Keith Baker - The Shattered Land

The dagger struck home.

And the sword didn’t break.

There was a tumultuous ring of metal on metal, a sound more like the peal of a mighty bell than that of two blades. Daine felt a faint quiver in his wrist, but the effect on Gerrion was remarkable. He jerked to the side as if he had been struck, and the dagger was torn from his grip and thrown to the side of the path. His eyes grew wide.

Daine stared at his sword in disbelief. How … Were the flames around the Watchful Eye glowing , or was it just a trick of the light?

The distraction nearly cost him. Gerrion recovered quickly and dove for the dagger, but even as he reached for it, a well-placed kick caught him in the chin and sent him sprawling.

Lei and Lakashtai looked down at the fallen half-elf. Lei picked up the dagger.

“You know, Gerrion, I don’t think this belongs to you,” she remarked, tossing it to Daine. “Lakashtai, do your people have any entertainingly gruesome punishments for thieves?”

“The kalashtar place little value on property,” Lakashtai replied. “We treasure thought and feeling, and-”

“Never mind,” said Daine. “I think our new friends may have some useful ideas.”

The darkness had faded, and the carnage was revealed. Gerrion was the only firebinder still breathing, and while the oathbreakers were bleeding and covered in gore, all four were still standing. Shen’kar had drawn his spiked club and was making a point of studying the embedded stingers.

“How quickly does he die?” the drow asked.

“Wait!” Gerrion cried.

“We tried that, remember?” Daine said. “As I recall, the only reason to let you live was … oh, that’s right, a trick so you could escape.”

“I had no choice!” Gerrion said. Daine was mildly surprised to see tears gathering in the corners of the gray man’s eyes. “You don’t understand. You can’t understand. All my life, all I’ve ever wanted was to be accepted, to do something meaningful.”

“And leading us to our deaths was your only option?”

“It was the only way I could prove myself to them.” Gerrion slowly rose to his feet, keeping his arms apart and his hands open. Daine tensed, but then he saw Pierce on the other side of the path, longbow at the ready.

Pierce, if he even starts to move, drop him .

Understood .

Daine tried to gather his thoughts, to express what he was feeling for Lei and Pierce, but Gerrion was still speaking and this was not the time. … Welcome home , he thought at last. Lei’s smile was a beacon of joy, and that was all the answer he needed.

“… family!” Gerrion said, gesturing emphatically. “You of all people should understand what that means.”

Enough . “Shen’kar,” Daine said. “Make it slow.”

The drow leader clicked his tongue. Kulikoor twirled his chain and sent one end spinning toward Gerrion. The plan was simple: pull the traitor off his feet and strike him with the poisoned rod.

Gerrion had other ideas.

He had been gesturing repeatedly as he pleaded his case, and now he made one final gesture while snapping out a word Daine didn’t recognize. The painted flames on his leather gauntlet burst into brilliant life. Before Kulikoor’s chain even reached him, this mystical fire spread across his body. The radiance was blinding. In a split second, it had consumed him completely. Nothing was left, save for a charred outline on the path beneath his feet.

Daine charged forward, studying the pattern of ash on the ground. The image of the blazing figure was stilled burned into his vision. “Did he kill himself?” he said, taking a few idle swings at the air.

“No,” Pierce said. He seemed slightly distant, and Daine wondered what the warforged had been through over the last day. “Despite the fiery manifestation, this was a short-range teleportation effect bound to his glove. He is most likely within one mile of this location, and I suspect that the gauntlet is now drained of power.”

Daine glanced at Lei. She seemed as surprised as he was by Pierce’s sudden mastery of the arcane, but she shrugged. “I … I think that’s right.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe he managed to activate it without us noticing. I was looking right at him!”

“His mind is slippery,” Lakashtai said. “Even I did not sense the deception, and your thoughts were elsewhere.”

Daine wasn’t listening. His eyes met Lei’s, and the smell of blood, the sounds of the jungle, the memory of Gerrion, all of it faded away. In that moment, Lei was his world, and a moment later she was in his arms.

H ow charming .

The words jerked Daine out of his reverie. Traveling with Lakashtai, he’d become used to the thoughts of others in his mind, but this was not the voice of Lakashtai, Lei, or even Pierce.

It was Tashana.

Daine stiffened, and Lei looked up in surprise.

How adorable Lei is. I’ve already killed one of her lovers. Perhaps, when you’re mine, I’ll make you kill her yourself .

“GET OUT OF MY MIND!” Daine roared, pushing Lei away.

“Daine, what’s going on?” she said, her eyes full of fear.

Lakashtai was beside him, and she set her hand against Daine’s forehead, closing her eyes. Her skin was smooth and cool to the touch.

“Be strong,” she whispered. “Feel my presence. Embrace me, and we shall drive her from your mind.”

Daine felt Lei stiffen slightly, but this was no time for jealousy. He put his arms around Lakashtai, and he could feel her presence, an ember of light in his mind. He pulled her close, and that coal burst into brilliant life. Joy and hope flooded his thoughts, and in the background he heard Tashana howling, fading with each passing second.

A moment later she was gone. Daine opened his eyes, reeling from the experience. Lakashtai was still in his arms; he disentangled himself and gently pushed her away, trying to ignore Lei’s glare.

“We must get to Karul’tash quickly,” Lakashtai said. “If Tashana can touch your waking mind … there is no time to waste. Gerrion knows we need to enter the monolith, so we must assume the firebinders know it as well; we must get there before they do.”

“I think you’re forgetting something,” Daine said.

“Yes?”

“Invisible, shifting labyrinth of death? Gaining entrance to the monolith even if we get through?”

“I can open the gates of Karul’tash, captain,” Pierce said calmly, “and I know the path that leads to the monolith, but we must move quickly. The monolith of Karul’tash is not far from the obsidian city of Gundrak’ul, and our enemy may already be on the march. Let us bind our wounds and heal the injured, and be on our way.”

Daine glanced at Lei, who shrugged as she produced her little wand of healing. “Is there something I should know about?” he asked.

“It’s a long story,” Lei said, passing the livewood rod over one of her burns. “We’ll tell you on the way.”

The path Pierce chose was overgrown, but they soon found traces of an old road buried beneath the vines and dirt. The warforged took the lead, along with the drow warrior Xu’sasar; together, these two carved a path through the underbrush, pressing forward with remarkable speed. Behind them, Daine and Lakashtai listened as Lei told them of Harmattan, the vault, and the curious sphere.

“I have no idea what it’s capable of,” she said, leaping over a chunk of rock, “but I assume it’s where he’s getting this sudden insight into local history. ‘Gundrak’ul’ is a phrase from one of the old languages of the giants, but even I don’t know what it means.”