Марк Энтони - Curse of the Shadowmage

The Zhentarim were all dead.

With caution, Mari and Caledan moved into the long subterranean chamber. It took Mari several moments to count up the corpses, for they were all horribly mangled. Stray body parts were strewn haphazardly across the room, and the floor was slick with blood. She clamped her jaw shut, trying not to retch. Seven, she decided at last. There had been seven agents of the Black Network in the underground lair. And someone had slain them all. Or some thing .

Caledan knelt beside one of the corpses and touched a finger to a gory puddle on the floor. “However they died, it happened only a few minutes ago.”

“The screams we heard,” Mari said with a shudder. “Those were their death cries.”

Caledan wiped his hand on the dead man’s tunic, then stood. “I can’t say that I’m sorry. I wanted the scum dead myself. But I’m more than a little curious to find out who managed to do my job before I had the chance.”

Mari shuddered. “Whoever … whatever … they were, they’re gone now.” She moved to a table littered with sheaves of parchment. The ones on top were illegible, spattered with blood, but those below were unstained. Several showed schematic drawings of the interior of the High Tower. Mari realized that they were plans for an attack. “Look at these, Caledan. The Zhents were plotting to take over the city. These plans prove—”

“Mari.”

Caledan’s voice was low and quiet, but the tension in it made her freeze.

“Mari, I want you to turn around. But do it very slowly. Do you understand?”

She nodded jerkily. Then, as slowly as she could, she spun around.

They were streaming out of the shadows that filled the far end of the chamber. Dozens of them. Even as they drew near, Mari could not identify them. They reminded her of sea creatures she had once seen off the coast of Amn, far to the south. Raystingers, the creatures were called—flat, boneless animals that floated in the warm tides, trailing whiplike tails barbed with poison. These things that drifted out of the shadows toward the two Harpers were not so different from raystingers, except they were dark as obsidian, and were floating on thin air, not water.

Heart pounding, Mari followed Caledan’s lead, backing slowly toward the door. Suddenly, she felt something cold and slick brush against her hand. She gasped, looking down to see one of the dark creatures float past her and move toward the others. She twisted around. More of the things rose from a shadowed corner behind her. They spilled out of the darkness and streamed silently past. Their touch made her flesh crawl, yet they did not harm her. She saw that the creature’s touch had left a red smear on her hand. Blood.

“By Milil, what are they?” she gasped.

Caledan’s halting reply came from behind her. “I don’t … I don’t know. Perhaps the Zhentarim conjured them, but the spell of binding went awry, and the things turned on the Zhents. I …” There was a pause. Then Caledan’s voice came again, a hoarse whisper. “Mari, help me …”

Dozens of the dark creatures had surrounded Caledan. They drifted around him like a dense black vapor. Caledan gazed at Mari, face pallid, eyes shining with terror. The creatures circled him slowly, brushing gently past his hands and letting their long tails slip softly around his neck in movements that seemed almost like caresses.

Caledan shuddered uncontrollably. Finally he could remain still no longer. “Get away from me!” he hissed, lashing out with an arm.

Like a cloud of smoke, the creatures swirled away from him. The dark mass drifted apart. Caledan stared in amazement, then lurched forward. He grabbed Mari’s wrist. “Let’s get out of here.”

Choked by fear, Mari could barely voice the words. “The door … they’re blocking it.”

A score of the amorphous black creatures had drifted before the open portal. The fear in Caledan’s eyes was quickly usurped by rage. He shook a fist at the nameless creatures, snarling. “Let us pass!”

At once, like a curtain of black velvet, the creatures parted before the doorway, leaving room to pass. Caledan pulled Mari’s arm. “Come on!”

She froze, staring at him. She was struck by a sudden, inexplicable fear. At that moment, Caledan seemed as alien as the jet-black blobs that floated before them.

“What’s wrong with you?” he growled, tugging at her arm.

It was irrational—perhaps even mad—but he frightened her as much as the unnameable creatures. She tried to pull away, but he held her tight. At last she managed to speak. “They … they listen to you. They obey your commands.” She felt dizzy and ill. “But why …?”

Caledan’s eyes were wild with urgency. “What does it matter?” he shouted at her. “The way is open. We have to go!”

This time he pulled her hand so fiercely it seemed to nearly dislocate her shoulder. Brilliant pain flared, but she welcomed it, for it cleared her head. Later she could deal with what had just occurred between Caledan and the things of darkness. Now they had to flee. Hand in hand, she and Caledan dashed between the floating ranks of onyx creatures and careered headlong down the twisting stone tunnel.

To Belhuar Thantarth

Master of Twilight Hall

In Milil’s name, greetings!

I am gladdened to report that the Zhentarim threat to Iriaebor has once again been averted. It is now clear that the unexplained murders were indeed part of a Zhentarim plot to assume control of the city. I have concluded that the unfortunate victims were being fed to ravenous magical creatures conjured by a group of Zhentarim sorcerers hidden in the New City. In the lair of the Zhentarim were found schematic drawings of Iriaebor’s High Tower, suggesting that the magical creatures were going to be used as a weapon in a bloody coup attempt. Ironically, it seems that the Zhentarim’s own magic turned against them in the end; all the Zhent sorcerers were found slain in their hideout. Scores of the strange creatures were discovered in the Zhent lair. It appears that, in their hunger, the creatures turned upon the evil sorcerers who had conjured them. However, when I returned later to investigate with the mage Morhion Gen’dahar, the creatures were not to be found. Apparently, without victims upon which to feed, the magical creatures were dispelled.

With this mission completed, I am ready to assume the new task you have described in your latest missive. I will report again in one moon’s time. Until then, may Milil’s music be sweet upon your harp!

Alone in the chamber she shared with Caledan on the upstairs floor of the Dreaming Dragon, Mari set down her quill pen. She sprinkled a dusting of fine sand across the missive she had written, then tilted the crisp piece of parchment, shaking off the excess sand. Finally, she rolled it up with the sketches she had made of the dark creatures and sealed the scroll with hot wax from the single candle resting on the writing table. For a time, she stared at the neatly rolled parchment, thinking how the eerie creatures had drifted around Caledan in what almost seemed to be reverence; how she and Caledan had fled the Barbed Hook in terror; how only at Morhion’s urgent prompting, after they told the mage what they had witnessed, did they return to the Zhent lair and find them vanished.

Why the things had seemed to obey Caledan’s commands was a mystery. Perhaps it had something to do with his shadow magic. After all, the creatures had come from the shadows. Morhion had discovered a black, noxious residue in the corners of the underground chamber, and had collected some in a vial in order to perform experiments on it. The mage’s research might explain why the creatures had behaved as they did.