Book 5.6 Cold as Ice

16 Esterealan, Beneath the city of Istur

Here we were huddling in the Rope Trick until dawn, while just down the hall the Soul of Ice continued to grow. It was frustrating, to say the least. Since we were doomed to an afternoon of inaction, I decided the least we could do was review our plan, about which I had serious misgivings. I withdrew the relevant parchment from my pack and perused it.
“We have here a list of spells we’re planning to cast. There’s cold protection and calm winds coming from Jven, and air walk on the warriors courtesy of myself. I’m to ride on Ester’s shoulder in mouse form. But, if I’m reading my notes correctly, the crux of our plan seems to involve Canliss flying over to the Soul of Ice and hitting it with a stick.”
“Yep, he’s gonna beat on the big piñata of evil,” Jven said, shaking her head at the folly of it all.
“This has to be a mistake. People, surely we can do better than this.”
Jven nodded. Beside her, Val chuckled. “Piñata of evil. I like it.”
“Actually, we haven’t really confirmed that we need to destroy it,” Jven pointed out. “We only asked how to destroy it.”
“Well, Donar’s divination did determine that the Soul of Ice is connected to Istur’s current predicament, and that the Frozen Ones may begin to rise in the city if it isn’t destroyed.”
“For all we know, that might be the preferable option.”
The others laughed because they couldn’t imagine anything worse than the city being over-run by zombies, but those of us who’d been to Ravenloft nodded in agreement. We’d seen worse. (Skeletal budgies comes to mind.)
Val shook her head. “You’re such pessimists.”
“If you’d been to Ravenloft, you’d understand,” I explained. “There really are worse things than hordes of zombies terrorizing the city.
“Ah, but we aren’t in Ravenloft,” Val said brightly. Her cheerful outlook really is charming, even if it is misplaced. I simply must introduce her to Seregil.
“I could do a divination,” I offered, “to find out how destroying the Soul of Ice will affect Istur. It would be nice to gather some more information before we go off to, what was it, hit the evil artifact with a stick.”
“I believe we’re throwing a rock at it,” said Haquia, looking doubtfully at Canliss. I think she was beginning to wonder what she’d gotten herself into.
“Oh yes, I believe there was some mention of throwing pebbles. I don’t like it at all. Not only does our plan seem unlikely to succeed, but it’s rather careless of Canliss’ safety.”
“Well, he did cast grease again. And we told him not to.” Ester shuddered. She has bad memories of that spell. Granted, something unfortunate did tend to happen every time Canliss cast it.
Canliss continued to sit in the corner looking unconcerned and not saying a word. Honestly, I don’t think he was paying attention.
“We should explore this place a little more,” Val suggested. “Find the back door. These kinds of things always have a back door. Frontal assault doesn’t seem like a good idea.”
“They have protected it heavily,” I said. “It seems unlikely that there would be a back door. And Gore did say that it was getting bigger.”
“But I already smashed this thing in Ravenloft,” Ester whined. “And when I smashed it in Ravenloft, we came here. If we smash it here, it would really suck if we had to go back to Ravenloft.”
Even we Ravenloft veterans had trouble following that one, so I didn’t blame the others for staring at Ester as if she’d suddenly gone mad. (They should have seen her when she had the tentacle.)
“On the other hand it was warmer in Ravenloft.”
“And the guys were hotter,” Jven added sadly.
“Hey, maybe we could find the ghost boat again!” Ester said happily. For reasons I’ll never understand, Ester really enjoyed the haunted ship of horrors.
“Why don’t we just roll the Soul of Ice down the pyramid and into the lava?” said the big, dumb barbarian.
Ester shook her head. “The spell said ‘smash it or magical force.’ Not magical fire. I think we should smash it.”
I smiled at Ester. I’m so proud that she pays attention to all the clues I’ve divined. And she remembers them, too.
We discussed utilizing a divination spell for a while. I was pleased to see Val and Haquia taking part in the discussion, and making intelligent suggestions. They’re really getting into the spirit of things, although divination as a tool is probably new to them. Many Isturians seem to think it means little more than having your fortune told on Torodin’s day.
Jven moved closer to me and made a whispered comment during this discussion. “I’m also a bit concerned about your safety if the Soul of Ice is destroyed.”
“What do you mean?” I couldn’t understand why Jven might think that the Soul of Ice might threaten me in particular.
“Um, well, as the person best postured to…control undead, you’re the biggest threat to whomever is behind all this.”
“I suppose you’re right. I could divine if destroying the Soul of Ice might be inconvenient for me. Likely anything affecting me would have wider implications anyway.”
Jven nodded. “If we need to be especially careful of your safety, I’d want to know that going in to this.”
