The Rose and the Skull

30

"Where is Dalian?" Ellinghad shouted as he skidded to a stop beside Jessica. Behind them, Lady Meredith's war cry echoed down the hall. The ring and crash of steel upon steel followed.

"I don't know," Jessica answered. "By the time I got here, he was gone."

"He's betrayed us," Ellinghad snarled. "Either that or he's run off to save his own miserable hide, the coward."

"I can't believe either," Jessica said. "We've just lost him. He'll be back."

Jessica bent down beside the gully dwarf. Glabella's eye were as round and white as goose eggs. "Which way to the dungeons?" Jessica asked her. "Which way to Uhoh?"

Glabella's mouth worked, but no sound came out. "Think, Glabella, think!" Jessica shouted.

The gully dwarf only closed tight her eyes and shook her head.

Suddenly, the battle at the end of the hall grew quiet. Then footsteps pounded, running. Ellinghad poised, his blade ready. Meredith appeared, bleeding from a dozen wounds. She staggered into them and collapsed, almost falling on Glabella.

"Lady Meredith!" Jessica exclaimed.

"What happened?" Ellinghad asked.

"I managed to close the door. There was a key. It won't hold them for long," she gasped. As though to confirm this, a thundering boom echoed from the direction of the kitchen as the draconians began to hammer down the door.

"Which way now?" Meredith asked as Jessica bound the more severe of her wounds. "Which way did the elf go?"

"We don't know. I think he's abandoned us," Ellinghad said.

"Damn him," Meredith cursed. "We should have known better than to trust an elf."

Jessica looked at the leader of the Sword Knights in surprise. Never before had Lady Meredith shown racial prejudices. Perhaps it was the stress of her wounds and the imminent danger.

"What about the gully dwarf? Does she know the way?" Meredith asked. Jessica helped her to her feet.

"I don't think so," Ellinghad said.

Meredith roughly grabbed Glabella by the collar of her dress. "Which way?" she snarled. "Tell us now. No more games."

Glabella only stared in wide mouthed terror. Suddenly, she lashed out, sinking her teeth into the thumb of the Knight. With a scream of pain, Meredith dropped the gully dwarf.

As soon as she hit the floor, Glabella raced away, screaming, "Slagd! Slagd!"

"Glabella!" Jessica shouted as she started after her.

"Wait. Let her go. She's no use to us," Meredith said.

"Let's just pick a direction and go."

Without waiting for the others, she stalked away, choosing the opposite way in which the gully dwarf had headed.

"We came here to rescue one gully dwarf." Jessica muttered. "Shall we leave another behind?"

Behind them, the kitchen door crashed open, and draconians poured into the hall. Ellinghad ducked as a draconian arrow whistled past his head.

Jessica and Ellinghad hurried after their designated leader.

Lady Meredith chose a path which seemed to always take them around a corner just before the draconian archers loosed their arrows. A half-dozen times or more, scores of arrows buzzed angrily though space they had just vacated, or shattered against a wall where they had been standing only moments before. The Knights ran, even though fleeing the enemy was against everything they believed in. All those rules seemed silly now. The only thing to do was to save themselves long enough to save Uhoh.

After making yet another hair's breadth escape, they found themselves in a hall which ended in a door. There was no other outlet. Meredith tried the door and breathed a sigh of relief when it swung open on oiled hinges.

"Through here!" she shouted, as draconians appeared once more at the end of the hall.

Jessica and Ellinghad ducked through the door, and Meredith slammed it shut just as the draconians released their missiles. Meredith threw home a heavy iron bolt. Arrows hammered against the door like hailstones on a slate roof.

"That ought to hold them for a while," Meredith said with a laugh.

"For all the good it will do us," Ellinghad said in response.

They found themselves in a wide, circular chamber whose ceiling was lost in shadows above. In the center of the room stood a low stone slab draped with chains. Opposite the door and dozens of feet above the floor, a narrow balcony jutted from the wall. Heavy curtains concealed the back of the balcony, but torches set in sconces to either side illuminated a short figure draped in dark robes. As the Knights stared up, the figure began to clap, slowly, in mockery of applause.

