The moment that gemstone shattered, I knew where I screwed up. Inae told me that Marat put Russ through some kind of ritual that ended with him drinking the blood of the innocent. He told me he felt fine, no different than before, and I didn’t see any problems either. Dale, who healed him, didn’t sense anything wrong. I had every reason to believe that he was all right, that whatever that ritual was made to accomplish was resisted. Obviously whoever designed and cast the spells involved was more powerful or skilled than anyone who was watching Russ for problems.
Forgetting about it was easy. There was always so much going on in my head, and in my heart. I just wanted my friend along for an adventure that I was sure would turn out fine since the risks seemed controllable. I realized how wrong and premature that was even more when Russ dropped his hammer, stumbled back, then fell backwards over the outer lip of the fountain. “What’s going on? What did I do?” He asked, looking at me, completely bewildered.
“He’s not the only one seeing through his eyes, I can sense someone else now,” Dale said as he held his staff up. “There’s someone… Marat! He’s used Russ as a puppet from afar!” With a look of determination, he sent a spiral of white light at Russ, who writhed and screamed as it passed into his head. “I drive you out! You will no longer have influence!”
“I can feel him in my head!” Russ cried. “Marat’s fighting you! My brain’s on fire!”
Uden finished shouldering his backpack and laid his hand on Russ. “I cleanse you of darkness, let there be only your will and the sight of your own gods upon you!”
Dale stopped, leaning on his staff. “Marat is powerful, but he’s gone, largely thanks to Uden and… Vis. A Goddess named Vis who was called to him from afar.”
Russ shook his head and started for his feet. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“There’s no time for that now,” Maydo said as she looked down the main hallway. The sounds of oil rushing through old pipes almost drowned her out. “This place is waking, I hear movement.”
Maybe there’s a little dwarf blood in me, but I didn’t immediately close my pack. Instead I swept everything on the side table in front of me towards the opening, not even looking at what it was, then cinched the top of my backpack with jewelry chains still dangling from the top. “You’re right, we run as a group!”
Dale almost forgot his backpack, but in the moment it took Russ to get to his feet, I closed that for him and helped the small healer put it on his shoulders. Russ grabbed a short handled two-headed axe that would have made Conan the Barbarian proud as he rushed for the door.
“We should at least try to fight these bastards,” Uden said, looking over his shoulder at the golden trove as we all headed for the door. “I’ll be sorry for all my days if we have to leave all this behind.”
“Sorrier if you get cut down by these things,” Maydo spat at him. “Sorrier still if you slow me down and we get trapped here!”
“I’m running as fast as I can, you overgrown Ondi!” he shot back, fighting to make his legs move faster.
Outside of the main chamber the hallways were filled with alcoves where Rikod’s devoted were being drenched in blue-black oil. Their emaciation was being reversed before our eyes, and many of them were already waking. I tried to start summoning a portal, just to see if I could do it right there, and felt completely blocked. “There are wards against portal travel here, we have to get out before everything wakes up.”
“I was wondering about that,” Dale said. He was quick, but short, so it was a struggle for him to keep pace with me, even though I was slowing up a little for him.
“I wish I transformed into a cat before we came,” Maydo grumbled.
“Cats can’t carry much booty, you made the right choice,” Uden replied.
“That might be what’s slowing you,” Maydo said, looking at the Dwarf, who was carrying a small chest in his hands. “You stuffed another one of those in your bag, didn’t you?”
“Us dwarves move faster when we’re properly laden, it’s a matter of being well grounded,” he replied.
“You Dwarves and your appetite for…” Maydo began to scold as we entered the second last room of the main tomb.
The hand of a large human reached out from a deep alcove and caught Dale’s robe in a rough grip, hauling him up off the ground. His skin had a dead, dark blue shade to it, and there was hate in his eyes. I drew Laudin’s Sword, Arcshine as it was called in its day, and brought it down on the thing’s arm.
To my relief, the blade cut straight through it above the elbow. Dale dropped to the floor, and pushed the limb off him with a disgusted grimace. Maydo and Uden stepped in beside me as we turned to face the room where the corrupted, reborn humans were emerging from their alcoves. The tubes stuck into their sides bent and cracked as they pulled free, and I didn’t hesitate in my charge.
Uden was ahead of me, swinging the small, heavy chest he’d been carrying by one of its handles.
“The only thing sadder than a Dwarf without coin is one trapped with a great big pile of it!” he cried as he shattered the leg of one of his attackers with a swing of the chest, then struck the knee of another from the side, sending both to the bricks. It seemed like he had a little practice with that kind of bludgeon.
I swung over his head, aiming for necks and eyes. Arcshine cleaved into bone almost as well as it slashed flesh, and I drove several of our attackers back against the walls. There was a strange vibration whenever I struck with the weapon, and I held it up for a second so I could look down it’s length. “Goddammit! It’s cracked! I bet it’s because of Rikod’s influence!”
