Easy Betrayals

Chapter 1

Battered and exhausted, Belgin sprinted after the warriors of Tyr, splashing through the cold water that swirled and surged in the dim hallway. He caught one brief glimpse of a dark beast bounding up the stairs at the end of the corridor, trailing a cord, and then the creature darted out of sight in the stone labyrinth of Aetheric's dungeons. "Rings, Belgin, go after the doppelganger. Join the damned paladins if you must, but make sure one of you slays her. We want our reward."

Entreri didn't waste words, reflected Belgin. Fine. He'd follow the assassin's orders and be done with the whole affair. No mere chest of jewels could possibly compensate him for the pain and madness he'd already endured, and every moment he delayed in the execution of Entreri's command only added to his losses.

He wheezed and gasped for breath as he floundered after Miltiades and Jacob. Water dragged at his tailored trousers and waistcoat, and a dozen bruises and sprains announced themselves as he drove forward. "Come on, Rings," he huffed. The effort of speaking as he ran brought on a fit of coughing that raked his chest with fiery knives. Bright flecks of blood staining his beard, Belgin ignored his distress and staggered on. He'd had plenty of practice of late.

Behind him, the dwarven pirate known as Rings struggled valiantly to keep up with his human companions. The icy water stood chest-high on the dwarf, and he flailed and spluttered as he trailed Belgin. "Don't wait on me," the dwarf growled. "You keep the paladins in sight. I'll catch up!"

"Not this time," Belgin answered. He slowed and caught the dwarfs arm, towing him along. "If I object to anything that those two"-he nodded at the Tyrian warriors-"decide to do, I want you nearby to help argue my point." Ahead of them, Miltiades reached the stairs at the end of the hall and clambered out of the water, his long shanks working like pistons as he propelled himself up the steps. Jacob followed a moment later, brandishing his two-handed sword like a promise of justice. They've spent the day fighting an untold number of fiends, Belgin thought enviously, and still they're fresh enough to sprint up stairs wearing armor from head to toe.

Winded and shivering with cold, the moon-faced sharper took the steps as fast as he could, Rings following. "Why’d we… whew!.. have to go chasing after… the doppelganger?" the dwarf complained. "I'm not made for… chasing down long-legged humans! If Entreri wanted her dead… he could have bloody well done it himself."

"He's got another game… to play… I think," the sharper answered, puffing for breath. They reached a long, torchlit corridor at the top of the stairs. The two paladins still ran on ahead, mail and plate clattering like an engine made of kitchenware. Belgin paused for breath, leaning forward with his hands on his knees. "He was… very interested… in the bloodforge, you'll recall."

"Damn!" Rings scowled. "Now we're out of his way. He can go get it without worrying about the two of us."

Belgin bit his lip, thinking of the assassin's inhuman speed and the cold, flat determination behind his eyes. "He wasn't worried about us anyway, Rings."

The dwarf glanced up to meet his eyes. Brass rings piercing his eyebrows glinted in the torchlight. "So what are we doing here? I've no need to meddle in the affairs of wizards and fiends. We can walk back down those stairs, collect Sharessa and Ingrar, and cut our losses now."

"I'm not ready to cross Entreri yet. Maybe not ever," Belgin said slowly. "Even if I didn't think that he'd kill us in the blink of an eye for turning on him, I signed a contract to kill Eidola, whoever or whatever she turned out to be. We all did. I'm going to live up to my word at least this once. If we walk out of this now, then it's all for nothing. Anvil, Kurthe, Brindra-they're dead for no reason at all, and I can't live with that."

Rings held his gaze a moment more, then nodded abruptly. "You talk too much, Belgin, but you're right. Come on-they're getting away from us." Fighting axe in one gnarled fist, the dwarven pirate loped down the passageway. Belgin straightened and ran after him. The hallway terminated in a series of twisting stairs and narrow guard chambers. They sprinted through mossy stone doorways and pelted across crooked arcades, the warriors ahead of them flitting in and out of the shadows like bright coins spinning down into a dark well.

In moments, Belgin lost all sense of direction. The paladins dashed from one room to the next as if they feared nothing, leaping headlong into each turn and twist of the chase. Consumed by their righteous rage, they had no thought for caution or subtlety, only justice.

Once Belgin saw Jacob turn his head to fix one eye on the following rogues, but then the noble warrior returned his attention to the chase. He thinks we don't matter, Belgin realized. He narrowed his eyes and redoubled his efforts.

Abruptly, the chase ended. Belgin turned a corner and found the paladin and the swordsman halted in front of him, facing a vast open gallery. They stood on a precarious balcony, glaring out at the nighted space ahead. Rings barreled into the sharper from behind, almost knocking him flat. Belgin staggered and went to one knee.

