Thou fool, no living man may hinder me!

- The witch king of Angmar

But no living man am I.

- Eowyn



13. Blood and Circuses

The brightly colored and frivilously occupied milled around.

Lo do I see my father

The statue of the woman stood solemn, determined, and strong.

Lo do I see my mother

Her face was fair but grim, and stared forward.

Lo do I see the line of my people

Her body was poised for stride and strike.

Stretching back to the beginning

Her hammer was raised and ready.

They bid me come and take my place among them

The statue looked more roused for action than those about it.

Where the brave shall live in Valhalla

But now it stood still and silent, only to be gawked at.

Forever!


-----


As her party traveled south from Beregost that morning, Jade's mind had swum with her strange dreams. They had reached Nashkel midday, and found mayor Berron Ghastkill. His information had been little: miners were disappearing, the iron was tainted; and information of any sort was requested. Consequently, their stay in the tiny hamlet had been short, and Jade had managed to get through without anyone coming for her head. And if they do, the young woman thought, I just hope they resemble those two hicks Onyx and I killed in Candlekeep more than the spiky-armored man who slew Gorion outside.

Luckily, extremely tall men with spiky armor and glowing eyes being rather conspicuous, she was sure he at least they hadn't seen. A portly man outside the town's temple had mistaken her for one 'Greywolf' who apparently had had 200 gold incoming. Not anymore, she grinned. Unfortuantely, the town's single smithy hadn't had anything to spend it own beyond more arrows, bolts, darts, and throwing axes to replace the many they'd lodged in hobgoblin bandits reaching the city, and so, as a last stop before reaching the mines themselves, they were now exploring a nearby traveling carnival, the Nottvery Fair.

The carnival seemed relatievely safe, and the four companions had split up. Xzar had wandered off to a secluded tent from which he had claimed to 'smell the fumes of the Sock Puppet Queen's garden of lotus and her bidding to come so that he might better here the voices within the trees.' Montaron was working the crowd, his efforts bolstered by the ludicrously baggy style that was in fashion for the wealthy. Kagain's expert haggling drove up the prices of gear and jewelry they'd acquired from the ruffian gangs luckless enough to cross them. Jade was perusing the merchandise of other merchants, but more importantly, she was just taking in the sights and sounds. As with many things the past few days, she'd never seen anything like this carnival, and it fascinated her, mostly for the better.

Nearby, Xzar came wandering out of his large tent, a cloud of black lotus fumes puffing out of the doorway and following him, the stench thoroughly soaked into his robes.

"Oh yes, Monty, it's all here now," he called to his absent halfling friend, looking around and even up into the air and pointing at nothing that could be seen by the fairgoers who gave him many a strange glance and wide berth, "Yes, I can finally see them. The smiley faces! I can see them all now!!!!! Oompf!"

Xzar flopped onto his back, and looked up to see a yellow-robed wizard he had bumped smiling down at him. "AHHH!!!!" the necromancer shrieked, "Stop touching me!!!"

"Howdy there," the wizard smiled as Xzar got to his feet, "You have stumbled up the Great Gazib!" He looked around at a small assembled crowd. "Hi, come all and welcome to the Great Gazib Show, starring yours truly, the Great Gazib!!!! Allow me to introduce the Amazing Oopah, the world's only exploding ogre!!"

The crowd 'oood' and 'ahhhed', and gasped with fright when Gazib summoned an ogre.

"Ooh, lousy conjurers," Xzar grumbled, biting his fist, "All a buncha crowd-pleasing cantrippers! Yes, Sock Puppet Queen, I will Kill the Konjurers, may the voices of the flowers guide the way!"

Gazib waved his arms, and 'Oopah' the ogre barely had taken a grunt before exploding, and the crowd shrieked while Xzar ceased fuming and clapped his hands merrily at the spectacle of blood and gore. "Again! Again!" the necromancer cried, catching a flying ogre-spleen out of the air and tucking it into his pocket to grind into spell components later.

"Let's see that crowd pleaser one more time!" Gazib laughed and began his spell again. Oopah reappeared, looking none the worse for wear.

"Oopah no like!" the exploding ogre grumbled, gripping his enormous morning star.

"Now now," Gazib chuckled nervously, patting Oopah on his enormous warty forearm and grinning hucksterishly at the crowd. "He does this all the time! He is a Professional!"

"Do you explode?" Xzar stared blankly at the conjurer. He then looked up at Oopah. "Oopah, my little boy, does Gazib like exploding too?"

"Ummm," the ogre bit a large black fingernail.

"No, no, Oopah, you explode!" Gazib shrieked, and began to wave his hands, but just before he finished, Xzar caught Oopah's beady eyes, and pointed at Gazib. The ogre gave a hearty simpleton's laugh, and smashed its heavy weapon into the conjurer, who more or less then exploded.

"Ooo goodie!" Xzar's fists shot up and snatched something, "I stole Gazib's heart. Literally. The Sock Puppet Queen will be pleased."

