Chapter 38
Khalid did not immediately react.
For a moment, he went ramrod still, face blank and eyes fixed on his assailant.
His legs then crumbled beneath him.
Dorean and Imoen watched him fall to his knees, blood spraying from the fork in his neck. Their eyes then moved to the elf crouching on the bed in front of them, the dinner knife tightly gripped in her right hand.
For a half-second, there was no movement from any of them.
Then, without looking up, the elf reeled back just in time to avoid the knife.
She leapt back off the bed. Montaron followed her, slashing with wide, sweeping arcs and forcing her away from the Candlekeep roommates.
The sound of the first knife-parry was accompanied by a din of raised voices, the loudest of which was Jaheira's shouting Khalid's name.
Turning swiftly with the elf's parry, Montaron's left hand produced a second knife. She twisted away as it sliced her across the thigh, dropped her own weapon, grabbed a handful of his shirt and hoisted him clear off the ground.
Montaron plunged his second knife into her forearm an instant before he was thrown. There was a deafening crunch of wood as the back of his head struck and shattered the post of a nearby bed.
"Son of a bitch!" Maija screamed, her eyes ablaze as they focused on the elf's armour now revealed beneath her askew robe. The stranger turned to the mercenary, pulling Montaron's knife out of her arm. Her gaze swept over Eldoth and Garrick sitting up in their beds, the latter frozen in place with wide eyes while the former glanced calmly over at Montaron's still body.
Then a puma barrelled into her from the side, snarling and spitting, its claws tearing deep, and only by leaning back so far that she nearly fell over saved the elf's neck from its jaws.
The beast's attack was ferocious, but uncoordinated. Gritting her teeth, the elf drove Montaron's knife into its belly and then forced it off with her free hand, hissing as its claws wrenched and tore flesh from her chest and back.
She staggered, bloodied and breathing hard, then looked up at a shout of "Helm give me strength!" as an unarmed Ajantis charged straight at her.
She easily dodged his fist and slashed him across the face, the knife cutting deep into his nose. Her elbow shot up and struck his chin.
Ajantis dropped like a stone. The woman's gaze followed his descent for a half-second before a dart flew through the air and sank into her shoulder. Sparing only a second to remove and toss it to the floor, she looked up at Eldoth's out-stretched arm and grim smile, took two steps towards him and then fell to one knee.
Eldoth slowly slid out of his bed, his smile widening as he watched her attempt to rise. However, it then faded when she dropped Montaron's knife, pressed a bloodied hand to her shoulder, and uttered a single syllable. Light shimmered on her palm as she pressed it to her wound.
"Ranger..." Garrick whispered.
His expression turning grim again, Eldoth strode quickly towards her, jaw set and fists clenched.
The woman seemed to hesitate. Her eyes swept over the rest of the room's occupants before she nimbly rolled sideways to her feet, then threw open one of the double doors with her shoulder and staggered out.
"Son of a bitch!" Maija screamed again. Eldoth watched with a raised eyebrow as the enraged mercenary leapt out of bed with a roar and sped out after the elf. He then took a moment to note Garrick's paled face and wide eyes before turning around to look over his other companions.
Ajantis, Montaron and the puma were all down. The squire and halfling were both motionless while the beast squirmed and twitched, a paw clamped over the wound in its belly.
Dorean and Imoen were both kneeling next to a supine Khalid, the dwarf's hand clamped around the fork imbedded in the half-elf's neck while Imoen tossed aside an emptied potion vial and scrambled in her pack for another.
Eldoth noted the thick, dark red puddle spreading across the floor around Khalid's neck, then pursed his lips as Garrick hurried towards them with a healing potion. He briefly considered telling them what a waste it would be, then sensed that Xzar, still bound hand and foot, had sat up in bed and was now staring straight at him.
Avoiding eye contact with the wizard, Eldoth remained silent and moved to the fallen puma, removing a healing potion from his belt.
..
When Maija's distant screams reached the lobby, Kagain paused a moment to mourn what could have been his first few hours of undisturbed rest in the past several days.