"What? What is it?" Rings barked, crouching in the entranceway.

"Trouble," answered Jacob. Belgin followed his eyes and gasped in horror. On the opposite balcony, a stone's throw away, stood a creature of nightmare. Tall as an ogre, with scaly skin and a barbed tail that twitched and slashed the air around it, its great leathery wings draped its shoulders like a cloak of despair. A whip of fire dangled from one clawed hand. The creature turned to a shadowed vulturelike shape at its side and pointed toward the paladins. "Slay them," it grated in a voice of stone. The vulture-thing launched itself into the air with a disheveled flurry of shabby, stinking feathers, joined a moment later by two more of its kind that dropped from the black recesses above.

"Beware the vrock!" shouted Miltiades, raising his hammer. The first of the fiends descended on him with clashing beak and grasping talons, crushing him to the ground. The paladin's hammer rose and fell, then rose again with dark gore wreathing its silver head. The vrock's companion stooped on Jacob, only to be driven back by the white razor of the warrior's flashing sword.

The third soared over the fighters in the front and dove at Belgin. "Another fiend. Great," he managed weakly, raising his cutlass in feeble protest. He slashed blindly as a storm of talon and and claw descended on him, ripping through the fancy leather jerkin to rake deep, foul furrows in the flesh beneath. Belgin screamed in pain and fear, ramming the point of his cutlass into the center of the vrock's chest.

The blade slid in without a mark. Belgin wrenched it free, but the vrock only laughed, its voice clashing like cymbals of brass. "Mundane steel holds no power over one of my kind, mortal," it hissed in delight. "You'll need a better weapon than that to draw my blood."

"How about this one?" From the creature's flank, Rings struck out with his wicked axe, shearing through its scabrous wing. Belgin gagged in disgust as the creature's black blood drenched and seared him. The dwarf hacked brutally at the fiend as it scrabbled away from him. "No one's ever called the steel of my fathers' axe mundane!" the dwarf shouted fiercely. "Take some of this back to the Abyss with you!"

Belgin regained his feet. In the corner of his eye he saw Miltiades standing, shouldering aside the corpse of the vrock that had assailed him, while Jacob slashed his foe to pieces with his great blade. At the edge of the balcony, the third vrock wheeled and lashed out with its talons, smashing Rings to the ground. With one quick step the sharper leaped into the air and planted his feet in the center of the fiend's torso, catapulting it from the stone shelf. The fiend shrieked horribly, trying to hold the air with its ruined pinions, and spiraled out of sight into the darkness below. Picking himself up, Belgin looked around for the next foe.

"Forget the vrock! 'Ware the balor!" Jacob shouted, holding his blade on guard against the fiery titan that stood on the opposite side of the hall.

For one tense moment, both paladins and pirates stood together, waiting for the powerful fiend to attack. It glared at them, its eyes burning. Then, in a motion so smooth and effortless it seemed impossible, it shrank and darkened into the form of a leather-clad human woman. Her teeth bared in a sharklike grin, Eidola laughed at them. "Not bad," she remarked. "I see that Piergeiron didn't waste his time with amateurs, excepting that boy Noph, anyway."

"Hold there!" shouted Miltiades, brandishing his hammer. "You've much to answer for, monster! Surrender now, and you'll live to see a fair trial in Tyr's hall."

"Forgive me if I decline," the woman sneered. "I have places to go, paladin, and I think I'll find my own way. Do yourself a favor and find some other damsel in distress to rescue."

"I came halfway across the world to punish those who stole you," the paladin grated. "Now your own lies have damned you. I don't care how many secret allies you have here or what kind of deceptions you've created to deter me from my mission, monster-you've leagued yourself with the wrong patrons." He paced forward to the edge of the balcony, eying the jump. "I'll bring Tyr's justice to you or die trying."

"Now I remember why I detest paladins," Eidola remarked. She turned to leave.

Moved by a flicker of intuition, Belgin stepped forward. "Eidola!" he cried. "Where are you going?"

"I don't know," she replied instantly. "I mean to find my way back to Waterdeep as quickly as possible, but I don't know where I am." Her face suddenly contorted in anger, and she reached up with one hand to tug at her collar. "What in the name of darkness?" she muttered. White hemp showed around the hollow of her throat.

Belgin grinned. He'd guessed right-Noph's magical lasso retained its power to compel its victim to truthfulness, even though no one held the doppelganger captive. "Why did Aetheric imprison you? You were doing his work, weren't you?"

