Plague of Ice

13

As they marched back through the long hallway, Regdar pulled open his bulging pocket and looked at the Frozen Pendant. Its chill threatened to bore a hole in his side. The artifact shone white as a star, and its imperfect dimensions gave it the rough grace of an uncut gemstone. For an awful moment he fancied he could hear it whispering to him, and he thought that as he stared at it, it stared at back at him. An unwelcome shiver shot down his spine, and he found that he couldn't stand the sight of the thing. He closed his pocket tightly, silently acknowledging that the destruction of this awful object was more important than any of their lives.

They reached the base of the hallway with ease and swiftly climbed the spiral stair back to the large, underground hall above them. The old, familiar chill returned as they left the magical warmth behind, but with memories of the oven room threatening to cook them alive still fresh in their minds, the cold felt like an old friend. Sonja in particular was glad to be free of the narrow passages.

Faced with the ebony door in the side of the cylinder, they silently drew their weapons and wondered what waited for them on the other side. Regdar took the lead, as the strongest and best-armored of the party. The door creaked as he eased it open.

With his greatsword in one hand and the torch in the other, Regdar strode forward, casting his eyes over the sprawling mall that underlay the wizards' city. The torches that illuminated the hall when they'd first entered were all gone or extinguished. In the less-than-adequate light from the lone torch in Regdar's hand, he could see a dozen monstrous eyes staring at him from the icy murals encircling the cylinders that formed the foundations of the towers above. He wondered if any of those glittering orbs were set in mephit sockets or if they were all icy crystals on the walls.

The familiar debris littered the mall as before, but an unsettling silence hung over the place. With each step forward, Regdar heard its echo through the farthest corners of the mall. Cautiously, the others followed him through the doorway. With slow, deliberate steps on the icy floor, they traced the circumference of the cylinder from which they'd just emerged. Regdar kept his distance from Hennet.

"Are they here?" asked Lidda, holding her crossbow at the ready.

"If they are," Regdar whispered, "they're keeping quiet."

Hennet started. "I thought I heard something." He shook his head, peering into the blackness. "It was…I don't know where."

"It could have been an echo," said Sonja.

"I don't think so. It didn't sound like it came from where we are."

"I think I heard it too," Lidda agreed. "It sounded like… breathing."

A new sound echoed out from the silence, the distinct flapping of tiny wings.

"It's one of the mephits," said Regdar. "Be ready."

They stood with their backs against the cylinder on the opposite side from the door, looking in the direction of the noise. Lidda raised her crossbow and loosed a bolt that sailed into the dim distance, making a tiny, clinking noise as it struck the far wall. That was followed by the distinctive clinking of a chain and the raking of claws against ice.

Staring into the darkness so intently produced phantom dots of light before Regdar's eyes. He blinked heavily and darted his eyes from side to side. A new pair of eyes flickered in the white torch light, and he was certain they weren't part of one of the ancient murals. Breath came heavily, snorts from a massive nose clouding the air with tiny ice particles. A faint growl rolled in the back of the thing's throat as it strode into the light. It was a great cat, unlike anything that patrolled the world's savannahs. Like the giant scorpion, this was a creature of the Plane of Ice. It resembled a lion in form but not composition. Instead of the familiar, tawny yellow, its fur was shades of white, with a thick mane of shimmering, icy blue. A thick, iron collar encircled its neck, and a length of chain trailed alongside it, clinking as the lion dragged it across the frosted floor. Wiry and powerful, the snow lion drove its claws into the icy floor and reared back, ready to pounce. It let out a mighty roar that blasted throughout the cavernous mall, echoing off the walls and ringing until it was all the warrior could do to not clap his hands over his ears.

Hennet had seen enough. He loosed a magic missile toward the lion. The green spell-bolt struck the creature head-on but did little to slow its drive forward. The adventurers scattered away from the cylinder, not wanting to be pinned against a wall by this mad animal. Only Regdar ran forward to engage the beast, trusting his armor to protect him. He hoped to draw the lion away from the others so they could strike it quickly and safely.

The snow lion leaped on Regdar, knocking the fighter back onto the ground. His helmeted head struck the black floor hard. The lion's chain flailed dangerously, slapping the ground next to Regdar's head and cracking the icy coating where it struck. Regdar skidded backward on the slick floor with the lion digging its claws into his breastplate. Its massive weight kept him pressed against the floor while it reared its maned head and roared into the gloom.

