Son of Thunder

CHAPTER 16

More than a dozen giant lizards ran through the thinly forested marsh of the revealed Sanctuary, toward the four intruders. Their long, snakelike necks leaned forward, and the ground trembled as they charged. Each was larger than several cottages, weighing more than twin dragons. Each step threw up huge sprays of water from the marsh and covered the charging behemoths in a shower of mist. Royce, Gunton, and Gan could only stare, just as they had at Elaacrimalicros. Scaly mountains bore down on them, and they could do nothing but watch.

Ardeth's crossbow sang. Each bolt zipped across the marsh and met its mark. No behemoth would be deterred by so minor a blow, but these bolts were fashioned with powerful magic at no little expense. When they struck behemoth scales, the beast disappeared, as if it had never been.

Ardeth giggled as she watched the magic work. The charging behemoths quickly noticed their disappearing companions and slowed their onrush, turning sideways and exposing more of their flanks to Ardeth's deadly aim.

As the behemoths began to thin out, Ardeth could see a strange standing stone at the Sanctuary's center, the top of which glowed with a beacon of unearthly red.

"Royce," she said. She passed the crossbow to the Antiquarian. "Cover me."

With no further explanation, she sprang forward into the marsh, running like a black streak through the knee-deep water.

Vell's mind cried out as he abandoned perspective after perspective. The behemoths were not dying, he knew, but were being sent somewhere far away where his mind could not follow. He watched the strange girl run through the swamp. He knew her well by now; she had abducted Sungar, astride the hippogriff he had chased through Rauvin Vale. She was also the enemy he had seen in the Fountains of Memory.

He bade one of the behemoths to break away from the others and cut her off before she could reach the menhir. To his surprise, the behemoth willingly, almost deferentially, turned its form over to him. Vell gasped as he found that he directed the creature. His human mind remained in control, yet he felt a strange familiarity with the behemoth's body.

Controlling this animal as if he walked in its skin, Vell rushed to intercept the woman in black, sending great sprays of water up from the marsh. The water slowed her, and Vell had no trouble getting ahead of her. He let out a reptilian cry from his behemoth throat. Her pale oval face wore a determined look.

A crossbow bolt zipped past Vell's head but missed and flew off into the marsh. Fired from a great distance, its aim had gone wildly astray.

Then the woman opened an outstretched hand. A number of black bolts zipped forth and pelted Vell all along his lizard form. He braced himself and let out a tremendous moan. His mind was unaffected, for it was many miles away, but his body succumbed to tremendous inertia. Vell strained to move his torpid legs. He was all but rooted to the spot.

Springing across the water, the woman in black unsheathed her sword and ran close to Vell, using the weapon to rake his behemoth form as she ran, drawing blood from both front legs. Not caring to make a kill, she ran past him, bound for the menhir.

Vell focused harder, pushing away the pain and the paralysis from her magic, and managed to turn and pursue her. He leaped into the air, his forelegs leaving the marsh and sending a cascade of water down on the woman. She lost her footing and tumbled into the swamp face first, losing her sword in the muck, not more than a dozen feet from the menhir with its glowing red light. With a silent scream of success, Vell pushed his massive form onto her, landing a foot on her body, pressing her into the water and pinning her there. She squirmed and struggled against him

Then Vell felt a sharp pain on his backside, and, in an instant, his mind was thrown back to his own body.

Ardeth surfaced in the marsh on all fours and gulped air furiously as the behemoth vanished above her. She was soaked from head to foot. The marsh muck penetrated her leather clothes, and she threw her honey hair back, a slimy weight on her shoulders. The marsh was strangely quiet-perhaps Royce had succeeded in sending away all of the remaining behemoths. She groped for her sword before looking up at the rune-covered menhir towering above her.

Standing at the foot of it was a man. Dressed in pristine white robes, unstained despite the water and muck all around them, he was old-far older than even the ancient Uthgardt shaman she'd battled in the Thunderbeast camp. His face was chalk white, yet his hair was jet black and straight, like that of an Uthgardt. He spoke in the dialect of Illuskan that Gan had used, and had the same voice.

"Why have you come?" he asked. His voice was full of anger and sadness. "Why did you think to test a place that has stayed hidden for so long?"