"Well done," the figure laughed. "Is this the best the Knights could send?"

"Alya!" Ellinghad shouted. "Come down here and find out for yourself."

She threw back the cowl of her robe and shook out her dark hair. "Now I ask you, would that be an honorable fight, Sir Knight? Two against one?" she said.

"Three against one," Jessica said.

"Yes," Alya laughed, "but I think the true odds are more like two against two, isn't that right, General Zen?"

"That's right, Lady Alya," Meredith answered in a deep voice.

Ellinghad and Jessica spun round and watched in horror as their leader threw back the bolt on the door and swung it open. Draconians poured into the chamber, snarling in anticipation.

"Lady Meredith!" Jessica cried.

"At these odds," Alya continued, "I think you might prefer to surrender."

Ellinghad laughed. "I'll never surrender," he said. "Death first."

"Lady Jessica?" Alya asked, a note of concern creeping into her voice.

Jessica swallowed the dry lump in her throat. "Death," she croaked.

"Well, we can't always have our own way," Alya said. "Grand Master Iulus wants you alive, and so alive you must be taken." She clapped her hands.

The draconians nearest the door parted, making way for a figure robed in black. He strode into the room and looked up at the balcony as though awaiting an order. Ellinghad and Jessica turned to face this newcomer.

"Shaeder, I believe you have an opportunity to redeem yourself/' Alya said.

The figure walked toward the Knights.

"Get behind me," Ellinghad whispered to Jessica. "When he casts his spell, you come round and attack him before he can recover."

As the bozak mage lifted his voice in chant, Ellinghad gave the Knight's salute to an enemy, then started his war cry. Before he could do anything, however, his mouth filled with some sticky substance, which also clung to his eyes and covered his limbs. Magical webs engulfed both Knights, binding them completely.

Valian started from a sleep, with something clutching his leg like a shackle. He lay in a pile of ash, and as he kicked himself free, he realized that the "shackle" was Glabella. The gully dwarf moaned in her sleep and tightened her grip on his ankle.

"Wake up," he hissed. "Glabella, wake up!"

Her eyes flew open, and for a moment she seemed not to realize where she was. She sank her teeth into the calf of his leg. He cried out in pain. With one mighty kick, he sent her sliding through the muck.

They lay in some side hall. A door some distance down the hall stood ajar, allowing a little light to spill out. Valian rose, staggering, feeling the bump on his head for the first time. His right shoulder and side were also sore. Obviously, in his fear-crazed flight, he'd slammed into a wall and knocked himself out. As he swayed to his feet, groaning in pain, Glabella came crawling back to him.

"I sorry," she whimpered.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "How did you find me?"

"I ask other Aghar. They see where you go," she answered.

"And the others? The other Knights? What about them?" he asked.

"I no like other Knights now. I like you best. We stay here," she said as she cuddled up to his leg.

Gently, he pried her loose. "Glabella, listen to me. We have to find them. We have to find Uhoh and get out of here. What happened to them?"

"Red hair lady is slagd now," Glabella answered.

"Lady Meredith?"

Glabella nodded. "She not Knight anymore, she slagd."

"A sivak," Valian murmured in horror.

"They go with her," Glabella said. "Aghar say they caught. But not Glabella. I find pretty Knight. We live here forever." Again she wrapped her arms around his thigh.

Again, he worked himself free, managing to keep her at arm's length. "We have to find them. Do you know where they have been taken?"

"No," she said stubbornly.

At a sound from behind them, Valian spun. An armored figure stood there, peering into the darkness.

"Valian?" the figure called. "Is that you?"

Glabella hissed Valian turned, pushing the gully dwarf behind him. She clung to his legs.

"Lady Meredith," he answered smoothly.

"Thank the heavens I found you!" Meredith said. "Come on. We've found Uhoh."

"Where are the others?" Valian asked as he inched toward the Knight. Glabella's leghold threatened to trip him.

Meredith saw the gully dwarf as Valian neared the light. "Ah, I see you've found Glabella as well. Good, very good," she said.

