The inside of Jaheira's cell was empty and pitch black. Even the limited light from Viconia's flaming sword burned the prisoners' eyes. The first thing Anomen did, before uttering another word to any of them, or even troubling to pull up his breeches, was to dive into Rasaad's pack for food and water. He tore a small loaf in two, gave half to Jaheira, and the pair of them gobbled it down in seconds. They were behaving as though they'd had nothing to eat or drink in days. Which, in fact, they hadn't.

To Arowan's immense relief, there was a simple explanation for the strange scene that the party had stumbled upon. It was nowhere near so dreadful as it had first appeared. Except, perhaps for Anomen, from whose perspective it was much, much worse.

"You see, while we were in Trademeet we ran into some old friends," Jaheira explained, as Anomen pulled his pants up. The young man looked like he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him, though he was so desperately hungry and thirsty that his shame did not dull his appetite. "Coran and Safana. She and Anomen hit it off quickly…"

Arowan and Viconia's faces split into identical evil grins. Anomen replied with a withering stare of his own. It was hard for him to look threatening, however, when his cheeks were stuffed with bread like an overfed hamster.

"I think I see where this is going," chuckled the ranger. Beside her, Viconia started squeaking again. Even Rasaad allowed himself a smile. It felt good to see her happy.

"Well, quite." Jaheira nodded. "Anomen here has picked up not one but two distinct rashes. I've never seen a combination quite like it, a very curious case. Small pustules around the base and shaft with blisters at the tip. Silly boy was too embarrassed to say anything when he first noticed symptoms so the infection has had time to settle in and make itself at home."

"Do they really need this much detail?" moaned Anomen miserably.

"I bet this will make you think twice before hopping into bed with Coran again," Viconia remarked to Arowan spitefully. Beside her, Rasaad winced.

"I doubt our idiot stallion would have sought help for months," Jaheira went on, "But once we were locked in that cell together his constant scratching was impossible to ignore. It was like he had lice in his crotch! So, I convinced him to let me take a look."

"That is hilarious," Arowan said happily.

Despite the fact that they were still trapped in the temple, she was relieved to find Jaheira alive. Besides, it was hardly their first life-threatening situation. For the moment things were looking up.

"You will not think it so fine a joke when it happens to you!" Anomen exclaimed, looking cross. "Which given your lifestyle, ranger, is only a matter of time."

"I don't think my lifestyle is nearly so exciting as you imagine it to be," she giggled.

"I am glad you find the situation so amusing," Jaheira snapped, "Although I doubt that you'd have been smiling so much if you had been there yourself. Having to tell Coran what happened to his best friend was no laughing matter."

"Oh gods, he didn't know?" Arowan groaned. She hadn't thought of that. As quickly as it had come, her good mood was gone. "How did he take it?"

"Badly," Anomen replied grimly. "Although Safana seemed quite pleased. Apparently, Coran is the heir to the Hero's entire fortune. At one point she was actually talking about digging up Freya's fur so they could prove to her bankers that she's dead!"

"WHAT?" thundered Rasaad and Viconia together, like a pair of erupting volcanoes.

"What?" asked Arowan and Yoshimo at the same time, but the tone in their voices was fearful.

"Coran wasn't having any of it, of course," Jaheira said in a satisfied sort of way.

Everyone relaxed again, except for Arowan. She knew Safana well enough to realise that there was no conceivable way she would let the money go out of respect for Freya's grave. By now the thief would have tunnelled halfway down to the hells searching for the Hero's remains. Doubtless Safana must have realised that the pelt wasn't there. What would she do now? Come looking for her in all likelihood. It was a good thing that Valyghar had let slip Kangaax's location, because the ranger had a bad feeling that she was running out of time.

"Praise Sylvanus!" Jaheira groaned, biting into a strip of beef jerky. "I thought for sure we'd end up as skeletons in this twisted place."

"They were starving you to death?" Arowan asked. "Why?"

"Not on purpose, I don't think," groaned Anomen, slumping against the wall. "But the guards have been dead for so long, they've forgotten what humans eat. They tried bringing us a dead branch and some mud the other day. The Shade Lord would probably have got around to feeding us eventually, but he's been busy."

"What is happening here?" Rasaad asked urgently.

Druid and Helmite explained what they knew, eating and drinking every provision they could lay their hands on as they did so. A Shade Lord had corrupted this former temple of Amaunator and was using it as a base to conquer as much of the surrounding land as possible. He was growing an army of shades by killing as many people as he could drag to his altar, supplemented with the spirits of wolf packs who until recently roamed this region.

"He keeps some alive though," Anomen said darkly. "Only the strongest."