Ardeth's hand found the pommel of her sword under the water.

"You hide powerful magic," she said. "Magic from Netheril. Did you think you could keep it secret forever?"

"Yes," said the man. "We did."

Ardeth burst from the water, swinging the sword around in a long, graceful slash. The ancient man made no move to resist her as the blade sliced through his middle. She gave him a quick, clean death, and he uttered not a sound until his body fell at the base of the standing stone. He seemed almost glad to die, weary from his centuries as a guardian.

Ardeth sheathed her sword. Planting a foot on the dead man's head, she climbed up the side of the menhir with the grace of a squirrel. Standing at the top, she stared into the source of the red light: a glowing stone object the size of a fist, and vaguely resembling a human heart. It rested in a small indentation at the top of the menhir. Ardeth leaned closer, the light bathing her pale features in crimson. She could feel the energies pouring out of it, washing over her. Ancient magic. Magic from Netheril.

Smiling, she reached down, plucking the stone from its resting place. She heard an audible hiss as she removed it-how many centuries had it laid there, undisturbed? It felt warm in her hand.

The runes on the menhir beneath her ceased glowing.

Ardeth could see Gunton, Gan, and Royce looking toward her from the edge of the Sanctuary, afraid to step deeper into the marsh. The area was missing its behemoths, but Ardeth knew guardians must be near. The man she had slaughtered had said "we."

She would have to finish this quickly.

Ardeth held the stone high in the air within her hand, its light glowing through her pale fingers. She saw Gan raise the greataxe in response. With her other hand, she reached into her soaked leathers and pulled out a crossbow bolt she had held in reserve. Never taking her eyes off her three unfortunate companions, she gripped the bolt and drove it into her palm.

"No!" Royce screamed as he watched Ardeth vanish from atop the menhir, but he was not surprised. He paced for a moment, then took Ardeth's empty crossbow and smashed it against the rocks outside the Sanctuary's edge.

"What happened?" asked Gan.

"You should appreciate this," said Gunton. "She betrayed us."

"No," the hobgoblin said. "No, that can't be."

Human figures appeared all around the Sanctuary. Eight men and women, each of them old and black-haired, made their tentative way through the marsh, bound for the three outsiders. Each was dressed in white robes that became neither stained nor wet as they progressed through the muck.

"We are not without resources, even with the Heart of Runlatha stolen," the nearest of them said in a weak rasp that was somehow projected across the marsh. "You will not be allowed to escape."

Gunton watched them draw closer. "Do we run, or do we try to bargain with them?"

"She would not betray us," Gan said, bewildered.

"Wake up!" Royce shouted. "She has done nothing but betray us! All of our deaths are on her head. That Zhentarim bitch has left us here to die and teleported back to Llorkh with her treasure!"

Gunton raised his short spear, alternating nervous glances between the folk of the swamp and the hobgoblin. "Must we argue, while…"

"Why don't you kill me, Gan?" cried Royce. "Ardeth isn't here to stop you now!"

Gan flashed back to the Fallen Lands, when he had first found the axe. He knew that it was a leader's weapon from the moment he saw it, as surely as he knew that he was no leader. Neither was Dray, that stupid Lord's Man he slaughtered on the plain of dirt. It belonged with Geildarr.

Such a weapon! Though he didn't understand all of what Geildarr had told him about its origins, he understood enough to confirm what he had always felt. This was a hero's weapon. What a privilege to wield it on a hero's behalf!

Doing Geildarr's work, he boldly brought the axe down on Royce. Like Dray, he struck the warrior in the shoulder, and drove the axe downward until the head was embedded deep in his chest. In the last flicker of his companion's eyes, Gan saw not the anger he expected, but sadness.

What have I done? he asked himself.

The hobgoblin's hand went out to stroke Royce's face. Gan felt a pain in his own chest and looked down to see the point of Gunton's spear protruding from it, driven through from behind. He stumbled, turning about. The axe ripped free from Royce's body and fell from Gan's hands, landing with a splash in the marsh.

Gan tumbled backward onto Gunton's spear, which snapped under his weight. The bloody spearhead emerged from his chest. He reached out to grasp it as his body twitched and rattled.

