9

Alisia's gut clenched when he saw Albrec run through on the one-eyed human's blade, and dampness welled in her eyes. Looking to Corwin, she recognized the determination in the human's narrowed blue eyes. As he stepped forward, Alisia grabbed his arm and held him back.

"Corwin, we have to run," she urged.

"I'm not leaving Albrec behind," he said.

"He's not going to die, Corwin. We have the halfling girl. The wizard needs Albrec to carry the Topaz now."

He freed himself from her grasp. His gaze bored into the man who stood over the fallen halfling. Albrec's blood still stained the man's blade.

"We're outnumbered," Alisia said.

The others of their party were back at their camp. When she had left Albrec to retrieve her companions, she'd run into Corwin partway there. Not surprisingly, he'd followed her and Albrec at a discreet distance, far enough back so as not to compromise their stealth and close enough so she wouldn't have to run all the way back to the camp for backup.

Thus, she and Corwin were alone.

"Alisia, get the halfling girl out of here," he said.

"She'll be safe with Katla," Alisia said. "I'm not leaving here without you."

"Neither one of us will leave here. Not with that wizard. We'll never outrun his spells. Go. I'll keep his attention on me to give you the chance to escape."

"Corwin..."

He kissed her brow. "I told Katla to listen for your whistle. She'll come pick you up. Take the halfling girl back to the camp and tell the others. I'll try to hold them here until you can escape."

She wanted nothing more than to throw her arms around his broad armored shoulders, but he moved out of her reach. The paladin advanced on the other human, blade ready.

"Corwin!" she cried.

The one-eyed human grinned. "Just so you know who your slayer is, paladin, I am Territ Fetterlis."

"You killed the paladin at the roadside tavern," Corwin said.

"You heard about that? He was the fourteenth paladin whose blood stains my blade. You'll be number fifteen."

"We shall see."

The duergar and the deep gnome bared their weapons and moved closer. Territ Fetterlis waved them back.

"He's mine!" the human snapped.

"We don't have time for this," the black-robed wizard said.

"Don't deny me my kill, Athmek!"

The two humans launched their attacks, and their blades met between them with a steely clang. They redirected and counterattacked, striking blade on blade.

Alisia gasped when she saw the wizard, Athmek, take a spell component from a pocket in his robes. The drow fingered the symbol of Vhaeraun around his neck. She fired off an arrow, hoping to interrupt their spell casting, but the shaft glanced off the wizard's protective magic.

She had one spell, part of her ranger training. She invoked the power of nature under the feet of the dark wizard and his drow companion. Writhing vines grew rapidly out of the ground and wrapped their tendrils around arms, legs, waists. The spell's area of effect also caught the duergar and the deep gnome, ensnaring them as well. The orc, wrapping the stump of his severed hand, had not been affected by Alisia's spell, but he wasn't much of a threat at the moment.

That left the human, Territ Fetterlis, engaged in combat with Corwin. As much as Alisia wanted to help Corwin, she knew he'd accepted a challenge. To involve herself would be a repudiation of his honor, and his honor was as much a part of him as his heart, mind, and flesh.

Territ's companions, however, were another matter. The drow cleric had already worked a hand free of the entangling vines, and he prepared a spell.

Alisia nocked an arrow and sighted down the length of the shaft. She hoped that the wizard's shield spell had either run its course or was dispelled when she trapped him in the entangling spell. Either way, the only chance she had to intervene on behalf of Corwin was her bow. She could not run fast enough to cut the dorw down with her sword, and if she even made the attempt she could be entangled in the snaking vines as well. She had no more spells available until her next meditation.

As the drow's gestures became more intricate, Alisia drew back on her bow. Allowing for wind and distance, she elevated the arrowhead slightly. She focused on the arrowhead, ignoring the distracting sounds of Corwin's fight with Territ.

She let the arrow fly. The drow cried out as the shaft plunged into his shoulder. His building spell energies dissipated.

The magical shield was down. Alisia fixed another arrow to her bowstring and drew down on the wizard. Athmek completed a spell of his own, and the entangling vines shriveled away.

