Book 5.9 The Soul of Ice

19 Esterealan

Once we realized that we couldn’t all fit in one Rope Trick, Canliss kindly offered to cast two (After all, his spell components are cheap). And Haquia volunteered to forgo the Nap spell, since I could only cast it once. Everyone was being pleasant and cooperative… except, naturally, for Gor.
“I’ll stay down here and stand guard.”
I was struck by a perverse stab of jealousy directed at Rhavin and Kariya. Granted, most of our former compatriots were here in Istur with me; and Canliss, Ester and Jven are all good company. Rhavin and Kariya had left town in the company of a ranger with poor bathing habits, an Azkalite (enough said), and a crazy, drunken bard. But I’m certain that the three of them combined couldn’t possibly be as much trouble as Gor.
“That’s it,” I muttered under my breath, thinking fondly of Kariya and wishing I could cast a bolt of lightning. Instead, I raised my hand for everyone’s attention.
“Everyone gather around. We need to establish some party rules. We need to learn to work as a team. That means, if the majority of us decide to do something, we all do it.” I glared at Gor. “Whether it’s sleeping in the rope trick or having lunch, majority rules. If you disagree with that, the Istur Watch can use your help with the battle at the city gates.”
Gor scowled. “I don’t take orders from women.”
I glared at him, thinking how well zombies and shadow mastiffs take orders.
“How many people say that Gor takes orders from women?” asked Val, grinning and raising her hand.
Everyone raised their hands except, of course, for Gor. I opted to ignore him.
Then I glared at Canliss, who was laughing at the stupid barbarian. “Second rule – we do not poison fellow party members.”
“I’ll vote for that one,” said Val.
Canliss had the grace to look ashamed, but I doubted it was sincere. Shame is an alien emotion to the six-fingered mage.
“I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
“Very well. If you have any more of that poison, I suggest you give it to someone in the group that’s more responsible than you.”
“I’ll take it,” said Gor.
“Uh, except Gor?” asked Ester.
“Yes, even Gor. At least Gor hasn’t poisoned anybody.” I was trying to be diplomatic, and it was the only nice thing I could think of to say about him.
“I think those will be enough rules for us to get by,” I said. “So Canliss, go ahead and cast the Rope Trick, and I will Nap us.”
Naturally, Gor could not be reasonable. He simply would not enter the Rope Trick. I refused to waste time arguing with him. The rest of us will simply have to behave as a group and treat the barbarian as a random, uncontrollable element, like hail storms and boil-inducing plagues.
Everyone else was just as prepared to give up on Gor as I was. We climbed into the Rope Trick and Napped, leaving the barbarian to his fate. He was alive and standing in the corner of the room when we awoke, much to my disappointment. As we broke our fast and prayed. I wondered how annoyed Donar would be if I came home with a shadow mastiff.
While we waited for Canliss to study his spells, I did my nails and studied Aren. He’s been even more quiet that usual lately. I wondered what he was thinking, but I could not, in good conscience, waste a precious spell to find out. I wonder who he really is? He must be someone I know – I gathered that much from reading his thoughts earlier. And my, er, mousy observations from underneath his robes revealed that he’s definitely male. (Impressively so, but then, from a mouse’s perspective, everything looks large.)
But who is he? He’s certainly not one of my brother priests – they’re all occupied with the zombie siege. So he’s someone I know, he’s not from Strands , and he’s someone able to refrain from murdering Gor for several days now. Who does that leave? Mario would have hit on Val by now. Sammy would never risk his neck down here. Bento doesn’t have the constitution for subterranean travel. Sal would have tossed Gor into the lava at the first insulting word. Just who could Aren be?
While I was pondering this mystery, Val took out our crude map of the area and examined it. She pointed out several areas we could search in the hope of finding an alternate route to the Soul of Ice. It would be tedious work and would eat up valuable time, but it would be worth the effort if we could avoid that ice bridge.