As Gunton looked down on Gan, he saw the hobgoblin's dying face was a mask of confusion and indecision. Some realization must have dawned on Gan in his last moments. Perhaps, Gunton thought, in those last moments the hobgoblin understood the full power the axe had wielded over him.

Gunton choked back tears as he looked at the mangled wreck of Royce's body. He turned to the white-clad men and women still approaching from the Sanctuary. He spread his arms wide to show that he was unarmed.

"He was a brother to me," he explained. "Do you understand what that means?" He repeated himself in Illuskan, more furiously.

"We never should have dealt with a Zhentarim," he continued in Common, not worrying that they might not understand him as they approached with steady steps. "That was our first mistake. It wasn't just Geildarr's coin we craved. He truly seemed to treasure the things we found for him. He seemed as passionate about history as we were. He was hard to resist. We were just as deluded as Gan. May Shaundakul accept our Souls despite our weaknesses."

Gunton made no attempt to run as one of the figures stepped out of the Sanctuary before him. It was a woman, her white face as gnarled as a tree branch, jet black hair spilling over her shoulders. She extended a hand, and the axe rose from the water and into her grasp.

Gunton turned his back to her and braced himself. "I am the only member of this expedition not killed by a companion," he whispered to himself, awaiting the axe's impact.

Instead a bony hand clamped onto his shoulder and squeezed. He yelped in pain.

"We have use for you," the old woman said. "You must earn your rest."

Two days passed before the Thunderbeasts arrived, their path clarified by Vell's descriptions. They passed Mount Vision to the east, passing through the forest until they found the remains of the Sanctuary. The strange, thin trees were slowly dying. The cold mountain water from the Heartblood River had penetrated the marsh, and its magical warmth was lost. With the behemoths gone, the region was empty and desolate. Vell's heart cried out when he saw it-it was not the living, vital preserve he knew from his vision, but a drab, ruined, and useless waste.

On the northernmost phandar tree, the crow-pecked remains of one of the invaders made a gruesome spectacle. He was tied high up on the trunk, his hands severed and lashed alongside him. His head, thickly bearded and with its eyes stolen by birds, rested between his two feet.

"A warning against further intruders," Thluna said, unable to bring himself to look at it for long. "But who left it?"

"The Shepherds," said Vell. "Whoever they are." He looked across the Sanctuary to the menhir and immediately saw the difference. "The red light is gone. The invaders stole it when they stole the behemoths. It must have been the source of the magic that preserved this place."

"It is so," came a voice. A figure appeared from nowhere, white-clad and ancient. He was older even than Keirkrad and looked as if his flesh were ready to slide from his bones. While Keirkrad was unnaturally old, he was preserved by Uthgar's grace, and retained something of his youthful self. This figure made Elaacrimalicros seem young. His skin was mottled, halfway between skin and scales. Yet, despite his vast age, the old Shepherd had jet black hair like an Uthgardt, streaked with only a few strands of white. His eyes were a lifeless brown.

"Your failure is utter," he said. His voice was cold, without compassion. "You of Uther's blood have led us to ruin, once again."

All eyes stared at the strange old man. More of his kind emerged from the swamp, as if they had been hiding beneath the water, or simply melded with the marsh. A dozen appeared in all, men and women both-all of them equally ancient, as if all their life-force had long ago been sucked from their bodies. One of the women held the legendary axe, lifting it with ease despite her slenderness-the axe Sungar had wielded and left in the Fallen Lands two years earlier.

"Who are you?" asked Thluna.

"We are the Thunderbeasts," the Shepherd replied, pronouncing the word like a curse. "All others are but pretenders to the noble name." He huffed. "As are you, who dare travel with the blood of an orc-a creature even more debased than yourself." He pointed to Rask.

"This is an Uthgardt of the Tree Ghost tribe you offend," Thanar warned.

"We know of no Tree Ghost tribe, and hold little esteem for any of the Ruathan race that poisoned your spirit twelve hundred years past," the Shepherd said. "Uther Gardolfsson and his island race invaded our lands and polluted our strain."

They all knew that it was Uthgar-called by his mortal name-he defamed, but the warriors did not know how to react. Such a brazen insult to their god provoked wars among tribes, but what war was possible against these creatures?

