Chapter 123: Assignment
Once again, Ember was in the Candlekeep library.
Once again, Irenicus was standing by a pulpit, mocking her for wishing to be normal, scolding her for not embracing her powers.
"Walk among them, these beasts that are less than you are," he said, and pointed at the stretch of floor that separated them. Her companions lay there, asleep... no, not asleep. They were dead.
It was she who had killed them.
"You care yet," he said, his voice dripping with disgust. "Why? Why do you stand for this? Why do you submit to the flesh when death is bred in your bones?"
Imoen was standing beside Irenicus now, with a hole cut in her chest where her heart should have been. He laughed coldly, seized Imoen by the wrist, and dragged her away.
"Follow, and receive the gift you are owed by the blood in your veins," he challenged Ember. "Follow, if only to protect the weak that fell because of you."
Ember started to give chase, but within a few steps, she stumbled; her feet had tangled in the limbs of her dead companions. Desperately, she tried to work herself free, but their arms wound around her legs like vines, ensnaring her further. She lost her balance, and fell forward into a sea of darkness.
-.-.-
Ember prodded her breakfast in silence, and did her best to ignore the concerned looks Anomen and Minsc were sending her way. Her dream had drained away both her cheer and her appetite, but she was not going to ruin the meal for everyone else by discussing such a nightmare at the table. No, she'd told them earlier that she'd had a bad dream, and it was best to just leave it at that.
Her spirits were lifted a little, but only briefly, when Yoshimo arrived at the table with a message from Gaelan Bayle, asking them to meet at his home at noon. No explanation or reason was given, and Ember didn't dare hope that it meant they were finally ready to take her to Imoen. After all, wouldn't Bayle have given them a hint that the meeting meant good news, if that were the case? But yet, she could argue with just as much right that there was no hint at a further delay, either!
After a maddening wait, the group approached Bayle's doorstep just as the noon bells tolled. His nephew was nowhere in sight; this time, it was Bayle himself who welcomed them. "Greetings to ye, me lady!" he said, and bowed theatrically.
Ember was in no mood to exchange pleasantries. "Is our ship ready?" she asked.
"Not quite yet," Bayle said, confirming her fears, "but ye may not wait much longer. There's someone here that wants to speak with ye."
"And who might this someone be?" Mazzy asked.
"The one that's arranging yer trip to Spellhold, that's who," Bayle grinned. "Come with me."
Bayle led the group into his parlour. The blinds were shut, and the room was lit by the weak flame of a single candle. A man in a patched cloak sat on a chair at the far end of the room, standing up when the group entered. He wore the hood of his cloak pulled forward, obscuring his face while still allowing him to see, and when he moved, the flickering candlelight glinted off his chest, suggesting a chainmail beneath his cloak. The man stepped forward, still careful not to reveal his face, and extended his hand to Ember. "Welcome! I've looked forward to meeting you," he said. His voice was deep and pleasant. "I am Aran Linvail."
She'd heard that name before. If rumour spoke true, she was talking to the head of the Shadow Thieves in Athkatla. "As you know, I am Ember," she said, and briefly clasped his hand. "What would you have of us?"
"What I would have is quite simple. I wish to propose a trade of services."
"Oh? I propose that you supply what we have coming already," she said icily. "We have paid, after all."
"I assure you, all that you have paid has been put to good use. And you will be compensated for your gold." Linvail took a pouch from his belt and displayed its contents; a ring and an amulet, both gleaming with enchantments. "Accept my offer, and these will be yours to keep, regardless of what comes."
"Trinkets?" Anomen burst out. "You expect to appease us with a few baubles we could have found at the local bazaar? We have more important things to worry about!"
"(Those are no mere baubles...)" Edwin muttered.
"I know you are eager to set off after Imoen, and I assure you that the time will come soon. There are merely some added difficulties that we have encountered."
"And what kind of difficulties might that be?" Ember asked.
"The ongoing guild war... it prevents us going further." Linvail's voice turned harsh with anger. "You have met the leader of our rivals, Bodhi; she is a vampire, and we believe many of her key servants are the same. Normally, our opposition would have been dealt with in short order, but my people are trained to deal with others of their kind, not such... creatures. They strike when we least expect, and without warning; a dozen good men and women were lost to the vampires only last night. Shipments have been disappearing, and my employees with them... though I do not like to admit it, we are significantly weakened by this. Arranging to send a ship to Spellhold under these conditions would be utter folly."
"In other words, you have no intention of -"
Linvail cut Ember off. "Help me alter the conditions, and your ship will set sail tomorrow," he said. "We have located Bodhi's hideout amongst the deeper tombs in the Graveyard District. You have a cleric that is reported to be adept at dispersing the undead, and you are more honed for true battle than any number of my employees. Destroy the vampires for us, and I will fulfil our bargain immediately. What say you?"
What was there to say?
"You had better deliver on that promise," she said. "Rest assured, I will hold you to it."
"Boo does not trust you," Minsc added warningly. "Prove him wrong or face the boot!"
"Duly noted," Linvail said. He turned and gestured to Bayle, who brought a large sack into the room. It contained a number of stakes and several fluid-filled vials. "One does not send anyone after vampires without proper equipment," Linvail explained. "The holy water should smooth your way. The stakes are for truly finishing the creatures. When do you intend to move?"
"As soon as possible, of course," Ember said.
