Darkwell - Douglas Niles [67]
"Take me to your mistress, the high priestess Ysalla!" commanded the cleric, his voice a booming human command. But the words registered clearly in their dim brains. They paused in surprise, hissing among themselves, clearly taken aback by the appearance of this human who could speak their tongue.
"We will do as you say," announced one, finally stepping forward. His sibilant speech was clearly understandable by Hobarth.
"You are wise." The thing led Hobarth to a gory scene at the shore, where torn human bodies formed a massive pile. Hundreds of the sahuagin were gathered around, reveling in a feeding frenzy. Many of them turned and hissed or started toward the cleric, only to be turned away by a command from Hobarth's escort.
A huge sahuagin suddenly reared before him. It bristled with a headdress of sharp spines, its color bright yellow, in contrast to the green of most of its companions. Hobarth sensed immediately that this was Ysalla.
"Greetings in the name of Bhaal. You have won a mighty victory," he began.
"You are the human cleric." The creature looked at him with pale eyes, devoid of emotion. Suppressing a shudder, he sensed that the high priestess would as soon eat him as speak with him. Only their obeisance to a shared master restrained her. "What are the commands of our lord?"
"We are to await his order here. He will send us either against the Iron Keep or Caer Corwell. When he does, the might of Bhaal will be revealed to the humans in all their folly. "
Ysalla's sibilant voice did nothing to quell Hobarth's unease. He felt as though he spoke with a snake. The sahuagin cleric loomed over him, her sleek body displaying lines of tough, wiry sinew. Her yellow scales glistened, streaked as they were with red human blood.
"Why are there two targets?"
"The Iron Keep is close by and sits astride your route from Kressilacc to Gwynneth. Corwell is more significant, as it rests upon Gwynneth itself."
"I know this Iron Keep. Many of the longships rest there or return there after they cross the sea. It is a good target. The humans there have displeased our god?"
"They are… in the way." Hobarth found the concept of the attack difficult to explain. He himself had doubts about assaulting a target not directly useful to the defense of Gwynneth, but his god had commanded the attack. He explained to Ysalla the words of Bhaal: "The humans will then have no place to flee to when we complete the destruction of this island, Gwynneth. Bhaal will claim as his domain the lands in the heart of the isle. You and your king are free to claim the coast."
Ysalla hissed, which Hobarth understood was an expression of eagerness or perhaps bloodlust. "And you will swim with us to Iron Keep?"
"I shall walk my own paths," said the cleric, looking at the water with a shudder. How he hated the sea! "But fear not, I shall be there when you arrive."
"What is fear?" asked the high priestess, puzzled. And then she turned back to her bloody feast, and the cleric slipped quietly away.
* * * * *
Thorax the owlbear grew more and more angry with the passing of each day. Though it stalked the vale tirelessly, pressing ever outward, away from the Darkwell, it could find no trace of prey. Like Shantu, Thorax desired blood for the joy of the kill, not for any need for sustenance. But the owlbear lacked the displacer beast's cold cunning and shrewd sense of stealth. Thorax was a creature of stupid nature and brute strength.
And so the malformed brute lumbered along. It turned its feathered head around on its broad shoulders, looking behind itself like an owl. The owlbear walked sometimes on all four of its massive paws, and other times it walked upright, but it remained always hungry, always seeking prey.
Finally its search was rewarded.
A cracking in the dried brush provided the first alarm, though Tristan didn't hear it. He stood still, warily watching the firbolg as the creature gazed blissfully at Tavish and her lute.
Canthus, however, whirled with a sharp bark, the first to notice the attacker bursting from the woods. Tristan turned at this