Part VIII
Rogues' Revenge

Eddy had somehow survived the evening, between the funeral pyre, the wake in Gheed's tent, Sassy’s lewd humor, Sissy’s blatant suspicion, and Dicer’s impatience to be off on the revenge business. Finally, dawn came, and with it the final assault.

Kashya brought four rogues to Eddy: Aliza, Demi, Elly and Gwinni.
“Here are your volunteers, Eddy. I can only spare you four archers, as we have had another report of goats in the Cold Plain. Good luck.” She paused, and then stepped forward to give Eddy a powerful embrace.
“You are a true servant of the Light, Paladin, we would not still be breathing without your efforts. Bring it back in one piece, will you?” Eddy was stunned to see tears in the commander’s eyes, and wondered how many women he was going to have to fend off before the week was over.

Cain led them to the rune circle and said the ancient words. The emerged into darkness. Eddy led the way into the passageways and down the stairs he had cleared the previous afternoon. Moving in deliberate bounds, he led his force north, slaying gibbering midgets armed with oversized cleavers, and more dark imps. His overwhelming advantage in archery was a decisive factor. Anything that moved was mowed down, leaving a few wounded demonspawn for him and Dicer to combat.

The young barbarian was fitting in quite well, as was this Sassy woman. Eddy kicked open yet another door and found a room filled with green vampires casting firebolts.
“The stairs!” he called, leading a charge into the northeast corner of the room. In a few short moments, Eddy and his band stood by the stairs, dead vampires littering the floor.

Sassy started down the stairs, then paused.
“Eddy,” she whispered, with uncertainty in her voce, “it really smells down there. Sort of like a butcher shop on a hot market day. You figure they are cooking us dinner?” Her wisecrack met with barely a grin.
Eddy addressed the party in a soft undertone.
“Andariel’s followers engage in human sacrifice. Steel yourselves, it may be grisly down there. Stick together, and keep your arrows concentrated on shamans and any obvious leaders. Sassy, Sissy, Dicer: our formation is two swords up, two ladies back. Quietly. We may get the drop on them.”

They crept down the stairs into a large landing wet with pooled with blood. An iron double door stood ajar. Eddy looked around once, got a nod of assent from the entire group, and charged through the door.

They entered an abattoir. A large blood filled trench, surrounded by dozens of corpses, filled the center of the room. A dozen bodies hung from meat hooks on the blood streaked walls. Dark imps and shamans danced madly by torchlight in the far corner.
Surprise was complete.

The momentum from the initial charge and the devastating rain of arrows ended the battle almost before it began. Eddy was implacable. With Dicer at his right side, like Slicer before him, they cut through the imps like a steel whirlwind. The steady “thrum-whish-plunk” of arrows leaving bows and finding their targets provided a rhythmic counterpoint to the symphony of steel raining down on the demon spawn. Then the fighting stopped.

Eddy looked around quickly to get his bearings. Sissy stood next to Sassy, who was covering a huge wooden door with her bow, flanked by three of the rogues. Gwinni lay face down on the floor, just inside the great doors, a sword through her chest. With a grim nod to Dicer on his right, Eddy prepared to enter the next chamber-- when the door burst open, spilling forth a host of more dark skinned imps.

Great clouds of poison gas hurtled into the chamber. Aliza dropped her bow and grabbed at her throat, choking on her very breath. Sassy, somehow still breathing, called a warning:
“Our hostess is home! ‘Ware the tentacles!”

An abomination straight from the bowels of Hell strode into the room, its flaming red hair standing straight up. Easily four strides tall, the hoofed figure lashed out with with seemingly a half dozen arms, emitting a terrifying screech. Though she was roughly human in shape, from the demon’s back grew four talon tipped tentacles of flesh that moved like live, darting snakes. Her hands ended in cruel claws, her face sporting enormous fangs dripping red with blood.
“Die, my little rats, die!” she screamed, for it was indeed their hostess: the demoness Andariel.

Eddy and Dicer were on her at once, kicking imps out of the way almost carelessly. The rogues rained arrows on the imps, while Sassy concentrated on shooting at the demon’s eyes. Sissy hurled balls of ice, at turning the demon's bright pink flesh to blue. The noise and the screaming built to a demonic crescendo, while the thrum of bowstrings lent an eerie, almost orchestral air, to the melee.