As the slumbering and exhausted mercenaries began to stir and the lookouts turned in surprise at the shouts coming from further inside the building, Kagain snatched up his axe and crossed the lobby into the corridor, stepping on a few of his men along the way.
Moving as fast as his booted feet could carry him, he rounded a corner to find the elven stranger about five paces away and running towards him.
They both skidded to a halt and stared at each other, the woman's eyes on his axe and Kagain's on her wounds. Before either of them could react, an unarmed Maija smashed headlong into the elf from behind, nearly propelling both of them off their feet as she struggled to get an arm around her neck.
"Got you now, you son of-"
The elf grabbed Maija's arm and threw the merc over her shoulder. Maija hit the floor rump first, one hand still clinging to her opponent's hair, and the elf placed one hand on the top of Maija's head and the other below her chin. She released and leapt back just in time to avoid Kagain's axe.
The dwarf swung again, and her hands shot up as she dodged, grabbing and pulling at the axe haft. Kagain's grip did not budge an inch, and she was forced to release the weapon as a heavy, steel-shod boot lashed out at her leg. Her dodge was off, however, and she stumbled as it connected with her shin.
"What in the sodding hells is going on?!" Kagain roared, keeping his axe raised as he planted himself between Maija and the elf. "Did ya start this?!"
"It's him, boss!"
"What are ya-"
"It's him!"
Kagain's blue eyes narrowed as they focused on the obviously female elf steadying herself and clutching her injured leg. His face dropped upon seeing her armour.
"Aw, shit," he muttered. Of all the people to - !
With a strangled cry, Maija hurtled past Kagain, her hands stretched out towards the elf's neck. The latter again failed to dodge, her reflexes seemingly dulled, and was tackled to the ground by the speedy mercenary who then wrapped her hands around her enemy's throat.
Kagain's eyes narrowed as he saw the stranger's paling face and sweaty brow. Was he - ?
As the elf gasped for breath, Maija tightened her grip, squeezing the life out of her, then lowered her face close, her eyes blazing with seething, victorious hate.
"This is for Davy, you -"
A loud, sickening thump filled the air, and Maija's head snapped back before falling on top of the elf.
Kagain looked up just in time to see Thalantyr point his hand at him before something struck his face with the force of a thrown brick. His head too snapped back, but unlike Maija, he was not knocked out. He looked back in fury at Thalantyr, too stunned in that instant to dodge or charge.
"What the -"
Thalantyr raised his hand again, and Kagain's face was struck a second and third time. He stumbled back a step yet remained standing. Three more blows finally put him down.
He lay on his back for a moment, then groggily lifted his head to see Thalantyr rolling Maija off the elf. He grinded his teeth as he watched Thalantyr helping her to her feet, and alerted by the sound, the conjurer's hand shot up and Kagain's head hit the floor again as a seventh invisible brick struck his face.
"Ya lyin' shit..." he growled, almost immediately sitting up again.
At the sound of numerous approaching footsteps, Kagain, Thalantyr and the elf all looked up to see the Dented Shield mercenaries led by Lene appear around the corner with weapons in hand.
"Boss!" "Maija!"
Thalantyr raised his hand once more, causing Lene to stumble backwards as she ran straight into an invisible wall. He then pressed two vials which Kagain recognized as a healing potion and poison antidote into the elf's hands.
The dwarf snarled as he again attempted to rise, watching the conjurer hurriedly create a circular-shaped portal. He had just made it to his feet when Thalantyr, without saying a word, grabbed the unsteady elf by the shoulders and shoved her through the Dimension Door which then rapidly shrank out of sight.
The magus then turned to face him, ignoring the yells of the mercenaries as they pounded and hacked at the invisible wall with their weapons.
"We can discuss this like civilized men and business partners, Kagain, or like animals," he said loudly, standing tall and returning Kagain's furious glare. "I remind you again that this is my home."
Kagain looked up at him, then at the unconscious Maija and the bloodstains left by the elf on the floor and walls. After a moment, he slowly looked back at Thalantyr.
