White Plume Mountain

Furious, the vampire flexed his talons. Clearing her throat, Escalla steepled her fingers and became the soul of calm.

“Look, let’s be reasonable about this. I’m sure we can bothcome to a mutually advantageous-”

With a scream of wild hunger, the vampire attacked. He ripped the air with his talons, missing Escalla by the barest fraction of an inch. Fluttering madly back and forth, the girl screeched in panic as the creature howled for her soul.

“Jus! Jus, there’s a vampire here!”

The answer came echoing back past the sound of geyser steam.

“Don’t let it touch you!”

“Don’t let it touch me!” Escalla roared as she dodgedvampire’s claws. “What kind of damned fool advice is that?” The faerie tried tolunge between the vampire’s feet, only to have a claw smash into the stone andblock her path. “Six foot four, shaven headed, and the brains of a dead ant!”

Escalla tried to dodge past the vampire and into the corridor that led to her friends. The fanged monstrosity blocked her every move, snatching at her with claws that seemed to rip the heat from the air.

“Jus, I could use some help here!”

“Hold on! I’m coming!”

The vampire whipped his head about and gave an ululating cry. From the little crevices and shadows hidden in the corridors, a chittering, squealing horde of bats came whirling through the air. They descended about the Justicar in an enraged black cloud, blinding him with their wings. The ranger cursed, shielded his eyes, and retreated as he swatted at the bat clouds with his hands.

Hissing as he summoned his winged minions to harass the Justicar, the vampire’s instant of distraction gave Escalla an opening. The girlhurled herself backward into the pitch black room from whence the vampire must have come. Hitting the magical zone of blackness, Escalla’s magic lightinstantly flared and failed, breaking both spells but plunging the room into utter darkness.

“Oh, great!”

The darkness seemed less complete-merely a “bowels of theearth” darkness as opposed to the “magical spell” kind. Escalla shot up to thedoor lintel, licked, slapped her hand on the stone, then hovered a few feet behind the frame of the door.

“Yoooo-hooooo! Hey, fang boy! Nice coffin! Wanna bet Ican break it?”

The vampire whirled.

Escalla twiddled her fingers at the creature and waved in mock friendliness. “What, you’re so lame you can’t even take down a faerie?”

With a snarl, the vampire lunged for Escalla’s throat. He passed beneath the portal, and a massive crash of force pounded downward from the sphinx’s parchment stuck above the doorframe. The vampire spun anddropped like a stone, lying stunned and twitching weakly on the floor.

Leaping in utter glee, Escalla gave a screech of victory.

“Yes! I did it! He’s out like a light!”

With the bats dispersing, Jus answered the faerie’s cry. “What? You stunned it?”

“With the sphinx’s papyrus-thingie! Wham! One in, onedown!” Escalla weaved back and forth, boxing at shadows. “Pow! You betterwatch yourself if you try takin’ on this faerie!”

“It won’t hold for long!” Jus bellowed across the geysercave. “You’ll have to kill the vampire while he’s down!”

Having changed shape into a large firefly to light the room, Escalla blinked and looked down at the vampire.

“Kill it! How? I just used my last major spell!”

“What spells do you still have?”

“Ummm, lessee…”The firefly ticked its list of spells offon its feet. “Um, two magic missiles, a sleep spell, web spell, a stinkingcloud, and Tensor’s floating disk!”

“Floating what?”

“Disk! It levitates stuff! I wanna use it to haul all mytreasure out of the dungeon!” Escalla hovered over a long wooden box in themiddle of the square room. “Hey, he has a coffin in here!”

In the geyser cave, Jus retreated as a lethal blast of steam shot up through the mud. There was no way to cross the chasm in the few scant minutes Escalla had left.

“Escalla, listen to me! Use a magic missile! Hurry! Blast hiscoffin and use a sliver of the wood as a stake!”

The man cocked his head, Cinders helpfully lending his own keen hearing as the girl’s voice drifted back through the steam.

“Wood slivers? What, you want me to kindle a fire?”

“No!” Jus leaned over the ledge to give his voice an extraounce of force. “Hammer the stake through his heart!”

“No way!”

“Just do it! Hurry!”

“But I’m a girl!” Escalla wailed. “I’m a faerie! Blood’llsplurt over my dress!”

“Just do it!” Jus felt a thrill of fright as though thevampire was already reaching for the girl. “Hurry, before it wakes up!”

A flash came from the distant tunnel. Seconds later, there was a revolting sound of hammering, and Escalla’s wail managed to carry acrossthe intervening yards.

“Eeeeew! Eeeeeew-ick! I can’t believe you’remaking me do this!”

Jus helplessly clenched his sword.

“Is it done?”

“Yes, damn it! I staked him, and there’s black guck all overme! Are you happy now?”

Jus breathed out a deep sigh of relief, swapped a brief look with Polk, and felt Cinders happily wagging his tail.

“She did it.”

Whack in heart! Splat splat splat! Cinders dwelt on thecool sound effects and jiggled in glee. Stick bad monster again!

“Yeah, time to finish it.” The Justicar turned back to bellowout across the open cave. “Escalla?”

“Yeah?”

“The vampire’s out, but he’s not dead. To kill it, you haveto do something more.”

“What now?”

Jus stood at the edge of the mud and folded up his arms. Smiling, he shouted, “Now turn into a big rat or something and gnaw off hishead!”

There was a long moment’s pause.

Spattered with goo and utterly unamused, Escalla appeared at the ledge opposite the Justicar’s perch.

“You have got to be kidding.”

“Just do it!”

“No way, no where, no how!” Escalla met Jus eye to eye andplanted her fists upon her skinny hips. “You want someone’s head gnawed off, youcome over here and do it!”

The Justicar sighed.

“All right, take my sword and do it.”

“Yeah, right!” The faerie gave a toss of her gooey hair.“Like I can really carry that chunk of ironmongery all the way over the mud!”

“Well, find another way!” The Justicar clenching his fists infrustration. “Your magic missile spell fires darts! Saw his head off with astream of those!”

The faerie glared at her friend.

“You are a sick, sick man, you know that?” The girlturned back down the tunnel. “I