We wasted no further time and headed directly to the nearest guardhouse.
The officer on duty, Lieutenant Leeroy, paled at the evidence. "We've no time to waste. Valac, you've faced these monsters before. I'd request your aid bringing Goldbridge in."
I could not exactly refuse. After seeing the assemblage of watchmen he rounded up for this—all of it done quickly as he realized how deeply this cult was embedded, looking at the pictures—I suggested a plan. I would come in from his apartment, to cut off that possible escape route. The heaviest armored should approach from the front, with others coming in from the back. We would act on the guardsman's signal.
Leeroy said, "I like the way you think, Mr. Valac. Hop to." They all but marched on the way there. I wondered how many would die.
I felt sick over it. We weren't armed adequately against a werewolf. No silver arrows. No silver swords but my one little dagger. It felt like madness. But Lieutenant Leeroy explained, "If we bring this up the chain of command and go through the proper channels and wait for werewolf hunting equipment, the others might catch wind of what's going on. We can't risk them going to ground."
He was bringing so many people here to their death, knowing that they did not stand much chance for everyone to live. Was that what being a leader meant? Looking at the people around you, knowing some would die, and leading them toward their deaths anyway? I wouldn't be able to do it.
We split up near the alley and they waited for me to creep in, back the way I had come. I was quiet, and familiar with the route by now. I stayed in a half-crouch at the top of the stair, waiting for the signal from below.
I heard the bell on the front door rattle. Voices. Leeroy's confident declaration of arrest.
I charged down the stairs as soon as I heard fabric rip. I burst through the door. The werewolf was so large, I could not miss from where I was. A ripple of alarm spread through the guards, even knowing what they were facing. Aela and the others came in through the back.
Like a fool, I charged at it, armed with the silver knife. It swung around to look, and threw off my aim at its neck, but as I jumped, it tried to block and swipe me aside. I can't say if I had just anticipated it, or I knew how it would move. Visions came too fast in combat sometimes.
I jumped over its low swipe and the silver dagger sank deep into the muscle on its shoulder. I let my own weight pull me down, the elven blade ripping open muscle and sinew. I drew back. It swiped and I ducked around the back counter, putting the more heavily armed people between myself and it. I just couldn't think of a monster as being a person.
Its claws swiped at guards. Its teeth flashed, caught on a shield. Wood splintered under its yellowed fangs.
Aela's magic streaked at it, hitting it square in the back. For a moment, it lit up. I rushed back in, sliding low this time while it was engaged with another. I cut open the tendon on its ankle and it howled in pain, turning to swipe again at me as I rushed by. It hit me with the back of its heavy paw and I slammed into the wall with a grunt. Unfortunately, I had its attention.
But it was outnumbered, and Aela prepared another spell. It lunged at me, all teeth and claws, then a radiant fire descended around it. It shrieked and tottered back, uncertain. Then it raised a heavy paw, the size of a frying pan.
It slammed both paws down into the floor, tearing up large chunks of floor it threw haphazardly. Shields raised against the debris. It leaped into the hole it made.
Lieutenant Leeroy jumped down after it. A few other guards did likewise. Taking a breath, I jumped down with them. I hit the dirt path in a tumble, then rolled to my feet. I was the only one who could see well down here. The werewolf stalked in the dark, a low growl emanating from its throat. Its eyes caught the light. Someone screamed as it lunged. It grabbed the guard in its teeth and yanked him back, out of the circle of light.
With a sickening crunch, it broke through armor to string out entrails in a gory display of intimidation.
It sickened me, but it also made me angry.
I ran forward, unthinkingly, armed with the knife. Its head was down, face inside the chest cavity. With both hands, I slammed the blade down. I had been aiming for its snout, but it lifted its head at the wrong moment. The blade sliced along the muzzle, back toward the eye. Blood clouded its vision, but I didn't think I had actually caught the organ.