Lidda loosed another crossbow bolt that struck the lion in its neck as it was roaring. The shaft sank deep into the frigid flesh. It whipped its head around, spotted Lidda, and uttered a growl that resonated through Regdar's bones. In a flash it abandoned the pinned fighter and pounced after Lidda. She turned to run, but she'd gone only a few steps before slipping on a slick patch of floor and tumbling forward onto her belly.

As the creature raced after Lidda, Sonja dashed back from her sheltered position behind the cylinder and leaped onto the lion's back. It roared in protest and snapped its head back hoping to buck her off, but the druid clung tightly to the glassy skin stretched tight over icy bones. She attempted to magically calm it, but her spell had no effect. This snow lion was too alien a being to be affected by the same magic that would affect an earthly animal. Sonja released one of her hands to pull her cudgel from her waist, hoping her grip on the lion with her other hand would be sufficient. The lion sensed the opportunity and began leaping and bucking like a mad horse. Sonja was hurled through the air to land on a decrepit table alongside one of the cylinders. The table shattered under her impact, and the lion raced to where she fell, ready to deliver a death blow.

From the shadows, Hennet hurled his short spear. It arced through the air and plunged deep into the lion's side. The enraged beast snapped its jaws at the shaft in a furious effort to dislodge it, but it was too far back along its wiry form. Sonja cracked her cudgel against the lion's face, and the beast drooled some, blue otherworldly equivalent of blood as it turned to face her. She struck again, this time knocking its skull against the nearby cylinder and breaking teeth of solid ice from its mouth. The lion's legs buckled. As it collapsed, Hennet buried the point of his short spear into its frozen brain. With a final twitch the lion expired.

Regdar pulled himself up and walked over to join the others. "If that's the worst of it," he said, "then we should be in the clear."

"That's not the worst," Sonja said. "I suspect they still have Glaze in reserve. That would explain why the dragon didn't kill us when it had the chance-the mephits needed us."

"But Glaze nearly killed Hennet, and it chased me down when I ran for the tower, while you were unconscious," protested Regdar. "Then again, I didn't understand why I made it. I thought Glaze would overtake me for sure. Could it really have been staged?"

"I don't see why not," Sonja said. "White dragons are trainable."

"My store of spells is nearly exhausted," Hennet admitted. "Between Glaze, the mephits, and our tangles with the verbeeg and this lion thing, I don't know how much magic I can contribute now."

"We heard a mephit before," Lidda reminded them. "It must have unleashed the lion. Where did it go?"

"Through there." Sonja pointed almost exactly above them, to the trapdoor through which Hennet had fallen hours earlier. It was small, but any of them could fit through it.

"Interesting," said Regdar. "They won't expect us to come through there. We could probably pile up enough of this old junk to reach the trapdoor and attack them that way. At least we could get a look at what we're up against."

"Good thought," said Sonja.

Everyone set about collecting the debris for this purpose, scavenging for the more solid desks, tables, and chairs that littered the great hall. Recalling the huge pile of broken wood the mephits froze against the door to the tower they claimed was Glaze's lair, they attempted to prize some of it off but found it solidly resisted their best efforts. Ultimately, they managed to gather a fairly sturdy platform that could support even Regdar's weight. As the tallest of the group, Regdar volunteered to look through the trapdoor. Mounting the platform, he slowly eased the trapdoor open, avoiding the accumulation of snow that fluttered down.

He cautiously craned his neck through the trapdoor and saw the familiar towers of ice, now casting longer shadows as sunset approached. Something felt different about the area above ground, and he couldn't quite identify what it was. Regdar turned in a complete circle and studied the stark, empty city. Neither mephits nor Glaze were in evidence. With an idea in mind, he took a quick look straight up to be sure.

Regdar hopped off the platform and pulled the artifact from his pocket, being careful to hold it only by the chain.

"No one's up there," he announced. "More importantly, I know what happened. I know why the crystal turned white."

Lidda was the first to ask why.

"Before we came down here, the winds were blowing away from the rift, right?" The others nodded furiously.

"Well, now they're blowing inward," Regdar explained. "The wind is blowing madly toward a point in the center of the city, where the rift is."

"Toward it," Hennet repeated. Could it be that his impulsive act had actually saved them, reversing the pendant's effects? "Does that mean that the elemental ice is withdrawing?"

"Regdar," Sonja asked, "did it seem to be blowing faster than before?"

"I couldn't tell," Regdar said.

"Then we must assume that the ice and cold will take as long to leave as they did in coming. That's assuming that the effect will stop at removing the ice it dumped onto our plane and not start sucking in material that's native to our world. Either way, though," Sonja affirmed, "we don't have the luxury of waiting here to find out."

