The Companions of Tartiël (33 page)

That was all Kaiyr needed to hear, and with neither word nor warning, he sprang forward and slashed at the enemy. His determination quickly turned into surprise when his adversary stood still and waited while Kaiyr’s soulblade sliced right through him without the slightest resistance. The lack of impact made the blademaster nearly overbalance, but he caught himself before he fell.

“Oh, I forgot,” said the halfling, tapping one fist against his head and ignoring the burning glare he received from Kaiyr. “Silly me. I should have mentioned that I’m an illusion. Anyway, I haven’t actually delivered the message I’m supposed to yet. The one who paid us to kill all the useless idiots on this ship says to tell the four of you…. Where’s that wolf? Never mind. Anyway, to tell the
three
of you, I guess, that she’s ‘got the bitch on deck, and if you want to save her, get up there fast.’ I think that’s all.”

“Someone took Astra?” Caineye gasped breathlessly as Kaiyr’s eyes narrowed further.

The illusory halfling snapped his fingers and pointed at the druid. “
That’s
what her name was. Thanks,” he said, turning and stuffing his hands into his pockets as he sauntered toward the stairs leading up. “Well, you’d better hurry. It looks like Sayel’s getting impatient.” His foot touched the first wooden step, and he faded from existence.

Kaiyr looked back at Caineye and Wild, both of whom stared after the magically projected image with eyes wide. “Sayel has Astra,” he repeated simply, as though to confirm what he had heard.

His words snapped the other two out of their reverie, and from down the hall, all three of them could hear Vinto howl in frustration at his inability to open the door. Without a word, Caineye retrieved his animal companion and rejoined the other two. All four of them shared a look; Vinto bared his teeth menacingly, Wild drew his crossbow and checked its tautness, Caineye hooked a thumb through his belt near his sickle, and Kaiyr stared at each of them in turn as his eyes took on the faraway yet intense look that bespoke battle focus.

They all nodded at each other and sprinted for the stairs.

XXVI.

“How kind of you to join us,” said a gray-winged woman wearing armor tinted a brilliant shade of green. Kaiyr, Caineye, Wild, and Vinto arrived on the top deck of the
Flaring Nebula
to find this creature, along with three halflings, one of whom wiggled his fingers at the companions, and Astra, once more affixed to a cross with iron spikes.

Kaiyr strained his senses and his mind, trying to find some way through these four obstacles and to Astra’s side. But there was none. “You are Sayel,” he said, his voice deeper and louder than normal, a part of blademaster training that had become more reflexive during his time with these companions.

The winged woman nodded her dark brown hair. “I am. And you, Kaiyr, Caineye, and Wild, are three thorns in my master’s side. I am here to rectify that.” She began to pace, about ten steps away from the blademaster and his allies. “Let me make things perfectly clear, so that we don’t have any misunderstandings. The three of you will back down, get inside the airship, go to wherever it is you’re going, and take a nice, long vacation. If you do, you get to walk away unharmed.”

Caineye snorted. “And Astra?”

Sayel sighed and glanced over at the crucified nymph, who groaned in pain, delirious. “Oh, her. She’s been too much of a nuisance to leave alone, so she will be coming with me. I honestly don’t know what my master plans on doing with her, considering how useless she would be.”

“Your master?” Kaiyr said, stalling for a little more time to look for a venue to Astra.

“Yes, my master. I’d introduce you, but you’re not worthy of being in Her presence, and moreover, She’s not here. If you agree to walk away from here, though, I’m sure you’ll get a chance to meet Her soon, when She comes to the Material Plane.” Sayel strode back to stand near the three halflings.

Kaiyr narrowed his eyes. “And those you murdered aboard this ship, Sayel? Are we to overlook those, as well?”

“Oh, that wasn’t me,” said the winged creature nonchalantly. “Allow me to introduce you to my acquaintances, Tak, Mil, and Ven Lillik. You’ll have to discuss with them whether or not they will go willingly to their own hangings.”

In reply, each of the Lillik brothers used his fingers to stretch his lips into taunting expressions. “Nyaaha!” cried one of them, “I think we’ll pass on that.”

The furrow in Kaiyr’s brow deepened, and he looked at Caineye and Wild, who nodded gravely in silent but meaningful reply. Turning back to Sayel, the blademaster prepared himself for what was to come. “You should already know that blademasters make no such bargains, and I shall not start such a trend. You threaten me and my comrades and those I am sworn to protect. We will not show you any lenience, Sayel.”

