Baldur's Gate (14 page)

“A guide?” Xan asked, confused.

“Help me lift this body,” Abdel said. “It’s coming with us.”

“There are so many things that are wrong with this,” Jaheira said, “I have no idea how to begin to—”

She stopped when Abdel put a finger to his lips and tipped his head to one side. She knew they should be quiet—they were trying to hide after all. It had been two days since they’d left the hills and the bandit camp behind, and she’d had no luck trying to talk Abdel out of this insane plan. Xan had been more vocal about his distaste for the enterprise. He complained and refused to pull the makeshift travois they’d used to carry the dead bandit to this little off-shoot of the deeper Cloak Wood forest.

The dead bandit hung, stinking, from a tree where Abdel had left him, and he, Jaheira, and Xan waited behind the also rotting hulk of a fallen tree.

“Abdel,” she tried again, whispering this time. “Let’s just bury—”

She stopped when Abdel whipped his head to one side, eyes wide and searching in the gloomy forest light. She heard the footfalls as well, whoever it was wasn’t trying to be quiet. Xan bit his lip, and when he made eye contact with Jaheira he shook his head slowly. She closed her eyes and sighed, hoping the elf would realize that he’d just have to understand.

“Oh, my, yes,” Korak said, emerging from the underbrush and considering the dead bandit hungrily. “Yes, this will do fine.”

Jaheira could see Abdel let out a silent breath. She tried not to breathe through her nose. The ghoul was downwind, but she could still detect traces of his moldering flesh stink. She put a hand over her mouth to calm the gag reflex.

“How did you get yourself up there?” the ghoul asked the silent body.

“I helped him,” Abdel said. Korak yelped, leaped backward awkwardly, and fell into a prickly bush. “Come on out, Korak, I’ve changed my mind.”

“That you?” the ghoul asked, only the top of his gray, dead head showing from behind the bush.

“Come on out,” Abdel said, standing, sword in hand, behind the fallen tree. Xan breathed some Elvish curse but otherwise stayed out of it. Jaheira had no interest in standing, either, still afraid of the full force of the ghoul’s reek and not too fond of its appearance at that.

“You won’t kill me?” the ghoul asked hopefully. “I come with you?”

“We need a guide,” Abdel said. “We need a guide in the Cloak Wood.”

“I knew it,” Korak answered. “Follow me.”

The spider was brown with irregular blotches of black and white spattered across its spherical body and eight armored legs. It was about as big around as Jaheira’s thumb—not the biggest spider in Faerun, but it felt like it to Jaheira. She let out an embarrassingly impish yelp as the thing dropped on her shoulder. She jumped, and that served only to startle the spider, which proceeded toward the closest dark shelter it could find—Jaheira’s modest but well-rounded cleavage.

She patted at her hardened leather bustier and said, “Oh for Mielikki’s sake,” in a shrill, scared voice. “Damn it… damn it.”

Abdel turned around and flinched away from a slender branch that almost caught him in the eye. The brush and trees were thick. He couldn’t see Jaheira’s face but could see her swatting at something. The half-elf woman took a step backward and yipped again.

Abdel shouldered his way through the vegetation to her and asked, “What is it?”

Jaheira didn’t answer him at first. She just proceeded to remove her leather armor.

“What are you doing?” Abdel asked again, dumbfounded.

Jaheira managed to say “Spider,” and sort of hop-stepped in place as she got her bustier off. Her undershirt was loose, and she started to shake it. She made a rather convincing Calishite dancing girl. Abdel smiled in spite of his worry, still not sure what was going on.

“Are you all right back there?” Xan called from somewhere in the thick vegetation.

“I think Jaheira’s run afoul of a—” Abdel started, then was interrupted by a pained yelp from Jaheira.

“Oh gods,” she cried, “it bit me—it’s biting me!”

A tear burst from her eye, and Abdel stopped smiling. She was trying to pull her blouse off, and he helped her. The fabric tore away with an echoing sound, and Abdel swatted the spider from between Jaheira’s exposed breasts before either of them realized what he was doing. The spider jumped nimbly onto Abdel’s right hand, and the sellsword slapped it with his left, leaving only a crinkling of legs in a brown spot.

“It went right—” Jaheira started to say. Abdel looked up at her, naked from the waist up, and his mouth came open. He’d never seen anything so—

She clapped her hands across her chest and turned away. Even through her shoulder—length hair Abdel could see her neck blush bright red.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“It’s—”

“What’s going on back there?” Xan asked. Abdel heard the elf approaching. Even Xan couldn’t be quiet in this trailless mass of weed and tree.

