The rot-eyed satyr charged Marrec, its head down and the ram-like horns positioned to smash him. The elixir Marrec had just drunk, fruity and pleasant, seemed to open his sinuses and expand his lungs. The potion was nothing less than liquid revelation, laying bare all that was shrouded, even Marrec’s own clogged conscious. Facts about himself broke free from his subconscious and begin to bob toward his surface awarenessbut he didn’t have time to take note. More than anything else, the elixir opened a door, however briefly, that had been shut in Marrec’s mindit made a connection where association had fallen away over the last few yearsit granted him a channel to Lurue’s grace.
The blighted satyr collided with Marrec, sending Justlance clattering from his hand, yet the cleric smiled. Not because he retained his feet despite the charge, not because his spear returned to his grip almost instantly Marrec smiled because unfeigned hope woke within him as he contemplated the array of abilities returned him.
Gunggari smashed the carapace of a five-foot-high beetle, then engaged the green-hued unicorn in a desperate battlethe Oslander attempted to beat the unicorn senseless before the blighted creature succeeded in eviscerating Gunggari with its blackened horn.
The pack of blighted nixies swarmed Elowen. The elf wove a defense by slashing Dymondheart too quickly for even a nixie to penetrate. She cursed when one still managed that feat and promptly bit Elowen with too-large teeth stained midnight black.
Ususi’s chant grew louder; in Marrec’s experience, that indicated that a spell of power would soon be unleashed. Damanda then said, “UsusiI command you to slay these who you call your friends.”
Ususi choked, ceased incanting, and instead began to slowly reach for the yellow wand at her belt. Her arm shook, and her hand moved only slowly, as if she fought her own hand’s movement every inch of the way, yet progress was made.
The cleric began a chant of his ownwith his new connection to Lurue, he felt he could dispel the evil influence that allowed Damanda to instruct Ususi. The damned satyr charged him yet again, spoiling what would have been his first god-given spell in days.
Marrec screamed in a fury quite unlike his normal manner, then was forced to defend himself physically with Justlance. Instead of incanting a spell, he yelled between spear thrusts, “Gunny, stop Ususi!”
The Oslander was pressed just then by a growling wolf that’d lost most of its skin to a cancerous scab that made its flesh particularly resistant to Gunggari’s warclub.
Damanda laughed as Ususi’s hand closed about the Wand of Citrine Power. The wizard drew the wand from its slender sheath, her face contorted as she fought the compulsion.
A shaft of brilliance like the sun’s, full and true, touched down then, piercing the mist, the overhanging petrified branches, the storm, and even the night. It fell around Elowen, who was holding her blade above her head, its shining surface reflecting and sustaining the sunlight. Elowen brought the blade quickly down from its position above her head, pointing it directly at Damanda, who still stood beside the Talontyr on his earthen throne.
A ray of citrine probed at Elowen from Ususi’s shaking wand. The wavering ray failed to find its target, but Ususi took aim anew, shaking her head as if denying her actions.
The greater shaft of sunlight surrounding Elowen changed its focus, sliding smoothly away from the elf and toward the target identified by her pointing blade. Elowen yelled, triumphant “Meet the day unbound!”
Damanda screeched, backpedaling. The Rotting Man raised an eyebrow in apparent interest, nothing more. The shaft of light slid across the intervening blighted creatures without harm, moving more swiftly as it approached Damanda.
The vampire began to run, but the shaft of light caught her, just as Ususi’s second wand-aimed ray struck the elf hunter in the back. In a moment, Elowen was encased in a slab of amber-like crystal, unmoving.
The following beam of sunlight was undimmed and flashed full upon the fleeing blightlord. Damanda’s scream was so horrible that even the Rotting Man’s forces paused a moment to determine the vampire’s fate.
When the shaft winked out a moment later it was established once again what happens when a vampire is subject to sunlight.
It dies.