As Valian emerged into the light, Meredith stepped back and laughed. "Shoo, you stink," she laughed, holding her nose.

He smiled weakly and shrugged. "Lead the way," he said.

Meredith nodded and turned. In a flash, Valian's arm locked around her throat and a dagger pricked her flesh between the plates of her armor.

"Valian, what are you doing?" she croaked.

"Shhh, no more tricks, sivak," he hissed into her ear.

"Sivak? Have you gone mad?" Meredith exclaimed.

"Don't play me for a fool," Valian said. "If you want, we can wait here until you are no longer able to hold this shape, then we'll see what happens."

"By that time, your friends will be dead," Zen's voice answered from Meredith lips.

"That's why you are going to lead me to them, now," Valian said. He increased the pressure, strangling the draconian. "And don't try to change shape, or I'll spill your kidneys on this floor."

"Go ahead," the sivak grunted. "You know what will happen if you kill me?"

"I know ways to kill you safely and slowly, draconian. So unless you care to experience them, you will show me the way." Valian released his hold, freeing the sivak. He drew his sword and used its point to shove Lady Meredith forward.

"Come on, Glabella," he said.

At the far end of a hall stood a magnificent throne of solid gold, more fabulous than any treasure Jessica had ever seen. On it sat a creature from the darkest nightmare imaginable. It was draconian, but only partially. Its twisted face reminded the knight of pictures glimpsed in a book long ago, of the creatures supposed to inhabit the Abyss. His visage filled her with such fear and loathing that she could barely stand to look at him. He laughed as she turned her face away.

To her surprise, a very miserable looking gully dwarf lay beside her. He seemed only half-conscious. No cords bound him and he wore only a dirty loincloth. She almost burst out in tears at the sight of him. His little body was bruised and battered, his skin burned, his hair and beard singed to ash in places. Droplets of sweat spattered his forehead, and he was tossing in some fevered dream.

"Uhoh," she moaned.

"Gulpfunger!"

Jessica turned to find Mommamose also had been brought in and set beside Sir Ellinghad. The draconians were cutting the last of the webbing from his mouth. He gagged violently, which made them laugh with delight.

Despite being bound hand and foot, Mommamose managed to lunge at one of the draconians, trying to wield a gully dwarf's favorite weapon-her teeth. The kapak leaped back to avoid those flashing yellow incisors, then brought his mailed fist crashing down on her head. She slumped to the floor.

A door slammed as Lady Alya stalked into the room. She paced before the throne of Iulus, cracking her knuckles in impatience. Finally, Iulus spoke, gesturing to a pillow on the floor beside his throne. "Lady Alya, please relax and take a seat," he said in honeyed tones.

"I can't relax," she snapped. "Hasn't it occurred to you that if they have sent Knights here, then they must know of our whereabouts!"

"If they know so much then, why bother to try to rescue a gully dwarf?" Iulus crooned. "Perhaps they do not yet know how Gunthar died. If they did, the gully dwarf would be useless to them."

"Maybe useless to you, but not to us," Jessica spat.

"See there," Alya said scornfully. "I told you so. They have come because it is the right thing to do." She moved quickly to stand before Jessica. "You know everything, don't you? You're here purely for the sake of honor, aren't you?"

"I am only following orders," Jessica answered defiantly.

With a scream of rage Alya cuffed her with an iron gauntlet. Jessica crumpled to the floor.

"Lady Alya!" Iulus said.

Ellinghad spat the last of the magical webbing from his mouth. "If I were free, I'd make you regret that," he growled.

"Is that so?" she smiled as she brought her knee smashing into his stomach. He gasped and fell to the floor.

"Lady Alya!" Iulus shouted. "Restrain yourself."

"What does it matter? They'll be dead shortly," she said sulkily as she crossed to the throne and flopped onto a pillow.

"The gully dwarves, yes, but these two are much too valuable to be killed right away," Iulus said. "They'll bring a fine ransom, even though I regret not being able to keep the female for my own purposes."