"The Shade Lord is not a creature of this plane and must possess a mortal body, feeding off its life," Jaheira nodded. "When he captured us he was inhabiting the flesh of the ranger Merella, but she was badly wounded when the wolves dragged her from her cabin. Yesterday he limped down to the cells, seemingly on death's doorstep, and hauled Mazzy away. I expect the next time we see him, he will be wearing a halfling skin."

Yoshimo shuddered. "We must find a way out of here," he said. "This is Rejiek Hidesman all over again."

"The Shade Lord is different in nature to the skin dancers, but just as unpleasant," replied Jaheira. "We must defeat him if we can."

"Defeating him is too ambitious for us," Arowan said quietly. "We saw what looked like a dragon-hole on the way in here."

This was clearly news to the captured pair, and Jaheira cursed softly. Dragon slaying was beyond her party's capability, even when they were all at full health. As it was, they were starved, drained and trapped between two impossible foes; a dragon below or a shade army above.

"Bah! To hells with it. I vote for the dragon," said Anomen after a while. "If we're going to die anyway, we might as well do it heroically."

"We survived a dragon once before," Rasaad comforted Viconia. "Perhaps we can do it again."

He did not sound very convinced, and with excellent reason. The dragon in question had incinerated his lower half so badly that these days the skin on his legs resembled tree bark. Its vicious claws had forever blinded the eyes of Selune that the young monk had tattooed onto his chest in the monastery. Sometimes, in her nightmares, Viconia still pictured Rasaad torn open down the middle, with his innards spilling from him.

Arowan did not fancy their chances either. Though Rasaad and Viconia had been present, the actual dragon slaying had been a joint effort between Freya and Coran, neither of whom were here.

"Is there another way out?" she asked.

"I believe these symbols will open the only path to freedom," Jaheira replied, pulling some golden discs of Amaunator from her pockets. "Mazzy gave me these before they hauled her away. There's no sense staying here. We must make a decision. Forward or back?"

The vote was unanimous for forward. It meant probable death in the jaws of a dragon, but since the alternative was certain doom at the hands of the shades, they had no choice. Mazzy must have been an adventurer of some skill for their way had been largely cleared. Piles of animate but recently disconnected bones twitched harmlessly on the floor.

Nothing gave them pause as they progressed through the temple ruins, except for a blue marble statue of a woman, kneeling at the end of a trapped floor. It was clearly special, for her eyes blazed with light. She was holding out her arms as though waiting for something to be placed in them. Jaheira stopped at the foot of the statue and gazed up at it as though in a trance. Anomen had to shake her quite hard before the druid would snap out of it and move on.

"Are you alright?" he frowned.

"Yes… and no…" Jaheira said slowly, her eyes turning uneasily to the waiting statue. "I felt… strange. As though someone were stepping over my grave."

"Hey here's a thought!" Arowan said, changing the subject abruptly. "I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess that this dragon we're approaching is probably of the evil variety. Supposing, Viconia, you were to walk up to it and say; 'Hey buddy! Servant of all Faiths here. How about letting us go?'" Rasaad scowled at her while the drow made a faint hissing noise. Arowan grinned at them both. "Why not? It worked a treat on Firkraag."

"An excellent suggestion," Jaheira nodded approvingly. "And, if the dragon decides to eat our cleric instead, it will give the rest of us a chance to escape."

"I would never flee a battle leaving one of my comrades behind!" Rasaad cried, as usual taking things a little too literally. "Not even a servant of Shar!"

"I shall remember that remark, male," Viconia muttered.

They followed Jaheira up a long staircase and emerged at last into the great hall where Mazzy Fentan's party had fallen. Above them the stars twinkled down, for the hall lay directly beneath the hole that the dragon had made when it clawed its way into the temple. Since it had only arrived recently the den was not so customized as Firkraag's had been, though already this specimen had accumulated a much grander hoard.

They could not see its face, for the beast was curled atop its treasure like a monstrous black cat. Snores like a lion roaring made the coins below it tremble. Its hide was translucent like the shades, and they could not tell its size for it was impossible to say where the dragon ended and the shadows began. At the other end of the hall was a stone archway and beyond it they could just make out stairs leading upwards. There was no way to reach it except through the dragon.

"It occurs to me," Yoshimo whispered, very quietly, "That we are directly below the shades and so these stairs will, in all likelihood, emerge close to the place where we came in. That being so, we may as well try to go back the way we came. If we must fight through the shade army either way, then there is no sense in risking a dragon's wrath as well."

"No, the Shade Lord is this way," Jaheira insisted. "Destroying him is our best chance of survival. If he dies, his control over these spirits will be lost and they will be free to pass on to the Fugue Plane. The dragon is sleeping. Everyone take off your boots and we will try to creep past it.

