XIX

"Do you hear something?"

"The wind," Tara grumbled, barely lifting her eyes from the dimly glowing jewel set in the center of the passage as she answered the question. Sitting opposite the young sorceress, Stasya continued to glance down the narrow passage the small band occupied, a hint of anxiety in her dark eyes. Hearing the sorceress' answer, Stasya turned back to the only other member of the band that was awake.

"You really don't like me," the assassin concluded. Tara nodded curtly. "Why is that?"

"Do you really need to ask?" Tara asked in reply. "You're an assassin!"

"And what's wrong with assassins?" Stasya inquired, acting indignant despite the amused smile tugging at her lips.

"You kill people for money!" Tara exclaimed, dumbfounded that Stasya would even ask such a question.

"Well, most of them deserve it," Stasya said, her smirk growing ever so slightly. Tara's eyes shot wide with shock and outrage. Before she could speak, however, the assassin put a finger to her lips. "Don't wake the others," Stasya warned, lowering her own voice. "I do what has to be done. Your order created us to kill corrupted mages."

"That doesn't change that fact that you're a cold blooded killer!" the sorceress finally said, keeping her voice as low as possible despite her obvious revulsion. "If I offered you enough, you'd probably kill Xaviar!"

"Probably," Stasya agreed, shrugging her shoulders. Tara's eyes grew even larger, but the assassin continued before she could speak. "He's probably not quite so noble as you think."

"He… you… he's a paladin!" Tara stammered out.

"He's no innocent," Stasya countered. "He has blood on his hands, and not all of that blood is demonic, I'd wager. Just because someone blindly follows their faith, doesn't mean they've always done what is right. I've seen paladins whose hearts are blacker than the foulest summoner."

"I doubt that," Tara countered, her voice clearly indicating her mistrust of the assassin's words.

"Fanaticism breeds hatred," Stasya said simply. "And a paladin is a fanatic. I see that fanaticism every time I see Xaviar's eyes. Only a fanatic would march us across the desert as he did."

"He is a good man," Tara argued, jumping to the defense of the sleeping paladin's name.

"And good men can be corrupted," Stasya finished. Tara turned an icy glare on the assassin.

"You would know about corrupting people," the sorceress said coldly. Stasya merely smiled across the passageway at her companion before turning back to peer down the dark corridor.

"Are you sure you don't hear anything?" Stasya asked again.

"Outside of you and the wind, no," Tara answered, a clear tone of anger lingering in her voice. Despite the almost confrontational reply, the assassin ignored Tara's remark as she slowly pushed herself to her feet against the wall. Stasya's hand dropped to the hilt of her kris as she took a single, cautious step away from the jewel's tiny circle of light.

"A kind of moaning," the assassin said, her voice dropping almost to a whisper as she slid her kris free of its sheath. Stasya glanced quickly over her shoulder, trying to locate her buckler for a split second before realizing that it had been destroyed in the battle with Icewight. Seeing her apprehension, Tara also began to stand, holding her staff defensively in front of her as she tried to locate what the assassin heard.

"Xaviar?" Tara prompted, nudging the sleeping paladin with the tip of her staff. Stasya heard Xaviar wake with a start, but the assassin ignored him as she crept forward to the edge of the jewel's light. Somewhere in the murky darkness, the young woman was certain that she could see something moving toward her. Without wasting any more time, Stasya tossed another of her charged bolt traps down the passage.

The charged bolt trap had barely touched the ground when it began throwing off crackling arcs of electricity, illuminating in brilliant flashes a ghastly troop of mummified corpses shambling toward the band of travelers. Tara gasped in horror and revulsion at the revealed undead, taking an unconscious step backward as she called her frozen armor into existence around her. Xaviar immediately stepped forward to meet the challenge, moving past Snowhammer as the north man woke to the sounds of crackling electricity ripping through the corridor. Wyszemir rose to his feet as well, but by the time the necromancer had summoned his blood golem to his side, the charged bolt traps had felled more than half of the embalmed corpses in the narrow confines of the passage, filling the hall with a stinking haze of greenish vapor.

One by one, however, the Embalmed stumbled back to their feet.

"Uh, Wyszemir?" Stasya inquired, glancing back over her shoulder to the necromancer.