"No ransom!" Alya exclaimed. "They are to be executed at once! They are too dangerous." She climbed to her feet and addressed one of the draconian guards. "Where is General Zen? He should be back with Valian by now."

"This is my domain, Lady Alya," Iulus snarled. "I don't take orders from the Knights of Takhisis. You are my guest, and these are my prisoners. I'll do with them as I like."

"You should listen to her, my master," said a voice from the doorway. "She is right. You have grown too greedy with all this talk of 'ransom.' "

Alya spun to find Lady Meredith standing in the doorway. "Zen! Where is Valian? Didn't you find him?"

Zen edged into the room, arms raised in surrender. Behind him, the dark elf warily crept, his sword poised to strike.

"I am right here, Lady Alya Starblade," he sneered.

Glabella peered around the doorpost. When she saw Uhoh lying on the floor, a whimper escaped her lips.

"Valian, my old friend," Alya smiled. "I was very surprised to learn you were part of this… rabble. I thought you were above this sort of thing."

"I came here for one thing, my lady," Valian said.

"And that is?" she asked as she edged toward the throne.

"Justice. You and Tohr have disgraced the Knights of Takhisis with your dishonorable schemes. I missed my chance at Tohr, but I shall not let you escape so easily." With a snarl, he shoved the sivak to the wall and charged his former leader.

General Zen caught himself before his head smashed into the stone wall. He rose and turned, shaking off the human form of Lady Meredith, just as Valian and Alya's swords clashed. He stood back and solemnly watched developments. Grand Master Iulus, it seemed, was also content to wait and see how things turned out, a hideous grin on his wizened, reptilian face.

The battle between the Knights of Takhisis seesawed back and forth before the throne. Alya gave way before Valian's superior strength, then counterattacked, putting him on his heels. As the fight grew close to the bound prisoners, Jessica gathered her wits and found Glabella near at hand.

"Glabella," she whispered.

The gully dwarf turned, her filthy face streaked with tears.

"See if you can reach my dagger. Cut our bonds," Jessica said.

"Hurry, Glabella!" Ellinghad whispered.

Hesitantly, with a glance at the Grand Master of the draconians, she crept to Jessica's side and felt for the dagger. With a smile, she freed it from the webs and began to cut away at the sticky cords binding Jessica's arms.

She didn't get far before a huge silver claw grasped Glabella by the arm and snatched her into the air. Zen wrenched the dagger from her fist, then tossed her aside. He looked down at the helpless Knights, then glanced up at his master. Iulus, greedy for the sight of blood, still watched the battle.

Jessica, sensing the sivak's next move, closed her eyes. "Make it quick and merciful," she whispered.

"My last act as a Knight of Solamnia," answered Lady Meredith's voice.

Jessica's eyes flew open, but it was still the sivak, hovering over her. Only, something was different, something about the eyes. There was no mistaking: They were the soft blue eyes of Lady Meredith Turningdale.

The sivak smiled, showing his fangs, and lifted Sir Ellinghad to his feet. With one swooping move, he cut the webs from the Knight's arms. Ellinghad struggled free and drew his sword.

"Zen!" Iulus shouted, noticing them at last.

"You have grown soft, my master," Zen said. "Let's see how you fare against a real opponent."

He rolled Jessica over and cut loose her bonds, then dropped the dagger beside her.

"Fare thee well, Lady Knight," he said in Meredith's voice, then the look of her old comrade was gone. Cold black orbs stared back at her.

Zen turned and strode from the room, motioning for the guards to follow him. Reluctantly, they obeyed.

Alya and Valian circled each other, seeking some weakness, some mistake, probing, feinting. Valian was slowly growing weary, while Alya wasn't even breathing hard. Blood seeped through Valian's bandages and onto his sword hand, making the hilt slippery and hard to hold.

Out of the corner of his eye, Valian saw Ellinghad streak past. That one moment of distraction was all Alya needed. Lunging quickly, she caught Valian's blade, then with a deft flip, sent it spinning through the air.

He stepped back, his arms raised.

"Justice is what you make of it, my old friend," Alya said as she raised her sword above her head.