We started with our current location. After all, the presence of several angry demons hadn’t left us with much of an opportunity to look around earlier. We examined the area carefully for an hour, but we found nothing of interest.
We decided to keep looking. Crossing the ice bridge to reach the pyramid would involve a massive outlay of spells before the battle even started. Jven and I could cast almost nothing until tomorrow, which would make getting into any sort of a fight today nothing short of suicide. We had nothing better to do than search for secret passages.
“Canliss, you still haven’t given me that poison,” Gor said as we left the room. I’d been ignoring the barbarian, but he seemed to be following us around. Well, if he wanted to follow us around and kill demons, I wasn’t going to stop him.
Canliss raised his eyebrows at Gor, adopting that expression that he believes makes him look innocent, but which in reality makes him look like a large-eyed puppy who’s just been stepped on. “You act as if I carry an unlimited supply of that stuff around. I don’t.”
“If anyone’s getting that poison,” said Jven, “it’s going to be me. Of the three of us, I’m clearly the most responsible.”
That was certainly true. I left it to Jven to figure out how to extricate the poison from the six-fingered mage. Perhaps she’ll even enjoy the process. I’m starting to wonder if there’s something going on between those two. They’ve certainly been having a lot of whispered conversations when they think no one is paying attention. For Jven’s sake, I hope they are having a fling. It would be good for her. She’s been awfully moody lately; I’ve been concerned that Ravenloft has somehow warped her psyche.
We moved our searching into the garish room with the mirrored tub. Ester helped by hovering over my shoulder, pointing at things. “What about that? Did you search there? What about that brick? Do you think there’s a secret door under that pebble?”
Ester’s ‘help’ is surely the reason that it wasn’t I who discovered that the mirror behind the bathtub was really a door, but the stupid barbarian. We all stopped searching when we heard the creaking of hinges. The central mirror pivoted, revealing an opening. Gor stood beside it looking smug.
“Hey, look,” said Val. “It’s a door.”
“Well done, Val,” I said. I refused to acknowledge Gor’s presence, much less give him credit for such an important discovery.
The mirrored door led to a small, sulfur-smelling room with a door leading in the opposite direction. Gor tromped inside without delay. The rest of us hesitated a few moments – this was as good a way to check for traps as any – and then we followed Gor into the room. Beyond scorched walls and a rubble-strewn floor testifying to an explosion, there was nothing interest in the room.
Canliss seemed inclined to delay our expedition to paw through the rubble. Honestly. The Shadowlord knows that I have nothing against greed, but now wasn’t the time for it. We were here to destroy the Soul of Ice, not fill our pockets. Doesn’t Canliss realize the length of my to-do list? After we’re done saving the city, I have to conquer the zombie hordes, cure the Plague, find Silvio and help him finish his secret mission so Rachel can go home, end the Great Storm, fix Val up with Seregil, find and cure Gil of his unfortunate affliction, help Jven rescue Peregrine (unless she’s lost interest?), find a way to check on Anton, update my wardrobe, learn Aren’s secret identity, scry on Rhavin to make sure he’s okay , and persuade Torodin to let us get married. I don’t have time to stand around while Canliss loots everything in sight.
We watched Gor crunch across the rubble. I stopped Ester from following. “Wait, Ester, we’re checking for traps.”
When nothing exploded, we followed the barbarian to the door. Gor pointed to the rubble and broken glass strewn about and said, “You see, this is what comes of magic.”
“How do you know it was magic?” asked Val.
Gor attempted to think about this, but it proved too difficult. He crossed his massive arms and glared at Val. “It’s not natural.”
“So, this is not a natural mess?” Ester mused.
“I don’t know,” said Val. “All you need is some fire, the right kind of powder, and BOOM -- you have a mess.”
I wasn’t the only one who regarded Val with some interest. I’m going to have to pry into that girl’s background at the earliest opportunity. It sounds interesting.