I pulled the knife back, breathing hard. It was bleeding in several places, singed by holy fire. It turned and tried to run, but I was fast too. I ran after it. Talia had mentioned the network of tunnels stretched and twisted around different ways. I followed it. It wasn't quiet and left a trail of blood.
It turned around a circular brick area. It staggered, on all fours, lifting its injured leg. It growled low.
I swallowed, trying not to shake, but it had to smell my fear the way I could taste its pain.
It said, "Malar has marked you, tiefling."
I smiled bitterly. "So did my master. I escaped him too."
"Did you?"
It lunged. I dodged back and threw the dagger. It caught the monster in the throat. It reached up toward its throat, staggering, but unable to pluck it out with its big heavy claws. It scratched at its own throat. While it was distracted, I ducked in. A swift kick to the dagger handle lodged it in deeper and it dropped to one side. It heaved a deep, shuddering breath. Its jaw made a motion like it was trying to speak.
I looked around, at the spilled blood, up at the top of the well. A chill crept over me.
It had led me here as a sacrifice for Malar.
Laboriously, I pried the knife back. Its blood stained my hands and clothes. I traced my way back. The guards had found a ladder while I was gone. Aela stood with her cantrip light at the bottom, looking for me. She grinned as she saw me. "We couldn't run with you in the dark. I would've followed, but by the time I made it down, I didn't know how to track you." She breathed in relief. "I'm glad you're all right."
My ribs and back felt bruised from where it had hit me, but I seemed otherwise fine. Better off than the fellow draped in a sheet nearby. As a guard came down with a lantern, we climbed back up. Watching the way I moved, Aela asked if she could heal me. I let her touch my back for the bruise to heal. I washed off the blood, picking at where it had stained my sleeves.
Leeroy thanked me profusely, promising to look into the other medallions. He said, "You're a hero of Bryn Shandor."
I shook my head. "I'm just trying to do what's right."
"You'd be surprised how often that makes a hero." He clasped my hand warmly. "Let me know if you ever need help, Valac."
I thanked him, said my condolences to the departed and thanked the injured for their help. It was so strange. I was used to being stared at, but the expressions had always been curiosity, disgust, or disdain. Not as if I were a hero.
It was disconcerting. Aela and I walked from the alley.
I said, "We should go to the market. Get some rations for the journey." I shook my head. "Feed for the horse. And a lantern."
It depleted my carefully rationed coin purse and burned more daylight. We'd be camping on the road if we left tonight, which Aela pointed out.
The original plan had been to reach Targos in a day and rest there, where I was unlikely to be hounded by any hunting werewolves. Neither of us wanted to delay, but it seemed far safer to wait another day. My reputation, strangely, got us bed and board for the night, and the werewolf slaying was the talk of the town by morning. It was a trial to get to my horse and I was so embarrassed.
The stableman saw what Aela and I planned to do, riding double, and insisted upon giving Aela a draft horse. He said, "Not fine riding quality, but I can't let a local hero be seen putting so much strain on one of my horses."
The tack he gave was a bit old, but serviceable, and I thanked him for his generosity and promised to return to tell him myself the tales of my wanderings.
There was so much to tell.
I had never thought I would have such an eventful life.
#
We were followed out of Bryn Shandor and down the road. I wasn't sure by what or who, but I was conscious of being watched, of something staying out of sight around us. We were alone. Why wasn't it attacking?
Because the wait is worse.
From what I could tell, it vanished as we got close to the outlying farms, which were patrolled, and we got to the city with the setting of the sun and tired. Coasting once again on my reputation, I was able to put us up for the night and care for the horses.
At a suspicion and a whim, I went to the docks before Aela woke to look for the Rivermaiden. I was pleased to find it, and was able to convince Marvin to ferry us posthaste to Termalaine. He could take both horses too. I was vague about my reasons, but did let him know it was urgent, so he wrapped up his business by midmorning to ferry us. We made good time crossing the lake, and it should throw off the werewolf for at least a while too.
I thought myself terribly clever.
