Baldur's gate II_ throne of Bhaal - Drew Karpyshyn [98]
"Why me?" Abdel asked. "Why not just kill me and do this yourself?"
"I cannot," Balthazar replied, his voice sounding almost ashamed. "I have caged the Bhaal essence within me so thoroughly that I am no longer able to enter the realm of our father. The enchanted markings on my body keep the foul essence contained, the years of mental discipline reinforce the bars of the prison within my soul so that I am unable to access the power of my own tainted blood.
"It must be you, Abdel. You are the last of our kind. You are the only one who can follow Melissan now."
The monk tilted his head back, exposing his throat to Abdel's blade. Earlier the sellsword had lusted for just such an opportunity, but now he found he was unwilling to deliver the final cut.
"Time is of the essence," Balthazar reminded him, his voice placid and serene.
Abdel sliced the knife across the monk's neck. The warm blood rained down from the jagged wound to coat Abdel's hand and wrist. It pumped forth, splashing across the sellsword's face and chest. Balthazar's body slumped forward across Abdel's own.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Abdel recognized the Abyssal home of Bhaal through some innate feeling of familiarity. Perhaps it was his own immortal essence that drew him to this place, perhaps it was simply the fact that he had been here so many times before. Whatever the explanation, Abdel instinctively knew he was once again in his father's realm.
But he couldn't tell by looking at the surroundings. Each time he had visited Bhaal's corner of the Abyss Abdel had noticed the subtle changes. From empty void, to parched desert, to fertile, rain-soaked earth Abdel had been witness to the evolution of a dead, forgotten world. What he saw now, however, boggled his mind.
He was standing in a jungle-diseased, rotting, moribund-but a jungle nonetheless. Gnarled trees the color of deadwood arced up to disappear in the canopy of wide, yellow-splotched leaves overhead. Sickly gray vines hung down from the trees, putrid brown flowers bloomed among the infected flora.
There was no sound in the plague-filled tangle of trees and foliage, merely a heavy, oppressive silence that seemed to press in on Abdel from all sides with an almost physical presence. Even more overpowering was the pungent, cloying odor of gangrenous growth that hung in the air like a noxious cloud. With every breath Abdel was forced to fight against the urge to disgorge his last meal.
The moldering jungle grew so thick around him, Abdel could barely see five feet in front of him, but he knew the door he sought was somewhere in the murky, mildewed forest. Despite his revulsion to even touch the diseased plant life, he would have to hack his way through the growth to find the door.
Abdel took a hesitant step forward, and his bare foot sank an inch deep into the dark lichens and fungi that carpeted the ground. The decomposing moss squelched up between his toes in a dark green mush of liquid and vegetable matter. As if reacting to his movements, slime coated vines dropped down from overhead to wrap themselves around his head and bare shoulders.
He shrugged them off in disgust only to discover thick, deformed weeds had sprouted up from the earth beneath his feet and were entwining themselves around his naked legs. Abdel kicked them loose, their malnourished, sickly stalks far too feeble to offer much resistance. Gagging at the fetid stench of decomposition wafting up from the mulch beneath his feet, Abdel pressed onward.
Shuddering at the mucky feel of the vegetation against every inch of his exposed skin, Abdel snapped off branches and tore through thick jungle leaves. A blade would have made his progress far less distasteful, but Abdel was completely weaponless. Again and again he reached out with his bare hands to rip his way through the dense growth. His fingers became discolored and sticky with the foul-smelling sap leaking from the plants surrounding him.
It didn't take him long to realize that the plants were pressing in on all sides-literally. The foliage reached out to brush against