Томас Рейд - The Crystal Mountain

The archon chuckled. "Bahamut's legions," he said. "They have answered Tyr and Torm's call for help."

Tauran nearly sank to the ground in despair upon seeing the abomination rushing toward him. His hand went to his breast.

By the gods, Micus. No!

His old friend's eyes, once so darkly intense and inquisitive, bulged with animalistic rage out from a blotched, puffy face. His long, forked tongue protruded from between twin fangs. Below, at his abdomen, Myshik's gaping maw filled with jagged dragon teeth opened and closed below a second set of eyes, beady and yellow.

You did not deserve this, Tauran thought. He wept.

The twisted thing landed upon the sands of the Lifespring

beach and glared. Both heads roared in unison as the creature reared, his front feet pawing the air. When he dropped to the ground again, Micus lunged at Tauran.

"Micus!" Tauran called, stumbling back.

The aberration swung Myshik's war axe. Even as it sliced through the air above Tauran's head, Micus reversed its momentum and took another step forward.

Tauran scrambled out of the way as the beast continued to chop at him, swinging the massive weapon back and forth wildly.

"Micus, it's me! It's Tauran!" he cried out in a broken voice. "Stop this! We can help you!"

The monstrosity rolled his head back and screamed. "Must kill you!" he bellowed. Flecks of spittle flew from his mouth, which curled in a hateful snarl. "Must kill all!" He took another step forward and aimed the axe again.

From behind, Eirwyn grabbed Tauran's arm. She dragged him back, out of reach, as the axe slammed into the sand and sent grains of it scattering on the winds. "He doesn't recognize you!" she yelled. "He's too far gone."

"No!" Tauran cried out, his voice low and husky. "We have to reverse this. This is my doing. He was my friend."

Tauran yanked his arm free of Eirwyn and tried to approach Micus again. Rage filled him, rage at Zasian and Cyric and Vhok. All of them had brought this about. But he raged at himself most of all.

I led him into it. I couldn't get him to understand. "He's this way because of me!" Tauran screamed. "Micus, I'm sorry!

Kael and Pharaun landed upon the sandy shore of the golden waters, one to either side of the creature. The aberration

reared back as Kael threatened him with his sword. While he was distracted with the knight, Pharaun fired a series of magical darts that screamed into his flank. The monstrosity reared and roared in pain.

"No!" Tauran screamed at them. "Don't hurt him!"

Blessed Tyr, please save him, he prayed, forgetting that it was to Torm that he had most recently sworn allegiance. If one of us must suffer this fate, let it be me, instead.

Eirwyn took her companion by the shoulders and turned him to face her. "I know," she said. "It's horrible. But however wrong it might be, it is his fate, and you cannot let Vhok beat us because of it."

Tauran scrubbed the stinging tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. Micus deserves better, Tyr. He was always your loyal servant. I'm the one who turned from you. I'm the one who betrayed you.

Heartbroken, Tauran nodded at Eirwyn. "Make it merciful," he said. Then, the muscles in his neck and shoulder cording, the grieving angel spun to face Vhok.

The cambion was missing.

"Find him!" Tauran croaked. "He can't be far. He will not abandon his precious goal now, not when he is so close." He turned and looked at Eirwyn. "Find him, so I can deliver him back to the hellish place from whence he was spawned!"

Tauran flung himself into the air. He dropped over the side, hunting for the cambion with raw fury in his heart. It should have been me, he thought over and over. I was the one who betrayed you. Not Micus. He was loyal. It should have been me.

He spotted Vhok circling beneath the mountain, heading back toward the top and the beach. Tauran raced

after him, gripping his mace so hard his knuckles ached. The cambion landed on the sand well away from the raging battle between Kael and Pharaun and the abomination. The angel saw him watch for a moment, then take a tentative step toward the water.

Tauran hit the ground running, his mace drawn back.

Vhok heard his footsteps and spun away. He drew his blade.

Tauran's weapon hit the sand with a powerful thump where Vhok had been standing a blink of an eye before. "What you did," he growled, circling the half-fiend, looking for another chance to strike. "It was too base even for you!" he finished with a scream and a lunge. Vhok retreated and blocked the attack. "No one should have to suffer such a transformation. Until today, I wouldn't even have wished that upon you! You should have killed him!"

Vhok glared at the angel and waved his blade threateningly. "And you should never have tried to bind me to your service," he said. "I am not your lapdog, angel."

Tauran felt righteous anger overflow. "That has nothing— nothing! — to do with Micus." He launched another furious flurry of blows at his foe. With each one, he punctuated it with a word. "He… did… not… deserve… that!"

The rain of attacks drove Vhok back, then down to one knee. Letting his rage engulf him, Tauran drew back for one final pounding.

"Tauran, look out!" Eirwyn yelled, leaping in from nowhere. She collided with the other angel and knocked him out of the way as Micus swung Myshik's war axe at him from behind. Tauran went sprawling, landing in the shallow water. The blade caught Eirwyn instead, biting into her shoulder and

back. Blood spurted everywhere as Eirwyn crumpled to the ground, crying out in agony.

Tears filled Tauran's eyes as he witnessed another of his friends suffer. Rising to his feet, his mace still clutched in his hands, he snarled, "You're finished."

He lunged at the cambion and swung his mace. As he did so, he channeled all the divine power he could muster into the holy weapon.

Kael watched, sickened, as Eirwyn dropped to the sand.

He had tried to corral the raging beast, but Micus would not be denied. He had pushed past the knight, heedless of the half-drow's weapon, and tried to cut Tauran down. Kael felt helpless panic rise when he saw what was about to happen to his mentor, but before he could do a thing to stop it, Eirwyn had flashed into view.

Swearing oaths that would have gotten him punished as a youth, Kael leaped toward the aberration and brought his blade down hard.

The thing saw the movement and danced to the side. Kael's attack cut harmlessly into the damp sand. Micus used the moment to counterattack. He leaped into the air and soared past the half-drow, attempting to slice at him with the axe as he went by.

Kael barely managed to get his blade back into position to block the strike, but the force of Micus's blow spun the knight around and sent him sprawling face-first into the sand.

Kael scooped up a handful of the stuff and flung it from him. Rising to his feet, Kael saw Micus soaring out over the

open sky, away from the Lifespring, but the abomination was already banking in a sharp circle to come back around. A few feet away from Kael, Pharaun made a few strange, complex gestures and flung a fist toward the cursed thing. A large glowing ball of crackling energy appeared in the air between Pharaun and Micus and, as the wizard gestured, it zipped forward, headed for the winged beast.

Micus dipped and dodged and managed to evade the dangerous sphere, but Pharaun did a little spinning motion with his hand and had the ball racing back toward Micus from behind. Just as the cursed creature alighted upon the sand between Kael and Pharaun, swinging his axe at them both, the sphere reached its mark and struck Micus.

The energy of the sphere dissipated, sending spidery tracks of electricity all across the thing's body.

Kael expected him to have a bigger fit than he did, imagining how much punishment such a spell would deliver. But the aberration only started in surprise and turned to see what had hit him. -