To his surprise, Arunika rose and moved right beside him, putting her arm on the small of his back.
“What do you think of the bridge?” Alegni asked.
“It’s the most beautiful and impressive structure in Neverwinter,” she replied. “It’s hard to believe it carried any name other than your own.”
Alegni turned on the woman, towering over her.
She didn’t back away, but tilted her head back, slightly parted her lips, and closed her eyes, inviting him.
It was an invitation Herzgo Alegni did not resist.
Arunika left Alegni’s room much later that evening. She didn’t reveal her true form to the tiefling during their lovemaking.
Nor did she tell him of the Abolethic Sovereignty, or of her relationship with Sylora Salm, or a million other little details that might have given the Netherese lord pause in his decision to couple with her.
Or in his decision not to kill her.
“A new pet?” Valindra asked when she caught up to Sylora just outside the perimeter of the Dread Ring. Beside the sorceress, flipping somersaults in the air and waggling its arms stupidly, was a small imp, a bat-winged little hellion whose smile might have been meant as disarming, but seemed more of a warning, somehow.
“A messenger from Arunika,” Sylora explained. “I assume that your meeting with the Sovereignty ambassador went well.”
“You assume? Or you already know?” Valindra asked, looking to the imp, who grinned wider still, that pointy-toothed smile almost taking in its batlike ears. It flapped its leathery wings and flipped over backward, landing easily back in place.
“I’ve been told that my champion is well prepared for the trials ahead.”
Valindra nodded. “And you have heard that the ambassador plans to support our cause with a strike at Neverwinter?”
“It pleases Arunika greatly,” Sylora explained with a wry smile. “Apparently the Netherese have now claimed a leadership role in the city. They’ll fill the role as the great protectors of Neverwinter, so they say. The new citizens are even naming landmarks after them.”
Valindra smiled at the delicious irony. Right after these Netherese proclaim themselves as protectors, the city would be battered to its core.
“They will find their city is built upon less than solid ground,” Sylora said.
“Will we join in this attack?”
“Only as a diversion,” Sylora replied, “to lure the Netherese from within the city.”
She turned away from Valindra then and back to the Dread Ring. She whispered a few words, then bent low, reaching into the ashen circle. When she turned back around, she held one of the Ashmadai scepters, a spear-staff, except that this one was more black than red, coal-colored and shot through with red steaks that appeared like living veins.
“An enchanted weapon?” Valindra asked.
“It draws power from the ring,” Sylora answered.
“For your champion.”
“Of course. A little added pain for Jestry’s opponents.”
Jestry appeared, hulking toward her. He wore a cape and a kilt, but his mummy wrappings were all too clear to see. He wasn’t moving as awkwardly as before. The wrappings had melded more fully with his skin, and the tightness and stiffness of the treated hide gave way to a more normal gait. He walked right up to Sylora and stared at her, unblinking, those parts of his face that were visible betraying no emotion.
“Does it hurt?” Sylora asked him, and she sounded compassionate. Jestry shook his head.
“Do you understand how powerful you have become?” Sylora asked.
The mummified champion smiled.
“You will kill her,” Sylora assured him. “You will serve as my great champion. All will fall before us—the Netherese will be driven from the forest. Szass Tam will know of your exploits, I assure you.”
“When we are done, will you restore me?” Jestry asked, struggling with each word as if the wrappings on his face had not loosened enough for him to properly formulate the words.
“I’m told that it won’t be necessary,” Sylora reached out and gently stroked Jestry’s face. “You will grow fully into your new skin. All of the sensations will return.”
Jestry’s hand snapped up to catch Sylora by the wrist, and he held her hand against his face for a long while.
“I have another gift for you.” Sylora held up the enchanted staff-spear.
Jestry’s eyes gleamed with hunger. He let go of Sylora’s arm and stepped back, taking the weapon in both hands.
“Go and practice with it,” Sylora bade him. “Learn of its new powers.”
Jestry looked at her curiously.
“Go,” she repeated. “Valindra and I have much to discuss.”
Jestry nodded obediently, turned, and ran off.
“You know his wrappings will not become like his old skin, of course,” Valindra said when he was gone. “The process is lethal. Jestry has barely months to live, if he’s fortunate. A year or so if he’s unfortunate.”
“He will serve me well long after that,” Sylora assured her.
Valindra looked at her, then at the Dread Ring. “The scepter,” she reasoned. “You’re attuning him to be fully raised into undeath.”
Sylora looked to the forest into which Jestry had disappeared. “I already have,” she replied.
Barrabus the Gray didn’t scream out, and that was a victory. The wracking pains had him doubled over. Only his white-knuckled grip on the bridge’s railing kept him from falling onto the cobblestones and writhing uncontrollably.
“The Walk of Barrabus,” Herzgo Alegni said for the twentieth time, and he twanged his fork against the blade of Claw, heightening the sword’s punishing waves of retributive energy. The large tiefling walked over and tugged Barrabus’s hand from the railing, then threw the man to the ground.