"What fools we were to place our protection in your hands " cursed the old woman carrying the axe. She stepped from the water and dropped it at Vell's feet, then pointed an angry finger in his face. "You carry the power of us all-we stripped ourselves bare for you! And you failed us."

"Your powers," Vell said, suddenly understanding. "You bestowed them on me at Morgur's Mound on Runemeet." He looked over all the ancient faces. "All of your powers, into me."

"True," the man said. "Many of us have not worn our human forms in many centuries. We had hoped that you, who carry more of the pure bloodline than any other of your tribe, would retain the nobility to handle it properly." He looked at Vell with unalloyed disgust. "A poor choice on our part."

Vell looked him in the eye. "It is only an accident of birth that I have any relationship to you." There was absolute conviction in his voice.

"Let us understand," Kellin said, hoping to diffuse the situation. "Are you descended from the Thunderbeast tribe as it was before the coming of Uthgar?"

"Not descended," the Shepherd answered. "We are they." He looked at Kellin more closely. "And you-you have the blood of dragons. Why do you deign to travel with these mongrels?"

The barbarians looked at her in puzzlement. "Sorcerers carry the blood of dragons," she said. "Or so some sages say. But how dilute must the blood you speak of be? And does that not make me a mongrel myself? Why praise some and condemn others?"

The Shepherds frowned at her.

"Let me introduce myself," said Thluna. "My name is Thluna, Chief of the Thunderbeast tribe, son of Hagraavan…"

"And many dozens of generations past, son of the traitor Tharkane," the Shepherd said, unimpressed. "The same Tharkane who took this axe of legend-" he prodded it with his foot "-and made it an offering to the conqueror Gardolfsson."

"Gardolfsson?" asked Thanar. "Uthgar wielded the axe?"

"Indeed. With it he slaughtered one of our kind, who dared venture forth from the forest to contest him. Several centuries passed before we regained the power lost to us that day. Our fallen fellow's bones surmount Gardolfsson's grave."

"Morgur's Mound," said Vell. So that was it! The bones of the beast were not of any natural behemoth, but of one of the Shepherds transformed into a behemoth. And through those bones, they transferred their powers to him.

All of their powers. No wonder he could not wield them-they were not meant for an individual, but for many persons. Like the treant Duthroan had said, Vell was a receptacle.

"So Uthgar defeated him," Thluna said proudly. "Killed him."

"He did," the Shepherd confirmed. "And so our Thunderbeasts became his Thunderbeasts. But we have kept watch from behind the Sanctuary's walls where we could, through the bones of our fallen fellow, and through this axe. We felt such sadness as our children mated with other tribes and the Ruathans, as our blood weakened into something we no longer recognized. Under Uther's hand, all memories of us were steadily winnowed."

Thluna and his followers stood quietly for a time, letting the words sink in.

Kellin looked down at the axe. "What magic connects you to the axe?"

"Powerful magic and tangled, dragonborn," the Shepherd woman said. "On yonder menhir, until recently, rested the means of our deception-that which kept us and our behemoths secret from prying eyes for many centuries: the Heart of Runlatha, salvaged from that fallen city of magic by the Bey of Runlatha himself."

"Berun," some of the Thunderbeasts whispered among themselves, the name of a great hero in their songs.

"Yes, Berun indeed," hissed the woman. "A name that has floated through the ages misremembered and distorted. The Bey was ancient even for us, his true name lost to history, but it is known that he fled dead Netheril, leading our ancestors west from that fallen land."

"With the Heart of Runlatha," extrapolated Kellin. "And in Delzoun, the dwarves tied its magic to that of the axe you carry. The axe serves as a key," she went on. "It can dissolve the illusions. It can, and it did."

The Shepherdess nodded sadly. "With the axe in his hand, Bey battled the foul three who troubled his people, giving his own life to defeat Zukothoth." Vell realized that he must have caught a glimpse of that ancient battle in the Fountains of Memory, where it rippled like an afterthought. What a wonder! To lay eyes upon the Bey of legend!

"The axe was recovered by his followers and held as sacred, as they tamed the land. The weapon of the truest of heroes, it craves heroism from those who wield it. Its true powers lie dormant in the hands of mediocre men like your chiefs, though it twists the minds of the weak, always seeking a stronger wielder."

