The Companions of Tartiël (53 page)

“Well, my curiosity’s piqued,” Wild said, wriggling his eyebrows and winking at the others. “Then again, you already knew that. I’m going in.”

“Wait, Master Wild,” Kaiyr said quietly, but he was too late. The halfling was already darting from cover to cover as he approached the castle. Shaking his head, the blademaster followed suit, hoping that his lack of stealth ability would draw any enemies’ attention toward him and away from Wild.

With Caineye and Solaria in tow, Kaiyr watched, expressionless, as Wild scampered into the castle’s foreboding foyer and disappeared into the roiling shadows. The blademaster sincerely hoped that he had not just watched the halfling run headlong to his doom.

“Hey… it’s really dark in here!” came the rogue’s voice a few seconds later. “I can’t even see my damn torch, but I think I almost lit my hair on fire with it!”

From within the whorls of shadow, Wild emerged bearing a flaming torch. The blackness seemed to cling to the halfling and to the torch, dulling the light of the flame and the vibrancy of Wild’s features until the halfling was several paces away from the entrance. “That was so weird,” he said, glancing about. Then, the halfling stopped in his tracks, staring dead ahead.

Kaiyr turned to see what had so unsettled the ever-curious Wild and nearly jumped back himself. Beside him, Caineye swore, and Solaria suddenly began rattling her longsword as she vainly tried to pull it from its sheath.

“You are foolish to have come here,” said the elf-like creature at the edge of the rubble displaced by the castle. “You will only find your deaths at the end of Warteär Nomen’s blade.”

With a shriek of rage, Solaria finally managed to wrench her sword free, and she leaped over several large fragments of stone, charging straight for Warteär Nomen.

“Lady Solaria, no!” both Kaiyr and Caineye shouted as one. Kaiyr jumped out to stop her, but she evaded his grasp and continued running.

Pausing just long enough to concentrate and manifest his soulblade, Kaiyr called back to the druid. “Master Caineye—”

“I know,” responded the druid, pulling out spell components from his belt pouch. “Vinto, go!”

The blademaster sprinted after Solaria, and Vinto bounded after him as Wild took cover behind what remained of a house’s wall, winding up his crossbow and clamping a dagger between his teeth. “She’s going to get herself killed,” he muttered to nobody as he popped out from his hiding place just long enough to line up a shot—and to have it foiled by Solaria. “Tch.” Holding his fire, he ducked back behind piles of rubble to move to a better location.

Solaria and Warteär Nomen clashed a moment later, and the result was similar to a butterfly attacking a tiger. The elven swordsman intercepted Solaria’s blade with his own, eyes full of disdain for the feeble attack.

Then Kaiyr and Vinto joined the fray, taking up flanking positions around Warteär Nomen, so as to force him to react to both of them simultaneously. “Lady Solaria!” Kaiyr grunted under the weight of parrying an attack aimed for the nymph. “Please fall back! Let us fight this battle!” He fell silent momentarily, forced to concentrate on his opponent’s moves as Warteär Nomen retaliated with a flurry of rapier strikes, finally managing, “He is a strong opponent, even for us!”

Warteär Nomen hopped back, out of the way of the blademaster’s seeking soulblade. Then, with a quick succession of somatic gestures, the elf-creature launched a bolt of lightning that crackled through the air and scorched a path across the ground.

Kaiyr dodged out of the way of the blast that would surely have killed him, but as he looked back up at the foe, he realized the lightning had been but a diversion so Warteär Nomen could engage Solaria again. “No!
I
am your opponent, Warteär Nomen!” He rushed back into the battle, but it was already too late.

*

Dingo dropped his d20 on his little table. “Oh, shit, guys,” he said, sitting back and nonverbally inviting us to take a look at the die result. “Rolled a twenty.”

I slapped my palm to my face. “Damn it,” I cursed, throwing an annoyed glance at Matt and Xavier, who both knew where my irritation was aimed—at Solaria. “Well, I’ve been hit, and as long as Solaria’s got the normal hit points for a nymph, she should be able to survive. Xavier, are you in a position to heal her next round?”

He flipped to his spell sheet. “Well, uh, I’ve got a few healing spells memorized.
Cure serious
?” he asked, referring to the 4
^th
-level druid spell.

I frowned in thought. “Let’s wait and see how much damage is done.”

