin, though it felt strangely familiar - in a continuation of his original motion, and the armless nabassu had only enough time to blink once before Cel's blade seared through his neck in an explosion of black, steaming blood.

Another burst of blood, this time a long-distant memory not his own, filled Kal's mind, and the halls of the prison evaporated as Bhaal's memory took control.

He was falling. Falling, down a stairwell, against the corner of a tower. The floors of the stairwell had been designed to collapse, as a last-ditch defence against intruders.

His face pulled itself into a rictus grin. At least they feared him that much. As they should.

As he fell, he lashed out an arm and snatched one of the beams that formed the frame of the stairs, swinging himself out of the shower of collapsing wood and stone. He used the force to swing himself up to the stairs leading to the next level - the floor had not yet collapsed on this level. Two steps and he was on the next level's landing.

He looked at the door. A guard charged to meet him, but he dropped a second later, thrown dagger in his throat. Another guard came from the other side, but he was dispatched with a single stroke from another dagger.

He had not taken his gaze from the door. Gathering information in his mind, he deduced quickly, even without opening the door, that this was the wrong room. This was the priest's room - and he wanted the mage.

Up the stairs he went, in a blur of motion. Two guards approached, but without even breaking stride, he willed daggers into his hand and spun a complete circle as he blew between them like the north wind. Both guards were dead, from precise cuts across their throats; they simply didn't know it yet, and they were completely puzzled even as they collapsed to the floor and clutched at the spurting wounds in their necks.

Even as he reached the next level's landing, he knew - this room was the mage's room. But before he could open the door, there was a rumble overhead - and the floor underneath his feet shifted dangerously.

The guard on the landing with him knew what was happening, but bravely remained to hold back the invader. With a snarl, Bhaal reached out for him - he would not escape the collapsing landings, but he wanted to take one more life with him before they hit. A shortsword dropped out of the air into his hand, and he took off the guard's head in an explosion of blood....

Kal shook his head, clearing the bloody vision of Bhaal away. This time, it seemed as if he'd only lost one or two seconds, as no one seemed to have noticed Kal standing still for a long period of time. He turned back to the battle, which still raged. With their summoner gone, the elementals had been released, but the wyvern was still there - although it did not take much time to kill it.

"You...you killed him!" The exclamation came from the thrall who had been tossed aside, who was just now getting back on his feet.

"Yes! Kal crushed the evil! Smashed it and dashed it and...."

"...that's enough, Minsc," Cel said sharply. Minsc seemed about to object, but then Boo squeaked very firmly at him and he fell silent.

Yoshimo rummaged through the dead nabassu's belt, quickly recovering a glowing green orb. "If memory serves me correctly," he said, "we were told to seek out an orb similar to this."

"Yes," Jaheira agreed firmly. "And destroy it."

Viconia glanced at the orb. "It seems a simple enough task. Throw it upon the ground and smash it with your weapon." Yoshimo did just that, but he didn't even scratch it.

"Here," Cel said. "Let me try." Yoshimo handed it over with a bow. Kal tossed it into the air and, with one swing of Cel, cleaved it neatly in half. The two pieces clattered to the floor, no longer glowing, and no longer green. The purple collar about the thrall's neck clicked once and fell to the floor.

"Wow," Aerie said. "I thought it would be more complicated. That maybe we'd have to throw it in that fire or something."

"Nothing in life is that obvious," Cel told her. "And who in their right mind would have the very thing that neutralized their power in the same room as them?"

The sounds of combat made themselves heard from a corridor at the far side of the room. "Looks like the warden's gotten himself into some trouble," Kal said, already moving toward the exit. "Now let's get down there before he sorts things out."

---

The warden had known he was in trouble the moment a chorus of clicks and clatters announced that the collars had fallen off the thralls. However, he was, if not exactly expecting it, at least prepared for it. He turned to the side and his sword cleanly removed the head of the thrall to his left before the unfortunate victim was even aware he was free. His mercenary bodyguards and the freed thralls began fighting immediately, and his room filled with the chaos of combat. A crazed, recently-freed tiefling began hacking at the warden's shield with a two-handed sword - the warden almost casually batted it aside and drove his blade through his attacker's chest. At the same time, the warden was thinking. This could only be a result of something happening to his nabassu partner - and since that was the case, he knew the corridor the attackers would be approaching him from. He sheathed his sword, preparing to send a lightning bolt down the corridor.

