Nevron walked over quickly, though he too continued to cough from the lingering smoke. Out of the whole room, only Szass Tam was unaffected by it, since he did not need to breathe. The zulkir placed the mostly intact scroll with the other pieces Szass Tam had collected on the table. Together, they read over the documents as best they could. An occasional quake rocked the chamber, but the two men were silent for some time. Finally, Nevron breathed in sharply and turned his head toward the lich with a look of horror and awe.
'I can't believe you found this,' he said quietly and pointed to one of the burned fragments. 'How?' he croaked.
'That is not for you to know,' the necromancer replied.
'My whole life has been in pursuit of these runes,' he said mostly to himself. 'And now, to find them here, broken and incomplete…'
'Perhaps you can now understand why one lifetime is not nearly enough,' Szass Tam told him evenly.
'No matter for now,' Nevron dismissed the discussion. 'Without the other pieces, I don't see how we can bind Eltab. We might be able to stop the lesser minions, but the tanar'ri lord may be beyond our reach.'
Szass Tam was silent for what seemed like an eternity. He scanned the puzzle pieces again as though he might have missed the keystone, but it was not there to be found. He balled up his bony hands and pounded the table with a cry of fury. Then he smoothed his robes with those same hands and regarded the other man solemnly.
'I fear you may be right,' he admitted calmly, 'but we must try, nonetheless.'
And he and the Zulkir of Conjuration began to chant.
Tazi flew toward another flock of Eltab's darken-beasts, carving through them with her sword as she had the others. The griffon swooped into the herd like a hunting raptor and sliced at the flapping bat creatures with its razor-sharp talons. Tazi gripped her mount with her thighs to maintain her seat on its back and hung onto its mane with her left hand. She twisted around to spear a darkenbeast that tried to find purchase on the griffon's haunches. She dispatched the creature though it left a track of bloody welts along the griffon's rear left flank. It screeched in pain.
When Tazi turned forward, she ducked low and hugged the griffon's neck as another darkenbeast swooped toward her face, missing her by mere inches. More started to surround the griffon, smelling the blood, and it reared back, flapping its wings furiously as the smaller darkenbeasts cut off all escape routes. One after another dived at Tazi and her mount, and she swiveled from her right to her left to slash at the monsters. But their numbers kept increasing. As they slashed down one, another two took its place. The griffon cawed in panic as several of the flying creatures began to target its vulnerable wings.
Like a black, rotting infestation, one after another of the darkenbeasts attached themselves to the griffon's wings. Using their sharp claws, the demon-king's minions ripped the winged beast's limbs to shreds. Golden feathers coated in blood swirled about, and Tazi could hear the animal's suffering, but she was helpless to alleviate it. The sheer numbers of the dark-enbeasts weighed the griffon down and Tazi could see they were losing altitude.
A creature slipped past Tazi's defenses and punctured the griffon's right eye with its talon. Blood squirted out, and Tazi's mount plummeted beak first toward the ground, spiraling in tighter and tighter circles. The creatures that were clamped to its wings held fast, and as the ground came screaming up toward them, Tazi leaped from the griffon's back at the last possible moment.
She fell hard, taking the brunt of the fall on her shoulder as she tucked up into a ball and rolled forward to land in a crouch, weapon still held high. The griffon was not so fortunate, smashing headlong onto the hard soil. As it lay in a heap near a rock pile, Tazi could see it was done for. Its beak was partially broken and blood gushed out of the wound. The ruined eye dangled from its bloody socket to stare blindly ahead. Its wings were practically denuded of feathers, and multiple talon rakes crisscrossed its haunches.
Despite these wounds, the griffon was still alive, and a few darkenbeasts continued to peck and tear at its flesh.
'Off of him, hellspawn,' Tazi shrieked.
She grabbed one of the creatures by the nape of its neck and cleanly ran it through. Some of the other darkenbeasts then shifted their attention from the dying griffon to Tazi. One hovered above her head, clawing at her face and tearing out handfuls of her black locks, while she stabbed another through its heart.
Dropping her sword, Tazi reached up and caught the one that was tangled in her hair, her chainmail gauntlets protecting her hands somewhat from the darkenbeast's talons. She flung the screeching monster to the ground and crushed its throat under her boot. With most of the beasts gone for the moment or dead, Tazi picked up her weapon and strode over to the griffon.
She reached out a hesitant hand and stroked the beast's bloody neck. It opened its one good eye and looked at her imploringly.
Tazi raised her sword and said, 'I'm sorry for this.' But before she could end the griffon's misery, a great war axe slashed down and practically beheaded the winged creature in one stroke. Tazi whirled to see Justikar breathing hard and leaning on his bloody axe with both hands like it was a walking stick.
'Now we're even,' he spat at the dead beast.
'Justikar!' Tazi shouted, though she wasn't sure if it was anger or relief at seeing him that made her cry out so.
'It had to be done,' he replied.
'But you didn't have to enjoy it.'
'Yes, I did.'
Tazi sighed and rested against the dead griffon, trying to catch her breath. She wiped at her forehead, thinking that it was sweat that dripped down her face and neck, but her hand came away wet with her own blood. She blinked at her gory fingers.
'Trying to look like me?' Justikar asked her with a smirk, and when she glanced at him blankly, he pointed at his bald pate.
'Darkenbeasts,' she answered simply, and the dwarf gave her a curt nod. 'Where are yours?' she asked.
'Gone,' he replied.
'They're all gone?' she said in amazement.
'They've been slaughtered,' he nodded bitterly, 'but not before they took out most of Eltab's flock. There's the odd clutch scattered around, though. I can still 'hear' them. And they still listen.'
Without another word, Tazi turned away from the duergar and clambered up the large rock pile that was just behind the griffon's body to get a better view. In the red blaze of the fires and the lava that continued its inevitable course down the mountains, she could see mayhem and destruction everywhere. Along the western ridge, bodies were stacked like cord wood. Tazi could make out some of the colors of Szass Tarn's troops, now truly dead. Strewn in between, she saw the occasional lizard claw or bloated lamia tail poking through the carnage. On the eastern slopes, Tazi watched as her ores slashed viciously at the albino lizards. The reptile men had acquired weapons from the fallen zombie legions and were quite proficient at using them. But Tazi's heart sank when she saw that demons still emptied out of the central peak.
She turned back toward the Citadel and closed her eyes. She summoned the last of the undead soldiers Szass Tarn had left at her disposal. They marched out and began to assume the positions of their fallen brethren. Wearily, she opened her eyes again.
'They keep coming,' she told the dwarf. 'Szass Tarn must have failed in his bid to stop them.'
'You think he stuck it out?' the duergar asked. 'I'm sure he and those other sour-faced wizards fled as soon as we stepped out onto the battlefield.'
'No,' Tazi disagreed with him. 'Somehow, and I can't tell you why, I think he stayed. For his own, warped reasons he cares about this land more than we do.'
'Than I do,' he corrected her.
'It doesn't matter now, if we can't stop them,' she said. She looked to the peak that erupted again and realized that it was the only one still active. It was also where the demons continued to emerge from.
'All that's left is to stop that demon,' Tazi added, 'and I think I know where I can find him. Justikar, you have to lead the rest of the forces in my place.'
'It makes no difference,' he argued. 'As many as we throw at them, they match.'
'No,' she shook her head, 'forget that. What you have to do is fortify the barricade now. It's the only chance
