The Gates of Madness
Page 7
He was not Albric any longer, but neither was he only the Voidharrow. He saw, though not with Albric’s eyes any longer. He saw the corpses of the others—the other exarchs of the Voidharrow, the former acolytes of Albric—strewn here and there on the floor of the chamber, clots and puddles of liquid crystal flowing back from the bodies to pool in the center of the room. Albric’s plans, the Chained God’s plans, and even the Voidharrow’s plans all lay in ruin, thanks to the interference of these five mortals. He saw the one who had stabbed him, recoiling in fear and disgust, and reached his substance to seize that body.
The scream pleased him, the terror and pain given voice as he found his way into the body and made it his. It was different than Albric’s form, stronger and faster. The mind was quicker, too, and he could make use of it as he crushed its will with his own.
“Nowhere?” The female, the wizard, was bending over him, concern on her face. The dagger had fallen from his grip, so he used his bare hand, focusing all his strength into one blow that drove her off him and slammed her against the wall.
He got to his feet and surveyed the wreckage of the chamber.
The man’s name had been Nowhere, and now he was nothing. He shaped the muscles of the face into something like a smile.
“I am Nu Alin,” he declared.
Miri shot Brendis a smile. She liked fighting alongside the paladin—they were coordinating well together, even without speaking. More importantly, she realized, Brendis was relying on her. He trusted her to keep up her end of the partnership, which she could never really say about Demas. The Sword of the Gods was nothing if not confident, and while he certainly deserved to feel sure of himself, it often left her feeling like an unnecessary appendage. A child, tagging along at the whim of the champion.
Together, they easily defeated the strange elemental creature formed of the dragonborn’s fiery breath. Brendis loaned her some of his own divine power, making her axe shine like a shard of the sun, which seemed to make the creature and its pulsating liquid heart more susceptible to her attacks. Brendis drew it out so she could strike the killing blow, slicing cleanly through its heart and scattering the glowing embers of its substance.
She wanted to say something to Brendis, to communicate her appreciation, but as she sought for the right words his gaze drew her eyes to the others, across the room. Only one monster remained, an enormous spiderlike creature of glossy black chitin with scarlet crystal visible in the spaces between plates. As she stared, it clambered on top of the arch and crouched, ready to pounce down on Demas. At the same moment, Sherinna flew backward from Nowhere’s prone body, as if hurled by some enormous strength.
Brendis and Miri broke into a run at the same moment. All Miri could think of was what Brendis had said to Demas when they met: “You are chasing your doom.” As they ran, the spider-thing leaped, crashing into Demas and knocking him to the ground. Crystals flew from its body with the impact, then skittered around to swarm over Demas’s body.
“Ioun protect me!” he shouted, and he erupted with a burning light as bright as the sun. The larger creature staggered back as the crystal spiders crawling over Demas melted into tiny puddles of scarlet liquid.
Nowhere, who had found his feet, also recoiled from the light. His movements seemed stiff and awkward, and the snarl that twisted his face looked like nothing she’d seen from the tiefling before. He strode toward Demas, and Miri quickened her run to intercept him.
He met her charge with a backhanded swing that knocked her off her feet and sent her crashing into the arch. She felt the energies of the arch crackling around her and a gentle pull starting to draw her through, into the dark forest on the other side. Her head was swimming from the force of Nowhere’s blow, but she kept enough presence of mind to drag herself away from the arch before it could pull her through to whatever world lay beyond.
Brendis and Demas assaulted the spider-creature from opposite sides, but it didn’t seem the least bit troubled to fight on two fronts at once. Spindly, chitinous legs slashed at Demas as more crystalline spiders swarmed over Brendis, keeping clear of the deadly divine nimbus that surrounded the Sword of the Gods. Both men seemed oblivious to Nowhere and the threat he presented.
Sherinna was not. She’d been hit even harder than Miri was, and her face showed the mark of it as she pulled herself to her feet again. She met Miri’s eyes and nodded.
Gripping her axe, she rushed at Nowhere again, more cautiously this time. He ignored her, stooping to retrieve a dagger from the floor as he continued walking toward Demas. “Nowhere!” she shouted.
He spared her little more than a glance. “Nowhere is gone,” he said, his voice strange, the words stilted.
Sherinna used the brief distraction to utter a brief incantation that sent bolts of lightning cascading from her fingertips to engulf Nowhere’s form. His body arched with pain and his eyes met Miri’s for an instant. In that moment, she thought she saw Nowhere again, not whatever force was controlling his body, a look of sadness replacing the twisted fury on his face.
“Nowhere!” she called again. “Fight it! You can do it!”
“No, he cannot,” Nowhere’s body said.
Miri’s voice drew Demas’s attention, and he shifted so he could see both the spider-thing and Nowhere, finally recognizing the tiefling as an enemy. Brendis struck a mighty blow that flared with divine radiance, and the chitin shell shattered under the force of it. Tiny red spiders scattered in a wave that washed over Demas, sending him staggering backward.
“No!” Miri screamed.
Demas stumbled back and hit the arch, sparking a flare of crimson light as the image inside the arch flickered. Hundreds of the crystal spiders vanished through the archway as Demas fought to regain his balance. Terror distorted his normally serene countenance, a fear like Miri had never seen on his face. Brendis dropped his sword and grabbed Demas’s arm, then Nowhere leaped.
