Sea of Death

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The companions climbed the sloping hillside and entered the tunnel leading to Paganus's lair. The tunnel was wide enough for the group to walk in rows of three: Ghaji, Diran, and Tresslar in front; Yvka, Onu, and Asenka in the middle; Hinto, Solus, and Leontis in the rear. From Tresslar's memory of the place-a memory Ghaji now shared-the half-orc knew they had almost reached the cavern where Erdis Cai, Tresslar, and a handful of sailors from the Sea Star had once battled the dragon. The glowing mold clinging to the walls here was a dead giveaway. All they had to do was go around the bend just ahead.

The cavern was huge, lit by luminescent substance covering both the stalactites and stalagmites. The dim greenish glow given off by the mold revealed no sign of life. However, that didn't mean the cavern was free of danger.

Ghaji detected the stink of poison gas before any of the others, and the half-orc quickly called the party to a halt.

"I thought you told us the dragon died forty years ago," he said to Tresslar. "From the smell, I'd say he's still very much alive and breathing."

The artificer looked at Ghaji with concern. "Are your eyes burning? Are you having trouble breathing?"

"I can't say it's the most pleasant smell I've ever encountered, but it's tolerable enough."

Tresslar's relief was clear in his voice. "Good. Let us know if you begin experiencing any discomfort. The fumes emitted by a green dragon are highly toxic, and breathing them is a quick way to an agonizing death."

Onu's eyes widened. "Do you really think the dragon might still be alive?" He peered into the cavern's gloom, as if he were hoping to see a green dragon come charging at them any instant.

Ghaji grimaced in irritation. Of the two personae the changeling had revealed to them so far, he much preferred Onu's natural one. It was the quieter of the pair-not to mention the less obnoxious one.

"I don't see how," Tresslar said. "Paganus was clearly dead when we departed his lair. I suppose it's possible he was restored to life somehow, but someone or something else would've had to do perform the deed, especially as the dragon no longer had possession of the Amahau."

"Before the shadowclaws attacked, Tresslar's revealer indicated his dragonwand lay somewhere ahead of us," Yvka said. "That could mean Nathifa reached the lair before we did."

"Traces of the lich's foul presence linger here," Diran said. He looked to Leontis for confirmation, and his fellow priest nodded. "I am certain Nathifa was in the cavern, but as yet I cannot tell if she remains nearby."

"But if she was here-" Yvka began.

"The lich might have resurrected Paganus," Ghaji finished. He turned to Diran. "Is it possible?"

"Liches are powerful sorcerers, so Nathifa undoubtedly has a great deal of mystical knowledge to draw upon," Diran said. "But to resurrect a being forty years after its death would require magic of an extremely high order. I'm not certain she's capable of that."

"She does have Tresslar's wand," Hinto pointed out.

"The Amahau could easily provide the lich with enough mystic energy to fuel such a spell," Tresslar said.

"Before we go further into the cavern, Solus should scout ahead using his psionic abilities," Diran said.

The psiforged nodded and stepped for the forefront of the group. The crystals covering the construct's surface began to pulse with a soft inner light as he mentally surveyed the cavern.

Several moments passed, and then Solus said, "I detect something, but I'm uncertain what it is. It's not precisely intelligent in and of itself, but it does possess a rudimentary-"

That's as far as the psiforged got before an ebon serpent dropped from the ceiling and wrapped itself around the construct's neck. It bit down on the top of Solus's head, its curved black fangs penetrating as easily as if the psiforged were made of butter instead of stone and starsilver. The serpent's eyes were a burning crimson, and they flared bright at the creature clamped its jaws tight onto Solus's skull. The psiforged stiffened, and his eyes changed from a glowing green to a baleful vermillion, just like the serpent's fiery orbs.

