Shadows of Amn

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"He's dead, you idiot," Irenicus sneered from somewhere in the roaring flames of Hell. "Your father is dead, and you'll get no answers from him."

Abdel gave himself over to the rage and reached out for the source of Irenicus's voice. He found something that felt like flesh and clawed through it. There was the sound of a grunt and the feel of blood, then the sound of laughter.

A hand grabbed Abdel's throat and squeezed. Abdel reached up with a viciously taloned foot and ripped Irenicus's stomach open. Irenicus squeezed, and Abdel's head came off at the neck. His vision tumbled and blurred, and Abdel realized that couldn't actually have happened—not even in Hell.

He came back into his body, and it was his body, human and whole, not a monster, not a demon.

"Idiot human child," Irenicus said. "Waiting for orders, waiting for answers. You don't get any answers, child, in the flea speck of a lifetime you enjoy. You don't get to know. You don't get anything but a bit of wandering around before a painful, empty, ruthless death. You serve me now as you've served me all along. I brought out the Ravager in you and the little bitch, but it was you who brought out the Slayer. Only you—spawn of Bhaal—could have destroyed the Ravager, and only when the Ravager was destroyed could the Slayer take its place."

"Why?" Abdel asked as he ripped a piece of Irenicus's soul from him.

The necromancer laughed, and Abdel felt the piece of soul slip through his fingers.

"Why?" Irenicus asked. "Idiot man-child. Human speck. Only the Slayer could kill Ellesime. By succumbing to the blood of the god of murder and killing this girl you thought was so important to you, you gave me the weapon I needed. Now, Ellesime is dead. Now, you give me your soul, and I use it and the power of that detestable tree to make myself immortal. I get. I take. I have. You disappear."

Abdel reached out again and felt something he couldn't possibly have any words to describe. He took hold of Irenicus's soul.

"Ah," the necromancer breathed, "there you are."

"Ellesime lives," Abdel said, the words traveling not through air or fire or lava, but through the medium of immortal souls.

There was a silence filled by the roaring of the lava flow.

"You're staying here, Irenicus," Abdel said.

"Neither of us are staying here, Abdel Adrian," Irenicus replied. "There isn't really even such a place as here. I'm going back to Faerun an immortal, whether Ellesime lives or not. You're going nowhere. You go to oblivion."

The nail of Jaheira's middle finger snapped off backward, but she didn't notice the pain. She dug, clawing into the unforgiving soil under the burning tree where Irenicus had fallen into Hell. Jaheira threw out handfuls of dirt and had gone maybe a foot down, but of course there was no sign of Hell.

"Mielikki," she said, "Mielikki, help me." She dug some more though she was growing overwhelmed by the simple fact that she could dig with her bare hands forever and not get where she was going. Abdel wasn't in some place underground. He wasn't on this plane of existence. He was someplace so different from the world Jaheira knew there was no real connection between them. Irenicus had joined the two places somehow—Jaheira knew of more than one way to do that—and dragged Abdel in, then followed him himself. That joining wasn't physical.

"Mielikki," she cried, "help me … tell me …"

She stopped digging and let herself cry into the dry dirt, gave herself over to her goddess as a small, weak, desperate creature.

"Help me," she begged.

The words called to her—sounded in the wind—and Jaheira sobbed at the sound of them: Call to him.

"Mielikki," Jaheira cried, "Lady, thank you."

She pushed her face into the hole she dug and drew in a deep, soil-scented breath.

"Abdel!" she screamed into the ground.

"Abdel!" She breathed again, ignoring the pain in her throat, and screamed, "Abdel!"

Irenicus was winning.

Abdel could feel his body had changed back to the monster thing—they'd called it the Ravager.

"That's it," Irenicus said, his voice almost a purr. "That's it."

Abdel felt a piece of his soul bitten away, and he let it go. He didn't care anymore. He'd called to his father—his father. The idea was simply ridiculous. He'd called out to Bhaal and got no answer. Irenicus supplied the only thing that seemed like truth, after all was said and done.

"I'll use it well, Abdel," Irenicus whispered straight into Abdel's disintegrating soul.

Abdel felt his legs pop and twist backward, though he didn't really believe he had a body anymore.

"… del …" a woman's voice echoed from so far away, he was sure it was his imagination. He was struck by the fact that he was in Hell and thought that something as simple as the sound of Jaheira calling his name was imagin—

Jaheira.

"Abdel.." her voice came again, a little louder this time.

Abdel tried to force his twisted, freakish, monster's mouth to form her name. He couldn't.

"That's over now, Abdel," Irenicus said. "She's the past. She couldn't have been yours anyway, could she? A Harper druid and the son of Bhaal? What could come of… ah, well. Not that it matters now, child."

