Chapter XVII

It was a few hours yet before he was due for the watch but Geldar couldn't sleep. He lay in the small tent on the ground tasting the sand in his mouth. They had reached Aranoch several days ago and already the mountains were distance behind the vast ridges of the desert. It would be several weeks before they finally reached Lut Gholein, and Cain had reminded them they weren't sure what they would find there. Talina was insistent on getting a ship and heading for the Amazon Islands, but nothing was certain until they arrived.

Already they had passed caravans abandoned in the swirling sands like skeletons, the merchants and travellers becoming the food of carrion birds. And of course there was the evil that lived there and all around them, much more vicious and dangerous than in Khanduras, and more poisonous.

This one of the reasons why they were very careful with their supplies, there used to be outposts for food and fodder at various stations and villages, now nothing but scorpions and the wind-blown sand moved through them.

Geldar was just closing his eyes when a noise outside made him wide-awake. There was no time to don his armour bud he grabbed his new sword, threw on a tunic and rolled out from his tent so his face was in the sand. Cautiously, he looked up – and noticed the legion of skeletons heading towards their camp.

There came a war cry, this was Talina's signal but Geldar was by her side before long, she hurled several javelins at the invaders. Geldar smashed them with the flat of his sword, angered to find that they kept rising from where he struck them down.

"Desist!" Cried a loud voice that made Geldar look up, a tall man was walking towards them. His face was a skeletal white and his clothes seemed to be made of rawhide and bones. He carried a feathered wand and a shield made of bone.

"You get his minions," Geldar said angrily. "And I'll send this minion back to Hell."

"Geldar!" Talina called but he was already advancing.

He didn't stop to think that it was foolish to fight an armoured opponent with only a sword and a thin tunic upon him. He didn't stop to consider that who he was approaching was not an underling of Evil. All he knew was that the power to raise the dead was a sin, akin to witchcraft or sorcery. He had been schooled all his life about what to do about such corrupters of life: a quick death for the hope of absolution.

Geldar swung his sword wildly; this was intentional as he meant to distract his opponent. He was about to make a quick cut to the man's chest when he found himself knocked back as if stunned. Annoyed, Geldar pressed again but two skeletons emerged from the corpses of ones he had felled. By the time he managed to get to the man – or fiend as Geldar called him in thought – he was brandishing a dagger that smoked poison-green in the darkness.

"Drop your weapon!" He said, his voice was deep and throaty, Geldar was taken slightly aback but he didn't stop his attack.

"I know not what Hell you spawned from," Geldar said, swinging his sword behind his head to get some distance between them. "But, by Akarat I'll send you back there."

"I came not from Hell," the man said. "Stay your attack and listen; I am a priest of Rathma. I seek your allegiance."

"I do not deal with demons or their minions," Geldar said.

"Geldar, stop!" Talina was instantly between them. "He's not from Evil. He's against them like us," she turned and looked at the Necromancer. "While my trust is not yours as yet, I do know that you have come to help us." She looked back at Geldar but he hadn't moved. "Put down your sword, Geldar. If you can't trust him you can trust my word for him."

Geldar lowered his sword but eyed the man cautiously. Such things went against his conscience, but didn't Talina tell him she was once a mercenary? He trusted her, she saved his life several times and he had saved her battling Andariel.

"I am Paladin Geldar of the Zakarum," he said. "The Amazon Talina and I have come from Khanduras in the wake of the death of Andariel."

"We seek the Wanderer," Talina said. "We hope to stop him and then we have separate quests. Might we have your name?"

"I am Norleche," said the Necromancer, sheathing his dagger and replacing his wand on his belt. "I have seen the auspices of Andariel's return to Hell. It marks you well to have done the deed."

"How did you – " Geldar asked but Talina silenced him with a glance.

"Will you travel with our party?" Talina asked. "And help us with whatever we find in Lut Gholein?"

"That all depends," Norleche said, gathering the skeletons around him. "On what we find there."

Warriv was sceptical of the Necromancer but he had the tact not to show it, Cain was more open-minded, asking if he had heard any news recently. The Necromancer told them he had come from the north and he was returning when he knew about the recent events of the Prime Evils.

"I was actually on my way to Tristram," he confessed that evening when they were sitting around the fire. "Then I heard the Lord of Terror was defeated but my sources told me the fight was far from over."

"Did your sources tell you any of what is to come?" Deckard Cain asked.

