Page 23 (1/2)

AN AUDIENCE WITH THE KING

Athrogate and Entreri eyed each other for a long, long while after the dwarf came out of the hole

"Could&039;ve ruined yer weapon, ye know," Athrogate re star that coated itself with the rust-inducing liquid

"Could&039;ve eaten yer soul, ye know," the assassin countered,the dwarf&039;s tone and dialect

"With both yer weapons turned to dust? Got the juice of a ruststar so that the head bounced a bit at the end of its chain

"It may be that you overestimate your weapons or underesti the truth"

Athrogate cracked a smile "Some day we&039;ll find out that truth"

"Be careful what you wish for"

"Bwahaha!"

Entreri wanted nothingdwarf&039;s throat at that moment But it wasn&039;t the time They remained surrounded by enemies in a castle very hting beside the," Jarlaxle said, lanced back at the two half-orcs, leading the gaze of the dwarf and the assassin Arrayan sat against the wall across the hile her co for soerkhan looked er had fed Canthan&039;s life energy to hiate&039;s fierce attacks Beyond that, the great weariness that had been dragging on Olgerkhan seeht and alert, his movements crisp

But as much better as he looked, Arrayan appeared that much worse The woman&039;s eyes drooped and her head swayed as if her neck had not the strength to hold it upright So about the last battles had takenthe rest

"The castle has a king," Jarlaxle said

"Bah, Canthan got it right, and ye killed hiirl, don&039;t ye see? She&039;s wilting away right afore yer eyes"

"No doubt she is part of it," the drow replied "But only a small part The real source of the castle&039;s life lies below us"

"And how ht ye be knowin&039; that?" asked the dwarf "And what&039;s he looking for, anyway?"

"I know because I can feel the castle&039;s king as acutely as I can feel , nor do I much care Our destiny lies below and quickly if we hope to save Arrayan"

"Whatfor that one?"

Entreri shot the dwarf a hateful look

"What?" Athrogate asked with mock innocence "She ain&039;t no friend o&039; me own, and she&039;s just a half-orc Half too ard her," Jarlaxle intervened "Think of yourself, and rightly so I tell you that if we defeat the king of this castle, the castle will fight us no more, whatever Arrayan&039;s fate I also tell you that we should do all that we can to save her, to keep her alive now, for if she is taken by the castle it will benefit the construct and hurt us Trust , and the castle continues to feed fro so it continues to attack us, then I will kill her h"

"But I only say that because I am certain it will not coerkhan, who glared at him "Now let us tend our wounds and prepare our weapons, for we have a king to kill"

Athrogate pulled a waterskin off and moved toward the two half-orcs "Here," he offered "Got a bit o&039; the healing potions to get yer strength back," he said to Arrayan "And as for yerself, sorry I breaked yer neck"

Olgerkhan offered nothing in reply He hesitated for a moment by Arrayan&039;s side, but thenaround on all fours once

Entreri pulled Jarlaxle to the far side of the roo about? How do you knohat you pretend to know, or is it all but a ruse?"

"Not a ruse," Jarlaxle assured hiic tellsof thisI have seen and felt since only confiric"

"You have told me that all before," the assassin replied

"Could you offer so more?"

Jarlaxle patted his button pocket, wherein he had stored the skull "The skull gem we took fros I feel the king below us His is a life-force quite hty"

"And we are to kill hi the clues Do you reht on that for a ns etched upon its leathery cover, and in the ain the assassin paused, and shook his head

"Skulls," Jarlaxle explained "Huns on the book up the ramp, the source of this castle?"

Entreri stared hard at his friend He had not actually looked at the book that closely, but he was beginning to catch on Given his experiences with Jarlaxle, where every road seemed to lead, his ansas as ons?"

"Exactly," the drow confire to punch him in the face "I understand the fearful expressions of our sister eonkind as he perverted hurave They feared the apparent opening of Zhengyi&039;s lost library, as evidenced by Herminicle&039;s tower They feared that such a book as the one that constructed this castle ht be uncovered"

"You doubt that Arrayan started this process?"

"Not at all, as I explained The book used her to send out its call, I believe And that call was answered"

"By a dragon?"

"More likely an undead dragon"

"Wonderful"

Jarlaxle shrugged against his cousted stare "It is our way An adventurous road!"

