Return of the Damned

12

Regdar rushed over to Whitman. The dwarf lay on his side, breathing easily, his hps flapping a bit as they let out a breath of air, a small drip of drool running down the side of his face. The human grabbed his prone friend by the shoulder, and Whitman let out a long, snorting breath.

"Huh?" Whitman shook his head and rolled to his side, startled alert.

"Are you all right?" asked Regdar.

Whitman wiped the drool from his beard and sat up. He looked up at the big man and nodded.

Regdar slapped him on the arm and went to check on Tasca. The elf still stood frozen in place, his eyes moving side to side, alert but unmoving. Regdar tried to shake him as he had the dwarf, but it did no good. Tasca remained magically stuck, as if a statue.

While Regdar examined the elf, Clemf returned. He had a sheepish look on his face, and he poked his head around, surveying the room.

"They're all dead or dying," said Regdar, standing up straight. "You okay?"

Clemf straightened up and nodded hesitantly. "Yeah." He pointed to the dead wizard with his chin. "You kill him?"

Regdar nodded.

Clemf looked to the floor. "Good."

Soon Tasca's rigid form began to soften, and he slowly stood up straight as the spell expired.

He rubbed his neck. "Damn. I hate it when that happens."

Whitman led the way up the spiral stairs, and they reached the top without incident. The floor spread out in a small, square room around the hole where the stairs entered from below. There was one torch on each of three walls and a door in the third.

"Kick, kill, take," said Whitman, gently probing the smooth spot where his beard had been partially cut from his face.

Tasca and Regdar nocked arrows to their bows. Clemf stood beside the dwarf, sword at the ready.

Whitman looked at the other three men, nodded, then took two running steps forward, lifting his leg and kicking the door near the handle with a powerful thrust.

The door creaked open, resisting Whitman's forceful entry but giving way all the same. Inside, the room was filled with natural light. The wall opposite the door was made of a series of pillars and arches. The space between the stone supports was open to the outside. The walls to the east and west were solid stone like those the group had encountered below. Unlike the rest of the fortress however, the floor was made from slatted wooden panels. Many, many feet had passed over these boards, wearing them thin in places and leaving the floor smooth and shiny.

In the middle of the room, backlit by the light coming in from the overcast sky, stood a petite figure, hands grasped tightly around something, face pointing toward the floor.

Regdar pulled his arrow tight against his bow string, then relaxed.

"Naull," he said with enough inflection to make it sound somewhere between a question and a summons.

The figure didn't look up.

The men entered through the open door and spread out. Tasca looked at Regdar, holding his bow taught.

The big fighter shook his head. "It's her," he said. He lowered his bow and crossed the floor.

"Naull," he said again, this time a little louder. "Naull, it's me, Regdar."

Naull looked up from the floor. Her mouth moved, and she was whispering something Regdar could not hear. In her hands she held a partially unraveled scroll. The arcane markings on the rolled vellum flared and disappeared, and Naull's hps stopped moving, curling up into a smile.

The light pouring into the room wavered then disappeared. The gray, overcast sky slipped away, replaced by speckled black stone. Torches flickered along the walls, illuminating the outlines of a dozen or more black-clad soldiers. All of them held longswords at the ready, and they surrounded the four fighters.

Lindroos stepped out next to Naull, accompanied by four bald, burly men with purple vests and scimitars tucked into orange sashes at their waists. They were all quite large and resembled the efreeti Regdar and company had bested on the lower level.

"Hello, Regdar," said Lindroos with a smile. "It's time you met my companions. This is Shirzad-" she pointed to one of the burley men and continued around-"Parviz, Hebola, and Tam."

The four burly men each bowed.

"They are jann from the court of Vizier Haleh," explained the blackguard. Then she turned to Naull. The fallen paladin ran her finger along the slight wizard's cheek, caressing her skin. "You already know my close friend Naull."

Regdar dropped his bow to the floor and pulled his greatsword from its sheath. His heart pounded in his chest, and the skin on the back of his neck tingled where the hairs stood on end.

He squeezed the hilt of his sword. "What is it you want from me, Lindroos?"

"I want what I've always wanted of you and those of your kind," she said, pacing closer to the big fighter. "I want all of you to die."

The room broke out in fighting. Black-clad soldiers charged in at the group of four intruders in a rush of metal and blades.

