'It is a living thing, more powerful and important than you will ever be!' Teldin shouted. 'It is far more than a vessel or a city. It is a myth come to life.'
The Fool bowed slightly. 'If that is all you know, then, Cloakmaster, you know nothing.'
'Nothing,' Teldin said. 'That's all you are, Fool, nothing. You've got all these empty powers, and all you want is to see your obsession come true. 'Death to the Spelljammer.' All because you lacked the discipline to be a worthy captain… or a worthy man.'
The Fool flinched in anger. He was not used to humans talking back to him. 'The Spelljammer deserves to die after what it did to me!' he shouted. 'I was the captain, the best captain. I dared to use the Spelljammer to rule the spheres, and it committed mutiny to destroy me, to imprison me in the Dark Tower with the others. I had other plans.'
The Fool's grip tightened on his ruby amulet. 'I carefully made.. arrangements for my escape. Plans for my revenge. And your damned cloak is destined to be the instrument of the Spelljammer's death!'
'Can you think of nothing else?' Teldin challenged. 'Did you sell your mind as well as your soul? You have the ship's population tricked into thinking you're an all powerful wizard, or a foul demigod, who secretly rules the Spelljammer.' Teldin raised his arms and gestured. 'Look around you. You are surrounded by nothingness, darkness, emptiness. You are a ruler of nothing but the dead. You're nothing but a zombie yourself.'
'The dead are excellent servants,' the Fool said, 'as you and your little whore will be soon, if you do not give me the Cloak of the First Pilot.'
Teldin pointed his sword at the Fool. 'The cloak is mine.' He braced his legs defiantly. 'The cloak cannot be removed unless I'm dead. If you want the cloak, you're going to have to take care of me first.'
The Fool grimaced in what amounted to a smile. 'I do so love a challenge,' he said.
The blazing pinpricks in his eyes flickered momentarily, then around the warriors the moaning began. They gathered together and formed a tight circle.
The chamber filled with the shambling undead. Elves, humans, dwarves, even a long-undead k'r'r'r, surrounded them, fifty or so swarming in from warrens hidden deep in the shadows of the Fool's lair. Above their constant moaning, the Fool laughed.
'The decision is yours, Cloakmaster,' he said. 'Give up the cloak, or all of you will die, and your precious Cwelanas will come to love my embrace… in undeath.'
'We've taken our chances before, Fool,' Teldin said. 'We'll take them now.'
The Fool's eyes flickered once, and the undead attacked. The blades of the humans whistled through the air, slicing through dead bone with a fury for life that only the desperate can muster. The warriors' battle cries echoed through the chamber, drowning out the low moans of undead agony.
But the undead had them surrounded in numbers far superior to their own, and it was only a matter of time before they were overpowered. Chaladar was the first to be wounded, bitten in the leg by the yellow teeth of an undead neogi. CassaRoc, despite the mighty swings of his battle-axe, was grabbed from behind by an undead umber hulk. Teldin and the others were busy defending themselves. His sword sliced through three undead before he was overtaken by their sheer numbers. His cloak was impotent, useless; it hung to the floor without power.
The light in the room suddenly brightened, and the Cloakmaster realized the glow was emanating from Gaye. She floated inches above the floor, her eyes closed as if in sleep, her hands crossed over her chest. Her voice echoed like a sibilant whisper in his mind. Protect the others. 'Protect? How?'
The light that was her life force shone brighter. The undead flinched at her radiance, then continued on as the Fool screamed at them, 'Kill them! Kill them all!
Teldin felt Gaye's power flicker over his bare arms. Instinctively, he shouted 'Come here!' to the others. 'Quickly! We haven't much time!'
The warriors doubled their energies and pummeled away at the undead. Then they were lined around him, weapons ready, enveloped in Gaye's warm glow.
Her eyes snapped open. Her energy suddenly hummed in their ears like a powerful inhalation of breath. Teldin gasped, and he knew.
His body was flooded with the icefire of the cloak's power, and the cloak billowed out, stretching impossibly to encircle the warriors and pull them into a tight group. They all felt the cloak's energies then, tingling along their skin, raising the hairs on their arms and necks with a ripple of cold.
The cloak tightened around them, concealing them from Gaye's powers.
And the light from Gaye was expelled from her astral body in an explosion of heat and energy and psionic power, an ultrapowerful blast of mental energy that burned through the undead and knocked them to the floor, reeling in pain as their bodies resonated with purifying energy.
The undead collapsed upon themselves, all semblance of their minds burned away with the blast of Gaye's life force. She flickered weakly and floated to the floor, where her aura faded to a dim glow.
Teldin willed the cloak to unfurl, and he and his warriors rushed to her. She was weak, but she smiled bravely.
The chamber was littered with the bodies of the dead, and Teldin jumped through them toward the Fool's dais.
'You may stop the undead' the Fool yelled, 'but you will never stop me!'
The Cloakmaster reached the dais in one leap. He coiled and swung at the Fool with his sword, but the blade cleaved harmlessly through the image of the Fool as though it were smoke.
Teldin stepped back. 'Cwelanas?' he said.
Her image wavered, then swirled away, a spell of illusion blown on the dark winds of the Fool's chamber. The image of the Fool seemed to smile in glee as it blew apart on a cold breeze. Over it all Teldin heard the Fool's laughter, from wherever his place of concealment was.
'One chance more, you have, Cloakmaster,' the Fool's voice echoed throughout the chamber. 'The cloak for the woman. This will be her only hope.'
His voice faded, echoing with cackles of laughter, and Teldin spun on the dais to face his friends.
'All this for nothing! We walked straight into it.'
'It had to be done,' CassaRoc said. 'We had the chance to find her. We would do it again.'
Teldin nodded grimly.
Without warning, the Spelljammer shuddered violently from the pounding of ballistae up on deck. The Cloakmaster steadied himself, then went over to the others as the shaking ceased.
Gaye knelt over Chaladar, who grimaced in pain at the burning sensation of the undead neogi's bite. I can heal this easily, Gaye assured.
'What about yourself?' said Teldin.
She forced a smile. 'I am weak but well, not too weak to help your friends.'
Gaye placed her hands above Chaladar's wound and relaxed, willing herself deep into a healing trance. Her aura merged with that of the paladin, and she could feel his unconsciousness as though it were a sweet, cold narcotic, washing through her, tempting her to release her hold on wakefulness and fall into blissful darkness. Then the pain in Chaladar's leg flared an angry scarlet in Gaye's own leg, and she willed the pain away.
Heat flowed through Gaye's hands, enveloping the paladin's injury and permeating his skin to settle deep into the bone. Her hands bumed with her psionic healing powers, and her mind flooded with cold, like a night breeze. She wavered as dark unconsciousness washed over her, brought on by both the intense strain of healing and the stress of using her psionic abilities so much in so short a time.
Within minutes, Chaladar's wound was healed and the paladin stood, stretching his leg as though nothing had happened. Gaye seemed to sag with weariness, and her glow dimmed.
We must leave this place, Estriss remarked. Cwelanas is still missing, and the Cloakmaster must seek the adytum. If he does not reach it soon, the Spelljammer may be lost.
'We must leave,' Teldin agreed. 'This farce of the Fool's has wasted enough time.'
Gaye smiled thinly at him. I must leave to renew my energy. You will need me in the time to come. But I have the strength to do one thing more to help you on your quest.
'What?' Teldin asked.
Gaye raised her astral arms and concentrated. Slowly, the group began to shimmer with her own golden energy, and they found themselves shimmering into existence on deck, materializing in the center of a group of warring elves and mind flayers.
