Baldur's gate II_ throne of Bhaal - Drew Karpyshyn [85]
A slim figure in black dropped down from the branches above, landing lightly on the ground a few feet away. Even though he was looking at her upside down, Abdel could clearly see she had the sharp, pointed features of an elf. Her skin was the color of ash. He tried to mouth the word "drow," but the paralyzing poison from the darts still protruding from his body had rendered him completely immobile.
The drow moved toward him and pulled a runed dagger from her belt. Abdel recognized the symbols-he had seen them on the axe of Yaga Shura and the arrows of Illasera. This dark elf was one of the Five.
Abdel tried to swing himself around so he could cut himself down, but his muscles refused to respond. He couldn't even make his fingers twitch, he couldn't even scream out his frustration. One of the Five was less than ten feet away, and he could do nothing.
Images of violence and unbridled savagery filled his mind. He envisioned himself ripping the thin elf limb from limb. He imagined his sword splitting her skull and spraying gray matter across the thick trunks of the nearby trees. He fantasized about slicing open her stomach and watching her clutch feebly at her guts as they spilled out and onto the forest underbrush. His imaginings aside, Abdel simply hung from the noose like meat on a hook, swaying slightly from side to side.
With a quick swipe of her blade Abdel's captor cut him loose. His body dropped like a stone. Unable to even roll his shoulders to absorb his fall, Abdel slammed onto the ground, landing facedown.
The fires of Bhaal's fury began to rise within Abdel's soul. Instead of quelling the flames as he had so often done, Abdel stoked the embers of hatred into an inferno of madness raging inside his impotent body.
Crouching beside Abdel's motionless form, the drow rolled him over to stare into the eyes of her helpless victim.
"Imoen shares your fate," she whispered, determined to deliver a cruel blow to Abdel's heart before she delivered the slash to his throat. "I killed her myself."
Though his throat was frozen in silence, Abdel's mind screamed in protest. Not Imoen, too! Jaheira's death had ripped his soul bare. He thought the pain he felt from his lover's loss was infinite. But the knowledge that Imoen now lay dead as well, shredded new wounds in his spirit. The unbearable suffering-a pain within his heart greater than any physical injury he had ever sustained-grew even worse. Gorion, Jaheira, and Imoen. Their blood was on Abdel's hands.
The drow continued to speak, but Abdel no longer even comprehended her words. Consumed by the burning darkness of Bhaal, the part of his being that was Abdel Adrian was gone. Only the vile essence of the Lord of Murder remained. As it had done once while under the spells of the sorcerer Irenicus, Abdel's body began to change. This time he urged it onward. His bones cracked, and his skin burst apart, unable to contain a skeleton four times the size of Abdel's own. His hands became claws, his head a hideous combination of mandibles and teeth. Two more arms exploded from his chest, their taloned fingers ripping and slashing at the air. His skin formed a hard, chitinous exoskeleton. The Ravager had been unleashed on Faerun once more.
The transformation was instantaneous. Where Abdel had once been, only an abomination remained, lying prone on its back beneath the twisted branches overhead. Sendai leaped back in horrified surprise, her finely honed instincts for self preservation saving her from a quick and violent death.
The drow didn't wait to see if the creature was mobile but vanished into the trees, fleeing for her life. It was too late for her. The thing that now lay on the forest floor was not a creature of the mortal world, it was not