"Fascinating," the death mage said, ignoring the assassin as he took a step forward. "Regenerative capabilities the likes of which I have never seen."

"Then we kill them again," Snowhammer stated, raising his maul and pushing forward.

"Snowhammer, wait!" Xaviar shouted, trying to grab the north man's armor as he raced past. The barbarian paid his companion no heed as he barreled through the first of the Embalmed, his maul smashing through the brittle skull of the lead undead and releasing even more of the putrid miasma into the air. Even as his first foe tumbled to the ground, Snowhammer staggered backward a step, choking on the poisonous fumes filling the passage.

"Snowhammer, get back here!" Tara exclaimed, her eyes wide with fear. The barbarian turned back to the group, his eyes filling with tears as the gas threatened to blind him, but three of the Embalmed lumbered after him, clawing at his armor and trying to drag him back into the cloud. Stasya hurled another pair of charged bolt traps into the mass of undead, while Xaviar and Wyszemir's blood golem rushed forward to join the fray. Tara joined in the action an instant later, her ice blasts tearing through the front rank of the Embalmed in her desperation to save Snowhammer. Stasya threw one more trap to the ground in front of her, then turned to the mysteriously idle Wyszemir.

"Why don't you cast a curse or raise a skeleton?" the assassin demanded, dropping back a step as one of the Embalmed lurched past Xaviar's scepter at the young woman. Wyszemir hurled a single bone spear through the undead, but the necromancer seemed far more intent on staring into the darkness past the brawl than helping any of his companions.

"There," the death mage said, almost to himself. Stasya dropped under a ponderous swing from the Embalmed, then launched herself forward in a powerful kick that sent the mummified attacker back into Xaviar's swiftly descending scepter.

"There what?" Stasya demanded, hazarding a glance over her shoulder.

"Beyond the Embalmed is a Guardian," Wyszemir explained, speaking as though the battle was something he was not even involved in. "He is the one resurrecting the Embalmed to continue their assault. Until he is destroyed, we will face the same foes repeatedly."

"What are you talking about?" Stasya asked urgently.

"Can you make it past the Embalmed, dear?" Wyszemir inquired. Stasya nodded, still not comprehending her ally's strange behavior. "Excellent. Follow my bone spears, and you will find the one we need to destroy. Good luck."

Perplexed by the command, Stasya nonetheless set off for her unseen target in a full sprint. Wyszemir threw a single curse on the demons ahead of her, then fired off a volley of the ghostly, luminescent bone spears to clear the assassin's path. Ducking under one outstretched arm and nearly catching Snowhammer's maul in the face, Stasya fought her way through the disgusting undead and the choking gas, finally coming up against the enemy that Wyszemir had somehow notice from across the chamber.

Stasya had originally thought the silhouette was simply another Embalmed, but up close she found her assumption to be far from the truth. Nearly as tall as the Marauders from the Lost City, the thing she now faced was a gaunt, decaying monstrosity with some kind of jackal-like head and a once beautiful collar of gold and bone. The thing turned to her as she hesitated in front of it, hissing as it opened its mouth. Belatedly realizing her mistake in pausing, Stasya hurled herself forward, her poisonous kris leading the way as she aimed for where she thought a heart might be.

She nearly made it.

The hissing Guardian belched out a thick cloud of poisonous gas, stopping the assassin before she could finish her assault. Retching on the putrid smoke and clawing at her eyes, Stasya tumbled back a step before renewing her assault, locating the Guardian by sound as she clenched her eyes shut. The monstrosity landed one vicious claw strike along her side, but the assassin somehow found her way through the Guardian's defenses and slashed once, then twice through the undead thing's chest. The Guardian let out a sharp hiss of pain, giving Stasya all the target she needed. With a single lightning motion the assassin jabbed upward with her kris, impaling the Guardian's head through the bottom of the mouth and then ripping the backed out through the monster's face. Stasya dropped to her knees even as the Guardian collapsed beside her, still wiping at her stinging eyes as she tried to blink away her blindness. Within moments she could feel Xaviar's cleansing aura wash over her, rapidly expelling the poison from her body.

"What is that thing?" Xaviar demanded, pointing to the monstrous body lying next to the assassin as he reached her side. Wyszemir joined him a moment later, acting far less concerned by the combatants that they had just faced.

