The Companions of Tartiël (13 page)

“Beware!” Kaiyr shouted to Caineye, manifesting his soulblade and rushing in to engage the enemy. The spellcaster looked up just in time to jump out of the way of Kaiyr’s first strike, which cleaved through the bowl of inky liquid set at the center of a ritual drawing.

Caineye landed in the cellar just in time to see the creature’s hood fall back, revealing a human with a shaved head and jagged tattoos scrawled across his gaunt cheeks.

“Foolish meddlers,” snarled the man. “You should have gone on your merry way. Let me help you with that now.” With a flick of his wrist and an uttered word, he sent three glowing, white projectiles at the blademaster, who deftly dodged out of the way, only to be surprised a moment later when the
magic missiles
darted right back at him, striking his back and shoulders. A shock of pain tore through the elven warrior’s body, and he distantly heard Caineye cry out in surprise.

A stone launched from the druid’s sling whizzed past Kaiyr’s head and ricocheted off an invisible barrier around the wizard. The delay gave Kaiyr the moment he needed to clear his head and stave off the shooting pain. Scowling, the blademaster looked up in time to see the wizard pull out a small bag and a candle before beginning to cast another spell.

Having little desire to let his enemy get another chance to kill him, Kaiyr darted forward, grabbed the focus implements from his enemy’s hands, and threw them at opposite walls. Continuing his momentum, he plowed into the man with his shoulders, and both of them crashed to the ground. The surprised wizard could offer little resistance as the blademaster wrestled him onto his stomach, pulling out a thin cord and binding the man’s hands and fingers behind his back.

Snarling, the human mage turned and glared daggers at his captor as Caineye strode over. “
Kertas disonum telares
—ow!” His incantation, which had been gathering energy around him, found its end when Kaiyr’s fist slammed into the man’s cheek. The power dissipated with a sorry, little pop.

“Be silent, or I will cut out your tongue,” Kaiyr said flatly.

Caineye stopped and stared at the elf for a moment, surprised at the utter calm and sincerity in the blademaster’s voice. “Uh, we shouldn’t need to do that, Master Kaiyr.”

Kaiyr leveled a serious gaze at the druid. “I will not give him another chance to kill us. His life is in his own hands; any consequences that befall him are his own doing.”

The leather-clad human considered the black-robed figure struggling beneath Kaiyr, the blademaster’s knee behind the captured foe’s neck. Then he just shrugged. “I can’t argue with that. What next?”

“I suppose that is up to him,” Kaiyr replied, turning his gaze down to the wizard, who had resorted to thrashing and spitting curses that would have made a dwarven smith blush. Grabbing his enemy by the scruff of the neck, Kaiyr hoisted the man to a sitting position, called in his soulblade, and held its tip near the man’s throat.

“The task I have for you is simple,” the blademaster intoned in his calm but deadly voice. He glanced at the magical energy still flowing up from the ritual and through the ceiling. The woman on the floor above gave a slight whimper and thumped against the floorboards. Turning back to the man, Kaiyr continued, “Release the girl, and I shall not harm you… lest you should betray our mercy.”

The human grinned vilely, and the two companions could see that his teeth had been sharpened to jagged points. “Never! You’ll have to kill me to release her, goody-two-sho—”

“Very well,” Kaiyr interrupted calmly, and with a flash of his soulblade, he sent the man’s head rolling across the floor. Immediately, the dark energy in the room subsided, and the light of the ritual’s candles expanded slightly to give better illumination.

Caineye stared at the headless body. “That was…”

“Necessary,” Kaiyr finished for the druid. “I gave him a chance to redeem himself, and he did not take it. The release of death is more mercy than many would have offered.” He bent over and began inspecting the man’s robes, which still gave off wispy shadows that made the garment difficult to focus upon.

The druid stood, lost in thought for several long moments, before he nodded his head. “I suppose so,” he agreed. Then he paused. “What are you doing?”

Kaiyr stopped rummaging around in the dead man’s pockets and looked up at Caineye. “This man was our enemy. What was his is now ours, and we are beholden to make whatever use we can of these possessions to aid our quest and to better protect those around us.” As he tossed a thick book to the druid, who caught it, the blademaster finished, “It would also be unwise to allow this man’s allies to reclaim this equipment and put it to further despicable use.”

