Tearlach (Chapter 32)

Template:Tearlach nav "Have you found anything?" Cain asked Qual-Kehk when he came back. He and the other Barbarians were searching the town for any sign of Nihlathak.

"The snake has slipped our grasp. All that time he called me a fool, while he planned a folly ten times greater." The old warrior slammed his armored fist into a nearby wall, then turned to stare up at the mountain. "And to think, the battle was just turning. I could see victory ahead. Now all may be lost to his betrayal."

"There is hope yet. Nihlathak must find Baal before he gives him the totem. Or might he convince Baal to come to him?"

Qual-Kehk shook his head and sighed. "Anya knew not how long she had been imprisoned in the ice, but many days passed since she vanished from Harrogath. There is no doubt in my mind that Baal has taken the totem and done what he set out to do. Now he toys with us, encouraging our hopes so our despair will be even greater. I have sent my warriors out of the caves, and higher up the mountain. They may reach the Causeway of the Ancients, but I dare not let them go beyond."

"Surely, if Baal reached the Worldstone, there would be some sign of it!" Cain suggested reassuringly. "We have seen no changes. Heaven still watches over us, and the Light still shines on our path. Perhaps there is still time."

Qual-Kehk nodded. "There is a chance."

"Hey, old wizard!" Tearlach shouted as he ran down from Malah's, "have yoo seen that vision of beauty? A man could die happy, having seen such loveliness once in his life."

"Let's not talk about dying just yet," Cain smiled nervously. "If you're speaking of Anya, I have seen her. She must be a remarkable young woman. She seems to command great respect, despite her youth."

"Respect?" Klatu snorted. "Aye, yoo could call it that."

"Forget it," Tearlach elbowed him in the ribs and grinned. "Old men can't remember what's important after a while."

"We can't?" Qual-Kehk huffed. "Then maybe yoo can judge the importance of this. Anya told us that Nihlathak intends to give the Relic of the Ancients to Baal."

"WHAT!?!" they both bellowed in unison.

D-flat, Cain thought. "He may not have done it yet. But he is nowhere to be found."

"I can guess what rock he's hiding under," Qual-Kehk said. "His clan temple will give him shelter. Only demons walk there now."

Tearlach's eyes narrowed. "How do we get to him?"

"It is a week's walk. Or yoo could speak with Anya. The hidden knowledge of the elders may serve us again."

Aust's house was one of the largest in Harrogath, near the center of the city as befitted his station and the respect accorded him. Now Anya was there, sadly going through the things left behind after his death. She looked out as Tearlach and Klatu ran up.

"Yoo've come back! Thank yoo for rescuing me, though I wish it could have been sooner. I knew Nihlathak must have broken faith with the other elders, but I did not guess the depth of his betrayal."

Tearlach smiled, shifting from one foot to the other and wishing he'd thought to polish his armor that morning. "Och, yoo couldn't have known, lass!"

Klatu took his helmet off before the lady. "He was an elder, like yoor father. Woo woold'a thought he'd betray us like that?"

"No one would have!" Tearlach moved to take his helmet off, but replaced it when cold air touched his naked scalp. "I mean... it don't stand to reason!"

"Yoor words are comforting, but mean nothing if Baal has the Relic of the Ancients."

"He won't have it if we do! Where does the snake hide it?"

"Yes," Klatu agreed. "Is it in his clan temple?"

"Yes, I am sure it is..."

"Then that's where we're off to! Someone has to make him pay for what he did to yoo!"

Anya smiled, bowing her head. "Yoo are kind. I don't know if it will do any good, but I can make a portal to take yoo there. If Nihlathak has already given Baal the relic, nothing we do now will save us. Perhaps he has not. I hope there is still time."

"Lass..." Tearlach said with growing impatience, "there won't be if we spend all of it standing here!"

Anya cast the portal, and gave Tearlach a gift from her father's store of armor and weapons. The helm was a primal helm, not suited to his way of doing things, but one look into those deep, dark eyes and he couldn't say no. He stowed it carefully in a place of honor among his things and charged through the gate. Nihlathak's temple was dark, sheltered in a deep crevasse where light never reached. Corpses littered the yard outside. They were zombies, of course, probably a gift. After tearing them all to pieces, they went into the temple.

Once Tearlach had a look inside, he wasn't so sure the zombies were a gift. Cages full of bones were everywhere, stacked up to the ceiling. The temple walls had been decorated with murals and tapestries, showing the snake clan's noble history, but the tapestries were gone and the murals cracked and broken. The stench of old death and decay was thick. Something had been rotten in here for many years. Sure enough, there were plenty of undead wandering the temple's sacred halls, as well as Baal's demons.

