Chapter XXIV

Drognan and Jerryn cautiously approached the lower levels of the palace with two of Griez's men behind them. They stopped before the doorway, the walls of flames were still there.

"All but two of my guards have gone now," Jerryn said mournfully, they had sent them down in small groups daily in an attempt to push back the Evil, but it was hopeless. Now they just wanted to see the damage done.

Drognan uttered the incantation and the flames fell, immediately several scavenger beasts ran out, chattering and screaming, the two mercenaries had their spears out and slew them on the spot.

"Get down there," Jerryn told them. "Don't try and kill them all, it's useless. Try and find where they have come from."

When the men had gone, Drognan brought up the fire wall again and Jerryn sat down in a chair near the door to wait. Drognan stood some distance away, his gaze far more inward than observing the young lord of Lut Gholein's pain.

"It seems too cruel," Jerryn said at last.

"We all have to make decisions that go against our conscience," Drognan replied. "How else are we to know the strength of out enemy?"

"Don't tell me that Tal Rasha's Tomb is beneath my palace, Drognan," Jerryn said. "It would explain what has happened, but it would have been good to know beforehand."

"If Tal Rasha's Tomb was beneath the palace I would have told you long ago," Drognan said, still not looking at Jerryn. "I think you should tell those adventurers what happened here."

"You mean, the Paladin and the Amazon?" Jerryn asked.

"You forget the third," Drognan reminded him.

"He's a Necromancer and I don't want him in my palace," Jerryn said shortly. "There's enough living dead down there as it is."

"We cannot choose who will help us," Drognan said. "My advice stands."

"I'll take note if it," Jerryn said.

"We're here!" Shouted one of the mercenaries. "Let us pass!"

Drognan uttered the incantation and the wall of fire fell, when the mercenaries had come through her raised it again. Both men were badly beaten up and one had a bad wound on his leg and had trouble walking.

"Did you locate the source?" Jerryn asked.

"There were too many to get close," one of them replied. "We went down deep, down to the third level of the cellars. Down there it's thick with vermin; if we didn't start back then we wouldn't have made it."
"So much for courage," Jerryn spat.

"Will all do respect, Your Highness, dead men don't get paid," the mercenary replied.

"Point taken, is there anything else?" Jerryn asked.

"No sir," the mercenary replied. "If I can make one suggestion, Your Highness?"

"Make it brief," Jerryn said shortly.

"Don't send anymore of us down there," the mercenary said. "There's no one that I know that can take on what's down there."

"Perhaps," Jerryn said, more to himself than anyone else, "there's someone that I know."

"And I thought it would be cooler down here," Talina said, wiping out the sweat from her helmet.

"It's the presence of Evil that gives off the heat," Geldar replied.

They were sitting in a crater just above the entrance to the third level; they had fought long and hard to get to this point but needed to gather strength for the final stretch. While Talina stomped around trying to overcome her inertia, Geldar checked his gear. Norleche didn't observe their exchange, he sat in a corner staring at the wall.

"Any thoughts on that dream you had?" Norleche asked Geldar.

"Well, I figured it could simply be temptation of sins of the flesh," Geldar replied.

"Sins of the flesh," Talina retorted but Geldar ignored her.

"As a Protector of the Word I am above temptation," Geldar continued. "My duty in this world is to present the ideal all should strive for."

"That's a pretty speech," Talina replied. "But how does it wash out in the real world?"

"It's what keeps me going," Geldar told her. "I don't know what keeps you going besides the desire to kill."

"I'd rather have that than some half-baked ideal," Talina snapped.

"Half-baked?" Geldar looked at her. "How far do you want to take that?"

"As far as you want to," Talina said.

Both of them stood up and eyed each other.

"Too scared to take me on?" Geldar asked, drawing his sword.

"You wish," Talina said, positioning her shield.

"Stand down, both of you," Norleche said, stepping between them. "If you two have a dispute, settle it someplace else where we don't have enemies breathing down our necks." He looked from the Amazon to the Paladin. "Though I'd rather you didn't settle it at all, the last thing we need is a disagreement like this hanging around our necks like a millstone."

There was a long silence.

"He's right," Geldar said finally. "I shouldn't take your remarks so personally."

"And I shouldn't try to jab you in the chinks in your armour," Talina said, then she smiled. "Though you have to admit they still are there."

"All the better for you to tell me then," Geldar returned.

They started to get their gear together and Norleche walked over to the hole in the ground.