Gor opened the door without consulting with anyone. As long as the rest of us keep our distance, I have no problem with this. Why waste ‘find trap’ spells when there’s someone expendable who’s stupid enough to open all the doors?
We watched Gor head into the hallway beyond the door. When nothing collapsed, exploded or burst into flame, the rest of us followed. The hallway passed a river of lava, where it ended in a stone wall. While Gor stared at the wall in confusion, I squeezed under his arm (thankful for Canliss’s clean cantrips) and searched. I found a small catch which loosened the wall. Gor, who’d been leaning against it, stumbled forward as the wall opened.
We found ourselves in the library, where we’d nearly been defeated by that horrible creature. We searched for a while, Canliss for personal gain, Jven for clues among the books, and the rest of us for a hidden door. Anything Canliss found he kept to himself (I swear, if he finds a clue and doesn’t share it, I will have Gabriel toss him into the lava.), and the rest of us found nothing of interest.
“These books are boring, Canliss,” Jven complained. “There’s no drinking, no wenching… It’s all fire this, summon that… Gods, I hate these people.”
Unwilling to give up and concede that the ice bridge was our only route to the Soul of Ice, we kept searching. After consulting Val’s map, we went back to the original corridor and began looking for a hidden door.
“What are we doing down here?” Gor asked.
Val blinked at him in surprise. “What are we doing?”
“I’ve kind of lost track.”
“We’re here to destroy the Soul of Ice,” she explained, with a lot more patience than I could muster. I was rather hoping that the barbarian would get bored and leave.
“That’s the glowing thing on top of the pyramid, right?” asked Gor. “It’s probably really big by now.”
“So, who wants ale?” Jven asked.
I frowned, but didn’t rebuke my fellow cleric. Jveltoans aren’t known for their patience, or their ability to find secret doors. Even I didn’t find any secret doors, and if a Torodinite can’t find it, then it isn’t there.
Canliss, who wasn’t really helping, interrupted our search by asking if we wanted to ‘hole up’ for the night. “There are several items I’d like to identify.”
I frowned at him. “Canliss, we’re not done searching. Remember, we have a goal here that does not involve profit.”
“Right,” said Jven. “Canliss is gonna stop looking for a profit, and I’m gonna switch to seltzer.”
After a fruitless afternoon of searching, we were forced to give up our hope of finding a secret door. If there was a route to the Soul of Ice that we’d missed, it involved walking on lava.
“We could just wait,” said Gor. “Pretty soon it’ll be big enough to reach the doorway.”
Giving that remark the attention it deserved, I suggested using a ‘Genius’ spell in the morning to determine if there was a more strategically advantageous route. In the meantime, the party (sans Gor) climbed into the Rope Trick. I watched Aren, who seemed rather preoccupied, and Canliss began identifying magical items we’d acquired during our hard-fought battles (all of which had somehow ended up in his possession.)
His eyes alight with avarice, Canliss started with his “glowing magical staff.” His face fell and he tossed it aside. “It’s a plain quarterstaff with ‘light’ cast on it.”
We all laughed at him. “That’s quite a treasure, Canliss. Are you sure you don’t want to keep that?”
By this point, the rest of us had become bored and tired and gone to sleep except for Ester, who was watching Canliss like an excited child and volunteered to take the first watch. I was surprised when, some time later, I felt someone shaking my shoulder.
“Nikita, Nikita,” Ester said breathlessly, “Look at these.”
I sat up, rubbing sleep from my eyes. On the palm of Ester’s outstretched hand were three of the tiniest scrolls I’d ever seen, each one bound with a small ribbon.
“Oh, how cute,” I said, gingerly picking them up. They had a rather unpleasant odor to them. “Where did you find these?”
“In the box,” said Ester.
“What box?”
Canliss frowned. “This box.” Reluctantly, he held up a lovely, ivory box. I took it from him.