"It all depends on one man," Norleche replied. "And the actions are not yet done, and until they are what may be hangs in the balance."

Talina excused herself and went to talk to Geldar who was patrolling the perimeter of the camp. He smiled at her approach but she didn't return the gesture.

"I'll take over the watch," she said loyally. "Go and sit by the fire, you hardly ate anything."

"I'll be fine for another few hours," Geldar replied. "I wasn't hungry."

"No, you just don't want to sit there with Norleche," Talina reproached. "I don't understand you at all."

"It's what he does," Geldar said. "Control over life and death are best left in the hands of the Divine."

You do know the difference between a mortal and a demon don't you?" Talina asked.

"Of course," Geldar replied as if the question was an insult. "But therein lays the problem, Evil uses man, not the other way around."

"While I would like to explain to you that the world is not broken up into black and white concepts," Talina answered patiently. "I will tell you that you being against Norleche will affect when we all fight together eventually."

"Not unless he kills us all in some dark ritual," Geldar said testily.

"I am not asking you to trust him as I don't trust him myself," Talina said. "However, I am asking you to be civil. We can't be fighting amongst ourselves if we have to face one of the Prime Evils."

"You're right," Geldar said after a few moments of thought.

"Will you go rest by the fire now?" Talina asked.

"You rest for a few hours," he said. "Then come and get me."

The next morning Geldar was walking ahead of the caravan squinting in the bright light, they were due for a stop anytime now and then continue the journey once the heat of the day had gone. He wore only a light corslet as he found while he was still a squire that metal armour was only comfortable in short periods under a baking sun.

In the caravan Talina sat talking with Cain while Norleche followed them at the rear with several of his skeletons. It had been a matter of dispute between the Necromancer and the Paladin whether they follow them until Talina pointed out how expendable they were.

"Geldar was saying you were in Lut Gholein before," Talina said, staring out at the empty desert as she spoke.

"That was many years ago," the Horadric sage replied. "I was young then, the though that Evil could permeate the land now was unthinkable then."

"Among my people we have a maxim," Talina said. "That the times of good prepare us for the times of trial as they give us happiness to look back upon."

"I have to admit that I find the ways of your people difficult to comprehend," Cain confessed.

"Most do," Talina replied with a smile. "I found the ways of the West different when I first travelled here but I have learnt to adapt. Yet I understand how beliefs and societies adapt to the needs of the people and where they live."

"Not many understand that," Cain said as the caravan came to a sudden stop. "That's odd," Cain said, daring to peek outside. "Warriv normally stops near an oases or well."

"It could be trouble," Talina said, grabbing her shield and javelins and jumping off the caravan.

Geldar and Norleche were ahead discussing something and Talina ran to stand beside them. In front of them, behind some sort of wall was a hoard of snarling spitting cats. They were brandishing javelins, Talina could see, and they were trying to rip through the wall.

"Panther slingers," Geldar replied when he noticed her confused expression. "They would have been on us if Norleche hadn't conjured up that wall."

"Do you want help?" Talina asked.

"You stay near the caravan," Geldar said. "Keep them off, we'll try and get them at close range."

At that moment the wall broke and they swarmed out, throwing javelins in the sand just in front of them. Talina wanted to attack but she stepped back, right back to in front of the caravan and glanced around for a target.

"Get inside!" She yelled to Warriv and Cain, remembering the torn frame of the caravans they had passed a while back.

There was the sound of several javelins landing next to her that made Talina drop to the ground then roll back onto her feet, shield ready and javelin out. Were there any advancing? Geldar and Norleche had them engaged up the front but there were some trying to break through.

Suddenly Geldar was knocked to the ground and several of the cats got past Norleche. Three javelins thrown before Talina charged at them with another. A few quick blows and they were on the ground snarling their last breaths.

She looked up quickly, Geldar and Norleche were dealing with the last of them, Geldar was bashing them with his shield and Norleche was using some kind of poison move with his dagger. It wasn't long until all there was left was the three of them and the flies and scorpions crawling after the blood.

"It's over," Talina told Warriv and Cain and the merchant came out of the caravan with a waterskin.

"Is it long until we reach an oasis?" Geldar asked him after taking a much needed drink.

"We won't reach one till the day after tomorrow," Warriv replied. "There should be a village ahead, or at least when I last came through here."

"We'd best get going," Talina said. "Geldar, you get back to the caravan I'll walk in front."

For once the Paladin didn't argue.