"That," the necromancer said, gesturing to the body, "is a Guardian. A perversion of ancient Horadric funereal rites to create undead protectors of tombs. I should have guessed that the demonic influence corrupting Sanctuary would play havoc on such ancient magics."

"It's… Horadric?" Tara repeated as she and Snowhammer joined the rest of the group. Wyszemir turned to the young sorceress with a faint smirk.

"Perhaps your order is not without its faults, after all," the necromancer suggested. Tara turned an angry glare on the gaunt man, but Snowhammer stepped between the two before she could say anything.

"But this is the only one in this tomb, right?" the barbarian concluded, glancing back at the destroyed corpses behind the group.

"It is possible that they only used one or two Guardians to protect this site," Wyszemir said, shrugging. "Or perhaps they created as many as a dozen, or even more, depending on the importance of the man buried in this tomb."

"Let's assume the worst, then," Xaviar decided, helping Stasya to her feet. The assassin nodded her thanks, but she froze as she stared past the group.

"I don't think we need to assume any more," she said, pointing with her kris to the Embalmed. More of the undead were plodding towards them from the other direction, joining their fallen comrades as another Guardian raised the smashed bodies to attack again. Barely visible behind the growing troop, two of the monstrosities worked in concert to raise the mummified remains.

"Knocking them down won't be the problem," Snowhammer said, lifting his maul in readiness to meet the horde of undead. "Keeping them down will be."

"Can we take that many?" Tara asked, dropping back a step behind Xaviar. The paladin looked back over his shoulder, then shook his head.

"Stasya, drop some traps," Xaviar directed. "If we keep dropping back, we might be able to take them on a few at a time., and separate them from those Guardians."

"No argument from me," Stasya said, stepping in front of the paladin. As the others dropped back, the assassin quickly dropped three charged bolt traps across the width of the passage. The traps sparked to life instantly, zapping through the undead, even as Tara unleashed a quick volley of ice blasts on the Embalmed. Almost as quickly as the undead fell, however, the Guardians restored them to unlife to continue the assault.

"Let's go! Now!" Xaviar ordered, leading the group back through the passage. Stasya dropped one last charged bolt trap to the ground, then hurried to keep up with her companions.

________________________________________________________________

"Did we lose them?"

"Quiet," Stasya hissed, waving over her shoulder as she listened to the dark tunnels. Crouched almost immediately behind her, Snowhammer continued to peer into the murky tunnels, hoping that they had finally lost the Embalmed and the Guardians that continued to raise them. A few feet further down the passage behind the two scouts, Xaviar, Wyszemir, and Tara waited silently, along with three skeleton mages and the necromancer's ponderous blood golem. To the barbarian, it had felt like hours since they had first begun their running battle with the Embalmed and Guardians, but now it seemed as though the tiny band had finally lost their enemies for the moment. Now, with almost no light to see by and thoroughly lost within the corridors of the ancient tomb, Snowhammer could only hope that their decaying foes had finally given up their pursuit.

"We should not linger in one place for too long," Wyszemir suggested, his face illuminated in the stark light of the electricity crackling around one skeleton mage's hands. "They discovered us earlier because we tarried far too long by our entrance."

"But which way do we go?" Snowhammer asked, leaning on his maul as he turned back to the death mage. Wyszemir shrugged.

"It would likely not be wise to head back in the direction of our pursuers," the necromancer commented.

"But we can't go any further this way," Tara called out suddenly, keeping her voice as low as possible. "This is a dead end!"

"No, it's not," Xaviar countered, pointing with his scepter to the wall across from him. Snowhammer peered into the gloom, but could make out nothing until Wyszemir's skeleton mage moved closer. "Steps, leading down."

"Another level?" Snowhammer asked, moving back to the main group as Stasya continued her watch. "Do you think it's safe to go down?"

"Remember what happened last time we went underground," Stasya whispered back over her shoulder.

"We got separated last time," Xaviar pointed out. "This time, we'll be together."

"As long as no one runs off," Wyszemir finished. Tara turned a cold glare on the necromancer, but Stasya held up a hand for silence before anyone could form a retort for the death mage's thinly veiled insult. For a long moment the passage remained deathly silent, until a low moan broke the stillness of the tomb.

"They found us again," Stasya reported, already preparing another series of charged bolt traps for their enemies. "Do we stand and fight now?"