“This is the perfect size for a pair of earrings,” I said, and I put the box in the pocket. I smiled at Canliss. He probably thought I’d forgotten about his lack of tithing to the Church. As we Torodinites like to say, there’s more than one way to get a donation.
Carefully, I opened the scrolls. The writing was nothing I recognized. I cast ‘comprehend languages’ and learned that each scroll bore the name of a demon. I read them to Ester and Canliss.
“That could be useful information,” said Canliss.
I frowned at him. I could well imagine what Donar would say about the combination of Canliss and knowledge about demons. “It would be impossible to pronounce those names without a spell,” I said. “Such things weren’t meant for human tongues. Besides, it would require more than just the knowledge of these names to summon a demon.”
Canliss took out a book he’d picked up about how to summon demons. There’s another thing I’m going to have to get away from him. He found common, phonetic spellings of the three names in the book.
“Those names will be useful for controlling any summoned demons, won’t they?” Canliss asked. “It says here that those three are glaabrezu.”
The idea of Canliss trying to control demons is enough to keep a person awake nights. “I can’t summon that sort of demon,” I admitted. “They’re very large and powerful. And I’m afraid the names themselves are of limited usefulness to us. They would assist me to banish the demons, but I’d have to have the language spell in effect in order to pronounce the names.”
Once we’d sufficiently indulged our curiosity, I went back to sleep. I was undisturbed until it was time to pray and break our fast in the morning.

20 Esterealan

Canliss shared information regarding what we’d found inside the box with the others as we broke our fast in the morning. Then, after we’d finished our prayers, I sacrificed a precious gem and cast the Genius spell. What, I asked, was our most strategically advantageous route to the Soul of Ice? Sadly, the ice bridge was our answer.
We all regarded each other with some disappointment. But there was no hope for it. No one ever said that saving the world would be easy. Canliss and I scouted briefly. We learned that the cold in the chamber had deepened to the point where it was painful, more creatures covered the pyramid (including two alarmingly large ice lizards), and the Soul of Ice had grown considerably larger. No one looked pleased when we reported this news.
Resigned to our fate, we discussed our strategy. Naturally, the burden of making sure we survived to reach the pyramid fell upon the clerics. Jven would control the roaring winds, without which we couldn’t hope to accomplish much of anything inside the cavern. Jven would also protect us all from the unnatural cold, and I would protect everyone except Ester, Haquia and Gor from evil. (I’d be riding in Ester’s pocket in mouse form, so she would enjoy my protection. Haquia would be standing back from the battle. And I really didn’t care about Gor.) Since Canliss was the only one among us who could fly under his own power, I also opted to use Air Walk on Jven and Val, and Crawling Darkness on Ester and Gor. These spells, combined with the crampons all of us would wear whether we needed them or not, would prevent unfortunate falls that could lead to even more unfortunate tumbles into the lava. I would ride in Ester’s pocket in mouse form, putting me in a position to cast spells and heal Ester without becoming a target. (She has a tendency to pet me when I’m in mouse form, but we all must make sacrifices in the war against evil.)
Once we were all cramponed and outfitted, I moused into Ester’s pockets. We gathered just outside the bridge and began our protective spells. I made sure to cast Crawling Darkness from behind Gor’s back.
“Aaaaah! Get it off! Get it off!” he cried, alarmed when several shadowy tentacles sprang from his body. I looked at him in feigned surprise.
“The gods have favored you, Gor,” said Jven. We all smiled at him, enjoying the barbarian’s discomfort. He tried in vain to hack at the tentacles, looking perplexed when his blade passed through them without harm.
“These are so cool,” Ester cried with glee. She proceeded to taunt Gor with her tentacles until we made her stop. I made myself comfortable in Ester’s pocket. Finally, we were ready to assault The Soul of Ice.
