Филип Этанс - Shadows of Amn

The minotaur came up out of the water and screamed. The sound was pained and sincere, and it made Abdel turn to face him. Abdel was aware of the sound of the sling whipping through the air, and he turned in time to see the stone launched but not in time to avoid it. The rock hit him square in the groin, and all the air left Abdel's lungs in a ragged burst. He wanted to fall to one knee, but all he could do was stand there.

The battle-axe spun over Abdel's head and came down with a glinting clamor on the stone floor in front of him. Abdel looked down at it, then back up at the orc. Abdel smiled. The orc smiled back, then turned and ran, fast.

Abdel leaned down to get the axe and took a couple shaking steps to the door. He looked in both directions, but there was no sign of either of the orcs.

"Help me," the minotaur gasped behind him.

Abdel turned and saw the minotaur roll out of the tank and fall to the floor with a thud. He was holding the broadsword but made no move to attack. His fur had taken on a curious gray-black hue, and he was shaking uncontrollably, gasping for air on the floor. If Abdel had wanted to kill him, this would be the time.

"Abdel?" a voice behind him asked softly. "Abdel, are you all right?"

The sellsword turned and saw Imoen standing in the doorway, holding a hand to a huge flowering bruise on one side of her face. A simple, rusty shortsword she must have taken from an orc hung from her other hand.

"Jaheira?" Abdel asked, his eyes still blurry and painful.

"She'll be all right," the girl said impatiently. "And I'm fine, thank you."

"Please," another voice said. Abdel turned back to the man strapped to the table. In a voice heavily accented and muddy from a swollen tongue, the asylum inmate said, "Now this of out me get someone can?"

Jaheira pressed her hands to her temples and held them there tightly. She'd eventually have to stop taking blows to the head, she knew, or there might be permanent damage. Abdel was next to her, though, and holding her now in his strong arms, so she was already feeling better.

She looked over at the minotaur sitting on the floor in the little room. A chill ran down her spine, and as much as she thought she trusted Mielikki's varied creations until they proved untrustworthy, she was afraid of the huge creature.

"I get knocked out for two minutes," she whispered to Abdel, "and you make a new friend."

The sellsword smiled and said, "Any port in a storm."

Imoen was helping the odd naked man on the table into a sitting position. The man seemed dizzy and more than a little demented.

"We need to get out of here," Imoen told him.

"That we do," Abdel said, looking between the madman and the minotaur. "We don't have to fight, do we?"

"Sir, fight a up put won't I," the madman said.

Abdel looked at him blankly, and Jaheira let out a breath that might have been a tired laugh. Abdel helped her to stand, and she looked at the minotaur.

"The coordinator," she said, "a man named Irenicus, do you know him?"

The minotaur nodded, the gesture obviously reluctant.

"You can speak," Abdel said to the creature.

"Crazy we're thinks he," the madman said to Imoen, a gentle smile on his face. "Me ask you if one crazy the he's."

"I can speak," the minotaur said, ignoring the madman. Imoen gasped at the sound of the creature's gruff voice.

"What is all this about?" Abdel asked simply.

The minotaur grunted and shrugged. "I was made to inhabit this place. Your Irenicus had plans for this labyrinth beyond peopling it with the addled of your kind."

"But he's gone?" Jaheira asked the huge bull-man. "He's fled this place?"

The minotaur nodded.

"His of woman vampire that with Underdark the into went he," the madman mumbled, nodding.

"Vampire?" Imoen asked him. "Did you say vampire?"

"He went into the Underdark with that vampire woman of his," Jaheira translated. "Why?"

"Does it matter?" Abdel asked, not expecting an answer. "Good riddance. He belongs down there."

"His plans are for Suldanessellar," the minotaur said, and it was Jaheira's turn to gasp.

"Well as say I riddance good," the madman said, laying back down on the table. "Fed been have should they way the eels the fed never he."

"Suldanessellar?" Jaheira asked. The minotaur nodded, and she said, "That can't be."

"Suldanessellar?" Abdel asked.

"What's that?" asked Imoen.

"Us about care really didn't he like was it," said the madman. "Me with fine just be it'll him kill and him find you if, anyway."

"Suldanessellar is an elven city," Jaheira explained. "It's no surprise you've never heard of it. It's one of Faerun's best kept secrets. It's the home of some of the few elves who have yet to join the Retreat to Evermeet."

The minotaur nodded, and Abdel asked, "What could that possibly have to do with us?"

"I have no idea," the minotaur said. "You fought with me against the snortsnouts, and I owe you enough to part ways with you peacefully. I've told you all I have to tell."

"We could use your help …" Jaheira said to the huge bull-man.

The minotaur nodded, but said, "Your quest is not mine."

"At least tell us how to find them," Jaheira insisted.

"Do we need to?" asked Imoen. She turned a questioning gaze on Abdel.

The big sellsword sighed and said, "I guess we do. We can't let this go on. I owe him one for that ritual anyway and for the odd kidnapping here and there."

"Easy is down way the," offered the madman, who was busy replacing the copper band on his head. "It over hanging skull a with door a to come you until turns left three first the take and right the to corridor the follow just."

"Are you getting this?" Abdel asked Jaheira. The druid nodded, listening intently to the madman's directions.

"One that want don't you," he continued. "It over nailed bat dead the with door the through go and that by pass. Ramp a to lead that'll."

"You know what?" Imoen said. "This isn't making me feel better."

"Right the on door third the find and, goes it as far as down that take," the madman went on. "Down way long a be it'll."

"I can image," Imoen quipped, and Abdel shot her a stern look, which she ignored.

"Underdark the to get you when," the madman concluded, "It know you'll."

"One question," Imoen said, looking directly at Jaheira. "Is this Suldanessellar place worth it?"

"I spent time there," Jaheira said. "I learned to be a druid there."

"I'll take that as a y—"

Imoen was cut off when the madman yelped and seemed to hop up off the table.

"Imoen!" Abdel shouted in warning, but the girl was already in the process of jumping backward.

The madman hadn't jumped off the table—he'd been pulled off. Ropelike tentacles covered in a viscous slime hung from the ceiling and wrapped themselves around the suddenly stiff, unmoving inmate. Abdel, Jaheira, Imoen, and the minotaur all looked up at once and saw the source of the tentacles. The minotaur growled something in some guttural language.

Hanging from the ceiling, upside down over the madman's table, was a huge wormlike beast made of fleshy, spherical sacks. Its head was shaped like an onion, and from it sprouted a blossom of tentacles.

"What in all Nine Hells is that?" Imoen said, stepping quickly backward to get out from under the thing.

"Carrion crawler," Abdel, Jaheira, and the minotaur all answered simultaneously.

Abdel was surprised by, of all things, the height of the ceiling. Thinking back, the minotaur had jumped over him. The creature was eight feet tall, and Abdel seven, so the ceiling must have been far above them. He could see a hole in the wall near one corner of the gloomy ceiling where the giant beast had obviously come through. He'd heard of these things. They scoured the deepest caverns and dungeons cleaning up the remains of dead carcasses and the aftereffects of battles. This one had obviously mistaken the madman for a casualty.