I thought it was sweet of Jven to be concerned, and I told her so. Not necessary, of course – I’m perfectly capable of protecting myself. But I’m fortunate to have such a good and loyal friend in Jvennika.
Before we stopped to cast any divination, Val wisely suggested reconnaissance. Divination is a useful tool, but it’s no substitute for some good, old-fashioned looking around. (Nor is it quite as satisfying to one’s curiosity.)
“If we do the reconnaissance first, it might inspire better questions for your divination,” Val added.
“Gore found the Soul of Ice,” said Ester around a mouth full of cheese. “What more do we need to know?”
Val looked doubtfully at Gore. “I don’t think we should rely on just one person’s information.” It was a polite way of suggesting that Gore wasn’t terribly observant.
“Well, Gore couldn’t mistake a pyramid for anything that wasn’t a pyramid,” said Ester. Honestly I don’t know why she defends him.
“Right,” said Canliss. “I’ll cast invisibility and go check it out.”
“Don’t go alone,” Val warned.
“I’ll go,” said Gore.
Val hid a chuckle. “Uh, you’ve already been there. Why don’t we pick some other people? Maybe someone a little more stealthy?”
“Canliss and I excel at stealth. We’d be happy to go, wouldn’t we Canliss?”
“Of course.”
Gore tried to insist that he was stealthy, but we all ignored him.
“Canliss, dear, if you’d be so kind as to get me within seventy-five feet of the creatures on the pyramid, I could cast a spell to learn their vulnerabilities.”
“Just be careful,” Val warned. “You don’t want to attract their attention.”
“We’re perfectly aware of that, Val. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Canliss doesn’t do anything foolish.”
Gore frowned and looked at Canliss. “Are you going to let her talk to you like that?”
Canliss backed up while all the women in the rope trick turned to glare a the stupid barbarian.
“No one was speaking to you, Gore,” I informed him coolly.
“So, Nikita you said we were gonna go scout?” Canliss said quickly. “Good idea. Let’s go now.”
Jven kindly used her powers to protect the two of us from cold. She also cast sanctuary on the both of us, just in case we did attract unwanted attention. I cast a spell to help conceal Canliss, and we climbed down the rope. I moused onto his shoulder, cast a spell to help conceal us, and we set off.
Canliss is fairly adept at stealth, but I think my magic saved us from being spotted. I’m afraid Canliss has become lazy; he’s been relying too much on his magic to conceal him. I’m going to have a talk with him; he’s becoming complacent, and that’s a dangerous attitude for a thief.
The long, tunnel-like area leading to the rope bridge was much as Gor had described him, with one notable difference – ice had spread along the walls like creeping mold. It reminded us both unpleasantly of Meridoth’s realm. I’m beginning to believe that the Soul of Ice is, as we suspected, the very same macabre device constructed with Madeleine Stern’s lifeless child. I fear the events that unfold here beneath the city may have grave consequences not only for Istur, but all of Hurva. A Night of Evil Unbound, the prophecy said. Can we stop it, or is it all inevitable?
Canliss, who isn’t exactly clumsy, soon began to have difficulty keeping his balance on the slippery floor. By the time the cavern began to open up and we could see the glow of lava, he’d slipped twice. I dug my claws into his shirt and hung on for dear life.
Gore’s description of the area was fairly accurate. The cavern was at least a hundred feet across. A blizzard roared far above us, the snow melting and steaming by the time it reached the rope bridge, which was heated by the lava far below. The rope bridge spanned a hundred feet to the giant platform, which blocked our view of the cavern behind it. Smaller platforms to the left and right supported statues of salamanders that were covered in ice.
The huge, stone pyramid was completely covered in ice. In addition to the humanoid creatures Gore described, an enormous ice lizard occupied the top of the pyramid, near the pulsing sphere that was the Soul of Ice. It snapped at the humanoid creatures and flailed its tail, adding to the chaos. The ones thrown by the larger creatures slid helplessly down the pyramid to fall screaming into the lava. At the moment there were only half a dozen humanoid creatures, but even as we watched the Soul of Ice disgorged another one.
The humanoid creatures looked as if they were made from jagged pieces of ice stuck together. The reptilian monster had six legs and shimmered blue and white, with teeth that looked like huge icicles.
Gore was right. Every time the Soul of Ice pulsed, it grew just a fraction of an inch larger.
“Canliss, can we try to get closer? I need to be most of the way across the bridge to cast my spell.”
The six-fingered mage looked doubtful.
“We’ll retreat if it’s too difficult.” While I wanted to get as much information as I could from our reconnaissance, it wasn’t worth risking our safety.
Canliss nodded. He tied rope loosely around both of the ice-covered rope ‘railings’ of the rope bridge. Looping his rope around each wrist, he began inching his way across the bridge.