“Crawl!” he demanded. “Crawl the length of the bridge, and perhaps I’ll rename it again—no, another one, perhaps. Yes, we’ll call it the Grovel of Barrabus. How much more fitting that will be!”
Barrabus could only look hatefully at his master, and couldn’t respond because he simply couldn’t pry his own teeth apart.
“How dare you?” Alegni asked, and he kicked Barrabus in the ribs.
The man hardly reacted to that impact, though, for the pain of the blow was nothing compared to the vibrations of that awful sword.
Alegni stepped back, sighed, and grabbed the tines of the fork, silencing it and halting the waves. The pain immediately ceased. Sweating, Barrabus crumbled lower to the bridge, gasping for breath, his face pressed against the stones.
“What am I to do with you?” Alegni said, his voice full of regret and sadness—and how Barrabus wanted to cut out his heart for that phony empathy! “I bring you glory and power, and you repay me with this treachery.”
Barrabus growled and forced himself over onto his back.
“Ah, yes, I know,” Alegni went on. “Don’t bother repeating your excuse that the citizens insisted. You knew, and you allowed it. You knew my designs on this magnificent bridge. You were the agent who first facilitated the name change I desired. No, deny not the truth. You wanted to wound me. You knew your barb wouldn’t stand, but you decided to play the game anyway.”
All signs of empathy gone, the angry tiefling kicked Barrabus hard in the ribs once more. The man grunted in reply, rolled up to his side, and curled defensively.
“Was it worth it?” Alegni asked him.
Yes, Barrabus thought.
“Was it?” Alegni asked again, and when no reply came, the tiefling turned and started away. “Come along,” he ordered coldly.
Barrabus rolled onto his back and took a few deep breaths. Then, before he could think it through—to do that would have been to warn the awful red-bladed sword—he threw himself over backward, tucking and rolling, coming to his feet and launching himself after Alegni.
He flipped his belt buckle free, the magical implement instantly transforming into a dagger, and moved to throw. He thought himself successful, thought his rash actions had eluded Claw just long enough to allow him one strike at that wretched Alegni.
But the wall of agony came on like a charging bull, stopping him in his tracks, freezing his muscles in place—and he realized he hadn’t come close to letting fly the knife.
Claw caught him, inside and out, and mocked him with its power. All strength flew from his every muscle and he simply crumpled where he stood. He couldn’t speak, he couldn’t roll over, he couldn’t breathe. Nothing worked—he couldn’t even blink. It was as if all that was Barrabus mentally had been decoupled from all that was Barrabus physically.
This is death! he hoped. Oh, how he hoped.
But it wasn’t, and Barrabus gradually felt himself becoming whole again. He rolled onto his back and looked up to see Herzgo Alegni staring down at him. Before he knew what he was doing, Barrabus’s knife hand went up to hover above his own face. He felt the compulsion, and couldn’t deny it.
He brought the blade down to stab at his cheek, and when the blade slipped into his skin, he dragged it down to his chin.
Images of cutting off his fingers, his toes, his genitals, flitted through his thoughts, and he knew he couldn’t deny Alegni’s sword if it had ordered him to do any of those things.
His hand inched down toward his crotch, his bloody blade moving with purpose. He lifted his arm, blade pointed down, as if to plunge it home.
Under command of the sword, Barrabus held that humiliating and terrifying pose for many, many heartbeats.
Herzgo Alegni laughed and walked away.
The tiefling had barely gone a couple of strides when an explosion rocked Neverwinter. As the noise dissipated, cries from the wall told them that the city was once again under attack.
“Come along!” Alegni demanded.
The man pulled himself up from the ground. He felt drained, as if much of his life force had been stolen from him, and in his thoughts, he heard the voice of Herzgo Alegni’s sword, You are alive at my suffrage alone.
Barrabus instinctively countered that it was not a blessing, but a torment, but sarcasm was wasted on Claw.
He should have died many years before. He’d lived two lifetimes, but he hadn’t died. He remained vibrant, strong, and quick as ever.
The sword wouldn’t let him die. That weapon, which could steal a life force with the slightest cut, which could drive a spirit into oblivion, denying an afterlife, could reverse its murderous tendencies. He was alive at the suffrage of that sentient magical weapon.
But the cost!
He staggered along after Alegni, gradually regaining his agile gait. He caught up with the tiefling in sight of the wall, and another fiery explosion ignited just in front of that barrier, showing the dark silhouettes of ducking guardsmen.
“It would seem that our friends have returned,” Alegni muttered to Barrabus and the others who had gathered near him.
“Out by the trees!” one woman on the wall called out. “The zombies have returned!”
“Along with the lich,” said a quieter voice, and Effron appeared then as if materializing out of the shadows. “Valindra Shadowmantle,” he explained.