Whitman's hammer pounded out a staccato rhythm against two soldiers' banded-mail armor. Attack then parry. Attack then parry. The dwarf whirled and struck, defending himself with long, sweeping arcs of his hammer, then smashing down on his opponent with a tremendous blow.

Clemf batted away blades as fast as they came at him. He jabbed back at one soldier, catching him in the throat and sending him back a step. Though he managed to wound his opponent, the lunge cost him. Another soldier slashed at Clemf's exposed ribs, opening a small wound across his stomach and down toward his groin. The tattooed human growled at his attacker and spun on him. His breathing became deep and his chest rose and fell as if he were an angry bull. With a powerful wail, Clemf stepped forward and beheaded two soldiers with one swing of his longsword.

Tasca fired arrows into the approaching crowd of swordsmen at a furious pace. His fingers flew over the bow string, releasing two arrows at a time and reloading in the blink of an eye. Nearly every arrow he fired found its mark, but his attacks didn't stop the soldiers from advancing. Eventually he had to drop his bow and draw his rapier. With swashbuckling flare, the roguish elf battled his adversaries, trading blows even when he was surrounded and flanked.

Regdar stepped forward and grabbed Naull by the arm.

"Naull!" he shouted. "Naull, don't you remember me?"

The slight wizard pulled away from his grip and glared up at him with narrowed eyes.

"I remember you," she said, hatred dripping from her words. "You left me to die." She spat in his face then bent down to pick up a quarterstaff lying on the ground near her feet.

"That's not tru-"

His words were cut off by a hard crack to his ribs. Gasping to regain his lost breath, the big fighter took a step back as Naull bent into a crouch, twirling her quarterstaff for another strike.

"Naull," he pleaded. "What are you doing? You must remember I didn't want to leave you." He held his arms out to his sides, trying to look less menacing.

"That's not how I remember it," she said, hurling the head of her staff at Regdar.

The fighter dodged back, narrowly avoiding the blow.

"But… but, you asked me to leave," he said.

His words were again cut short by another whizzing attack.

This time Regdar had to use his greatsword to block. The enchanted blade bit into the dense wood of the staff, and Naull struggled to free her weapon. That left her ribs exposed to a counter strike. Regdar took note but stayed his blade.

Emitting a frustrated, scratchy cry, the slight wizard gave her staff a great tug, pulling it free. She took a step back, straightened her robes, and caught her breath.

"Why would I ask you to leave?" she shouted from two long paces away. "Surely a big, strong fighter like you could have protected a frail little wizard like me."

Regdar wrinkled his forehead, confused. "It was you who saved me that day." The memory of being pulled by Alhandra and Krusk from the City of Fire as it shifted into the Elemental Plane of Fire ran through his head. "When I had to leave you there, injured and trapped with that bitch Lindroos-" he lowered his gaze, and his lip curled up at the edge-"something inside me died." He took a step forward.

"How very sweet." Naull charged forward, her quarterstaff lowered like a lance.

She got a good jump and caught Regdar off guard. The heavy staff plunged into Regdar's stomach where the efreeti's falchion had split his breastplate. He twisted to one side, defending his midsection with a snap reaction borne of long campaigns in the bowels of dank, decrepit dungeons. The big fighter's greatsword swept around in a blinding arc, spanking away the quarterstaff. His gauntleted hand came around as well, connecting with the petite wizard's chin and knocking her to the ground with a single blow.

Naull landed on her back with a surprised grunt. A trickle of blood ran from her spht lower hp, and she held her eyes shut, grimacing from pain.

Regdar stepped back. He looked down on Naull, feeling pangs of guilt. He started to kneel next to her. More than anything he wanted to cradle her in his arms, to tell her how sorry he was-to tell her about the gaping hole in his chest that had been punched there when he left her in the City of Fire.

But he hesitated.

Turning around, he took in the terrible battle unfolding around his companions. Whitman, Tasca, and Clemf stood back to back to back, surrounded by half a dozen cultist soldiers and four jann. Lindroos stood to one side, watching and smiling at the obvious advantage she enjoyed.

Whitman struck down another soldier with a hammer blow that might have felled a hill giant. Regdar turned away, hoping his men could hold there own for a moment longer, while he decided what to do with Naull.