The Crystal Mountain (16 page)

Then his indignation and rage left as realization struck him. You’re a fool, Kaanyr Vhok, he told himself. You’ve created a mess of massive proportions and stuck yourself right in the middle of it. Well, it’s time to fix it. It’s time to fix everything you’ve fouled up. There can be no future for you until you resolve this.

With that, Vhok felt a great weight lift from him. He sensed many tendays’ worth of anger and frustration dissipate. It was time to act. No more hesitation, no more succumbing to inaction. It’s a new day, Kaanyr Vhok.

Vhok saw Aliisza’s eyes widen, staring at him. She’s wondering, he thought. She’s worried that she’s just crossed a threshold, revealed her deepest, darkest weakness to me, and that she can’t trust me with the knowledge. Let me show you, lover.

“It’s remarkable,” he said. “A day or so ago, I would have wanted nothing more than to ram my blade through his gut. Today, he restores my arm without a thought. And I mean that. He literally doesn’t seem to have a thought left in him.”

Tauran coughed. “He is becoming a Living Vessel,” the angel said, still sounding as if he hadn’t had a thing to drink in several days. “I’ve never seen it happen like this, though.”

Curious, Kaanyr moved over to the angel and knelt down. “What is he?”

Tauran fought a coughing spell, then explained. “Usually, a celestial creature can make an ultimate sacrifice of itself by making its body an empty vessel for another to inhabit. We don’t do it often, but when certain needs are pure and dire, we sometimes offer ourselves in this way.

“Zasian told us a bit about what happened in the rotunda,” the angel continued. “It sounds as though, with the strange surges of magic that cascaded through there right after Mystra was slain, his spiritual form and the planetar’s somehow merged. Perhaps the planetar invoked his power accidentally when he was so badly wounded, almost like a reflex. But instead of the planetar’s body becoming the vessel, Zasian’s did. But some small part of a personality—neither the planetar’s nor Zasian’s complete memories, but some small part—remained behind, which is why he has been behaving so oddly. And over the last few days, as it has perhaps dissipated, he has grown more vacant, detached.”

Vhok tried to absorb what the angel was saying. “Why would one of you do this?” he asked. “What can become of the Living Vessel afterward?”

“The mind and spirit of another being can inhabit our

body,” Tauran answered. “It’s not the same as the powerful arcane magic you are more familiar with. It’s more of a divine melding. I cannot adequately explain it.”

Already, Kaanyr’s mind churned with the possibilities. “That is very interesting,” he said. “So what has become of Zasian? Where is his original mind?”

Tauran shrugged as best as he could in his restraints. “I do not know,” he said. “Perhaps it’s also in there somewhere, buried and unable to react to us. Perhaps it has been eradicated or is cast out on the Astral, adrift and bodiless. I barely understand all of the ramifications of the magical surge that wreaked so much havoc on the universe. The fate of one man no longer seems so consequential.”

Kaanyr chuckled, finally at the moment of truth. “Perhaps for you,” he said. “But unless you have forgotten, my fate is inextricably tied to Zasian, through you. We have unresolved issues.”

Tauran coughed again. “You are right, cambion. I agreed to free you should you successfully aid me in stopping the priest of Cyric—”

“Or should it no longer be relevant.”

“Indeed.” Tauran drew a deep breath and said, “I gave my word. I free you of your obligation.”

Vhok felt the magical shackles fall away from him at last. He wanted to stretch, to crow, to shout “Freedom!” at the top of his lungs. He wanted to draw his sword and run it through the damnable angel who had caused him so much trouble. Instead, he merely grinned.

“Kaanyr,” Aliisza said, giving him a warning look. “Do not.”

The cambion smirked at her. “I don’t know what you’re

talking about,” he said playfully. “I was merely savoring the moment of release.”

“We must help them get out of here,” Aliisza said. “They will not survive this place.”

“And take them where?” Kaanyr asked, his voice growing cold. “We do not ourselves know where we are, and the odds are not good that we would survive if we tried.” He stood and looked down at her. “At least, the odds aren’t good for the four of you. The angel is dying, Zasian is nothing but a shell of a human being, hardly more than a halfwit child, and…” His anger and glee subsided. “And you can no longer draw on your power, lover. You’ve become a liability.”