Upon hearing where we were headed, even though I was vague about the reasons, Marvin said, "Ach, lad. Some o' me distant kin be that way, in the valley. Mayhap they'll help ye. Let 'em know their shipment arrived, will ye?"
I promised that I would.
In Termalaine, with time crushing down upon us, we set out immediately for the valley through the spring snowmelt. Off the road, it was slow-going.
I found some tracks in the snow that looked recent. Judging by the number, I thought that it might be a local tribe. They were on foot mostly. I did find evidence of a horse's hoofprints. I wondered where they had gone.
Thinking of that missing tribesman and Shilset, I insisted we look, at least so long as the tracks went a similar direction.
The blood on the ground worried me and I quickened the pace, only slowing when I saw the furred bodies of the wolves. Ordinary wolves, by the looks of things.
I'm in that ditch, you daft idiot.
I rolled my eyes. "You don't have to be rude," I muttered, but I walked to the ditch to look anyway.
Aela said, "What?" She dismounted her horse and held the reins of both our mounts.
I looked back. "Nothing. Just muttering to myself." I didn't think she'd respond well if she knew the truth. I peered into the natural ditch in the ravine. The man had been ravaged by the wolves. Whoever he had been traveling with hadn't cared enough about him to bury the body. I stamped on the ground. More likely, the ground was too frozen to be worth the effort. I slid down beside the body and knelt. They had liked him enough to close his eyes, and strip any personal possessions of value, including his armor. I was sure he was wearing armor because of the callouses on his hands, which were from a sword, and his body type, the scars on him that were clearly won in battle, against the marks of the wolves. I pushed him onto his back and went to move his stiff arms to cross his torso. His sleeve was tattered, stained with blood, and peeled back. I almost didn't see it. I squatted down and moved the arm enough to look at the tattoo.
It seemed a strange thing to tattoo. A colorless black fisted gauntlet. A shadow passed over me and I looked up at Aela. She squinted down, but her eyes caught on the mark and went wide. She paled and took a step back. "He was a cultist. You should leave it alone."
I sighed, and crossed his arms respectfully anyway before I pulled myself out of the ditch. "Hard to say how long he was there with the cold," I mused. I cleaned my hands in the snow. "Which cult?"
Aela crossed her arms. "Bane. One of the Dead Three."
I concealed a roll of my eyes. I had been in a cult, against my will, but there it was; they were just people. By the disgust on her face and the way her jaw set, I wasn't about to have some deep theological debate with a cleric of all people about this subject. It wasn't worth it to me to try to convince her that "evil cultists" were in general just people.
It was probably so much easier to have a more simplistic view of the world.
I looked at the direction of the tracks the rest of the man's fellows had left, but by the trajectory, they diverged from where we were going, so I left one more mystery to the wilds and turned back.
Without Aela, I probably would not have found it, but between the two of us, we could differentiate the map with the sun's location, going around a hill and into the mouth of the valley.
The deeper we traveled, the more signs of civilization we found; nature gave way to a regular path, then a rudimentary road, then a proper road. Along it were carved decorations on either side of the valley of towering ancient dwarven kings. In winter, with their beards rimmed with frost, they must be quite a sight. It took me a while to realize that they had mined the sides of the valley for the pavement of the road later on, so neatly was the mining effort concealed by the sculptures.
The dwarves were slow to construct their roads, for they built them to withstand time itself and they did not rush.
The closer we grew to the great stone and iron gate that spanned the valley, the more signs of work and activity we saw—smoke rising over the wall, the sound of workers beyond.
I stopped at the gate, looking up at the grand structure. I shaded my eyes. "Hail. I'm Valac. I come with a message from Captain Marvin of the Rivermaiden. And I seek passage into the cairn."
"Ach, can't hear ya way up here, lad," someone shouted down. A few minutes later, a small door, so cleverly worked I did not see it, opened. A bearded dwarf stepped out, casting us both with a critical eye. His eyes lingered on my collar. "Repeat your business."