The second time Canliss slipped, I nearly fell off his shoulder. With the lava steaming far below us, it was clear that further progress would be far too risky. Not only that, it would be impossible for any of our warriors, except possibly Val, to survive the trip across this bridge.
We went back and reported our findings to the others. “There are more creatures coming out of the Soul of Ice as we speak. There’s no way of knowing how many creatures will be on that pyramid by the time we reach it. Nor can we safely cross the ice bridge. I doubt anyone brought crampons.”
“Didn’t think we’d need them,” said Haquia. “We were expecting lava, not snow and ice.”
“If nothing attacks us, we can take our time crossing the bridge,” said Gore, as if it should be easy.
“Canliss was taking his time, Gore. It’s still very difficult.”
We discussed our options for crossing the bridge. I offered to cast Air Walk on Ester, Val & Haquia if necessary. I could ride on Ester’s shoulder in mouse form, and Canliss could fly. Gore was content to walk across the bridge on his on own. No one objected except Ester.
“But if you fall on the platform, you’ll go whoosh down the pyramid into the lava, just like the ice monsters. I can just picture it.”
Val nodded. “I can picture that, too.”
I could also picture it, but I only found it disturbing when I imagined one of my friends falling instead of Gore. I wouldn’t push him into the lava, but I wouldn’t throw myself in front of him, either. Especially not in mouse form.
We set up watches and prepared to rest for the night, but first I wanted to cast a divination spell. As Jven had suggested, I asked how destroying the Soul of Ice would affect me. The answer was closer to her quest it will bring; soon to light it will bear her ring.
I couldn’t hide the puzzlement from my voice as I told this answer to the others. “I don’t understand the significance of the second part.”
“Okay,” said Val skeptically. “That’s one to write down in the old memory book.”
Normally I might have been offended by her dismissive attitude toward divination, but given the response I couldn’t really argue with her.
“Did you lose a ring?” Ester asked.
“No, dear. Only a necklace.” Which I fully intend to get back as soon as I have time to attend to such matters.
“Maybe ‘soon to light’ means soon we’ll be above ground?” Haquia suggested hopefully.
I shrugged. “Perhaps Torodin’s holy assistant is having an off day.”
“Well thanks for indulging me,” said Jven. “I appreciate it.”
“Do you have any thoughts as to what it might mean?”
Jven shook her head. “Not yet. It will probably happen at that ‘ah-ha!’ moment, when we all realize what it meant and it’s too late to do anything about it.”
It seemed a rather negative attitude, but there was a precedent for such things. That’s the unfortunate aspect of divination. We mortals can’t always understand what the gods are trying to tell us until it’s too late.
Hoping that sleeping on things would gain us some insight, we settled down for the night and began our watches. Even though nothing was likely to discover us inside the rope trick, we wanted to keep an eye on anything passing down below.
Val and I were on watch when we spotted someone creeping into the room. It was our mysterious benefactor in the Torodinite ceremonial robes. Strangely, the robes were a little too short for him now. That was odd. Those robes magically alter themselves to fit anyone. I would have thought they were a forgery if I hadn’t seen their magic at work. He was also carrying a war hammer. He didn’t have one before; and such a weapon was forbidden to our order.
“It’s the mystery man,” I whispered excitedly to Val. It wasn’t necessary to whisper since we were in an extra dimensional space, but I did it out of habit.
“What should we do?” Val whispered. “We don’t know if he is evil or good.”
He was passing below us. I shifted into mouse form, cast my paw outside the rope trick, and cast ‘know vulnerabilities.’ Sadly, my spell yielded no information.
I couldn’t stand it. Curiosity was killing me; I just had to know who this person was. He’d helped us before. Surely he was no threat to us.
“I’ll be back,” I whispered to Val.
“Nikita, w—“
I leaped out of the rope trick and landed nimbly on the ground behind the mystery man. I followed him out of the room into an area that we hadn’t yet explored. I tried to see something familiar about the way he walked, but the robes disguised this. Strangely, I did notice a slit in the side of the robes where his war hammer hung.
The man (or woman) looked around for a while, then came back into the room where we’d cast the rope trick. When he paused to examine our tracks, I crawled up his robes and into his pack. I didn’t find anything interesting. There was a blanket that was rather too coarse for my tastes, a scroll case I couldn’t chew my way into, and clothing of indeterminate color (it was dark inside the rope trick.). There was also a bit of cheese and dried fruit. I didn’t find anything that would identify him. No personal items at all; how boring. Well, this was frustrating. Who was this man (or woman)? Why was he helping us, but concealing his identity?