On the opposite balcony, the woman gasped and fell to her knees, struggling with all her will to keep from answering. It wasn't enough. "He kidnapped me because he believed I was exactly what I pretended to be," she rasped. "Garkim said that Aetheric stole me to provoke Piergeiron into sending a rescue party. He hoped to turn you against the fiends who beset Doegan, since the blood-forge had sapped the strength from his own people."

"Belgin? What's going on?" demanded Jacob. The powerful warrior turned a glare of black suspicion on him, sword raised belligerently.

Rings moved to intercede, but Miltiades answered for him. "Noph's lasso," he said. "She's caught in it and can't lie to us." He looked back to Eidola. "What were you doing in Waterdeep? What evil ensorcellment did you work against Piergeiron, creature?"

The doppleganger's mouth opened, but in the blink of an eye she seemed to twist and shift. The great black mastiff stood in her place. It growled and fixed one last venomous glance on the battered adventurers, then turned and bounded into the dark passage behind her.

"Eidola!" howled Miltiades. "There is no place in this world distant enough, dark enough, foul enough to hide you from Tyr's justice! Answer me!"

"Forget it, paladin," said Rings. "She's gone. You might be able to make her speak truth, but if she chooses a form incapable of speech you can't compel her to obey you."

"I'm not done with her yet," Miltiades snapped. He stepped to the edge of the balcony, then the sides, studying the great gallery. "Come on. I think we can cross farther down."

"She can be anything she wants," Jacob said. "We might never catch her. Shouldn't we go after Entreri instead to make sure the bloodforge is destroyed? We've a better chance at that."

Miltiades shook his head. "You heard her. She means to return to Waterdeep and finish whatever plot she started there. Someone's got to stop her."

"We're in the Utter East, Miltiades. It'd take her months to get back to Waterdeep."

"It might take us months, too." The tall paladin closed his eyes, thinking or praying, and then opened them again. "We follow the doppelganger, Jacob. I fear for Kern and Trandon, too, but I feel that Tyr means us to take this path."

Jacob opened his mouth as if to argue the point further, but surrendered. "Okay. Well run her to ground, if we can. Now, what of these two?" He indicated Belgin and Rings with a jerk of his thumb.

Belgin watched the two warriors warily. He felt Rings shift behind him, moving closer for support. "You've known our intentions toward the lady all along," the sharper said. "You call it justice, we call it business, but we mean to see her dead. We gave our word on it."

"What's that worth?" Jacob said icily.

Belgin put out a hand to steady Rings as the dwarf stepped up, eyes blazing. "This day, as much as yours," he said. "We've got a better reason to cooperate now than we did before. If that's not good enough for you, Rings and I will go our own way. But we'll be following the doppelganger, I promise you."

Jacob's eyes narrowed, but he slowly relented, a shallow smile on his face. I know that look, Belgin mused. That's the look that says, I could kill you now, but I'd rather kill you later. Meeting the fighter's sneer with a smirk of his own, Belgin bowed formally. "If we're agreed, then, let's get to it," he said. "We've a shapeshifter to catch."

They scrambled down several levels, scaling the stone balustrades that ringed the gallery's upper corridors, then crossed on a narrow buttress of stone that bridged the dark hall. On the opposite side, they cautiously clambered up the ancient facade and set off down the hallway into which Eidola had disappeared. It was a dirty, strenuous exercise that left Belgin's limbs quivering with strain and a deep, burring rasp in his chest, but he found the strength to make the crossing without calling on his companions for aid.

"She's got a half-hour lead on us, at least," Jacob grumbled. "How can you catch something that can grow wings, or fins, or extra legs anytime she feels like it?"

"Perseverance," Miltiades replied. Drawn and haggard, bloodied by a dozen small wounds, it seemed that nothing but determination kept the paladin on his feet. "She'll give up before we will."

"Pray we catch up to her before she finds her way out of these crypts," said Belgin. "If she gets to the city above, perseverance won't matter."

"Well see." Miltiades shrugged sparely and returned his attention to the hall before them. The dismal sconces of the mage-king's dungeons were far behind them, and with a muttered prayer the paladin halted to conjure a shining white light on the head of his warhammer, illuminating the corridor. It was long and straight, faced with a faded and peeling plaster that bore hints of ancient murals. Dust lay thick on the floor, but scuffling paw prints showed where Eidola had passed.

With a silent exchange of glances, the four men pressed farther into the crypt. Belgin coughed in the musty air, holding a handkerchief to his face. "What kind of maze is this place?" he muttered into the darkness.

"Old work, old human work," Rings replied softly. The dwarf ran his gnarled hand along the rotten plaster of the wall. "It's not the same construction as the rest of Aetheric's halls."