He'd dispelled Alisia's spell. And just as quickly, he began casting another. It was a quick spell, completed before the ranger could unleash her arrow. In her haste, the shaft missed the wizard by a hairbreadth.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that Corwin and Territ were too involved in their own clash to acknowledge events around them. Completely oblivious to the danger, Corwin had circled around to expose his back to the wizard. Alisia tried to warn him as she nocked an arrow to her bowstring.

The words never left her throat before a greenish arrow flashed from Athmek's outstretched hand. The summoned arrow struck Corwin squarely in the back, sizzling with the pungent odor of acid. The paladin cried out and dropped to his knees. The acid continued to work, burning through his armor and into his flesh.

"You bastard!" Territ bellowed. "He was mine to kill!"

"Finish him," Athmek snapped.

Territ raised his sword, taking aim at Corwin's exposed neck. Alisia switched her target, sending an arrow into Territ's chest just below the exposed Sapphire of Humankind. The one-eyed human toppled backward.

Alisia moved toward Corwin. The paladin teetered on his knees, the acid working its way deeper into his body. He collapsed forward and lay still.

"No!" the elf cried.

Athmek began another spell. Alisia knew it would be directed at her. She sprinted for the edge of the woods even as a streak of flame left the wizard's finger. She dived into the foliage as the fireball exploded above her. She clenched her teeth against the pain when the hot fire crackled around her.

(Scene change: why fanfic takes out the asterisks, dashes, plus signs or whatever other means I may use to separate scene changes is a mystery to me)

Celesta clung tightly to the warhorse's neck as it charged through the trees. Branches whipped by, clawing at steed and rider alike.

She was free from the vile clutches of the wizard and his evil companions—especially the perverted human. She was free due to the sacrifice of another halfling whose name she didn't even know. She had no doubt that he and the human paladin and the elf woman were part of that band that Athmek feared was following them.

Behind her came a flash, followed by a muffled roar of fire. The horse skidded to a stop, craning its head around to look toward the explosion. It hesitated, as if it was deciding whether to go back for its master or to follow its master's command to take Celesta away from Athmek's band.

Celesta did not want to go back, but her freedom had been purchased by the intervention of the halfling warrior and his two friends. How could she in good conscious abandon them?

Three figures suddenly emerged from the brush. When she saw the man at the point, with his thick brow and the greenish tint of his skin, Celesta shrieked.

"I have that effect on most women," the orc said, the diction of his Common perfectly enunciated. "It's a good thing I see so few of them at Candlekeep."

The orc's companions, an armored dwarf with a holy symbol and a colorfully-adorned gnome, stepped forward. The dwarf grabbed the horse's reins.

"Katla," he said, caressing its snout.

"Where's Corwin?" the orc asked. "That's his bonded mount. She won't leave him unless he specifically ordered it."

"C-Corwin?" Celesta said. "The paladin?"

The dwarf nodded. "Aye. He should be with an elf maid and a wee one like yourself."

"The flash of light ahead," the orc said. "Methinks it's magic."

"They freed me," Celesta said, her eyes flicking fearfully toward the orc. "The halfling took the Topaz of Halflingkind from me and allowed me to escape."

"Why not take the gem with him?" the dwarf wanted to know.

"Insurance against my escape. Athmek, the wizard, has a monster waiting near my village. If I escape, he'll unleash the monster on my village and all villages in my shire. Your friend probably thought he could stay Athmek's execution order against my people if he carried the Topaz for Athmek." Celesta glanced toward the orc again. "How did you come to be in league with the good guys?"

The dwarf chuckled. "Ah, lass, Kaegan here is not an orc. Well, not a full-blooded orc. He's a half-orc."

"And I'm in league with these fine men out of my own choosing, because their cause is just," Kaegan said. "I like to think that I, too, am a good guy, as you put it."

The dwarf became somber. "Come. If that was a flash from a spell that we saw ahead, I fear for our friends. Katla, I believe Corwin would like you to carry this wee girl to safety. Trust us to go to Corwin's aid."