Aliisza stared at him. He wasn’t sure whether she was on the verge of crying or screaming at him. “No,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Kaanyr, don’t.”

A pang of regret sent a chill through him. No, he insisted, shrugging it off. It’s time.

“Vhok,” Tauran said. “You have done so many right things. Don’t undo all that now.”

Kaanyr ignored him. “I thought I wanted what we used to have, Aliisza. When we were talking earlier, and when I watched you fight, I recalled how good we were together, and I yearned for those days to return.” His voice had become gentle, but it grew stronger, cold once more. “But I realize now that such can never be again. You are not the cunning trickster I loved back in the dwarven halls. Your time spent in the heavens changed you. Even if I were inclined to try to fight through all that, to guide you back to the crafty minx I remember, magic is killing you. Frankly, I don’t want to watch you waste away as your power eats you alive.”

Aliisza said nothing, but tears ran down her cheeks, and

she looked as though he had just rammed his blade through her gut.

“No,” he continued, tuning Aliisza’s soft sobs out, “the odds are pretty low that the five of us could escape here together. I, on the other hand, have many options. I think I will honor the bargain I made with Vhissilka the marilith. I like my chances much better that way.”

“You bastard!” Kael shouted, struggling to get to the cambion. “I’ll kill you!”

Vhok laughed as he drew his sword once more. “I ought to kill you now,” he said, “but it’s just too much fun watching you flounder around in those chains.”

He launched a series of feints at Kael’s head, got the half-drow off-balance, then kicked the knight’s legs out from beneath him. Kael went down in a heap and grunted in pain as his head bounced hard against the stone floor.

“Kaanyr!” Aliisza cried out as she struggled to where her son lay panting. “Leave, him alone!” she growled as she hovered over him protectively.

“You see?” Vhok said, feeling anger rise. “That’s what I’m talking about, lover. Always more worried about them than me. I sure won’t miss that.”

Then he bent down and looked her squarely in the eye. “Would you sacrifice yourself, use the last of your ‘immeasurable power,’ to strike the killing blow on me right now? Do you even have anything left to expend?”

Aliisza returned his gaze with a hateful glare. “Yes,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper. She reached one hand up toward him. “Come here and let me show—” The strain of her effort sent her into another coughing fit, and she crumpled down again atop Kael.

“That’s what I thought,” Vhok said, rising again. He saluted the four of them with his blade, eager to get out of there before Aliisza decided to try again to unleash her fury at him. He truly didn’t want to have to be the one to kill her. “It’s been grand,” he said, then he turned and departed.

It was, for a brief moment, very hard not to turn and look back at Aliisza one last time.

Aliisza remained draped over Kael for several long moments. The agony of Kaanyr’s words washed through her over and over again, mingling with the physical pain of her dying body. During all the years she had been his consort and his lieutenant, she had known he might turn on her one day. She had never imagined it could hurt so much.

The prophetic words of a conversation, spoken long before and in a very distant place, came unbidden into her mind. “It’s dangerous, caring for others,” she had said at the time. “You leave yourself open to… to pain.”

“Yes,” Tauran had replied so long ago. “It is hard to care for others, because you give something of yourself in the process. And you fear that it will come back to injure you if you let it. Everything we do in life, we do out of fear. Fear of betrayal; fear of pain. In the end, those fears materialize despite our efforts.”

“Despite our efforts,” she repeated, fighting the tears as she buried her face in her hands atop Kael’s chest. I’ve tried it both Kaanyr’s way and Tauran’s, and despite everything, this is how

it ends. In pain and misery. Why did I bother? That had been \ her reply so long ago, too, when she and Tauran had discussed the vulnerability of caring in that enchanted garden. 1

She repeated the question aloud. “Why bother living at ! all? How does making myself vulnerable change anything? It j only makes it worse!”

She felt a cool touch upon the back of her neck. She started, at first fearing that Kaanyr had returned, but his touch had always burned with his inner fiendish fire. She shifted around as best as she could and found Zasian kneeling next to her.

“You’re hurt,” he said. He shifted his hand to her forehead, then blessed comfort poured into her. The pain in her gut faded somewhat, and she felt renewed strength return to her limbs.

Zasian looked pained as he withdrew his hand. “You’re dying,” he said simply. “But not yet. I’ve helped.”