"Ancient Mar stonework?"

"It might be. It looks like the Mar ruins I've seen scattered around the Five Kingdoms." The dwarf tugged on an earring. "This feels like a funeral chamber of some kind."

"Great. A crypt," Jacob remarked over his shoulder.

"If you're right, Rings, we might not have a long chase on our hands after all," Belgin said thoughtfully. "Eidola might have fled into a dead end-er, so to speak."

They traveled several hundred yards before the passageway ended in a great double door of stone. One valve stood ajar. Belgin knelt by the floor, examining the tracks. The four-footed paw marks had vanished, replaced by the slim outline of a woman's boots. "She took human form again here," he advised the others, rising and dusting his hands against his trousers.

"You seem to have a knack for reading tracks," Jacob observed. "I thought you were a sea dog, not a highwayman."

"I've a few tricks up my sleeve," the sharper answered. Miltiades moved up, turned his broad shoulders sideways, and slipped into the chamber beyond. Jacob followed, then Rings. Belgin paused a moment, studying the towering door. He was fairly certain he couldn't have moved it an inch. If you cross swords with her, Belgin my lad, remember that she's much stronger than she looks, he told himself. He straightened his tailored jacket and wriggled past the rough stone, shielding his eyes against the glare of the paladin's magical light.

The room beyond was magnificent, flanked by great statues of ancient warriors in long headdresses. A series of false arches carved in basrelief along the walls flanked the room, which was cluttered with mildewed banners, broken urns stained with redolent residue, old bronze weapons green with verdigris, and dozens of small casks and statuaries. In the center of the room stood a long, low pedestal supporting a stone sarcophagus, elaborately carved in the likeness of a handsome young man. Dust lay thick over the entire chamber.

Belgin searched the room with his eyes, alert for any threat or sign of Eidola's path. There was no other exit from the chamber.

"We have her," Miltiades said quietly. "Jacob, guard the door. Let nothing pass." The curly-haired fighter scowled at the paladin's order, but he grimaced and took up a watchful post by the door, sword poised like a toll pike. With the patience of a stalking cat, Miltiades advanced into the room, his eyes flicking from place to place as he searched. He circled to the left of the sarcophagus.

Rings watched Miltiades for a moment, then circled around the pedestal to the right, his short axe hanging from his fingertips. Belgin trailed Rings, choosing to cover his friend's back. He'd seen Miltiades fight, and besides, the Sharkers had to watch out for each other more now than ever. The room fell silent, the quiet broken only by the slow scuffle of leather on stone and the soft jingling of the paladin's mail and plate. Nervous sweat trickled down the pirate's brow as the hunt lengthened. "Careful, Rings," he whispered. "She might have changed her form again."

"Could she be a piece of furniture?" the dwarf asked over his shoulder. "A big vase, or maybe a wall hanging?"

"I've heard it said that doppelgangers are limited in how much they can change their shape. Look for something more or less human-sized… but don't turn your back on anything."

"That doesn't help," Rings growled in reply. "Belgin, you-"

"Silence, both of you!" barked Miltiades. Belgin shot a resentful glare at the paladin, but Miltiades wasn't looking at the pirates; he stood before a tall funereal statue. It was the image of an ancient warrior much like the others that stood guard over the sarcophagus, with a broad bare chest, a knee-length kilt, sandals, and a high headdress framing its stern face. Its hands gripped an oblong shield and a curving sword. "How many of these stone warriors stand against your wall, Rings?" asked Miltiades, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Seven," the dwarf answered.

"There are eight over here," Miltiades said. He raised his hammer to shatter the image before him.

With preternatural swiftness the stone warrior sprang from its pedestal, lashing out with its heavy blade. Miltiades caught the blow on his shield with a great ringing parry and was driven backward. With mechanical ruthlessness Eidola hammered at the paladin's guard. Rings dashed forward, rounding the central sarcophagus to come to Miltiades's aid. In the corner of his eye, Belgin saw Jacob take three steps from his post by the door, moving up to join the fight. "No, Jacob!" he barked. "Guard the door! We can't let her out of this room!"

The fighter paused, meeting Belgin's face with contemptuous anger. 'Then help him!" he roared, pointing at the fight. Miltiades slipped and went down to one knee. Eidola screeched in triumph and raised her stone blade to strike-but the paladin shattered one knee with a low swing of his silver hammer. Eidola toppled to the floor just as Rings appeared. The dwarf seized one brawny arm in his left hand and hacked viciously with his axe, breaching the doppelganger's stony hide in a spray of dark blood and flakes of rock-like flesh. Eidola shrieked and convulsed with startling power, hurling the dwarf aside and slamming Miltiades to the floor.