The Soul of Ice now encased the top third of the pyramid. It throbbed like a beating heart, expanding slightly with every pulse. Numerous creatures had gathered atop it, apparently fighting among themselves. Two enormous ice lizards crawled the length of the glowing sphere. Beyond the chaos the blizzard raged, creating tendrils of hissing steam where it met the lava far below.
I studied the Soul of Ice as Ester crawled easily along the ice-covered rope bridge. It was impossible to guess what the creatures on the top of the sphere were doing. Humanoid, but seemingly made entirely of ice with sharp spines and long claws, they seemed to have flattened down a small portion of the top of the sphere. They hopped about and gesticulated, whether in anger or in jubilation it was hard to say. It wasn’t clear whether they were fighting among themselves, or engaging in some sort of primitive dance. Suddenly, an ice mephit appeared to land in the midst of these creatures. One grabbed the mephit and tossed it, screaming, into the lava. Clearly they weren’t all getting along.
Jven cast her first ‘control winds’ spell as we headed across. Thanks to her magic, the roaring maelstrom became nothing more than a gentle breeze. We must have been quite a sight, with the be-tentacled Ester and Gor crawling and Canliss flying, while Val and Jven walked on air and the others followed along with their crampons to keep their balance; yet the hopping ice creatures took no notice of us until we made it halfway across the bridge, Gor and Ester in the lead. Aren and Haquia, following close behind us, made quite a racket with their crampons. Splinters of ice broke loose with their passing, falling like rain to melt, hissing, into the lava below.
The ice creatures on the top of the sphere turned and gesticulated at us when they saw us on the bridge. They seemed disinclined to leave their perch on the Soul of Ice and contented themselves with what I could only assume were rude gestures. They were going to have to do better than that if they expected to impress a group of Isturians. We made it across the bridge as Jven, hanging in the back with Haquia, cast a second spell to control winds closer to the pyramid.
Gor charged/crawled up the steps of the pyramid. As he reached the bottom of the Soul of Ice, the two enormous ice lizards hissed menacingly. Ester charged up right behind him, a process which caused a lot of unpleasant bouncing for the mouse riding in her pocket. She gesticulated with her shadow tentacles, no doubt some sort of rude gesture directed at the ice lizards. The sphere loomed brightly above us, radiating an intense cold that would have been painful if it weren’t for Jven’s protective spells.
Just as Aren and Haquia stepped off the bridge far behind us, the ice lizards lunged at Gor. Both lizard snapped with their long, savage fangs. One sunk its fangs into Gor’s shoulder. Shrugging off the injury, the barbarian began foaming at the mouth, thus proving that he could be just as disgusting as anything with fangs and claws. He swung his blade, stabbing the creature in the side, then again in a scaly leg. Ichor spewed from the wounds (fortunately not in my direction).
Anxious not to be left out of the fight, Ester crawled beside Gor and attacked the second ice lizard. She stabbed the thing in its scaly abdomen with her flaming sword, causing it to lash its tail and bellow in pain.
Meanwhile, Jven calmed the winds in the rest of the cavern, allowing Canliss and Val free range of movement. Haquia shot one of the ice lizards, while Canliss flew towards the Soul of Ice. The creatures milling about on top of the sphere ceased their game of throwing each other into the lava to make rude gestures at the winged man flapping towards them (and they don’t even know Canliss).
Val, walking in the air over our heads, avoided both ice lizards. She headed for the Soul of Ice, which she struck with her blade. A sliver of ice the size of a tooth-pick broke from the icy sphere. Val frowned as it fell into the lava below. Apparently, destroying the Soul of Ice was going to be a lengthy process.
Meanwhile, I began to doubt the wisdom of riding out the battle in Ester’s pocket. I was getting jostled quite a bit as Ester attempted to dodge the frenzied ice lizard; without success, I might add. Ester cried out in pan as teeth grazed her arm, and a claw stabbed dangerously close to her mouse-filled pocket. I clung to Ester’s shirt with my little claws and thanked Torodin that I don’t have a sensitive stomach.