Diran drew a silver dagger from his inner cloak and lunged forward to strike at the serpent coiled around his companion's neck. At the same instant, Ghaji swung his axe at the giant black snake, not worrying about what might happen if he accidentally struck the psiforged a glancing blow. Solus might lose a chunk of rock from his shoulder, but he wouldn't suffer an injury the same way a being made of flesh and blood would.

But before either the priest or the half-orc could hit the serpent with their weapons, the psionic crystals on Solus's body began to emit crimson light, and the two companions found themselves thrown backward, as if both had been struck by a pair of invisible fists.

Yvka caught Ghaji beneath the arms, her elvish strength belying her petite frame, and Leontis caught Diran.

"Whatever that serpent is, it's taken control of Solus's psionic powers!" Tresslar said. "We must put as much distance between us and the psiforged as we can before-"

"Something like that happens," Hinto said, pointing behind them.

The others turned to see a dragon coming toward them. No, not a dragon, but rather the skeleton of a dragon, moving with an eerie liquid grace.

"Diran!" Leontis shouted. "I cannot turn it!"

Ghaji assumed Leontis had lost his silver arrowhead during the fireblast in the forest when his clothing had burned. Perhaps the intense heat had even melted the token.

"I don't think that thing's a normal animated skeleton," Asenka said. "If there is such a thing. Look at it. There are spaces between the bones. They're not connected."

It was true. The conglomeration of bones that approached them was configured in the shape of a dragon, but the separate pieces hung floating in the air, moving in concert as if they were a single unified creature.

"It's Solus's doing," Tresslar said. "Or rather, the serpent's. The creature is using Solus's telekinetic power to manipulate Paganus's skeleton!"

Now that Ghaji looked more closely, he could see what Asenka and the artificer were talking about. The skeletal dragon glided toward them with sinuous reptilian grace, but there were clearly gaps between the separate bones. And though they did move in unison, the motion wasn't perfect. Some gaps would widen for a second or two before closing up again. Ghaji was put in mind of the way a marionette sometimes wobbled and drifted even when under the control of a skilled puppeteer.

Hinto moved toward his friend. "Solus, whatever that serpent is, you have to fight it! You can't-"

The halfling reached out for the psiforged's hands, and just as with Diran and Ghaji before him, the little man was flung backwards by an unseen force. Ghaji caught Hinto before the halfling could fly too far, and the pirate's breath whooshed out of his lungs as he collided with the half-orc's sturdy arm.

Ghaji set Hinto down, and the halfling nodded to indicate that he was unhurt as he struggled to catch his breath.

The skeleton of Paganus stopped less than a dozen feet before the companions and reared back on its hind legs, front feet clawing the air, wing bones spreading out behind it, head lifted high, jaws stretching open in a soundless roar. And then the dragon exploded in a shower of bone-the segments of Paganus's skeleton flew through the air, the pieces moving independently of each other, swooping, darting, and dipping as they streaked toward the companions.

Ghaji stepped forward and swung his axe, knocking a femur aside. The bone cracked but didn't break, and it veered away, deflected but not destroyed. Asenka stepped to the half-orc's side, gripping her long sword tight in both hands. Several detached ribs shot at her like curved white arrows, and she cut them into pieces with a single stroke of her blade before they could reach her. But though the ribs shattered, the fragments did not fall, and they continued swirling around Asenka's head, like a cloud of ossified gnats. The majority of Paganus's skeletal structure circled through the cavern air above them, with only one or two bones breaking away from the mass at a time to swoop downward to strike. Ghaji and Asenka were hard-pressed to stop the flying bone segments, but they managed.

A thought struck Ghaji as he batted aside a section of Paganus's spine. If all the pieces of the skeleton attacked at once, there would be no way that the companions could stop them all. They'd be killed within moments. But the segments only attacked a couple at a time, which meant either Solus was resisting the dark magic which had usurped his telekinetic abilities and he was retarding the skeleton's assault, or he wasn't trying to slay them at all, but rather keep them occupied. Perhaps both.

