James Wyatt - In the Claws of the Tiger

Janik heard roars and shouts, the clamor of weapons and shields, the rattle of arrows hitting stone and armor. But he saw only Maija, her hands extended to him and her eyes locked on his. He felt as if her hand were locked around his throat. For a moment, he thrilled at the imagination of her touch as he stared into her eyes-his mind could almost imagine it as a loving caress. He stared into her eyes as the edges of his vision went black. A glint of red in her brown eyes was the last thing he saw before the darkness swallowed him.

He was lying on his back. The first thing he became aware of was the hard floor beneath him, and then a throbbing pain slammed through his head. His eyes struggled to open and he became vaguely aware of a face bending over his own. Then he recognized the face and rolled away from it, finding his back against a stone wall.

“Krael!”

“About time you woke up,” the vampire said, grinning. “I’m not sure how much longer I could have held off my hunger.”

Janik looked around. They were in a small stone chamber with a heavy iron door-no windows, not even a grate through which light or fresh air might come. His lantern lay in the middle of the floor, its bright beam casting weird shadows on Krael’s face. Krael’s warforged lieutenant stood impassively behind Krael. The still forms of Janik’s three companions were heaped on the floor around them.

Without a word, Janik turned his back on Krael and knelt beside Dania. She was battered and coated in dried blood, but he surmised that much of the blood was not hers, for her breathing was steady and her pulse strong.

“They’re all alive and reasonably healthy, Janik,” Krael said. “But I find it touching that you checked on Dania first. I’m sure your concern would warm her heart.”

Ignoring Krael, Janik moved beside Mathas next, then Auftane. As the vampire had said, they were alive and seemed all right.

“You know, the whelp she found in Karrnath was nothing at all like you, Janik,” Krael went on. “He was a Sentinel Marshal, definitely a step up on the social ladder, but so very bland. Even his blood lacked spice. I told her as much when I first met him.”

Janik clenched his jaw and pretended to study Auftane’s wounds more closely, though they were obviously not serious. He wanted to leap on Krael and rip out his throat with his bare hands to shut him up, but he decided that ignoring the vampire was the more prudent course.

For the moment.

“As for you-well, I have to say, I always thought far more of Dania than of your bitch Maija. I was pleasantly surprised by Maija when she gave me the Ramethene Sword, but she definitely took a turn for the worse after we-”

Janik couldn’t contain himself any more. “Stop it!” he roared, lunging at Krael, grabbing at his throat and clawing at his eyes. “Shut up!” His fingers were useless against the vampire’s cold flesh, so he began pummeling Krael’s face and head with his fists, punctuating each word with a blow. “Don’t ever defile their names with your mouth again!”

It struck him as strange that Krael didn’t fight back, and his rage began to subside. As his head cleared a little, he realized that Krael’s hands were bound behind him, and the vampire had been completely unable to defend himself from Janik’s furious assault. Neither had the warforged moved, though Janik could not see any restraint on him.

Janik got shakily to his feet, leaving Krael prone and smirking on the floor. He turned his back on the vampire and the warforged.

“Janik?” Dania murmured, and Janik rushed to her side.

From the corner of his eye, Janik saw the warforged step forward to help Krael get upright again. He caught a glimpse of strange blue manacles binding Krael’s hands, but he turned his full attention to Dania.

“I’m here, Dania,” he whispered, clasping her hand.

“Is Mathas-? I saw him fall.”

“He’s fine, Dania, we’re all alive.”

“What’s that-” her nose wrinkled and her brow furrowed as she blinked several times to clear her eyes. Then she sat upright. “Krael!”

“Dania,” the vampire said, flashing his sharp teeth in a wide smile.

Dania’s hand grasped wildly at her belt before she realized her sword was not there. Krael shrugged to emphasize his own helplessness, and Dania calmed somewhat.

“What’s going on?” she said. “Where are we?”

“I’m not sure-” Janik began.

“Look around,” Krael interrupted. “We’re in a cell in the ziggurat at the heart of Mel-Aqat. Doesn’t it stagger the imagination? This very room might have been used fifty thousand years ago to hold prisoners of the giants before they were sacrificed.”

“Any idea where our weapons are?” Dania growled, provoking a harsh laugh from Krael.

“How do you know we’re in the ziggurat, Krael?” Janik said.

“Unlike you lot, I was awake when they dragged me in here,” Krael said with a sly grin. “Which means I know the way out.”

“So why haven’t you pulled your cloud of vapors trick and slipped out under that door?”

Krael scowled and turned his body so Janik could see the manacles clasped around his wrists. They were forged of a strange blue steel, and Krael’s movements made small blue sparks crackle around them.

“A particularly fiendish invention,” Krael said. “They prevent me from altering my form in any way. Sever’s tried everything he can think of, but he’s been unable to get them off me.”

“I’ve heard of such things,” Auftane said, sitting up and pressing a hand to his battered head. “But I’ve never seen them. I’d very much like to examine them … once my head stops spinning.”

Krael laughed. “If you can figure out how to get them off me, you can examine them all you want, dwarf. You know Janik, you never did introduce me to your new companion back in Stormreach. Very rude of you.”

“His name is Auftane,” Janik grunted.

“Auftane Khunnam,” the artificer said. “I’ve heard so much about you, Krael.”

“I expect you have,” Krael said. He sighed. “And I’m sure none of it was good.”

Auftane looked reflective. “Yes, that’s true.”

“Auftane,” Janik said, “will you look at Mathas and see if you can do something to wake him up?”

“How neglectful of me,” Krael said. “I haven’t introduced my lieutenant here,” he jerked his head at the warforged. “Well, Janik, I gather you have met Sever, but I don’t think your friends have. Sever, the lovely Dania ir’Vran, the unconscious Mathas Allister, and our new acquaintance, Auftane Khunnam.”

“How pleasant to see you again, Martell,” Sever said, the sarcasm in his voice sharply contrasting with his emotionless face.

“You’re quieter when Krael’s around,” Janik said to the warforged. “Or is it because you don’t have a sword in your hand?”

“Take your pick, Martell.”

“Well,” Janik said, getting to his feet, “if we’re cooped up here and forced to talk to each other, we might as well make it productive. I want to know what in the Nine Seas is going on with Maija.”

“By the Flame, Janik,” Dania said, “her evil overwhelmed me. I have never encountered another creature so strongly stinking of it. Not even Krael-”

“That’s enough, Dania.”

“Janik,” Dania insisted, “not even Krael makes my senses reel the way she did. She commands these fiends! Can’t you see it? Do you still not believe that she’s beyond redemption?”

Janik sighed deeply. “Do you remember what you said to me back in Stormreach? That you wouldn’t stand by and watch a friend die, ever again? That’s what this is to me, Dania. I can’t turn away while Maija dies. I can’t give up on her. I’ve got to fight for her, even if I have to fight a legion of fiends under her command, even if it means fighting her. I can’t just accept it, damn it. I will not be a bystander to her destruction.”