Gor, fighting beside Ester, also got clawed and bit. It looked like he was really getting hurt, but it wasn’t my problem. I couldn’t reach far in mouse form, even if I’d been inclined to help him. If Gor found himself in need of healing, he’d have to ingratiate himself with Jven.
I must admit, Gor and Ester certainly fought well together. The same ferocity that proved so unfortunate in the Soltanite shrine served us well here. They hacked savagely at the ice lizards, scorching them and slicing open their scaly hides. I’m not sure which was more impressive – how much damage our warriors were causing, or how much the ice lizards seemed to be shrugging off. It wasn’t just the big warriors attacking them, either. Haquia shot Ester’s lizard with several arrows, while Val ran through mid-air to slash at the one savaging Gor.
Ester and Gor were also taking an impressive amount of damage, but in their case it was rather more noticeable. When my ride began to sway alarmingly, I cast a healing spell on Ester. My perch in Ester’s pocket was certainly rather convenient for that.
Canliss and Val reported later that more icy humanoids appeared while Ester and Gor batted the lizards. During the battle, those of us occupied at the bottom of the sphere couldn’t really see what was going on up there. We heard the impact, though, when Canliss tossed a pebble at the Soul of Ice, magically turning it to a boulder as it impacted with the glowing sphere. Ice cracked, and the boulder, surrounded by a shower of ice shards, rolled into the lava below.
While steam drifted up from the boulder, Ester stabbed her ice lizard twice in its scaly neck. The lizard fell, sliding off the sphere and into the lava below with a splash. Steam billowed up to curl against the foot of the pyramid.
One ice lizard remained between us and the Soul of Ice. Aren tossed one of his glowing, black daggers over Gor’s shoulder and into the beast. Haquia followed this with two arrows, just as Val slashed the creature then leaped out of its range. (This maneuver looked even more graceful than usual, given that she was walking on air.)
The ice lizard was looking rather battered by this point, but it still managed to slash Gor with its wicked talons, ignoring everyone else. (It was almost as if the lizard had asked us to vote for a target.) Meanwhile, Ester carved a hole in the thing’s side with her flame blade, sending the lizard plunging into the lava below.
This engendered much cheering from the rest of our group, except for Canliss. He was the only one who’d flown high enough to realize that another humanoid ice creature had appeared on top of the Soul of Ice. It was getting rather crowded up there.
“So, uh, should we destroy the Soul of Ice now?” Ester asked.
“Yes,” I urged. “That’s what we’re here for.”
Val, whose impressive martial abilities are quite effective against living opponents, knew that she could to little against the massive Soul of Ice. She walked upward, joining Canliss near the top of the sphere. Too wise to venture in range of the icy mob, she took out a bow and began to fire at the growing crowd of creatures milling about on top of the sphere. Meanwhile, Canliss tossed another boulder. The Soul of Ice cracked, sending more shards raining into the lava below. Despite the damage, the thing continued to grow in time with its rhythmic pulsing.
“Aaarrrrgh!” Gor bellowed, rather more loudly than my sensitive mouse ears would have liked. He began hacking at the bottom of the Soul of Ice with his axe, sending shards of ice raining all over us. Ester joined him. The two of them hacked away with gleeful abandon, gouging and burning a furrow in the massive sphere. I suspect this was an unusual opponent for the two warriors, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. (I must say, though, all that ice hacking was extremely loud. I’m going to have to find myself a pair of mouse-sized ear-muffs.)
From behind us, Aren and Haquia shot arrows and energy daggers at the Soul of Ice. The faint impact of these weapons was barely audible over the hacking of our warriors. Slowly, but with great enthusiasm, they hacked their way up the stairs of the pyramid amid a shower of ice. The cold grew more intense with each step, and I wondered uneasily how long Jven’s spell would protect us from the unholy chill.