“It’s all right,” Jaheira called, and the footfalls stopped.

Abdel realized he was still holding Jaheira’s torn blouse. He held it out to her bashfully. She paused, turning her head slightly toward him, but he couldn’t see her eyes.

“Keep up please,” Xan remarked testily, and though Abdel still couldn’t see the elf, he heard Xan turn and walk away, in the direction the ghoul was leading them.

Jaheira waited a few seconds, also listening to Xan’s receding footfalls, then she turned and reached for the blouse. Her hands came away from her body, and her eyes met Abdel’s. They stood there for what seemed like a lifetime, their fingers intertwined with each other’s in the smooth silk of the torn blouse. Jaheira let go first, reluctantly, and Abdel, maybe more reluctantly, turned and walked on, leaving her to dress alone.

“Xan,” he called, “watch for spiders.”

“Yes,” Korak said, his voice loud, too close to Abdel. “Spiders, for certain.”

Abdel turned, and the ghoul was there. The horrid reek didn’t seem as bad. He never would have believed he’d be able to get used to it, but maybe he had. The ghoul turned in the direction of Jaheira, and the thing’s hideous tongue came out to lick at a puss-dripping boil on its sunken cheek. Abdel took two steps forward and grabbed the ghoul by the tattered shirt.

“You’re here as a guide, ghoul,” Abdel said, his voice heavy and threatening, “so guide from the front, or spiders will be the least of your problems.”

Korak grunted and scurried off into the thick vegetation ahead. Abdel felt something tickle the back of his neck and brushed away a bug of some kind. “Torm,” he breathed, looking up into a daylight sky darkened by a thick canopy of trees. He could see the sparkle of spider webs above him.

He glanced back at Jaheira, who was already following the rest of the party as she finished fastening her bustier. He didn’t say anything but felt a sudden burning desire to rip the dead guts out of the ghoul Korak. How much had the thing seen? Those dead eyes didn’t deserve to see what Abdel had seen, and Abdel was surprised by the next thought: no man did. He’d killed her husband only two days before, but already Abdel was feeling like he and Jaheira—

He pushed those guilty thoughts from his mind and took his frustrations out on the twisted brambles that blocked his way.

They walked for another hour or more through nearly impassable undergrowth, and Xan finally emerged from the curtaining bushes to walk, as best he could, at Abdel’s side. Jaheira was only a few steps behind them. Abdel picked at the thin webs that tickled his face and fouled in a growing beard. Abdel was as used to living outside as in but found himself fantasizing about an inn, a warm hearthfire, a flagon of ale, and Jaheira—

“Admitting that a plan has failed,” Xan said, breaking Abdel’s reverie, “is a lesser sin than continuing down a course that can only lead to disaster.”

“For Torm’s sake, Xan,” Abdel shot back testily, “I’ll kill the reeking son of a slug with my bare hands if it’ll shut you up, but it won’t get us out of this godsforsaken forest any faster.”

“This Korak of yours,” Xan said, “is an undead thing, Abdel. How could you possibly trust it?”

“I don’t,” the sellsword answered. “I never trusted him when he was alive, but I’m not sure I have much choi— damn it!”

Abdel stopped short. The spider was nearly the size of one of Jaheira’s small hands, and it was sitting in the middle of an elaborate web not more than an inch from Abdel’s nose. The spider remained motionless while Abdel took a step back and drew his broadsword. The blade scraped against a tree branch behind him, and Abdel heard Xan say, “Wait!” but he didn’t hesitate to split the big arachnid in half with a single well-placed slice. The spider’s chitinous body broke open, and hundreds—maybe thousands—of tiny baby spiders burst out of the otherwise empty shell and scattered in the undergrowth and along the web.

“Oh for Torm’s sake…”Abdel breathed.

Jaheira shuddered visibly and said, “Let’s get out of here. Let’s just get out of here.”

“Not long now,” Korak muttered, his head just visible over the bulk of a huge fallen tree.

Jaheira spun on the ghoul and said, “You’ll not eat me, ghoul, you’ll not live to taste—” she stopped to flick away one of the baby spiders. She screamed loud and long out of frustration, anger, and revulsion. She put her hands in her hair and ruffled it violently, her finger sticking in a tangle. At least one spider shot out of her hair. Abdel drew in a breath when Jaheira looked up at him, her strong face framed by her now wild hair. Abdel reacted physically to her appearance and turned quickly when he saw Jaheira notice. A spider landed on his left cheek, and he brushed it off hard enough to kill it and smear guts across his face.

