Brimstone Angels

CHAPTER TWENTY

Farideh raced along the alleys that paralleled the main road, scrambling over refuse and scree and unconscious bodies alike. Overhead, hidden by his charm, Lorcan flew. If she glanced up, she could almost perceive the disturbance in the air that marked his passage, but she had not tried for several minutes, she was too focused not tripping over the detritus. Brin ran ahead of her, the pale of his shirt like a torch in the night.

They reached the hospital only seconds before the squadron of erinyes and tucked themselves behind an abandoned food stall in the shadow of one of the buttresses.

For a moment, it looked as if the erinyes meant to enter the House of Knowledge. But then a familiar figure launched herself from one of the high windows.

“Welcome to Neverwinter, my captain,” Rohini said, hanging in the air on wings made of nightmares. “A pity you’re too late.”

“Traitor!” Invadiah bellowed. “You’ll return to the Hells-in shackles or in pieces, I care not which. But you’ve broken your last oath.”

Rohini laughed. “And? I am beyond oaths, beyond allegiances.” She flew a little higher and the soldiers on the wall sent a volley of arrows over at her. Rohini gave them no notice. “Especially not for a hierarchy eager to use me up and leave me for dead like an enemy on the field.” She raised her arms, hideous light dancing up her skin and shooting off into the night.

A terrible cacophony came from the other side of the Wall-from the Chasm beyond. The soldiers on the Wall screamed and swords rang against the stone. One long tentacle reached over the Wall, and then another, hauling up a creature with a great gaping maw of teeth. Brin started.

“No,” Farideh said, throwing up an arm to stop him. “Let them kill each other. We’re only going to make sure Rohini falls.”

“And quickly,” Brin said, pointing to the slimy-skinned man standing in the doorway beside Brother Vartan. “That one serves the aboleths. I would stake everything on it. He can call the monsters from the Chasm, same as Rohini.”

Another three creatures-bristling, squidlike things that belonged in the sea and not the air at all-shot over the Wall and attacked the erinyes. The largest creature heaved itself to the ground, shaking the already fragile buildings.

Lorcan landed beside her, his invisibility gone. “Damn spell has run out.” He stared at the horrors of the Chasm. “Lords.… ”

The erinyes divided into clusters of three and went after the monsters with deadly precision. Still, for every grave wound or severed tentacle, an erinyes reeled from poison or dropped her weapons to clutch her head. Invadiah herself was in better stead, her flaming sword deflecting the worst of the largest monster’s attacks.

But none had reached Rohini. And they were falling.

The succubus landed lightly beside the servitor, sickly magic dancing over her like a second skin. She surveyed the wild battle with an air of amusement.

“Here’s a prophecy for you,” Farideh heard the succubus say. “This city will be your grave.” She turned to the man. “I hope you don’t mind sharing it with all the rest.”

Rohini’s hand shot out and wrapped around the servitor’s throat. Her fingernails lengthened, piercing the man’s slick skin as he struggled against her surprising grip. A pulse of Hellish magic surged through Rohini and into the man, rocking him with a convulsion violent enough that Farideh heard bones crack.

“A fitting offering,” Rohini crooned, “the City of Jewels. A sacrifice to fallen Arunika. To lost Rohini. And your masters … well, they won’t care a bit. You shouldn’t have pressed me.”

Another pulse of Hellish power-mingled now with the strange, dancing magic-shook the man. Rohini released him and he collapsed to the stone stairs.

Farideh gripped the broken wood of the stall’s edge. Rohini gestured again at the wider city, flinging streamers of her strange magic out into the night. The creatures from the Chasm lifted heads, eyes, and tentacles, following the path of her casting into the city beyond. One fleshy beast, all barbs and wet eyes, sprang forward, crashing into the ancient brickwork of a merchant’s shop.

The erinyes were nothing but a pebble in Rohini’s path, Farideh thought. She pulled the rod from her sleeve.

“Lorcan, go up and strike at her from above,” Farideh said. When he started to argue, she added, “We can’t get away as long as she can make those monsters do her bidding. Brin, get your sword ready and for the love of Torm, hope your spells work.”

