Chapter 9
The Confrontation
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Excerpt from R. A. Salvatore's Servant of the Shard:
Entreri's expression soured. He had expected better of his drow companion. He had seen this fighting style many times, particularly among the pirates who frequented the seas off Calimport. It was called "swashbuckling," a deceptive, and deceptively easy, fighting technique that was more show than substance. The swashbuckler relied on the hesitance and fear of his opponents to afford him opportunities for better strikes. While often effective against weaker opponents, Entreri found the style ridiculous against any of true talent. He had killed several swashbucklers in his day – two in one fight when they had inadvertently tied each other up with their whirling blades – and had never found them to be particularly challenging.
The group of wererats coming in at Jarlaxle at that moment apparently didn't have much respect for the technique either. The quickly rushed around the drow, forming a box, and came in at him alternately, forcing him to turn, turn, and turn some more.
Jarlaxle was more than up to the task, keeping his spinning swords in perfect harmony as he countered every testing thrust or charge.
"They will tire him," Entreri whispered under his breath as he worked away from his newest opponents. He was trying to pick a path that would bring him to his drow friend that he might get Jarlaxle out of his predicament. He glanced back at the drow then, hoping he might get there in time, but honestly wondering if the disappointing Jarlaxle was still worth the trouble.
He gasped, first in confusion, and then in admiration.
Jarlaxle did a sudden back flip, twisting as he somersaulted so that he landed facing the opponent who had been at his back. The wererat stumbled away, hit twice by shortened stabs – shortened because Jarlaxle had other targets in mind.
The drow rolled around, falling into a crouch, and exploded out of it with a devastating double thrust at the wererat opposite. The creature leaped back, throwing its hips behind it and slapping its blade down in a desperate parry.
Before he could even think about it, Entreri cried out, thinking his friend doomed, for one sword-wielding wererat charged from Jarlaxle's direct left, another from behind and to the right, leaving the drow no room to skitter away.
(284-285)
Artemis woke up to find himself alone in the tent. He sat up and ran a hand through his tangled hair. He'd slept more deeply than he could remember in a long time, an indication that he was getting older…or that he had felt truly safe.
Before he could decide, Jarlaxle entered the tent, grinning broadly. "My spies have far surpassed even my expectations," he said, throwing open his arms. "I'll have to return to Bregan D'aerthe to grant promotions when this business is over with."
Artemis regarded him warily. "What could be such good news?"
Jarlaxle pulled out the cloth map he'd stowed since beginning the job and waved it in front of the assassin with unadulterated glee. "Guess which two mercenaries now have access to a complete blueprint of the sorceress' tower?"
Entreri rubbed his chin and made a show of mulling the question over. "Hmm…I don't know. But how would the local mercenaries get a hold of such private information in such short time? They surely didn't have this information yesterday, or they would have given it to us."
He didn't know what had gotten into him, speaking in third person about himself and Jarlaxle as if he didn't know what Jarlaxle was talking about. He had the same oddly enjoyable, freeing feeling he often had with Dwahvel. As though he could say whatever he wanted without repercussions.
Jarlaxle raised an index finger. "If those mercenaries had other sources, that might explain their sudden advantage."
Artemis had to keep from breaking out into a grin. He knew they were being ridiculous, and for some reason, that Jarlaxle was playing along with his game pleased him immensely. "Do they?"
"They do," Jarlaxle affirmed cheerfully.
Artemis examined the map, running his eyes over the complicated structure of lines and boxes. It was hitting him for the first time that they might have a chance. He could see a way to feasibly win this battle. They had the information they needed to break into the tower.
Artemis looked up at Jarlaxle, humor gone. "Are you sure about this?"
Jarlaxle's eyes were grave, even through his smile. "I am."
Artemis stood up and brushed himself off. "Then let's get moving." He looked around the tent at the clothing and equipment strewn about and began the task of cleaning it all up and packing it again.
They bade Chief Mandoran and the city of Gandroban farewell that morning, and set off for the place that Mandoran had described – a rocky, desolate land east of Kormul.
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"There is a secret method to teleport inside Tandy's tower," Jarlaxle said. He crept up to the circle of rocks with a sly smile on his face.
The circle of stones looked natural – they were of different shapes and sizes, ranging from stones that could fit in Artemis' hand to boulders large enough to sit on. They weren't arranged in a perfect circle, but rather were scattered in the general shape of one. The natural looking formation was at the top of the slight swell of a hill, and there was no vegetation within the circle, but still, the location looked unremarkable.
