***
Chapter 20:
Victory
***
Down into the depths of the catacombs the eight adventurers descended. The stones reeked of lichen and mold, death and decay, and the air was thick and moist. Torches along the walls provided weak illumination for those not gifted with sight in the infrared spectrum, but all that light served to do was cast ominous shadows along the corridor. Only Haer'Dalis seemed to be unfazed by the grim setting.
"Beneath the earth our faits await us," he said in an almost eager voice, "and just think! We shan't need go far to lie in our graves!"
Drizzt regarded the bard with a curious glance. "You are one of the most morbid people I've ever met," he said.
"I like to think of myself as realistic," Haer'Dalis replied, smiling crookedly. "Excitement, chaos and the occasional fair maiden make my world go 'round, and I have to say that I am quite happy."
"Well, excitement and chaos are certainly not in short supply in the life of an adventurer," Drizzt commented.
"Particularly not when traveling with yon raven," Haer'Dalis agreed. "The very threads of fate reweave themselves when she passes, the pattern of life and death itself changes."
Brynn frowned. "Cut the flattery, Haer'Dalis," she said. "I'm as subject to fate as the next mortal." She put a little edge into her voice and gave Haer'Dalis a quick look of warning. The last thing she wanted was for her new allies to ditch her after finding out exactly why she was such a remarkable person. Not that she really thought they would, but the fact was that they would look at her differently. That was hard, being looked at like some sort of creature in a zoo, or a circus freak.
"As you wish, my raven," Haer'Dalis replied evenly, he winked at her, but Brynn wasn't quite sure if that meant that he understood what she meant or if he was just being his usual flirtatious self.
"This looks like it," Imoen said, stopping as they approached a heavy wooden door. "I can feel her just beyond this door."
The stink of decay was heavier here than elsewhere, and it made Brynn feel like she was going to gag. She nudged Imoen out of the way and tried the door; it was unlocked. "All right," she said in a whisper to the others, "on three. One... two... three!" She turned the handle and threw the door wide open, and lead the charge into the room.
***
"Vampires, hmm?" Solaufein asked Nalia. "They drink blood?"
Nalia looked at the drow with a little surprise. "Don't you have vampires in the underdark? You had liches."
Solaufein shook his head. "Not that I knew of," he replied. "They drink blood?"
Nalia nodded. "Suck it right out of your neck." She made a slurping noise to demonstrate the concept.
Beside Nalia, Aerie made a face and gave the human woman a curious look. "What are you talking about?"
"Vampires," Nalia explained. "He wanted to know if they really drank blood."
"Well of course they do," Aerie said. "Tell him that I say of course they do, please Nalia."
Nalia turned to Solaufein. "Aerie wanted me to tell you that she said that of course vampires..." she trailed off because just up ahead the hallway opened into a small rectangular room, and in it were four vampires. They seemed to be listening to the conversation, though Nalia couldn't figure out how exactly they could understand what she was saying Solaufein and what he was saying back to her. They also seemed amused.
Minsc, of course, at the first sight of the vampires charged in like the mad man he was, followed quickly by Solaufein, who usually showed more sense than to dive into the mess right after the mad ranger, and then that huge barbarian fellow Wulfgar. Nalia stuck to the back, drew her bow, took aim at a vampire as soon as she had a clear shot, and fired. Next to her, the human woman, Cattie-brie fired her bow, sending forth a blast of light and an arrow that exploded on impact with the vampire target. The shot took the vampire's head clean off, and the little halfling Regis was quick to stake it and set it on fire. Where had he come from anyway? Nalia hadn't even seen him sneak up into the melee. Meanwhile Aerie hemmed and hawed, shifting from foot to foot as she tried to figure out just what to do. Aerie was like that, very indecisive and wishy-washy, Nalia thought. She was a sweet girl, but she needed a little backbone. Finally the young elf began to chant a spell of protection, and a magic veil settled over Minsc's huge shoulders.
Nalia sighed resignedly. Aerie wasn't fond of going on the attack, she preferred to cast defensive magics, but this was really one of those times when a good flame strike could really speed up the process. Drawing back her bow string again, Nalia aimed at another Vampire, but when she loosed the arrow it snapped in two and clatter uselessly to the floor in front of her. Muttering a few curses that she was sure her aunt would not have approved of, Nalia pulled another arrow from her quiver and fire again. Her luck seemed to be on a down turn, because this time she missed her target. Annoyed, she leaned the bow against the wall, still strung so it could be picked up again at a moment's notice, waved her hands in front of her in the set patter of gestures, muttered a few arcane phrases, and fired off a spell. Magical energy surged forth from her fingertips, making her whole body tingle as she channeled the power, and cloaked the three remaining vampires in bindings of magic. They stood motionless, just as they had been the moment the spell had hit them, one with its hand a hairsbreadth from hitting Solaufein in the chest.