One of the large monster’s tentacles slammed down on the stall, shattering it into splinters. The three of them scrambled backward out of the way as it rose up again, waving over the battling devils.

Farideh ran into the street, trusting that they would follow her, not caring if they did because she knew she had to stop Rohini before she destroyed everything. As she ran, she pulled her rod free and called up the powers of the Hells. Not fire, she remembered. Missiles of brimstone rained down on Rohini and Brother Vartan, on the appendages of the larger monster that waved too near.

Rohini grinned. “Ah, Glasya’s latest prize.” Vartan’s lip curled and his hands wove the paths of some spell.

“I have him,” Brin shouted as he passed.

A bolt of energy streamed down from where Lorcan hovered and struck Rohini. She screamed in rage and cast her own magic up at him. He ducked it and swooped farther back.

Farideh started to cast another rain of missiles, when Rohini launched at her. Her talons closed on Farideh’s arms and pulled her in close.

“You’ve been so difficult,” she said. “Twisted out of my grasp so many times.” A shock of pain burst over Farideh, driving her breath from her lungs. Her knees buckled, but Rohini held her up, her mad eyes dancing. “I don’t play by your rules anymore. Let’s see how Lorcan likes fighting his little toy to the death.”

Something heavy wrapped itself around Farideh’s heart, and something sharp sank itself into her mind. She could hardly remember how to breathe-where was she? What nightmare was this? Something terrible was circling her overhead, she had to knock it from the sky. The woman standing in front of her was giving her an eager, ferocious look … Did she know her? Yes, Rohini. And the creature above wanted to hurt Rohini and Farideh both. Only she could save … Rohini.

Rohini.

Farideh blinked and her heart seized.

Rohini, who had nearly killed her sister.

She pointed the rod at Rohini’s throat. “Adaestuo.”

The blast seared away the succubus’s skin and sprayed blood over both her and Farideh. Farideh pulled the rod back like a club and cracked it hard across the succubus’s face. Rohini reeled back, but as Farideh stepped toward her, vertigo overtook her-the succubus’s domination wasn’t completely gone. She glanced up in time to see Lorcan hit the Wall hard as a tentacle lashed out of the sky and into him. He scrabbled at a window ledge and clung on long enough to get his bearings and draw his sword before leaping back into the sky.

Behind Rohini, Brin dodged Brother Vartan’s blast of magic and sank his sword into the twisted priest. The man collapsed, not only blood pouring from his wounds, but a colorless slime that Brin stepped neatly out of-the horrors of Vartan’s search for secret knowledge.

Rohini straightened, her eyes mad, the powers of the Hells and the Sovereignty warring over her skin. She spotted Brin, and her eyes took on a wicked gleam.

“Come here, boy,” she said sweetly. “I have need of your sword.” Brin straightened, his eyes glazing. He looked down at the servitor and the sword in his hand, then up at Rohini, puzzled. He took a step forward.

Rohini screamed, her wings going stiff and thrust back. Both Brin and Farideh stumbled as the traces of her magic fled.

Rohini gasped and spat blackish blood, then slid to her knees, her wings drooping.

The blade of Havilar’s glaive was buried in her back. Havilar yanked it free and Rohini fell face first into the ground. Havilar spat.

“And I still don’t think you’re pretty,” Havilar said. She looked down at Farideh. “Are you all right?”

“Move!” Lorcan swept down and caught Farideh, shoving her out of the way. Havilar scrambled after them, dragging Brin behind her.

Farideh glanced back to see Invadiah swinging her blazing sword at the larger monster’s last tentacle. The thing gave a horrible scream and recoiled, waving in the air. It slammed down beside Rohini’s broken body, then slithered heavily around her, pulling the fouled succubus up and over the Wall. Back to the Chasm it had come from.

Farideh risked a glance around. The smaller monsters were all slowing, bleeding out as the remaining erinyes shook off the effects of their poisons and mental attacks. The guards up on the Wall were rallying.

Here, Farideh thought, is where things go sour. They could draw off the erinyes, but where to? Not here, she thought. If they could get the devils out of the city, Neverwinter might mount a reasonable defense.

“Come on,” she said to Havilar, “we need to catch their attention.”