Marrec, having recently witnessed another vampire’s fiery death in similar fashion, recovered a moment quicker than the hollow-socketed satyr. His erstwhile foe sank to the earth, stupidly clutching a newly created third cavity in its skull, courtesy of the cleric’s spear.
The blighted unicorn turned away from the crystal-encased Elowen and charged Gunggari from the side. The Oslander avoided being disemboweled by the horn but received a nasty wound across his side.
Marrec saw that Ususi was back in control of her faculties. He’d have to trust her to release Elowen from the confinement she’d created. He lunged sidewise, catching the blighted unicorn with the untainted unicorn tip of Justlance. The contact instigated an instant and dramatic response from the blighted creatureits eyes rolled wildly; it reared, neighing, then it collapsed.
The scabrous wolf leaped again at Gunggari, growling and slavering. Again the Oslander beat back the wolf.
Marrec didn’t want to shift too far over to help the Oslanderhe needed to plug up the middle, between the Oslander and the slab of crystal holding Elowen otherwise nothing would protect little Ash who still sheltered at his back.
Ususi finally found her voice, cried out, “I can release the elf,” then began casting anew.
Gunggari’s dizheri finally found purchasethe wolf yelped, rolled, then ran off into the mist. Another creature immediately moved to take its placea twigblight.
Worse, additional blighted creatures threatened to break around the other side of Gunggari, Marrec, and Elowen’s line that protected Ash. Ususi remained in the midst of a spell. Marrec quickly counted all that still stood between himself and the Rotting Man. He estimated only about ten or so enemies. With his connection to Lurue back, he wondered if he couldn’t catch them allor at least mostin a burst of holy power tuned to banish evil.
Ususi finished her last spell. With a tinkling of shattering glass, Elowen shed her crystal containment. The elf shook her head, looking around to see what she had missed.
“Hold, my creatures,” spoke the Rotting Man.
The blighted creatures paused in their onslaught, uncertain of their master’s command. Marrec and Gunggari paused, too, wondering what deal the Talontyr might be willing to offer. The Talontyr was getting nervous, guessed Marrec
“I tire of this game. I begin to think you’ll pierce my defenses, and what? You’ll attack me directly, Talona’s Chosen?” The Rotting Man laughed.
Marrec considered throwing Justlance right then, or perhaps moving just a bit closer in order to bring his gaze to bear, but the Rotting Man continued speaking. “While it might be edifying for you to begin such a contest, it is beneath me. It’s more fitting, really, that you meet your end at the hands of that which you’ve come so far to meet.”
The Rotting Man half turned on his seat, still choosing to sit even in the presence of his enemies. He waved his hand toward the great cyst bulging from the base of the tree behind his throne. He said, “Yes, Talona informed me far ahead of time of the Green Powers’ gift to the world I moved to intercept it. I grew the Thieving Ash to snare the divine energies of the gift as it was born into the world Those energies are contained therein, infused with my own special touch, Talona’s blessing, and the goad of continual pain.”
Marrec whispered, “Thieving Ash?” He looked around at the girl behind him. The child’s eyes focused then on the cyst, as if she expected something wonderful to emergeor something terrible.
The Talontyr, nearly giggling in sudden glee, continued, “Yes, the child there with you is the portion of the Green Powers’ gift that slipped through my fingers. Thank you for delivering it to me. Finally! The entire gift is now mine.”
“Behold, then,” continued the Talontyr, “what has become of the Aspect of Light. Behold Talona’s Step- Daughter!”
The fleshy flaps obscuring the partially burst cavity heaved and ripped. A fantastically large bubble of blood swelled darkly from the fissure, and immediately burst, releasing a wave of liquid in every direction. Shrieking, the blighted creatures surrounding the throne scattered before the scarlet flood, though the Rotting Man laughed as the stinking bile poured over him.
Something still fought to free itself from the cystsomething too large for Marrec to immediately comprehend. It heaved itself free of the cavity, showing first a vast expanse of festering flesh twenty or thirty feet on a side, like
