XIV: Through Demons and Gith (part one)

At the latter half of the day the foggy grey haze at the horizon finally took a shape of mountains outlines.

"Looks like we have quite a climb ahead of us," Bishop remarked as the shades of first ledges covered them. "What, do you really need that farmgirl so much?"

"Don't see how that's any business of yours, ranger," Adele answered.

"Just worried that this whole journey doesn't really pay off."

"Shandra's well-being should be our focus right now," Casavir cut off.

Bishop snorted: "I'll let that be your focus, paladin. I just want to hope that the wench is worth the trouble," he cast a sidelong glance at Neeshka. "Seems to me the tiefling is thinking the same thing."

"I'm not!" she immediately rejoined.

"Sure you are not. That's why your face keeps that expression. 'Stupid peasant girl who keeps putting us all in danger'."

"No! I… I just kinda worry what we'll get into, at gith's place, that's all!"

"She can't think somethin' like that," Khelgar chuckled. "We've saved her life too."

"Once! Not like… what? …three times now!!!" she tarried, even got out of step for a second, then shook her head, glaring daggers at Bishop, who was still watching her out of the corner of his eye with the same smirk on his face. "And I didn't mean anything like that! Just worry and that's all!"

"I'm not saying anything, tiefling," he cooed.

"Doesn't look as if," Qara grunted.

"And Shandra is not just some… 'stupid peasant girl', Bishop," Elanee added. "She needs our help."

"Ladies, ladies," the ranger shook his head. "Don't jump on me all at one time, have patience. I know it's hard to, but-"

"Mind your tongue, Bishop," Casavir's voice was ice.

"When you all are doing that for me? Why would I bother."

Gods, the guy surely enjoys creating chaos around him, Adele thought grimly. Now I know why he chose this name for himself – 'cause it's perfect for being spat angrily between clenched teeth.

Walking almost side by side with him, without turning her head, she hissed: "One more word, Bishop, and I'm cutting your tongue off."

He smirked again: "Well, you surely have a strained atmosphere for such a small band."

"Not without your help."

"Always ready to help."

"Then why don't you look where you should – on the trail?"

"Ah, but of course," he gave her a mock bow, without slackening his pace and keeping the same smirk on his face. "Wretched sleuth is at your service, my lady."

Adele shot him a cold glance and smiled tightly, lowering her voice so that only he could hear her: "Looks like someone needs to learn to take woman's rejection with more dignity."

Bishop quirked up his brow in slight amusement: "…Or someone needs to learn to flatter herself less, huh?" he suddenly took the next step not forward, but a bit aside, closing up the distance between then, and whispered in her ear: "No need to at all, princess."

With that he quickened his pace, leaving her behind with the shivers that slid from the back of her neck down the spine. Closing her eyes, Adele gave herself a shake and cursed inwardly. She would have preferred not to open her eyes at all in her lifetime, but was forced to as she almost crashed into ranger's back when he suddenly came to a halt. His face kept no trace of smile.

The others stopped as well, looking at him questioningly, after Ember being understandably attentive to his suspicions concerning the area around, and the ranger silently pointed upwards, at one of the ledges in the distance, where in the pearl-grey mist clouded between the rocks several dark skinny figures could be made out…

"Archers. Guarding the main path," he said quietly, without turning to them. "Means the lair is somewhere nearby already… Luckily the sun is shining into their eyes, don't see us."

"I'd have taken them down," Neeshka muttered, "if they were fewer… Well, this way… they might get time to figure out, I'm afraid."

"Besides, there may be more of them around," Elanee added.

"There are," Bishop answered, gesturing aside. "Six more behind the boulder."

Adele looked narrowly in that direction. Indeed. The gith were not seen, yet by the way the shadow cast by the boulder fell on the ground – not really matching the outlines of the boulder itself – it could be inferred that there was someone behind it.

Whatever you say, he is good after all, she thought, glancing shortly at Bishop. Damnably good…

"So I suggest live bait again," the ranger concluded, watching the archers. "We send the gnome forward, and while they are busy taking him down – we take down them."

but why in the Hells does he need to be an asshole for all that?