Dingo, who had been waiting, his d20 rolling in his palm, nodded. He let the die drop again—although we didn’t confirm critical hits in his game (all crits were automatically confirmed, making for a much deadlier game), on a roll of a natural 20, we rolled again to see if we threatened an instant kill. This is a variant rule that requires two consecutive 20s, followed by an attack roll that hits the victim’s armor class.

I looked at his second roll and shook my head, unwilling to believe how well Dingo always managed to roll. And by “well,” I mean high in number, not necessarily how well in our favor.

“Never mind, Xavier,” I said as Dingo rolled a third time, easily confirming the instant kill. “We’re going to need an undertaker instead.”

*

Kaiyr’s sprint ground to a halt as Warteär Nomen slid his rapier from Solaria’s breast and flicked the blood from the blade’s edge, drawing a red line on the street that dared Kaiyr to cross it.

“Solaria!” Caineye cried when Kaiyr could not find the breath to do so. The battle stopped as the three companions stared in shock at the fallen nymph’s body, blood blossoming around her on the cobblestones.

Warteär Nomen straightened mechanically and met Kaiyr’s shocked stare. “I will destroy everything that is dear to you, elf, just as I have destroyed this creature,” the swordsman intoned in a perfectly calm voice.

“Bastard!” Wild shouted, rising from a crouch behind a boulder and pulling the trigger on his crossbow. The quarrel flew true, connecting at the base of Warteär Nomen’s skull. But it didn’t penetrate the elf-like creature’s skin in the least, instead shattering on impact. “What in the name of the gods…?” the halfling swore, dropping back behind cover as the swordsman turned to glare at him, ignoring the wolf chewing on his arm as though Vinto was not even there.

Finally, Kaiyr regained his focus. He forced himself to compartmentalize the grief he felt at the sudden loss of Solaria, feeding the grief into a mental meat grinder that turned it into anger, then tempered it under the icy waters of his blademaster training, transfiguring his white-hot fury into the most dangerous feeling: cold, cold rage. Righteous wrath stirred within the blademaster, wrath as deep as the Abyss and as frigid as the waters of the Styx.

Kaiyr’s soulblade flickered momentarily at his shift in emotions, and when it returned to full manifestation, its edge and golden hilt gleamed brighter than before in the amber light.

The blademaster looked at Warteär Nomen with eyes devoid of warmth and passion, eyes that saw not the present, but foresaw the cuts yet to be made, the blood not yet spilled. It did not matter to the blademaster whether the elf-creature did so out of fear, but Warteär Nomen took a step back and brandished his rapier in a defensive posture as Kaiyr stepped calmly forward.

“Take this!” Caineye suddenly interrupted, calling upon the power of the moon and directing a trio of pale, white beams of light at the hated enemy. The light rushed in and swirled around Warteär Nomen, whose muscles began to sag, their strength sapped by the power of the druid’s spell.

But Warteär Nomen suddenly straightened, his skin hanging off his form as though it were loose clothing. “Useless flesh,” he muttered, reaching across and gripping his shoulder with one hand. Without a hint of emotion or even pain, he ripped the skin away from his body, tearing the wilted flesh away and throwing it to the ground. Before them stood a creature seemingly made of nothing but plate armor, and pulsing, blue energy shone through between the eerily silent steel plates.

“By the gods,” Caineye murmured, stepping back; Vinto also let go of Warteär Nomen’s arm. “Warteär Nomen… he’s not even
living!
”

*

“Hasta la vista, baby,” Matt said in his best Schwarzenegger voice.

“I’ll be back,” I agreed.

“But Solaria won’t,” Dingo added, receiving a chorus of boos in return.

*

Kaiyr could find within himself no reason to fear the new creature that stood before him, still holding onto the deceptively delicate rapier that had ended Solaria’s life. The lack of flesh only served to remove the disguise that had hampered Kaiyr’s judgment before; his strikes had barely stung the elf-creature. Now that he knew the construct’s true nature, he understood why his attacks had been ineffectual. If anything, it would make the battle easier. Just as he had done to the steel door that had trapped Wild, Kaiyr would cut down Warteär Nomen, because that was what his enemy was: nothing more than a closed door.

“Gee, I’m so glad I can’t do anything to help,” Wild muttered to himself as he watched the blademaster approach Warteär Nomen.

