Baldur's Gate (12 page)

He pushed her away gently, and Jaheira sighed.

“Khalid and I…” she started to say, but stopped when he shook his head.

“I can feel…”Abdel said quietly. He stopped to clear his throat and continued, “There are two voices to my thoughts, I think. One that wants to kill, that loves to kill, and another that wants… I don’t know what it wants, I hear it so infrequently. The voice that wants to kill also wants you.”

A tear rolled down Jaheira’s sun-browned cheek, and she put a hand on Abdel’s head, in his hair. He put one big hand over hers, held it and drew it away from his head. When he let go, she left him alone.

“We have horses,” Khalid said, “thanks to Abdel.”

“Arm wrestling,” the big man said. “What an odd pastime.”

Khalid smiled and looked pointedly at Jaheira, who was admiring Abdel’s powerful arm. She caught her husband’s eye and blushed, shooting him a look that clearly said, “Say nothing!”

“Good,” replied Xan, “we’ll need them right now.” The elf pointed at a short, stocky fighter whose stubbly red hair shined in the feeble morning sunlight. It was Tranzig, and he was mounting a fast-looking horse on the street outside the still-sleeping Red Sheaf inn.

The four companions stood casually, assuming that Tranzig had no idea who they were or that they’d been watching him. The red-headed man rode off at an easy pace, taking the dirt road out of Beregost to the north toward Baldur’s Gate.

“Here we go,” Abdel said as he climbed on his new horse, a sturdy brown stallion.

Tranzig left Beregost early enough that they weren’t caught in the refugee press northward, and they let him get out of sight before they followed. Xan and Abdel could easily make out the hoofprints left in the muddy road by their quarry’s horse. They left Beregost, and Abdel was happy to see it behind them, for a number of reasons. He looked at the road, his horse, the trees here and there, and a hawk flying overhead—anywhere but at Jaheira. She didn’t look at him either. They rode in silence for over an hour before they saw anyone else.

They were just dots far ahead on the open plain when Xan spotted them and drew the others’ attention to the figures. Six people on foot, crossing the ragged grass, were moving slowly toward the road.

“We’ll meet them on the road,” Abdel observed, feeling uneasy about the encounter.

Xan shrugged and said, “Fellow travelers.”

“Perhaps,” Abdel answered, “but I’ve seen things on this road… we should be ready anyway.”

“I’d say they’re making for that building, there,” Khalid offered. He pointed to a crumbling structure in the far distance. Made of white stone, the dilapidated structure was overgrown with weeds, ivy, and brambles. A thin line of mud showed where a path once led from the road to the columned structure that might have once been a temple.

“If we can avoid them,” Jaheira said, “we should. We can’t let Tranzig get too far away. Remember, we’re here to find this Iron Throne, and with any luck Tranzig will lead us there. If some pilgrims have come to this ruined temple to pray, let them.”

Abdel nodded at the simple, safe logic of what Jaheira said, but he didn’t hold out much hope for the outcome.

Abdel’s horse took the first hit and went down screaming. Jumping out of the way of the animal’s falling bulk, Abdel rolled on the ground and got to his feet with his sword in front of him. Jaheira’s horse reared and threw her. She exhaled sharply when she hit the ground and fumbled a bit in drawing her sword but was otherwise unharmed. Xan slid from his horse and slapped it on the rump to keep it out of the way of the things that were attacking them.

Abdel had no name for these hideous man-shaped creatures. They were covered in—seemed to be made of—some kind of transparent olive-green semiliquid. There were six of them, the would-be pilgrims. Abdel could see their skeletons through the slime. He couldn’t see any guts. It was as if these men had somehow jellied, then hung on their bones to kill in mute mockery of life. They coordinated their attacks on the party like wild dogs, and Abdel didn’t doubt that one of his friends might be taken down. Xan slashed at one, sending a trail of olive slime shooting out over the road. The creature staggered but kept fighting. The monsters came at them with hands held high and apart as if they meant to embrace their victims. Abdel had no idea what effect the touch of this oozing, algae-reeking goo might have on the living, but he had no intention of finding out the hard way. As if recognizing his superior strength, three of them came at Abdel, and he defended himself with wild abandon. He hacked into the inhuman things, taking more care not to let any of the slime splash on him than in fighting with any finesse.