"Don't even think," she cut him off, seeing that Grobnar predictably became thrilled with the idea.

"Why?" Bishop grinned. "Let him be useful too."

"I am ready," Grobnar beamed at them.

"No, Grobnar," Adele shook her head. "Too risky…"

"Well, yes, maybe, miss Adele, but why don't you look yourself!" he pointed up the path. "You see what ledges are over there? And that path – see it? Narrow-narrow path! I mean, I am small, I don't need much space. But I'll be perfectly seen to the githyanki. Not that I want to, of course – they didn't create a favorable impression on me so far…"

"By Kossuth's flames," Qara whispered. "Again that dam burst…"

"…Though that might be only partially due to their fault, just didn't have an opportunity for a closer communication. I am sure they are not as bad as they seem if you happen to find a suitable approach to them…"

"And they'll surely do everybody a favor by shooting you," Bishop stated.

"…but I am not that eager to right now. Some other time – maybe. What was I about?" he fell silent for a second, moving his lips mutely, then slapped himself on the forehead. "Oh yes! I mean, I remembered what I was about!"

"Yay," Neeshka drawled.

"Yes, about the path! It is small – just like I am. But I'll be seen. So, it suits, don't you think? All matches, all is correct, and the arrows don't fly by that trajectory."

They all stared at him.

"…What?" Adele blinked.

"Oh, these are only approximate estimations, of course! If you give me an hour, I'll surely be able to make nice calculations, down to inches, but right now, by eye, I can say that the arc of the trajectory seems too curved. I mean, if I was higher… or if they happened to have some special arrows with some kind of remote control, guess they would have had a possibility of hitting me. But this way, from their spot, I'm afraid, they won't be able to."

The silence that established after his words was so absolute, that one could make out a distant cry of a bird flying up in the sky.

"…Actually, he is right," Bishop said, his tone suggesting he didn't quite himself believe he was saying that. "Well, guess it's truth they say that madness leads to inspiration."

"Oh my!" Grobnar exclaimed, looking at him. "You are so right, sir Bishop! For so many times I've noticed in others that-"

The ranger grabbed the gnome by the shoulder, spinning him around to face the path, and pushed him into the small of his back with a knee: "Move already. Time presses."

"Yes, yes, I'm terribly sorry, got carried away again a bit."

With that he headed up the path, quietly singing something under his breath as his habit was. The ranger turned to others, ignoring Adele's angry stare. "And you all just stay out," he said and, brushing past them, skirted the side rock and disappeared behind it, his wolf following without any command.

Judging by the commotion among the gith Grobnar didn't stay unnoticed. Despite everything, Adele felt her heart missed a beat when they started firing arrows, but as the echoes of their curses suggested, the gnome's "approximate estimations" were more than correct. Though the gith didn't spend much time testing his theory – from the shadow cast by a huge old tree hurled four arrows at once, going in pairs into the two of the creatures standing together on the opposite – left - side of the cleft; four arrows were followed by some more, that brought down the enemies remaining there. The archers on the right side, getting the hint that they were not attacked from the point they expected attack to come, quickly turned round, but three of them were immediately knocked over by the wolf who jumped underfoot and even pushed one creature down the cliff.

"Careful, a steep!" Grobnar cried out to the gith – too late, as the creature crashed down on the bottom of the crevice. "Ouch…"

Bishop let a few more arrows fly and, as the gith left their ranged weapons and drew blades, stepped out from the shadow, his left hand still clutching the bow, his right one unsheathing the longsword. He was constantly moving - dodging, turning, bending, hitting – so swiftly that his dusty cloak, disturbed by that permanent motion, seemed to envelop his form in a grey-green cloud, making it impossible to figure out where inside of it was the ranger himself – and thus making it hard for the gith to strike him.

