Chapter 15
Cheating
The human's arms were folded casually and in such a way as to make his hands out of sight and probably not too far away from the hilts of his weapons, a mockery of the normal 'peace' gesture.
"Are you sure?" Winter said dubiously. It took you some time to realize she was not speaking drow...and oddly, you could understand it. Some sort of spell?
"Sure I am." Veldrin nudged her sister with her elbow. "I can feel that dagger of his."
The human frowned at them, as if wondering – and rightfully so – why three elven females were discussing him in his presence.
"So what do you want to do now?" Ssussun ducked behind Winter and shoved her forward gently. "Go on...we want to watch a sword fight!" Veldrin made an enthusiastic affirmative noise.
The human raised his eyebrows.
Winter chuckled, but stepped forward. "I think that this is a bad way to call attention, Ssussun..."
"Who are you?" Artemis Entreri, if that was his name, asked coldly, in tones that meant he expected an answer – a powerful personage, perhaps, in this city?
"Well...we do not have a species name yet," Veldrin said, not intimidated at all, and still studiously examining the human. "We were from the Underdark. And before that, the Abyss. Before that is a...metaphysical question."
"The Abyss!" Entreri's eyes widened, and though nothing else about him moved, he gave the sudden impression of a coiled spring, ready to fight or run. He stared at the four of you as if expecting you to turn into ravening monsters at any moment.
"These forms are prettier," Winter said casually. "And although the coloring is just amusing it is less conspicuous than a dragon's."
"What are you...what is your business in Calimport?" Entreri inquired, still looking apprehensive, but in the type of apprehension that meant that he was only afraid of what they may change into, and that he was confident of his chances if they stayed in their current forms and did not utilize strange forms of magic.
"Anything at all," Ssussun said before Winter could think of a reply.
"That's fun," Veldrin added.
Winter appeared to give up – she went along with their attitude. "That's creatively destructive," she grinned.
"Nice wording," Veldrin approved.
"Or maybe just simply complex," Winter continued, drawing Irr'liancrea, then striking a dramatic pose, though you noticed that it could just as easily be converted to a 'ready' stance. Entreri appeared to notice this as well – he surreptitiously shifted a foot forward, and tensed.
"Oh, forget it," Winter sighed, then charged, sword high and parallel to the ground, garnering an astonishing burst of speed from a standing start.
Entreri appeared to brace himself...then his eyes widened as she leaped high into the air and swung the long sword down in a dazzling, vicious arc. He pushed himself backwards, jerking his head back and so missed having a long gash cut into his skin from between his eyes to his jaw, then had to fling his hands out for balance.
Winter landed softly and, as Tilarjen had done, lunged forward, sword first. Entreri was commendably fast – he leaped desperately to the side, slamming by accident into the wall, knocking his breath out of him, but avoiding being impaled on the blue sword like a butterfly on a pin, avoiding even the slightest injury. Winter chuckled and converted the thrust into a sideward slash, another vicious blue arc.
An unnerving clash of metal instead of the sound you had been expecting: the wet sound of the crystal sword tearing into flesh.
Entreri had drawn his sword in a blur of metal. Though the sword was only half-out of its scabbard he had angled it in such a way that Winter's sword would not be able to continue its mad arc to slice open his chest.
The sound of swords shearing off each other was not unlike the sound made by a giant scissors, metallic and rasping. Winter leaped back as a dagger, jewels reflecting what light there was in the alley into your eyes, slashed at her hand, then had to parry and equally vicious swipe from Entreri's sword that would have taken off her arm.
The twins were unconsciously holding hands, both pairs of eyes shining as they watched the sword fight, and you padded anxiously around them, feeling restless. Entreri appeared to be the best Winter had come up against so far...that you had seen, of course.
Winter laughed – laughed, as Entreri dodged a high sweep and stabbed at her robes with his sword. She leaped up, and he twirled to a crouch, his dagger-hand flashing through the air, the dangerous triangle of metal only visible as a gray blur...
Winter landed softly on the cobble stones, a long rip in her prized cloak. She uncurled to her feet, all dangerous grace, back to the three of you at an angle, and as you watched and Entreri watched, the rip repaired itself magically.
"Magic," Entreri said in distaste, then lunged again, sword first.
So far neither had managed to cut the other into ribbons, and they were already well past what Winter termed 'foreplay' (the sounding out of the opponent with tentative moves) into the faster and more demanding aspects of the 'dance'.
It did look like a dance, perhaps, from far away – two partners weaving around each other and attempting to anticipate each other's movements, concerted, almost choreographed twirling – but from here you thought it just looked like a display of elemental savagery. From here it looked exactly like it actually was: two beings attempting their best to kill each other.