"It is a fatal disease"

Again the drow shrugged, and a wide grin spread across his face

They continued on their way down the side passage Canthan had taken to the rooical webbing Canthan had created to prevent the dae remained in place, except for the se Still, the five went through the roo an encounter with those powerful adversaries They all believed that the "king," as Jarlaxle had aptly named it, awaited them, and they needed no more wounds and nobattles, and so with that in ood progress for a short while along the twisting, winding corridor No traps presented the the wall torches, and no monsters rose before theh, they found Entreri waiting for them, his expression concerned

"A roonoll mummies," he explained, "only even ate replied "Ha! Six slaps each!" he said and sent his s

The dwarf&039;s cavalier attitude did little to lift the mood of the others, however

"There is another exit from the rooht across," said Entreri "A door"

Jarlaxle instructed them to wait then slowly moved ahead He found the room around the next bend, a wide, circular chai The drow took out the skull gey within each of the coffins, vengeful and focused, hating death and envying life

The drow fell deeper into the skull gee-faced hus within the coffins But they were not too far reain, Jarlaxle drew forth a slender wand from its holster inside his cloak and aimed it across the room at the door He paused a moment to consider the richly decorated portal, for even in the low light of the torches burning in the wall sconces behind hin: a bas relief of a great battle, with scores of warriors swarn quite revealing "It was made of memories," he whispered, and he looked all around, for he was talking aboutabout the whole of the place

The castle was a living entity, created of oyles and the doors, the stone walls and tunnels cons of the wall torches and the traps Its energy recreated its foryi had used as staff, only trapped in undeath and far y had unwittingly tapped into the otherin lesser form the many bodies that had been buried on that spot Jarlaxle suspected then that those undead skeletons that had arisen against then but were an inadvertent side effect of the ht and looked ahead at the design on the door It was no haphazard artist&039;s interpretation The scene was indeed athat had truly occurred

The drow had hoped that the suspicions festering within hih the portcullis would prove accurate, and there was his confirmation and his hope

He pointed his wand at the door and uttered a command word

Several locks clicked and a latch popped With a rush of air the door swung open Beyond it, the corridor continued into darkness

"Reh the room," Jarlaxle instructed the others when he returned to them a moment later "The door is open - make sure it relanced at the half-orcs, Olgerkhan all but carrying Arrayan, who see Jarlaxle usted sigh, the dwarf co?" the drow asked Entreri as the others started away

The assassin held up his hand, looked back the way they had co followed"

"Press ahead," Jarlaxle instructed "Our road is ahead of us, not behind"

Entreri turned on hi"

"You hope I do," Jarlaxle replied, and he started after the trio He paused a few steps down and glanced back at his friend and grinned sheepishly "As do I"

Entreri&039;s expression showed that the huo out, unless we are willing to let the castle win," Jarlaxle reminded him after they had taken a few steps "And in that victory, the construct will clai you?" Entreri reh the chas fell, releasing daeh the other door, they found a long descending staircase and down they went into the darkness

Entreri took the lead again, inspecting every step and every handhold as the light diminished around them Near to the bottom, he was relieved to see another of the pressure plates, and torches soon flared to life on the opposite walls at the sides of the botto, uneven shadows across stone that was no longer worked and fitted It seemed as if they had co tunnel, boring down ever deeper before the close behind He turned and went back past them to the last two torches He inspected the a trap or ten, and indeed on the left-hand one, he removed several barbed pins, all ith some sort of poison Then he carefully extracted the torches and carried theht to give the other to Arrayan One look at the woman dissuaded him from that course, however, for she didn&039;t seeth to hold it, and indeed, had it not been for Olgerkhan&039;s supporting ar He offered the torch to Athrogate instead

"I got dwarf eyes, ye dolt," Athrogate growled at hiht This tunnel&039;s bathed in sunlight next to where "

"Jarlaxle needs both of his hands and Arrayan is too weak," Entreri said to hi the torch back his way "I prefer to lead in the darkness"

"Bah, but ye&039;re just rowled back, but he took the torch

"Another benefit," Entreri said, turning away andout in front

The corridor continued to bend to the left, eventhat they were in the saeneral area from which they&039;d started, only far below The caverns were all of natural stone, with no more torches and no pressure plates or other traps that the assassin could locate There were intersections, however, and always sharp turns back the other way as the other winding tunnels joined into this one, beco, the passage widened and heightened, so that it see cavern instead of a corridor

Trying toof vulnerability, Entreri kept theed ahead, sword in one hand, dagger in the other Their progress was steady for some time, and they put many hundreds of feet between theerkhan&039;s cry froze the assassin inher!" the half-orc wailed

Entreri spun and ran back past the turning Athrogate He shoved by Jarlaxle, needing to get to Arrayan By the tierkhan kneeling over her and whispering to her

Entreri slid down beside her opposite the large half-orc He started to call out to her but cut hi the na friend he had left far back in the distant southern city of Calimport Surprised and unnerved, the assassin looked fro answers

Jarlaxle wasn&039;t looking back at hi Arrayan with his eyes closed and his hand over the center of his waistcoat He hispering so from him back to the fallen wo to souessed that Jarlaxle was so it to disrupt the castle&039;s possession of the woman

