Chapter 10: The night of horrors



Cut me free - Bleed with me - Oh, no - One by one - We will fall - down down - Pull the plug - End the pain - Run 'n fight for life - Hold on tight - This ain't my fight... Nightwish



The biggest explosion had happened in the main hall. Half of one wall had collapsed and there was a small fire in the corner of the room. There were people moving the broken furniture, trying to help injured people from underneath them.



"Oh god," Shandara muttered and Entreri looked at her, sure that she would faint. Her face had gone all pale, and she seemed to be in lots of pain after the walk. But she rushed to the nearest piece of table and started to move it away. Entreri kneeled next to her and helped her to move it, revealing a pale face of a young girl.



"Marianne," Shandara whispered, trying to hide her horror when she saw her stomach. A large splinter of wood, too large to even be called a splinter, was buried deep in her stomach. There was a puddle of blood on the floor, still spreading. Entreri knew that she wouldn't make it.



"It hurts," the girl sobbed. Shandara touched her cheek, smiling encouragingly. "It'll be alright, just lay still. We'll find some help for you. You!" she yelled to one of the thieves who was standing close by, not knowing what to do. "Go to the temple of Oghma and get a healer! And you," she continued to other thieves, "go and find all the guild's healers you can find. Hopefully they're not dead," she muttered.



"Put out that fire!" Aran Linvail's voice shouted. The Shadowmaster entered the room with his bodyguards; he had been inspecting the smaller guildhouse in the Docks and had just been leaving when an explosion had destroyed one part of it. They had managed to put out the fire quickly, and when Aran had been hurrying back to the main guildhouse, he had heard the new explosions.



It had never been this bad. There had been attacks against the guild, but never as aggressive as this. He saw Shandara, kneeled to one of the orphans they had taken in only a couple of weeks ago. Entreri was helping another girl up, and on the other side f the room Mitsu was trying to organize a group to extinguish the fire.



"Aran!" Isaldora shouted, rushing in the room. She was wearing the blue dress, completely inappropriate for the occasion, she thought when she almost tripped over. "It's really bad! Three more explosions in the corridors! Go and check your office! If it's an assault by rivals, they'll want all the paperwork!"



"Come with me!" Aran yelled and Entreri, who had carried the girl to the other side of the room, also rushed after Isaldora and Aran. When they entered the office, it was on fire. "Out of the way!" Isaldora cried and started to cast a spell. It was hard to concentrate with all the noises in the background, but she conjured a stream of water that she aimed at the flames.



"Good that you were here," Aran sighed. "But it's all gone. Let's go and help those who can be helped."



"Everything will be fine," Shandara whispered, caressing Marianne's hair. The girl was shivering and her face was almost grey. "I can't feel anything," she said calmly. "Isn't it strange? I should feel something. It hurt so much and now it's..."



"Don't talk, just rest," Shandara said, her voice almost breaking. This couldn't be happening, she kept saying to herself. Marianne was so young, only fourteen. Shandara had found the girl shivering by the city gates, trying to sell herself. She had brought her to the guild and Mirjami had taken her to work in the kitchen. She couldn't die, not like this...



"Thank you," Marianne whispered. "You were so good to me. I wish I could've..." her voice trailed out and her dark brown eyes, the ones Shandara had thought could charm any man when she had grown old, stared lifeless to the ceiling.



"No!" she screamed and collapsed on top of Marianne's body, starting to cry. A hand touched her shoulder and then Aran Linvail pulled her into his arms. "You have to be strong. There are people here who need your help," he said, looking into her eyes.



"She was so young, I can't..." Shandara drew a deep breath and then shook her head. "You're right. I sent people to find healers, what is taking them so long?"



"We need some help here!" Jarlaxle shouted. He lifted a young woman into his arms and carried her to the other side of the room, where all injured had been taken. Shandara hurried there, trying not to put too much weight on her left leg that was aching really bad. At the same time two priests of Oghma entered the room, stopping to stare at the scene in horror.



"Brother Antonius!" Shandara shouted to the older priest. "Hurry! These people need help!" The priests hurried to them, trying to see whose injuries were the worst. The fire was extinguished and now people were helping the injured ones. A halfling ran into the room, informing Aran that all other fires caused by explosions in the corridors were also extinguished, and that there the damage hadn't been very bad. There had been no fatalities, but some had been injured.