"We lead them down the stairs," Xaviar said. "Stasya, hide at the foot of the steps. When the Embalmed pass you by, you'll have a good shot at the Guardians."

"I always get the fun jobs," Stasya grumbled, dropping back a step and placing another trap on the ground.

"You're the assassin," Snowhammer observed with a smirk. Stasya turned a thoroughly false smile on the barbarian, then hurried past him to lead the way down the ancient staircase. As the assassin hurried past him to take her position, Snowhammer turned back to the steadily approaching Embalmed. Within seconds, Stasya's traps were throwing off arcs of electricity at the undead, catching them in a field of crackling charged bolts.

"Snowhammer! Come on!" Xaviar shouted, standing at the top of the steps. The barbarian hesitated for a moment longer, then turned and rushed down the steps behind the paladin as the traps gave off a last spark and crumbled. With the moans of the Embalmed already growing louder behind them, Snowhammer nearly barreled through his companions as Stasya tried to push her way back up the stairs. The north man tried to stop in time, but his momentum was more than enough to shove his companions off the bottom step and into the chamber beyond.

"Back up the steps!" Stasya ordered furiously, already trying to push her way through the pileup on the staircase.

"They're right behind us!" Snowhammer objected.

"They're right in front of us too!" Stasya countered. Snowhammer turned a puzzled expression on the assassin, but it last for only a moment as he saw the chamber beyond them. Over two dozen huge snakes, their tails tipped by wicked stingers and sporting arms ending in huge hands with talons as long as daggers, looked up in surprise from some sort of rite being conducted around an ancient stone altar set in the middle of a raised dais and surrounded by ruined columns.

"Have I mentioned already that Claw Vipers might be using this tomb as a nest?" Wyszemir inquired nonchalantly. The largest of the Claw Vipers, its scales a shimmering vermilion, slithered forward, faint pulses of electricity crackling across its scales. The demonic being appraised the tiny band of humans for a moment, its serpentine eyes brimming with hatred, before issuing a single command in its sibilant voice.

"Kill them."

XX

Ahead of them, they faced over two dozen Claw Vipers. Behind them, scores of Embalmed and the Guardians that continued to raise them.

"What do we do now?" Tara asked fearfully, close enough to Xaviar for the paladin to feel the waves of cold radiating from her frozen armor. Already Wyszemir's blood golem and skeletal mages were lumbering forward to meet the Claw Vipers' vanguard in combat, while the living members of the party quickly glanced from the serpents to the Embalmed descending the steps.

"We stick to the plan," Xaviar directed, raising his crown shield and starting forward. "Stasya hides and waits for a shot at the Guardians, while we draw the Embalmed into the chamber."

"What about the Claw Vipers?" Tara asked.

"We go through them," Xaviar replied simply. Snowhammer nodded in agreement, eager to join the battle.

The paladin charged forward without another word, charging into combat even as Snowhammer vaulted over the front line of serpents in a powerful leap attack. The paladin slammed one Claw Viper out of the way with his shield as he hit the line, knocking that one aside even as he slammed down with Order Bar on a second serpent's skull. A third moved into its companions' place, lashing out with its tail at the perceived opening in the crusader's defenses, but Xaviar swung his shield back into position in time to deflect the monstrous stinger aiming for his chest. As the paladin slammed his scepter into his attacker's ribs, crushing the Claw Viper's chest, Tara held off the next of the monstrous serpents with a brutal volley of ice blasts. Wyszemir likewise added his own mystical attacks to the melee, alternately cursing the vipers and tearing through two and three at a time with his ghostly bone spears.

A sudden burst of electricity crackled out across the ritual chamber, exploding into sparks against the walls and pillars. At first Xaviar thought that Stasya had activated another of her charged bolt traps, but a sudden jolt of electricity that crashed directly into his splint mail quickly informed him otherwise. The shock was enough to nearly make him drop Order Bar as his muscles convulsed, but Xaviar regained control of his body before the weapon could slip from his grasp. Smashing the scepter into one Claw Viper that thought he would be incapacitated far longer, the paladin spun quickly in a desperate attempt to locate the source of the charged bolts. Stumbling from a similar direct hit, Tara had not cast a lightning spell, while Wyszemir was methodically erecting walls around him and funneling the newly arrived Embalmed into a single, narrow corridor where his bone spears annihilated three and four at a time. Stasya still crouched behind an ancient, fallen pillar alongside the steps, patiently waiting as the Embalmed passed her by and the Guardians drew even closer.