Lorcan grabbed ahold of her arm. “I didn’t promise my help in getting you killed.”

“No one’s asking for your help,” she said. “If we don’t, Neverwinter could fall.”

“Then let it,” he said. “It is not yours to care for.”

“It is mine as much as it is anybody’s,” she said, twisting from his grip.

In front of the House of Knowledge, a bright line of red light sliced through the air, then split wide like an opening eye. A low buzz filled Farideh’s ears, and suddenly the gap exploded with creatures the size of wolves that swarmed over the erinyes, their sharp stingers glistening with venom.

“Hellwasps,” Lorcan said, and he pulled both twins behind the body of the largest monster. The devils swooped over the battling erinyes, breaking off in pairs to circle them, trapping them each neatly apart from their sisters. He pulled Farideh nearer into the curl of his wing. He was shaking.

A piercing cry ripped through the night air as one erinyes sliced neatly through one of the smaller devils. It vanished in a burst of flame. Before she could so much as laugh, two of the larger hellwasps descended on her and speared her through with their stingers. She collapsed with a yelp, and the other erinyes were wise enough to take the hint and sheathe their swords.

“You are to come with us,” Farideh heard one of the large ones say to Invadiah. “You are to stand for the failure of your mission.”

“My mission has not failed,” Invadiah countered. “It is still in progress.”

“The queen deems it a failure,” the hellwasp said. “You will come with us, or we have orders to kill you here. After you have reformed, you will be tried. It is your choice.”

Invadiah growled, but sheathed her burning blade and set her hands atop her head. “If you recapture that succubus and my idiot son,” she said, “then I will gladly go to see them punished for this disaster.”

“We will find them.” The hellwasps not guarding the erinyes were sweeping the street, killing the last few cultists who had the bad sense not to stay away.

Farideh turned to face Lorcan. “Run,” she whispered. “Come with us.”

“There is no running,” he said. “They will search until they have me.”

“You don’t mean that,” Farideh said. “They’ll kill you.”

“They might. And you’ll be safe. I told you before, darling,” he said, “I’m not such a bad fellow.”

The hellwasps buzzed nearer and Farideh clung to his arm, to keep him there out of sight, to keep him from making a mistake. He was stronger than she was, though. She couldn’t hold him and he broke free of her, pushing her back, farther behind the dead horror. Havilar caught hold of her as Lorcan stepped out into the open street, his hands held in a gesture of surrender. The remaining hellwasps spotted him and circled back, peering at Lorcan from one angle, then another.

Farideh found herself hoping that they would pass him over. But the pair of hellwasps seized Lorcan in their swordlike talons and ushered him through the waiting portal.

It snapped shut behind them like a slamming door, and Farideh let out the cry she’d been holding back. He was gone. She might never see him again.

It wasn’t what she wanted after all.

Havilar pulled at her arm. “Come along,” she said. “Unless you want to get eaten by those Chasm monsters or thrown in jail. The defenders are coming.”

Farideh watched from the crest of the hill where they’d first spied Neverwinter as the sun rose and the low light painted the massive walls bloody red. She pointed at a stone near the road. “Assulam.” When it shattered into fragments, she sighed. A momentary comfort.

Tam and Mehen had spotted them fleeing the scene, and separated from the confused and riled guard. None of them had spoken as they rushed out of the city, carrying only their weapons, until they reached the crest of the hill.

“Rest,” Mehen ordered. “Check your weapons and catch your breath. We’ll have to get farther on before we try to camp in case …” He snorted. “In case any of those monsters come for us.”

Farideh kept watching the city. The Chasm seemed to flicker more brightly than usual. She cast again on another stone, and again it shattered.

Havilar sidled up beside her. “Do you think they’ll kill Lorcan?” she asked in a low voice.

“I don’t know. He’s fine for now. I can’t get powers from a corpse.” Farideh rubbed her branded arm. “It was the only way for him to get home.” Havilar put an arm around her and squeezed.

“I can’t decide,” she said, “whether it would be better or worse for him to be gone. But I hope whatever happens isn’t too hard to bear.”

Farideh kept her eyes on Neverwinter, and bit her tongue. “I hope the city survives.”