“Mielikki has turned away from this wood,” Jaheira said, as much to herself as to the others.

“Spiders are just… spiders,” Abdel offered feebly.

“Yes, they are,” Jaheira replied, “as much a part of the order of nature as anything, but I’d prefer they didn’t… order on my… nature.”

Abdel smiled, and so did Jaheira, just a little.

“If you’re leading us into some kind of ambush,” Xan said to Korak, obviously not noticing the scene between his two living companions, “I will gladly die as soon as I make you suffer through a second death.”

“Threatening me all the time,” Korak said, his yellowed eyes looking the elf up and down with obvious disdain, “will get us to your mine no faster.”

“That’s it,” Xan said, pulling his sword, “I’ve had e—”

Abdel pushed Xan back hard, and the elf almost fell on his rump.

“We’re going,” the sellsword said to Xan, then turned to the ghoul and said, “Get us there. Now.”

The ghoul nodded and turned to continue on its way. Xan, breathing heavily, only watched Abdel and Jaheira avoid the crawling web and continue after the ghoul. The elf stood there for a while, brushing away the occasional spider, then followed.

“That’s it,” Abdel said sternly, “we’re going back.”

Korak stopped and turned to look at the sellsword. “Back?”

“That’s it,” Abdel said simply.

“You’re leading us into some sort of spider… spider…” Xan stammered, searching for the right word, “… spider hell.”

“Let’s just go,” Jaheira said, her voice weak and quivering. She was beginning to twitch, and Abdel couldn’t help but be reminded of the Zhentarim mage Xzar when he looked at her. That feeling was a large part of why he wanted to get her, and the rest of them, out of the Cloak Wood. From the moment the spider climbed into Jaheira’s armor and bit her between her breasts, the number and size of the spiders they encountered quickly increased. It was already dark in the thick forest, but it was obvious that the sun was going down. The shadows were getting deeper and could conceal ever more, ever larger arachnids. Jaheira itched at her chest and tussled her hair again. She constantly scratched at something on the back of her neck. “Let’s just go,” she said again.

“Not much farther,” the ghoul objected. “I’m guiding you. I’m guiding you.”

“You’re dragging us through a sea of spiders,” Xan countered, “toward what? What are you bringing us to?”

“The mine,” Korak pressed. “I’m taking you to the mine. Follow… follow…”

The ghoul made quick hand gestures, beckoning them forward. Abdel had had enough, though, and didn’t move. He spat like he’d done a hundred times in the last hour, to clear a thin strand of spider web from his lips.

“No more, Korak,” Abdel said. “Get us out of here, or I’ll kill you, and we can take our chances on our own.”

“As you wish,” the ghoul said, bowing showily. “As you wish, good sir.” Korak turned and continued in the same direction as before.

Xan sighed loudly and said, “Let me. Please, Abdel? Let me kill him.”

Jaheira marched off behind the ghoul and said, “Let’s just go.”

Xan took a breath to sigh again, then stopped, letting the breath ease silently out of him.

“There’s something out there,” he whispered in a voice just barely audible.

Abdel had already begun to follow Korak and Jaheira who were loudly thrashing through the spider-infested wood. The big sellsword turned slowly and put his right hand on his broadsword.

“Where?’ he whispered to Xan.

“Behind us,” the elf returned, “and to the sides—both sides.”

“How many?”

“Enough,” the elf said, quickly falling in behind Jaheira. “Let’s go.”

Abdel hesitated, wanting to stand and fight.

“Abdel,” Xan said in a loud, clear voice. The elf must have felt that whatever was following them knew exactly where they were. Abdel followed but walked backward as much as forward.

“Can you see them?” he asked Xan quietly.

“What is it?” Jaheira asked. “Are we being—”

“—hunted?” Xan finished for her. “Yes, we are. Keep going.”

“We should split out,” Abdel whispered to the elf, “try to circle back.”

“They smell bad,” the elf said, and Abdel realized the elf was very much afraid. “I don’t know what they are, Abdel, but they’re not human or elf. I don’t want to split up.”

“They’re herding us?” Jaheira asked.

“Yes,” Xan answered. “Following us into wherever— whatever—that ghoul is leading us into.”