Katla, the steed, snorted. She shook her mane, hesitating. Finally, she galloped ahead. Celesta wrapped her arms around the horse's neck.

(Another cumbersome scene change indicator)

Albrec was never a devoutly religious man, but he thought he'd at least paid the appropriate amount of homage to Yondalla. His surroundings that came into view when his awareness returned was definitely not what he had expected of the afterlife realm of the halfling goddess. Iron bars surrounded him, and he bounced as he lay on a cold, hard surface, each jolt jarring his bones. He felt a heavy weight on his chest, and he slid his hand up to grasp the hard jewel suspended from a fine chain. He didn't have to look at it to know he had the Topaz of Halflingkind.

He sat up and gripped the bars. No, he wasn't in the afterlife—not even in one of the realms of torment. He was still on the mortal plane.

A black-robed figure moved in the shadows created by shafts of sunlight slashing through slats on the sides of the wagon. Albrec was startled by the grotesque mask on the dark wizard's face.

"Hello, little one," the wizard said. "I am—"

"Athmek, I know," Albrec said. "I heard the name mentioned."

"And you are?"

"Albrec Twinblade, formerly of the Waterdhavian army."

"You and your friends were foolhardy attacking my camp as you did. Now your mission has failed with the paladin's death. You no longer have a human to carry the Sapphire."

Albrec's consciousness had been fading during the last moments of the battle. He'd been aware long enough to see Corwin fall from the wizard's cowardly attack from behind. However, he'd also seen Alisia's arrow pierce Territ Fetterlis's chest.

"Seems you're in a bind yourself," Albrec said. "Did you not trade your human for ours?"

"Oh, Territ is very much alive. The same healing magic Rizzan used to save your life was used to save Territ's. My mission continues unhindered."

Albrec put a hand to his belly. The hole in his shirt from the sword thrust was still there, but his flesh was intact. He absently fingered the Topaz.

"I took the burden of this gem so you'd have no cause to kill the girl's people when I freed her," he said.

"And it was a noble act," Athmek said.

"Is her people safe?"

"For the moment. The burden is on you now, Albrec Twinblade. If you fail me, I will order my manticore to slaughter every halfling man, woman, and child in her shire."

Albrec slumped against the side of the cage. "Did you know her name at least?"

"Of course. Celesta Brumble."

"Celesta." Albrec smiled when the name passed his lips. "A beautiful name. It fits her."

Athmek shook his hooded head. "The foolish sacrifices men make for the sake of a beautiful face."

(scene change)

Alisia could barely move the pain was so great. She had avoided most of the fireball, but one side of her had still been burned. She could see out of only one eye, her right arm was useless, and half her studded leather jerkin had been burned away. Dragging her burned leg behind her, she inched her way through the crisped foliage toward the clearing. She didn't know how long she'd been unconscious, and she didn't know of Corwin and Albrec were even alive. Still, she forced herself to move despite the agony.

She stumbled out into the clearing, and it was empty save for the still form of Corwin sprawled face down on the grass. Albrec was gone, as were the evil thieves. With the halfling girl freed, Athmek needed someone else to carry the Topaz of Halflingkind. As long as he was needed to carry the Topaz, Albrec's life was safe.

Corwin, however, hadn't moved from where he had fallen, and Alisia feared the worst. She limped toward him, dropping to her knees beside him. She didn't see the rise and fall of his breathing, but she hoped that was because such movement was hidden within the confines of his breastplate. The hole burrowed into the steel back of the otherwise shiny armor revealed flesh that had been burned through by acid.

She put the backs of two fingers to the paladin's cheek, what little was revealed by his helmet, and felt warmth. If he was dead, he'd died only recently. She put her fingers near his nose, and she wasn't sure if she felt his breath or not. She was becoming less aware of her surroundings with each passing moment.

Alisia had been weakened by the burns to over half her body, and now what little reserves of energy she had faded. Even her willpower failed to keep her upright, and she slumped across Corwin's armored back.