"Yeah," he said at last, his voice echoing in the corridor. "We're civilized, an' we do business. So I ain't gonna kill ya."
Lene and the other mercenaries hesitated at their leader's words. They watched as Kagain released his axe, the weapon's heavy blade clattering loudly onto the floor.
"Instead," the dwarf announced, clenching his fists and stomping forward. "I'm gonna beat the sodding shit outta ya!"
Thalantyr sneered and raised his hand again as the dwarf charged.
..
"It's okay," said Dorean, struggling to keep his blood-slicked hand from slipping off Khalid's neck. "You're going to be okay, just keep looking at me. Imoen, where's that potion?"
Having spent several precious seconds rummaging through her pack, Imoen then turned it upside down, emptying the contents onto the floor. Books, wands and provisions were stained with Khalid's blood as she frantically sifted through the pile.
"Imoen, potion!" Dorean shouted.
"There isn't any more!" she yelled shrilly.
"I'm out too," said Garrick, tossing aside an empty vial. "This isn't working."
Dorean glanced up at the bard, then back down to Khalid as the latter vomited out the contents of the potion that Garrick had forced down his throat.
"See to Ajantis," Dorean ordered tersely. "If he can move, get him here now."
Without a second's hesitation, Garrick nodded and turned away.
"Imoen," said Dorean. The pink-clad girl's tear-streaked face turned towards him. "Get Xzar. Hurry."
She blinked twice before scrambling to her feet, nearly slipping in Khalid's blood, then hurried over to Xzar's bed and began fumbling at his bonds.
Dorean looked back down at Khalid, grimacing at the man's increasingly pale face and the blood oozing from his mouth.
A thought entered his mind, cold and clinical.
He'll be dead in the next minute.
Looking into Khalid's eyes, he knew that the man had realized it too.
Instead of expressing fear or anger, Khalid's eyes moved to the puma lying about five paces away. The beast's eyes were fixed on him as well, and its fur was slick with its own blood as it attempted to drag itself along the ground towards him. Eldoth was attempting to apply a healing potion to the puma's wound and looking increasingly flustered by its refusal to remain still.
Dorean saw Khalid's hand rise off the ground, reaching towards the puma.
An unexpected anger washed over him, and he fought down a sudden, overwhelming urge to slap Khalid. Instead, he increased the pressure of his hand over the half-elf's wound and brought his own face close to his.
"You are not going to die here, you understand?" Dorean snarled.
Khalid blinked up at the furious dwarf.
Then Imoen and Xzar were kneeling next to them.
"Move your hands," said Xzar. His eyes met Dorean's, and for an instant that slowed down to an eternity, neither of them moved.
Dorean then obeyed and moved back. Leaning over Khalid, Xzar grasped the fork and pulled.
The blood-flow became a fountain. Imoen let out a choked cry.
Xzar clamped both hands hard over Khalid's neck, so much so that he was now throttling the man, then began to speak in a soft, hushed tone.
A memory suddenly rushed to Dorean's mind; eavesdropping on Winthrop and Gorion in the latter's office in Candlekeep, Winthrop translating and reading letters out loud to Gorion.
Auld Tharian.
Five seconds passed.
The blood flowing from beneath Xzar's hands slowed to a trickle. Khalid's eyes fluttered shut, and his breathing ceased. Several paces away, the puma let out a soft, anguished yowl.
Xzar kept muttering.
Dorean froze, eyes locking onto the top of Xzar's lowered head. His hand drifted towards his belt knife.
Xzar stopped.
For a full second, there was nothing.
Then colour instantly returned to Khalid's face, and his eyes slammed open to see Xzar's face looming above his.
The wizard slowly leaned back and removed his hands, revealing a bloodied yet whole and unscarred neck beneath Khalid's chin.
Dorean, Imoen and Garrick released their held breaths.
"Jaheira," Khalid whispered. He sat up and scooted forwards on his hands and feet towards the puma now lying on its side in a puddle of its own blood. It looked up at him as he reached it.