"No special moves?" Winter said suddenly, sounding rather disappointed, even as her sword reversed direction to block and shove away a wicked thrust. Her 'style' was mostly fluid arcs this time, for some reason – her own rather strange 'special move' of random jabs and slashes had not yet been tried.
The twins blinked, then snickered as Entreri, facing the three of you this time, allowed a look of surprise to cross his face. Normally one did not try to speak during a serious contest – it was considered wasting energy. Only amateurs did that.
"You wish a...special move?" Entreri said, pronouncing the last two words with condescension, but was amazingly not even out of breath yet. His intonation implied that Winter was already at a disadvantage, with one weapon to his two.
As if to demonstrate this he suddenly pressed forward, crossing his sword with Winter's, and continued his lunge such that Winter's sword was pressed back closer towards her. Even as Winter slipped away out of the dangerously exposed stance, Entreri's dagger arm slashed out, his dagger appearing to become an extension of his hand, nicking Winter under her left elbow.
"Four years with two swords," Winter admitted, wincing slightly.
"Use two swords, then," Entreri said graciously, though not truly understand her implication, attacking again, his sword leading, then when he was close enough, his dagger slashed forward. Winter parried first by smashing his sword wide, then turning her sword quickly to catch and push away his dagger with the end of Irr'liancrea, using the momentum to whirl into a roundhouse kick. Her boot met Entreri's throat, and she twirled back into balance.
"One sword you already cannot handle," she replied, mockingly, attacking again as he coughed and choked and staggered back. She launched Tantras'nen's rather mad move of a furious series of stabs that would leave the user's defense wide open and the receiver frantically attempting to parry, unless the receiver was suicidal enough to leave himself open and try to attack.
She had merged that move with her favorite one – mingled with the stabs were several snipped-off styles, like that rotating slash of Rand'eran's, that was cut off before its final thrust to slide into another of Tilarjen's favorite attacks, a close up, low arc of metal aimed to cripple the opponent by cutting up his kneecaps.
Entreri was not suicidal – he seemed frustrated that he could not use her wide opening but instead had to parry the seemingly random series of lightning-quick stabs and patchworked styles the best he could. Miraculously, unlike Winter whom had been injured when this had been tried on her, he did not get stabbed, ripped open, or impaled. But she had him between herself and the wall – he could not leap away. She could not possibly keep up the mad pace of the stabs and styles – and he could not parry this quickly much longer without tiring.
Winter apparently knew this, for she lunged again – then hooked Entreri up with her sword tip by his cloak pin and shirt front, lifting him up into the air, one hand on the hilt, the other further forward along the blade to better support the weight. The twins hissed in surprise – she was that strong? But by the way Irr'liancrea was pulsing slightly, you knew that the sword was lending her power.
Certainly it surprised the human, whose well made boots dangled madly in the air. This rather fragile-looking female elf with so much strength? But with his feet off the ground, the sword tip so close to his throat and neither weapon long enough to reach Winter, he was pretty much helpless unless...
Unless he threw the dagger.
Winter and Entreri appeared to reach this same conclusion at the same time, and Entreri moved his dagger hand up and flicked his wrist, now holding the blade tip instead of the hilt. Winter snarled as she saw this and jerked up the sword forcefully, actually throwing Entreri vertically up a few inches into the air, then she flinched violently to the side and pushed the sword upwards even as the dagger came flashing in.
You did not see if it met its mark...but it clattered noisily on the dirty ground, and you saw to your horror that a thin ribbon of red stained one of its sharp sides.
Entreri cried out harshly in pain as the sword stabbed through him, impaling him on its blue length, but Winter shook her weapon callously down and he landed hard on the filthy ground, blood spreading quickly in a crimson pool of a morbidly rich color, staining his clothing.
The twins and yourself ran up quickly to her. Winter was cursing, breathing heavily, and examining a long, deep gash at her ribs from the thrown dagger. Veldrin knelt down next to Entreri and touched his wound – he moaned in pain but did not have the energy to flinch away. Ssussun prudently kicked away his sword first before kneeling down.
"You didn't have to do that," Ssussun said accusingly, watching the human's labored breathing. "Now he's going to die. Your sword touched his heart! And before we had a good chance to speak with him, too..."
"He doesn't have to die," Winter said calmly. "Veldrin, can you make him sleep? It looks like I better heal him. If the two of you use this sort of spell it may attract a certain angel's attention."
"He's already unconscious," Veldrin poked Entreri's head. It weakly lolled to the side, bright, warm blood trickling down from the sides of his mouth, its coppery scent filling your nostrils and scent sight. He had probably bitten his lip or his cheek in pain, and you did not blame him – the crude red wound still spurted his lifeblood.