A second burst of charged bolts few out, but they came from the center of the chamber. Snowhammer roared in pain and frustration as the electricity arced across his armor, but the barbarian refused to slow his attack against the leader of the Claw Vipers. The demonic serpent crackled with lightning, hissing furiously as it ripped a trio of bloody gashes along the north man's shoulder with its huge claws. Fighting through the pain, Snowhammer slammed his maul into the Claw Viper's side, but even as the serpent stumbled back another burst of charged bolts surged out from the demon's scaly hide.

"Snowhammer! Get out of there!" Xaviar ordered, fighting his way past another Claw Viper and heading for the dais. If Snowhammer had heard his order, the north man chose to ignore it as he struck another blow against the Claw Viper and loosed another shower of sparks and lightning. The paladin was already calling upon his aura of lightning resistance, but it would take several seconds at the least for the aura to spread to the staggering north man on the dais.

A sudden volley of ice blasts tore across the chamber, slamming into the Claw Viper with pinpoint accuracy. The serpent let out a strangled hiss as it was frozen in place, but the demon's body still threw off charged bolts with each impact. Caught so closed to the monster, Snowhammer was literally thrown off of his feet by the blasts of electricity, hurtling across the ancient altar and disappearing off the dais. Tara stared in horror at the serpent for a moment, terrified that she had inadvertently killed her companion, but she had no time to dwell on the thought as a mass of Embalmed fell on her from the stairs. Xaviar hesitated for a moment as the undead swarmed toward the sorceress, but a quick glimpse of the dais revealed a pair of Claw Vipers advancing on the badly wounded Snowhammer. Unless he reached the barbarian within the next few seconds, Snowhammer would be torn apart by his enemies.

________________________________________________________________

There were more Embalmed than she originally thought, but they passed her by without so much as a sideways glance.

Stasya remained crouched behind her fallen pillar for a moment more, watching as not two, but three of the Guardians descended the last of the steps with stiff, long strides. Wyszemir was knocking Embalmed down two or three at a time with his bone spears, but the Guardians swiftly set to the task of raising their fallen minions. Halfway between the assassin and the dais, Tara was also trying to stay out of reach of the mummified undead, backpedaling hurriedly with each ice blast or frost nova she cast. A pall of putrid gas was beginning to fill the chamber as each Embalmed released a cloud of poison into the air every time it fell, already starting to sear the assassin's lungs as she crept forward slightly. The Guardians had moved a step or two past her, giving her a wide open shot at the undead monsters' backs.

She charged forward swiftly, casting a pair of charged bolt traps ahead of her an instant before she hit them. The traps crackled to life as the assassin jammed her kris to the hilt through the back of one Guardian's neck. The other two undead turned as their companion let out a harsh, guttural roar, but the charged bolt traps bought the assassin enough time to rip her blade free and jam it home again in her target's unbeating heart. Her first enemy fell to the ground, but her initial victory was of little concern to the assassin as the other two Guardians unleashed a thick cloud of poisonous gas on her.

Stasya stumbled backwards, trying to avoid the lethal vapors, but the Guardians were upon her too quickly. With tears welling in her eyes and her lungs on fire from the gas, the assassin reversed momentum and launched herself forward at her two foes. Two quick cuts from her kris set one Guardian back on its heels; as that one fell back, Stasya turned her full attention to the second of the undead monsters. The assassin ducked under a brutal swipe of the Guardian's wicked claws, exploding up inside the demon's arms with a thunderous kick. The heel of Stasya's boot crushed the Guardian's canine jaw as she kicked straight up over her own head, then spun back to the ground and swept the creature's legs out from under it. Stasya was back to one knee and driving her kris down into the Guardian's decaying chest almost before it hit the ground, quickly destroying the malignant creature. Stasya vaulted back to her feet to meet the last of the Guardians, but the demon had reached her too quickly. The assassin tumbled backward as the demon swung at her, its claws tearing into her ring mail and scoring deep gashes along her shoulder. Stasya rolled across the sandy floor and pushed herself quickly back to her feet, but found the Guardian on her again even as she regained her footing.