Jaheira held her own opponent back, as did Xan, but Abdel spared a glance at Khalid long enough to know that the half-elf was hard pressed. Khalid was backing into his own panicking horse.

Abdel took the head off one, and the thing collapsed. It wasn’t like a man falling over, this thing literally splashed onto the ground as if the bones had just disappeared. Indeed, Abdel could no longer see the dark gray outline of the creature’s skeleton. One of the two still trying to touch him finally succeeded, and Abdel flinched fast and hard, whipping his right forearm out and sideways. Some of the creature’s slimy substance had stuck to Abdel’s chain mail sleeve, and the sellsword took three big, fast steps backward as he continued to flick the ooze off. It hit the ground, and Abdel could swear he saw it move back toward the amorphous feet of the slime creature. There wasn’t any left on his sleeve, but there was a shiny patch, and Abdel watched it for signs that it might burn through to his skin.

He could only look for a second, but that was enough for him to decide that the creatures weren’t acidic. Still, they were trying awfully hard to get that slime onto him, and Abdel couldn’t imagine it would be to his benefit.

Jaheira shrieked, more in anger than in fear, but Abdel couldn’t turn to look at her. He was busy with the two slime creatures who were pawing at him desperately. Another went down, and Abdel realized his sword was covered in the viscous, foul stuff, the blade feeling noticeably heavier. Abdel adjusted his stance and grip accordingly to account for the new weight and went back at his remaining opponent. This one seemed to have learned from the death of his two companions. It was dodging back out of Abdel’s reach now and trying to come in low, grabbing for Abdel’s legs.

“Khalid!” Jaheira screamed. Abdel heard footsteps— heavy, fast, but irregular—in the grass to his right. He had to keep his eyes on the creature still swiping at his knees. He heard a thick, bubbly splash and knew that one of the others had taken a creature down.

“Khalid!” Xan shouted. There was a ring of desperation in the elf’s voice that Abdel didn’t like at all.

Abdel, knowing something was wrong with Khalid, spun his sword up and over his head to make a downward slash into the creature’s head. The monster saw its opening, dropped down on what sufficed for a rump, and went to kick out at Abdel’s shin. Abdel was waiting for the attack, though, and nimbly hopped over the slimy legs, twisting in the air to fall backward. He slid his sword behind him, along his right side, and landed directly next to the creature—too close he realized only after it was too late to stop his fall. The sword pierced the slime creature’s “skin,” and the thing’s bones went limp. Abdel gasped and whirled out of the way, leaving his sword in the growing pile of ooze. He stood and without thinking checked his body for any of the slime.

“Khalid,” Jaheira yelled again, “Abdel—”

The sellsword jumped but not at the sound of Jaheira’s voice. The puddle of viscous slime was moving and moving at him. Tendrils of syrup licked out of the mass of stuff, whipping at all of them like snake’s tongues. Abdel raised his hands as he stepped backward but hesitated. His sword was still stuck in it, and though he would have felt better if he was armed, he wasn’t sure it would help. It was as if striking them with a blade only dropped them out of their humanoid form but made them no less capable of attacking. In what must have been their native form, could they be cut at all?

Jaheira began a mumbling chant, and both Abdel and Xan backed off quickly at the sound of it. The pool of slime still advancing on Abdel formed a thick tentacle and drew it back as if to strike. Abdel held up his fists, still not sure how to defend himself against this thing, and then Jaheira stopped speaking, and the slime stopped moving at the same time.

“They are plants,” she said. “I thought they smelled like plants.”

“What did you do?” Abdel asked her.

“By Mielikki’s grace,” she said, “they won’t be able to move for a few minutes.”

Abdel bent and retrieved his sword, having to pull hard to free it from the sticky grip of the inert substance.

“Khalid,” Jaheira said, “where’s Khalid?”

Abdel looked all around and saw only Xan’s retreating back. “This way!” the elf called.

“Elves made this,” Xan said, examining faded carvings in the stone of the crumbing temple, “a very long time ago.”

“Khalid!” Jaheira screamed again. She was crying, and though she’d been embarrassed about it at first, now she just idn’t care.

Abdel heard a rustle of leaves on the other side of a broken wall and stopped wiping the slime from his sword long enough to determine that it was only a squirrel. The oblivious rodent scurried up the side of a pillar and disappeared into a fold of ivy vines.

“Why did he run?” Xan asked, not expecting an answer.