"Excellent timing," Solaufein said, taking a moment to catch his breath.
"Stake them while you can," Nalia told him. "The spell won't hold them forever." She drew one of her own stakes and jabbed it into the heart of the nearest vampire, then turned to pick up her bow while the others took finished the vampires off once and for all.
***
The floor of Bodhi's lair was slick with the black blood of vampires and the stained with the red blood of the living. Two of Bodhi's guards lay decapitated and burning across the stone slabs, but four others yet stood, and Bodhi herself as well. The five of them seemed little the worse for wear, save for one of the guard vampires who looked as if it was about to drop and join its cohorts. The eight attackers led by Brynn, however, were showing the strain of the battle far more. It made sense enough, Brynn and the others couldn't regenerate!
Limping a little from a twisted ankle, Brynn slid under Bodhi's grasping arms and opened a gash in her side. Moments later a stunning blow caught her on the back of the head and slammed her into the stone floor, smearing her face in the blood. Then she felt Bodhi leap on her back, pressing her down harder against the floor so that she couldn't move.
"What? No brave words now?" Bodhi cackled. She pressed Brynn's head down and rubbed it back and forth across the stone. Brynn felt the cartilage of her nose snap and warm blood flowed down her face. She tried to fight against Bodhi's grip, but the vampire's strength was terrible and Brynn was not certain she could overcome it on her own.
Unless she became the Slayer again, and she had sworn that she would not.
Kill her! the rage screamed in her mind. Tear her apart with your own two hands!
"No!" Brynn screamed back. She twisted and struggle, managing to free one of her arms and lever herself and Bodhi both up off the ground a little way. "No!" She got her other arm free and grabbed Bodhi by the scruff of her neck and jerked her to the ground. Bodhi's nails dug long furrows in Brynn's back, but Brynn did not notice.
"I will not become that monster again!" she shouted. "I will not!" She picked her katanas up from the ground where they had fallen and strode toward Bodhi with grim determination.
"You won't?" Bodhi asked with a great deal of confidence. "It's the only way you'll win."
Brynn kept coming at her. "No," she snarled. "I don't need that power to destroy a pest like you!"
All she need was for the other group to purify the pools of blood up on the upper levels -the ones in the lair had already been cleansed by a judicious application of holy water by Mazzy- and then Bodhi would fall, and the Rhynn Lanthorn would be Brynn's.
"We'll see," was all Bodhi said.
And the two combatants came together again in a flurry of steel and claws.
***
The room was circular, and sloped inward at a relatively steep angle toward a stone well full of blood. The angled floor was covered with iron spikes as long as a man's hand. One wrong step and other spikes would shoot up from the metal floor and impale the careless of foot. The floor was stained with blood, as were the walls, testimony to the use of the room. It was here that the vampires drained the blood from some of their victims and siphoned it off to the pools in other rooms of the vampires' nest. It was here that many a man and many a woman had died, hurting and pleading for their lives.
As sensitive as she was, Aerie could almost hear the screams of all those poor people, could almost see their tortured faces. She wanted to turn and run, she wanted to close her eyes and deny that beings could inflict such terrible things on others, but she could not. She had a job to do.
Some called Aerie a coward, many did in fact, and to some extent they were right, but she wasn't so much a coward as a nice person. She hated suffering, hated death and violence, but she saw the necessity of it. At times like these, when she stood beside her friends at the beginning of a new fight, Aerie's blood ran cold. She would fight the vampires because they were evil, and therefore had to be destroyed, but she would never have fond memories of these days like Minsc would.
The petite elf looked up at her tall human protector. "Come on, Minsc," she said softly. "This is the last one."
"I wonder hoe they're managing down below," Nalia mused out loud.
Beside her, Solaufein said something in a sharp tone.
"Look out!" the little halfling Regis shouted.
A cloud of smoke on the other side of the room, just at the far edge of the pool of blood, coalesced into the form of one of Bodhi's lieutenants. From the shadows a half dozen misty monsters appeared and started floating across the room toward the seven intruders.
"Come!" cried the vampire. "Come so that I can feed!"
Aerie shrieked, "Get back!" and began to weave her hands into a familiar patter, calling on her magic and the element of fire. A globe of fire erupted from her hands and streak forward, past Minsc as he dodge out of the way, and into the center of the room. The vampire dodged as well, but not far enough. The fireball exploded just above the pool of blood and a wave of flame swept out to encompass the room. Four of the mists screech and dissipated, but the other two suffered only minimal damage, and the vampiric lieutenant was scorched all along one side of his body.
The vampire snarled in rage and bounded across the room toward where Aerie stood seemingly helpless. Aerie's eyes widened in terror, and she stood frozen in place as the creature came closer and closer. Then her vision was filled with the back of Minsc's red dragon scale armor and the might ranger shouted, "Evil, meet my boots!" as he blocked the vampire's slashing claws and kicked it firmly in the stomach.