“I’m surprised he could lay a hand on a holy weapon at all,” Maydo said as she got ahead of us both. In a fighting style that didn’t seem much different from the one I’d seen Rea use, she used her Eilwun blade to inflict heart and head wounds as she danced between the awakening foes.
“They’re about to come at us from behind!” Russ called, keeping up with us as he gripped his axe and paid more attention to the way we came than where we were going. It was actually good group strategy, since he was taking up the rear. I was both amused and relieved at how he was taking miniature battle strategy into this situation, even though he must have been terrified. I know I only overcame fear because I didn’t have time for it.
Dale hurled a spike of pure light at his next attacker, who screamed and fell to the bricks. “It worked! Focused healing magic is as poison to them!” He did it again, felling one of the last between us and the doorway.
The next room was worse. As we stepped inside many of the warriors inside were almost free of their alcoves. They looked like Thurden, a corrupted race descended from the first humans who were brought to Nemori. “Let us pass peacefully, and no harm will come to you!”
“Lod, ner vi, dogu mer kri-do,” one of them said angrily as he reached for the long-handled curved blade in his alcove.
“Translation?” Russ asked.
“That roughly means; ‘None shall survive the violation of our King,’” I replied as I swung at the nearest soldier. His too-large eyes widened in shock the instant he realized my sword was about to strike his thick neck. His head came off his shoulders as his sharp-toothed mouth grimaced and his body fell to the side, the oil that filled his body spraying from his neck.
“Oh, shit that’s gross!” Russ said before bringing his axe down on one of the remade humans who rushed up from behind our group. “I just got sprayed from behind! It’s so warm!”
“Just the blood of our foes!” Maydo said as she deflected a blade then stabbed her attacker in the eye.
“That’s what I was afraid of!” Russ replied as she panic-swung at a revived Thurden who was about to leap at him. The creature leaned back, avoiding the attack, and Dale sent a spiral of healing power at him. An instant later, the corrupted being fell, lifeless.
“Thanks!” Russ said. “There’s even more coming from the rooms closest to the main tomb. It’s getting bad!”
I turned in time to see Uden drive his sword through the heart of one, while Maydo slashed the throat of another. Before I could do a thing about it, a Thurden leapt from his alcove and jabbed his curved blade into Maydo’s side. “Maydo!” I shouted as I deflected a strike from my left. I retaliated, trying to drive the tip of my blade at the thing’s face, but he dodged, and I almost failed to deflect his next swing.
Dale healed Maydo as she sank to her knees and her attacker pulled his blade free. Her wound mended, she flipped her blade around and stabbed backwards, catching her assailant in the gut. It screamed and tried to strike her again, but she fell backwards and flipped her feet up, kicking his weapon out of his hands as she drew her blade down his body. Black-blue oil and entrails flowed out of his belly, partially drenching her before she could get out of the way.
I managed to dispatch the one I was fighting with a heart thrust, and we were on our way to the last room. “Guys! I won’t be able to keep our rear clear! Everything we left behind is up and after us!” Russ called.
The priests who guarded the first room, including the one who was asking for help, were on their feet, standing in formation with their bladed staves. They were short, no taller than Dale. One of them raised his staff and I was struck with a bolt of energy that made me feel weak to my core. My knees wobbled and I almost dropped.
Two more at the back of the group were casting more involved spells, moving their hands through the air as though weaving something that was invisible to us. Dale raised his staff and shouted; “I invoke Kaiyuma and cast you down!” A flash of light passed over the crowd before us and the priests collapsed. I had the eerie feeling that they were only stunned.
Dale fell next, and I was quick enough to catch him before he hit the floor. Uden caught the Creator’s Staff, and said; “Little bugger got it done, now we run!”
He was right. The priests before us were silent, but that hadn’t stopped the clamouring denizens behind us. I was brutally reminded of that as Russ’s axe clashed with the blade of a corrupted Thurden. I turned in time to stab that attacker through the neck. “Break and run!” I told him.
“Finally!” he said.
We rushed through the ruined rooms to the portal, gaining a scant lead on our attackers. I had to struggle for breath as my chest burned and my head swam. I was fighting exhaustion. The spell cast on me was probably meant to put me to sleep, or drop me into a coma, but I was resisting it well, considering.
Ilsa and several dwarves were lined up in front of the portal, their bows out, arrows nocked. They were flanked by several magicians and the rest of the warriors. “Get clear of the portal!” I shouted to my group as we emerged. Uden, Maydo and Russ managed to run to the right of the opening while I tripped and fell on top of Dale.
It was good enough for the waiting archers to unleash a volley at our pursuers. The magicians followed that with an attack that blasted most of them back. One managed to struggle through regardless, and he was set alight by our chief fire wizard. The corrupted Thurden staggered and screamed as his oily flesh burned.
I closed the portal with a gesture, and felt the world fade as exhaustion took me.