Although the Soul of Ice did not fight back, the creatures dancing about on top of it did not remain idle. They either would not or could not leave their lofty perch, but they still found a way to object to our presence. With a snarl, the largest of them grabbed a smaller companion and threw it at Canliss. Squealing in terror, the hapless creature latched onto Canliss’s leg. Although the six-fingered mage beat his wings furiously, the weight of the ice creature began to slowly pull him toward the lava below.
The wisest course of action would have been to divest himself of the creature latched on to his leg. So Canliss, naturally, ignored it. Instead, he cast ‘grease’ on the top of the sphere where all the ice creatures were dancing. Several creatures fell. One slid completely off of the sphere and plunged, screaming, into the lava below. All of the wild gyrating on top of the Soul of Ice suddenly ceased as the ice creatures realized their predicament.
Although the demise of the ice creature was undeniably beneficial to our cause, I fear the consequences of this event will haunt us for as long as Canliss lives. Even after the greasy goblin incident, the six-fingered mage remained insufferably smug about his abilities. Now that the grease spell has finally accomplished something useful, I fear that the inflation to Canliss’s already immense ego will be incalculable. Worst of all, we are never going to hear the end of this. Although my heart yearns to see Rhavin and Kariya again, I dread having to explain this to them.
Well, there was nothing to be done about it. Gor and Ester continued to hack away, digging deeper toward the center of the Soul of Ice. The cold grew even more intense, wearing away at Jven’s protection. While I worried that the cold would soon become hazardous to us, another ice creature went sliding off of the sphere, only to be replaced on top of the sphere by something far worse. Val yelped in surprise as an enormous, insectoid ice demon appeared in the center of the mob of creatures. The thing chittered angrily and seemed to radiate a palpable sense of evil.
While Val stared in horror at the demon, Canliss drifted further down toward the base of the pyramid. Landing, the ice creature who’d used him as a buoy now attacked the six-fingered mage, ripping into Canliss with his claws. Borne aloft by my air-walking spell, Jven came to Canliss’s aid, flanking the beast and drawing her dagger. (I really do believe there’s something going on between those two…) Taking advantage of the distraction Jven provided, Canliss smacked the thing on the back of the head with his staff. While the creature turned to snarl at the six-fingered mage, Jven cast a spell, blasting it with a stinging maelstrom of sand. It screamed and covered its eyes. Canliss took advantage of the opportunity to push it off the pyramid and into the lava.
Meanwhile, Aren tossed his energy daggers from the base of the pyramid, while Ester and Gor continued to hack a path toward the heart of the Soul of Ice. We were now completely surrounded by the glowing, pulsing sphere. Our breath frosted in the air. How much longer would it take our warriors to reach the center? Surely Jven’s spell wouldn’t protect us much longer.
Our companions, meanwhile, faced a very different threat as the ice demon leaped from the top of the Soul of Ice. It landed near Aren, chittering with its massive, icy mandibles. Aren backed away and tossed two of his strange daggers, both of which bounced harmlessly off of the creature’s icy carapace. Val, not one to leave a companion to face danger alone, raced to Aren’s side. She slashed at the demon, but it dodged easily. Val and Aren exchanged a horrified glance; this demon was far beyond our warriors’ abilities, and Jven and I had used all of our powerful spells. There was nothing we could do to stop it.
While two more grease-covered ice creatures fell screaming into the lava, the demon lashed out at Aren. Hearing him cry out in pain, I crawled onto Ester shoulder just in time to see him stagger backwards. He was moving with unnatural slowness, so much so that he was completely helpless before the demon’s onslaught. I was furious. I couldn’t let the demon kill Aren before I even found out who he was. I used my last powerful spell to dispel the magic, allowing Aren to move freely.
As ice rained down on my exposed fur, I hastily crawled back into the dubious safety of Ester’s pocket. She and Gor hacked away. Now we were just a few steps away from the top of the pyramid and the center of the Soul of Ice.