"Good. When you are ready, assemble within the west gate of the graveyard; I'll arrange for our contact to meet you there. She will open the entrance to the hideout for you," Linvail said, and thrust the pouch of jewelry into Ember's hands. "You will find these useful, I am sure. Report back to Gaelan Bayle when you are done. Good hunting."
-.-.-
"This course of action will lead to trouble," Yoshimo grumbled as the group walked towards the west gate of the Graveyards.
"As opposed to what?" Ember asked. "Have you forgotten that Bodhi's already declared us to be enemies?"
"No... not at all," Yoshimo said. "But we are perhaps... getting involved where we shouldn't be. That is... well..."
"I know," she sighed. "But what choice do we have?" She would have preferred to stay out of the Shadow Thieves' business if she could have, and she knew that most of her companions would have balked had they been asked to intervene in a regular guild war. But the current situation was different. They had heard the rumours, and they had met Bodhi. As Mazzy had put it, acting against such a creature could never be considered anything but a noble task, no matter who it was that asked them to perform the deed. "Truth be told," she said to Yoshimo, "I'd be happy to face any number of vampires, if only I could have Imoen back first!"
Yoshimo smiled. "A most understandable sentiment, my friend."
Behind them, Edwin and Mazzy were arguing about the jewelry Linvail had given the group. As Edwin had ascertained, the ring bore powerful protective magics, and was a king's prize in its own right, but it paled in comparison to the amulet. Wrought from silver entwined with illithium, a metal that would brook no impurity, the amulet would ward its wearer from any form of undead energy, including a vampire's lifedraining powers; in addition, it held several enchantments that'd benefit any spellcaster. Naturally, Edwin coveted it, but Mazzy objected, insisting that both Ember and Anomen would have better use for the illithium than he would.
"None can utilize its powers as well as I," Edwin complained, "and you know it!"
"Unless you intend to be on the front line against the vampires," Mazzy said, "I must beg to differ!"
"Why (yes, why!) must you focus on that single property?!"
"All this shouting is giving Boo a headache," Minsc grumbled, and turned to glare at Edwin.
Anomen said a few quiet words to Mazzy, then both of them spoke to Edwin; after a brief conversation, Anomen approached Ember and put the amulet in her hands. "Edwin agreed to relinquish the amulet," he said, "and has been granted the ring. I trust you do not mind?"
"Not at all," Ember said, and held the amulet out to him. "You should wear this."
"Nay, my lady, you must wear it," he said, and closed her fingers around the amulet.
"But -"
"Should it come to the worst, I may be resurrected. How could I claim this amulet knowing you do not have that option?" he said quietly, then added, "My armour offers greater physical protection than your leathers, and I am thus already at an advantage. I insist; it must be yours."
He looked intently, beseechingly at her; her heart beat faster as she met his gaze. Could she deny him anything, she wondered, when he looked at her like that? "If you put it that way," she said lightly, and let him fasten the amulet around her neck.
-.-.-
The group continued onwards in a silence that was only broken by Minsc, humming softly to Boo, and arrived at the west gate in short order. At first, they seemed to be alone, but as soon as they walked through the gates and into the graveyard itself, a woman swathed in a dark cloak stepped forward to meet them. "Abbil," the woman said, and tilted her head almost imperceptibly in greeting before pulling back the hood that concealed her dark face. "Are you prepared for this task?"
"Viconia," Ember said, recognizing the drow priestess they'd encountered twice before. "We are prepared and ready."
Viconia's gaze drifted to Ember's side, where her scimitar hung in its sheath. "I see you've replaced your sword," she said.
"Yes, I have," Ember said, resting her hand on the scimitar's hilt. "The other blade was destroyed."
A cold smile creased the drow's lips. "Pity," she said, and pulled her hood up again. "Come. We descend now."
The entrance was through an old, neglected tomb; its rusted gates hung ajar, offering no hindrance, and the marble slab that should have sealed off the inner tomb lay shattered on the ground. A large hole in one of the interior walls revealed a tunnel. The group followed Viconia down the winding tunnel into a large chamber, where a giant skeleton was guarding a pair of blue stone doors. The drow priestess pulled an amulet that looked like a disc of pure black from within her tunic, and held it aloft. Darkness seemed to congeal around it. Ember's skin crawled.
Viconia spoke. The skeleton lurched, trembled, and walked unsteadily towards the stone doors; the sound of creaking bones mingled with that of stone against stone as the skeleton, with inhuman strength, forced the doors open. Once its task was completed, the skeleton turned around and stood still, its attention riveted on Viconia.
"It will attack when I release it," Viconia said. "You would be wise to strike first."
"Understood," Ember said. "Minsc, remember the bone golem?"
"Minsc remembers well!" He strode up to the skeleton, looked closely at it, then walked behind it and jammed his blade in between the skull and the neck. There was a sickening crack; the skull came loose, and as it fell to the ground, the rest of the skeleton crumbled to a lifeless pile of old bones.
"I leave now," Viconia said. "The vampires await you beyond that doorway. May darkness take them!"
The drow headed back up the tunnel, and Ember and Anomen set about saying protective prayers over the group, warding them all as best they could.
"A curious woman, this Viconia," Yoshimo said. "I find myself wondering why Linvail did not ask her to assist us further."
"Her powers stem from evil," Mazzy said, "and I, for one, cannot help but feel relief that she will not fight by my side."
As soon as everyone was ready, they passed through the doorway and entered a large, decrepit-looking chamber. Two ghouls shambled towards them; with a few words and a gesture, Anomen destroyed them.
It had begun.