Khalid thrust an open hand towards Eldoth, who wordlessly handed him his half-empty healing potion. Dorean, Imoen, Xzar, Garrick and Eldoth watched as Khalid then ran over to his pack lying against a nearby bed, removed a small wooden bowl from it and hurried back to the puma's side.
Placing the bowl next to its mouth, Khalid emptied the remainder of the potion into the bowl, then grasped the puma's head and guided its jaws toward it. Blinking weakly, the beast lowered its head into the bowl and slowly lapped up the potion.
Dorean and Imoen exchanged looks before the latter moved to join Khalid next to the puma. The dwarf hesitated, glancing at Xzar who was watching Khalid, and remained in place.
The party looked on as the puma, having finished the potion, closed its eyes and purred quietly before morphing into the shape of a familiar female half-elf.
As she slowly sat up on her knees, Khalid kept his hands on her head, brushing her hair out of her eyes.
"Are you a-alright?"
"...yes," Jaheira answered, wincing in pain and clutching her stomach. "Yes, I am."
Khalid smiled.
Then without warning, his two-handed grip on her head tightened and he started shaking her.
"Wha-?! Khali-?!"
"I t-t-told you a t-t-thousand times, Jaheira! N-n-n-never s-shapeshift!"
"Khalid - !" Jaheira shouted, her hands shooting up to grasp Khalid's.
"You p-promised me n-never t-to do it!"
"Khalid, let go!"
"Not after l-last time!"
"I can handle it, that was one ti-"
"It was t-t-three! Three times! And e-every time you nearly died! How could you be so foolish?!"
"ME?! What about you?! What happened, why did she attack you?!"
"A good question. One I was about to ask."
Everyone save the unconscious Montaron and Ajantis looked up or spun around.
Thalantyr stood in the doorway, head slowly moving as his eyes scanned the room.
From the corner of his eye, Dorean noticed Garrick stowing Eldoth's dart and Montaron's knives in his shirt. The bard caught the dwarf's eye and winked without otherwise altering his expression.
Thalantyr spent a moment meeting everyone's eyes, frowning at the sight of the unrestrained Xzar and lingering on Khalid's cold, hard glare, before moving further into the room. More than one pair of eyebrows creased into frowns as the magus limped slowly forward, favouring his right leg.
"I am waiting for an answer," Thalantyr said coldly. "And I am curious as to why you are all hesitating to speak."
"How 'bout I hazard a sodding guess?" a voice called from beyond the doorway.
Without turning around, Thalantyr growled and glowered as Kagain stomped inside. The dwarf's face was now covered in purple bruises, the left half grotesquely swollen with his left eye blackened and swelled shut.
"Someone here figured that our host didn't bother ta tell us that the swish he's had staying here is a soddin' crazed killer."
"He is not a crazed-" Thalantyr began.
"Like hell he's not," Kagain snapped. "He's a sodding psycho who killed three'a my men, an' ya brought him in here, an' look at what he's soddin' done!"
The glare that Thalantyr turned onto Kagain could have melted a glacier, in contrast to the icy glares now directed by Jaheira and Khalid toward the magus himself.
"Is that true?" asked Jaheira, her voice and expression like granite. "You harboured a murderer and did not warn us?"
Thalantyr's eyes flashed, and Dorean involuntarily leaned back as the magus rounded on Jaheira.
"Who started this?" he demanded, eyes sweeping over the party and lingering on Xzar. "Who attacked first, him or you?"
"He did."
Fortunately for the party, Thalantyr immediately turned to Garrick, thus failing to notice the collective stares directed at the bard.
"The ranger, I mean," Garrick added, swallowing nervously under Thalantyr's scrutiny. "Khalid, Imoen and Dorean went to him and offered him food. When they saw his belongings under his bed, he attacked them. This was all self-defence."
Thalantyr's eyes narrowed as they focused on Garrick's young, boyish face, and he planted his hands on his hips.
"Sounds right ta me," said Kagain. "Bloody friggin' soddin' psycho."
"Because he killed your men?" Thalantyr replied without turning around.
