Nightshade woke suddenly, jolted awake by Atta’s bark.
Atta was on her feet. Her legs were stiff, her hackles raised, and she was staring intently at the opening of the grotto. Nightshade could hear the sounds of crunching, as of heavy footfalls walking in their direction.
They were close and getting closer.
Atta gave another sharp, warning bark. Mina stirred at the sound and drew the cloth over her head and went back to sleep. The heavy crunching noise stopped. A shadow fell over the entrance, blotting out the sun.
“Monk! I know you’re in there.”
That voice was muffled, yet Nightshade had no trouble recognizing it.
“Krell!” he yelped. “Rhys, it’s Krell!”
Nightshade was as immune to fear as the next kender, but he was also blessed with a good deal more common sense than most kender; a fact which he attributed to spending a lot of his time conversing with the dead. And so, instead of rushing out to greet the death knight, as any other kender would have done, Nightshade scuttled backward on all fours and yelled again for Rhys.
“I am awake,” said Rhys calmly.
He was on his feet, the emmide in his hands.
“Atta, silence. Here.”
The dog trotted over to stand beside him. She no longer barked, though she continued to growl.
Krell swaggered into the grotto. He was no longer wearing the accursed armor of a death knight. His armor was that of death. His helm was a ram’s skull. The horns curled back from his head, and his eyes were visible inside the skull’s eye sockets. His breastplate was made of bone-the top part of the skull of some gigantic beast. His arms and legs were encased in bone, as if he wore his skeleton on the outside of his body. Bony spines protruded from his hands and elbows and shoulders, and he carried a sword with a bone hilt.
He was a formidable sight, yet the eyes that glared out from behind the ram’s skull did not burn with the terrifying fire of undeath. His eyes were dull and flat. He did not stink of death. He just stank; he was sweating under the weight of his armor. His breath rasped, for the armor was heavy, and he’d been forced to walk all the way from the castle.
Nightshade quit crawling and sat back on his heels.
“Krell, you’re alive!” said Nightshade, though he was not sure this was an improvement. “You’re not a death knight anymore.”
“Shut up!” Krell snarled. He looked searchingly around the grotto, glanced without interest at the sleeping child, glared at the kender, then turned back to Rhys. “I’ve come for Mina. In the name of my lord Chemosh, I demand to know where she is.”
“Not here,” said Nightshade promptly. “We don’t know where she is. We haven’t seen her, have we, Rhys?”
Rhys was silent.
Krell’s eyes narrowed. Though dimly lit, the grotto wasn’t very big and there were no nooks or crannies where someone could hide.
“Where’s Mina?” Krell asked again.
“You can see for yourself” said Nightshade loudly. “She’s not here.”
“Then where is she?” Krell demanded. He kept his gaze on Rhys. “Remember the last time we met, Monk? Remember what I did to you? I broke almost every bone in your hand. Now I won’t waste time breaking bones. I’ll just cut your hand off the wrist-”
Krell drew his sword and took a step toward Rhys.
“Atta, stop-” Rhys began, but he was too late.
Atta lunged at Krell and sank her teeth into his calf muscle, a part of his leg left unprotected by the bone shin-guards.
Krell howled in pain and, twisting around, he peered down at his leg. Blood oozed from two rows of tooth marks. He snarled in rage and tried to slash at the dog with his sword. As Atta leaped deftly out of the way, Rhys blocked Krell’s blow with his staff.
Krell snorted in derision and hacked at the staff with his blade, thinking to snap it. Rhys swiftly raised the staff and slammed it into Krell’s hand, knocking the sword from his grasp. Krell wrung his fingers and glared at Rhys, who had taken a step backward.
Krell bent down to retrieve his blade.
“Atta, guard,” said Rhys.
Atta crouched over the sword. Her lip curled back from her teeth, and she snapped viciously at Krell’s hand. He snatched it back, his fingers bloody.
“I think you should leave now,” Rhys said. “Tell your master that the Mina he seeks is not with me.”
“You’re a rotten liar, Monk!” Krell said. His breath from the skull helm was foul. “You know where she is and you’ll tell me. You’ll be begging to tell me! I don’t need a sword to kill you in any number of nasty ways.”
Rhys did not feel fear, as he had felt before in the presence of the death knight. He felt disgust, revulsion.
Krell was not driven to kill by a holy curse. Krell killed now for small, mean reasons. He killed because he reveled in the pain and fear of his victim, and because he liked holding the power of life and death in his grubby hands.