I climbed out of the pack and onto his shoulder in time to see us enter a bathroom. Here I at least learned that our mystery man is definitely male. I also learned that the room we were now in held two bathtubs heated by hot mineral springs. I couldn’t believe we’d missed this. Good heavens, I would have to tell Jven about this as soon as possible. This was a dream come true. Even without desirable male company, a hot bath is one of my favorite luxuries.
We wandered into a small kitchen. A great deal of food was stored here; this was liable to prove a problematic distraction for Ester. Our mystery friend picked up some knives and began to examine them with undue interest.
I couldn’t take it any more. I just had to know who this man was. I didn’t think he’d hurt me. Besides, I could hear Val trying to sneak down the hallway towards us. I crawled onto his shoulder.
“So, what ya lookin’ for?” I said in his ear.
He jumped. I was rather pleased with myself for catching him off guard. Seregil would be so proud.
The man tilted his head to look at me. I waved a paw. “Uh, Sister?”
“Yes, I’m Nikita. What’s your name?”
He hesitated. “It is good that we can talk alone. Where are your companions?"
“They’re all sleeping in the rope trick back there. Except for Val, who’s sneaking towards us as we speak.”
“I will make I brief. I’ve come to help. I know that you can easily find out who I am, but I must ask that you do not.”
Well, this was quite a lot to ask from a Torodinite. Why couldn’t he trust me with the secret of his identity? Should I agree to this request, or not? What would Donar want me to do?
“You can call me… Aaron.”
“Do I know you?”
“As much as you would know another follower of the Shadows.”
“But you’re not a priest. You’re wearing chain mail under those robes.”
If he was disturbed to learn that I’d been crawling under his robes without his knowledge, the mask hid it. “But I am a priest.” He pulled a chain from beneath his robes and showed me one of our blessed holy symbols.
“Who sent you?”
“You needed the help. There are many people in Istur who need my help right now.”
This was no kind of an answer. I wanted to know if Donar had sent someone to watch over me. Didn’t he trust me? I wanted to know how “Aaron” could be a priest, yet he wore chain mail and carried a war hammer. Why should he be allowed to break the rules?
I was not, however, going to alienate a shadow brother who’d come to our aid. Perhaps if I worked to earn his trust, I would find opportunities to learn more about him.
“Why don’t you join us?”
He considered this for a moment. “Very well. I will give you all of my assistance.”
“Uh, why don’t you grab some of this food, first? Ester will be your friend for life if you give her some cheese. We didn’t bring any food with us.”
“You didn’t bring any food?”
Despite the powers of the mask, I could sense the disapproval in his tone. “Well, we weren’t expecting to be down here long.”
“You should always come prepared.”
I wasn’t sure I cared for Aaron’s attitude, but I decided to let it slide for now. I led him back toward the rope trick. “Gore is sleeping right now. We can kick him out if we have to.”
“Gore?”
“The oafish barbarian.”
We said hello to a surprised Val, caught in mid-creep down the hallway. “Our friend, uh, Aaron is going to join us in the rope trick.”
“Well…. welcome, I guess,” said Val. She regarded Aaron with undisguised suspicion.
“Well, I guess this is a welcome.”
We all climbed up into the rope trick.
“Hey, cool mask!” said Ester. “Can I see it?”
“No.”
“Can I see it?”
“No.”
“Can I see it?”
“No.”
“Can I see it?”
“No.”
“Please?”
“No.”
“Ester, stop that,” I said. Ester pouted, but she did stop pestering Aaron. Especially when he shared the food he’d brought.
“Don’t tell her about the kitchen you found,” Val warned him in a whisper. “Or we’ll never get out of here.”
“Everyone, this is… Aaron, my, uh, brother priest.” I caught Jven’s eye and shrugged at here. I was leaning toward believing that Aaron was a priest, but I wasn’t completely sure yet. Jven raised her eyebrows, as intrigued as I was.
I was surprised when Aaron cast a healing spell on Gore. He turned and bowed to me. Well, he was definitely a priest.
“You really didn’t have to do that,” I told him.
“I think I did.”
“Why?” asked Ester around a mouth full of cheese.
“I did hit him first.”
“How do you see through that?” Ester asked. She was still fascinated by the mask.
Some shuffling around ensued, in order to make room for everyone inside the rope trick. We all settled down in our bedrolls. But first, I un-moused and gave Aaron my stack of notes. He settled down to read.
“It’s good to read these first-hand,” he said.
“What do you mean, ‘first-hand’ ?” Had Aaron gotten a hold of my notes before? If so, how? I exchanged a look with Jven, who was regarding Aaron with a certain degree of suspicion.
“It’s good to read them,” said Aaron.
It wasn’t much of an answer, but I let it go for now. I’m looking forward to asking Donar about our mysterious friend. Will he be surprised? Or does he already know that “Aaron” is with us? Honestly, I’m not sure which answer I’d prefer.