Kael.
'My friend,' Tauran tried to say, but the words got lost in a choking cough. He was desperately thirsty.
'Easy,' Kael said, scooting toward the angel. 'It will take a while for you to recover.'
Tauran could tell that the half-drow was bound, shackled at wrists and ankles. He realized his own body was similarly restrained, and that bands of tight, constricting material wrapped around his torso, pinning his wings to his back.
Kael moved until he was right next to the deva, then he helped Tauran rise into a sitting position. 'There,' he said. 'Now you can see our guest chambers a little bit better.'
Tauran peered around the cavern and spotted a third figure on the opposite side of the room, cowering. The odd glow that filled the room came from that figure. Long flowing hair and mustaches warned the angel of imminent danger, but the shaking, timid body language was at odds with that assessment.
'Zasian,' Tauran said, his voice still hoarse. It stung to speak. His thoughts screamed at him to beware, that the priest of Cyric would immolate him, would bring every last bit of his foul, unholy magic to bear against him. In panic, Tauran tried to roll away, to escape before the searing pain struck him.
'Easy,' Kael said, reaching out with his bound hands to take hold of the struggling Tauran. 'Where do you think you're going?'
'Zasian!' the angel repeated, trying to wriggle free. 'Must stop him!'
'Stop,' Kael said, his voice soft. He pressed his hands down, holding Tauran still. 'He's no threat to you, my friend. His mind is gone.'
Tauran continued to fight his bonds for a moment longer, until the words at last sunk in, and he quieted.
'Here,' Kael said, reaching down beside him. 'Drink this. It's foul tasting, but it's just water, and you need some.' He held out a badly dented bowl with both hands so that Tauran could take a sip.
Tauran leaned forward as best as he could and took a whiff of the water. It smelled tainted with disease. He made a disgusted noise and flinched away.
'I know, but you must drink,' Kael said, still holding it out. 'You've been unconscious for days. Your body is in bad shape. Help it heal.'
Tauran wondered if the damage of drinking such sickening water would offset any benefits it might provide, but he took a deep breath and leaned forward once more to gulp the proffered substance.
The taste was ten times worse than the smell and it made Tauran want to gag. It felt slimy in his mouth. He could sense the evil essence of it, and he was sure he was being poisoned. He jerked his mouth away and spat out what he had not already swallowed.
'Oh, that's awful!' he complained, but already, his throat felt better, and his voice sounded clearer, stronger.
'Well, don't waste it,' Kael grumbled, righting the dish before any more spilled out. 'This is all we have!'
'Sorry,' Tauran said. He shuddered at the disgusting aftertaste. 'But it's truly unpalatable to me. The stench of evil wafts from it.'
'I imagine it does,' Kael said. 'Maybe it's no good for you,' he added, sounding pensive.
Tauran tried to rise up straighter, but his bonds made it impossible for him to do much more than worm back and forth ineffectually. Kael set the bowl down and helped him.
'Where are we?' Tauran asked after he had gotten more comfortable. 'What's happened to us?'
Kael drew a long breath before answering. 'I think we're somewhere in the Blood Rift,' he said. 'I heard Vhok and Aliisza discussing some battle between these demons and a host of devils they ran into.'
Tauran's mind reeled. It could not be! 'No,' he gasped, his voice a gurgle of panic. 'No!' he repeated.
'Be still!' Kael growled softly, reaching out and holding Tauran down again. 'Let me finish explaining.'
Tauran used every bit of his willpower to calm himself. If he was to suffer the tortures of a horde of demons, as must surely be his fate, bound as he was, he would show Kael the bravery he knew the half-drow deserved to see. 'I'm sorry,' he said at last. 'Continue.'
Kael nodded and released the angel. 'I awoke some time ago. Vhok and my mother were still here.'
Images of Vhok and Aliisza flashed through Tauran's mind. He remembered clearly the devastated emotions that washed over him when the alu had appeared with Micus in tow within the great rotunda. Everything that had gone wrong in that battle had been because of her. Tauran's heart sank deeper, but he realized Kael was speaking again. He refocused his mind on the words.
'They were bargaining with a wretched creature who seemed to distrust both of them a great deal. Something about providing his lord with information gained from tricking you. I didn't quite get all of it, but it sounded like they were debating what could and couldn't be done to us until it was time to meet.' The half-drow's voice quavered the tiniest bit as he finished.
Her betrayal had run much deeper than he had suspected, Tauran realized. The High Council had been right; she and Vhok had been manipulating him all along. They had used him to see Zasian succeed. That thought sapped any remaining will Tauran had left to fight for his life. His sorrow was complete. He had failed miserably.
'Before they left, my mother leaned down to us and whispered to me not to worry,' Kael said, interrupting Tauran's lamentations. 'She said it was all a ruse to save our skins and that she and Vhok would be back soon. She seemed unsure of herself, but she also seemed sincere.'
Tauran tried to make sense of the knight's revelation. Too much was at odds. How did we come to be here? he wondered.
What's happened to Zasian? Can I trust Aliisza? That last question stuck with him. He feared allowing himself to hope that she had been forthright with her son. To do so was to invite even more pain and suffering later. And she had brought Micus with her. Hadn't that been a betrayal?
But didn't you yourself try to teach her that the essence of goodness was to trust, even when it put you in danger of grief? he asked himself. Can you practice what you preach, Tauran?
He honestly wasn't sure.
'Where's Micus?' Tauran asked.
'I don't know,' Kael admitted. 'I haven't seen him.'
'He became cursed,' Zasian said from across the room. His voice, so shaky and filled with fright, belied every sense Tauran had of him as a dangerous, cunning foe.
'What?' Tauran asked quietly, suspicious of the priest's motives. 'What do you mean?'
'He and the dragon creature were fused,' Zasian said, sounding uncertain. 'A terrible thing. He was mad, filled with unreason.'
Tauran leaned forward and spoke his next words very carefully. 'How do you know?'
Zasian began to explain everything that had happened to them, to all of them, since he had awakened. He told his tale in a simple, straightforward way, detailing events as a child might. From time to time, Tauran or Kael would prompt him about some piece of information or another. Always, the priest expounded on his story to the best of his ability.
Through it all, Tauran listened with half an ear toward catching Zasian in a lie or sly trick. He expected the priest to slip up at some point, reveal that he was, in fact, still the dangerous enemy Tauran knew him to be.
When Zasian finished recounting what he had witnessed since awakening-a point before which he could remember absolutely nothings-Tauran felt tears running down his cheeks.
'The planes have shattered,' he mumbled, letting the despair overwhelm him. 'We are all lost.'
CHAPTER SEVEN
'Can you conjure some impressive magic, if need be?' Kaanyr asked in hushed tones. 'Something fancy that will intimidate these fools?'
He and Aliisza stood near the entrance to a large cavern, waiting for a chance to talk to the powerful demon who controlled the forces with whom they had become entangled. Hot, wet fumes wafted through the natural chamber, disgorged from fumaroles scattered across the uneven rock floor. A channel of glowing, viscous lava tumbled from a hole near the ceiling along one side and vanished again through a sloping, narrowing crevice a few paces away. In the darkest recesses at the edges of the chamber, fungi and mosses sprouted from damp rock, fed