Dicer found an opening, and buried his sword up to its hilt between the demon’s breasts. Eddy followed up with a vicious backhand blow to the jaw as a frosty blue arrow entered the demon’s left eye. Andariel staggered, tentacles waving aimlessly, then crumpled to the floor with a great piercing cry. The noise deafened the entire party and split the ceiling, sending rocks flying all over the chamber. The floor shook with great tremors, knocking Eddy to his knees. Sassy tripped back over Gwinni’s corpse to tumble into the blood filled trench. Dicer leapt forward, Sissy and two rogues on his heels, to engage zombies and imps in the next chamber. Aliza lay barely breathing, her body half covered by falling rock. White demon fire showered down out of the ceiling, burning the imps on the floor, and consuming Andariel’s body.

One chaotic moment later, it was all over.

Eddy shook his head, trying to restore his hearing. He heard Dicer sing out with another war cry and another, final clash of steel. Sassy crawled, blood soaked, out of the trench, and knelt by Aliza’s side, clawing at the growing pile of rock that threatened to bury her.
Eddy pulled Aliza clear of the rubble, and leaned her against a door jamb. Grabbing Sassy by the wrist, he hurried them into the next chamber.

Dicer, Sissy and the rogues had just finished up off a small group of zombies in front of a hideous bone altar. Eddy hurried forward, calling to the barbarian. “Dicer, look around you! We need to leave before this place comes down over our ears!”
“Right!” answered Sassy, pulling away from his grip. “I have a scroll. Let’s blow this low rent smoked fish stand. I have had enough fun to last me at least a week.” She paused to read the ancient runes on a school bound in blue ribbon, summoning a blue portal to Kashya’s stockade as Aliza staggered through the door.

Eddy saw a flash of bright light to his right, just on the edge of his peripheral vision. He turned to behold a wavering light pierce the darkness. A blade. He moved as though in a trance, pure voices of song filling his ears. A bright curved sword glowed in the darkness with almost unbearably white luminescence, casting weird shadows out of the gigantic skull through which it had been thrust. Eddy felt himself drawn by the sound as he moved slowly to the end of the antechamber. The achingly pure voices reached a crescendo as he laid his hand on the grip.
He now heard more clearly the soft singing of a heavenly choir, and imagined that he saw angels playing harps of gold as they sang psalms to the Light. Then this momentary vision was replaced by the grim reality of the crumbling cathedral-yet the soft voices remained. The singing subsided as he moved away from the skull, then grew louder as he moved toward his comrades. His joy must have shown on his face, although from the expressions on those facing him, it was obvious to him that only he heard the music.

Once again he found himself the subject of curious and interested gazes, by three rogues, a barbarian, an amazon, and a sorceress. But this time, he did not feel like a dancing bear at a town fair. He felt . . . right. With the Light. And with a message and a gift to pass to a new comrade.
He raised the saber and let it point itself toward Dicer. He walked slowly forward, and kneeled before the young barbarian.
“Dicer, this sword is meant for you. Someone has sent you a message, someone you have known your whole life.” And he smiled with a pure joy he had not felt since he had first ridden a horse.

Mouth wide open, Dicer accepted the hilts of the saber. “Grandfather’s sword!” he breathed softly. He cocked his head for a moment, as though hearing a voice up and to his left. Then he smiled, and nodded his head. He thrust the curved sword into his belt, and, with a solemn look at his comrades, stepped through the portal.

Coda:

They stood together, in the rain, while Warriv oversaw last minute adjustments to the loaded wagons. The tents had been folded, stowed and then loaded with all of the Rogues’ heavy equipment. Only the damp walls of sharpened logs and the old fire pit marked what had been their “home” for the previous months. They, at least, were going home, albeit a home wrecked by the ravages of war.

Kashya and her Rogues were already scouting the passes leading to the Temple. She had already made her goodbyes to the four.

“When the troubles began, our Captain led a picked band in pursuit of the Dark Wanderer, leaving Blood Raven and I as her lieutenants. She vowed to cross the Great Sea if necessary to hunt him down. Perhaps you will be fortunate enough to encounter Sarina the Battlemaid in your travels. Good luck, my Friends.”

At last, Warriv jumped up beside Charsi and gave a shrill whistle. A whip cracked. The caravan lurched forward. Eddy clambered aboard the last wagon, then pulled his comrades up, beneath the canvas cover, one by one. This journey to the Monastery would hopefully be less dramatic than their last. The Rogues were going home to reestablish their mountain Citadel.

Eddy, Dicer, Sassy and Sissy, however, would not stay to help them. As they had discussed with Kashya long into the night, they were to lead the first caravan in months to travel east through the mountain passes. With them went Cain. He alone knew the signs that would let them pick up the trail of The Wanderer. Eddy looked silently into the eyes of his comrades, and saw in their gazes the same grim conviction that he felt.

East, he thought, we ride into the rising sun . . .

FoS Acknowledgments >>