City of Fire dad-4

by T. H. Lain

  Seeing Kark fall beneath the paladin's blade, Grawltak felt a howl of grief rise in his throat, but he refused to let it out. He had the half-orc backed up against the Opal Throne and the barbarian's raging blows could not get past Grawltak's two weapons. As the half-orc surged forward again, Grawltak swept his hooked scimitar low and wide. The spike caught the half-orc just above the ankle. With a tug, Grawltak used the hook to trip him, then sprang back as the barbarian's awkward blow bit into the floor. The gnoll then hurled his hand axe at the half-orc and the missile sliced into the patchwork mail protecting the surprised barbarian's shoulder. The blade cut deep into gray flesh. Stepping forward, Grawltak stabbed at the barbarian who parried the blow with a wild swing and scrambled away.

  Naull was the only one of the companions standing near the Opal Throne. She rushed to the azer's side and saw he'd already drawn the arrow from his chest and looked remarkably unhurt.

  "Where is the key?" he asked.

  Naull got on her hands and knees. She had seen Krusk toss it under the throne and it took only a few moments of blind fumbling for her to find it with her fingertips. The flickering flames made the disk hard for her to grasp, but the wizard managed to draw it toward her an inch at a time.

  A howl of anger and pain distracted her. Looking up, Naull nearly screamed when she saw the blackguard, her face a mask of hate and triumph, standing over Regdar. He knelt before her, his flaming sword gripped loosely in one hand and his other arm wrapped around his belly. Blood flowed freely as he looked up at his foe. She raised her sword and laughed. When the fighter turned away from the blow, his eyes met Naull's.

  "Regdar," Naull whispered in anguish.

  His eyes held pain and despair but she saw something else there, too; something soft that they shared, but never had time to talk about.

  Naull's right hand found a spell pouch and she pointed at the blackguard. She spat the command word and a thin, icy beam shot out and struck the black knight in her armored side. A small, white button of frost appeared on the woman's torso.

  The blackguard didn't even notice. The sword came down.

  Before the blow could land, before Naull could close her eyes, a gleaming shape streaked up from behind the blackguard. Silver arms wrapped around dark steel and both shapes crashed against the stone floor.

  Alhandra had crossed the room in a flash, skirting past the gnoll leader and Krusk to tackle the blackguard from her blind side. They tumbled across the floor in a tangle of screeching metal.

  The gnoll leader had seen the paladin dash by and tried to hook her with his curved blade, only to miss and curse its slowness. It cursed again for good measure when its mistress hit the floor. The gnoll stood momentarily alone, the only one in the room still on its feet, then it saw Naull lying beside the Opal Thone. Baring its teeth in a snarl of cruelty, the gnoll stepped toward the wizard.

  If the gnoll leader saw Naull draw the red-tipped wand from her belt and point it just above its head, it showed no sign.

  "Secrus!" she exclaimed, and the bead streaked out to a point barely above the gnoll's canine head.

  When it exploded, the edge of the flame reached just short of Krusk and within inches of the bleeding Regdar, but its full fury engulfed the gnoll leader.

  When the flames cleared moments later, only the gnoll's charred and crumbling corpse was left behind. Naull barely saw it as she struggled to her feet, so intent was she on reaching Regdar.

  The wizard took one step, then two, then felt herself halt suddenly. It was as if something gripped her by the side. When Naull looked down, she wondered at the black steel jutting out from her midriff. Her eyes followed it to a hilt, and a black gauntlet, but pain clouded her vision before she could follow it farther. With a shudder, the wizard dropped her wand and heard it clatter against the blood-spattered floor.

  "Well, that's about it, then," a voice said in her ear.

  Naull struggled to turn her head and saw the blackguard's face only inches away. She fought to focus her mind and shut out the pain. In the throbbing haze, one corner of her mind noted how similar were this pale face framed with long, dark hair, and Alhandra's. Then her legs collapsed and she slid from the blade.