Khelgar let out a whistle of approval, watching the ranger, and Adele glanced at the dwarf – but her attention became drawn to Qara instead. The sorceress obviously decided to take her part in the battle, as her eyes were closed, lips moved, articulating a spell. Adele wanted to stop her, when the air near her cheek stirred, swaying locks of hair that got loose from the tail, and an arrow snapped into the girl's staff, forcing her to back off and lose her concentration. Flinging her eyes open, Qara tossed up her head, glaring furiously at Bishop, who lowered his bow.

"If I want to get burnt," the ranger snarled, "I'll say so!!!"

"Would you, really?!!" the girl yelled back angrily. "I'll keep that in mind!!!"

Adele touched her shoulder appeasingly, almost jerking her hand away, as the girl's skin was white-hot. Qara shook herself, freeing her shoulder, and wrenched the arrow out of her staff, throwing it on the ground.

"An' again no left for me," Khelgar grunted, eyeing the empty mountainsides, sighed and followed up the path.

They caught up with Grobnar who was trying and failing to bring round the smashed githyanki, and Bishop came down to them in several leaps. His face still seemed crossed, and Adele was worried that if he and Qara start a fight it would be a real challenge to drag those two apart.

But the ranger just gave a curt nod at the path: "The cave's ahead, not far."

"Then let's get to it," Adele said as lightly as she could and went straight ahead.

In half an hour they indeed reached a cave, where they were already waited by the wolf. The tunnel led down, straight under the mountain. After sun-burnt rocks, steaming with heat, the coolness of the gith's lair was almost blissful.

The underground passage they followed was big, if not huge – in the semi-darkness it was nearly impossible to make out the ceiling above. Silence that reigned in the place made them all hold together, closer to each other, everyone looking around…

…but still they missed the moment when the githyanki stepped out of the darkness, surrounding them.

"Damn," Adele breathed out, turning on her heels and sensing that the others automatically did the same, standing up back-to-back in a totally enclosed circle.

"What, overlooked an ambush, you expert?" Qara hissed to Bishop.

"Shut your trap," he snapped. "They were under magical cover. Might've put yourself out."

Behind her back Adele showed them a clenched fist hoping to kill two birds with one stone – to cut short a possible argument and to make her companions stall the attack for the time. As a gauntleted fist shortly hit hers in response, she realized that at least Khelgar got her point. Not for the first time the woman thought that when it came to battle the dwarf was the one to count on for understanding. Before she could do anything else, one of the gith came forward, a tall creature that looked a bit more important than others – mostly due to some kind of a feathered crown on its head.

But what made Adele's blood run cold was not the hat, but the face under it – the ugly face that branded itself inside of her memory by hurling a torrent of magic missiles on Amie.

"Zeeaire has foretold your coming, Kalach-Cha," he-she-it crunched. "She sent me here to end you."

"And you inform me about this… why?" Adele wondered coldly. "Usually you, guys, don't talk to me."

"I enjoy knowing my prey, Kalach-Cha. I find it sweetens the taste of their death." The creature bared its crooked teeth in a grin. "Zeeaire allows me this luxury."

"I'll buy some time," she muttered under her breath, knowing that her companions, standing close, would hear her, and smiled at the creature: "Well then, maybe you will finally tell me what in the Hells this 'Kalach-Cha' means?"

"Kalack-Cha is the brand given to one who not only steals a silver sword," the gith explained indulgently, "but destroys the sword to hide the crime and then impudently carries its shards."

Adele arched her brow: "What, so many people had done that already that you even have a special name for it?"

The creature's fishy eyes narrowed in suspicion, grin faded: "Do you mock me, Kalach-Cha? No, your title is fresh to our history. Zeeaire gave you this name to properly classify the severity of your crime."

"So, this Zeeaire is kind of your legal expert?"

"She is a Sword-Stalker of the highest order. She is favored by the Lich Queen and has slain countless enemies."

"Well then, take me to her in that case, we'll set the things straight."

"That's not for you to decide, Kalack-Cha. We-" the creature stopped as the sound of hurried footsteps approached from the depths of the tunnel.