"What do you suggest we do?" asked Regdar.

"We don't know how to use the Frozen Pendant properly," Sonja said. "The ice mephits do. We offer them one last chance to cooperate. If they refuse, we kill them. Glaze, too, if we must. I suspect Glaze watches over the surface from its tower even now."

"How could we close the rift after that?" Hennet asked.

"I'll try again to dispel it," Sonja said, stroking the silver ring from Atupal. "With the effect reversed, the rift may be weaker or at least turned more strongly toward the Plane of Ice. If dispelling doesn't work, then we take the Ilskynarawin back to Atupal, or Klionne or Vasaria or any other city where someone can figure out how to use it. And we pray that we can do this in time."

The others nodded at her plan, though they were concerned about personal matters such as whether they would actually survive a trip back across the frozen landscape.

The druid looked squarely at Regdar. "I want you to stay here with the Frozen Pendant," she declared. "Keep an eye on what happens through the trapdoor if you like, but be prepared to defend the artifact to the death. It cannot fall into the mephits' hands, and I don't want to approach them with it in our possession. This is no reflection on the rest of you, but I think it's probably safest in Regdar's keeping."

Lidda spoke up. "I'm the smallest, the most agile. Why not give it to me? For that matter, why not take it yourself, Sonja? You could probably get back to the cities fastest if the rest of us don't make it out of here."

"I don't like either idea," Regdar objected. "I'd rather stay and fight next to you if need be. I think that's where I'd be more useful."

"I can understand how frustrating this may be for you. But it has to be this way. The Frozen Pendant is more important than any of our lives. Just what the mephits could do with it, I shudder to contemplate. If we should die," she said, pausing slightly, "take it back down there, where it's magically heated. With luck you can hold them off long enough for the cities to send another group."

Regdar reflected on this. Cowering underground seemed a poor way to await his fate. He prayed to all the good gods that it wouldn't come to that. He didn't have nearly enough provisions to hold out for weeks, especially against a constant barrage of whatever monsters the mephits would send after him. Still, he saw the wisdom in Sonja's plan. The pendant mattered far more than any individual's survival.

"All right," the fighter said, stepping back up onto the platform. "My luck goes with you."

Lidda jumped up next to him and wrapped her thin arms around his leg. She looked up at her friend, teary-eyed. After all their battles fought side by side, this was the first time she really feared that she might never see him again.

Regdar tousled her brown locks. "See you soon," he said.

She pulled away reluctantly and joined the others, marching to the black cylinder that contained their route to the surface. Sonja gave him a last, beautiful smile, and it warmed Regdar's heart.

Left alone then in the dark, except for the tiny slit of fading light shining through the trapdoor, Regdar prayed to all the good gods that this would not be the way he died.

As they passed through the door to the upward stair, Hennet grabbed a piece of debris and used it to prop open the door. If they needed to retreat downward, every second might matter. The flapping of many wings could be heard above them, as well as the shrieking and hissing that constituted the ice mephits' language.

"They're waiting for us," whispered Lidda as they ascended the first steps.

"The mephits won't attack us first-not while they think we have the pendant."

"Maybe not," Hennet said, "but maybe we should." He patted one of the pockets of his robe. "What about the alchemist fire we found down there? A quick toss and we could rid ourselves of most of these mephits in one blow. You heard how they fear fire."

Sonja shook her head. "Do you want to knock down the tower with them? Or rain fire down on us? Let me take the lead, and keep your spear ready. I expect we'll need it."

When they reached the top of the stairway, weapons in hand, they found a dozen ice mephits crowded into the small room, perched along the magnificent tarrasque carving that was etched into the wall. The mephits were so positioned that the maximum number of them were in front of the black door to the outside.

Each of them looked more less exactly the same, and they all wore the same expression-smug self-satisfaction, with not a trace of surprise at the party's arrival. For some moments both groups stared silently at the other, each expecting, even daring, the other to speak first.

Ultimately, one of the mephits broke the silence. It spoke the words slowly, enunciating each syllable carefully. "Do you have the Ilskynarawin?"

"Your verbeeg didn't take it from us, if that's what you're wondering," Sonja said.

"Or that snow lion you set up down there," Hennet added, clutching his short spear so hard his knuckles were white.

"That's how you repay us for retrieving your artifact?" Lidda asked, waving her sword threateningly at the mephit nearest to her, who was the right height to look her directly in the eye. "You try to have us killed?"