Ghaji swung his axe and broke a rear claw into several pieces. Asenka, using one hand to swat at the bone gnats while holding onto her long sword with the other, struck at a spear-like curve of wing bone. The impact of her blade drove the wing bone into a nearby stalagmite, and the segment broke into a half-dozen uneven fragments.

"The lich is responsible!" Leontis said, his voice close to a growl. Too close for Ghaji's comfort. The half-orc couldn't afford to take his gaze off the murderous flying bones to look at the priest, but he could hear the man's words clearly enough. "Can't you feel the stench of her evil wafting off the serpent, Diran?"

"Indeed."

Ghaji didn't have to imagine Diran reaching into his vest pocket with his free hand to remove his silver arrowhead, for he'd seen the priest perform the maneuver hundreds of times before. Ghaji continued batting aside flying bone shards and waited to hear the tell-tale hiss of a supernatural creature recoiling before the holy symbol of Diran's faith. But he heard nothing except Diran's strained breathing.

"I can't move my hand toward my pocket!" the priest said, clearly frustrated. "The serpent is keeping me from reaching my mystic symbol!"

The dragon's skull flew toward Asenka, jaws spread wide as if to devour her. The swordswoman leaped aside and swung her long sword at the juncture where the jaw attached to the skull. The blow knocked the skull to the ground, and the lower jaw shattered. Ghaji dashed forward and split the rest of the skull in half with his axe.

Asenka paused to shout to Diran. "At least you know the arrowhead will work on the serpent, else the damned thing wouldn't care whether you removed it from your pocket or not!"

"I think I might be able to help!" Tresslar called out. "If nothing else, I can buy you a little more time to figure out how to free your arrowhead!"

The artificer was just barely in Ghaji's line of sight, and the half-orc was able to see what the artificer removed from his backpack, and knelt with it on the cavern floor before him. He opened in, reached inside, and pulled out what looked like a large soap bubble. Tresslar stood, cupped the translucent globe in both of his hands and whispered a rapid series of words that Ghaji couldn't quite catch. He opened his hands and the bubble soared up into the air toward where the pieces of Paganus's skeleton spun about like a whirlwind of death. As the bubble rose, a second separated from it and flew upward alongside the original. Then those two bubbles doubled, then those four doubled, and then those eight doubled…

Within seconds dozens upon dozens of bubbles filled the air, with more appearing every instant. Each bubble oriented on a specific bone segment and then streaked toward it, growing, expanding, or lengthening to match the size and shape of the bone it headed for. As the bubbles touched the bones, they absorbed the pieces, covering them entirely. The segments of dragon skeleton continued to float in the air, but though they tried to break free of their spherical prisons, the bubbles did not burst.

Tresslar smiled in satisfaction. "Thank you, Illyia," he said softly, then more loudly added, "The water-globes won't last long, so whatever you're going to do, you'd better do it fast!"

Momentarily freed from the task of fending off Paganus's bones, Ghaji turned to Diran. "We can't get close enough to Solus to stop him physically. Can either you or Leontis affect him with a priestly spell?"

Diran shook his head. "There is nothing either of us can do to mystically counter Solus's power."

"We'd need another psionicist," Leontis said, "or a full-fledged wizard."

Tresslar snorted. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that last comment. Solus needs to be able to see the bones in order to levitate them. Even his somewhat weak vision is enough, as long as he can maintain eye contact."

Solus had suffered a serious head injury when he became free of the Kalashtar Galharath's control. Tresslar had done his best to repair the psiforged, but Solus's vision had been weakened somehow during the process. When necessary, Hinto acted as Solus's eyes, and while the psiforged didn't seem to truly need the halfling's assistance, it was obvious to the companions that the construct appreciated his small friend's kindness.

"What are you suggesting?" Ghaji asked. "That we blind him? We can't get close enough, and if Diran threw a pair of daggers at him, Solus would just deflect them telekinetically."

Yvka stepped over to join them. She looked uncomfortable as she began to speak, as if what she were about to say went against her better instincts. Ghaji knew his lover was about to reveal something she preferred to keep private.

