***

Chapter 12:

The Beginning of the End

***

Jaheira couldn't help feeling that something was wrong as she and the rest of the Blades were led through the stone corridors of Spellhold to Imoen by their cloaked guide. Their guide paused at every cell, pointing to its occupant and explaining why that person needed to be locked up. From a little girl with an immensely powerful, and nearly uncontrolled power to change her shape, to an paranoid elven mage, to the gnome called Tiax whom Jaheira had met before in Baldur's Gate, all the inmates were, at least to some extent, insane. Imoen wasn't insane though, she was annoying at times, yes, but not insane. She didn't deserve to be imprisoned in a place like this. No one did. But that wasn't what was bothering Jaheira, it was something else, something far less tangible.

Finally the reached their goal, an open room with high stone walls and a sofa and chairs, and to one side Imoen stood, mumbling quietly to herself.

"What have you done to her?" Brynn demanded angrily, hurrying over to the girl. "Imoen, Imoen, are you all right?"

Imoen's reply was so quiet that Jaheira could not even hear her, but Brynn grew even more angry.

"What did you do to her?"

Their guide chuckled, and the sound of it sent a chill up Jaheira's spine.

"Tell me what you did to her!" Brynn growled, drawing her katanas. The rest of the Blades, Jaheira included, took their cue from Brynn and drew their weapons as well. "You scum here are worse than the people you lock up! Worse than Irenicus even! At least he didn't hide his deeds behind the mask of law and justice! I'm taking Imoen and leaving!"

The guide's chuckled turned into a cold laugh. "I think not," he said.

"I think so!" Brynn snapped, she tried to push past him but he grabbed her arm.

"Do you still fail to recognize me?" He tilted his head and gave Brynn a good view of his hood-shrouded face.

Brynn uttered a noise of shock and horror and pulled away from him. "Irenicus!" she hissed. "How...? No! I don't care how you did it! You've overplayed your hand, and you're going to die!"

Jaheira stood stiff with surprise and rage. Irenicus. Of course, it made sense now, he must have escaped.

"No more questions," Irenicus said in that emotionless voice of his. "No more fighting, only sleep."

Jaheira's vision began to be filled with black spots and her eyes began to close. Her knees turned to jelly beneath her and she slumped the ground, hitting the hard stone only moments before the dark took her.

***

"Give me an hour with her, a minute, anything!" Yoshimo begged, trailing in Irenicus' wake as the sinister mage began his 'preparations'. He felt physically ill at the sight of the magical machines that filled the central chamber of Spellhold's lover level. He did not know what the equipment did, but he knew it was something terrible, and he also knew that it was meant for Brynn.

Along the two long walls were glass tubes, each holding one of the unfortunate prisoners of Athkatla's guild war. Irenicus went from tube to tube, tweaking dials, adjusting levers and pushing buttons with his usual dispassionate expression. He paused every once and a while to look at the tube in the center of the room, festooned with wires, pipes and dozens of switches, buttons and levers, but not once did he pay attention to Yoshimo's pleas.

"Listen to your obedient dog whine, brother," said Bodhi. She stretched languidly on the steps leading up to the central tube, her pale skin green in the light from the instrument panel. "Why don't you throw him a bone? He's been a very good dog, haven't you?" She smiled and her two gleaming white fangs showed. "He plays fetch so well." She leaned back and laughed out loud. "Such a good dog! Does puppy want a treat?"

Yoshimo bristled, wanting nothing more than to drive his katana , or better yet a wooden stake, right through Bodhi's heart. He ignored her though and kept his focus on Irenicus. "I beg you, just while you get your... machines... ready," he said.

At last Irenicus turned around and looked at Yoshimo with cold, emotionless eyes. "You are pathetic," he said after a moment of tense silence. "You are a worm and I could as easily crush you under my heel as let you live." He spoke without malice, stating only facts that both of them knew to be true.

"I have done everything as you wished," Yoshimo said.

"Indeed you have," Irenicus replied.

"Oh throw him a bone," Bodhi repeated, giggling to herself. "Throw him a bone this once. Then watch him squirm when you put his lover into that glass cage! Do it for me if nothing else. I want to see how much he suffers. It makes me laugh!"

Irenicus turned to Bodhi. "Be quiet," he said, raising his voice forcefully. His colorless eyes refocused on Yoshimo, as emotionless as always. "You have fifteen minutes," he said after a moment. "There is nothing you can do now, and you know that. Neither you or Brynn Trueblade is any danger to me anymore. I do not care what you do. Just be gone from my sight."

"Yes, begone from our sight," Bodhi echoed gleefully. "Go to your bitch, you've been a good dog."