A moment later, Arrayan opened her eyes She seeerkhan and Entreri&039;s help in getting back to her feet

"We are running out of time," Jarlaxle stated - the obvious for the others, but his tone explaining clearly to Entreri that he could not long delay the inevitable life-stealing process "Quickly, then," the drow added, and Entreri gave a nod to Arrayan then left her with Olgerkhan and sprinted back to the front of the line

He had to hope that there would be no more traps, for he did not slow every few feet to inspect the ground ahead

The corridor continued to bend and spiral but began to narrow again, soon beco often so low that Olgerkhan had to crouch

Entreri felt the hairs on the back of his neck tingling So was ahead, he sensed, whether from some smell or perhaps a sound barely audible He motioned for the dwarf behind him to halt, then crept ahead on all fours and peered around a sharper bend

The corridor continued for another dozen feet, then the stone floor fell away as it opened into a great cha" of the castle, and he had to take a deep, steadying breath before going forward

He crept ahead, belly-crawling as he exited the corridor into a vast cavern, on a ledge high up froe continued for just a short distance, but to his left, it continued on, sloping doard the unseen cavern floor It was not pitch black in there, as so lichen scattered about the floor and walls bathed the stone as if in starlight

Entreri crawled to the edge and peered over, and he knew they were doo of the castle: a great dragon But not a living dragon of leathery skin and thick scales but onebetween its wings and in patches across its back and head The gigantic dragon carcass, s tucked in tight atop its back If Entreri had any doubts that the creature was "alive," they were quickly dispelled when, with a rattle of bones, the great wings unfolded

Swords, armor, and whitened bones littered the chamber all around the undead beast, and it took Entreri a few moments to sort out that that had been the spot of a desperate battle, that those weapons and bones belonged to warriors - likely of King Gareth&039;s arht - who had done battle with the wyryi

Entreri started to back up then nearly jumped out of his boots when he felt a hand on his shoulder Jarlaxle moved up beside him

"He is fabulous, is he not?" the drohispered

Entreri shot him a hateful look

"I know," the drow said for hion of bones and torn skin swung its head to look up at theh it had no physical eyes, just points of reddish light, its intion cadaver," Entreri said with obvious disgust

"A dracolich," Jarlaxle corrected

"That is supposed to sound better?"

The drow just shrugged

And the dragon roared, its throaty blast reverberating off the stone walls with such power that the assassin feared the ledge he lay upon would collapse

"That ain&039;t right," Athrogate said when the echoing blast at last relented The dwarf had come up as well, but unlike Entreri and Jarlaxle he wasn&039;t lying on the stone He stood at the lip of the ledge, staring down, hands on his hips He looked at Jarlaxle and asked, "That the king?"

"One would hope"

"And what&039;re we supposed to do with that thing?"

"Kill it"

The dwarf looked back down at the dracolich, which hunched upon its hind legs, sitting upright, head swaying, two-foot long teeth all too clear with little skin covering its ate

He didn&039;t rhyme his words, and Entreri knew that no "bwahahas" would be forthco

Jarlaxle pulled himself up "I am not," he proclaihty Olgerkhan, for the sake of your lady Arrayan And you, good Athrogate, fearless and powerful Those brittle bones will turn to dust before your e, then with strength and power they had not seen fro the ledge

"Ye&039;re really not joking with an old dwarf?" Athrogate asked

"Shatter its skull!" Jarlaxle cheered

Athrogate looked at the drow, looked down at the dracolich, looked back at the drow, and shrugged He pulled hisstars over his shoulders and whispered to his weapons alternately as he ran off after Olgerkhan, bidding their enchantments forth

"Fill yer teeth with half-orc bread," the dwarf yelled to the waiting beast, "while Athrogate leaps atop yer head! Bwahaha!"

"And noe leave," Entreri re no move to follow his tarrior companions

But then it was dark, pitch black so that Entreri couldn&039;t see his hand before his face if he&039;d waggled his fingers an inch in front of his eyes

"This way," Jarlaxle bade him, and he felt the drow&039;s arm around his waist

He started to protest and pull away, sheathing his dagger to free up one hand, though he dared not ht by surprise when Jarlaxle pushed against hi The drow then fell the other way, off the ledge

The dragon roared

Entreri screa as the drow enacted the power of his levitation, and as they set down on the cavern floor, Jarlaxle threw aside the stone he had enchanted with radiating darkness and let go of Entreri

Entreri rolled to the side, putting soot his bearings enough to realize that the dracolich wasn&039;t looking at hi on the half-orc and the dwarf as they continued their raucous charge down the sloping stone ledge