"And the Heart of Runlatha?" prompted Thanar.

"It has preserved us."

"And with it gone…"

"Yes," the Shepherd said. "We will die."

"A pity," said Thanar. This provoked a dark glare from the Shepherd.

"Magic!" cursed Thluna. "The unreliability of magic! No wonder Sungar disposed of the axe-would that it had stayed lost."

"Sungar!" the female Shepherd shouted. This was the strongest anger they'd heard from the ancients-she shouted the name like an epithet. "Wolfkiller! The blame is his! Where is he? He left our secrets ripe for the pillage."

"He lies in the hands of our enemies," Rask Urgek said. "We can only guess that, if he lives, he is in the dungeons of Llorkh."

"Llorkh." The name was whispered among the other Shepherds, still standing nearby in the marsh. "This orc-man speaks a name we have heard already,", said the male Shepherd, pointing at the soldier displayed on the phandar tree. "That is where our behemoths are, and the Heart with it. The survivor of this invasion, save the dark lady who fled by magic, revealed their plans to us."

"A fine burial you gave him," Rask said, eyeing the disgusting spectacle. "A thousand years of isolation has clearly caused your souls to atrophy." The Shepherds did not blink an eye in response to his insult.

Thluna asked, "Why do you not take your powers back from Vell?"

"They cannot," said Kellin. "Not without the Heart."

The male Shepherd nodded.

"As it always was with magic," Thluna told him. "You relied on it-you based your existence around it. And it has failed you."

"You have failed us," the Shepherd retorted. "You have all failed us."

"I'm curious," said Kellin. "Did you mean to summon me here as well, or was that an accident?"

"It was not our intention," said the Shepherd woman. "Our contact with the world outside this Sanctuary was limited. We could not…"

"You could not send clear messages, obviously," said Thanar. "Why say, 'Find the living'? Why not say, 'Come to the shadow of the easternmost Star Mount'? Why not, 'Recover the lost axe'?"

"Our ability to act was limited," came the answer. The man hesitantly went on. "The shard of your totem that remains in our possession is limited indeed."

"What can this mean?" asked Vell. "What shard of our totem?"

"I can explain," said Kellin. "At least, I'll try. Before the coming of Uthgar, the barbarians of the North-Netherese-blooded survivors from the exodus of Runlatha-worshiped powerful nature spirits rather than gods. This was common in those days. There were fewer gods then, and the conditions of the gods' existence were less stringent, as they were not bound by Ao to their followers. You know the names of these totem spirits-Blue Bear, Black Raven, Elk, Red Tiger, and more, and of course the Thunderbeast. When Uthgar became a god, his tribal followers began to worship him and their totems at once, so they became aspects of Uthgar: fragments of his personality representing different tribes.

"We know that worshipers can be stolen away, as the Blue Bear tribe was by Malar. When none of the Blue Bear tribe worshiped Uthgar any longer, the Blue Bear itself no longer represented him, but became part of the Beastlord instead. So, too, is it possible for new totems to be added, as with the Tree Ghosts," she explained, looking to Rask. "But this place is special. For the most part, worship of the Thunderbeast flowed to Uthgar, but a portion of it trickled here instead. Therefore, the Shepherds have some ability to act through the Thunderbeast outside of Uthgar's authority-perhaps even without his knowledge."

"The Thunderbeast is more legitimately ours than Uthgar's," said the male Shepherd haughtily. "Our claim is prior. We of Netheril's line possess nobility the Ruathan race could never possess."

Thluna paced for a moment, but his youth got the better of him and he delivered a punch to the Shepherd's chin.

The old man crumbled, falling to his knees. "A bold blow," he cursed through clenched teeth, "against a defenseless opponent."

"You deceived our tribe into believing it was given a summons from the divine!" Thluna shouted. "You have masqueraded as the spirit of our tribe for far too long! We lost warriors fighting your fight for you, and our shaman as well. Our tribe is left weak in a time of danger. Worst of all, you twisted us into believing we were doing Uthgar's work, while instead we were serving ancient rivals of his." He snatched up the greataxe lying at his feet. "You deserve this axe in your skull." He turned and walked away, back toward the pass that had led them there.