If it is a place to teleport inside the tower a hundred and fifty feet away, then it's perfectly disguised, Artemis thought, creeping behind Jarlaxle.
"There is no entrance on the tower itself," Jarlaxle whispered. "Anyone hoping to get in will have to come in via the circle of stones."
"What if some creature or a wanderer comes through the circle by accident?" Artemis asked, frowning.
Jarlaxle chuckled quietly, shaking his head in admiration. "That is where the safeguard comes in. If the person or creature within the circle doesn't say the command word, the teleporting magic will not be activated."
"And we have the word?"
Jarlaxle tapped his head innocently.
"You better hope this works," Artemis muttered. "We didn't come out here just to go all the way back."
Jarlaxle spoke the magical word. Artemis could hear him, but the word had a strange, vibrating life of its own. As hard as Artemis tried to grasp what was said, the incantation resisted memory.
He felt a lurch in his stomach as they were forcibly yanked from the circle of stones to another location.
When next Artemis could see, they were in a dark stone room lit only by weak candles. It opened without barriers into a hallway of similar dark stone, lit by sconce torches.
Both of them drew their weapons instantly upon the appearance of a caped figure walking into the light.
The figure reached for his ring as if to turn it – a common way of activating a ring's magic.
Artemis threw a dagger with deadly precision and cut the man's finger off.
He let out a roar of pain and clutched the bleeding stump, then raised his other hand and unleashed a cone of fire at them.
Jarlaxle shot out his arm, an exclamation dying on his lips. Artemis was already diving behind the drow mercenary.
The flames hit Jarlaxle's body and disappeared, saving them both due to Jarlaxle's fire ring.
The moment the flames dissipated, Jarlaxle lunged forward, attacking in a blur of swashbuckling blades. The extending daggers had become twin longswords faster than the eye could see.
The man opened his mouth in a shout, staggering back. That was all he could do, for he was unarmed, other than his apparent magical training. His yell was cut off by Jarlaxle, who dropped a sphere of silence over them. The magic user fell under Jarlaxle's assault.
We were almost exposed, Jarlaxle said to Artemis in drow hand code.
Artemis frowned at him. Rather than concern, he saw excitement on Jarlaxle's face. He stalked over and picked his dagger up off the floor. He wiped the blood off on the dead man's cape and hid it upon his person again. He signaled to the drow without looking at him. Let's go.
The hallway was quiet and deserted, but Artemis felt a tingling sensation on his skin that made him sure they could be discovered again at any moment.
"Your hat," Jarlaxle whispered in suggestion, taking hold of his own hat's brim and tugging it down as an example. The drow disappeared before Entreri's eyes.
Artemis mentally shook himself and put on the bolero he'd forgotten was strapped to his back underneath his cape. He tipped the brim as Jarlaxle had demonstrated and felt an icy wave across his body as he, too, turned invisible. He reached out and located Jarlaxle by touch.
He felt the invisible drow's arm twitch in surprise at the touch, and then relax. He had the impression that Jarlaxle was smiling at him, somehow, even without seeing his friend's face. They kept close enough to each other that Jarlaxle's rainbow cape periodically brushed against Artemis' fingers. It would not be a good idea to let themselves become separated in a situation like this.
The torch-lit stone hallway emerged into a small, square room with racks of wine on either side of them. The floor was clean, but there was a light coating of dust on the bottles. Artemis fell Jarlaxle nudge him, and then heard a slight chuckle.
Artemis resisted the urge to roll his eyes. No doubt Jarlaxle was thinking of sampling Tandy's wine cellar after they got done with killing her. He gave Jarlaxle a light push in response, not a true rebuttal, but an indication of impatience to get this over with. The longer they took, the more likely they'd be forced to fight again before reaching the sorceress.
Jarlaxle took the hint and crept up the small flight of stairs leading to the cellar door. Apparently seeing no lock and no traps, he swung the door open after dropping another sphere of silence to defeat any squeaking hinges.
They emerged into a vast hallway with a pink-and-blue-veined marble floor and walls. Artemis bumped into Jarlaxle's back. The drow was standing there, savoring the richness before them. Statues of human women in many different poses lined the corridor. Rich rugs embroidered in gold had been lain down on the floor every fifteen feet or so, and the hallway was lit by tall, ornately wrought golden lamps. Oil-fed flame flickered inside of fluted glass.