“It got on him,” Jaheira said, her voice quivering. “That… stuff, that slime got on him. What was that? What were those things?”

Abdel shook his head, not sure what to say. Seeing Jaheira like this, in an emotional panic, made him feel like he did the right thing in pushing her away, but that made it no less painful for him.

“Khalid!” Abdel called out, covering his emotions with the task at hand.

There was another rustle of leaves, and Abdel sighed. “Damned squirrels,” he muttered and stepped forward and up onto a crooked paving stone. The stone collapsed at the same instant that Khalid—or what was Khalid—burst through the vegetation and lunged at him.

Abdel bent at the waist, instinctively flinching from the attack as he fell, and this was just enough to make him fall backward, away from Khalid and down six inches to the rest of the crumbling stones. Jaheira screamed. It was a painful, desperate, horrified, purely female sound, and it made Abdel’s heart flip in his chest.

Khalid was changing. There was no doubt that he was becoming one of those things. Already Abdel could see through what was left of the half-elf’s skin. He could see the shadowy traces of ribs. Internal organs were shrinking fast enough that Abdel could see their progress. Khalid’s left eye was gone, his right was dissolving rapidly after having slid into the mass of slimy material that was once his head. There was no trace of brain in there, and Abdel knew his friend was dead.

Xan uttered some curse in Elvish but gagged on the end. Jaheira was whispering the word “no” over and over and over again.

The thing that had been Khalid lunged at Abdel again, its dissolved feet making a sickly slurping sound on the uneven stones. Abdel didn’t think, he just reacted, bringing his sword up and in front of him. It slid through one of Khalid’s arms slowly, easily, and the arm came off and splashed on the stones next to Abdel. The sellsword had to roll backward and stand to avoid putting his hand down in the slop that was Khalid’s arm.

“Abdel—” Jaheira coughed, her voice pleading, but Abdel had no idea what she wanted him to do. Khalid kept coming at him, and Abdel kept backing up. He was fending off the creature’s groping attacks and trying not to kill it, though it certainly couldn’t be Khalid any more. He made little cuts in the thing, hoping it would panic and run, but it didn’t seem to feel pain.

“Abdel, for the love of all the gods…” Xan said.

Abdel closed his eyes and thrust his sword out and through Khalid’s body. He could feel the mass collapse and opened his eyes again.

Jaheira barked out a strangled “No!”

Khalid collapsed into a pile of dissolving bone. The finger joints of one hand worked in the quivering pile of soupy stuff, twitching as if trying to grab on to, or hold on to something.

“Oh for—” Xan started to say but instead just turned around and staggered a couple steps away before sitting hard on the ground. The elf covered his eyes, and Abdel looked at Jaheira. Her eyes locked onto his. Her face was a mask of pain. Her beautiful, refined features were twisted and ugly. He never wanted to see that look on her face again. She looked back at what was left of her husband and screamed into the overcast sky.

Abdel dug into his pouch with one shaking hand and brought out the vial he’d purchased in Nashkel. He threw his sword away, and as it clattered along the paving stones he uncorked the vial, wax trailing off to drop silently in his lap. He threw the contents of the vial onto the puddle of quivering ooze that was even now moving to embrace him. He looked away, holding his breath.

“Oh,” Jaheira groaned, “oh no, Khalid…”

The slime sizzled away, sending acrid smoke into the air of the crumbling temple. Abdel sat there with his eyes closed, just listening to Jaheira cry.

“How did you know that would work?” Xan asked him after a time. “The acid, I mean.”

Abdel shrugged, sighed heavily, and didn’t look the elfin the eye when he said, “I know how to kill people. I always know how to kill people.”

The tracks of Tranzig”s horse left the muddy road less than a mile north of the ruined temple. Abdel had searched in vain for his horse, remembered it had been infected with the olive slime, and took Khalid’s instead. They’d mounted and rode on in complete silence. The cool breeze hissed through the dry grass. Birds and bees and mosquitoes made the only living noises. Even Jaheira had stopped crying. Abdel looked at her occasionally, confused by her livid emotions. Her eyes were red, and the skin of her face both puffy and taut. He was afraid she might explode. She looked like she might explode.

They rode hard and fast, knowing they’d lost time with the costly attack from the creatures. Tranzig must be miles ahead of them by now, and it was getting dark. Far off to the west the sun was just touching the black line that was the distant Cloak Wood forest.