"Not just my men. Travellers an' merchants too. Unarmed ones, I might add! An' ya let that animal into ya house? Gave 'im a bed ta sleep in?"
An ugly sneer appeared on Thalantyr's face as he slowly turned around to look at Kagain.
"If I had warned you, you would have tried to kill him," he said coldly.
Kagain's beard lifted as he barred his teeth. "Ya insult me, Thalantyr. Ya sayin' I would disrespect the rules'a ya house?"
"This coming from you, after what you just did to me?" Thalantyr replied, his voice rising with every syllable.
"That was payment," Kagain snarled back, his uninjured eye flashing. "Fer lyin' ta me an' puttin' my people at risk. If I was gonna violate ya rules, I would've killed ya an' be done with it."
"You thuggish, hypocritical little-"
"Shut up, Shut. Up!"
Kagain and Thalantyr's faces dropped. Both men remained still for a moment before slowly turning to join the rest of the party in staring at Dorean.
The dwarf glared at both of them, his thin chest rising and falling and his brown, blood-stained beard fluttering with deep, heavy breaths.
"Khalid, Jaheira," he said without taking his eyes off Kagain and Thalantyr. "Do a thorough check. Make sure you're both properly healed. The rest of you, see to Ajantis and Montaron. Do it now."
A few seconds passed in silence before the party moved to obey Dorean's orders. Xzar lingered a moment, glancing at him with half-lidded eyes, before quietly following Imoen towards where Montaron lay motionless at the broken bed.
Standing up, Dorean marched across the room, Khalid's blood trailing and dripping in his wake, and stopped directly in front of Thalantyr.
"Master Thalantyr," he said, his voice cold and regal. "Am I correct in assuming that you now wish to be rid of us more than ever?"
"Hold on a minute, nugget!" said Kagain. "Ya just gonna let this bastard throw us-"
"No, Master Kagain, I am not," Dorean replied. Kagain stopped in mid-gesticulation as the smaller dwarf's steely gray eyes briefly focused on him before looking back to Thalantyr. "On that note, Master Thalantyr; is our earlier agreement still intact?"
The magus slowly lifted his chin, staring past his nose at Dorean. He then lifted his gaze to where Khalid and Jaheira were still glaring at him, then back to the dwarf.
"If it is," he said slowly. "What then?"
"We leave for Beregost, with your aid," Dorean answered coolly. "We will be out of your hair, and you of ours, as quickly as possible."
Thalantyr paused, then glanced sideways at Kagain who glowered at him but otherwise said nothing.
After a moment, the magus turned around and slowly hobbled out of the room, clutching his left leg.
Without looking at Kagain, Dorean turned around and crossed the room, his socks squelching on Jaheira's and Khalid's blood, until he reached the elven stranger's bed.
Dragging the pack out from underneath it, he stared down at the Belt of Antipode for a moment before placing it on his shoulder and then moving to help Garrick treat Ajantis.
..
Kivan stumbled yet again, falling face-first into the grass.
He lifted his head, gritted his teeth so hard his gums bled, and raised himself up to his hands and knees.
The wounds were not a problem. He had suffered worse.
But the poison...
Thalantyr's antidote was spent, along with his own power.
Yet still it coursed through him, slowly sapping his strength.
He tried and failed to get his feet beneath him.
His legs were dead now.
One more mile. Just one more mile to the cabin.
Crawl. Crawl.
He lifted one arm, moved it a few inches forward, then collapsed completely.
His own voice echoed in his head, calm and serene.
You are going to die here.
Another voice, also his yet furious. Deviant.
No. Not yet. Not. Yet.
Figures loomed into view above him.
One of them pointed at his armour with its sword, speaking excitedly to its companions.
Something appeared, barrelling into one of them, and they turned as others figures appeared, hunched and clawed and slathering.
Shouts. Snarls. The sounds of metal and claws on flesh. Screams.
Then quiet.
He lay still, listening to the slow, lessening thud of his own heart.
Something loomed over him, leaning close.
A beard. A pipe. A hat.
"Yes..." the three of them said. "You shall be a fine servant for Tiax."