James Ward: The Paladins

"No, I say!" declared the warrior-cleric. "You shall not have him! If there is justice in this or any world, I shall have it, wherever I stand!" He looked at the fiends before him with a wild glint in his eyes. "Your evil power is nothing before justice! Nothing!"

The symbol on Abie's warhammer caught the dim light of the chamber and flared to brilliance. A wave of screeches passed through the fiends. The one holding Noph dropped him to the ground. The symbol burned brighter still, bathing the entire cavern in holy white light

"My god!" uttered Trandon, somewhere beside him, amazed at the sudden burst of power. "Noph, come to me! Come to me! Come now!"

Pure energy such as he had never felt filled Able, surging through his body and flowing into his hammer. He dropped to one knee and held his blazing holy symbol high. "Justice!'' His voice resonated through the cavern. "Justice is Tyr, and He is Justice. So long as it lies within me, so does my god!"

With an ear-piercing howl, the nearest bar-lgura exploded! The one beside it threw back its head and shrieked in agony, then shattered into ichorous shreds while the rest began to wail and stumble toward Able, claws raised.

"Noph, run!" cried Trandon. The boy turned at the sound of his name and blinked uncomprehendingly at the cleric, then burst to life. He scrambled in the sticky mess splattering down from above, dropping his dagger. The screaming bar-lgura began to move with him, pressing toward his friends, so Noph grabbed at a furry leg and used it to catapult himself by, sliding toward his comrades and tripping the fiend in the process. It went down with a thud and ruptured, spraying flesh everywhere. Trandon leaped forward and seized the boy. Together they rolled away from the carnage and made their way behind Able.

"Run!" ordered Able. "Run for the others!"

"We won't leave without you!" Noph yelled.

"Go! For the quest!" He turned back to look at Noph for an instant, his eyes beaming with surety and light. "For justice!"

A bar-lgura seized Able by the neck and lifted him in the air. "Run!" he screamed. Then the fiend swept its massive claw with a snarl, ripping his head from his shoulders. Trandon and Noph bolted down the corridor, the slap of heavy paws on the stone at their heels.

As Trandon ran, he seized a ring upon his left forefinger and turned it; a blue glow rose on its surface.

"What are you doing?" panted Noph. At that mo- ment, a hairy hand caught his ankle and tripped him. Trandon ground to a sudden halt, spun about, and threw out his pointing finger in the face of the two remaining fiends. A streak of jagged, radiant blue lightning shot forth, catching them both in its electrical fork with a peal of thunder. They bellowed in pain, fell over Noph, and disappeared!

"Noph?" cried Trandon. "Noph!" He dropped to his knees and searched the ground with his hands, refusing to believe his eyes. "Noph!"

At the sound of approaching footsteps, he looked up. The rest of the party stormed into the corridor and skidded to a halt.

"What's happened?" demanded Miltiades. "Where are Able and Freeman Kastonoph?"

"Dead," said Trandon.

"What happened?"

"We came upon fiends-tanar'ri, bar-lgura in a room with some sort of magical mirror in it. They caught Noph, but Able-"

Trandon's eyes brimmed and spilled over. "Able called upon Tyr, and it was glorious! I've never seen such power! He saved us, but they got him, and then they got Noph. I killed the last ones, but it was too late, too late!" He bowed his head and wept. Tve never seen anything like it!" he insisted through his sobs.

Kern and Miltiades looked at one another; the latter smiled with brimming eyes. "May Able be sitting by Tyr's side even as we speak," he intoned. "I knew he'd make it."

Somewhere in the distant complex, a fearsome cry went up. The screams of a hundred evil things filled the corridors, followed by the sound of a stampede.

"Whatever it is, it's coming this way!" shouted Jacob.

"Tyr's blessings on us all!" declared Miltiades.

Interlude 5

No one succeeds without a little bit of good fortune, and the luckier you are, the smarter your stupid plans look.

Kastonoph lay on his side before the gate to the Utter East. His wrists were bound to his ankles behind him, and his body was racked with agony from arching backward so sharply. So much for his service to Khelben and Piegeiron. So much for his heroism. Shaakat and Rejik had trussed him up and tossed him upon the platform and were laboring to reestablish control over the remaining manes and bar-lgura around them. When the wailing of the troops finally subsided, the vrocks turned their attention to their human captive, helpless and useless.

"How is this gate activated?" boomed Shaakat's voice within Noph's head.

"Get out of my mind, fiend! I won't tell you!" snarled the young man.

"Then you do know," said Rejik, aloud. "Open your mind, human. Open it to us…"

A wave of bitter magic washed over Noph, scrambling his mind, obliterating thoughts of his predicament. Through the nauseating jumble in his mind, it occurred to him that he should cooperate with the fiends and tell them what they wanted to know.

"Bid the gate to open in the name of the past and present Lords of Waterdeep," he told them. "That will activate it."

"Well done, slave," thought Shaakat to the magically charmed prisoner. "Now tell us, what manner of creatures are your friends in shining armor who vexed us?"

"Paladins of Tyr."

"Tyr!" shrieked both fiends as though they'd been slapped.

"A greater power of Mount Celestial" squealed Rejik.

"They seek this gate as well," offered Noph. "They'll be here soon, too. Perhaps we can all work together."

The vrocks looked down at Noph, then up at each other, and burst into fits of laughter. Around them, the manes chittered and slapped at each other playfully, and the bar-lgura shifted to the walls of the chamber. Using their chameleonlike ability, they blended with their surroundings.

"Here's the plan," thought Shaakat to Rejik. "We'll lay down a warding circle against creatures of law and goodness. You maintain it while the troops attack and I cast deadly magic until they're all dead!"

"Agreed, agreed! They can't survive that!"

In hedonistic anticipation of slaughter, they bent their wills upon the lesser tanar'ri once more and began to organize them for the ambush.

"Khelben was right when he said there was a great force of evil at work here," whispered Miltiades.

The group lurked down the hall from the gate chamber, listening to the riot of fiends within. Miltiades handed Khelben's map to Aleena, who tucked it into a pocket. "The gate to the Utter East is just ahead, and it sounds as if the fiends are massing there. They must be involved in the kidnapping plot. They've probably been stationed there to intercept us!"

"So much the better," hissed Kern, hefting his hammer and gazing toward the noise with a glint in his eye. "Save a princess and destroy fiends! Tyr blesses us this day!"

“For the last time, she's not a princess!" moaned Aleena, rolling her eyes and shaking her head in exasperation.

"Whatever."

"We can't simply rush in there and start swinging," protested Trandon. "We have no idea of how many fiends we're up against."

Kern frowned at the warrior. "We know they stand between us and our quest, and we know the longer we wait, the more of them there will be to destroy. What more does a champion of Tyr need to know?"

"Nothing," agreed Jacob.

"All right," said Miltiades, ending the discussion with the tone of his voice. "The enemy is before us and our course is clear. Prepare for battle."