I swung off my horse and told him plainly. He eyed the passage of the sun. "Well, nasty business camping at this time of year. Best get inside." He called up something in dwarven. The small door shut and the gate opened enough for us to walk through.
I was delighted by what lay beyond.
Dwarves were not much given to being "topside", but still appreciated fruits and vegetables. They had worked around this by, just a hundred yards or so beyond the perimeter wall, having a faceted ceiling of crystal and glass, refracting sunlight.
I said, "It must be absolutely stunning in the winter."
The dwarf beamed. "Aye, that it is. Even warm on the interior. What more could a dwarf want?"
I smiled. The ingenuity of people never ceased to amaze me. It wasn't that I didn't think people came up with interesting ways to use magic, but ordinary people constructing marvels without it delighted me.
Inside was an array of homes, gardens, orchards. We were instructed to just turn our horses out, then ushered along to a steward, after our guide spoke with a few other dwarves.
The steward met us in a large keep inset into the side of the valley, in a relatively small office. He stroked his beard as he listened to my plea to enter the caves, after I gave him the news about Marvin.
He said, "Under the cairn, lad? That's a way into the Underdark, that is." He frowned. "What is there worth going after?"
The Underdark. Of course. I flinched and looked down. The truth would serve me better than a lie. I looked up. "Well. Sir—"
"Madam."
I blinked. With the beard, I really couldn't tell. I amended, "Madam. Apologies." A pause as she nodded me on. "I've had a run in with the cult of Malar in Bryn Shandor. I fear they are recruiting, so for the sake of the town, I seek a cure for lycanthropy. A witch told me I would find an answer under the cairn."
She was quiet a long while as she thought. "That is grave news, lad." She leaned back in the chair, brow wrinkled. "The full moon is not long off." She nodded. "I'll grant ye both passage through the mine and a guide to the right tunnel." Before I thanked her, she raised a finger. "But. I must know why a tiefling with Infernal markings has an adamantine collar. And where did ye get it."
Aela looked away. My throat felt dry. I lifted my head. "The markings were not my choice. I would ask that you do not hold them against me." I tried not to flinch at Aela's pitying look. It was the pity that made me flinch away, not the truth. "Neither was the collar." I looked down. "My master had it fitted to me. That is all I know of the metal."
"Do you serve him still?"
"He's dead," I said bluntly. "Or else I am beyond his reach. It's been months. If he wanted me found, he could have done so."
She was quiet as she absorbed this information. "May you stay free, lad." She pushed out of her chair. "Ye best be off swiftly then. I'll show ye the way."
I had expected the bulk of their city to be inside the cairn, but it seemed equally inset into places along the walls, showing different entrances. I imagined that there were underground tunnels across too, a whole world under my feet.
We took a lift down and I was delighted to see even a little of the city. Twisting caverns and pathways obscured the view for much of it. Large caverns seemed to serve as cross streets and intersections, but you had to think of them in more dimensions than only a flat map, for they could be above and below. I got a bit lost in the twist of caverns, until the steward brought me to a busy mine and smithy, making ingots.
We wove around it to the mines. She spoke to a few higher-ranked workers. We waited and I looked around in plain fascination. It was well-lit from the forges and they seemed a cheery sort as they worked.
I drew more than the occasional eye, and I tried not to let it bother me. Aela peeled out of her warm cloak.
We were given a guide through the mine. Aela used her cantrip for light. The dwarf leading us was not much for small talk, which suited me. We moved aside from time to time for a beast of burden to come lumbering past bearing loads of ore.
We moved down a series of tunnels, with increasingly less activity. Then the dwarf stopped at a thick stone door. The door was barred. I moved the bar aside and the dwarf opened the door with a key and stepped back. "Beyond is the path ye seek."
I peered through. "How do I tell you I need the door opened to let me back in?"
The dwarf gave me a critical eye. "We won't bar it for the next tenday. After that, we'll check it once a day for the next moon. After that, ye will be considered lost to the Underdark." He gave me the key. I put it somewhere safe and thanked him.