Rasaad went first. He was the obvious choice, being both the fastest and able to detect traps. He slipped into the shadows and seemed to disappear altogether, emerging moments later in the archway at the opposite end of the hall and signalling to the others that the way was clear. The shadow dragon did not stir. Arowan and Yoshimo then moved forward together, but they were just passing its thick spiked tail when the pale face of a shade wolf peered over the edge of the dragon pit.

Arowan tapped Yoshimo, who looked up too and gasped. The wolf threw back its head and cried out. Soon dozens of its fellows surrounded the rim of the pit. They did not leap down, seemingly unable to perform feats that would have killed them in life, but they set about a tremendous howling. They were joined by their ghostly human counterparts who screamed wordlessly and pointed at the party.

The dragon, of course, woke up. With a yawn it stretched its vast wings, blacking out the sky above and plunging the hall into total darkness. They ran for where they remembered the exit being, dropping their boots behind them.

"How amusing that you mortals would dare to enter the lair of a shadow dragon," the monster chortled. "Are you daft? Blind? Whatever, I shall tear your bodies apart and feast on your innards while you whimper and cry for mercy."

A fire arrow hurtled from below, striking the dragon in his jaw. It clattered harmlessly to the floor, leaving the beast chuckling and entirely unhurt. The creature retaliated by beating its wings with the force of a small hurricane. The adventurers were flung sideways into the wall of the hall. There was a loud crack and for several moments Arowan was completely blinded by pain from her ankle breaking. Yoshimo was much more badly hurt. He had been knocked out cold, and a thin trickle of blood was oozing from his mouth.

She tried to tug him toward the exit, but with her ankle twisted and cracked, she was barely able to move herself. The pain was blinding. In desperation she fumbled for a healing potion, but by the time she had swallowed it, the dragon was bearing down on them again. She could not see its face in the shadows, only the malevolent glow of its eyes. The ranger aimed for the left one and shot, but she was still hurting and her aim was slightly off.

The arrow clattered to the floor impotently just as the first one had done, but it had flown close enough to the shadow dragon's eye to give the creature pause. Just to make sure that she did not try such a stunt again, it screwed its eyes shut. This made it more or less invulnerable but had the side effect of blinding itself.

Ice cold breath tickled Arowan's neck, but she could not bring herself to leave Yoshimo. The possibility never crossed her mind, it was unthinkable. She would sooner abandon her own hands. The ranger buried her face into his barely moving chest and waited for death. A moment later, his body was being lifted out from under her, but she refused to let go.

"I have him. We need to move!" a Calishite voice whispered urgently in her ear. Despite being drained, Rasaad lifted the other man, albeit with more difficulty than he usually would. Arowan followed them swiftly to the exit, wondering why the dragon did not attack, but not daring to look back.

From the safety of the archway it was difficult to make out what was happening in the dark, but she could see shapes moving around. The grunts of ogres and squeals of kobolds rang out as the dragon snatched them up. It sounded as though Jaheira had summoned creatures to distract the monster, and this strategy had half-succeeded. They were all safe, but they were also trapped at opposite ends of the hall.

"There's no way past it!" Jaheira hollered.

"We'll have to fight the Shade Lord alone," Arowan replied. "If he dies, the three of you can escape the way we came in."

"Don't be a damned fool!" bellowed Anomen. "If we couldn't defeat it, what makes you think that you can?"

"Do not disturb the Shade Lord at this time!" the shadow dragon screeched. It snapped its jaws into the archway but it was much too large to follow them up the stairs. Turning its lizard-like body to the side, it reached a vast talon into the hole, scrabbling to snatch them like a cat pawing a mouse hole.

Arowan wondered why it did not just use its breath, but the reason soon became apparent. They were much closer to the surface than they had realised. The flight of steps was but a short one and had the dragon used its breath weapon it would have damaged a dark altar sited at the top.

Whether it was the gods intervening on Viconia's behalf once more, or whether they were just very lucky, was something they would debate at length later while contemplating their miraculous escape. Against the Shade Lord there were only two of them (three if they counted Yoshimo, but he was unconscious). Both Arowan and Rasaad were somewhat drained and neither had any specialist skills left that would help against the undead. The outcome ought to have been a foregone conclusion.

Fortunately for them, there was a reason that the Shade Lord had been too preoccupied to feed his prisoners. As they stepped out into the cursed forest they found his undead servants mid-ritual, partway through exchanging consorts. The emaciated corpse of a ranger lay discarded at the foot of his altar. It could only be Merella. The Shade Lord himself, was curled up in a foetal position, shivering on the altar in the body of a halfling. A host who, for the past few days, had been stubbornly refusing to surrender.