Vell caught up to him across the high mountain field. "We must continue with our mission," he said.

"Why should we, Vell?" asked Thluna. "Do they not deserve their fate?"

"They do, but the behemoths do not. They are blameless."

"They are beasts," Thluna replied, but when he saw the anger rise in Vell's eyes, he amended his statement. "Sacred beasts, truly, and in some ways our kindred. But can I justify marching our warriors into a city of darkness? Surely that will bring doom down on our tribe more swiftly"

"And Sungar?" asked Vell. "What of him?"

The question gave Thluna pause. "We do not know if Sungar still lives."

"We do not know that he doesn't. Kellin, Thanar, Rask, and the rest… I am certain that all of them will be willing to make the trip to Llorkh. They will not refuse because the journey serves the Shepherds as well."

Thluna closed his eyes and nodded. "In addition to everything else, Vell, the beast inside you… they put it there."

"And they can take it away," said Vell. "If we aid them."

"We came into the forest looking for answers. Looking for a destiny." Thluna frowned. "I said that myself, did I not? That our destiny would be found in the High Forest. And so it was. I wonder if we should never have come here."

He cast a glance back at the Sanctuary. The menhir standing at its center looked so much like those at Morgur's Mound and at a dozen other sites sacred to the Uthgardt. The Shepherds seemed to have vanished; how did they live in this marsh? How did they survive? What did they use for food? What would they do now that the marsh was cold and their protection gone?

Next to the great phandar tree stood Thluna's companions, including the three Uthgardt warriors who had come so far without complaint. Ilskar, Hengin, and Draf represented the characteristics of the Thunderbeast tribe: sturdy and solid, largely silent in the face of orders from their chief, and willing to march and die at his whim.

"We have the answers now, wretched though they may be," Thluna told Vell. "How can they be our ancestors? How could we have come from them?" A new thought dawned on him. "What will our tribesmen think if they learn all this? Must we keep the truth from them?"

"A question for a chief," said Vell. "Chieftains face difficult decisions, as Sungar did that day in the Fallen Lands. I was not there, but I heard what happened. Many questioned his decision to throw the axe away, but I did not think it was my place to question that decision."

"He made the wrong choice," Thluna said, looking down at the axe in his hands. "But I understand why he made it."

"This is your decision," said Vell. "We will follow you. Back to our people, to tell them what you will; or onward to Llorkh, a city completely unknown to us, to death or glory, and to that destiny we came seeking."

Thluna forced a smile. "I have little choice," he said, "when you put it that way."

Thluna faced the marsh, and the Shepherds approached him once again. His seven companions clustered about him.

"I have made a decision," he said, holding the ancient axe. "We will go to Llorkh and reclaim that which was taken from you. We will bring it back here."

The Shepherds seemed unimpressed. "Do you believe you can do this?"

"We believe we must try," Thluna answered. "But there is one condition."

"Which is?"

"This Heart of Runlatha obviously holds great power," said Kellin. "Now that the outside world knows of its existence, it will be doubly difficult to keep yourselves secret. All avenues must be closed."

"Therefore," concluded Thluna, "we will leave this axe with you inside the Sanctuary. Forever."

The Shepherds looked at each other then nodded to the Thunderbeasts. "This is well."

"And something further," said Vell. "You must renounce all claims on the Thunderbeast tribe and on our totem. Abandon this 'shard of the spirit' you have used to mislead us. We cannot have you interfering in our affairs any further."

This brought a violent reaction from the Shepherds. "Our claims are older than yours!" one roared. "We cannot forsake them simply because you ask it!"

"It is our price," said Thluna.

The druid Thanar added, "It is not often that fate affords the opportunity to bargain with one's own past."

"You will fail," predicted another of the Shepherds. "You have failed already, and you will fail again. Any bargain is immaterial."

"Then it should not matter if you enter one," said Thluna. "Swear. Who else will help you? Or shall we just leave you here to die?"

They sneered, then with great reluctance they relented with the slightest of nods. "May the gods speed you to Llorkh," one of them said.

"Any god but Uthgar?" asked Thluna. He turned his back to the Shepherds and led his followers away; they did not look back.