Caineye could find no argument, and he helped Kaiyr gather up any useful supplies they could find. The girl upstairs had fallen into an exhausted but untroubled sleep. Kaiyr, being the stronger of the two, handed the bundle of equipment to the druid before gently lifting the winged girl and carrying her back to their camp.

Wild “looked” up at the approaching footsteps. “Caineye? Master Kaiyr?” he asked tentatively, his hand near his daggers.

Kaiyr set the girl down against one of the rocks. “We are returned, Master Wild. Fear not.”

Wild snorted. “Fear? Fear what?”

*

“Heh, that’s right,” Dingo said, “I’d forgotten Wild is immune to fear.”

“It’s one of the perks,” Matt agreed, stretching in his chair. “Well, I’m blind, so until we can get that fixed, I’m leaving everything to you guys.”

I looked to Dingo. “So, what kind of stuff did the dead wizard have?”

Dingo looked at his sheet. “Okay, well, after sorting everything out, you end up with six hundred gold, his spellbook and components, a
potion of
… er, a potion.” I nodded, since potions were magical and required identification before use—or at least before safe use. He waited while I scribbled the items onto a list. “You also get his robes, which… Kaiyr, you don’t like the feel of them, and neither do you, Caineye. They feel unnatural, almost corrupt. They seem to be made of shadow, and their form shifts constantly.”

“Eew,” I said, still writing, “We’ll toss those in a trash bag and sell ‘em next time we’re in a big enough city.”

“You also find his staff, which is of a dark wood, and it has a jet gemstone set at the top. Oh, and you find a silver ring with another jet stone, this one inscribed with a sinister-looking rune.” Dingo glanced at his list again and nodded to indicate that he was done.

“Okay, well, everyone’s getting two hundred gold for now,” I said, splitting the six hundred gold three ways. “We’ll have to wait until we can sell the rest before splitting everything else. Unless someone wants to try on the robes of evilness.”

Matt raised his hand. “Wild might like them.”

I rolled my eyes. “Luckily, in a sudden flash of insight, Kaiyr decides
not
to tell the halfling about it and instructs Caineye in Sylvan to keep his mouth closed on the matter.”

“How about the ring?” Matt asked hopefully.

I pursed my lips before shaking my head. “I think Kaiyr’s going to pocket that for now in one of the hidden pockets in his sleeve. Quietly.” Matt frowned, but I went on, “I don’t think it’d be all that wise to go around with you flashing this ring at anyone who might be watching.”

“Fair enough. What about that potion?”

I shook my head. “Probably the classic
potion of jump
that we’ll find a million of until we start finding currency in the form of multiple
rings of the ram
,” I said, referring to a previous D&D game where every other treasure hoard had one of the mostly-useless rings in them. “Plus, neither Kaiyr nor Caineye can cast
identify
.”

“And I don’t have any Knowledge (arcana),” Xavier added.

I grinned. “There’s always the time-honored taste-test. Who wants to try the potentially poisonous potion?”

“Nice alliteration,” Dingo muttered.

Xavier looked over at me. “Caineye’ll take a sip. I take it from Kaiyr and touch it to my tongue.”

Dingo’s eyes widened. “Okay. Make me a Fortitude save.” Xavier picked up his die to roll, but the DM waved his hand. “No dice, man. I’m just kidding. Anyway, you touch the surface of the liquid with your tongue. For a moment, nothing happens, until you realize that the lights and colors around you seem to be brighter, like someone turned up your eyes’ brightness and contrast. It increases until it almost hurts before subsiding.”

“Eyes,” I muttered as we three players leaned forward to talk about it as a group. “Sounds like it might be a
potion of remove blindness
. What do you think, Xavier?”

He nodded. “It could be. It wasn’t poison, at least. You want it, Wild?”

Matt shrugged. “Sure. It couldn’t hurt.”

“It makes sense,” I said, nodding. “If this guy knew what he was dealing with, it’d be sensible to be able to keep his eyes. Give it a shot.”

Matt turned to Dingo. “I’ll drink it.”

“All right. Your eyesight comes back. What next?”

“Onward,” I said, looking back at Dingo. “Um, I vote we get at least a little ways away from here before setting up camp. I’m not really in a mood to get stomped and chomped by deinonychus and then killed again by their riders.” Xavier and Matt nodded their agreement. “So we’ll find a better camp, somewhere at least a half-mile away. Can Caineye find us a nice stream so we can wash and refill our waterskins?”