Adele strained herself, slightly turning her head to others: "Seems the time's coming…" she pursed her lips, her gaze fixed on the mage. "But the Fancy Hat is mine."

From round the corner appeared another gith, running up to the mage. "We have a problem," he informed huskily.

"Then deal with it," the mage growled. "I am not finished here."

The gith obediently bowed and retreated. The mage followed him with a contemptuous glare, then shook his head and started to turn back…

"NOW!" Adele shrieked, tossing her rapier up in her hand like a spear, and threw it at the creature.

The thin sharp blade effortlessly went into the scaly flesh, piercing the heart, and the mage stumbled, falling back. But even before his body touched the ground, Adele rushed up to him, tearing her weapon out of his chest and immediately driving it into the nearest enemy. Behind her back Qara shouted out a spell, and the woman was waved with warmth, but paid no attention to that, centering on avoiding the attacks of recovered from the blow githyanki.

Taken by surprise in their own ambush, not all gith came to their senses at once – and an assault from their small band put an end to them rather quickly.

"Surprise!" Neeshka snickered, hopping between the corpses to collect her daggers. "I like surprises."

Adele didn't answer, staring down at the mage's body and, unable to hold herself, kicked it in the side. Bishop, who was jerking his arrows free from the corpse pinned to the wall, looked at her with a mix of wonder and amusement in his eyes: "So, you hate men in general? Or has just this particular one failed to take your fancy?"

"…It's personal," she answered, still looking at the corpse. "He led the attack on my home. Killed my friend."

"What's the point in avenging the dead?" he drawled in an irritating 'that's-not-even-a-question' tone and shrugged. "They remain dead."

"Don't remember asking for your opinion, ranger."

He smirked: "That's because you didn't, princess."

She didn't answer, turning away from him.

"So, moving further?" Khelgar asked with common enthusiasm.

Adele nodded, taking a view of her friends to make sure nobody was seriously wounded. "Yes, the faster we get to-" she lapsed into silence as her eyes stopped on Casavir.

The paladin stood motionless, like a statue, staring deeper into the tunnel. His face was calmly concentrated, as usual, yet his eyes… almost imperceptibly they skidded along the ground, walls, ceiling, as if Casavir tried to find something he couldn't see – but felt.

"What's up?" Adele asked quietly, coming up to him.

"There is… something there," he answered just as quietly, probably not wanting to alert everybody. "Something is… resonating inside of me." He tightened his grip on the sword and raised his voice: "We should be cautious from now on."

Adele nodded again. The paladin's words should have troubled her – but they didn't. There was something about the man, surrounding him, some kind of aura – of faith, of light or whatever – that imbued confidence and composure.

They all moved further, trying to keep up the speed, but at the same time remain on guard, having no desire to walk into another ambush. There were githyanki here still – and probably a lot of them, so…

"Wow," Neeshka blurted, staring in wide eyes at the gith corpse that appeared before them in the next passageway.

The body was lying in the middle of the tunnel, maimed – if not to say distorted. The creature's chest was torn open, revealing the debris of ribs in the yawning hole, seemed to be left from the blow of incredible strength.

"Who…?" Elanee pressed a palm to her lips, looking at the corpse almost with pity. "Who could have done this?"

"Someone definitely not puny," Bishop observed, bending down to sit on his heels near the body. "Our friend was nailed down with a single hit. And almost no blood – the wound clotted immediately, like from the fire."

"Not guilty," Qara responded automatically, also eyeing the corpse. "A shame, though."

Neeshka suddenly jerked her head up, sniffing, and in a moment her tail started to sweep slowly from side to side, giving away her inner anxiety.

"Demons," she whispered.

Casavir nodded assent. Bishop gave a quiet whistle, standing up and nocking an arrow.

"What, we'll get arselves demons too?" Khelgar grinned. "Now that's a trip."