Elsewhere, Jade was wandering into a small blue-and-purple tent, expecting to find yet another vendor. Rather, she found, in between the cluttered shelves lining the walls of the tent, a black-bearded man in green mage garbs accosting a red-robed elderly woman.

"What's this about?" Jade demanded, looking angrily at the woman's frightened face and drawing her new golden-hilted bastard sword in a two-handed grip.

"You there!" the man spun from the woman to face Jade, and pointed an accusing, gnarled fingernail at her. "Stay back!! Come closer and I'll kill her! I'm serious. Don't make me do it! All I have to say is the last word of my spell and she'll die."

"And why?" Jade snarled.

"She's a witch!" the man shrieked. "She'll use her magics to poison the children of this town! She'll butcher the livestock and she'll seduce the young men, making them her puppets she must be killed!"

"You yourself are a mage," Jade's full lips were twisted into a full sneer now. "Weren't you just about to kill her with a 'spell'? Get out of here, maggot, before I kick you out off the end of my blade."

"No one mocks the great Zordal!" the green-robed wizard snarled, "You will pay for you inso-"

"KAIIII!!!"

Jade's anger pumped through her muscles and she pushed her shining blade through the air between her and Zordal. A crescent of crimson blood flew about the tent, splattering against the tent walls, Zordal's throat sliced wide open. Before he could collapse, Jade spun half-circle while whipping her blade back and thrusting it under her armpit and through his chest. Her left heel shot up behind herself to kick him him, she reversed her grip while pushing off his groin to spin to face him again, then planted her left foot and used her right to kick him off her sword and to the floor.

"Like I said," Jade smiled smugly while cleaning her sword on the body's robes. "Off the end of my blade. Shoulda flapped your lips for casting, not comebacks. Hick," she spat on his body. She looked up at the red-robed old woman, who relaxed visibly. "You alright, madam?"

The woman nodded. "Thank you for rescuing me. I am Bentha, and yes you could call me a witch, for a do use magic. However," she scoffed and gazed disdainfully at Zordal's fresh corpse, "I have no intentions of killing the livestock or 'seducing' the young men. Zordal, who none-too-coincidentally failed to seduce me back in our day, is an old enemy of mine, one who has caused me and my family great pain over the years. If you had not walked in at that moment, young lady, I would have been killed. I thank you again."

"My pleasure," Jade smiled, and clapped the woman lightly on the shoulder. She sighed, "The whole 'witch' thing...angers me. I was once called as much by the tyrant of my small town for expressing an interest in your craft. I might have learned it from my late father, but as you can see, I chose the path of the warrior."

"Well, dearie," the kindly woman smiled and patted her on the arm, "It is never too late, you know."

The tent-flaps opened and Xzar strode through, wearing Gazib's adventurer's robe, and reeking of blood and black lotus. His wild green eyes appraised the women for only a moment before focusing on the dead wizard. "More treasure...and spell components!" he clapped his hand excitedly. Then he glanced up at the women again, making eye contact and seeming more lucid. "Are you okay, mommy?" He asked Jade. "Who is your new friend?"

"Hello, young man, I'm Bentha," the woman reached out to shake hands, but retracted hers when she saw that his held Gazib's beating heart. "Jade was just telling me how she once thought of being a wizard, like you, sir, I take it," She then looked at the beating heart again. "Well, maybe not exactly like you..."

"Oh yes!" Xzar suddenly wrapped his arm (mercifully, the one without the heart) around Jade's shoulders, "We were twelve! I gave her that idea actually! Well, me and the Pink Pixie did..."

"X!" Jade's jaw dropped open and she looked into the necromancer's tattooed face, "You remember!"

Xzar continued obliviously, "...such a nice wizardess she'd have made, but such a nice warrior too! Excellent for chopping up spell components for meeee!" He leaned his head forward, darted his eyes around, and in a conspiratorial whisper added, "...the Frog Prince Of Lillypad-Land told me so!"

After looting Zordal and receiving a gift of a scroll from Bentha, the pair exited the tent to come almost face to face with a very small hodded halfling with a very loud voice.

"Come one, come all!" he boomed, gesturing to a nearby statue nearly thrice his height. "Take a look at the stone warrior maiden. How long has she been trapped in this petrified form, no one knows! Be the first to learn, for the mere price of 500 gold. For that small amount of money, I shall give you a magic scroll, and with this scroll you can release the maiden from her stone prison. Think of the gratitude she would feel to her saviors. Perhaps she's a princess from some far off land, or maybe a powerful sorceress in search of a concubine. You can't afford not to know! Buy the scroll! A fair deal from your pal, Zeke!"

Jade studied the statue to which this Zeke gnome was pointing. It was perfectly lifelike, of a robed woman holding a hammer. Jade walked up to it and looked closer. The face of the woman had a strange look. Perhaps bad sculpting? she wondered, not trusting Zeke for an instant. Then her eyebrows arched as she recognized the features - the large-but-smooth nose, the deep eyes, the wide jaw. The far-northerner look; she'd seen it a few times in visitors to Candlekeep.