The vampire stumbled backward, and Minsc shouted again, "Turn about so that I may properly plant my soles in your backside!" He started to charge forward by Aerie called out to him.
"The spikes Minsc!"
Minsc stopped short of stepping into the room and took another swing at the vampire, but he missed because he was not close enough.
"Choke up you dolt, your grip is all wrong!" Lilarcor chided him irritably. "We woulda had him if you'd've been faster!"
"Duck!" Cattie-brie said. Aerie ducked, as did Minsc, and heard the twang of a bowstring. A fraction of a second later and arrow shot forth with a blinding light, and a instant later a war hammer whooshed over head as well. Both struck the vampire, the arrow in its arm, and the war hammer in the knee.
The vampire stumbled and fell... directly onto one of the spike traps, and was impaled. It wriggled disgustingly for a moment before Nalia, watching her step carefully, darted forward into the room and cut of the thing's head and staked it.
Another arrow from Cattie-brie struck one of the misty creatures as it came forward to attack Nalia, blowing it apart, and dodging around the spikes Solaufein moved into the room and cut the other remaining mist to pieces. As soon as Nalia moved away from the vampire Aerie began casting another spell, Agannazar's scorcher, setting the vampire on fire so that it would burn away to ashes.
It was all over then, Aerie though with relief. All they had to do was...
Behind her the Regis shouted, "They're coming down the hall!"
Nalia and Solaufein crossed back out of the room as quickly as they could, and Aerie, Minsc, Wulfgar and Cattie-brie turned to see what had caught Regis' attention. Down the stone corridor came at least two dozen vampires. They could not retreat, the spike room was too dangerous to wage a fight of this size in, and they could not break through the vampire's ranks. Things looked pretty bad.
Aerie looked up at Minsc again. She took comfort in the look of determination on Minsc's face, and steeled herself for more fighting. "Let's get them!" she shouted as loudly as she could. Her heart soared as the other six people with her echoed her sentiment, and they moved to turn the tables on the ambushing vampires.
***
Anomen swung his mace and connected the metal head with the skull of his vampire opponent. Much to his dismay the vampire merely shrugged the blow off as it had all of the rest and kept coming, its deformed face shifting and healing as he watched. With an angry roar Anomen swung again, and connected again, this time with the thing's shoulder. He heard the wet sound of dead bones snapping and the vampire stumbled a little before continuing it's onslaught. Slowly but surely Anomen was wining, though he wasn't sure if he could keep up what he was doing. Already his body felt like lead, and his armor seemed to weigh a ton. His arms ached from holding up his shield to block the vampire's blows and from attacking with his mace.
He heard Jaheira shout in pain, struck by the sword of one of the spectral warriors that Bodhi had summoned up from one of the other rooms in her lair, but he could not worry about the druid right then, he had to deal with his own foe. He bashed at the vampire again, this time unbalancing it a good deal, and slipped his mace back into the loop at his belt as he went for one of the wooden stakes in the cloth pouch at his side. He gripped the stake firmly in his hand and charge the vampire, slamming it up against one of the walls with his shield and driving the stake into its heart. The vampire struggled for a second, then was still, and as soon as Anomen moved away from it Haer'Dalis closed in, beheaded it, and set it on fire. They worked in teams like that. Bruenor and the dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden, Mazzy and Jaheira, and Anomen and Haer'Dalis. Ideally Imoen and Brynn would have been working together, but Imoen had her hands full with one of the spectral warriors and Brynn was struggling to keep Bodhi at bay.
Before Anomen could look for another vampire to fight one found him. This one was a female, once a comely young woman, but now her skin was pale with death and her hair hung limply at her shoulders. Anomen didn't like attacking women, but this was no woman anymore, it was a thing, a creature, and so he had no compunctions about smashing its skull in. He smashed his mace into her lovely, delicately feature face and without mercy drove a stake into her heart.
"May the Gods grant your soul peace in death, you did not as for this," he said solemnly before striding over to help Imoen out. Behind him a flash of light signaled that Haer'Dalis had set the vampire aflame.
***
"Tell me again, why'd ye let us get inta this?" Bruenor demanded of Drizzt as they finished off the last of Bodhi's vampire minions.
"Because it sounded important," the dark elf replied easily. "Besides, you know you are having fun."
Bruenor growled under his breath, but didn't contradict his longtime friend. Nor did he agree. Tell an elf he's right and he'd lord it over an honest dwarf forever!
***
Claws raked over Minsc's chest and claws raked over his back. Aerie screamed, but despite his efforts, Minsc could not reach her. Two dozen vampires had turned into three dozen in a matter of moments, and the seven warriors on the upper level of the catacombs were surrounded.
