The murder took place right in the middle of the square. TheGeshtai priestess fell without a sound, her blood spraying out across the market stalls as her murderer laughed and disappeared, running toward Bleredd’s templeat the far end of the square.
For a few seconds, a crowd of a thousand simply stood and stared, dumbstruck. Then Geshtai worshipers suddenly looked at Bleredd supporters and gave a wild scream. The Bleredd worshipers put a hand to their weapons, and an instant later the whole marketplace shook beneath a tidal wave of hate and rage.
Street merchants threw themselves at their neighbors while shoppers grappled one another, hammering daggers into one another’s guts. Fromeach temple, gate guards and soldiers began to run into the battle. Maces and halberds smashed into unarmored civilians, clawing bloody swathes through the crowds until both private armies met each other face to face. Priests joined the soldiers, and the blast of spells began to gouge into the rioting mob.
Behind it all, Escalla and Jus stood on the steps of the library, overlooking the churning chaos of the melee.
The Justicar shoved through a pair of brawling fishwives, cracking their heads together and letting them fall. Shoving battling merchants aside, he tried to catch sight of the murderer of the Geshtai priestess.
“Damn! Cinders, where did the killer go?”
The hell hound sniffed, using senses born on a far-distant plane. No killer. Killer is illusion!
“Just the killer, or the victim too?”
Victim real, but not dead. Blood is illusion.
Escalla dodged a jam jar thrown by someone in the melee.
“An illusory murder? Great! Someone’s inciting a riot!”
It was more than a riot. It was a war. A thousand citizens battled in the marketplace, with temple priests and temple guards thickening the fray. Striding from both temples came their high priests with chosen warriors who had been issued weapons from the temples’ vaults. From the Geshtai templecame a long silver trident and from Bleredd’s halls, a magic hammer. Thewielders of the weapons launched themselves into the crowds. Backed by high priests and warriors, they began to wreak pure carnage as they hacked their way into the unarmored mobs.
Magic. Strong!
“I see it!” The Justicar kicked a charging ironmonger off thelibrary steps. “Escalla, the murdered priestess must still be alive! We have tofind her!”
“Gotcha! I’ll cover you.” The faerie whirred up into the air.
The Justicar surged down the library steps, heading for the center of the melee. With his sword sheathed, he strode into the brawl, wrenching men aside. Just overhead, Escalla tried to peer into the chaos to catch a glimpse of their prey.
A swarm of men decided to attack the Justicar. His response certainly wasn’t art, but it was beautiful to behold. A huge blacksmith threw apunch straight at Jus’ face, and the ranger parried with a forward-steppingmove. He stepped aside, dodging the blow, caught the blacksmith under the chin, spun him about, and slammed the man to the ground with one of his arms held in a lock.
The man’s apprentices came racing up to save their master.The Justicar took a look at the new onrush of attackers, briskly dislocated the blacksmiths shoulder, and then strode forward to meet the charge.
All three apprentices screamed for blood. The Justicar ducked a wild swing, flicked a hand to his sheath, and rammed the hilt of his sword into one man’s solar plexus. The apprentice folded, stumbling back into hiscompanions.
The Justicar still had not drawn his blade.
Another man swung clumsily with his fist and was punched in the jaw for his trouble-a single massive blow that lifted him off his feet andsent him senseless to the ground.
The last man came at the Justicar with a hammer held high. The ranger caught the man as he charged, turned with the passing blow, and hurled the man to the street. He knelt, hammered the apprentice three times with his left hand, and left the unconscious youth sprawled across his friends.
Six feet overhead, Escalla dodged random pots, pans, and missiles flying from the melee.
“You do good work!” The faerie had to shout to make herselfheard above the mob.
“Where’s that dead priestess?”
“No sign!”
Cinders suddenly jerked his ears, and the Justicar whipped his head about to follow the hound’s lead. Escalla followed their gaze and saw ablood-spattered female figure borne by a pair of young Geshtai priests.
The supposedly dead priestess suddenly sprouted claws and tore into the priests’ spines. The men fell dead, and the woman laughed as shestrode away from her self-made civil war.
“There!” Escalla’s little voice cut through the battle.
Beside the temple, the “dead” Geshtai priestess whipped aboutto give the faerie a stare of pure malice. The priestess shimmered, cast away her previous form, and became a tall, slim female with long tresses of red hair. Her old clothing dropped away to leave her a gleaming nude. Several of the nearby rioters stopped fighting to stare at the voluptuous figure in open-mouthed shock.
Escalla cast a spell, and a thick, putrescent cloud quickly spread through a sizeable chunk of the market, sending men and women retching and staggering aside. The red-headed woman strode uncaring through the cloud, building up to a run as she changed shape into a powerful black dog.
“Damn!” Escalla blew a strand of hair out of her face. “Anerinyes! Just what this town needs.” She knew of erinyes, but she had neverseen one before and had certainly never dreamed of having to actually fight one. “Oh well, first time for everything.”