Xavier took up his d20, gave it a roll, and added his Survival skill modifier to it. “Yeah, I found a stream with… a twenty-five.”

*

Kaiyr let out a breath of relief as he carefully laid the winged girl on a patch of soft moss that climbed up an evergreen only a few paces from a small stream of clear water. She was a thin young woman, but the added weight of wings large enough to carry an elf-sized creature through the air turned her into quite a burden.

Caineye pointed at Wild, who had dropped his gear and was already fast asleep. The two waking companions shared a quiet smile. “I’ll find some wood and build a smokeless fire,” the druid said. “Vinto, stay here and guard the camp.”

Vinto’s tongue lolled from his mouth momentarily before he settled in next to Wild, calm but alert. As Kaiyr set about gathering water into an iron pot the three of them shared, Caineye disappeared into the gathering night to find fuel.

“Wh—where am I?” came the winged girl’s tired and bewildered voice.

Kaiyr turned but averted his eyes when the young woman’s form began glowing with an all-too-familiar, dangerous light. “Please,” he said evenly, “you are safe. There is no need to blind us.”

“Oh,” said the girl, pushing herself into a sitting position. “It’s you.” The silvery glow subsided, and Kaiyr knelt down before her. “You saved me.”

Kaiyr nodded. In his mind, he itched to ask about her sudden ability to speak, but he did not. “We did. That man is no more. More importantly, are you well?”

“I… I think so.” She looked around. “Is that a stream?”

Kaiyr nodded, but before he finished saying, “It is,” the girl had already stood up and scampered to the water, skipping right into the middle of the stream. The scant, ragged clothes she had been wearing fluttered to the bank in her wake.

The girl seemed to enjoy herself in the stream, washing away sweat, blood, and grime. Kaiyr, before he stationed himself with his back to her, could not help but notice the marks on her skin from wounds and torture inflicted upon her. Barely a day had passed before the companions had caught up with the poor girl, and she had already endured so much pain.

The blademaster nodded at the druid as Caineye returned and began building a fire. The elf answered the human’s inquisitive expression with a washing motion of his hand, and the druid continued his work, getting the fire started before placing the water-filled pot above it on a quickly constructed tripod.

Over his shoulder, Kaiyr asked the girl, “My lady, can you remember anything about the people who took you?”

The young woman’s happy splashing stopped abruptly. After a long pause, she answered in a small voice, “No.”

Kaiyr understood the meaning of her answer, the paragraphs of pain and yearning to erase the experiences she had suffered, and knew that even thinking of the topic would bring only more pain. “Very well,” he said softly. “Please, if you remember anything, tell one of us. The only thing we can arm ourselves with in order to protect you is whatever knowledge you might have.”

“I… I know,” she replied.

A long and apprehensive silence stretched out between them. Kaiyr let his troubled thoughts dissipate in light of the day’s victory. It would seem that his father had been right; no victory can be won without an equal loss. He listened to the subdued sloshing of the young woman in the stream and the crackle of Caineye’s fire.

At length, the druid called to the others, “Dinner’s ready, everybody!” Kaiyr handed the girl a blanket Wild had generously offered for her use, and he followed when she trudged wordlessly by him. Wild woke up long enough to pack in more rabbit—compliments of Vinto—and berries than any of them thought possible for a man of such small stature.

“It’s to help the healing process,” the halfling said by way of explanation, his words strangled by a mouthful of food.

“What healing process?” Caineye whispered to Kaiyr, who just shrugged.

Later, as Wild continued his extended slumber, snoring luxuriously, the other three remained sitting around the embers of the dying fire, none of them feeling the need to feed it on this warm night. Kaiyr kept his focus inward, meditating. Occasionally, his spirit manifested in the form of a tiny will-o’-wisp that floated around one of his hands for just a few moments before fading away.

Caineye and the winged woman both had their gazes set towards the first moon to rise tonight, its light bathing the world in its bright, milky glow. They were content to keep to themselves, but finally, a thought that had been bothering the druid became too great to ignore. “Miss,” he said. The young lady turned away from the moon, an odd light in her eyes. Kaiyr, in meditation, listened as Caineye took a deep breath. “I don’t mean to offend you, but I have to admit my curiosity at your sudden and inexplicable ability to speak. What’s going on?”