"Right." Winter held the bloody Irr'liancrea over Entreri, and began to chant in drow. You watched with morbid fascination as blood dripped down the blue shard's tip onto Entreri's clothing, but his wound slowly closed, and what you could see of it turned into a scar, then into a thin white line, then was finally gone completely.
"Done." She sighed, propping herself up on Irr'liancrea. "And the spell should have replaced all the blood he's lost. He'd just feel rather hungry in several hours...maybe at breakfast tomorrow. Stupid fellow fought a little too well. I did not intend to use full power."
"You cheated, too." Ssussun grinned now that Entreri had been healed. "You'd never have lifted him up with your own strength, to use that move."
"So?" Winter chuckled, then used the healing spell on herself to close up her wound. "It's not the method that counts, it's the winning. Now we find a nice, quiet place for him to wake up. Preferably someplace I can take a bath too...but I can't remember Asur's representative in this city."
"Check, then. He won't be waking up anytime soon." Veldrin's fingers stroked Entreri's cheek with unnecessary care.
"Why not leave him here?" Winter said wickedly.
"What, for anyone passing by to kill?" Ssussun said in mock horror.
"What, take him away for the two of you to play with?" Winter said with Ssussun's tone. The twins exchanged a guilty glance. "Morikan, the two of you are disgusting."
"Well, we do have balor in our make-up." Veldrin said defensively.
"Balor, not succubi." Winter said dryly, but she began to trace symbols in the air that flared briefly in white before fading.
"Sometimes they're the same thing, just that balors are more powerful." Ssussun poked her tongue out at Winter. "So there."
"I give up." Winter sighed. "Right. Asur's place in Calimport is predictably near food. In this case, on the street with the Calimport idea of a bistro and streetside restaurants. Long way from here. Any ideas? It'd be very conspicuous if we carry him."
"Oh, we can make us inconspicuous," Veldrin said airily. "As to carrying...well, I think we can make him lighter."
"In what way?" Winter said suspiciously.
"It's a headache to explain," Ssussun said, holding up her hand. Entreri's dagger and sword flew towards her, then she caught hold of them and stood up. "Basically we make something else heavier for a while...like that brick over there, and consequently he becomes lighter. Logical, is it not?"
"Er..."
**
Something smelled very good from below, thick and spicy. The four of you sat in a large guest room, with Veldrin and Ssussun on either side of the bed and Winter lounging at the window seat, staring out over Calimport and playing with Entreri's jeweled dagger, turning it over and over in her hands.
You smelled cleaner than you had for days, and currently occupied the plush rug on the wooden-paneled floor. Entreri, with his dirty, bloodstained clothes changed to plain, clean robes, his swords and other weapons in a heap at Winter's feet, and wiped clean by the male helpers in the restaurant-cum-house that you were currently in, was still unconscious in the bed.
You remembered the expressions on the faces of the inhabitants of this building when Veldrin had taken off the don't-see-me enchantment in the kitchen of the place when Winter confirmed that everyone around them was of Sanctuary. After some diplomacy and showing off of her Loremaster cloak, all of you had been escorted into this room, lectured at, then left alone.
"Poor Taor," Winter chuckled to herself as she leaned against the wood frame of the window.
"What, the human-wolf in charge?" Veldrin grinned. She had a book in her hands, some sort of romance story with a lurid plot, borrowed from another human.
"Werewolf DarkMage...funny to see one working as a cook." Winter said thoughtfully, then her voice changed into a rough, commendable imitation of the heavily built man. "'What in N'avsh's name do you think you're doing, Loremaster? This is Entreri...pasha of one of the main guilds in the city!'"
"What did you reply?" Ssussun had pulled the small wooden table up to her. It had a black and white grid painted on it – you had stood up on your hind legs to look, and some ceramic pieces, discs of black and red. She was playing a game with herself...the discs clinking on the warm polished wood, and had tiny stacks at the side, one of black and one of red. There were, you noticed idly, twice as many black as red.
"I told him that well, it was better than having killed him in the alley when he attacked," Winter grinned.
"He attacked? You attacked." Veldrin turned a page.
"He attacked after I did," Winter said glibly. "It is not my problem if what I said is interpreted another way, is it? Anyway, Taor was better inclined towards us after that. But we have to move him once he wakes up, and make sure he doesn't see this place or know what it stands for."
"Oh, that's no problem," Ssussun said cheerfully, and removed another black piece. "Should we wake him up?"
"Let him wake up by himself," Winter shrugged. With your more sensitive ears, you heard the rest of her words, "If he has any sense he won't wake up at all." Then she raised her voice again. "Ssussun, can we play chess instead?"