  Lying on her side, Naull thought of Regdar and wondered if he still lived. She wondered, too, if the blackguard would place a foot on her chest as Alhandra had done to the gnoll in the street before delivering the final blow. Instead of feeling the black steel bite into her neck, however, she heard a clash of metal and a cry of pain. Turning her neck with a shudder, Naull saw Regdar swaying on his feet, his normally dark face pale from loss of blood. He staggered toward the black-armored woman, his flaming sword trailing sparks along the floor. Behind him, Alhandra struggled forward on one knee, hand outstretched. She seemed to be trying to say something, but when she opened her mouth, only blood sputtered forth.

  The blackguard turned back from the grisly pair and looked down at Naull again.

  "Give me that," she said coldly.

  At first, the wizard didn't understand, then she looked at her hand that was pinned under her body and saw the fiery key hovering above it. She didn't know how it did that; perhaps its magic had been activated when she touched it beneath the throne. Either way, the blackguard wanted it, and for some reason she was waiting for Naull to give it to her.

  The wizard didn't move at first, then the blackguard crouched down, reaching toward Naull's bloodstreaked hand.

  With a desperate effort, Naull pushed away. She was surprised at the strength still in her arms. The pain in her midsection flared like icy blades and her body left a bloody smear on the floor where she passed. It hurt even more to use her legs, but dragging herself with only her arms was so slow. With despair she realized that she was only behind the throne, bare yards from where she started.

  The blackguard's ebony gauntlet gripped her shoulder and Naull cried out weakly in shock. As the hand tugged her back, Naull gritted her teeth and threw the key away from her as far as she could.

  It wasn't much of a throw. The key bounced and skittered like a flaming coal jumping out of a fireplace and came to rest about a dozen feet away. Naull heard the blackguard curse and felt the metal gauntlet smash against her ear.

  "Fool!" the raven-haired woman spat in annoyance.

  Standing over the fallen wizard she looked at the key and at the bleeding woman. Victory was in her grasp. Naull saw the blade glint above her face. Weakly she pawed at her spell pouches. She thought of Trebba spending her last breath to stab the orc lieutenant and desperately hoped she could find something that might save her companions.

  The wizard's probing fingers found the small black bead taken from the orc lair. Naull hadn't fully identified it yet, but when she discerned its magical nature she knew it was an evocation spell of some sort. Now it was her only hope. She drew it out and threw it up at the blackguard and the raised sword.

  The black bead struck the knight's armor with a small tink! For a brief instant, neither Naull nor the blackguard thought it would have any effect. Then with a roar of displaced air, the space around the two exploded.

  Alhandra stumbled over to Regdar and the two lurched forward. Regdar collapsed just feet from the edge of the explosion and coughed blood. Reaching out with a mailed fist, he felt it stop against an invisible field of force.

  Naull lay inside a bubble of force. Regdar couldn't tell whether she was alive or dead, but he saw her wound and kept trying to touch her. The force wall stopped him, and he sagged against it.

  A warm lightness swelled up against his back and Regdar felt himself regaining some of his strength. He blinked and spat out blood. Turning, he saw Alhandra with blood on her chin as well. She was concentrating gravely as she put her hands on his back, and Regdar felt his wound healing.

  She stopped almost immediately and while Regdar knew he was still hurt, he also knew he would live. Alhandra staggered to her feet and looked around. When she saw Krusk lying to one side with the azer tending his wound, she walked
slowly toward him.

  Regdar turned back to Naull.

  A sword clashed against the force wall just as he put his hand up against it. Reflexively, the fighter jumped to his feet.

  Inside the bubble of force stood the blackguard, the symbol of Hextor emblazoned in red upon her dark armor. She looked a little worse for wear, her face dark from bruises and her hair singed and tangled. She screamed angrily at Regdar and pounded futilely against the bubble. Regdar ignored her and looked down.

  Naull lay at the blackguard's feet. He thought she was unconscious-he even hoped she was unconscious-but then she turned her face toward him and he almost looked away. Her features were scorched and bloody and one eye looked as if it might be damaged beyond normal healing. She reached up and put her hand against the bubble.

  "Naull…" Regdar said, pressing his hand to the wall near hers.

  The wizard coughed bubbles of blood.

  "Got her…" she said, and smiled grotesquely.

  The blackguard cursed but they both ignored her.