Adele was barely listening to them, moving along the wall, to the turn leading deeper under mountain. She didn't like the appeared feeling, weighing upon her, echoing inside of her ribcage, vaguely familiar… as if the air suddenly thickened…

No, not the air…

The shadows…

Keeping her breathing in check, she silently stepped behind the turn… and froze in her tracks, staring at a huge creature, almost three or four times higher than any humanoid being. It was almost as bid in width, which made him look like a giant toad, standing on its rear limbs, while its forepaws, ending in impressive razor-like claws, hung at its sides almost touching the ground. Ashy-green scale, heaving with spikes along the spine, a stretched out mouth filled with thin crooked fangs did nothing to adorn the monster either. Against such an impressive background Adele actually hadn't noticed one more figure, standing in front of the demon. She tried to take a better look at the person in long crimson-black outfit, but it wasn't that easy – he was covered with shadows, almost melting, blending into them, like he was here and somewhere else at the same time. Only an intricate tracery of glowing lines that covered his bold head glittered faintly in the gloom.

"Find the githyanki leader and retrieve the shards from her, Zaxis," he was telling the demon, who was listening to him with meek – if not slavish obedience. "Leave no one alive…"

He fell silent abruptly, turning his head a bit, and Adele shrank back behind the corner, flatting herself against the wall and shaking her head at her companions, who were also listening to the echo of the man's words.

"As for the newcomers…" the voice came again. "Whoever they are, if they hinder – deal with them."

The demon uttered a low hiss that was most likely his manifestation of agreement, and Adele heard the grinding of rocks under his claws.

"Whatever it is, it's leaving," Bishop remarked, his head cocked to the shoulder as he was listening to the recessive sound of heavy footsteps.

"Then let's run it down," Khelgar waved his axe.

"Hezrou," Neeshka muttered and wrinkled her nose. "Well, judging by the smell."

"That smell is not for judging, but for executing," Qara added in disgust, covering her nose and mouth with her hand.

Adele brushed her free palm over her face and hair, tucking the loose tresses behind her ears, and strained a smile: "We always get the worse of luck, don't we?"

"Maybe find another way around?" Neeshka suggested without much hope.

"I doubt there is any," Elanee shook her head.

"We can make one," Qara shrugged. "Blow up the wall – it may lead somewhere."

"Shut up everybody," Bishop snapped his fingers, making others automatically fell to silence. "If I got the things correctly, that freak is killing gith."

"Yup," Adele answered. "That's his order."

"Then what's the problem? We follow behind him, he clears us the way from the gith – and in the end we deal with him if needed."

"…I guess," the woman nodded. "Yeah, sound enough."

The ranger waved at the tunnel: "Then let's get moving."


…They followed Zaxis' trail for almost an hour, yet the cave didn't even think about ending. The walls seemed to become smoother, which made Adele feel like they were no longer going along a cave, but more like ruins of some ancient underground temple or something like that.

Sometimes she got a feeling that the traces of frescos on the walls – faded, crumbled and by that looking somewhat… sad – seem familiar to her. Somehow they reminded her of the Illefarn ruins in the Mere, not far from West Harbor, where she had picked up the first of the damned shards.

Nonetheless, they more often came across gith's disfigured corpses than traces of long-lost empire. Zaxis obviously didn't allow anyone or anything delay him – so he just took the gith that got in his way and crashed them into stone-walls, breaking their bones. What was not good is the fact that Zaxis appeared to be not the only demon in the ruins: a couple of times they ran up against others – small winged creatures with monkey's faces and long tales whom Neeshka called 'mephits'. Those beasts fell on them with almost happy squalls – as if they were just waiting for someone whose ears they could rip up. It didn't make much of a battle to kill them – but it didn't restore frayed nerves either. One of the mephits actually ended up eaten by the wolf, and for a long time Adele couldn't help but look at him in wonder how animal's stomach would react on such a snack. But seeing that the wolf - as well as his master – was worried about that much less than she was, Adele stopped worrying either.

