The spirits numbered four. Three specters were the undead souls of humans who had been unlucky enough to explore the warrens years earlier and fall into the Fool's lair. The banshee was the soul of a tormented, undead elf who had been cursed by his guilt at helping the Fool unwittingly destroy a sector of the Elven High Command.
The banshee wailed, and its moan echoed through the chamber. Gaye shivered uncontrollably as numbness passed through her with a ripple of unimaginable coldness. The specters reached out. One's smoky hand touched her shoulder, another touched her head, and she was chilled, frozen immobile by their ephemeral touch.
The banshee's wail grew louder. She felt her breath constricting, her heart beating in frantic terror in response to the spirit's unholy wail.
Her mind raced for a strategy against the Fool's servants. Her psionic abilities, weakened as they were from the Fool's previous attack, seemed trivial against the spirits; nothing less than an exorcism would disperse these ethereal slaves of the Fool.
In desperation, she concentrated on warmth, on her own inner fires, to remove the paralysis the spirits had caused. Her fingers grew warm, and her hand erupted in a ball of golden energy.
The shades drew back abruptly, wailing in fear of her purifying light.
She knew she was too weak to summon again the brilliant fury of a nova, but perhaps there was another tactic that could save her, that would send these undead back to the Abyss.
Then she knew.
Paralyzed with fear, she focused inward. She visualized her latent energies as a flickering flame, suddenly growing in power. She imagined warmth creeping through her body, dispelling the paralysis with white heat.
The light at her fingertips was shrinking. The spirits crept closer toward Gaye, reaching for her with their spectral fingers. The banshee screamed, renewed by the encroaching darkness, and its howl was the sound of the wind singing through black trees and between tombstones, through the caverns of the dead.
Gaye swallowed her fear and sent her sight inward. She channeled her mental energies and visualized her powers in front of her, glowing beyond the surrounding circle of undead, in a tangible form outside of her body.
The spirits halted. The shimmering outline of a doorway appeared, a misty doorway through which she could pass to another world, even another ship.
But her purpose here was different, not a goal of escape, but one of defense. As the dimensional doorway materialized, which she had created as an opening to the sunlit world of Toril, the black chamber was flooded with warm daylight from Realmspace.
The banshee screamed in blazing pain. Its clawed hands of smoke went to its eyes. The spirits flickered weakly, silhouetted against the doorway, and the undead were blown away like wisps of black smoke on a torrential wind of light.
The banshee's wail died in her ears. Gaye sagged against the wall, drained of will and energy. The doorway dissipated and left her in darkness. Her astral form began to fade away.
Her last thought before she returned, unconscious, to her body in Herdspace was, I must warn Teldin.
Then she could think no more, and the warrens once again fell into shadow.
Chapter Twenty-One
'… Most answers are hidden in the riddles of the human heart, and in the conflicts that define a man's soul…'
Atop the neogi tower, two warriors hammered the tip of a broadsword into the roof. In the light breeze created by the Spelljammer's movement through the flow, the makeshift flag that had been tied to the sword was a proud symbol of the humans' victory over evil. The outline of the Spelljammer had been drawn in purple paint on a white sheet, and was centered with a crude representation of Teldin's amulet. The designs were surrounded by stars, shooting from the amulet like shurikens of energy.
When their enemies had been routed, Teldin ordered the Unhuman survivors to be chained and held in the prisoner's area, and the overflow in the pit of the great old master, surrounded by armed guards. With shovels and with their bare hands, the prisoners disposed of the master's corpse and those of its bludgeoned offspring, then were held deep within the pit for their eventual dispensation.
There was only a single neogi survivor-, the others had been killed, if not by the Beholders Alliance, then in the surprise attack by the humans. About half of the minotaurs were dead, and two of the ogres had been killed defending the tower. The other unhumans had somehow escaped, fearful of the humans' far superior numbers.
A thorough search was made of the tower, and then it was gone over a second time. The rooms of the neogi were found deserted or strewn with neogi corpses, and no other escape tunnels were apparent.
During the second search, a guard called Teldin back to Coh's quarters. He lifted a shining shirt of chain mail and a dagger, which he had discovered in a corner. Teldin recognized them as CassaRoc entered the room. The Cloakmaster took them and tucked them in his belt. 'She is without protection,' he said angrily. 'Coh has her, and she can't even defend herself.' He lashed out and kicked a piece of ornamental statuary. The grotesque sculpture bounced off the wall and crashed into pieces on the floor.
'Coh is hiding somewhere in the warrens. You're right: he and the damned Fool are in this together somehow. And we don't even know how to get down there.'
'Well, at least we've got the tower secured now,' CassaRoc said. 'You know, there might be someone who can help us out with this.'
'Who?'
'Well, I've heard that some of our more adventurous halfling friends have ventured into the warrens. And then there's your mind flayer friend. He knows more about this ship than most. We could call for him.'
'You won't have to.' Na'Shee was at the door. Both Teldin and CassaRoc turned as she entered. 'Estriss is here, asking to see you immediately. He almost got killed by our guards. They thought he was attacking them.'
Teldin nodded. 'Send him in immediately.'
Djan came in a moment later, followed by the illithid. Estriss bore a heavy cloak, and a broadsword hung from his belt. Mind flayers usually disdained such human affectations as weapons, but Estriss had learned the ways of humans well, and those he could not fend off with his mental powers could be battled with steel. The mind flayer greeted Teldin and CassaRoc, then sat in one of the chairs that they had brought in to Master Coh's quarters.
There is a problem, Estriss said, of which we must speak.
Teldin brought another chair around. 'Go ahead.'
The illithids are preparing for something of which I want no part. I managed to escape the horned tower just before the attack was to begin.
'Attack?' Teldin interrupted. 'What attack?'
The mind flayers and their goblin allies are attacking the elves as we speak, Estriss said. They have long hated the elves, and have long desired more power here on the Spelljammer. They have decided that the time to strike is now.
'So has every other race on board,' CassaRoc said.
Indeed. The mind flayer leaned forward. There could be trouble very soon, Estriss said. His facial tentacles twitched. That is the main reason I came over. I would have come sooner, but I could not escape the illithid tower without their notice.
They are plotting to assassinate you, Teldin.
'How?'
I do not know. The general population was not privy to Tre-bek'splans.
'When?'
Again, I do not know, but Trebek wants you and the elves dead. That way A cry came from inside the tower.