Sayel sighed. “Oh, darn.” She motioned to the Lillik brothers, and one of them cast a brief spell.

Ready for the attack, Kaiyr dashed forward, Caineye, Wild, and Vinto close on his heels. But the halfling finished his spell first, and all four of them ran headlong into an invisible wall halfway between them and their foes. In a flash, Kaiyr manifested his soulblade and slashed at the wall, but his attack met with an unmovable force.

“Master Kaiyr,” Caineye said from behind, “We’re trapped. It’s some kind of cage made of force.”

“It cannot last forever,” Kaiyr replied, returning his gaze to Sayel, his weapon still in his hand. “When this spell ends, Sayel, brothers Lillik, you shall face judgment at the end of my blade.”

The halflings, in the middle of cutting free one of the
Flaring Nebula
’s lifeboats, paused to send several rude gestures in the trapped party’s direction. Sayel rolled her eyes. “Why can’t you just see that you are outmatched here? You’ve done well enough in foiling our operations at the temple of Alduros Hol and in Andorra. We weren’t prepared for meddling annoyances such as yourselves. But that is a mistake which shall not be repeated.”

Kaiyr, standing on the deck, suddenly found his nose being pressed against the invisible wall before him. Surprised, he hopped backward, only to run into Wild, who had been pushed forward by the wall behind him. The halfling’s eyes widened in alarm. “The walls are closing in on us, Master Kaiyr. And the floor’s lifting us up! At this rate, we’ll be crushed to death!”

“The little one is right,” Sayel went on, receiving several glares from the group, along with a growl from Vinto. “You don’t have long before you will expire. Any last words I should hear?”

Before anyone in the party could reply, Astra groaned and muttered something, and suddenly the closing box of force suddenly evaporated, dropping those inside it an inch to the ground.

Sayel snarled and glared at the Lillik brothers, one of whom pulled out a wand and launched an explosive fireball at Astra.

Kaiyr, regaining his balance, looked up in time to see the magical energy impact the crucified nymph. Astra, shrouded in flames, let out a weak cry as the fire burned away her skin, clothes, and hair. “No!” Kaiyr shouted in panic as the nymph’s body was consumed by the inferno. “Lady Astra!”

Caineye let out an anguished howl at the death of his paragon, and he suddenly found himself on all fours as his anger spilled over from his conscious and into his body. Fur sprouted from his skin, and his armor melded into his form as his body elongated, finally leaving behind a fierce animal: a dire weasel large enough to take down a horse.

Kaiyr found his feet, and his soulblade flashed in his hand as he charged the Lillik brothers just as they clambered into their stolen lifeboat and pushed off into the air. But again he was foiled by their magical power, stopped by another
wall of force
, this one more benign and not an enclosure.

Sayel lost her composure and let out a low snarl as she pulled a great, two-handed sword from its sheath on her back. The blade shimmered with magical energy as it sensed its master’s desire for battle. Sayel’s eyes began to glow with an acidic, green energy, and her hair crackled with angry power. “Why can you not just let things happen as they may?” she growled. “Why must you stand in my way at every turn? And why, by the Nine Hells, won’t the three of you just lie down and die?”

Wild, raising his crossbow, shrugged in response as his other two companions rounded on their foe. “Why is your mother a whore?” he asked simply.

*

A round of raucous laughter rang through our dorm room at Matt’s coolly-delivered response to Sayel’s anger. Dingo doubled over as I pounded my desk. Matt grinned, absolutely pleased with himself for a moment, then grew serious as another idea crossed his mind. “That’s a taunt,” he said after a short pause, referring to Wild’s ability to goad enemies into attacking through a special use of the Bluff skill.

Dingo was too hysterical to continue. “‘Why is your mother a whore?’” he repeated, eliciting another chorus of laughter from the rest of us.

“‘That’s a taunt!’” I added, having heard Matt.

Matt just picked up his die and rolled it. “My Bluff check is a… thirty-two, so that’s what Sayel has to roll on her Sense Motive to avoid having to attack us… specifically, me.”

Sobering, Dingo’s eyes popped open. “A thirty-two?” He glanced down at the sheet he had prepared for Sayel. Sighing, he picked up his d20 and rolled it, which returned a 4. “No good. You successfully taunted her, Wild.”