Yoshimo was already halfway to the door by the time Bodhi finished speaking, but her laughter chased him down the halls of Spellhold all the way to solid iron door of the cell where Brynn was imprisoned. Outside the door Saemon Havarian was cleaning the dirt out from under his nails with the point of his dagger, whistling tunelessly to himself. The corsair straightened as soon as he saw Yoshimo approach.

"Listen," Havarian said with a sympathetic expression, "I know you want to save the damsel in distress, but if you try I'll have to kill you. You know that right?"

Yoshimo took a slow breath. "I know," he said quietly, his throat tight. "I know that... that there is nothing I can do. I just want to see her, to tell her that..."

"That you're sorry and you didn't want this to happen?" Saemon asked, shaking his head. "It never works. Trust me, they never believe it when you say it about the little things, with something like this... well, you're out of luck, my friend."

"So you say," Yoshimo said, "but there is a difference between your experience in this matter and my situation."

Saemon dug into his pocket for the cell key and tossed it to Yoshimo. "What's that?" he asked.

Yoshimo turned the key in the lock and paused. "Unlike you, I mean what I am going to say."

Saemon chuckled. "You've got to be the unluckiest man I've ever met, but you're braver than I'll ever be, and that makes up for it I think."

"Thank you," Yoshimo murmured.

"Why do you do it?" Saemon asked suddenly. "Why do you risk it? Why let yourself be so miserable? What benefit do you get from it? There has to be something you get otherwise it wouldn't be worth it. You and I both got into this deal because we had to save our skins and because we wanted the gold. You could be sitting pretty right now counting your reward but instead you're putting yourself on the line for a woman and you haven't even got a guarantee on that. Is it really worth it?"
"It is," Yoshimo said. "If my misery can ensure that she does not think I willingly betrayed her, that whatever happens she knows that I love her, it is worth it." He pushed the door open and closed it quietly behind him, leaving Saemon to his thoughts.

As far as cells went the room was not bad. It was clean, dry, the floor was smooth stone and there was even a bunk chained to the walk in one corner. It wasn't bad, but it was still a cell, a prison. Brynn lay on the bunk, curled up on her side and facing the wall. She sat up when the cell door closed and pushed her hair out of her eyes. She hadn't been crying, and she didn't look like she would start any time soon. She was strong like that during the worst crises, but oddly enough the little disappointments could make her weep.

For a long, long time they just looked at one another in utter silence, and the at last Brynn said in a soft, vulnerable voice, "Why?"

Yoshimo couldn't speak for a moment through the hard knot in his throat. "Before I met you Irenicus hired me. I was desperate enough that I did not care if he was not so trustworthy. I had no choice but to accept his offer or be killed by the Shadow Thieves for operating in their territory. Irenicus bound me with a geas to ensure my loyalty, and then ordered me to travel with you and keep you alive until he had a chance to restart his... experiments." He swallowed hard. "I tried everything I could, but the geas... it is stronger than I am, and I could not tell you of it. Irenicus made sure of that. I need you to know that... I... I never lied about my love for you... I...

"No," Brynn said sharply. "Don't say you didn't lie." Yoshimo felt his heart plunge through the floor. "I know you didn't lie," Brynn continued more gently. "I know you didn't. I know it already, so don't say it."

It took a moment for Yoshimo to understand what she meant and to peel his heart off of the stones. He felt vaguely like an emotional yo-yo, flung down to the lowest of lows only to be pulled up again all within the space of a few seconds. "You... do?"

Brynn stood up and nodded. "I never doubted you. You should have known I'd never doubt you." Her lower lip quivered a little. "How... how long...?"
"Fifteen minutes," Yoshimo told her. "Irenicus is... preparing."

"What... what's he going to do?" Brynn asked, hugging her arms to her chest.

"I don't know."

Brynn sat down again, her eyes unfocused. Yoshimo sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side. "I'm afraid," she said quietly. "I'm afraid of what Irenicus is going to do to me."

"I will protect you," Yoshimo promised her. It was a stupid promise, one he knew he could not keep, and Brynn probably knew it too. He had to say it though, he had to have hope no matter how faint. The realistic side of him made him add, "But if both of us don't survive..."

Brynn shook her head violently. "We will," she insisted. "I've got to think that we will. I need to think that we will otherwise..." She trembled. "I just don't want to think about what I would do if I lost you. We've come this far together, I don't want to go the rest of the way without you."

Yoshimo frowned. "You will though, even if I die you will go on. Swear to me that no matter what you will not falter."