While yet another ice creature fell screaming into the lava, the ice demon surveyed the scene with casual arrogance. We were no threat to it; the demon could do as it pleased. It breathed a blast of killing cold at Aren, Val and Haquia. Aren dodged out of the way, and all of them were protected by Jven’s spell. The ice demon roared in frustration.
“Val, over here!” Jven called. When the air-walking warrior raced over to her, Jven cast a spell on Val. Suddenly Val’s blade crackled with electricity. Grinning, she raced back toward the demon. When she slashed it with her rapier, the power of Jven spell was unleashed, sending waves of crackling energy crawling over the demon’s icy carapace. While it screamed and thrashed Val leaped back out of the way; I could swear she mouthed a prayer under her breath. If the demon came after her, it was unlikely that Val would survive.
Luckily for Val, the demon decided not to bother with us any further. It leaped from the pyramid and sped from the room, creating a wall of ice to block its retreat. Val and Aren stared in astonishment. This was two demons in as many days that we’d unleashed upon Istur. Oh well, it really couldn’t be helped. It’s not as if we could have stopped the creature. (Besides, the first demon was Jven’s fault.)
Doggedly, Gor and Ester continued hacking through the Soul of Ice. Shards of ice rained down around us as our breath steamed in the frigid air. As they reached the top of the platform, I felt Jven’s spell fade and the cold stabbed into me. I shivered inside Ester’s pocket.
“Hurry, Ester!” I squeaked in encouragement, then cast a spell to heal myself.
“Die, lifeless child of stern mother unborn!” Ester cried as she hacked at the sphere with her flame blade. (She tries to remember the Prophecy, she really does.)
“Die, ice, die!” cried Gor, trying not to be outdone. I guess the two warriors just weren’t used to an opponent that couldn’t fight back. It was amazing, really, that they weren’t exhausted by now. But all of their effort was about to pay off. We were nearly to the center of the Soul of Ice. We were about to destroy it. Finally, our mission would be accomplished, and I’d be able to scratch something off of my to-do list.
At the center of the Soul of Ice, a mote of brilliant, blue light pulsed. From it radiated an intense, painful cold like nothing I have ever felt before. Ester, Gor and I all screamed in pain.
“Aarrrrgh,” Gor bellowed, foaming at the mouth in a rather unattractive fashion. He swung his axe, connecting with the pulsing mote of light. Somehow, it seemed to stop the blade in mid-swing, as if it were harder than diamonds. A blast of cold surged from the light, traveling up Gor’s axe and into his body. He screamed and staggered, yet he swung at the light again. A second blast of cold made him sway on his feet.
“Die!” Ester cried. She swung her flaming blade at the pulsing blue light. The blade connected, causing a sizzling flash from the mote of light – to what effect we could not tell. The cold didn’t radiate along Ester’s flaming blade, but the Soul of Ice surrounding us pulsed, sending a painful chill into our aching limbs.
Gor swung at the mote of light and missed. Given his sorry condition, this was probably for the best. Ester struck the mote of light again. It was beginning to fade, but so was Ester. Desperately, I healed myself. (Well, I couldn’t help Ester if I passed out.)
Now that he was close to losing consciousness, Gor started to back out from beneath the Soul of Ice. He was a little too slow. Ester struck the Soul of Ice again. Her blade hissed. The light winked out for a second. Then there was a massive, deafening explosion. Gor was knocked out and went sailing backward to land at the base of the pyramid where the others had gathered.
My own mousy shriek of pain was drowned out by Ester’s. The world tilted as Ester, despite the aid of her shadowy tentacles, fell hard on her back. Even as the entire Soul of Ice exploded into a thousand shards of glittering ice, a bluish-white hydra made entirely of ice appeared directly above Ester. We looked into the belly of a beast as massive as the entire Soul of Ice had been. The chilled air around us seemed to vibrate as it bellowed in rage.
So much for destroying the Soul of Ice and going home. It seemed my to-do list had just gotten longer.