  "Are you…?" Regdar didn't complete the question. "How did you

  …?" He gestured.

  "Bead of force," she answered feebly. "Figured it had to be something. Didn't think it would be this good." She smiled weakly, then coughed again and said, "Get the key."

  Regdar didn't move. Alhandra stood behind him, however, looking a little better. She felt her way around the invisible bubble to the flaming key. The paladin picked it up and brought it back, then showed it to Naull, who smiled again.

  The blackguard's eyes lit up. She brandished her sword and pointed its dark tip at Naull's chest. The wizard didn't react.

  "That's it, little sister," the blackguard taunted, holding the sword in one hand and beckoning with the other. "Give me the key, and I will spare your friend. I can heal her, you know."

  Alhandra hesitated.

  "Can she?" Regdar asked. His voice sounded hollow.

  The paladin looked at Naull, then the floor, then back at Regdar, and said, "Not like I do. If she ever served a power of light, Hextor has perverted her ability. He grants the power to destroy, not to heal others."

  Alhandra locked gazes with the blackguard.

  "Oh?" The blackguard sneered. She tossed her head back and laughed cruelly. Pulling out a short, stoppered bottle, she dangled it in front of the paladin. "Even a servant of Hextor can pour a potion down a girl's throat."

  "Alhandra-" Regdar said, pleading.

  The paladin nodded, defeated. She held up the key and they watched as a smile grew on the blackguard's face.

  "No," coughed Naull, spitting more blood. Regdar saw that she was weakening quickly. Whatever was keeping her conscious was killing her as well. "No, Regdar, you mustn't. She'll kill us all. You don't have much time."

  Krusk and the azer joined them. The half-orc pressed his hand against the bubble and tears rolled down his gray cheeks. Naull looked up at him and tried to smile but the pain was too great. She only grimaced.

  Gurn said solemnly, "She is correct. I have prepared the throne, but the ritual is fading. If we do not complete it and place the key in its spot, we cannot try again for at least another day."

  "Naull," Regdar started to say, but she shook her head. Her eyes were open and clear. Refusing to look away from his partner, Regdar nodded. "All right. Do it."

  Ignoring the blackguard's threats and curses, Alhandra handed the key to Krusk and Gurn told the half-orc to sit in the chair.

  "Put your right hand here and hold the key with your left," he said.

  Alhandra and Regdar stayed at the edge of the bubble. Regdar knelt there, his hand covering Naull's and his eyes shining with grief. The expression exchanged between Alhandra and the blackguard was pure hatred.

  "I will kill you for this, little sister," the blackguard spat at her. "I have marked you, paladin of Heironeous, and I will find you again. As Hextor has sworn eternal hatred for his loathsome brother, I swear my hatred for you!"

  "likewise," the paladin replied coolly.

  Naull looked to be unconscious, but she still breathed shallowly. Regdar said her name quietly as the azer and Krusk began the last element of the ritual. The blackguard turned away from Alhandra and looked down at the pair, contempt plain on her features.

  "As for her…" the black knight purred.

  Regdar looked up at her sharply. His eyes met the blackguard's and she looked amused at his rage.

  "This bubble won't hold me forever, and I'll have her for company in the meantime."

  Regdar stood and brandished his sword. If he was about to make a threat, however, Gurn interrupted it. "Now!" the azer yelled, and Regdar turned just in time to see Krusk slam the flaming key against the Opal Throne.

  The entire tower bucked. Alhandra barely kept her feet and Regdar didn't, falling back against the bubble of force, then landing heavily on the stone floor. He peered into the bubble trying to see Naull's face again but the quake turned her body away from his.

  Scrambling to his feet he shouted, "What's happening?"

  Krusk stood up from the throne as Gurn answered, "The gates are being closed and the city will return to fire. Secrustia Nar is no more."

  Gurn looked both sad and relieved when he said this, but Regdar reacted with alarm.

  "What about them?"

  He turned back to the bubble as the ground shook again. A crack appeared in the white wall and he felt the temperature rapidly rising.

  "No time!" Alhandra shouted. "We have to leave!"