Artemis heard a faint sound, and after a pause, Jarlaxle started moving again. He followed the drow as he crept up the hall to the right.
The hallway seemed endless, but they finally reached a curving stairway of grandiose proportions, decorated by a carved ivory banister. Hardly needing an indication from Jarlaxle, Artemis began his ascent. They walked beside each other, making sure that neither slipped on the polished steps nor made a noise. There was room for ten people to walk side by side down the stairs, and the fortress tower was deathly silent around them.
For all her display of wealth, Artemis thought, she seems to be short-handed in completing her vision. Whatever that is.
The second floor was decorated much as the first. Statues of women and rich rugs. The difference here was that tapestries hung on the wall. Some depicted green dragons facing a mysterious, robed figure in a forest clearing. Others depicted dancing creatures humanoid in shape, but with hair like leaves and arms that tapered down into tree branches. Artemis found these images deeply unsettling. Still another tapestry showed a crowd of people humbly bowing to an enormous silver oak tree.
They heard the sound of steps coming from down the corridor to their right. It sounded sharp, the report of women's shoes or hard-heeled boots.
Jarlaxle and Artemis froze and backed away, hiding behind one of the feminine statues.
A young woman clad in a high-collared white dress and apron walked past them obliviously, carrying a tea set on a silver tray. Her hair was coifed and gathered into a knot at the back of her head.
Artemis felt the jeweled dagger in his hand and watched her. If she weren't carrying something that would make a lot of noise when it fell, he would have snagged her as she walked by and interrogated her. However, her appearance had already given him some information. The woman was a blonde, blue-eyed Northerner. Either Tandy liked having exotic servants, or the sorceress was herself from the North.
Jarlaxle nudged him, presumably to point out the same thing.
If Tandy is from the North, Artemis wanted to tell him, it's hopeless trying to negotiate with her. The wealthy of the north view people in this region as no more than savages. It's better if we kill her outright before a word has passed from her mouth to our ears. However, they were now in close proximity to the people that lived in this tower, as evidenced by the maid. He couldn't risk opening his mouth and giving them both away.
Jarlaxle tugged on him and then led the way out from behind the statue, towards the direction the maid had come from.
At the end of the hallway, they were forced to consider three mahogany doors. Two were side by side on the same wall, and one was to their left. Jarlaxle stopped, then finally chose one of the two doors in front of them. He pushed it lightly. It opened on silent hinges to reveal a bedroom and sitting room.
A woman with long, curly red hair sat on a stool, gathering her hair in one hand and looking over her shoulder awkwardly. She wore a ruffled white dress that complimented her fair skin, but on the four poster bed by the window was a pair leggings and a leather jerkin. "Miranda?"
Jarlaxle withdrew quickly and yanked Artemis out of the way, even though they were invisible.
The assassin felt adrenaline tingling through him. This was it. This was exactly the situation he had been trained for his entire life. Disguised by magic until it was too late, all he had to do was sneak up behind the sorceress – and who else could it be? – and deliver a killing blow with his jeweled dagger while she was vulnerable.
Jarlaxle gently tapped his wrist two times, and Artemis knew that was his signal to go ahead and enter the room.
Artemis crept on silent feet into the room. The carpet had a deep, soft pile, and the room was so neat that he had plenty of space to come up behind the woman sitting on the stool without disturbing a thing.
He tensed, holding his breath, and then drew his dagger. He stabbed for her exposed neck, breaking the invisibility spell.
The dagger ricocheted off her pale, sensitive skin. He instantly jumped back.
"Stoneskin!" The warning burst from Artemis' lips before he could think.
The woman whirled to her feet, brown eyes blazing with fury, and unleashed a slew of magic missiles at him. "Interlopers!"
He defended himself with his magic glove, backed against the wall, and then Jarlaxle burst into the room, daggers flying.
Entreri barely fended the magic missile attacks off, and lunged into battle, drawing Charon's Claw. Black ash hung in the air and stayed there, turning the pristine room into a confusing maze of soot and violence.
The sorceress gave a shout, and thick vines sprouted from the floor, thrashing wildly and grabbing onto anything that was there. Artemis could hear Jarlaxle's curses of frustration even as he struggled to hack the vines away from his leg and keep them from latching onto him further.
Artemis jumped aside just in time to avoid a blast of frost shooting through the ash. He decided it was time to rejoin Jarlaxle, or the mad drow would likely mow him down with his spells. He burst through a thick wall of ash to find Jarlaxle and Tandy engaged in a duel. Alarmed, he backed out of the way. He couldn't help Jarlaxle without being injured in the crossfire.