"Maybe I can help." The elf-woman rolled her left sleeve up to the elbow then stretched out her arm toward the psiforged. Ghaji gaped to see a shimmering dark blue design on the fair skin of the elf-woman's inner arm. It was a dragonmark, one the half-orc had never seen before, and considering just how much he'd seen of Yvka-not to mention how often he'd seen it-he would've known if she'd possessed such a mark. This was something new.

Yvka's brow furrowed in concentration, and a circle of shadow the size of a large plate appeared before Solus's eyes. The ebon circle darted forward and sealed itself over the psiforged's green orbs, covering them as if with a flap of night-black flesh and cutting off their verdant glowing light.

The instant Solus's eyes were sealed by Yvka's shadows, the dark serpent withdrew its fangs from the construct's head and hissed at the companions. It reared back, eyes returned to their previous crimson color, its coils unwinding from around the psiforged's neck as the foul thing prepared to leave its useless host for another.

But before the serpent could launch itself from Solus's shoulders, Diran managed to withdraw his silver arrowhead from his pocket, and the priest thrust it toward the dark reptile. The arrowhead flared with bright blue-white illumination, and the serpent shrieked its agony in a human voice-a woman's voice. The creature's scream died away, and it went limp as it slipped from Solus's shoulders and fell to the cavern floor. Its sinuous form straightened and shrank somewhat, its head becoming white and separating into five fingers. When its transformation was finished, the serpent had become an arm clad in a sleeve of black cloth, withered hand covered in dead-white flesh.

Diran stepped forward, continuing to focus the silver light of his arrowhead on the arm. He still held a silver dagger in his other hand, and he knelt down and plunged the blade through the back of the bloodless hand. The fingers spasmed once, and then both hand and arm collapsed into dust from which coils of sulfurous wisps like tiny smoke-serpents rose into the air.

Diran stood. The silver arrowhead no longer gleamed with light, and the priest tucked the holy symbol back into its vest pocket. He continued to hold onto his dagger, and Ghaji didn't blame him. There was an excellent chance Diran would have need of a blade again, and soon.

Yvka gestured at Solus, and the patch of darkness covering his eyes dissipated.

The psiforged nodded to the elf-woman. "You have my thanks, Yvka. I struggled to resist the serpent's control, but there was only so much I could do. The creature was very powerful."

Tresslar turned to Yvka as the elf-woman rolled down her sleeve to once again conceal her dragonmark. The artificer was about to speak when the water-spheres dissolved with a series of soft pops, and Paganus's bones fell clattering to the stone floor. Now that Solus was free of the serpent's control, the bones lay where they landed, unmoving.

"I believe that was the Mark of Shadow, was it not?" Tresslar asked.

Yvka nodded. "It manifested in Kolbyr, during the Fury."

"It's not unknown for dragonmarks to appear later in one's life." The artificer looked thoughtful. "I wonder if exposure to high levels of the Fury had something to do with its emergence."

Ghaji looked at Yvka, but the elf-woman wouldn't meet his gaze. The sudden appearance of a dragonmark was a major event in her life, but in the two days since they'd departed Kolbyr, she hadn't mentioned it to Ghaji. And now he knew why she'd insisted they make love in the dark the last several times: she hadn't wanted him to see her dragonmark. Ghaji had always felt an emotional distance between Yvka and himself, and he'd struggled not to let it bother him. But her reluctance to share this latest development with him only made Ghaji feel farther away from her than ever.

Hinto and Onu stood looking down at the black residue that was all that remained of Nathifa's arm.

"Was that really a lich's arm?" Onu said. "Most remarkable!"

Hinto frowned at the changeling. "You're enjoying this far too much, you know."

Onu grinned. "My dear lad, one can never enjoy life too much!"

Hinto looked back down at the ebon dust. "Seems to me this business has little to do with life."

