Men stood and stared at the bleeding body of their comrade as blood flowed across the floor. The erinyes sat herself in a chair and used her victim’s corpse as a footstool. Her long, blood-spattered legs gleamed in thecandlelight as she sensuously wriggled her long toes.
With her dripping dagger, she pointed lazily at the door.
“Now then. Let us discuss our successes. We now have thetrident and the hammer. At least something has gone well.” The erinyes crossedher feet, heedless of her nakedness-shape shifting could change a body, but itdid nothing about providing proper clothes. “Open the door and bring the weaponsin. Let us see just what we have.”
No one moved. The thieves seemed to shrink in upon themselves, afraid to meet their mistress’ eye.
Saala interlaced her bloody fingers and used them to rest her chin. “Yes?”
“L-lady…” One of the guild’s senior sorcerers swallowedin fright. “Th-the strike t-teams have-”
“What have the strike teams done?” Saala leaned forward, herskin gleaming slick with patterns of fresh blood. “You will never get anywherein life unless you learn to articulate.”
“Lady, th-the strike teams b-both report that they w-wereattacked just after making their escape from the temples.” Quite terrified, thesorcerer turned a pale shade of gray. “Each group was attacked by a singlesorcerer dressed in gray robes. Th-the magic w-weapons were taken from them. The hammer Whelm and the trident Wave… are g-gone.”
Keeping her face perfectly controlled and expressionless, the erinyes leaned back in her chair. Her eyes seemed to chill the room with an infinite dark.
“Y-yes, Mistress!” The sorcerer began to back away. “It shallbe done, Mistress.”
Slit-pupilled eyes danced with flames as Saala flexed her dagger blade.
“I was attacked by a huge warrior armed with a fire-breathinghell hound skin. He was accompanied by a faerie, a pixie that has elected to become an accomplished sorceress.” The erinyes lifted her pure white wings.“They are involved in all of this somehow. I suggest that you also spy on
“Of course, Mistress.” Thieves began to move, realizing thatthey had survived their mistress’ rage. “At once, Mistress.”
“And cancel my appointments for the rest of the afternoon.”Saala slowly caressed her dagger blade. “The strike team leaders and I shall bein…
Heavy oak doors shuddered, the latch splintering as a bootslammed against the lock. A second blow sent the doors crashing inward, followed by a huge dark shape that dived and rolled across the ground. The Justicar slammed up against a wall, then sped into the shadows, his black sword hunting for prey.
The interior of the library remained still, the lights extinguished and the windows shuttered. Jus rose, took a glance around the corner, then dived amongst the tall library shelves.
Whirring in a panic behind him, Escalla hid herself behind her friend.
“Jus! Jus, this is not a good idea! I’m out of spells, anddoggie’s fires are low!” Escalla flapped and fluttered, weaving from side toside to make herself a hard target. “Jus, are you listening to me?”
The big man swiftly hunted through the line of library shelves, slamming a hand against the last shelf as he failed to find anyone. The building was deserted apart from the scratching of a rat somewhere deep inside the reference section.
Annoyed, the Justicar signaled to the faerie and said, “Startsearching. Look for places where books are missing from the shelves. Look for books on Keraptis. Look for secret exits. Anything!”
Emerging timidly through the library’s front door came theshaken figure of the young law officer Jus and Escalla had rescued in the market. Still dazed from the fight, the man blinked in nervous horror as he saw Jus begin tearing at the library shelves.
“Um, I don’t think we should do this. This is privateproperty.”
The Justicar dug into his purse and pulled out an amber token-the personal symbol of the countess of Urnst.
“This private property has been used as a base for banditry,murder, and attempted assassination.” The Justicar shoved the countess’ tokenaway. “I am under commission from the countess of Urnst. There’s a soul- eatingsword in town, and your librarian has just stolen it!”
“Soul eating…?”
The Justicar began looking behind rows of books on the shelves that adjoined the walls, hunting for secret triggers and hollows. He had less time than usual to waste on polite conversation. “Eats life energy,accelerates the user’s speed… It’s called Blackrazor. It apparentlybelonged to an erinyes. She seems to be controlling your local thieves.”
“An erinyes?”
Jus finished with the shelves. Above his helmet, Cinders sniffed, hunting for the slightest hint of magic.
“Erinyes,” the ranger continued, “a type of diabolical agentfrom the plane Baator. Seductive like a succubus, only smarter.”
The young law officer froze. “How… how do you knowthat?”
“If you want to dispense justice, first
The Justicar began using the pommel of his sword to check flagstones of the floor for hollow spaces, moving fast in the hope the job would be over before the sorcerer’s guild could arrive on scene.
High above, Escalla was making an inspection of the library’sbooks. She had found a big, valuable-looking tome bound in gold, but it proved far too heavy for her to lift. There was scroll after scroll piled in confusion all over the shelves, most written in who-knew-what sort of languages. Escalla began to pry at a big, brightly colored stone that graced the cover of a gaudy volume entitled
Gold glittered amongst the documents. Intrigued, Escalla opened her little wings and drifted happily down to inspect her find.
“Hey, Jus! Look!”
A pile of parchments teetered on the desk-big heavy sheetscovered in maps and diagrams. The whole pile was held down by a golden jewelry box that seemed to cover over some sort of symbol written on the uppermost parchment sheet. Escalla hovered above the pile, looked this way and that at the jewelry box, then reached out happily toward the jewelry box with her hand.
Standing at a nearby bookshelf, the Justicar turned, saw the delicately balanced pile of documents begin to teeter, and caught a glimpse of the magic symbol written in fresh blood beneath the jewelry box. Moving at a shocking turn of speed, he hurled himself across the floor at a dead run, shoving the young law officer into a bookshelf as he passed. As the law officer fell, Jus was already launching into a flying tackle that smacked Escalla hard against his chest. The faerie croaked, the breath smashed out of her chest. A noise of surprised indignation was half out of her mouth when the entire room suddenly lit up with a titanic blast of flame.
The symbol covered by the teetering jewelry box flashed as light touched at the wet ink, then magical force exploded outward. The desk disintegrated, bookshelves blew apart, and wooden wall panels instantly caught fire. Turning on his side in midair and hunching into a ball to shield the faerie with his own bulk, the Justicar caught the force of the heat against Cinders’ fur. The shock wave of the explosion tossed the ranger through theair, and he crashed through a succession of flimsy library shelves. Even as he hit the floor, he was rolling to shield Escalla from the blow. He hit the wall with jarring force and snarled in anger as books and rubble crashed around him.
Escalla emerged from beneath a flap of Cinders’ pelt tostare at the library. The scrolls, books, and shelves were thoroughly ablaze. Emerging stunned from beneath a fallen cupboard was the law officer. Jus gave a vicious curse, shoved a healing spell into himself, then lifted himself up from the floor.
Escalla woefully watched the book collection going up in flames. “Whoops…”
The Justicar rose, ash and burning parchment scraps sliding from Cinders’ fur.
“Fire symbol.”