One of his former slaves crept up behind him. As she reached out to stab him in the back, he grabbed her wrist, only half-turning. Struck by the magic fear of the cambion's touch, she bolted directly away from him. Satisfied that she was no longer a threat, the warden turned back toward the corridor, and then cursed - that moment's interruption had allowed the attackers to move into the room. He dropped his shield and cast the lightning bolt, aiming for the leader.

---

As Kal entered the room, a brilliant bolt of white lightning lunged out of the dark interior. The bolt crackled forth and splashed against Cel's dispelling shield. Kal felt an unpleasant tingle through his armour, but nothing more. This room was somewhat dark, and details were difficult to make out, but he saw the spellcaster clearly enough.

"That's the warden!" Cel snapped. "Marquis cambion, just like the nabassu said." Kal saw a black-skinned, tall humanoid with clawlike fingers and spiky armour. His angular face and shock of white hair betrayed fiendish ancestry. At the moment, he was casting another spell. Kal instinctively brought his blades up in front of him, but this spell was not directed at him. Instead, it settled over the cambion himself, illuminating him with a pale yellow glow for a few seconds. Moving so quickly that he blurred, the warden picked up his shield, drew his sword, and launched an attack on the nearest former thrall in a single motion.

There was no time to get organized. Like a raging windstorm, the chaotic mass of combat swarmed over the party and enveloped them, former thralls and mercenaries clashing blade-to-blade. They managed to keep together and in some semblance of a formation, but it was not much better than that. Shouts lost in the general din of combat, Kal directed the party by way of motions, getting them into a loose semicircle against the wall, keeping Aerie and Viconia on the inside.

Kal looked for the warden, but was unable to find him among the chaos. Every time he thought he saw the warden, a fireball or spray of coloured light would wash over the combatants, or a mercenary would attack the group's defensive formation, distracting him. Still, he thought, a seven foot tall warrior in spiky armour with white hair shouldn't just...disappear.

He caught a few glimpses of the warden as the number of standing combatants fell, but never was able to see him for more than a few seconds. The mercenaries had identified the party as the most serious threats, and had directed most of their attacks at them, which made it difficult to concentrate on anything else. But even when the number was down to one mercenary and two thralls, Kal couldn't see the warden - and that didn't make any sense. The party moved out to surround the remaining mercenary, and there was still no sign of the warden. Unless he escaped. But where would he escape to? There's only three ways out. We're next to one, one leads to the prison, and one leads to all those creature pit-traps. So if he didn't escape, it means that he's still....

A foot scuffed the ground lightly behind him and he acted on instinct that wasn't entirely his own. Kal spun rapidly and caught the warden's descending blade with his own pair, and in the same motion, dropped to one knee and slammed both of his own swords against the ground, ripping the warden's blade out of his hand. Then Kal reversed his grip on Daystar, and in an unconventional move that would have earned him a good thrashing from any teacher of swordsmanship on Faerun, came to his feet while turning, stabbing Daystar toward the cambion's head.

One doesn't stab with a bastard sword. It isn't designed for that purpose. One also doesn't hold the bastard sword such that its blade extends below the hand as opposed to above. And one certainly doesn't try both at the same time.

And because of that, it was the very last thing that the warden expected.

Reacting purely on instinct, the warden swung the shield belted to his right arm across and high, intercepting the point aimed at his head. The tip skittered harmlessly off, but Kal was still turning, right hand aiming below the warden's hastily raised shield, and Cel crunched through the warden's side armour in a burst of blue fire and lightning. The warden fell to his knees, shield suddenly too heavy to lift, clutching uselessly at his gaping wound. Glittering amber sparkles swirled up around him as he called upon some kind of power, but Cel dispelled it, scattering the sparkles, which faded away. Kal didn't give him a chance to try something else.

The warden's black sword melted away into a pool of murky filth, pooling around his severed head.

"Good. That's how we know he's dead," Cel said.

Aerie blinked. "What?"

"How we know he's dead. His weapon dissolves. It's a cambion thing."

Yoshimo was already going through the warden's belt pouches. "A key...that to the prison door, I am sure. Some gemstones, certain to be valuable. Anything else?" That last question was directed in Jaheira's direction, but it was Viconia who stepped forward, employing the standard detection magic.