“Atta,” Rhys said calmly, “go to Nightshade.”
The kender grabbed hold of the growling dog and clamped his hand over her muzzle.
“Let Rhys handle this,” he whispered.
“I just have to say a word to Chemosh, Monk,” said Krell. “And he’ll flay the flesh from your bones, for starters-”
Rhys gripped his staff firmly, holding it upright before him, his hands clasped over it. He had no idea if this staff was blessed as had been his other staff. Perhaps it was. Perhaps not. He knew Majere stood with him. He could feel the god as a core of peace and calm and tranquility.
The gleam in Krell’s eyes turned ugly.
“You’ll tell me.”
He walked over to the girl, who had slept through the commotion, and reaching down, grabbed hold of the child by the hair and yanked her from her slumber.
Mina gasped and cried out. Wriggling in Krell’s grasp, she tried to free herself.
Krell gripped her tightly and put his huge hand to her throat.
Mina gave a little whimper and went rigid and stiff in the man’s grasp.
“I always did like ’em young,” Krell chortled. “Here’s a hint of what will happen to the girl if you don’t talk, Monk.”
Krell dug long, yellow, skeleton-like nails into Mina’s throat. Thin trails of blood trickled from the cuts in her flesh. Mina flinched in pain, but she didn’t make a sound. Her amber eyes hardened into fixed resolve.
“Uh-oh,” said Nightshade, and he dragged Atta back against the wall.
“I’ll cut deeper next time. Where is Mina?” Krell demanded, glaring at Rhys.
But it was Mina who answered.
“Right here,” she said.
She seized hold of the bone bracers on his arm and dug her fingers into them. The bracers split and cracked and fell off. She kept digging deeper and blood started to well up from beneath her fingers.
Krell grunted in pain and tried to wrench his arm free.
Mina gave his arm a twist. Bones snapped, and Krell screamed in agony and, moaning, sagged to his knees. The jagged edges of blood-covered bone could be seen jutting out from blue-tinged, bloody flesh.
Mina glared at him.
“You hurt me. You’re a bad man.” She wrinkled her nose. “And you smell. I don’t like you. My name is Mina. What do you want with me?”
“This is some sort of trick-” he snarled.
“Answer me!” Mina kicked him on his armor-covered thigh. The bone armor split in two.
Krell groaned. “Chemosh sent me…”
“Chemosh. I don’t know any Chemosh,” said Mina. “And if he’s a friend of yours, I don’t want to know him. Go away and don’t come back.”
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Krell said savagely. “But that doesn’t matter. I’ll let the master figure it out.”
With his good arm, he seized hold of Mina’s hand and roared, “Chemosh! I have her-”
Rhys leaped, swinging his staff at Krell’s head. The emmide whistled through empty air. Rhys lowered the staff, staring about in amazement. Krell had vanished.
“Rhys,” cried Nightshade in strangled tones. “Look up.”
The kender pointed.
Krell hung upside down, suspended from the ceiling of the grotto from a length of rope tied around his boot. His ram’s skull helm had fallen off and now lay on the floor at Mina’s feet.
Krell’s eyes bulged. His mouth gaped open and shut. His broken arm dangled helplessly. He struggled, kicking his foot, but only succeeded in twisting round and round in midair.
Mina looked up at Rhys.
“I’m not sleepy anymore. It’s time to go.”
Rhys gazed up at Krell, twisting and turning on his god-spun thread, demanding, begging Chemosh to come save him. Rhys looked at Nightshade, who was staring at Mina with awestruck eyes-and it is not easy to strike awe into a kender.
Mina reached out and took hold of Rhys’ hand.
“You’re going to take me home, Mister Monk,” she reminded him. “You promised.”
Rhys could not answer. A smothering sensation in his chest made it hard to breathe. He was starting to realize the enormity of the task that he had undertaken.
“C’mon, Mister Monk!” Mina tugged at him impatiently.
“My name is Rhys Mason,” Rhys said, trying to speak in normal tones. “And this is my friend, Nightshade.”
“P-pleased to meet you,” said Nightshade faintly.
“What’s the dog’s name?” Mina asked. She reached down to pet Atta, who cringed at the god-child’s touch and would have crawled off, but Nightshade had hold of her. “She’s a nice dog. I like her. She bit the bad man.”
