Ru Emerson: Keep on the Borderlands

“First place we went was there. Rumor had it the worst andtoughest creatures were as far from the road as they could be, and that seemed a likely start. Turned out to be gnolls. Handful of coins, no gems that we found, and a pack of cowardly dog-monsters aren’t worth fighting.” He shrugged. “Nextplace we went was that hobgoblin lair, worse luck. Couple of my men were full of ’emselves for killing off gnolls, got too loud, and drew down an ambush on us.Lousy hobgoblins must’ve been lurking while we went in for the prisoners. Theywere waiting just short of the door when we came back.”

“Heard about that,” Jerdren said. “Still a bunch of ’em left,if you want to finish ’em off.” It wasn’t quite a question.

Hebold grinned. “May not have to bother. That hobgoblin-theone I shared a cage with, I told ’im the bugbear lair’s empty, and that theirchief kept his treasure in chests, lots of ’em in the secret passage behind hisbedroom. Fool creature believed me, too. That minotaur’ll do for ’em.”

“Could work.” Jerdren grinned.

“So-” Hebold stretched long and hard. “You find much trove sofar?”

“Oh, you know. Few coins here and a few there. We sent mostof it back to the Keep, of course.”

“Sounds foolish.” Hebold squatted on his heels next to thefire.

“Some fools we’d be if we buried it here and came back tofind it gone.” Jerdren turned back to the map. “So… you’ve emptied thatcave, and that one’s where the orcs were. And the small one here. Bugbears-here.Gnolls are gone, or as good as, and so’re the orcs, and your goblins are donefor. We wiped out the kobolds, first day. What’s it leave us, then?”

The big man shook his head. “Didn’t get much chance to lookaround. Still… while back, late one night, I was trying to sleep, and I couldhear one of the bugbears challenging someone. Then he backed away, and all of ’em looked flatout scared. Here comes this-figure. Black hood, cloak the colorof dried blood. Never saw its face, but its voice gave me an unpleasant feeling. Said something in Common about sacrifices. Went to the other cage, looked in and said, ‘That one and that.’ Bugbears dragged out two of my men andhauled ’em up the stairs, and that hooded thing went off behind ’em.”

“A priest,” Panev murmured. He had come up quietly behindEddis. “A black hood and red cloak, you’re sure of that, man?”

Hebold nodded.

“The curate may be right after all. He has heard rumor thesepast years-disquieting tales of men and women who travel along this road fromthe east, but they do not seek the Keep. He questioned the man Zebos, who said he had seen strangers who passed through his town, and all of them wore dark red cloaks. They did no business with the local merchants, he said, and never spoke to any but their own kind. The curate asked that I serve as priest in this company, rather than either of his acolytes, because he fears the red-cloaked ones to be part of a cult of the undead.”

“Undead?” Jerdren asked. “Why didn’t we hear of this beforenow?”

“Because it seemed unlikely to us that such a temple would behere-so far from any town. But if this man has seen the priest he describes,then I believe the temple must be nearby. Of the priests in the Keep, only the curate and I can turn powerful undead.”

“Turn?” Blorys asked. He looked bewildered.

“You cannot stab a skeleton to the heart-it has none. I havespells to force them away from me. From us. Or to unmake them.”

“Great,” Jerdren muttered. “So, where’s this temple? Everycave opening on this map of Zebos’, we’ve marked. We know what’s there-or was.”

Hebold studied the map closely, holding it nearly to his nose. “No. There’s one missing. Should be just… here.” He pointed. “When wewent after the gnolls, we could see it. Another cave, a little lower down the slope and nearer the center of the ravine.”

“Undead,” Jerdren said. He thought, finally looked at Eddis.“We need to talk.”

“Yes,” Panev said. “And each member of this company mustdecide whether to continue to fight. Such a temple will be a place of great evil.”

In the end, the entire company-including Flerys, who wasstartled to be given a vote-chose to go.

Kadymus grinned widely. “A temple! Think what treasure we’llfind!”

“No!” Panev shook his head fiercely. “In such a place, youtouch things at your peril. I will instruct you before we go into battle.”

The party from the Keep arrived early the next afternoon.Eddis was beginning to feel nervy. Every weapon she owned was freshly edged, and there was nothing left to do but wait.

M’Baddah, Willow, and Mead had gone up the ravine thatmorning, to see if they could locate the cave Hebold claimed to have seen. They’d found it, but hadn’t dared go too close. Mead’s reveal spell showed dangerand great evil, but he couldn’t tell anything more specific than that. They hadalso seen twenty or more dead hobgoblins near the foot of the cliff near the bugbears’ cave but had no explanation for what had killed them.

The Keep guards brought food and a hide full of new arrows and quarrels, spears and daggers-and a parcel and message for the priest.

Panev read the message and drew Eddis and Jerdren aside. “Thecurate tells me that visiting priest and his two acolytes have been arrested. A search of their rooms revealed evidence that they are not the holy men they pretend to be but servants of a secret, evil brotherhood. They also found a map that shows these caves. The curate sends his blessings to the company and all the potions and wands he could gather. I see Hieroneous’ hand in this.” Hesmiled. “Things will go well, if we are all well prepared.” He walked off, deepin thought.

“Always do, don’t they?” Jerdren asked of no one and wentover to talk to Hebold.

Eddis gazed after him, then went in search of Blorys. Jers had been acting odd-like his old, wild self-ever since Hebold first showed up. Blorys might notbe able to do anything with him either, but he’d stand a better chance.

Eddis took third watch with M’Baddah and one of the spearmen.It was very dark and cold, and utterly silent except for someone snoring near the fire, and the occasional shifting of the picketed horses. The hour over, she woke Jerdren and lay down close to the fire.

A man’s yell of pain and the screams of terrified horses hadher on her feet scant moments later. There was chaos all around the fire, as men ran to protect the horses, and others headed toward the dash of weaponry, far enough into the trees that it was hard to tell who was fighting whom-or what.

“Lights!” Eddis shouted. “You and you, let’s get some lightsout there, or we’ll wind up killing each other!”

The battle had moved to the road by the time she and Blorys came running, each carrying a lantern and drawn sword. Three men were down, one wailing in agony. Beyond them, five heavily armed hobgoblins fought furiously. Jerdren and Hebold were battling side by side, finishing off one fallen brute, but the others seemed unharmed as yet.

The unexpected light distracted one of them. M’Baddah and hisson charged it, M’Whan lunging as his father swung the curved blade, two-handed.Blood ran down the creature’s face, blinding it, but as M’Baddah brought theblade around again, it caught him by the forearm and yanked, dragging the outlander onto his blade. The outlander shouted in sudden pain, the outcry drowned by M’Whan’s, “Father!”

The youth stabbed, again and again. Eddis handed the lantern to one of the bleeding men stumbling back from the fray and ran to help. Blorys came hard on her heels, and as Eddis jabbed at the brute, Blor shoved the lantern at its face. Momentarily blinded, it snarled and slapped the thing aside. Blor staggered but managed to stay on his feet. Eddis was behind it, then, out of its reach and safely away from M’Whan’s flailing sword.