*

Sayel snarled and charged straight at Wild, who coolly leveled his crossbow at the enemy and pulled the trigger. Sayel flicked her claymore just as the bolt came in, and the projectile ticked off her blade.

Then, however, she was intercepted by Kaiyr, whose cold rage fueled his actions, lending him incredible speed and strength. He covered the six strides to his foe in three, and he battered Sayel’s great sword away from Wild’s form so ferociously that the weapon slid from the winged woman’s grip. Her focus faltered for a moment, but she quickly sprang back from Kaiyr’s counterattack and drew the longsword from her waist, just in time to use the flat of it to ward off Caineye, who, now an enormous rodent, had launched himself at the enemy.

Vinto darted in and latched onto Sayel’s calf, yanking her balance out from under her, but she flapped her wings and managed to remain upright as she stabbed at the wolf, who released his grip and fell back, waiting for his next opportunity to strike.

Kaiyr stepped into the gap and again swatted Sayel’s weapon from her grasp, following up with yet another disarmament when she pulled out a dagger. As that weapon went flying over the side rail, Caineye scampered over and leaped into the air, latching onto Sayel’s shoulder with the incisors his dire weasel form granted him.

It was as Kaiyr stepped back, out of the way of the thrashing Caineye, that he began to understand how Astra, those several weeks ago that now seemed like years, had mistaken Kaiyr for this creature—Sayel, who had turned out to be not a man at all, but a woman, who wore not chain mail but green armor. For as Caineye dug his dagger-like teeth into his enemy’s flesh, Sayel raised her hand. One of the rings on her fingers flared into golden life, and a shaft of amber materialized in her hand. This she viciously drove into Caineye’s chest, the glittering, transparent point protruding from the druid’s back, before pulling it back out with a sickly, wet sound.

Caineye let go of his quarry and limped back, at the same time transforming back into his human form, the hair disappearing in ripples until it was gone and his armor and other equipment reappearing on his body. “Fight on,” he gasped as his hands began to glow with healing energy, which he hurriedly applied to his chest to stanch the river of blood that poured out from under his armor.

*

“What the fuck?” I exclaimed when Xavier simply went along with Dingo’s ruling. “Constitution damage
^[35]
?”

Dingo nodded and shrugged. “They’re part of my called-shot rules. Sayel did a called-shot attack on Caineye’s heart and hit, so she does direct Con damage.”

Even Matt was perturbed by Dingo’s actions. “Dude, that’s fucking ridiculous. What kind of penalty did Sayel take to make that attack?”

“Minus four.”

I rolled my eyes and chucked my d20 into my dice box, annoyed. “So, with a minus four penalty to their attack roll, anyone can deal regular damage, plus one-dee-six Con damage? Dude, you seriously need to stop with this ‘called-shot’ bullshit. You haven’t even furnished any kind of chart for us so we know what we can do with them. It’s completely unfair to be using rules we don’t know about.”

Dingo scowled slightly, irritated by our picking at his rules. “I have a chart in my binder. I can get you all a copy of it later.”

Matt twirled his pencil in his hand, one eye raised. “Why didn’t we get a copy of this thing at the beginning of the game, then? And what other kinds of things should we have known about them? Can I called-shot someone’s neck and behead them?”

“As a matter of fact,” Dingo replied, “you can. At a minus-four penalty. Might I remind you that you used these rules against hat priest in Andorra?”

I stared at Dingo, both incredulous and exasperated. “Dude, do you even know how utterly broken all this is? I could go around with a scythe and chop at peoples’ necks all day at a minus four, and I’d end up with shit-tons more critical hits—and dead bodies—than with a
keen scythe
^[36]
.”

“And what happens if I’m wearing full plate?” Matt added. “Can you still called-shot my heart or my neck? Those areas are specifically protected by that kind of armor.”

I nodded my accord. “Armor of any kind, even natural, is what’s supposed to prevent someone from landing those kinds of attacks, Dingo. Messing with the rules like that—and especially not telling us—makes no sense and isn’t fair.”

Xavier had remained silent the whole time, not wanting to fan the flames of our rules-lawyering. Dingo looked to him, but my bigger friend just shrugged noncommittally, telling him that although he was willing to roll with the DM’s ruling, Matt and I had a valid point about our lack of information.