The dog sped beneath tables and stalls, heading for the edges of the markets. It dodged and doubled back, sprinting through melees. Clinging to her quarry like glue, Escalla finally outsmarted the thing. Picking the dog out as it ran toward an alleyway, the faerie whipped beneath a line of stalls and suddenly had a clear shot straight at the black dog’s back.
“Hey! Suck on this!”
A fireball ripped from Escalla’s hands and blasted straightinto her victim’s back. To the faerie’s surprise, the dog barely staggered. Itwhipped its head about and stared at her, its eyes suddenly turning a poisonous green. Escalla felt fear slam into her like a physical blow and wrenched to a complete stop. The black dog snarled and slowly approached the faerie, who could scarcely move as the fear spell twisted through her mind.
The Justicar came striding through the stinking cloud, his hell hound skin cloaking him in sheer, savage anger. The black sword came free from its scabbard, swinging light as a toy in the big man’s hands. The black doglooked at him with its evil green eyes, then blinked as its fear spell failed. Hackles raised, it began to back away.
The dog suddenly shifted form. In a flow of melting shapes, it became a magnificently naked woman with pointed ears and pure white angel’swings. She hissed in a raw explosion of hate, savage hellfire gleaming in her eyes.
“Jus!” Escalla shouted. “Jus, it’s an erinyes! Watch out!”
The devil-woman whipped out a long rope and lashed it straight at the Justicar. The rope whipped around him in a blur, trapping his arms and binding him in loop after loop of cord. The erinyes gave a scream of triumph. The Justicar stood his ground, stared at her, then nodded his head toward the rope. Cinders gave a manic grin and blasted out a jet of flames to burn the rope in two.
Appalled, the devil-woman backed away, holding the end of her rope and screaming in anger. The Justicar freed himself from the limp coils, flicking free his sword. With a thundering growl, he charged toward his enemy.
A flash of motion streaked from the rooftops above. Four figures, each armored in black leather, landed on the ground between the Justicar and the erinyes. One of them was dead almost before he struck the ground, his guts ripped open by a flash of the Justicar’s sword. A second mantried to parry the ranger’s sudden attack. He caught the first blow then spun asa huge swipe of the black sword cut him almost in two.
The last two split up. One, wielding twin swords, veered left while his companion with a double-ended spear ran to the right. Jus tracked one, had Cinders burn him, then whirled and caught a spear blow with his sword. The double-ended spear flashed fast and bright, ringing sparks from Jus’ blade ashe caught attack after attack. A sudden upward flick of the rangers sword hooked the man’s left foot out from beneath him. The ranger followed with a savage stabinto the torso as the man smashed to the ground.
Twin blades flashed as the last attacker, burned and furious, came rampaging into the fight. Sparks rained down as his two swords cut and flickered in a blur. The Justicar backpedalled then flashed sideways, his sword whipping downward with an almost inhuman speed. His attacker managed to catch the blow with crossed blades but was hurled a pace backward by the Justicar’ssheer strength.
With a wild cry, the man charged. Jus whirled sideways, ending up behind his enemy. As the man passed, the Justicar sliced the full length of his sword across his enemy’s abdomen. The man lurched forward, horrorin his eyes as he fell dying to the ground.
With a snarl, the erinyes looked to the rooftops to summon her last reserve. Rising dazedly from hiding, a black figure silently sprang down from the rooftop above and landed behind the Justicar. Cinders hissed in alarm, and Escalla blasted a sudden mass of web down upon the newcomer, plastering him against a wall.
Escalla breathed hard, still shivering with the aftereffects of the demon’s fear spell. She lowered her hand, wisps of spider web stillfloating down from her fingertips.
“Jus, look at his sword!”
The newcomer roared. A myriad of faintly pulsing and flickering stars seemed to dance slowly along the blade, and a weird energy pulsed up from the blade into his flesh. The man began to move with unholy speed, each sweep of his black sword severing a dozen sticky web strands. The sword eked a sinister black radiance and moaned in ghastly hunger as it smelled the scent of blood. With a final slash of his sword, the man ripped out of the web and threw himself toward the Justicar
“Jus, look out!”
Escalla saw the devil-woman charging toward her friend’s backand fired a spell. Swarms of biting, stinging insects formed high above the street then slammed into the woman, wreathing her in a cloud of agony.
The erinyes began to fight off the insect swarm. Escalla cursed like a stevedore and backpedalled madly in midair as the woman sprang aloft to lunge up at her. Escalla led the screaming monster away from her friend, firing a stream of little magic missiles at the creature in an attempt to hold it at bay.
Far below, the Justicar readied himself to fight the sinister, moaning sword.The sword’s wielder-a tall, scarred man-raised the screeching blade and racedforward. He made one huge, twisting cut, and Jus’ parry rang against the weaponlike a bell, both black swords meeting in a flash of light.