"500 gold," Jade muttered, "Seems a bit steep."

"Aye, don't worry," a familiar greasy voice announced, "I already have such a scroll."

"Montaron?" Jade looked down to see her associate grinning mischeviously and holding up a Stone to Flesh scroll. "Where'd you.."

"Tarnation!" Zeke cursed. "That's...eh...that one's a fake! It's cursed, yeah! Here, let me show you what a REAL....hey, where did my scroll go?" he patted his empty pockets and looked suspiciously at the scroll Montaron held. The other halfling shrugged innocently. "Confound it!" Zeke moaned and trudged off dejectedly.

"You know," Kagain wheezed as he strolled up, no longer carrying a load of swords on his back, and gleefully patting a bulging coin pouch, "We could always just sell it back to 'em."

Jade bit her lower lip and gazed into the statue's eyes. The woman was frozen midscream, not a terrified shriek, but a defiant, angry roar.

REVENGE.

Jade shook the voice from her head. "I.."

Kagain spat, "Can't afford to be wastin' it, lassie! Should get cold, hard gold or save it fer any basilisks we might meet."

" I say we free her," Montaron rubbed his small hands, "I'm sure she'd be grateful! Don't forget to mention it was I who acq-OUCH!"

Jade gave the halfling a light kick in the side (barely lifting her leg to do so), and glared at him, then looked back at the statue. "She.." she stared at the statue's pourd chest. Explains Monty . "She bears a relief of Tempus's Shield, and she holds a hammer. Likely she is a cleric - which we could use in the mines." And the look on her face...the determination . Jade smiled at the odditiy of feeling comraderie with a block of rock.

"Alright, alright," Kagain huffed, "This'd better pay off!"

Xzar sang, "Jadey Jadey quite contradey, how does your statue garden grow..."

Jade read the scroll, then she held it face-out toward the statue. The runes seemed to leap off the page and hop into the statue, its gray stone softening into mail and cloth and flesh, and it began to move. Jade feigned aside just before the hammer, now metal and not stone, swung through the air where her head had been.

"DIE TRANZI---what?"

The woman blinked her ice-blue eyes and shook her long blonde hair which fell haphazardly over her headband. She turned to face the party, squinting in the sunlight. "Where...what..." then suddenly she focued on the party. "Who...where's Tranzig? Who are you?"

"You were petrified, miss," Jade looked calmly at the woman, "I know not for how long. I just revived you."

The woman stood silent for a moment, thinking, and looking over the four adventurers, then gave a hearty laugh. "Hail, fellow warriors. I am Branwen, a War-priest from the Norheim isles. I suppose I have been trapped in stone for what seems like an eternity. You have saved me, and for that I owe you my life. I am indebted to you and by Tempus, I leave no debt unpaid. Let me join whatever cause you're fighting for. I should make a valuable ally and bring the favor of the Lord of Battles upon us."

Jade gave a told-ya-so smile down to Kagain, who mumbled gruffly into his beard while she looked Branwen in her blue eyes, "Welcome to my gang."

"I am glad to be part of your war party," Branwen proclaimed. "I will not make you regret your decision. A word of caution though: beware of the dog that entrapped me in stone. Tranzig he called himself. He was in the employ of a mercenary group, but I do not know the name. I shall see him dead before I see the shores of home again!"

Jade smiled. "I seek my father's murderer. You shall have your revenge, and I shall have mine."

Branwen nodded with approval, and traded a wrist-handshake with Jade. "The Lord of Battles will smile upon us, sister."

"Pray tell," Jade asked, "How did this all come about?"

Brawnen unhesitantly began, "When I came to the mainland, I made a living by offering my clerical services to local militias from Luskan to Waterdeep to lastly Nashkel, where I came to join the adventuring group of the mage Tranzig. Proud I was to be an adventurer, but only briefly, for I found out soon the sort of 'adventuring' Tranzig did was rather banditry - of unarmed merchants! To attack the unarmed is the basest of villainy! I would have no part of it, and rebelled, but Tranzig turned me to stone in the ensuing fight. That, of course, is the last thing I remember before waking to see your party."

"I do hope we find this Tranzig," Jade sneered, "But pray tell, in my childhood learned I recall that most of the Norheim allow only men into their clergy?"

"You southerners are overeducated," Branwen scoffed, "But a good question. The men of my tribe, the Seawolf of the same-named island, forbade it, but Tempus in his wisdom granted me power. This should have been proof enough to the men of the Lord's will, but they were stubborn yet. I had to flee my home; and that is how I came to the Sword Coast."

"I'm sorry," Jade sighed, "I myself slew a witch-hunter just now. I have traveled little, but it now seems this sort of absurdity pervades Faerun."

"Twas but an obstacle Tempus put in my way, and I have overcome it," Branwen declared. "We must all face them. Injustice is a battle everywhere!" She looked around. "Where are we anyway?"

Jade smiled. "Nottvery Fair."