Jarlaxle noticed Isaldora standing in the middle of the room. The elf woman was crying in the middle of the dead bodies and injured people. He walked to her and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her close. Isaldora rested her head on his shoulder and let herself cry until there were no tears left. Jarlaxle caressed her blond hair and then, without thinking, kissed her. "I'm sorry," he said when she looked at him, surprised. "I didn't mean to take advantage of..."



"Oh shut up!" Isaldora said and kissed him back. "You didn't do anything I wouldn't have wanted you to do, although the timing could be better," she sighed to the surprised drow. "Take me away from here."



"Go ahead," Shandara said. The woman had walked to them, wiping the blood from her hands to her dress. "We have healers and enough people to clear up the place. Take care of her," she said to Jarlaxle, who simply nodded. It had started as an innocent game, but now all that the drow wanted was to hold Isaldora and to make all her worries go away. He hadn't felt like this too many times in his life, and he was sure that Shandara had noticed it. The woman gave him one last look and then walked away, kneeling down next to Marianne's body.



"She's dead," she said to brother Antonius, who stopped next to her. "No way to help her now."



"Be brave, my child," Antonius said, and noticed a sad smile on her lips. "Don't try to convert me just because I'm not at my best," she said. "I respect your faith, but it's not for me. But could you bless Marianne in her funeral? She believed in gods and prayed for all of them to take away her pain. I didn't imagine it would be in this way..."



"I will," Antonius said, and that was all he could say. He couldn't find any words that would help and comfort. He walked away, readying himself to cast few more healing spells before leaving back to the temple. There would be lots of burials to be arranged.



"Master Linvail!" a young boy entered the room. "I'm from the guildhouse in the Bridge District. We had an attack there too. Master Thiren in dead, and at least twenty other men. They were in the great hall when there was an explosion. And I heard some explosions from the slums. And we..."



"Have a guildhouse there too," Aran muttered. "This can't be real. What's next?"



"Master Linvail!" another voice called out and Aran cursed himself for asking. It was Alenson Welroen, his second-in-command. "It's a new guild. We've found these marks from everywhere," Alenson said, showing Aran a piece of paper. There was a drawing of an eagle with a knife on its claws. The words 'we are coming' were written under the picture.



"But how could they get all the explosives..." Aran started and then cursed out loud. "My own guild! Make a count, I'm sure there are many members missing. There has always been attempts, but something like this..."



"How can it be that we knew nothing about this?" Alenson asked, sounding shocked. Aran started to laugh, sounding desperate. "If we had known, this wouldn't have happened. Send messages to the other guildhouses and tell them to send me lists of the dead and of those who are missing. Then we'll see..."



"She's dead." Shandara turned her eyes from Marianne's face to see Artemis Entreri. She nodded, looking straight into his eyes. "Could you... Could you carry her away from here? I don't want her laying on the floor like that."



"Where can I take her?" Entreri heard himself asking. The girl laying on the floor looked so young and innocent, and if it hadn't been for the blood and her pale face, one could have thought she was asleep. She must have been very young... "She was only fourteen," Shandara said and Entreri looked at her sharply, surprised that she had guessed what he was thinking. "They are taking the bodies to one of the training rooms. Enough room there..." Shandara took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. "Thank you," she continued when Entreri lifted Marianne's body. She got up also, gasping of pain when she put weight on her hurt leg.



"I'll just limp to find a healer," she said when Entreri looked at her. "No need to worry." Entreri nodded and carried the girl away. She was light, but the walk to the training room felt very heavy. There were other bodies, mostly of women, but also some children and men. Entreri felt the anger inside him growing. There was no excuse for this kind of slaughter. He wouldn't have ever done anything like this, no matter what kind of a reward the pashas would have offered. He had his own idea of honour, and this offended him more than any insults. He remembered the way the girl, Marianne, had shivered and cried, knowing that she would die.



Artemis Entreri didn't sleep that night. He sat on the floor of his room, staring at the wall and listening to the shouting and crying that lasted all through the night. There was no excuse for this, and he truly wished he would get the chance to meet those responsible.





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Hark: The sad theme isn't caused by that Finland lost bronze to Sweden in ice hockey world championship games. I got over it when I celebrated Slovakia's victory over Russia. Still, Shamiran insisted that I would mention this, so... Here it is! Finland lost. Better luck next year, when the games will be played in Finland. If you come to watch them, visit Turku. A wonderful city, no matter what the people in Helsinki (or Kuopio) say. :-)