I hesitated, then took the lead.
It was eerie and quiet. Parts of it were even lit with dimly glowing fungi through the cave. We helped each other climb over uneven parts and rationed our water.
After a while of this, Aela said, "I wish you wouldn't call him that."
I almost tripped. "Who? Call them what?" I tried to piece back everything I had said in the past hour, to tell what she was even referencing.
She sighed. "You shouldn't call him your master."
I looked back, disconcerted, a little confused.
She pushed back a stray strand of hair. "You're free now."
My fingernails tinked against the metal band on my throat. You will wear that collar the rest of your life. I looked forward and started again. I didn't want to defend my words, when I barely was able to form them into coherent thought. "I've been his slave for over twenty years, Aela." I looked back and smiled, to keep from screaming. "I can't think of him another way."
"You aren't any more." Her voice was soft. "At least try."
I broke through a forming despair to find happiness, like a jungle explorer hacking with a machete to forge a path. "I am trying." It was just so hard to change everything about who you were in only a few months.
But that wasn't a conversation I wanted to have beyond inside my own head. It hurt too much to say out loud.
#
We were able to measure time, in a manner of speaking, by Aela's cantrip. It only lasted one hour, and every time she needed to renew it, we were left with only the glowing lichen for a moment. We lost track of the exact amount of time we had been down the first time we made camp. We found a small crevice we could squeeze through, the ground flat enough that she could climb onto a ledge and sleep, and I wedged myself against the opening, so anything trying to get in would at least have to get past me.
The precaution proved fortunately unnecessary. We ate a cold meal and picked our way along the only obvious path. Sometimes, we had to squeeze past sections, or move debris out from where a section had caved in. Other times, we had to climb up or down to other sections, but any diverging path seemed either caved in beyond easy excavation or a dead end.
I took the lead, with my better vision. We kept our voices low when we talked, to prevent echoes. I said, "What was the incident you had mentioned? The one that sent you here." I jerked. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
She sighed. "Well. I was in the church of Ilmater in Waterdeep, and Ilmater preaches that we should go where there is need. There was need in the Frontier, so I went to Loudwater. It's really beautiful there, Valac." She sighed wistfully, then shook her head. "I was stationed with the Gauntlet." She was quiet a moment. "One of the officers liked me. Got me flowers. That kind of thing. The higher ups—Gauntlet Frey specifically—found out about it. Thought it was inappropriate. So I got sent back to Waterdeep." She rolled her eyes. "He got a promotion."
My shoulders sagged. That was always how it was, wasn't it? "I'm sorry."
"Yeah. So the church sent me out here instead."
Somewhere cold and icy, far from anything as a punishment for a transgression she did not commit. Sounded pretty par for the course to me; punish the one who was wronged, reward the one doing the wrong. I bet the officer had money or land, connections that made him untouchable. It was a lot easier to punish the transplant, I suppose.
As we rounded a corner, I stopped short and shooed her back. She covered the light so it was only the dimmest glow between us. She stared, anxious.
I said, "There's a light ahead. It looks like a lantern." I licked dry lips. "I'm going to see what it is."
Aela didn't like it, but she nodded, pressed back to the wall. I left my pack with her and slunk off ahead. It looked like a piece of some old dwarven ruin, abandoned for ages and crumbling, but with walls still more serviceable than otherwise.
I crept in between wandering pools of light as the guards walked the perimeter.
It wasn't a very large ruin, probably a guard tower at some point. Closer inspection revealed a second floor still accessible, with a third closer to the ceiling above. I debated climbing the wall, but I thought I could get in by one of the crumbled sections to see what we were dealing with.
I was careful, moving only slowly and testing each grip and foothold. I lifted my head over the crumbling tower, listening intently. Two men in dark armor were holding some hushed conversation a short distance away. From the sounds of it, they didn't like being here. They looked human.