Searching the temple grounds for Nihlathak, or in a pinch, the Relic of the Ancients, turned up neither. There were plenty of fresh bodies, snake clan women who might have tried to hide in their temple when the demons came. Older bodies were abundant too, but they were all walking around. Not for the first time, Tearlach cursed the elder, for another thing that wasn't supposed to happen here. At least the tombs of ancient heroes were unmolested. As they went deeper, new horrors and defilements came to light. The murals were gone, but human bones decorated the walls in their place. A new kind of demon floated airily through the halls, infecting other creatures with little glowing worms that drove them mad. Men lay tied to tables, where they had obviously been cut to pieces while still alive.

"It's disgusting in there, wizard," Tearlach snared as he dumped a load of artifacts on the ground. "Bones and corpses everywhere, and the stench! By the Light, I haven't seen that many walking dead since the desert, and at least those smelled better!"

Cain nodded absent-mindedly, looking over Tearlach's haul. "Yes, they use aromatic spices as part of the mummification process. Let me see... Isenhart's Horns... Cleglaw's Pincers... the Manald Heal... ah! This confirms our suspicions beyond all doubt!"

"What's that?"

Cain held up two rings, chuckling. "The unique artifact, the Manald Heal. And here, also, is the unique artifact, the Manald Heal!"

"Heh," Tearlach grunted. "Sounds like sorcerer crap."

"The Manald Heal is a powerful spell-caster's tool, much desired by students of the magical arts. I don't suppose you'd want it."

"Nah, keep yoor trinkets. I have all I need. Though I'd give it all up for one kind look from her." A dreamy expression filled Tearlach's eyes. "Ah, Anya! Most fragrant flower in the mountains! Full of wisdom and beauty, strong as any mountain wolf."

"Yeah," Klatu said. "Too bad she likes me best."

"What do yoo mean?" Tearlach yelled. "She likes me best! She gave me a gift, and yoo got nothing!"

"Don't yoo know anything about women? She gave yoo that so she wouldn't hurt yoor feelin's. Like a second-place prize."

"I know a lot about women! I've known women up and down the length and breadth of this land! If there's anythin' I know, it's women!"

Cain remained quiet, happy to be ignored. Klatu went on, "It's a shame when a man doesn't know he's beaten. What more can I say? Everyone knows she likes me."

"Yoo're foolin' yoorself! Even yoo saw how she looked at me when she asked 'What are yoor needs?' Oh, what I had a need for then..."

"She was lookin' over yoor shoulder. Look at us; between yoo and me, there's just no comparison. Don't take it so hard. I've always had a way with fair damsels."

"Let me tell yoo somethin'!" Tearlach jabbed Klatu in the chest with his finger. "I don't know what it is, but I've got somethin' special they can't resist! I visited a monastery, a monastery full of women. They all, ah, live with other women, if yoo get my drift."

Folding his arms, Klatu shook his head. "No... no, I don't think I do."

"No wonder women can't stand yoo, yoo're stupid and don't appreciate the subtle ways they communicate! By the time I left, their war leader was carrying on fit to burst, crying and screaming her head off! The poor thing just couldn't stand to see me go."

"Is that a fact," Klatu slowly nodded.

"As I live and breathe! Wizard! Was not Kashya distraught over my leaving?"

"She was very reluctant to let you go," Cain agreed. At least alive, and able to function as a man, he thought. "It would be a shame if Nihlathak hands the relic over to Baal while you're here arguing, though..."

Tearlach smacked his gauntleted hand into his forehead. "Och! I'll show yoo how wrong yoo are another time, Crane! We still have to find that snake!"

"Aye. Just don't be too upset about what yoo find."

The deepest halls of Nihlathak's temple were named for Vaught, Bul-Kathos' third son and ancestor of the whole clan. It was full of slave creatures and demon women. So, Tearlach thought, he's a necromancer, a coward, and a pervert. It would be a shame if his hell-born hussies killed him before they had a chance. The sacred halls where Vaught himself might once have walked were full of Nihlathak's revolting experiments. Men and women had been vivisected on tables, their blood and other fluids carefully drained away and stored in jars. Corpses hung from meat hooks like deer, ready to be dressed. The demons feasted well on the many remains.

At the end of the last hall, they saw Nihlathek floating amid a crowd of slaves. Maybe he was smart enough to stay away from the demon women. No matter; his doom was sealed. Klatu favored a direct assault, but Tearlach remembered how those slave creatures could explode and opted for a wilier approach. He poked his nose around the corner, then ran as Nihlathak sent a dozen slaves to kill him. Then he went around the other side, pruning a batch of slaves away there.

Klatu shook his head. "To think yoo accused me of wasting time with fancy maneuvers."

"Just remember to rip them up after they're dead. He raises the dead, we don't want anything comin' back that doesn't have to."

