T Lain - City of Fire

It wasn’t much of a throw. The key bounced and skittered like a flaming coal jumping out of a fireplace and came to rest about a dozen feet away. Naull heard the blackguard curse and felt the metal gauntlet smash against her ear.

“Fool!” the raven-haired woman spat in annoyance.

Standing over the fallen wizard she looked at the key and at the bleeding woman. Victory was in her grasp. Naull saw the blade glint above her face. Weakly she pawed at her spell pouches. She thought of Trebba spending her last breath to stab the orc lieutenant and desperately hoped she could find something that might save her companions.

The wizard’s probing fingers found the small black bead taken from the orc lair. Naull hadn’t fully identified it yet, but when she discerned its magical nature she knew it was an evocation spell of some sort. Now it was her only hope. She drew it out and threw it up at the blackguard and the raised sword.

The black bead struck the knight’s armor with a small tink! For a brief instant, neither Naull nor the blackguard thought it would have any effect. Then with a roar of displaced air, the space around the two exploded.

Alhandra stumbled over to Regdar and the two lurched forward. Regdar collapsed just feet from the edge of the explosion and coughed blood. Reaching out with a mailed fist, he felt it stop against an invisible field of force.

Naull lay inside a bubble of force. Regdar couldn’t tell whether she was alive or dead, but he saw her wound and kept trying to touch her. The force wall stopped him, and he sagged against it.

A warm lightness swelled up against his back and Regdar felt himself regaining some of his strength. He blinked and spat out blood. Turning, he saw Alhandra with blood on her chin as well. She was concentrating gravely as she put her hands on his back, and Regdar felt his wound healing.

She stopped almost immediately and while Regdar knew he was still hurt, he also knew he would live. Alhandra staggered to her feet and looked around. When she saw Krusk lying to one side with the azer tending his wound, she walked slowly toward him.

Regdar turned back to Naull.

A sword clashed against the force wall just as he put his hand up against it. Reflexively, the fighter jumped to his feet.

Inside the bubble of force stood the blackguard, the symbol of Hextor emblazoned in red upon her dark armor. She looked a little worse for wear, her face dark from bruises and her hair singed and tangled. She screamed angrily at Regdar and pounded futilely against the bubble. Regdar ignored her and looked down.

Naull lay at the blackguard’s feet. He thought she was unconscious—he even hoped she was unconscious—but then she turned her face toward him and he almost looked away. Her features were scorched and bloody and one eye looked as if it might be damaged beyond normal healing. She reached up and put her hand against the bubble.

“Naull…” Regdar said, pressing his hand to the wall near hers.

The wizard coughed bubbles of blood.

“Got her…” she said, and smiled grotesquely.

The blackguard cursed but they both ignored her.

“Are you…?” Regdar didn’t complete the question. “How did you

…?” He gestured.

“Bead of force,” she answered feebly. “Figured it had to be something. Didn’t think it would be this good.” She smiled weakly, then coughed again and said, “Get the key.”

Regdar didn’t move. Alhandra stood behind him, however, looking a little better. She felt her way around the invisible bubble to the flaming key. The paladin picked it up and brought it back, then showed it to Naull, who smiled again.

The blackguard’s eyes lit up. She brandished her sword and pointed its dark tip at Naull’s chest. The wizard didn’t react.

“That’s it, little sister,” the blackguard taunted, holding the sword in one hand and beckoning with the other. “Give me the key, and I will spare your friend. I can heal her, you know.”

Alhandra hesitated.

“Can she?” Regdar asked. His voice sounded hollow.

The paladin looked at Naull, then the floor, then back at Regdar, and said, “Not like I do. If she ever served a power of light, Hextor has perverted her ability. He grants the power to destroy, not to heal others.”

Alhandra locked gazes with the blackguard.

“Oh?” The blackguard sneered. She tossed her head back and laughed cruelly. Pulling out a short, stoppered bottle, she dangled it in front of the paladin. “Even a servant of Hextor can pour a potion down a girl’s throat.”

“Alhandra-” Regdar said, pleading.

The paladin nodded, defeated. She held up the key and they watched as a smile grew on the blackguard’s face.

“No,” coughed Naull, spitting more blood. Regdar saw that she was weakening quickly. Whatever was keeping her conscious was killing her as well. “No, Regdar, you mustn’t. She’ll kill us all. You don’t have much time.”

Krusk and the azer joined them. The half-orc pressed his hand against the bubble and tears rolled down his gray cheeks. Naull looked up at him and tried to smile but the pain was too great. She only grimaced.

Gurn said solemnly, “She is correct. I have prepared the throne, but the ritual is fading. If we do not complete it and place the key in its spot, we cannot try again for at least another day.”

“Naull,” Regdar started to say, but she shook her head. Her eyes were open and clear. Refusing to look away from his partner, Regdar nodded. “All right. Do it.”

Ignoring the blackguard’s threats and curses, Alhandra handed the key to Krusk and Gurn told the half-orc to sit in the chair.

“Put your right hand here and hold the key with your left,” he said.

Alhandra and Regdar stayed at the edge of the bubble. Regdar knelt there, his hand covering Naull’s and his eyes shining with grief. The expression exchanged between Alhandra and the blackguard was pure hatred.

“I will kill you for this, little sister,” the blackguard spat at her. “I have marked you, paladin of Heironeous, and I will find you again. As Hextor has sworn eternal hatred for his loathsome brother, I swear my hatred for you!”

“Likewise,” the paladin replied coolly.

Naull looked to be unconscious, but she still breathed shallowly. Regdar said her name quietly as the azer and Krusk began the last element of the ritual. The blackguard turned away from Alhandra and looked down at the pair, contempt plain on her features.

“As for her…” the black knight purred.

Regdar looked up at her sharply. His eyes met the blackguard’s and she looked amused at his rage.

“This bubble won’t hold me forever, and I’ll have her for company in the meantime.”

Regdar stood and brandished his sword. If he was about to make a threat, however, Gurn interrupted it. “Now!” the azer yelled, and Regdar turned just in time to see Krusk slam the flaming key against the Opal Throne.

The entire tower bucked. Alhandra barely kept her feet and Regdar didn’t, falling back against the bubble of force, then landing heavily on the stone floor. He peered into the bubble trying to see Naull’s face again but the quake turned her body away from his.

Scrambling to his feet he shouted, “What’s happening?”

Krusk stood up from the throne as Gurn answered, “The gates are being closed and the city will return to fire. Secrustia Nar is no more.”

Gurn looked both sad and relieved when he said this, but Regdar reacted with alarm.

“What about them?”

He turned back to the bubble as the ground shook again. A crack appeared in the white wall and he felt the temperature rapidly rising.

“No time!” Alhandra shouted. “We have to leave!”

With an anguished look back at the bubble, Regdar let Krusk drag him away. The blackguard, rather than looking afraid for her life or even angry that her scheme was thwarted, looked at him with that same smile of taunting satisfaction she’d shown moments before. She knelt by Naull’s side and said something, but Regdar couldn’t hear over the thunder around him.