  With an anguished look back at the bubble, Regdar let Krusk drag him away. The blackguard, rather than looking afraid for her life or even angry that her scheme was thwarted, looked at him with that same smile of taunting satisfaction she'd shown moments before. She knelt by Naull's side and said something, but Regdar couldn't hear over the thunder around him.

  "Listen!" the azer said. The harshness of Gum's voice jarred Regdar out of his reverie and he looked at the fiery dwarf. "My mephit servants-they should be able to get you back to the street, but then you must run for the gate. There isn't much time. I'm sorry for your friend; I did not think the collapse would happen so quickly."

  Regdar wanted to argue, but another rumble interrupted him. More cracks appeared in the white wall and the floors. A mephit, followed by a dozen more, swirled up around him. He felt himself lifted off the ground then he landed heavily again. He swatted at the azer's servants and growled.

  "Come on," Alhandra pleaded with the fighter.

  Regdar saw the creatures of smoke and fire try to lift her as well. She did not resist, but they had trouble anyway.

  "Your armor," the azer said. "It may be too heavy."

  "No!" Krusk said suddenly. "Here!"

  He threw something heavy at their feet.

  It was the blackguard's carpet, torn and singed, but when Alhandra stepped cautiously aboard it rippled to life.

  "Come on," she yelled again, reaching out to Regdar. The fighter turned back toward the bubble but Alhandra grabbed him. Lurching with surprise, Regdar stumbled onto the carpet, then tried again to pull away. A thick forearm wrapped around his neck from behind and squeezed, harder than anything Regdar had ever felt. He struggled with all his might without catching a wisp of breath. He twisted and kicked, but still felt himself being dragged inexorably backward onto the carpet. Regdar's eyes locked on Naull's body as darkness crept in from the edges of his vision. The carpet rose with Krusk cradling the fighter's unconscious body between his knees, rocking back and forth.

  Standing on the shifting lava floor, the azer watched as the paladin steered the carpet through the minaret's swirling flame walls and out over the crumbling city.

  Outside the tower, pieces of the building were breaking loose and falling away. The flaming walls flickered and blazed in surges of heat. This did not trouble Gurn. He did not fear the flames and he fingered a small ring that he knew would keep him from falling.

  Moving around the throne to the bubble of force, the azer
looked at the blackguard. She no longer smiled, but looked off into the sky at her departing enemies.

  The azer moved around to face the blackguard.

  "You have failed," he said simply.

  She shrugged. "This time, slave, this time. Hextor hoped to gain a servant from my mission, and I hoped to gain powerful magic." Looking down at Naull's unconscious form she concluded, "perhaps all is not lost."

  "You are," Gurn pronounced. More of the floor collapsed, beginning a long plummet to the burning city below. The bubble of force teetered near the edge of the broken tower. "I will see you burn, servant of Hextor. Secrustia Nar may be destroyed, but it will never serve evil again. And neither will you."

  The blackguard laughed. She laughed as the fires erupted around the azer's feet and he glared at her and thought her mad. Before the rest of the tower could fall into the fire, however, she stopped laughing. Drawing an amulet from beneath her breastplate, she looked at it and placed it on the ground. A moment later, she chanted words in an ancient and foul language. A blue form rose from the disk and spoke to the blackguard in the same language. Nodding, the black knight knelt and picked up the disk and the body of the wizard.

  The azer's eyes narrowed, but he could do nothing. With a last, jaunty wave, the blackguard, the wizard, and the disk winked away. Moments later, the tower groaned, twisted visibly, and toppled lengthwise. Gurn hovered above it and watched its long, graceful fall into the roiling flames. With a last look at the inferno that had been the white tower, the azer sighed and turned away.

  Epilogue

  … Regdar, Krusk, and Alhandra stood at the base of the canyon as the sun set over the edge. Alhandra's lantern provided some light, but after their travels through Secrustia Nar it seemed feeble indeed.

  While waiting for Regdar to regain consciousness, Alhandra and Krusk had searched the canyon for their horses. As Alhandra feared, the gnolls had found them, but while Stalker died a bloody death, Windlass had fled to safety. The beast returned at Alhandra's calls, and Krusk marveled aloud at the horse's training.