"There's no cause to fear them, even dead."

"Fear, nothing. The bastard will get away while we're busy!"

"Ah," Klatu nodded. "There's that."

"Look at him! He's floatin'!"

"Don't look happy, do he? Here come some more. Retreat?"

"Aye, retreat."

While they chopped his minions to bits, Nihlathak snarled, "I know what yoo're doing!"

"Yoo think we care what yoo know, traitor?!"

"I could fill my temple to the roof with what yoo don't know! Yoo don't even know how to save our people! None of yoo do!"

"We know not to give our most holy totem to a demon," Klatu said flatly.

"What good did the Relic of the Ancients do? The relic is nothing! Obedience to Heaven was destroying our people! What good is keeping it safe at the cost of all our lives?"

"Because, damn yoo," Tearlach roared as he tore dead slaves to bits, "losing the relic means all our lives!"

"So yoo believe," Nihlathak snorted, "as yoo've been told since yoo were babes. Men with big pectorals and small brains should not decide the fate of humanity. Those hoo can think for themselves are better able! Heaven's lies have..."

"We've cleared enough," Tearlach fumed. "I don't want to listen to any more."

"About time."

In they charged. The chamber was nearly empty, save for a few slaves in the back corners and a low dais surmounted by a pentagram. Must be where he'd gone for information about "heaven's lies." While Klatu finished off the slaves, Tearlach leapt for Nihlathak, smashing bodily into elder and burying his axe in his skull. At least, that was the plan. Just before he got there, Nihlathak vanished, reappearing on the other side of the room. At his gesture, another slave appeared from the pentagram. This one has lots of demonic tricks. After splitting the slave in two at the waist, Tearlach charged for Nihlathak again.

The kill was much harder to get than he'd anticipated. His clothing looked like nothing but furs, all black and white, but had a remarkable ability to absorb damage. Maybe he has an amulet like mine, Tearlach thought; that was what made the temple so easy to overwhelm. Vanishing and reappearing like a big-head (he even looked a bit like one, come to think of it) made the chase even more annoying. When he began making his dead slaves explode like bombs made of meat, that was the last straw. Klatu like to bash opponents around; maybe he had the right idea. Tearlach reared back and slammed Nihlathak into a wall, and repeated the performance until he was safely in a corner.

It worked, for a while. He and Klatu sliced and chopped into the frail old elder, taking far too much time to kill him. It just wasn't natural. Eventually he got away, teleporting across the hall again, and summoning another minion. Tearlach bellowed at Klatu to ignore it -- they're more dangerous dead than alive here. Happily, he did, and they ran Nihlathak down again. This time, he didn't get away. With a final chop, he fell to the ground, and screamed when the floor opened up under him. Screaming, he twirled and whipped in the air as the gate to the abyss ate him, stripping the flesh from his scrawny bones as he'd doubtless done to so many of his own clan.

The Relic of the Ancients was nowhere to be found. He'd given it to... the other one. Damn him, damn him to Hell where he belongs. They'll like him there. Anya said a few kind words, and thanked them for trying, before she went back inside, still going through the things her father had left. Even Tearlach knew this wasn't the time to ask her who she liked.

"What can we do now?" Tearlach asked Qual-Kehk. "Is all lost?"

"Baal has the relic. There's only one thing we can do. He must be destroyed, but by now, he will be inside the Worldstone Keep."

"What is that?"

"The chamber of the Worldstone is within. Few now living have ventured there; I myself have never dared. Without the relic, a warrior may only enter if he is tested by the Ancients themselves, by the only measure worthy of them: trial by combat, to the death."

"To stand against the Ancients is something no man can now do," Tearlach muttered.

"That may be, but we cannot bring ourselves to admit defeat." Qual-Kehk clapped him on the shoulder. "Every time I see yoo, yoor deeds have become more legendary. It is hard to believe yoo are the same brash yooth we sent away years ago, and has come back to us in our hour of greatest need. I think yoo should be the first to challenge the Ancients."

Tearlach stood slack-jawed. "Such an honor... !"

"Are yoo sure yoo can defeat them?" Qual-Kehk raised an eyebrow.

"No! They are the Ancient Ones! Sword-brothers to the Immortal King himself! What man could... aye, but what man could not, knowing what's to happen if he fails?"

"A goodly answer. Yoo shall go first. If yoo fail, another shall go. At least our place shall be assured in Heaven, though the battle might go there next."

Tearlach nodded, a gleam shining in his eye. "So I'd best get it over with now."

"That's the spirit," Qual-Kehk smiled. "Beyond the ice caves lies the Causeway of the Ancients, and from there, the very summit of the mountain. There yoo will find them, where they have stood watching over us all our lives. Yoo will know what to do."