To the Hells with that, Kaanyr decided. He's not coming up with some coercive reason to make me obey. Before Tauran could finish, the cambion banished his spell of gaseousness and materialized in front of the oncoming celestials.
Beside Kaanyr, Kael appeared just as suddenly. I guess we had the same idea, he said, grinning.
You two are both fools, Tauran said.
Kaanyr smiled back at the knight as he raised his hands in supplication. I couldn't help myself, he answered. It just occurred to me thai it was the best chance to succeed, and it happened on its own.
You're a liar, Vhok, Tauran said. Thank you.
Just go, Kael said. He, too, had his hands in the air. Stop Zasian.
The celestials approached the pair of half-fiends warily, their eyes wide. 'Unbelievable!' the planetar said, raising his enchanted sword. 'How dare you defile this holy place of magic, you fiends!'
'We surrender,' Kael said. 'We must spea-'
Kael's explanation got cut off as the planetar spoke an all-too-familiar word of power.
The resultant blast of holy energy knocked Kaanyr unconscious.
Kael watched Vhok crumple to the floor beside him and then turned back to the planetar in disbelief.
The emerald-skinned creature watched them both, and when he realized that his divine attack had not affected Kael, he brought his sword up and began stalking forward.
'Wait!' Kael said, his hands still raised in the air. 'We are surrendering!'
'You are intruders defiling the sacred inner sanctum of Azuth himself, and you shall be slain!' the planetar replied. He kept coming.
Behind him, the two archons vanished. Kael assumed they had fled to seek help.
With a growl of frustration, Kael dropped his hands and grabbed his own sword. He raised it into position and stepped in front of Vhok. 'I don't want a fight, but I won't let you just cut us both down,' he said.
The planetar raised his eyebrows in surprise. 'You think you have a choice in the matter?' he asked. 'I don't remember offering one.'
The celestial swung his blade at Kael. The champion of Torm countered the stroke with his own weapon. The two swords clanged together and sent shivers down Kael's arms. Sparks flew from the grating edges. Kael grunted at the force of the blow.
The angel swung again, and it was all Kael could do to get his defenses up in time to parry the attack. The power of it forced him back. He had to mind his footwork so as not to stumble over Vhok.
Fool angel, Kael thought. As bad as Micus and the High Council. 'Why won't you listen to me?' he demanded. ''I am not your enemy!'
The emerald creature said nothing but continued to press his attacks.
Again and again the planetar attacked, and each time, Kael barely managed to deflect the strike. The creature was simply too strong. He would wear the knight down in only a matter of moments.
I'm not afraid to die, he thought. But this is wrong. Such a waste.
'You have the power to tell if I'm lying,' Kael said. 'Use it! I'm here because of a common enemy. Tell me how to prove that, how I can win your trust.'
The planetar struck again, and the force of the blow knocked Kael's blade completely to the side. He was exposed. The celestial attacked once more, slicing into the half-drow's arm. The plating there split in half and the sword sliced deeply into the flesh beneath.
Kael grunted and stumbled down onto one knee. 'Come now!' he shouted. 'Do something smarter than just kill me, you idiot!'
But the planetar drew back for another, killing stroke.
Tauran let his flowing, vaporous body drift beneath the heavy doors. The moment he got beyond the portal and into the chamber, he dismissed the magic keeping him insubstantial and returned to his solid form.
A chill went down the angel's spine.
He stood in the rotunda, the same one from his vision. It was identical in nearly every detail, only everything appeared sharper and clearer to his eyes.
A set of columns stood in a circle halfway between the surrounding wall and the center of the room, rising to the domed ceiling, which was cloaked in darkness overhead. A few candles set in holders on those columns kept the chamber dimly lit, leaving plenty of gloom around the perimeter.
The angel saw one difference between the real version and his vision. No gods stood within. He did not feel the presence of anyone. There was no staff to steal.
He had expected to find celestial beings-solars, perhaps-to convince. He had imagined the chamber serving as a council room, such as what he was used to back in the House of the Triad. But Tauran stood alone within the rotunda.
True apprehension crashed through him, one of the few times in the angel's long existence that he felt such.
Very well, he thought. I'm here. Tyr has abandoned me, and I seem to be playing right into Zasian's hands. Now what?
The deva took a few steps forward, staring into every shadow. He strained to spy what might be hiding behind the columns. He sought other doors or windows, any means at all of entering the room. No one seemed to be there, nor did it appear that they could slip in without sentries noticing.
I did it, Tauran reminded himself. But perhaps I am the first to arrive.
He walked farther into the chamber. His footsteps echoed within the confines of the round wall until he stood within the exact center, where every sound bounced back to him in perfect clarity. Even the deva's breaths returned to his ears. They sounded unduly rapid, nervous.
If someone else were there, he would hear them.
But Tauran was no fool.
'Zasian,' he called. He kept his voice soft, but the word came back to him from every direction. 'I know you're here. You cannot hide forever.'
Tauran heard a faint rustle of cloth and turned to see a tall, handsome man dressed in black with highlights of gold in his tunic step out of the shadows beyond one of the columns. He stood a few paces away from the angel, smiling. His dark hair hung down his back past his shoulders, matching the color of his flowing moustache. A pendant hanging from a chain around his neck, a silver skull, marked him as a priest of Cyric.
Zasian Menz.
'Very good,' Zasian said. 'You figured out my little secret.'
Another rustle, quieter than Zasian, reached the deva from his right. He spotted a form of darkness and shadows emerge. He glanced at it and confirmed that it was Kashada the Nightwraith. Her figure remained swathed in shadow, indistinct. Midnight eyes smiled at him from above her veil.
Tauran swallowed his worry. 'Your welcoming party at the dryad village told me all I needed to know,' he said. 'But then, you knew it would, didn't you? You wanted me to figure all this out.'
'Down to the last little detail,' Zasian replied. 'And you performed admirably.'
'But why? Whatever my role is supposed to be in your plan, you cannot truly hope to steal Azuth's staff,' Tauran said. 'Bringing me here was a mistake. You know I will try to stop you.'
'Oh, I'm counting on it,' the priest said. 'You'd be surprised what a little distraction will do for Kashada's chances to succeed.'
As if that were a signal, Kashada stepped backward and vanished into the deeper shadows of the chamber. At the same moment, Zasian moved toward Tauran, his pendant in hand.
Micus stared across the plaza at the Hail of Petitions. 'You are certain?' he asked the zelekhut beside him. 'Tauran is within?'
The centaurlike construct nodded. 'Indeed,' it said in its flat, mechanical voice. 'Within that dome at the highest point.' It pointed to the apex of the cavern.
Micus frowned. 'Now, how did he manage to pull that off?'