"Sure," Ssussun waved a hand, and the discs separated and morphed into strange looking figurines. Winter swung off the window seat and pulled up the only chair in the room, seating herself haphazardly on it. The pieces flew into place without either opponent touching them, and the game continued magically. A figurine of a horse's head turned into a tiny ceramic man on a horse which trotted, hooves clicking on wood, to another square.
Interested, you padded up to Winter and put your front paws on her seat, such that you could watch the game better. She patted you then looked to Ssussun. "Your go."
Eventually even Veldrin came over to look, though she made no comment as she peered over Ssussun's shoulder, leaning her weight on her sister.
Winter's pieces appeared to be spreading out into a pincer movement on Ssussun's 'king' – a piece with a cross on its head which when moving turned into a human in a heavy robe and a crown with a sceptre. Then one of Ssussun's 'pawns', a very insignificant piece, and hence rather unnoticed, reached Winter's end of the board and morphed into a 'queen', and began tearing into Winter's exposed back flank.
Veldrin clapped her hands in delight even as Winter grimaced and frantically attempted to defend against the queen. So absorbed were they in the game that it was you, looking up to shake away the crick in your neck, whom saw Entreri shift in the bed, stirring, waking up.
You growled automatically – they looked at you then followed your gaze – then Veldrin and Ssussun simultaneously lost interest in chess.
Entreri opened his eyes sharply, took stock of his situation, and sat up, fingers going up to his wound. He blinked when he realized it was not there any longer.
"I healed it," Winter said, leaning back in her chair. "Sorry about it. I did not intend to hurt you that badly."
"You could have died," Veldrin added unnecessarily.
Entreri narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "What do you want?"
"Now, that could take some explaining," Ssussun smiled slowly.
Winter sighed deeply. "Have fun," she told the twins with a weary air of indulgence, waved at them, then nodded at you. "Do you want to stay and watch, or come with me?"
Obviously go with her.
"Good. Let us leave my ah...sisters to their playmate, and go pursue an inquiry involving food." She stepped hurriedly towards the door, and you followed close on her heels. A backward glance: Entreri looking confused and suspicious at Winter's words, and the twins watching the two of you go with intensity befitting a big cat watching rothe.
Winter closed the door behind you, and started for the stairs, Entreri's dagger in her belt, Irr'liancrea sheathed in its scabbard on her back. When you glanced curiously at the dagger, she said, "Just so as not to give him any ideas. I believe a leech-dagger can kill demonesses."
They weren't going to...
"Oh yes they are," Winter smiled wickedly as she descended the worn staircase with its equally worn carpet. "Unless he is not human at all."
Disgusting.
"Who is to question what they do?" Winter shrugged. The two of you were in the large flagstoned kitchen which was rife with activity, voices and more importantly, the scent of various dishes.
Taor noticed her first and approached, still wearing an incongrous white apron over an old shirt and trousers of odd color ranging from gray to brown. His hands were covered in flour, and his amber eyes both anxious and suspicious. "Entreri?" he asked bluntly.
"Being entertained," Winter said innocently. "He won't be down for a while...down here, that is."
Taor's eyes widened, then narrowed as he considered the implications of Winter's words, caught the rather vicious innuendo, then began to laugh, gruffly at first, then uproariously.
"You friends won't be able to do naught, Loremaster. Entreri's a cold fish." Taor said when he calmed down.
"To use a bad metaphor, the temperatures of fish can be raised in the presence of heat," Winter said mildly. "And my...sisters are of tanar'ri stock."
"I thought so," Taor grunted, returning to his dough and kneading it expertly on the large table. "Sensed something about them. You ain't no sister. You look the same but you don't smell like them."
"No I am not," Winter admitted. "Now, my companion and I would be interested in food."
"Food's easily had if you pay," Taor said gruffly, all talk about Entreri and fish melting away under the intense gaze of Profit. You wondered idly about werewolves and what he was doing as a chef in a city on the surface world, then gave up about it.
"And payment's easily had since I have money," Winter smiled, patting her purse on her belt. It jingled, and it was Taor's turn to smile.
"Get yourself a seat then, Loremaster!" Taor waved at the tables in the restaurant proper outside. "Do you want a menu or our special today?"
"And what is your special?" Winter asked.
"Wild rabbit soup, bread and goat cheese, thin slices of beef rolled around slivers of pork seasoned with garlic and parsley, stuffed tomatoes..."
Winter laughed and held up her hands. "Sounds good! The special, then."
Taor continued as if he had not been interrupted, "And slices of fresh whiting cooked in light batter." His eyes twinkled. "Fish."