He covered five yards as easily as a single step, slamming into Demas’s body when he landed. He pushed the Sword of the Gods out of Brendis’s grip and through the arch, sending Brendis sprawling on the floor with one mighty kick, then swept his arm through both supports of the arch.
Miri dove for the arch, too late. The forest scene winked out as the arch collapsed, sealing Demas in whatever world lay beyond. Cold fear and despair gripped her heart. How did everything go wrong so quickly? she thought. We were doing
so well.
Scarlet light blazed from the wrecked arch to cast Nowhere’s huge shadow across the vault as he faced the wizard. “Sherinna,” he said. “He had such strong feelings for you.”
Nowhere’s hand twitched sharply, and he looked sharply down at it. “Once I kill you, his resolve will be shattered.”
So he’s still fighting, Miri thought. Fighting against this thing’s control, whatever it is.
“How do we fight this thing?” she asked aloud. “Can we get it out of Nowhere without killing him?”
Brendis got slowly to his feet, obviously in a lot of pain. He looked to Sherinna.
“I have an idea,” Sherinna said. “But it’s not a very good idea.”
“Right now, it’s all we have,” Miri said.
The tiefling was fighting hard for control of his body—much harder than Nu Alin had expected. He struggled to keep the body under control, and to make sure that no sign of the struggle was visible to the three enemies he faced. He could not display his weakness.
Nowhere felt like he was deep underwater, struggling to reach the surface as his lungs burned for air. The thing, whatever it was that had seized his body, was getting ready to kill Sherinna. Using his body. He couldn’t let that happen.
A spasm went through the body as Nu Alin’s control wavered. He saw the wizard, Sherinna, raise her hands and chant the syllables of a spell. He tried to leap at her, to strike her and disrupt the energies of her spell before she could cast it, but the body would not respond. He took a few staggering steps forward, then Sherinna’s spell took eff
ect.
Motes of gray-blue light danced around Nowhere’s body, and Nu Alin felt it stiffen. The magic hindered his control and seemed to help the tiefling exert his own will. Nu Alin began gathering his energy and his essence, preparing to leave this body and claim another if the battle took a turn for the worse.
“Sherinna …” Without Nu Alin’s consent, the lips formed her name and the breath gave it voice.
Nu Alin could no longer collect sense information from the lower part of the body, nor could he move the legs to walk. Sherinna stepped close. He tried to strike her, to drive her away, but the arms would not respond to his commands.
Water streaked Sherinna’s face. Nu Alin didn’t understand it—he tried to probe the tiefling’s thoughts but found them closed to him. He pooled his substance in the tiefling’s throat, but he found his own form congealing, thickening, growing slower and less responsive to his will.
What has she done?
Her lips brushed the tiefling’s mouth, and the last bit of sensation he experienced from the body was the softness of them as they touched his. Nowhere’s flesh was hard, unyielding, dead—it was stone, and his own substance was crystallizing as well. Too late, he tried to expel himself from the tiefling’s mouth, but the stone mouth was closed, no exit remained to him, and then he too was stone.
I have failed, he thought. But someday, somehow, I will finish what we have begun. I swear it by the Chained God and the Voidharrow.
Then he thought no more.
THE BEGINNING
To find out what happens next, read on as the Voidharrow takes root in the world with The Temple of Yellow Skulls by Don Bassingthwaite.
ORIGIN
The Gates of Madness
James Wyatt
The Mark of Nerath
The Abyssal Plague Prologue
Bill Slavicsek
THE PLAGUE STRIKES
The Temple of Yellow Skulls
The Abyssal Plague Trilogy, book 1
Don Bassingthwaite
Oath of Vigilance
The Abyssal Plague Trilogy, book 2
James Wyatt
August 2011
The Eye of the Chained God
The Abyssal Plague Trilogy, book 3
Don Bassingthwaite
April 2012
THE PLAGUE SPREADS
Sword of the Gods
Bruce Cordell
April 2011
Under the Crimson Sun
Keith R. A. DeCandido
June 2011
Shadowbane
Erik Scott de Bie
September 2011
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Wyatt is the Creative Manager for D&D R&D at Wizards of the Coast. He was one of the lead designers for 4th Edition D&D and the primary author of the 4th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide. He also contributed to the Eberron Campaign Setting, and is the author of several Dungeons & Dragons novels set in the world of Eberron.
ALSO BY JAMES WYATT
In the Claws of the Tiger
THE DRACONIC PROPHECIES
Storm Dragon
Dragon Forge
Dragon War
THE ABYSSAL PLAGUE
Oath of Vigilance
Dungeons & Dragons
The Gates of Madness
©2011 Wizards of the Coast LLC
All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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Published by Wizards of the Coast LLC
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, WIZARDS OF THE COAST, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. Other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Printed in the U.S.A.
Cover art Eric Belisle
This ebook collects the five-part novella, The Gates of Madness, originally serialized in The Ghost King by R. A. Salvatore, July 2010; The Mark of Nerath by Bill Slavicsek, August 2010; City Under the Sand by Jeff Mariotte, October 2010; Whisper of Venom by Richard Lee Byers, November 2010; Lady Ruin by Tim Waggoner, November 2010; copyright Wizards of the Coast LLC. All rights reserved.
ISBN:978-0-7869-4406-4
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Table of Contents
NERATH, BEFORE THE FALL
BAEL TURATH
SIGIL
PANDEMONIUM
VOIDHARROW
ABOUT THE AUTHOR