James Wyatt: Oath of Vigilance

Tempest blinked, and a tear streaked down her cheek. “Pretty good,” she said. She pulled him into an embrace, one of her curling horns clattering against his breastplate. “Pretty good indeed.”

Roghar led the triumphal procession back to the Silver Unicorn as the clouds melted away into a glorious blue autumn sky. His soldiers had suffered serious losses, but Albanon’s unexpected arrival with a half dozen fey knights and their hunting hounds had kept the demons from taking a much heavier toll. After Nu Alin’s death, the handful of demons that remained had scattered, offering no more resistance, and a circuit through Lowtown had turned up no further pockets of demon infestation.

Fallcrest would have a long journey to recovery, from rebuilding burned buildings to treating the citizens and soldiers who showed signs of the demonic contagion. That harsh reality was in the forefront of Roghar’s mind as he approached the flame-scorched inn.

But then the cheering started. People spilled out of the inn and gathered from the square to welcome back the victorious soldiers, throwing hats in the air and flowers at their feet. Roghar scanned the crowd, looking for Shara’s red hair or the drow’s black-skinned face, but he saw neither of them.

As he drew near the doorway, a portly man he recognized as the Lord Warden, Faren Markelhay, stepped out. The Lord Warden’s arms were crossed over his chest, and he cut an intimidating figure.

Roghar leaned close to Tempest and whispered, “He can’t complain, right?”

“Right. You’re a hero.”

The Lord Warden stepped out of the doorway and spread his arms wide, smiling just as broadly, as if the crowd were cheering for him.

“Heroes of Fallcrest!” he shouted over the crowd, prompting them to cheer even louder.

Roghar braced himself for a long speech and perhaps some attempt to claim credit for the victory. Instead, he was pleasantly surprised to see the Lord Warden step out of the doorway and gesture for Roghar to enter.

“There will be time for speeches and acclamation later,” the Lord Warden said as Roghar ducked through the doorway. “But the last thing Fallcrest needs right now is for me to stand between it and a good party.”

Roghar clasped his hand and clapped the Lord Warden on the shoulder. “Well said, my lord.”

Shara shifted her pack and stepped out of the inn. She looked down Market Street and saw the last straggling soldiers of Roghar’s little army disappear out of sight behind the temple of Erathis. Shaking her head, she set her back to Roghar and his army and made for the Knight’s Gate out of town, Quarhaun at her side.

At least half the garrison of the gate had abandoned their posts, probably running off to join Roghar. Nobody challenged them or gave them more than a glance as they passed through the gate. The road took them a quarter mile out of town and then hit the King’s Road, stretching off to the east and the west. Westward lay the Cloak Wood; Gardbury Downs and its ancient, ruined abbey; and eventually her home town of Winterhaven, nestled in the foothills of the Cairngorm Peaks. To the east was the lush vale of Harkenwold and then the forbidding Dawnforge Mountains, or they could take the Trade Road northeast through the Old Hills to Hammerfast. She stood at the crossroads for a long time, considering the road in both directions.

“Where are we going?” Quarhaun asked at last, rather stupidly, she thought.

She stared straight ahead, and her eyes rested on the gleam of the Nentir River under the morning sun.

“Forget the road,” she said. “We’re going north. Sooner or later, we’ll figure out where Vestapalk is hiding.”

“And in the meantime?”

“In the meantime, there’s a whole world out there to explore. I’ve never been north, up to the Winterbole Forest, so we’re going there.”

In the meantime, she thought, we’re together.

Belen stumbled into the common room, looking wild-eyed and frantic, as if she’d just awoken from a nightmare. Roghar was reminded of the way Tempest had barged into the same room the night before, and half expected the soldier to proclaim that Nu Alin was in the room.

Instead, she forced her way through the crowds of revelers to the table where Roghar sat with Tempest, Uldane, and Albanon, celebrating their victory.

“Roghar,” she said, “I need to tell you something.”

Tempest stood and put an arm around Belen’s shoulder, then gently lowered her into the chair she’d vacated, at Roghar’s left hand.

“How are you feeling?” Roghar asked gently.

“Never mind that,” Belen said. “Listen. The thing-Nu Alin, when it was inside me.” She shuddered. “It tried to shield its thoughts from me, but I saw something. Something it didn’t want me to see.”

Roghar leaned forward on the table. “What did you see?”

“A … a memory, I suppose. Nu Alin stood before an enormous creature of green scales and red crystal, a hideous monster something like a dragon, but not any of the dragons I’ve ever seen in a book.”

“Vestapalk,” Albanon said.

“The dragon-thing was lying in a pool full of red liquid, almost like blood, but also like the red crystal on the demons we fought. The pool bubbled and churned, and at the edges where it met stone, it flashed with fire and lightning. The pool was at the bottom of an enormous shaft, and the shaft was full of the same sort of-of chaos, like the earth unformed and reduced to its component elements.”

“Has Vestapalk made his lair in another plane?” Tempest asked.

“No,” Belen said emphatically. “Nu Alin had a name for it-the Plaguedeep. But it’s in the world, Nu Alin knew this. It’s in a volcano to the west of here, past the Ogrefist Hills, not more than a hundred miles from Fallcrest.”

“Are you sure?” Roghar asked her, meeting her eyes.

“I’m positive.”

Roghar sat back in his chair and looked around the room, his thoughts a jumble.

“That’s not all, though,” Belen said, seizing his hand. “Roghar, we fought perhaps two dozen demons this morning. But in the demon’s memory, I saw hundreds of them. They gathered all around the pool, like it was some sort of spawning place for them.”

“Hundreds of demons,” Roghar said. “And so close.” He sighed and took a deep drink of his mead. “Tomorrow, Fallcrest begins its work of rebuilding. And we head west.”