Ghaji attempted to push aside his feelings about Yvka for the time being, but he vowed that the two of them would have a long talk when the opportunity presented itself. "Why would the lich sacrifice her arm just to slow us down?"

"She gave up more than just an arm," Diran said. "She invested it with a significant portion of her own mystic power so that it could break through Solus's psychic defenses and control him. Now that the arm is destroyed, that power is lost to her forever."

"She's getting desperate," Leontis said in a low, almost guttural voice. "I can smell it in the air."

Ghaji feared the priest wasn't speaking metaphorically. In the time since he'd emerged hairless from the fireblast, Leontis's hair had grown in to the point where it reached past his ears, and he had the beginnings of a mustache and beard once again. More disturbing, his body was dotted with small patches of thick body hair that resembled animal fur. Ghaji had been keeping a close eye on Leontis, and the half-orc was determined to strike the man down if he began to transform into a werewolf once again-and from the way Yvka, Tresslar, and Asenka continued glancing at Leontis, they felt the same way.

"But what's so important about this cavern that it's worth that kind of sacrifice?" Asenka asked. "Nathifa evidently didn't want Paganus's skeleton, and there's nothing else of interest here."

"Nothing obvious," Yvka said.

Ghaji was about to interject a comment of his own, but he was cut off by an ear-piercing-and familiar-scream from the far end of the cavern.

Ghaji looked at Diran, Diran looked at Ghaji, and at the same time they said, "The barghest."

Things weren't turning out as Nathifa had planned. She'd sacrificed her arm to gain enough time to locate Paganus's hoard of magic items and drain their energy into the Amahau. Once she'd accomplished that, she'd no longer have to be concerned about Diran Bastiaan and his retinue of hangers-on. With the mystical power that would be at her disposal, she'd be able to destroy them all easily, and the Amahau would still have more than enough magic left over for Nathifa to fulfill Vol's design for the Principalities.

She'd located the dragon's hoard easily enough. It lay at the rear of the cavern, accessible through a short tunnel concealed by an illusion spell that the lich had been able to remove with ease, even diminished in personal power as she was after the loss of her arm. The hoard chamber contained an impressive collection of stolen magical items: amulets, wands, crystalline figurines, gems of all types and sizes, pendants, bracelets, rings, gauntlets, leather-bound books, yellowed scrolls… But the chamber contained more than Paganus's hoard. The dragon's treasures lay piled around sepulchers carved out of black stone, a dozen or more, all with their lids removed, shoved aside, or knocked onto the floor. Strands of white gossamer covered the walls, stretched between the sepulchers, and lay across the magic items as if they had collected there naturally over the course of three thousand years while Paganus lay suffering in the outer cavern from wounds that would never heal. But Nathifa knew the white strands were no natural occurrence.

The lich stood at the chamber's entrance, a rough-hewn doorway that, from the crudity of its construction, had most likely been made by Paganus when the dragon had broken through the wall in order to use the ancient crypt to store his treasures. Makala and Haaken stood in front of the sorceress, and Skarm stood in front of them. There was no sign of life in the chamber, but Nathifa could sense it just the same. Life that was, paradoxically enough, suffused with negative energy.

"What is that stuff?" Skarm asked. "Cobwebs?"

"It's webbing, yes," Makala said. "But not the kind formed from dust."

"The vampire is correct," Nathifa said. "In order to safely drain the mystic energy from this many magical artifacts, I will need several moments of undisturbed concentration. It appears that in the decades since Paganus's death, a new resident has taken possession of the dragon's hoard chamber. You three will enter the chamber, flush out the creature, and slay it for me."

Makala turned to Nathifa. "You're a sorceress. Why not use magic to destroy whatever thing has made this place its lair?"

Nathifa wasn't about to admit to Makala that she'd been weakened by the sacrifice of her arm. Nor did she wish to reveal that she wanted to conserve her power for the task of wielding the Amahau. Using the device to absorb a vast amount of energy in a short period of time would require precise control. One mistake, and the Amahau would release its captured energy in a conflagration of mystic power that would destroy everything in its vicinity-including Nathifa and her servants.