Minsc roared, feeling anger overwhelm him. His witch would not be killed again while he stood watching helplessly. He swung Lilarcor down hard on the head of the nearest vampire, splitting its skull in two, but where that one vampire fell two more moved into take its place, and claws raked over Minsc's chest again and again, and Lilarcor slipped from his fingers with a shout of irritation a clatter as the sword struck the stone floor. And Aerie screamed again.
Claws and teeth descended down on Minsc, and he struggled though he was beginning to think all the struggles in the world could not save him. For the first time in a very long time, perhaps ever, Minsc began to feel afraid. Who would take care of Boo if he died?
Suddenly the vampires stopped reaching for him, instead they twitched and jerked around. Finally they stood up straight as soldiers and moved to flank the hallway. Four continued to battle with Wulfgar and Nalia, but the rest of the vampires fell on those four and tore them apart and a spear of flame came down and set the destroyed vampires on fire.
Minsc, not pausing to wonder what had caused this miracle, hurried over to Aerie, picking up Lilarcor on the way, and helped her up off of the ground. All around the others helped their friends up too. And then down the corridor came a cloaked figure.
A few strand of white hair escaped from the hood and Nalia shouted out, "Viconia!"
The dark elf cleric pushed her hood back just a little bit. "What do you want, human?"
"You came to help us?" Aerie squeaked.
"No," Viconia replied coolly. "I came to get rid of the vampires. They have been causing me trouble. Do not overestimate your worth, girl."
Minsc was too happy right then to get angry at Viconia for talking badly to his witch. "Oh joyous day!" he shouted. "Minsc and Boo will continue to kick the butt of vampires and other evil things for years to come!"
"Shut up you crazy barbarian!" Viconia snapped.
Near Nalia, Solaufein said something Minsc could not understand.
Viconia replied, also unintelligibly. By the tone of her voice she wasn't very kind. The two drow continued their conversation for some time, neither of them looking very happy, and at last Viconia said in common, "Well, what are you fools waiting for? Kill the vampires!" then she lapsed back into the language of the drow.
***
Though no one else could understand what Viconia was saying, Solaufein could, and it made his ears threaten to turn red.
"What a foul mouth," he murmured to himself.
"Hmm?" Nalia inquired. She could understand him only through the spell, not anyone else speaking in his language. "What's she saying."
"Nothing worth repeating," Solaufein assured her.
"Oh," Nalia said.
Then they quickly got to work, finished off the vampires, and dumped the elven holy water into the pool of blood in the center of the circular room.
***
Bodhi let out a scream and Brynn drew back suddenly, surprised by the horrible sound.
"No! Not like this!" Bodhi shouted.
And then Brynn knew that her friends upstairs had finished their task and Bodhi could no longer draw power from the pool of blood. "Too bad so sad," she growled.
Bodhi backed away, and Brynn limped toward her, feeling the blood streaming down her back and her muscles aching with every step. "No!" Bodhi shouted again. She turned to flee to her coffin, as if that could save her, and Brynn brought up her right hand katana.
"Yes!" Brynn shouted. "Just like this!" and with one clean cut she sliced Bodhi's head from her shoulders. She kicked the head as it rolled toward her, drew a stake from her pouch and crouched down to drive it through Bodhi's heart. Brynn heard Imoen's voice, weak from the battle, as she recited the incantation to a spell, and moments later an arrow of flame shot into Bodhi's body, reducing her to ash in minutes.
Something lifted from the ashes and swirled around, sparkling but not quite visible, then it shot toward Imoen, and the young woman stiffened suddenly, then went limp, her whole body shaking.
"Are you all right?" Brynn asked, getting to her feet and going over to her little sister.
"I... I'm fine," Imoen murmured. "Oh Brynn, I'm wonderful. I have my soul back! I have it back again!" She wrapped her arms around Brynn and pressed her head against Brynn's shoulder.
Brynn winced as Imoen touched the deep gashes in her back, but ignored the pain for the moment and let Imoen hug her. They were victorious, but for some reason Brynn felt cheated.
No, not for some reason.
It was because Imoen had her soul back, but Irenicus still had Brynn's. It was because Brynn could still here the rage singing in her head. It was because instead of feeling only happy for her best friend and sister Brynn also heard the rage calling to her, whispering thoughts of jealousy to her.
"That's great," Brynn said a little numbly. "That's great. I'm really... happy for you."
To be Continued
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A/N
Twenty freaking chapters and nearly 70,000 words! That's a whole lot now that I have time to sit and think about it. Another thing that gets on my 'a lot' list is the number of hits this story has gotten since I posted it, 1208 on the first chapter alone, and fifty two reviews. Holy cow! I'm flabbergasted that you guys like this so much. It isn't long now to the end of my tale, though I do intend, as I've mentioned before to keep it up with a sequel etc. Thanks a lot to all of you reviewers out there for all the support thus far, I really appreciate it.
Blue