"Are you Mazzy Fentan?" Arowan asked cautiously.

"More souls to feast on. Welcome all!" the halfling replied, her breath freezing mid-air as she spoke. Then the voice changed from deep and echoing to one which was normal, but weak. "It's cold… so cold…"

"Embrace the massster," one of the spirits whispered in her ear. He too was a halfling, and seemed to be leading the ritual they'd interrupted. "You were our leader in life, it's only fitting that we should serve you in deathhh. We're all here Mazzy. All here with you, forever and ever. Jussst let go…"

"No!" Mazzy wailed. "Twisted fiend! Only death shall stop me from avenging those noble souls that you have stolen!"

"You are already dead my beloved," the shade assured her. "As dead as I am. He is in you now and cannot be cast out."

Mazzy was sitting up determinedly on the altar, shaking with effort. Every fibre of her being was resisting the evil within her. The halfling's pain was evident, but her jaw clenched. Unusually for a halfling, she wore the armour of a knight, though Arowan was quite sure that the paladin orders did not accept her kind as squires.

The shade of her follower was whispering in her ear again. Mazzy screwed up her eyes and moaned in misery, her resilience eroding grain by grain. Arowan aimed a fire arrow at the halfling ghost behind her and shot. At once the shades surrounded them, but they were few. Only those of Mazzy's party were present. The ones whom the Shade Lord had thought he could use to wear her down. He had not anticipated anyone making it past both his army and his pet dragon before the ritual was complete. Of course, he had never imagined that gaining control of a simple halfling would take this long.

Even so, to overcome this handful of shades, Arowan was forced to pull a rather underhanded stunt. It took several shots each to disperse the spirits, the arrows sailing through them while the fire remained burning within. They were bound to drain her energy again before she had a chance to destroy them all. There was only one way to prevent this.

She ducked behind Rasaad, kicked the monk in the small of the back, and sent him stumbling forward into their path. He was already badly drained or she would not have been able to knock him over. Now he was about to have his remaining energy sucked from him. He glared at her with anger and betrayal, before the shades engulfed him like flies. This made everything much easier. Since it was the fire that was hurting them and not the actual shots, the ranger pulled a fistful of fire arrows from her quiver, flicked them alight and dropped them on top of the nearest shades.

They wailed for a moment, before exploding into mist. Unfortunately for Rasaad, the still-hot metal tips passed through the shades and landed on his weakened body, branding him like pokers. He screamed and writhed, semi-conscious on the toxic ground beneath the altar. She dropped the next bunch, trying to avoid them landing on him, but not completely succeeding. The last shade was still feasting upon him, sucking the last traces of his energy with the enthusiasm of a child licking its pudding bowl. Defeated and enfeebled, the man gave a last shudder and fainted.

"Sorry about that Rasaad," Arowan said, though she did not feel as guilty as she probably should. She thrust the last set of arrows into the remaining shade tip-first while holding onto the shaft. The colourless halfling shade drooped over the burning arrow heads like a melting marshmallow. Then it too was gone. "Huh," the ranger noted, still holding the arrows. "I guess I didn't need to drop the burning heads onto you after all. Shame I didn't think of that sooner."

Rasaad did not reply. Like Yoshimo, his breathing was shallow and he was utterly insensible. Viconia, Anomen and Jaheira remained trapped on the other side of the shadow dragon. Arowan was quite alone now, save for Mazzy Fentan.

The halfling was still sitting with difficulty on the altar. She was hideously unwell, with great grey bags beneath her eyes, yellow blotched skin and braided hair that was dripping with grease. Her long ordeal without food, sleep or washing made it impossible to tell what she normally looked like. Mazzy turned her blue eyes to Arowan.

"Kill me," she croaked.

...


Writer's note: out of curiosity does anyone else form mental playlists when they write? Like associating certain songs with particular characters or relationships? Just for the sake of sharing, here's some of the soundtrack to what you've been reading.

Character Themes

Jaheira: Adeimus (Enya)

Coran: Fairground (Simply Red)

Bhaal: God Shuffled His Feet (Crash Test Dummies)

Freya: Black Sheep of the Family (Rainbow)

Arowan: Sleeping Sun (Nightwish)

Skie: Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky)

Safana: Karma Chameleon (Culture Club)

Relationship Themes

Freya and Coran: Sit Down (James)

Jaheira and Khalid: Can't go Back Now (Weepies)

Arowan and Rasaad: Wanted (Cranberries)

Viconia and Rasaad: I Hate Everything About You (Three Days Grace)

Minsc and Aerie: Be Happy (Aqua)

Holy crap, I am old. I don't think a single song on this list came out this millennium. Lol.