Brimstone Angels

She flushed to her temples. “Did he?” she said quietly.

“He backed off rather quickly. Do you think he might have done this?”

Could he? Certainly. If Lorcan had proved anything in the last few hours it was that he was capable of all sorts of horrible things. Would he?… She was less certain about that. It hadn’t been Lorcan in Havilar’s skin. Farideh knew the sound of his voice too well, the way he moved.

That doesn’t mean he couldn’t have sent someone else, she thought.

“I don’t know,” she said.

Tam watched her, sadly, and she squirmed under his gaze. “I would suggest,” he said, “you think long and hard about whom you are protecting.”

“I’m not protecting him!” she said. “I said I don’t know because I don’t. Do you think I would really protect someone I thought had nearly killed my sister?” She faltered. He had. This would make twice, and if he had done something to Havilar she would make certain he regretted it. But it was Lorcan or Sairche or nothing.

“I don’t want to protect him.” Tam gave her a skeptical look, and she scowled. “It’s complicated … more complicated than anyone seems to realize. He’s cruel and he’s persuasive and he has only his own interests at heart. But sometimes, I think he might be the only friend I have in the world except for Havilar.”

“You could be rid of him, you know?” Tam said. “I could help you undo your pact.”

She shook her head-to lose Lorcan would mean she would once again be vulnerable and outcast in the worst way. “I want …” she started, but trailed off, staring up at the silver eyes over the altar. She pressed the heels of her hands to her own eyes. “I just wish that I could have a chance to breathe. I wish I could set aside the pact-or at least just the pressing parts, like Lorcan shouting at me-for a moment.” She smiled wanly at the statue. “Some space. Like this, only fit for my pocket. But I don’t think your goddess would take kindly to that.”

When she looked back at Tam, she was surprised at the consternation and perhaps even grief that settled on his features.

She swallowed. “I didn’t mean any offense. Just that … I’m not suited and … well, it’s a beggar’s miracle, isn’t it? She has greater things to worry about than me.”

His expression didn’t change, but he turned to look back up at the altar. After a moment he spoke.

“And that’s what I’m here for.”

He left her sitting on the bench and went into the back room of the temple. When he returned he was holding a silver medallion on a thin, twisted chain.

“Here, take this.”

“What is it?”

“A beggar’s miracle,” he said, and the twinkle had returned to his eyes. “Once between moonrises, call on it, and you’ll get your respite. Cast it at him-or any fiend-and they cannot harm you. But, mind, it only lasts an hour. So don’t use it to stir him up.”

“I–I can’t,” she said. The amulet had to be worth purses of gold.

“You can,” he said, pressing it into her hand. “It came in handy when I was in Thay, but I don’t find it that useful anymore.” He smiled crookedly. “Well, aside from the odd moment in the Neverwinter Wood.”

She closed her hands around it, knowing she should demur, she should refuse. “How do I call on it?”

“Aim it at the devil and say vennela,” he said. “The amulet does the rest.” He hesitated a moment. “This temple is only going to last another half-bell or so,” he said. “And I don’t know how much you heard-”

“Most of it,” she admitted. She smiled uneasily. “I knew you weren’t only a priest.”

“You and everyone under the age of twenty, apparently,” Tam said dryly. “When you add those cultists after you, it’s pretty clear to me that as soon as your sister wakes, you need to get out of Neverwinter.”

She shook her head. “Not without Mehen. Or Brin.” She looked out at the ruined city beyond the entry. “The Ashmadai think the House of Knowledge has insulted them in some way. Something about orcs and a house by the water? They plan to attack the temple.”

Tam frowned. “What do orcs have to do with the House of Knowledge?”

Farideh shook her head. “I don’t know.” She bit her lip. “And there was something else, something Lorcan said. The hospitaler that runs things, Rohini, he called her the biggest viper of all. That hospital’s full of wounded guardsmen and acolytes who are just trying to help. You can’t really suggest we just leave them to be torn apart by all of this?”

“Farideh, you can’t save these people,” he said. “That’s why I came: to assess the stability of Neverwinter. We’ve been here two days and already I can tell you it’s as stable as a landslide.”

“Then we should warn them.”

Tam shook his head. “They knew, Farideh. They knew that coming here. The Wall. The Chasm. The orcs on the road. The mountain is still smoking. Even the Lord Protector’s men …” He shook his head. “And there’s so much more beneath the surface. Things as bad as your cultists and their orcs. There are rough times in Neverwinter’s future. They’re prepared, or they were never going to be prepared to begin with.”

“So you’re just going to leave?” she said, shaking her head. “Why is that better?”

“Because,” he said, “if what you’re saying is true, then this is going to happen soon. If you leave, you’ll be safe. What else are you going to do? Run around knocking on doors?”

“Stop the Ashmadai!” Farideh cried.

“And then what?”

“Stop Rohini.”

“And then? There will be more. There will be devils and dangerous people until their battles are resolved.” He stood. “There is being a hero and there is making a sacrifice of yourself because you imagine it will be better. You’re not the first person to mistake the difference.”

And he wasn’t the first person to tell her she couldn’t change the way Neverwinter would fall, she knew, thinking of Lorcan’s litany of horrors. She glanced over at Havilar, lying still on the stone floor. How many times are you going to lead her into danger? she thought. She rubbed her thumb over the amulet, the shape of an eye on one side, and a spiral on the other. She wound her thumb in to the center of the spiral and back out again. What could she do to protect Neverwinter anyway?

“You’re right,” she admitted. “We’ll go. As soon as we get Mehen and Brin.”

Tam shook his head. “We can come back for them later, but if there are cultists chasing you, I want you both out of the city.”

Farideh bit her tongue. “Fine,” she said after a moment, even though it was not fine. “Do me a simple favor at least? Tell the guards about the bodies in the shop. Send them to … at least put them to rest and watch for their comrades.”

Tam regarded her a moment. “That,” he said, “I will do. Stay here with Havilar. When she wakes, the two of you get to the South Gate and wait for me there.”

She nodded. The South Gate … which passed the House of Knowledge directly. She might not be able to save Neverwinter, but at least she’d warn the ones she cared about.

There were moments when Mehen’s thoughts seemed to clear enough for the dragonborn to realize he was in a terrible predicament. No amount of effort would let him move his limbs-not even to take the healing potion clipped to his falchion’s harness and take care of the broken wrist that lay swollen and screaming across his lap. He could not respond to anything except direct questions. When Brin had stumbled into the room Rohini had left Mehen sitting in, he could do nothing but glare at the boy, willing him to notice the fact that Mehen would never have sat still while his daughters were missing and the fact that Mehen would have told him off instead of giving the boy the silent treatment.

Something is wrong, you kosjor, he fought to roar. But his throat didn’t so much as twitch for all the effort, and Brin had wandered off puzzled.

Fari and Havi were missing-broken planes, why didn’t the horror of that shake loose his paralysis? He had the vague memory, like a dream that he couldn’t quite shake, of Farideh watching him with a worried expression, of Havilar hugging him around the neck, but no more would come. Surely … surely … they’d just wandered off?

That didn’t soothe his nerves at all. How could he have let this happen?

The memory of Havilar throwing her arms around his neck thickened, and he heard her say, “… is a devil, and you’re the only one …”