The Justicar moved as fast as he could to block another strike, but the man was pushing him to his limit. His attacker was filled with a magical energy that seemed to skitter him forward through time. Moving insanely fast, the man made cut after cut with the evil sword, laughing and overconfident in his magical speed. He sliced at the Justicar’s feet and when the blow wasparried, he whipped the hellish blade around in an overhand cut intended to shear his enemy in two.
The Justicar parried, pivoted aside, and struck, aiming for his enemy’s forearms rather than the sword. His blade struck, severing thethief’s arms clean through. Screaming, the thief spun away, and the black bladefell skittering across the cobblestones. Still accelerated by magical speed, the thief bled to death in a single horrific gush of blood.
From high above, the woman gave a terrified scream.
“Blackrazor! No!”
The creature forgot her attack upon Escalla and whirled to save the sword. She had only just begun to move when a figure stepped suddenly forward from the nearby crowds.
A gigantic opaque fist shimmered into existence, picked up the sword, and whipped it though the air. Floating above the street, the fist settled above a thin, balding sorcerer who awaited the sword with open hands.
The Justicar started as he recognized the face of the librarian laughing in triumph. As the erinyes lunged for him, the librarian simply stepped through a glowing portal in the air. With a silent flash, librarian and magic sword instantly disappeared from view.
The devil-woman screamed in loss and panic, passing through the empty space where the librarian had stood. She searched wildly for the portal, found nothing-then saw the faerie and the Justicar racing toward her.
“Jus, be careful!” Escalla screamed.
Escalla hammered at the erinyes with a spell that sent swarm of darts shaped like little golden bees arrowing straight for their foe. Staggering under the assault, the erinyes broke into a retreat. She raised her hand, and sinister energies twisted at the air. All about the Justicar and Escalla, butchered corpses streaming blood rose to their feet and made a barrier between the devil-woman and her enemies. She spread her white wings and shot up into the sky, moving at a pace that left Escalla tumbling in her wake like a butterfly.
Six shambling corpses charged the Justicar. He smashed the arms from one and clove another’s shoulder off its torso. A third corpse rippeda wound across the rangers shoulder. Cinders raked flame across two of the undead abominations and set them afire, sending them blundering off into the crowds.
Two of the undead still locked swords with Jus. Escalla poised in midair, licked her index finger, and pointed at a zombie. A stream of little explosive golden bees blasted into the creature’s spine, raking themonster as it tried to turn. The last zombie turned to make a clumsy swipe for the faerie but was smacked apart by one savage blow from the Justicar’s blacksword.
The city’s military had finally come on the scene. Soldierscame running into the marketplace, and priests and temple guards instantly withdrew from the fighting. The trident and magic hammer were hurried back into their respective homes. This left the common people fighting, leaderless and insane with fury as soldiers armed with staves tried to bring the fighting to a close.
A law officer stood bellowing helplessly at the crowd, waving his warrant over his head as though it were a magic scroll. A dozen rioters instantly surged toward the man, and he backed against a wall and drew his sword. The Justicar wrenched himself back from staring after the fleeing erinyes and began to shove his way toward the struggling man.
“Escalla, help the lawman!”
The faerie backed away from the open skies. She turned, spread her fingers in a sleep spell, and sent six members of the crowd slumping to the ground. The Justicar leaped over the bodies and brought his blade down on a rioter from behind. He killed a second man with a stab through the back, then joined the lawman side by side.
Rioters surged forward to attack only to be flung back by huge blows from the Justicar’s sword.
With the onrush of armored soldiers, the rioters soon began to scatter. Some dove into the river while others fled into alleyways. A great many of the refugees from the Duchy of Tenh managed to pour into their respective temples, barring the doors against other citizens following behind.
The Justicar hacked the legs out from under a last enemy and then stabbed the man through the heart. He wrenched his sword free with a look of absolute distaste and knelt to wipe the blade upon a dead man’s clothes.
Escalla had managed another sleep spell to clear a path for an inrush of city militiamen. Winded, panting, and scored by a rioters blade, the rescued lawman watched the soldiers come. He fought for breath, looking up at the grim shape of the Justicar as the huge man sheathed his blade.
“Whoever you are, I thank you.”
Escalla came twinkling down from the sky.
“All part of a day’s work, hon!” The faerie perched herselfprettily across the Justicar’s huge shoulders, reclining across the grinninghell hound skin.
With an expressive glance toward the faerie, the Justicar strode forward to help the law officer to his feet. The city streets were littered with corpses, and the main marketplace was awash with blood. Jus kicked a weakly flopping zombie out of his path as the stench of burning slowly began to fill the air.
Escalla peered down from between the ears of the grinning hellhound skin. “Hey, could any of you boys go for a drink right now?”
Beer! Cinders wagged his tail.
Helping the law officer keep his feet, the Justicar led the man away from the carnage. A tangled maze of corpses now marred the city streets, while from the temples there rose a fresh new chorus of screams.