Jarlaxle whipped out another wand and spoke a command word – and Tandy spoke the same. Acid arrows collided with each other midair and exploded into sickly sparkles, defeated by each other.
Jarlaxle drew a different wand. Tandy was still chanting.
Bolts of electricity crackled through the air at the drow before he could say the command word.
Artemis shouted involuntarily and shielded his eyes as the lightning impacted.
Jarlaxle was thrown against the four poster bed, narrowly missing one of the posts. Amazingly, he laughed. Before Artemis could strike at the sorceress, Jarlaxle leaped up and unleashed the power of his wand.
The wand summoned a monstrous wind full of hailstones. Tandy shielded herself with her arms. Artemis saw Jarlaxle's strategy- he was now wearing down the stoneskin spell.
There was a break in Jarlaxle's spell-hurling. On cue, Artemis lunged for the sorceress, stabbing her again and again before she could recover from Jarlaxle's spell, hoping to break through her protections.
With a roar, she whirled on him and shoved her hand in his face. He recoiled, thinking she had tried to catch him point blank with a spell, and turned just in time to see an enormous glowing hand.
It hit him.
He had a stunned moment to register that he was flying weightlessly through the air before the wall slammed into him. He fell to the floor, at least one bone broken and all the air crushed from his lungs by the impact. He watched dazedly as Jarlaxle continued to fight the enraged sorceress, his vision fading in and out.
Move, he told his hand. Miraculously, he was still holding Charon's Claw.
His hand wouldn't move.
Move, he told it again. He felt a faint twitch. He forced himself to concentrate on getting up. He had to get up. There was no way he was going to allow Jarlaxle to fight Tandy by himself.
He got onto one knee successfully, and then vomited.
Neither Tandy nor Jarlaxle seemed to take any notice. They were still locked in their struggle.
Artemis forced himself to his feet. No…giant…hand…is going…to defeat me. He clenched his teeth and ran back into the battle, avoiding one of Jarlaxle's flying daggers.
The sequence of events was a blur to Artemis. One moment he was hacking away at Tandy's stoneskin spell, the next Jarlaxle cried out in victory, and Tandy had a cut on her cheek.
For one moment frozen in time, Artemis thought this was a good thing. They had worn her down.
Just as he and Jarlaxle both prepared to slaughter her, she scrambled backwards, screaming the words of a spell. Then she tumbled out of the open window.
Jarlaxle and Artemis both jerked to a stop in shock.
Then an ominous, crackling mist swirled around them, and parted to reveal a hideous monster.
Jarlaxle grabbed Artemis and ran.
"What are you doing?" Artemis roared through his pain. The arm Jarlaxle was crushing in his grip was most likely broken.
The animal, a squat, scaled thing with wings vaguely resembling a dragon chased them, flapping its wings but unable to get off the ground.
"We didn't come here to fight monsters!" Jarlaxle yelled. "We came to kill the sorceress! If she's killed herself, we may as well get out of here while we're still alive!"
Artemis found he couldn't argue with that logic.
They reached the stairway. Instead of running down it, Jarlaxle jumped, using his levitation to sail over the stairs. Artemis yelped and grabbed a hold of him. The moment their feet touched down, they were running again.
"Back to the teleportation chamber!" Jarlaxle yelled.
Then an enormous crash came from directly behind them. They turned and saw an enormous glass ball spinning down the hall towards them.
Jarlaxle's eyes darted along the corridor. "Or not." He took off like a shot, and this time, Artemis hardly had to be dragged.
"This way!" Jarlaxle yelled.
"Are you sure?"
"This way!"
The ominous boom of glass rolling on polished tile echoed through the vast hall around them. They saw it at the same time – a narrow offshoot from the main walkway.
The giant glass ball skidded after them as they dived into the narrow corridor. It crashed, wedging itself in the undersized archway. Jarlaxle stumbled, ears ringing from the noise, but scrambled to his feet. They didn't look back. The closed doors of the servants' quarters were a passing blur on either side of them.
When they turned around the corner, they were in another immense hallway.
"What do we do now?" Artemis shouted.
"I have the map of this interior," Jarlaxle yelled back. "I'll find a way to get back to the teleportation room."
The assassin looked from one end of the hall to the other. It was deserted, and not full of doors – the way the other hallway had been.