After a moment's pause, she pointed at what looked like three pieces of an odd, lumpy pole. "Those three - though I admit I have no idea what such things could be. And some on the mercenaries, as well."

The party combed over the bodies quickly but carefully, eventually stuffing Minsc's backpack (or rather, the pack scrounged off a mercenary, as the party had not expected to be drawn into an intra-planar prison) to a level which was probably somewhat unhealthy for the big man's back. Then they proceeded rapidly toward the prison, which, being a large dome of bright-purple bars, was not too hard to find. Inside, the Sigil Troupe sat on the floor, thumbs and wrists tied together.

There was no door, or lock, but there was a hollow on the outside of one of the bars shaped just like the key. Kal placed the key in the hollow, and the bars retracted, forming an archway and a door. The key then dropped from the top of the archway and clattered on the floor.

The Sigil Troupe's eyes lit up when they saw the party's approach. "The warden?" Raelis asked, suppressed excitement glittering in her eyes.

"Dead," Jaheira replied shortly. "And the mercenaries as well."

"You are injured!" Raelis exclaimed, suddenly noticing the blood spots (and in Aerie's case, the mostly blood-soaked robe).

"We were, but that unfortunate situation was aptly handled," Yoshimo told her.

"Now you are free!" Minsc added with enthusiasm.

"Such as it is," Viconia muttered.

"I will never forget this," Raelis told the party, taking a deep breath.

"Save the dramatics," Cel told her, and Raelis let out the breath. "Just get going. I doubt this place is safe, either."

"Yes...yes, we will need our equipment, and...the portal gem. Did you come across them?"

"You don't have them?" Aerie asked, slightly puzzled.

Raelis stared at Aerie in puzzlement, as if she couldn't believe she'd just said that. "We were prisoners, child. Usually, captors seize their prisoners' equipment and place it far away from where the prisoners are held."

"I didn't see any chests or other containers...we're going to have to look for them. Secret compartments in the walls, perhaps," Kal suggested.

Raelis nodded. "Yes. Every moment is crucial. No doubt the forces of Darkwood and Nilesia are headed here as we speak, so let us locate the gem, and quickly!"

The next twenty minutes were frantic, as the party quickly examined every wall, column, and floor for something that might suggest where the items might be. The few living former thralls were absolutely overjoyed to help once they learned that the portal gem represented the way out. Finally, Yoshimo discovered a hidden latch in the wall of the warden's room that triggered a panel release. Behind the panel were the items of the Sigil Troupe, including the portal gem. While the rest of the Troupe rapidly re-equipped themselves, Raelis took the gem, muttering a few words over it. Then she nodded sharply.

"I can return you to the Prime, indeed, to the very point from which we were taken. As for the rest of us, we will go where the gem takes us next. Are we ready?"

"Are...are you leaving already, Haer'Dalis?" Aerie asked in a very small voice.

"Leaving? I..." he began, then let his voice trail off, thinking.

At the same time, Raelis touched the gem, then gestured at one of the archways, which sparkled with light. "That is now a portal to the Prime. Return while it lasts!" She touched the gem again, and an archway formed out of the air in front of her. "And this, to the planes. Come, my friends - let us see what awaits us!"

"Miss...Miss Raelis," Haer'Dalis said, softly, but firmly.

"What, my noble Doomguard?"

"I...I cannot come with you. Not this time."

"No? No more...plays, Haer'Dalis? No more...theatre?"

"I wish I could, Raelis, but I am just another moth come too close to your flame. To love you is to smother that flame in my own death. I shall not do it. I shall never tire of the Planes, Raelis, and you'll have my heart forever - but the Prime calls me, and I cannot refuse."

"Then...then go, Haer'Dalis, and remember us fondly. There is...."

"...no time for lengthy goodbyes," Jaheira interrupted curtly.

"Just so," Haer'Dalis said, smiling. "Just so. We'll meet again in the End, Raelis. But farewell for now." And, taking Aerie's hand, Haer'Dalis walked through the portal back to Faerun, not looking back. Then Minsc, then Jaheira, then Viconia, then Yoshimo. Kal was last, and so he was the only one who saw, even if just for a second, the red jungles and spike-covered plains visible through Raelis' portal. Then sparkles filled his vision, and when it cleared again, he was in the playhouse underneath the Five Flagons.