Abdel felt himself nodding, then Jaheira's voice came again.

"Abdel," she called, "please …"

That last word burst through the tattered remains of Abdel's soul like lightning, and he could feel her. Irenicus had stripped so much of him away—eaten it in a very real sense—but he'd left one part behind. He'd left the part inhabited by Jaheira. Maybe every part of his soul was home to her in some way.

Abdel felt human again, and it was a human mouth that screamed, "Jaheira!"

Every time she screamed his name, a little part of the fire that was consuming the Tree of Life went out.

"Abdel!"

Smoke was all around her, drifting over the back of her head and slipping into the hole to tickle her throat.

"Abdel, please!"

There was a flash of light that Jaheira didn't bother to recognize. It wasn't Abdel—she knew that on a primal level—so whatever it was didn't matter. Only Abdel mattered.

"Abdel!"

"Jaheira!" Imoen called from behind her.

"She's calling him out," Queen Ellesime said to Imoen.

Jaheira felt footsteps approaching her more than she heard them.

"Abdel!" the druid screamed again, not realizing that she had very little voice left.

"Help her," Ellesime said breathlessly. "We have to help her."

Imoen fell to the ground next to Jaheira without hesitation. Tears flowed anew from Jaheira's burning eyes.

"Abdel!" the young girl screamed, her voice louder than Jaheira's.

"Abdel!" Ellesime screamed.

"Abdel!" Jaheira screamed.

Ellesime and Imoen screamed, "Abdel!" together.

"Abdel!" Jaheira screamed. "Abdel!"

"Abdel!" Imoen screamed, and Abdel drew his soul around him in response.

"Abdel!" came another voice—Ellesime. It was Ellesime, then Jaheira again, then combinations of Imoen, Ellesime, and Jaheira. He sent the pieces of his soul up toward them—was it up? It had to be up.

"I'm down here, Abdel Adrian," Irenicus growled. "And so are you. You don't go back. There's no going back."

Abdel focused on Jaheira's voice, and on Imoen's and Ellesime's. He sent his soul reaching up, and his human hands followed. His human eyes turned up out of the orange and toward the bedrock above.

"No!" Irenicus screamed sharply, and the scream took a piece of Abdel's soul away with it, but it was a small piece.

"You look at me!" Irenicus shrieked. "You fight me!"

Abdel could feel the desperation surge through Irenicus. The tide shifted that quickly. Abdel had somewhere to go. He had a real future, not the illusion of Irenicus's gloried immortality as master of a single vampire and a madhouse on an island no one had bothered to name.

If all Abdel could look forward to was nothing but nights with Jaheira in his arms, that was more than Irenicus had to look forward to in any number of millennia to come.

"Abdel, I'm here," Jaheira's voice said, and Abdel could feel it now as a point in space above him. He reached up, but it was too far.

"Face me!" Irenicus practically begged. "Fight!"

That was all the necromancer had. He depended on nothing but Abdel's need to fight, the fact that that was all Abdel could do: fight.

Instead, Abdel stepped on Irenicus—figuratively if not literally. Abdel felt as if he had feet, but did he? He might have been in a place where feet were irrelevant.

Still, he stepped on Irenicus, and that sent the necromancer spinning into a mass of incoherent ranting.

Screaming obscenities and threats, Irenicus slipped farther down into the pit, and Abdel didn't care either way. He was getting out. He was starting his life—with no answers, but then, who had answers?

Abdel reached up and felt a hand touch his. The skin was smooth and warm and familiar. Irenicus's raving fell away into an echoing silence, and Abdel's face filled with dirt. It was in his eyes, in his nose, in his ears, and in his mouth.

He coughed and felt his head return to some kind of solid reality. He could feel his body again. He could move again. He was real and alive again, and when his face came out of the ground, he coughed out dirt, shook it out of his eyes, and pulled in a deep, shuddering breath.

"Abdel. ." Jaheira's voice sounded rough, raw, but closer now and real, not a distant echo from Faerun to Hell.

"Jaheira," he said into her face, which was only inches from his own.

Jaheira touched him. She was crying, but she was happy. Imoen was there, wherever there was, and so was Ellesime. He looked around and saw a tree bigger than any tree he'd ever imagined. The tree was blackened, but the black was falling off in clumps to reveal healthy bark beneath. Brilliant green leaves grew, and as the Tree of Life surged back to life, Abdel was sure he could hear Jon Irenicus screaming.

"Abdel," Jaheira said, "you're alive."

He looked at her, smiled, and said, "I want to go home." He glanced at Imoen. "To Candlekeep."