Ellinghad drew his sword and kissed the hilt. Across from him, the Grand Master of draconian assassins sat in his golden throne, eyeing the Knight with contempt. Ellinghad shouted, "For Gunthar!" and charged. Iulus sat unmoving, but his chest swelled as though preparing for the blow.

All of a sudden, his head shot forward and his mouth gaped open, and a cloud of noxious gas poured forth. Ellinghad charged into it, unmindful, but the fumes robbed his legs of their strength. He stumbled and fell, his sword slipping from his grasp. He couldn't breath. He gagged. A shadow loomed above him. He looked up, blinking through the haze of his own tears. Iulus leered down at him, pointed and spoke a single word. Magical energy burst against his skull.

Jessica's only thought was to pull Uhoh to safety. The other Knights could take care of themselves. It was her job to rescue the gully dwarves.

Grabbing Uhoh by his arms, she dragged him to the door, then returned for Mommamose, only to find Glabella had already freed the Highbulp. The two were huddled over something and arguing. Mommamose clutched a thin wand of amber, which Glabella tugged at from one end.

"It mine!" Mommamose snarled.

"I find it at Town. I bring it here. It mine," Glabella responded.

It was at that moment that the aurak breathed forth his cloud of poison gas, felling Ellinghad. As Jessica and the two gully dwarves watched in fascinated horror, Ellinghad clawed at his throat for breath, while the cloud spread across the floor towards them. The draconian stood and spoke a word of magic, calling forth a burst of energy from his palms, which struck Ellinghad.

No!" Jessica screamed as Iulus calmly resumed his seat in his golden throne.

The gully dwarves resumed their squabble. "I say magic word."

"No I say magic word."

And then a rare event occurred. Glabella said, "I hold magic stick, you say magic word."

"Okay," Mommamose said.

Glabella stood and pointed the wand at the Grand Master. Mommamose touched the sapphire at its base. The one good eye of Iulus grew wide.

"Crackling!" Mommamose shouted.

Alya staggered, the sword still poised above her head, as thunder rocked the chamber. Though momentarily stunned, Valian recovered more quickly, and in one fluid motion, he drew his dagger, ducked under Alya's blow, and brought his fist up into her chest. She toppled to the floor, a dagger protruding from her heart.

The force of the magic knocked Mommamose and Glabella to the floor; Jessica grabbed onto something. A lightning bolt struck the heavy throne, lifting it up and sending it crashing partially through the back wall. With Iulus wedged in it, the throne hung precariously, suspended two thousand feet above the raging sea. Rain slashed through the opening in the wall.

Meanwhile, Iulus had begun a horrible transformation. Like other draconians, an aurak underwent a series of changes after death. Usually they were immolated with green flames and entered a killing frenzy. Iulus, though he raged and frothed, remained firmly stuck. The lightning bolt had melded his flesh to the gold throne, trapping him. The throne rocked with his struggles.

Jessica started from her trance when Valian touched her arm.

"Come on," he urged.

"The gully dwarves," she cried, tearing from his grasp. She rushed to Glabella's side and lifted her to her feet.

"That some magic," the gully dwarf said thickly as she rubbed her head.

Mommamose had already regained her feet. She was pointing at something, her face frozen. Jessica spun around, sickened by what she saw. She turned away.

Ellinghad had staggered upright, but he was no longer a man. He was a thing somehow clinging to life. His face and head had been blasted by the draconian's magic, his lungs destroyed by the poison gas. He clawed at the air , then turned blindly toward the tortured screams of the Grand Master.

Ellinghad lunged toward the dying draconian. A weird sound erupted from him, low and hysterical, bespeaking the madness of pain he was suffering. He stumbled into the chair, felt burning flesh beneath his fingers, and found the throat of the draconian. The green flames consumed him, but still he kept choking Iulus.

There was a tremendous crack, and the throne, the Grand Master, and the Knight vanished. Where they'd been, rain poured in, soaking the floor and raising steam from the flagstones. A cold wind blew into the room, blowing out all the candles.

In the darkness, Jessica felt a cool hand. "Let's get out of here," Valian said.