I didn't know who these people were. They could be friendly, but they might not be. And there wasn't a good way to just go around it. I at least wanted to see how many they were. Maybe try to tell if they would just let us pass or not.
I started to pull myself over the ledge, into the fort. Along one side, they had used bits of the broken stone blocks as a stair, so they could more easily monitor this side of the fort. I could use it to get in.
My foot slipped as a bit of rock crumbled away. I gasped. Gravel rolled down the slope. I cringed, ducking down.
One of them said, "Did you hear that?"
"Sounded like it came from the breach in the wall."
"I hate this place."
Lantern raised, the man walked over toward me. I slid back down the way I had come, ducking behind the wall.
The guard walked slowly up the constructed stair, lantern bobbing with his movements. He raised it over the edge and it took me a moment to realize—he was watching the shadows cast by the lantern. I tried to be very, very, still, pressed against the wall.
He peered around the ruined corner. We were inches apart, but he was looking the other way.
He paused for a long while, then turned around. I breathed out slowly. My horn scraped against the rock. I froze.
I heard the sound of steel being drawn. The other one said, "You see something?"
"Heard something. Tell the others. Spiders might be back."
He peered over the lip of the wall, on his toes. I willed myself to blend in with the wall. "What's this—"
Aela's armor clinked. The man looked from my shadow to her. She held a crossbow.
I said, "Aela, no—"
She pulled the trigger on the crossbow. It took the man in the gut and he toppled over backwards. He hit the ground with a sickening crunch, then all was mayhem.
The armored men were a mixture of obvious trainees that were frightened and prone to error in their fright, and experienced fighters. Aela stayed at range, ducking behind cover to reload her crossbow. A volley fired toward her and clinked off rocks. I hid.
There were only five in total. Four now.
The two elites kept the two other recruits in line, until I snuck up behind and hit one with the pommel of my rapier. He went down. The elite closest turned toward me and I ducked back behind a wall. He came after me. I doused the nearest torch, casting the space into gloom. Human, he stilled, listening, suddenly reluctant to come after me.
He said, "You can't stay in there, tiefling."
I whispered, and the torch behind him blew out. I ducked behind a stone table, waiting to see what he would do. The man reluctantly moved back, to grab the torch and reignite it.
His uniform looked familiar, like I'd seen the cut of it before somewhere, but I didn't have time to try to place it.
I crept up behind him. My intent was to disarm him, but he whirled around, too quick for me to knock the longsword out of his grip. Our blades parried. I had some advantage because I could see, but a recruit was running toward us carrying a torch. I had to end this quickly or flee. His blade cut into my arm.
A rapier was not a weapon well-suited to non-lethal blows. If I kept parrying and trying to get close to club him, the recruit would be on me and I'd lose any advantage I had. Aela could die.
I ducked around him and stabbed at his gut. His sword swung, but missed me entirely as I maneuvered to put distance between myself and the charging recruit. Light spilled over us and I plunged my blade into the elite fighter's less armored thigh. With a flick of my wrist, I tore open an artery and I danced backward. The recruit looked on in shocked horror. I felt sorry about it. I really did.
I fell back, around the corner. Rattled, the recruit said, "Shit. I never even wanted to be here."
I grimaced. Sorry. I poked my head around the corner. His lantern snuffed out. He frantically went to reignite it, cursing as he went about the activities of devils and demons. I ran up to him. My boot slammed into his back, knocking him over. He dropped the lantern trying to catch himself, scrambled to get to his sword.
I drew it first and tossed it away in the dark. I kicked the lantern to the side as I rushed toward the sound of an arrow hitting armor. Aela.
I yelled, "Surrender and we'll let the rest of you go."
The man stood on a scaffold by the wall. He'd see me if I came up the stairs, so I bounded onto the ladder, quiet. By the way he knocked an arrow, he did not care to surrender.
I didn't want to hurt him, but it felt inevitable.