“Of course it will,” Havilar said. “We routed three different threats. We ought to have stayed behind and been called heroes.”

Farideh kept quiet. There was no way, not with the Ashmadai as numerous as she’d seen, that she would stay in Neverwinter another moment. Worse, she wasn’t sure they’d been all that successful. “Did you see Rohini’s body?”

Havilar smirked. “On the end of my glaive. Do you think that monster’s going to eat her?”

“She didn’t burn up.”

“Of course she didn’t. No one set fire to her corpse. That would be horrible.”

“She’s a devil, Havi. If she died, her body should have burst into flames like those erinyes’ did.”

“Oh.” Havilar looked down at the city a moment longer. “Maybe she’s a strange kind of devil?” she said in a small voice. Farideh only hoped Rohini wouldn’t come looking for them once she’d healed herself. Whatever the Sovereignty had made of her, she was as angry as she’d been before and far more powerful.

Havilar went to sit beside Brin. Farideh broke another stone. Perhaps he would be able to convince them. Perhaps he’d be all right.

From the road to the south, the steady sound of horses thudded. Glancing back, Farideh saw a figure mounted on a heavy charger, plate mail gleaming in the sunrise. She cursed to herself. Tired as she was, it would be easier to let the rider hurl insults and ride on.

Brin had collapsed into a pile near the middle of the road, Havilar beside him. “I feel as though I could sleep for all the rest of my life. Where are we going after this?”

“I need to be in Waterdeep,” Tam said, grimly studying the curve of the High Road as it traveled away from the coast. “I’m expected there by the end of the tenday.” He paused, looking back at the twins, as if he was no longer certain what to make of them. “You’re welcome to travel with me until then.”

“If we stop in Waterdeep,” Farideh said, “we might have better luck finding a bounty. Or a guard’s job.”

“Fair enough,” Mehen said, tucking the map away. “We need to reach-”

But the rider coming up the southbound path kicked the charger into a gallop. Farideh started to step out of the road, to make way, but the rider, a woman with cropped black hair slowed, staring fixedly at the lot of them.

“Aubrin Crownsilver!” the woman bellowed.

Brin turned, and his eyes widened. “Hrast,” he said.

“Does she mean you?” Havilar asked.

The rider pulled her charger up short a dozen feet from Brin and drew her sword from its sheath. “All of you put your hands atop your heads and leave your weapons untouched.”

“Or what?” Mehen said.

“Or I shall make certain you are charged with the full range of your crimes,” she said. “Put your hands atop your heads.”

“I think we can beat her,” Havilar whispered, moving closer to Brin. “Wait,” Brin said.

“It’s better than letting her arrest you!”

“She’s not going to arrest me,” he said. “It’s Constancia.”

“Who?”

“Your bounty,” he said. “My cousin.”

The woman in the armor set her blade even with Farideh’s chest, not an ounce of fear in her cold gray eyes. The hair that had been so neatly coiffed in the printing was disheveled and filthy, but her armor put mirrors to shame.

The tip of her sword twitched, motioning Farideh aside. “Step away from His Grace.”

“His what?” Havilar cried. She gave Brin a little shove. “What did she call you?”

“His Grace,” Constancia said, “Lord Aubrin Crownsilver of Cormyr. Stand aside or I shall detain you for kidnapping.”

“You can try,” Farideh said, drawing on her powers. She’d be damned if she would let this woman push her aside after everything else. Whatever Brin was or wasn’t, he’d stood beside her while Rohini tried to destroy Neverwinter.

Mehen stepped forward, peering at the woman, a slow smile curving the corners of his mouth and baring his yellowed teeth. He pulled the bounty poster from his breastplate. “I beg your pardon, good-woman. But I think you’re the one under arrest.”

Constancia looked at the printing, then at Mehen’s terrible smile. She looked past him at Farideh, and the warlock met the gray-eyed glare without flinching. Constancia blinked first and took in the shimmer of violet flames in Farideh’s hands.

“Oh, they’re what you think,” Farideh said hotly.

The knight stared at Farideh a moment longer, before dropping her sword in the dust and setting her hands upon her own head. “Oh Aubrin,” she sighed. “What have you gotten into?”