Aliisza looked back at the priest and smiled. “Thank you,” she said. Such kindness from…

Zasian sat still and stared beyond her, at nothing.

“You called me your son,” Kael said.

Aliisza blinked and sat up. “What?” she asked, sniffing and wiping her eyes.

“When you first arrived,” Kael answered. “You told that thing”—the half-drow jerked his head in the direction of the gorilla-demon—”to ‘get away from my son!’ You’ve never called me that before.”

Aliisza shook her head. “So? I don’t understand.”

“I think he’s trying to answer your question,” Tauran said, his voice very weak. “It’s why you—why all of us—bother.”

“Exactly,” Kael said. “I’m sorry for what Vhok said to you. He’s a fool. I’m proud to have you as a mother.”

Aliisza smiled faintly. Kael smiled back, and gladness welled up inside her, pushing aside some of the hurt Kaanyr had inflicted upon her. He’s my son, she beamed. And he’s proud of it.

But they were still doomed. Kaanyr had made good on his promise to punish Tauran and Kael for their manipulations. He was free, and they were all trapped, dying in a deep hole in the ground.

“How could you do that?” Aliisza demanded, turning to where the angel panted, his eyes closed. His blond curls lay plastered against his pale skin, soaked in sweat. He looked terrible. “How could you free him like that? You’ve just sealed our fates,” she said, anguish welling up once more.

“I had no choice,” Tauran replied. “I gave him my word. A guarantee of my own well-being was not part of the bargain.”

“Tauran, that’s insane!” Kael said from across the room. “Surely there was some way you could have maintained the letter of the agreement a little longer Are you that ready to die?”

“Death may be a blessing for me after everything that’s happened,” Tauran murmured. “The demons will nor slay me for a long time, if they can help it.”

“No,” Aliisza said, fighting to control her emotions. “I won’t let that happen.”

Tauran opened his eyes and looked at her. “I welcome whatever intervention you wish to provide, but it is as Kaanyr said. Where are we to go?”

“We can still try, damn you!” Kael said. “If you just want to lie there and wait for them to come for you, then you’re not the creature I believed in. That’s not the Tauran I know.”

Tauran closed his eyes again and sighed wearily. “Would that I could still be that person for you, my friend. But too much has been lost. I cannot muster the strength or will to continue the fight.”

“Nonsense,” Aliisza said, rising to her feet. “That’s this place talking. You’re succumbing to it.” She tried to adapt a brusque, practical tone, but inside, she fought to avoid falling apart. Kaanyr had everything he wanted, had every advantage. And he had been right; they were all liabilities.

Maybe he’ll come to his senses, she hoped. Maybe he’ll reconsider. Then that false hope vanished. She knew nothing would change the cambion’s mind. He had been through too much. Too much suffering, too much humiliation. He intended to extract a heavy toll from everyone who had gotten in his way, everyone who had thwarted even a tiny bit of his ambition. The four of them would be nothing, trying to stand against him.

Something inside Aliisza resolved itself then. Something powerful, something that had lain in wait for her to finally see the universe as it really was. Kaanyr’s words had stuck with her. Would you sacrifice yourself? he had asked.

He’s a fool, she realized. He will never understand. I’d rather die with these two by my side than waste another moment grieving over him.

Clarity had come.

Aliisza knew what she must do.

She knelt next to Kael and muttered a simple spell, touching the locking mechanism of his manacles as she did. An audible click accompanied the shackles coming apart and dropping from his wrists. A wave of pain shot through Aliisza’s gut as her blue glow filled the cave, and she

doubled over for a moment, gasping. When the discomfort subsided, she manipulated the spell a second time, freeing the knight’s legs.

Kael stared at her. “Is it bad?” he asked, and the gentle concern in his eyes warmed Aliisza’s heart.

Aliisza smiled. “No,” she lied. She reached out and caressed his face. “I’m fine.”

The half-drow snorted. “The Hells you are,” he said. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”

Aliisza shook her head and resumed her officious attitude. “There’s no time for worrying about me,” she replied. “We’ve got to get Tauran free and out of here. This place is killing him.”

Kael stared at her for a moment, but then he nodded. “I’ll do it,” he said. “Whatever you’ve got in mind, get started. Vhok won’t be long in returning to finish his betrayal.”