I reached up, braced on the ladder. It was a cheap trick; I grabbed his ankle and twisted my body to one side, yanking him along with me. I let go of him. He fell fifteen feet down. I dropped down the ladder after him. He was unconscious when I checked, but bleeding from his temple, a broken arm.
Aela called, "Valac?"
I said, "Here." It was quiet. She brought a light with her. She looked haggard, but whole, like she had taken the odd arrow but managed to heal herself. I started to tell her to heal the man, but she gasped when she saw how much blood was on my left arm. She reached out and healed it before I could tell her it was just a shallow cut.
Magic whisked away any potential scar over the tattoos. I said, "You have to heal them. You have to—"
She said, "I'm completely drained, Valac. Give me an hour, and I can." She took a breath. "Let's try to bandage them up. Where are the others?"
I found the other two while she saw to this one. One was stable but I had hit him harder in the head than I thought. I worried that he might not wake. The last was alive, trying to hide, and surrendered immediately upon seeing me. We moved the injured and questioned the living.
He said, "I'm Abram. I just wanted a better life. We lost everything, and then—" He stopped. "But I didn't think—Oh, gods above. I didn't want to die down here." Abram was blubbering and it took me twenty minutes to coax anything useful out of him. They had a few water barrels we could clean up with and refill our skins. We didn't need the food supplies. Abram said he was a new recruit for the Zhentarim. I knew little about their shadowy organization, except that they didn't get along well with Red Wizards—too much shared territory, and both were territorial. Aela was cloistered, and knew them mostly as a mercenary company, which did not endear them to her at all. We left Abram to look after his fellows and we went around one of the ruined walls to have a hushed conversation.
She said, "What do we do with them?"
I looked pleadingly at her. "We can't kill them. They're people."
She took a breath. "The Zhentarim are hired killers." Zhentarim. I'd seen a group of them in a tavern not long ago. This couldn't be the same group though. She scowled. "Taking money to kill people like that is evil."
The problem, when you painted with a broad brush, is that it left no room for detail. Aela just saw something as evil, knew that evil things needed to be destroyed, and did not think about it any more deeply than that. I knew that the people in the cult of Asmodeus or any number of other similar cults were still people. They had hopes and dreams, and the rank and file mostly just wanted the sorts of things everyone else wanted. Even the upper echelons might be the most faithful, but I really didn't believe they were irredeemable like she did. I knew that at the heart of it, most of them were just doing what they believed in, what they thought was best.
I didn't know how to convey that to her. I didn't even know where to start. I took a breath. "Aela. We just killed people, how can you judge them for it?"
She lifted a small pendant. I recognized it, because I had walked by many a church of Bane in Thay. The symbol twisted at the end of a leather string. "I found this around their officer's neck. They're evil."
I looked at her pleadingly. "They're just people, Aela."
She scowled. "Why else would someone join something evil?"
I thought of the symbol of Asmodeus on my chest. "Childhood indoctrination. Because everyone in their community is doing it. Peer pressure. Any number of reasons—" I froze. "Did you hear that?"
Before Aela could answer, I put a finger to my lips and crept around the wall to look around the corner. My eyes opened wide. At the edge of my vision, where we had left the injured, two giant spiders the size of horses twisted the three bodies into cocoons. Abram, they had probably bitten and paralyzed first. I stepped backwards, barely able to breathe. I made the universal quiet motion to Aela again and inclined my head the other way. I did not trust the main door not to squeak. It was only by some miracle they had left us alone so far.
I used some lantern oil to oil the doors and tested it. I moved slowly, eyes wide, searching everywhere but particularly the ceiling. Then I beckoned Aela through. We did not speak until we were well away from the grisly sight.
Aela said, "What happened?"
I said, "Giant spiders. I saw two. But there was movement. Like there were probably more." I shuddered, covering my mouth as if to hold back vomit. "We just left them to die."
Aela was untroubled by this. She dropped the unholy symbol of Bane and crushed it under her heel. "It's a better end than they deserved."
I didn't believe that.