Now! Belgin saw his chance. Nimbly he leaped to the top of the sarcophagus, lashing out with his cutlass to gouge a deep cut across Eidola's forehead as she struggled to stand. The doppelganger fell back, then changed her shape, collapsing into a boneless cuttlefish with razor-sharp hooks serrating its flailing tentacles. Miltiades floundered under the serpentlike strikes of three of the creature's tentacles, then Rings had his axe wrenched from his hand by another. Light and shadow danced chaotically in the tomb as the paladin's glowing hammer whirled and fell. Atop the tomb, Belgin tried to find a place to strike-and then he felt a cold, strong pressure circle his ankle. He stooped to sever the tentacle that gripped his foot, but with inhuman strength Eidola jerked his limb from beneath him, tripping him heavily on top of the sepulchre. The sharper struck his head on the stone face. His eyes flooded with white, and the screaming, clattering, hissing cacophony of the fight faded into nothingness in his ear.

Vision swimming with pain, Belgin at first didn't believe his senses when he felt the stone slab under him begin to grow warm. He rolled to one elbow, trying to regain his bearings, although his movements seemed slow and heavy. Rings and Miltiades still fought Eidola, while Jacob had moved up behind the dwarf, sword raised as he awaited his opportunity to join the fray.

Something black and spidery flitted before Belgin's face. He glanced down in surprise, only to find that glowing magical runes now circled the sarcophagus lid. Above and behind him, the blank wall that stood opposite the chamber's only door seemed to grow a tracery of mystical runes, like ivy climbing a stone wall in the space of only heartbeats. Some kind of enchantment on the sarcophagus? Belgin wondered absently. A tomb-trap triggered by our fighting, or when I fell on the lid? His alertness returning, he rolled off the sepulchre and recovered his sword. "Something's happening!" he called out, warning his companions.

Above the sounds of the fighting, a powerful voice pronounced some horrible doom in a language older than mankind. The great stone door at the tomb's entrance slammed shut with a tremendous boom, bringing a soft rain of dust from the ceiling overhead. Jacob whirled and attacked the doors with all his strength, but they were sealed with sorcery. "We're trapped!" the fighter called.

"Finish the doppelganger!" Miltiades answered, crushing a tentacle to red pulp with one blow of his hammer. "Well worry about escape once she's dead! For Tyr and justice!" He resumed the attack, striking blow after blow with his hammer while Rings ripped great slashes in the thing with his ancestors' axe. Pieces of cuttlefish lay strewn about the chamber, but still the beast fought on, warping its shape from moment to moment to create new limbs and minimize the effect of its foes' weapons.

Belgin moved in to join the fight again as Jacob did the same, but at that moment the glyphs on the far wall- now an arcane, circular design-flashed with a crackle of energy and a peal of thunder. Where a blank stone wall had stood, a dark portal yawned. Wind howled forth, thick with the scent of dust and strange incense. What in the Five Kingdoms? he thought, raising an arm to shield his eyes. A magical doorway? Here? "Look out! We might have company coming!"

Eidola recognized the archway, too. Slithering away from the paladin, she seemed to suddenly contract and rise, standing on two legs as the human woman they'd seen before. Deftly she vaulted the stone tomb, parrying Belgin's attack, and leaped headlong into the portal. Belgin dove for the lasso trailing her waist, but the cord brushed his fingertips and disappeared into the darkness. "She's getting away!" he cried unnecessarily.

'Tyr damn it! We had her!" Miltiades shouted. "Quick, after her!"

"Wait!" Jacob shouted against the roaring wind. "We don't know where the portal leads!"

"Jacob's right," Belgin said. "What if it leads to the heart of a volcano? Or to a dragon's den? She might be dead already."

"Then I'm going to go make sure," Miltiades stated. Blood streamed from a vicious cut on the side of his head, but the paladin seemed tireless. He took three running steps and threw himself into the black portal, shield raised high.

"I'm with the paladin," Rings said. He was ripped and scored in a dozen places from Eidola's tentacles, but a fierce light blazed in his eyes. "Besides, why would the old builders of this place install a portal to nowhere?" He trotted forward and stepped through.

"Maybe they wanted to arrange something special for anyone who despoiled this tomb," Belgin answered, speaking to the blackness. "Maybe-oh, to hell with it." With a lamning start, the dandy leaped into the doorway, roaring an improvised battle cry.

Behind him, Jacob stood in the darkness of the wrecked crypt, glaring at the portal. "Damn, damn, damn," he muttered, pounding his fist against his palm. "It's not supposed to be like this." Jaw set, he picked up his great war blade and followed the others into the darkness.