"So you haaave the Ilskynarawin?" another mephit chimed in. "Do you have it?"

"No!" Sonja yelled the word and it echoed through the stairways above and below. "We left it down below. We left it in a room that gets so hot, so infernally hot, that a salamander couldn't survive there."

"As hot as Asmodeus's bowels!" Lidda shouted, sliding the magic torch back into the knot on the wall.

The mephits shuddered at the thought. Such heat was horror.

"It would melt you," Sonja said. "In fact, it would do worse than that. It would reduce you to steam in an instant. You would be vaporized without even leaving a wet spot on the floor. And that's where the Ilskynarawin lies. Go and take it, if you want it badly enough!"

"She liiiies!" one of the enraged mephits screamed. "They all lie! It's here. It's close. I can feeeeel it in my skin!"

Another mephit trilled out a nerve-jangling squeal and took to wing. It swooped toward Sonja, trying to sense, to smell, to perceive the artifact on her. "We must have iiit!" cried the creature.

Sonja swung her cudgel and smashed the mephit headon. It wasn't killed, but it was badly wounded, with crushed wings. The blow flung it backward to sprawl among its fellows. The mephits gasped, startled by the sudden violence.

"No one will have the Ilskynarawin," Sonja declared, "until we get through that door."

The mephits glanced to and fro at each other.

"Why?" one of them asked, hovering in the air over Hennet's head. The sorcerer pointed his spear at it and jabbed slightly, causing the creature to retreat.

"We just want to see," Hennet cooed, "what's on the other side."

"There's nothiiing to see," hissed another mephit. "Nothing to see."

"We want to see that's there's nothing to see," Sonja replied. "If you don't show us, we'll force our way through. We can and we will."

At that, Hennet tossed his short spear straight at the door. The mephits instinctively dodged away from the weapon. When it struck the hard basalt, the way to the door was clear. With a lunge, Hennet plucked the falling spear before it could clatter to the floor. Swinging their weapons to hold back the mephits, Hennet, Sonja, and Lidda rushed the door and forced it open. A sudden blast of cold assaulted their faces. Outside and in natural light once again, they immediately swung round to face the door, ready to slam it shut in the mephits' faces.

Before they could do that, a half dozen or more mephits swarmed the doorway and loosed their icy breath, pelting their enemies with stinging shards of ice that gushed from their mouths and shattered against the backs of Sonja, Lidda and Hennet. The pain and the cold were dulled by their heavy coats, so that the shock of the attack was the worst of it. That was sufficient, however, to knock them sprawling to the ground, unable even to keep their grips on their weapons.

The mephits swept through the doorway, ready to mercilessly slaughter the nearly helpless trio as they scrambled for their weapons. Before the first blow could fall, another voice rang out from across the stark, snow-covered field.

"Halt!"

Regdar stood almost precisely in front of the rift, that point toward which flew all of the snow swirling above them. He hadn't drawn his greatsword, but rather he held his right fist high above his head.

"Observe your precious trinket!" Regdar shouted. He opened his fist and out fell the Ilskynarawin, glowing like a tiny sun, dangling on the gold chain tightly wrapped around his fingers. The mephits ceased their assault on Hennet, Sonja, and Lidda entirely, giving them time to reclaim their weapons and pull themselves to their feet.

Those mephits that were in the air drifted to the ground. All of them stared at the precious artifact they coveted so completely. A reverent silence fell over the nameless city, broken only by the ever-present rush of wind.

"What is he doing?" whispered Hennet to the others. Lidda shook her head in puzzlement, but a wide smile crossed Sonja's features.

Regdar turned around, the Frozen Pendant still clutched firmly in his fist, until he almost faced the rift itself but could still keep his eyes on the mephits. A look of hard resolve covered his face, mixed improbably with the expression of a schoolboy about to do something altogether naughty.

"If you want it…" he yelled as he began swinging the pendant. The mephits let out a collective shriek as they realized what was happening.

"… come and get it!"

Regdar released the pendant. It flew directly into the portal, traveling only a few feet before it vanished in thin air before him. The mephits' collective screeching increased in pitch as they saw their prize disappear and realized how terribly they'd been cheated.

Then they raged.

The Frozen Pendant's principal power was to open a hole into the para-elemental Plane of Ice from the Prime Material Plane, allowing a torrent of ice and cold to blast through. The mephits understood that there was perhaps only one place in all the multiverse where this power was wholly and utterly neutralized.

That was precisely where Regdar had sent it-the Plane of Ice.