"I won't," Brynn said snapped. "I won't make that promise! I can't think about that. I know... I know that it's possible, but I have to think that it isn't. I have to pretend otherwise I'll crumble. I'm so scared of what Irenicus will do to me that I feel like something is eating me away from the inside. I have to be strong now though, and if I think for one moment that I won't be leaving this place with you by my side like always, I won't even leave at all." She swallowed hard. "For now I need you to hold me and tell me everything is going to be all right."

And that's just what he did.

***

From behind the glass walls of the tube Irenicus had trapper her in Brynn looked around with growing horror. Irenicus was insane, she had no doubt about that now. All around the room, trapped just like she was, prisoners from the guild war in Athkatla pounded on the glass of their prisons and shouted, threatened and begged for their release and their lives. Bodhi laughed at them and teased them mercilessly while Irenicus stood at the bottom of the steps that led up to Brynn's tube. He looked at her, his nearly-colorless eyes filled with an intensity that made Brynn shiver. He looked... hungry, as if some important goal as near. She felt snared by the cold eyes, terrified but unable to look away.

Tired of her sport with the imprisoned thieves Bodhi sauntered over to Brynn and tapped her fingernails on the glass of the tube. "Bhaalspawn under glass," she cackled.

Brynn's eyes snapped away from Irenicus. She snarled at Bodhi and slammed one fist against the glass, making a loud thump.

"Temper, temper," Bodhi scolded mockingly. "This is why we have to keep you locked up, it's for your own good."

"Stop taunting her so we can begin," Irenicus ordered, obviously far from amused at Bodhi's antics.

Bodhi scowled at stalked down the steps to stand at Irenicus' side. "I was having so much fun though," she said.

Brynn looked away from her two captors and smiled bravely at Yoshimo. He smiled back, though his mask of confidence was thin and threadbare. She guessed that hers was much the same. Not far from Yoshimo, Saemon Havarian shifted restlessly from foot to foot and sending glances at her from the corner of his eyes when he thought she wasn't looking. He seemed perplexed, as if he was trying to work out some sort of puzzle, but always kept falling short of the solution. Between Havarian and Irenicus, Imoen stood, her eyes dull and her face blank. She looked... empty, and Brynn wondered if Irenicus had the same plans for her as he had Imoen. She quickly turned her mind away from such thoughts, and reinforced the walls of her failing courage.

"So at last the end is near," Irenicus said as soon as an anticipatory silence had fallen across the room. Even the frantic thieves had gone quiet, ceasing their impassioned pleas for mercy. "You have caused me far more trouble than I had thought, child of Bhaal, but the game is finally over and I have won."

"Because you cheated," Brynn accused.

Irenicus smiled coldly. "Of course. I would have been a fool not to give myself an advantage. In that regard Yoshimo served me well."

"Of course." Brynn said, echoing his words mockingly, "But you had to force his loyalty with a spell. Everyone in this room knows that otherwise you'd be the one in a cage now, not me. No, you'd be dead."

"I doubt that very much," Irenicus replied blandly.

"I don't, you scum sucking shit weasel," Brynn countered. "You're a real moron if you think you and an entire army could have beaten me. You've made an enemy of me, Irenicus, and once that's happened you might as well put your head between your legs and kiss your ass good bye. I don't even care anymore what you've done to me, but for killing my friends and whatever the hell you did to Imoen I'm going to cut you into pieces so tiny that people will be picking bits of you out of the corners of this room for years."

Irenicus actually laughed. "Not with the power you have now," he said. "Do you even realize the power that lies hidden in you? The power that lay hidden in your Imoen?"

"What about Imoen?" Brynn demanded. "She's no spawn of Bhaal." Was she?

"Oh really?" Irenicus asked pointedly. "Even you should be smarter than that. Both of you were raised in the safe confines of Candlekeep, under the watchful eye of your ward, Gorion, both of you nearly the same age. I would not have bothered with her had she not been Bhaalspawn. She would be a corpse now just like your two friends, or perhaps I would have given her to Bodhi."

Brynn snarled in rage and beat the glass with her fists. "You're a monster, Irenicus. You're an insane monster! As soon as I get free I'm going to wring your neck until your eyes bug out of your ugly head!"

"No," Irenicus said matter-of-factly, "you won't. If you survive the processes you will be no threat to me. Good bye, Child of Bhaal." He walked up and flipped a number of levers and buttons on the panel in front of Brynn.

She watched in utter horror as one by one the trapped thieves fell dead, their life forces drained to fuel Irenicus' hideous creation. Brynn felt her skin tingle, and she gave a cry of terror as the whole world fell into blackness.

***

To Be Continued