Artemis only had a split second's warning from the deepest corner of his senses. He only had time to skid to a halt, boot soles screeching against the polished floor. "Trap!"
Jarlaxle was already past him.
Artemis reached for him…a second too late.
The look of shock on Jarlaxle's face was burned into Artemis' mind as the unmistakable click of a trap being set off echoed off the walls.
There was no pressure panel. A blinding flare that left spots dancing in Artemis' eyes disappeared as fast as it came. Jarlaxle fell.
The sickening crack echoed in Artemis' ears.
Objects spewed forth from Jarlaxle's hat, flying out with the force of a hurricane. His unconscious body was battered from all directions before he even hit the floor.
"Jar –"
Artemis shielded himself as the wands on Jarlaxle's belt exploded. Tentacles of ice shot up with a frigid burst of wind and wrapped around Jarlaxle's legs, freezing solid and clear. Fire splattered like hot fat and caught on anything flammable. Jarlaxle lay untouched and frozen from the waist down in the burning wreckage of magical items, and expensive carpet. Bright green acid popped and sizzled. Artemis dove behind a statue of a naked woman, and smelled the tips of a few strands of hair burning. He sliced them off with his dagger and avoided it when it fell. When he came out, the statue's face was marred beyond recognition, and Jarlaxle was covered in smoking black pinholes. One burned away on his cheek.
Artemis tried to approach Jarlaxle for a second time.
Two swordsmen came running around the corner of the hall, boot soles cracking against the tiles.
In the second that Artemis froze, they both dove into an attack on him.
His hand moved as if of its own volition, jerking instinctively, and the two men lay dying at his feet.
He swallowed.
"Jarlaxle."
Jarlaxle didn't get up. The pinhole on his cheek was devouring deeper and deeper. It was boring through to the inside of his mouth.
Artemis couldn't imagine how much that hurt. He tore his eyes away to look around him at the devastation in the hallway. The bright sunlight of open land penetrated through a crack in the doors to his left. His escape.
He looked back to Jarlaxle. A trickle of blood traveling down Jarlaxle's scalp jumped out at him. He stared at it. Again, he couldn't look away. He didn't know why he would care, and why the sight of the oozing blood scared him. It disturbed him, seeing that blood on Jarlaxle's normally pristine, bald head.
Time moved so slowly that Artemis almost felt it was frozen. He knew, his instincts screamed, that he didn't have any time to stand around and gawk at his dead partner's body. Damnit, if you're so caught up in staring at him, take him with you!
He turned towards the exit, and then bent down, reaching for Jarlaxle's arm. It felt as if it were two miles through paste to the floor. He closed his hand around Jarlaxle's wrist and straightened, lifting him and the dead weight of ice encasing his lower body.
The sound of clapping reached his ears. It was a purposeful, sarcastic sound like thunder. Tandy stood in the hallway. There was no hint of softness in her expression.
"You make lousy mercenaries, but you make entertaining jesters," Tandy said. She looked down at Jarlaxle's body. "What should I do with you now that I've captured you?"
"Us." Artemis tried to get the tightness out of his throat by clearing it.
Tandy raised an eyebrow at him. "I doubt your talkative friend will survive a crushing blow like that."
"Then save him."
The sorceress' face froze. It seemed she had not considered this.
Artemis hadn't considered it either. He didn't know what he was saying. "We've slaughtered many of your operatives. Perhaps if we can do such a feat so easily, you would do well to use us to replace your depleted forces."
She laughed in seeming surprise and delight. "Why, I hadn't marked you for such a sharp bargainer. It was your friend, after all, who chose to do the talking. Perhaps your idea of fighting me outright would have saved you from this." She gestured at the fallen drow mercenary.
Artemis felt numb. "Then it's a deal?"
She shrugged carelessly. "My plans have been going too smoothly of late. I like a little excitement."
Artemis looked down at the unconscious Jarlaxle. "It's a deal."
"It's a deal, it's a deal," she said. She looked down at Jarlaxle in mild disgust. "I suppose I had better clean up this mess if I want him to survive. Pity I can't just leave him there."
If only Jarlaxle could hear this now, Artemis thought. Then he'd rethink his position on women. He shook his head. He tried to charm a block of ice. It's no wonder that he's lying on the floor now.
He watched the ice slowly melting away from Jarlaxle's legs and wondered why the worry in the forefront of his mind was whether Jarlaxle would blame him for this turn of events. He'd just signed over his soul to someone he intended to kill.