Taking another turn they found a surprise in the form of three gith. They were rambling along the corridor, looking almost lost, their faces keeping a stupid expression, colorless eyes glittering dully, like pieces of glass. They attacked – or rather tried to – but only when the travelers approached right up to them.

"Why our new friend Zaxis hasn't severed them, I wonder," Bishop pointed, shoving the arrows picked up from the bodies back to his quiver.

"They seemed to be under… some kind of spell," Elanee answered, waving her hand indefinably. "Their souls were… stunned."

"No, no spells," Qara objected with certainty. "It would have been seen by the auras."

"Charms," Neeshka nodded grimly. "Looks like here's succubi somewhere too. Shit, whoever did this all, he seemed to drag half of Abyss here."

Adele felt a cold shiver ran along her skin, as her memory produced the image of a figure cloaked in darkness with glowing tattoos, and the woman banished it hastily from her mind.

"Well, let it be succubi," Bishop shrugged indifferently. "They go down just like everybody else."

"Right ya are," Khelgar laughed.

"Besides, we have a holy warrior on our side. If I'm not mistaken, paladins are immune to charms," he smirked wryly, looking at Casavir, who was standing beside Adele. "Though… I may be mistaken, huh?"

As Casavir had already chosen, perhaps, the wisest tactics in communicating with the ranger – complete ignoring – he didn't answer. Not that he had time to, anyway, because at that very moment the passageway was filled with a boomy echo of metal chime, heavy and deep, like from the strike on something really impressive. The sound made everybody strain – after all, with their luck, it could be anything.

Well, at least nothing good, that's for sure.

Grobnar, who was standing the first to the turn, was also the first to follow the sound, apparently in genuine curiosity about what it could have been. Adele darted after him and even managed to outstrip the gnome, walking a bit ahead so that she had a possibility to catch him and withhold if needed. Others feel into their steps, weapons at ready, when the sound came again – this time chased by a chatoyant female laughter, that made the wolf toss his head a little, sniff and let out a low grunt.

"Oh my," Grobnar jumped on move, looking around. "What an… interesting laugh. I feel like something is… jingling inside of me in response."

Bishop, walking at his heels, grinned: "Not only inside of you, gnome. Succubi."

Neeshka snorted: "Men."

The tunnel led them into a small connecting cave, where at the far wall was looming a huge blade golem that looked familiar. The construct was standing motionless, only swayed a bit, because his shoulder was occupied by a half-naked red-hair woman, who was sitting bird-like, her webbed wings folded behind her back. Another succubus was strolling around the golem, the steps of her bare feet noiseless against the rock.

"Listen, listen," the first one snickered, moving to the top of the golem's head like a cat, and planted a hard kick on it, filling the cave with a familiar hollow echo. "Like the tolling of a bell."

"I can still smell the stench of its creator on its surface," the other one drawled. "It's running deep into the ore. Why would the gith keep such a thing, as broken as it is?"

"Let's tear it apart!" the first one suggested with fervour. "See if its limbs twitch when cleaved from the body."

"Succubi," Neeshka hissed and shook her head. "Always want to amuse themselves – no matter with what or whom."

"Well, what do you expect," Bishop nocked an arrow with a smirk. "Women."

The demoness sitting above jerked her head up, looking at them, her eyes gleaming yellow in the dark, and smiled: "Why... it seems one victim has drawn others!"

The second succubus turned round, also looking at the newcomers, and threw her hands up with a pleased laughter – and the next instant was surrounded by a cloud of shade, pitch-dark, thick and viscous like ink. Her friend spread her wings and swooped down from the golem's head on them, but Bishop's arrow found her shoulder, swinging her around in the air. She hissed in pain and dove to the wall, clutching at it and digging all her twenty claws into stone, but the second arrow run into her throat, releasing a fountain of blood. With a gurgling wheeze the demoness fell on the ground, writhing and clawing at the rocks to stand up, but Khelgar was already at her side, delivering a fatal blow.