The construct jumped back and unleashed a green bolt of disintegrating energy at the blademaster, who knew it was coming a second before it happened, and when Warteär Nomen fired the ray, Kaiyr was simply not there anymore. Confused, Warteär Nomen realized its error when Kaiyr’s soulblade ripped into the hard, metal carapace of its shoulder.

Then, recognizing its own doom in the form of Kaiyr’s blade, Warteär Nomen struck back, raising its rapier for another strike, but its aim was knocked off-course when an enormous, wooden spike crashed into its side, and Kaiyr dodged the lightning-fast sword.

Rushing back in, Kaiyr used the distraction of Caineye’s
splinterbolt
to land another pair of devastating blows. He sent a small burst of thought to his soulblade every time he swung, bidding his spirit to bite deeper with each cut, as if to wish Warteär Nomen destroyed by his willpower alone.

The construct, already weakened by the companions before Caineye had revealed its true form, began to show signs of wear and tear. With every strike from Kaiyr’s soulblade and spell from Caineye’s fingertips, more pieces of Warteär Nomen’s body clattered to the ground. Blue-glowing conduits of magical energy that enabled the construct to move began to show, pulsing as though they were blood pushed by a heart.

Finally, it could stand no more, and Warteär Nomen, infused with a certain amount of self-preservation, paused to invoke magic that would carry it away from here. Kaiyr, however, had already foreseen this, and he was relentless in pursuing the construct. Whirling in a trio of spinning leaps, Kaiyr’s first strike sliced through Warteär Nomen’s hand, disrupting the precise gestures necessary for it to cast the teleportation magic. The blademaster’s second cut hewed through the construct’s core from shoulder to waist. A shower of sparks erupted from the wound as the conduits powering the body broke down and failed. Finally, with a shout of released anger and focus, Kaiyr soared high into the air, and when he came down, his soulblade sheared through Warteär Nomen’s metal neck.

Kaiyr fell to his knees, shoulders heaving, as the construct’s head fell to the ground, eyes still smoldering. The infuriated blademaster’s final strike had left the metal glowing red-hot, which cooled as Warteär Nomen’s eyes faded and finally turned dark.

None of them moved for several long minutes. Kaiyr stared, eyes still filled with rage, at Warteär Nomen’s body. Caineye watched the blademaster, unwilling to look at Solaria’s fallen form so gracefully splayed on the cobblestones amid her own blood, a tragic work of art. Wild was the only one aside from Vinto who looked upon Solaria, and he could barely breathe as he vainly tried to swallow the rising lump in his throat. The wolf, keeping his paws clear of Solaria’s sacred blood, gingerly sniffed at her corpse. Determining her dead, he raised his head to the amber dome overhead and let out a long, low howl of mourning that echoed in the empty streets.

Kaiyr heard the halfling’s struggle against tears, but the elf could not find within himself the capacity for tears just yet. He still channeled his grief into rage, and he could not let go of that grounding emotion because he knew that if he did, he might lose himself in his anguish. He could not let that happen; while Warteär Nomen was the one who had struck the final blow, there was yet someone else who was truly responsible for her death.

That thought, and that thought alone, spurred the blademaster to move. Rising slowly, he released his soulblade and strode to Solaria’s side. His face impassive, he knelt briefly and then rose with Solaria’s body in his arms. Behind him, Wild erupted into tearful sobs and rushed forward, wrapping his arms around Kaiyr’s leg. Kaiyr, although he dimly empathized with the halfling in a compartmentalized corner of his mind, barely took notice of the added weight, recognizing that they were still in enemy territory.

Stopping before Caineye, Kaiyr looked at the druid with his oceanic eyes, eyes that were calm on the surface but roiling and furious beneath. In that one look, Caineye understood what Kaiyr needed right now, and with a deep breath, the human stabilized his thoughts and emotions, at least temporarily, and nodded back at the blademaster. Before they left, Wild released his grasp on Kaiyr’s leg and lifted Warteär Nomen’s head in both hands. “This is coming with us.”

Neither of the other two had any arguments, and together they made their way back toward the temple, Kaiyr carrying Solaria, Caineye close to his side, and Wild walking at his knee, angrily clutching the head of the artificial creature that had killed their friend.

Their battle must have caught the attention of the roving bands of invaders, and it was not long before the companions found the street blocked by a small horde of the transformed Terth’Kaftineya and their human allies. Neither side said anything, though both clearly challenged the other.