Nathifa spoke in a low, dangerous voice. "Because I am your mistress, and I command you."

Makala had already had the pleasure of tearing the lich's arm off, and Nathifa thought the vampire-no longer be able to restrain herself-would finally attack. But though Makala's undead eyes flared bright crimson, the vampire made no move toward Nathifa. Instead, she gave the lich a cold, hard smile, and nodded.

"As you desire, my lady."

Makala turned and walked past Skarm into the hoard chamber.

Haakan grinned. "Looks like this is going to be fun!" The sea raider's flesh turned gray, his muscles swelled, a dorsal fin protruded from his spine, and black claws erupted from the tips of his broadening fingers and toes. His face lengthened, teeth grew sharper and more pronounced, hair and ears disappeared, eyes became shiny black orbs, and gill slits opened on the sides of his neck.

The wereshark lumbered into the chamber after Makala.

Of Nathifa's three servants, only Skarm still remained standing at the chamber's threshold.

The barghest turned to his mistress, an expression of mingled fear and apology on his goblin features. "Nathifa, what sort of creature-"

The lich didn't wait for Skarm to finish his sentence. With her remaining hand, she snatched hold of the barghest's cloak, lifted him off his feet, and hurled him into the chamber. Skarm yelped as he flew overtop the heads of Makala and Haaken, arms and legs windmilling as if he might somehow slow his flight. In anticipation of a painful landing, the barghest began to transform into his natural shape of a lupine-goblinoid hybrid. But before he could complete his metamorphosis, a strand of white silk shot down from the chamber's ceiling and struck the barghest in the back. The strand adhered instantly and went taut. Skarm's flight was arrested, and he hung in the air for a split second before the strand withdrew, pulling the barghest along with it.

Nathifa, Makala, and Haaken looked upward to see Skarm being reeled in by a mottled gray spider the size of a horse. The spindly creature clung to the chamber's ceiling and as the barghest-still in mid-change-came within reach, she snatched hold of him with her mouth parts and swiftly plunged her fangs into Skarm's chest. Skarm resumed his goblin shape, almost as if the spider's venom had forced the transformation, and then the huge creature flexed her abdomen and rammed a sharp barb into his stomach.

A scream of sheer agony tore loose from Skarm's throat, and in that instant Nathifa knew the barghest was lost.

She was about to order Makala and Haaken to slay Skarm-though the barghest was next to useless, he had served her for many years and therefore had earned a swift death. But before the words could leave her mouth, a pair of web-wrapped corpses that had been lying hidden in sepulchers sat up. Beneath their gossamer covering, the mummies' skin rippled, as if numerous small creatures squirmed within. The mummies began climbing out of their hiding places, and Nathifa decided that Skarm hadn't been that good a servant after all. It would take the spider several moments to finish implanting a fresh batch of eggs inside the barghest's body and wrapping it in silk to turn him into a new web mummy. The mummies needed to be destroyed now, before they had the chance to release the broodswarms that writhed within them.

"Forget Skarm! Stop the others!" Nathifa ordered.

The web mummies had finished lurching out of their sepulchers and now shambled toward the vampire and the wereshark.

"Skarm who?" Makala said with a laugh, and she and Haaken ran toward the web-covered corpses.

"But whatever you do, don't-"

Haaken rammed a gray-fleshed fist the size of a ham through the chest of a web mummy, while Makala took hold of the other's head and ripped it off the creature's shoulders with a single, savage twist.

"— break open their bodies," Nathifa finished with a sigh.

As Haaken withdrew his hand, a swarm of fist-sized bright-red spiders surged forth from the gaping hole he'd created in their host's body. A second broodswarm began to emerge with equal swiftness from inside the neck of the web mummy Makala had decapitated.

"Now you tell us!" Makala said.