Occupied with watching the first demon, they almost missed a second one, who used her shade-cover to sneak up closer, but was forced to crouch to avoid Casavir's strike. His sword only managed to slash her left wing, and the succubus tried to dart back, into the darkness, but the paladin stepped right after her, and his mere presence seemed to deplete the shadows, leaving the demoness opened. She groaned in frustration, grabbling back, but only in order to use her hands and knees to push herself off the ground to a jump. Casavir brought his shield forward, backing off a little as the succubus crashed into it, then pushed her back and stroke a swinging blow, gashing her chest and stomach. Making sure that the demoness was dead, he lowered his blade.

"Funnier and funnier, eh?" Khelgar breathed.

"What's going on here at all?" Qara shook her head.

"Like I know," Adele answered, through the dispersing darkness peering at the outlines of the construct. "Where did they get that one from? And what is it, anyway?"

Bishop smirked, eyeing the golem: "Who cares? Anything being torn apart by demons is an ally in my book."

"Well, at least ya hafta admire the craftsmanship here," Khelgar nodded respectfully. "Looks to be made of solid steel."

"Yes, the ore was tormented for a long time to take this shape," Elanee added. "But it is… damaged, broken?"

"But still, such a beauty!" Grobnar exhaled admiringly, coming up to the golem and throwing his head back to take in the whole view. "Just to think what kind of enchantments that must have been inscribed in its core… My, this is fascinating!"

"It looks exactly like the one that attacked us in Neverwinter," Casavir noted thoughtfully and frowned a bit. "Or is it the same construct?"

"The githyanki must have captured it after it went through the portal!" the gnome exclaimed. "And somehow… severed it from the one controlling it! And damaged it in the process so badly… Or have we damaged it already back then?"

"Anyway, obviously this thing wasn't on the githyanki side," Bishop said. "Or those demons. Which means there's someone else tracking our movements."

For some reason, there was a single name that popped in Adele's mind on his words.

Garius.

The ranger looked at Adele: "How much enemies do you have, anyway? There's almost more than I can count."

"Now there's a surprise," Qara muttered.

Bishop cast her a short glare. "Watch it," not giving her any time to answer, he looked back at the construct. "But this thing can be worth some coin. Let's take it with us."

Adele eyed the mechanism up and down and stared at the ranger: "You're kidding."

"You don't want it – I'll take. The thing's made of good metal, worth much if sold in parts."

"Oh, oh, yes, let's take it with us!" Grobnar jumped in delight. "You know, I even think that after tinkering with it for some time I might make it work again!"

Now Adele stared at him: "Are you mad?"

"He is," Khelgar grinned.

"Me?" the gnome asked. "Why? No, I'm not mad, I'm very calm. I mean, who wouldn't want a chance to examine it! And I'm relatively sure I can control it. Relatively… Just to figure out the runes, rewrite them… patch up a little… oh, in this place particularly," he rapped at the steel surface, and the golem twitched, its blade slicing through the air barely an inch above the gnome's head, taking a few tresses of his hair. Grobnar slowly turned around, looking at others, his eyes and smile equally wide: "Have you seen that?! Amazing!"

"Yeah," Bishop nodded thoughtfully, probably wouldn't have even winced if the gnome ended up cleaved in parts. "I'm thinking it could be even sold to a wizard."

"Alright, listen," Adele put her free hand up. "If you two think that I'll allow you to drag this… uncontrollable armed monstrosity into the city, you are deeply mistaken."

The ranger waved her off dismissively: "You can boss around all you want, princess. I'm still coming back for it after I get rid of your bunch."

"Oh, and I'm coming with you, sir Bishop!" Grobnar chimed happily.

"…I'd sooner stab myself in the throat, gnome."

"No! Please, don't! Why?!"

"What, a man can't have good wishes?" Qara snorted.

Bishop didn't have any opportunity to answer, as in from the distance again came the sound of succubi laugh. Exchanging glances, they went in that direction, everyone readying their weapon.

Almost wish we were attacked more often, Adele sighed inwardly. When no enemies are around, we start acting like we are ones.