A pair of bone spear ripped through the demon then, nearly tearing it in half with the force of the impacts. The Guardian stumbled for a moment on its feet, a cloud of noxious gas beginning to form in its mouth, but the undead monstrosity never managed to release the cloud. As it finally dropped lifeless to the floor, Stasya looked past the demon to Wyszemir.

"You appeared to be having a spot of trouble, dear," the necromancer said with a faint smirk. Scattered around the remains of his bone walls and at the feet of his blood golem, Wyszemir's Embalmed attackers had finally been put to permanent rest. "I thought you might appreciate the help."

"It's the others you should worry about, and not me," Stasya said, pointing to the dais.

________________________________________________________________

They were only inches from Snowhammer when he finally reached the dais.

The north man had dropped back a step, fumbling with a healing potion as the three Claw Vipers atop the dais slithered past the altar toward him. Xaviar leapt up the three steps to the serpents before they even realized he had arrived, slamming Order Bar into the side of the nearest viper's skull with a sickening crack. As that one dropped to the ground, the other two turned on him, but the paladin was already pushing past his fallen opponent to meet them. The second Claw Viper raked across the chest of Xaviar's splint mail, tearing furrows into the metal but failing to penetrate deep enough to injure the warrior. Barely taking the time to realize the close call, Xaviar rammed through the viper with his crown shield, pushing the demon back into its sparking companion. Another burst of charged bolts showered out from the viper chieftain's body, but the paladin's aura of lightning resistance was just strong enough to absorb the worst of the damage. Feeling only a faint twitch in his muscles as he stormed forward, Xaviar leveled a vicious, underhanded swing on the reeling viper only a heartbeat before the demon's stinger punched through his armor.

The Claw Viper dropped dead as its jaw smashed with the force of Xaviar's blow, but Xaviar also stumbled to the ground as the demon's poison worked into his system. Racked with shivers and unable to force his body to respond quickly, the paladin's blood seemed to turn to ice as the toxins worked its way through his system. As he tried to raise his shield to ward off a renewed attack, the Claw Viper chieftain slithered forward, its huge mouth somehow twisted into a grin.

That grin turned into shock and pain as Snowhammer rejoined the battle.

Protected from the lightning by Xaviar's aura, Snowhammer slammed into the viper's side with a vicious bash of his maul. Unprepared for the assault, the last Claw Viper tumbled across the altar with the blow, sliding back up just as the north man leapt over the obstruction to continue the assault. Xaviar shook off the chilling effects of the viper poison just as Snowhammer chased his foe back around the altar, throwing himself back into the battle even as the Claw Viper jabbed Snowhammer with its own poison stinger.

The north man fell back as he tried to fight off the chilling poison, but the Claw Viper could not finish his original foe as Xaviar crashed into him from the side. Once again the demon went on the defensive, slithering back around the altar as it tried to work its stinger through the paladin's defenses. Each jab of the stinger met up with the paladin's shield, but Xaviar was too busy trying to hold off the Claw Viper to launch a counter of his own. Still suffering from the poison in his blood, Snowhammer nonetheless pulled himself to his feet and staggered forward, bringing his maul down in a mighty blow. With his body slowed by the Claw Viper's poison, the demon easily managed to avoid Snowhammer's swing, but the north man's weapon crashed down on the altar instead.

The altar exploded into a shower of stone fragments with the impact. Even as it shattered, a blast of brilliant light shot up from the floor, tearing through the ceiling of the temple. Xaviar and the Claw Viper both halted their combat as they watched the burst of light disappear into the inky heavens above the ancient tomb.

"No!" the Claw Viper hissed. In desperation the demon lunged forward, grabbing a pendant of gold and jet from the remains of the altar, but both Snowhammer and Xaviar turned back on the demon at the same moment. The demon's huge, clawed hand closed around the amulet in the same instant as Snowhammer's maul crushed the demon's skull and Xaviar's scepter shattered its spine.

"What was that?" Snowhammer asked, looking up to the hole torn in the tomb's roof. As Xaviar looked up to the skies above, the darkness that had shrouded the desert rapidly began to give way. In only a moment, the inky blackness had been replaced by the cloudless, cerulean sky of midday in the Dry Hills.

"That," Xaviar began, turning a faint smile on the barbarian, "was the end of an eclipse."