"Who wants to be first?" He asked.

"Geldar?"

"Yes?"

Norleche and Geldar were pressed against the wall after another skirmish, Talina had gone ahead to chase up a feeling she had. A feeling of a very large, very strong presence.

"About that dream you had," the Necromancer said. "Have you spoken to Deckard Cain about it?"

"No, not yet, he hasn't been well," Geldar replied. "I went to see him before we went out and he was in his room at the Desert Rain. Why do you ask?"

"How much has he told you?" Norleche asked. "About what we will eventually face?"

"I know that the Lord of Terror seeks to free his brother the Lord of Destruction," Geldar replied.

"What about Lesser Evils?" Norleche said. "Have you heard of those?"

"Talina and I faced Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish," Geldar replied. "She is what Cain called a Lesser Evil."

"Well there are more in Hell, but no one knows how many," Norleche replied. "Belial the Lord of Lies, Azmodan the Lord of Sin, Choronzon the Lord of Betrayal…"

"And what does this have to do with my dream?" Geldar interrupted.

"I was getting to that," Norleche said. "What you described could very well be Malevola, the Lady of Fury."

"I don't know about fury," Geldar said. "But there wasn't any anger about her, only lust."

"Evil takes many forms," Norleche reminded him.

"I'm aware of that," Geldar said. "But how could she be in Sanctuary? Cain told me about the Dark Exile but he also said that demons really don't like it here, they prefer the Burning Hells."

"Like it or not this world has been long prophesied to be the battleground for the last battle of the Sin War," Norleche replied. "But as far as why the Lesser Evils are in this world I couldn't tell you."

At this point Talina raced down the corridor, javelin and shield ready.

"Get moving!" she shouted.

"What is it?" Geldar asked running after her.

"Remember that story about the giant sand maggot beneath the desert?" Talina asked.

"The on you dismissed as superstition?" Geldar asked.

"I take that back," Talina said, stopping before a doorway. "It's true."

"So it's though there?" Norleche asked.

As if in response, three sand maggots scurried down the tunnel followed by a loud shriek coming from behind. It didn't take long to cut down the vermin, but Talina warned them they would be facing worse, much worse not much later.

Slowly they walked forward, Geldar in the lead, Norleche flanking him and Talina coming in behind.

Geldar stopped dead in the doorway and stared at the grotesque purple mass in the middle of the floor. He would have been killed outright by the advancing sand maggots if Norleche hadn't used his poison dagger on them.

Immediately Geldar reached out with Thorns and sought his attack mind. In a matter of seconds he was but a fury of movement, slashing sand maggots wherever he could. He entered the room so Talina and Norleche could attack, but they were all soon separated by the masses of writing bodies.

Geldar turned to attack the sand maggot queen but it immediately launched a sand maggot in his face, scratching his cheek and drawing blood, but he ignored it and finished it off with a few strokes so he could continue the attack on its mother.

"Talina!" he shouted over the din. "I need you to cover me! Get any of the maggots that are being born so I can kill this one."

"What about the babies?" Talina shouted back, she was stabbing some of the eggs at this point.

"One catastrophe at a time!" Geldar retorted, then turned back to his quarry.

When he and Lemnar had been raised by the Zakarum monks in the Temple of Light in Kurast they had first mastered the convictions of the Light, and how they could be used to counter evil. They had also been taught them within them was a calm centre, a central core that could be accessed in time of need. If they managed to do this they could unleash an untold level of power.

Geldar sought after that space now within himself and everything ceased to exist around him, Talina, Norleche, the other sand maggots, there was only him and the giant sand maggot queen. Merely a threat to order that needed to be exterminated, a perversion that must be vanquished. Cut after cut, stroke after stroke his arm was a blur as it hacked at the flesh, he heard a great shriek that rocked the entire room but he kept on fighting, willing it to die, it had to be done.

Suddenly Talina was shaking his arm.

"What?" Geldar asked, he looked at her in annoyance, couldn't she he was busy.

"It's dead, Geldar," Talina said, she pointed at the blood and mangled flesh on the floor. "Where were you?"

"Somewhere between here and there," Geldar replied, looking over his handiwork. "Are they all gone?"

"Every last one," Talina said. "But I think we may have something."

She held up a long rod made of pure gold, it was very heavy when he held it and there were many runes and engravings on it. At the top were a few holes where jewels were missing.

"Do you know what it is?" Talina asked.

"No," Geldar replied. "But it's what we came here for."