“Her name is Atta.” Rhys drew in a deep breath. He knelt down, putting himself at eye-level with her. “Mina, why do you want to go to Godshome?”
“Because that’s where my mother is,” Mina answered. “She’s waiting for me there.”
“What is your mother’s name?” Rhys asked.
“Goldmoon,” said Mina.
Nightshade made a choking sound.
“My mother’s name is Goldmoon,” Mina was saying, “and she’s waiting for me at Godshome, and you’re going to take me to her.”
“Rhys,” said Nightshade, “could I have a word? In private?”
“Aren’t we going now?” Mina asked impatiently.
“In a minute,” said Rhys.
“Oh, all right. I’ll go play outside,” Mina stated. “Can the dog come with me?” She ran to the entrance of the grotto and turned to call, “Atta! Come, Atta!”
Rhys made a sign with his hand. Atta cast him a reproachful glance, then, her ears drooping, she slunk out of the cave.
“Rhys”-Nightshade pounced on him-“what in the name of Chemosh, Mishakal, Chislev, Sargonnas, Gilean, Hiddukel, Morgion and… and all the other gods I can’t think of right at the moment, what do you think you’re doing?”
Rhys picked up Nightshade’s boots and held them out to him.
Nightshade shoved the boots aside.
“Rhys, that little girl is a god! Not only that, she’s a god who has lost her bloody mind!” Nightshade waved his arms to emphasize his words. “She wants us to take her to Godshome-a place that maybe doesn’t even exist to meet Goldmoon-a woman who’s been dead for years! That girl is crackers, Rhys! Cuckoo! Looney! Off her rocker!”
“Chemosh,” Krell was howling. “You son-of-a-bitch! Come get me out of here!”
Nightshade jerked his thumb upward.
“What happens when Mina gets mad at us? Maybe she’ll shoot us off to a moon and leave us stranded there. Or pick up a mountain and drop it on top of our heads. Or feed us to a dragon.”
“I made a promise,” said Rhys.
Nightshade sighed and, sitting down, he pulled on one of his boots and tugged.
“You made that promise before you knew all the facts,” Nightshade stated, pulling on the other boot. “Do you even know where Godshome is-that is, if it is?”
“Legend holds that Godshome is in the Khalkist mountains, somewhere near Neraka,” Rhys replied.
“Oh, well, that’s all right,” Nightshade grumbled. “Neraka is the most horrible, evil place on the continent. Not to mention that it’s on the other side of the-world.”
“Not quite that far,” said Rhys, smiling.
They left the grotto, where Krell was still hanging from the ceiling, twisting and swearing. Chemosh appeared to be in no hurry to rescue his champion.
“In my opinion, you were hoodwinked,” Nightshade continued. He halted at the entrance, looking up at his friend. “Rhys, I want you to consider one thing.”
“What’s that, my friend?”
“Our story is over, Rhys,” said Nightshade earnestly. “We had a happy ending-you and me and Atta. Let’s close the book and go home.”
The kender gestured to Mina, who was running among the sand dunes, laughing wildly. “This is god-business, Rhys. We shouldn’t be getting mixed up in it.”
“A wise person once told me, ‘You can’t quit a god,’” said Rhys.
“The person who said that to you was a kender,” Nightshade returned grumpily. “And you know you can’t trust them.”
“I trusted one with my life,” said Rhys, resting his hand on Nightshade’s head. “And he did not let me down.”
“Well, then, you got lucky,” Nightshade muttered. He shoved his hands in his pockets and kicked at a rock.
“My story is not finished. No one’s story is ever really finished. Death is just the turning of another page. But you are right, my friend,” Rhys said with an involuntary sigh. “Traveling with her will be dangerous and difficult. Your story may not be finished, but perhaps now you should turn the page, take a different path.”
Nightshade thought this over. “Are you sure Majere won’t help me pick locks?”
“I cannot say for certain,” Rhys replied, “but I really doubt it.”
Nightshade shrugged. “Then I guess I’ll stay with you. Otherwise I’d starve.”
He grinned and winked. “I’m only fooling, Rhys! You know I’d never leave you and Atta. What would you two do without me? You’d get yourselves killed by crazy gods!”
That may yet be the end of our tale, Rhys thought. Chemosh will not be the only god seeking Mina.
He kept the thought to himself however, and, whistling to Atta, he gave his hand to Mina, who came skipping up to him.