Xanthippe (Chapter 27)

Template:Xanthippe nav Outside the gates of Harrogath, on the high side of the mountain, the wind blew harsh and cold, chilling Xanthippe to the bone. Her stomach felt sick, even breathing was hard, and the cold air made her teeth ache. As they looked over the frozen plain before them, Kasim cut a wide strip from the hem of his robe, and wrapped it around his mouth and nose; Xanthippe did the same. That helped keep the chill out of their lungs, but they were both still freezing. The padding under their armor had made places like Kurast sweaty nightmares, but simply wasn't enough to deal with this biting cold.

Xanthippe cast her preparatory spells, and they set off up the slope. Harrogath had been built at the bottom of a ledge, with a sheer cliff on one side and a vertical drop on the other, so there was only one way for Baal's troops to approach the city. Unfortunately, it meant there was only one way out, and the defenders were facing upslope, making the city very easy to besiege. Maybe the Barbarians thought the demons, when they came, would obligingly charge in willy-nilly so they could be cut down, rather than doing the intelligent thing of cutting the city off and starving them to death.

The ground was littered with bodies, some human, others definitely not. The first demon corpse they found was a spiky thing the size of a man, which seemed to be made of earth and rock. Soon they found more, a crowd of four surrounding a lone Barbarian warrior. That wasn't fair at all, no matter what the Barbarian might say, so Xanthippe and Kasim charged in to the rescue. Her thunderstorm bolts attracted their attention; their "spatulas" completed their argument. And what did that Barbarian say? That's right, absolutely nothing; he gave them a peevish look and went looking for more demons. The ingratitude was positively galling.

As they worked their way up, they encountered more demons, the spiky earth monsters and hunched-over naked ones swinging heavy falchions. Not that the earth demons weren't naked, but the little guys were, um... noticeably naked. For one mad moment, Xanthippe almost asked Kasim if it was comfortable running around with those swinging in the icy wind, but thought better of it.

While they were rescuing another unappreciative Barbarian, a fiery ball came roaring in from the sky, bursting a few feet away. The explosion scattered small, glittering objects on the ground, which exploded when you stepped near them. Soon, they found the source of these missiles: huge, immobile devices, with a single long arm for hurling balls of fiery traps, icy liquid, or poisonous gas. Each had a face, which grimaced in fear at their approach. Catapults were bizarre looking things, but their range was awesome, perfect for dealing death over the walls of a city. If not for the dome of energy Xanthippe could see shimmering beautifully over Harrogath, there wouldn't be a Harrogath anymore. Fortunately, though their range was great, they couldn't hit anything closer than about 20 yards. With one eye on the sky, a single person could easily walk up to the catapult and smash it to bits.

The demons fought hard, but the trek upslope was mostly uneventful. There were some fortifications, obviously put in place long ago to protect the city. The catapults were set on high platforms, which the Barbarians might have planned to use as defensible mini-forts. But there were very few Barbarians on the field now, and they all fought alone, surrounded by hordes of demons. Xanthippe remembered a passage she'd read, by a Khanduran general who'd invaded the highlands once. In his opinion, the Barbarians were superior fighters, each one easily better than one of his soldiers. But when placed in a large group, greater numbers seemed to make the Barbarians grow weaker, not stronger. In a way, it was kind of sad, repeatedly coming to their rescue; she'd always heard Barbarians were a proud, powerful people, not people who needed rescuing. If they'd just cooperate with each other, they'd do so much better, but they wouldn't even work with her.

At a narrow point on the ledge, Xanthippe and Kasim were going along with three Barbarians behind them. As little as they seemed to care, she'd perversely started collecting them, and in the narrows they all bunched up together. Maybe here they'd have to work together, at least so they wouldn't knock each other off the cliff. Two more Barbarians were up ahead, battling hordes of earth demons; Xanthippe saved one. With their four new chums, she and Kasim found a group of Imps. That was a surprise; Imps are tiny demons who used to come to mages as familiars, in the old days when mages were less leery of demons. Small, bubble-headed humanoids with weak bodies and powerful magical natures, they were not the sort of demon Xanthippe expected to see running loose on Mt. Arreat.

Being weak of body, it didn't take much to kill the little bastards, except that they kept teleporting around. Xanthippe had found it so much more convenient when she was the only one who could do that. The Imp's magical attack might have hurt some wussy magician, but the only problem they had was chasing them down. After the trail widened out again, they came to a high platform. A huge crowd of demons surrounded one huge, fat thing, which was waving a whip and squealing orders in a harsh, guttural voice. That had to be Shenk the Overseer.

Xanthippe and Kasim set to work thinning the ranks around him. It's always easier to take out the little guys first, so you can concentrate on the big ones without interference. Even her surviving Barbarian buddy seemed to be taking note of their tactics. There were more catapults to the sides, and lots of earth demons and naked slave guys; her thunderstorm bolts were doing a lot of good work on these crowds. While smashing the last catapult, Xanthippe heard a wet sort of explosion behind her. Kasim, who was starting to get bored, had gone up and hacked Shenk to bits while she wasn't looking.

"Hey, you shouldn't have done that," Xanthippe said. "He might have been dangerous."

"Nah, no problem," Kasim shrugged. "Well... he was so fat, it was hard to reach his vitals."

"Yeeeeuch. His skin all fell off."

"Yeah, slid right off his bones. He smells even worse now."

"That is eighteen different flavors of disgusting. Any good stuff up there?"

"Couple of bucklers... a set of padded armor... crap."

"Damn."

Then they noticed the surviving Barbarian, staring at them as he stood there. His mouth hung open so wide, you could probably have stuffed a Flayer in. "Yoo..." he said, looking from the dead Shenk, to Kasim, to Xanthippe, and back to Shenk again.

"What is it?" Xanthippe asked.

"Yoo... yoo slew Shenk the Overseer!"

"Yeah." Kasim shrugged. "So?"

"Diablo was a lot tougher," Xanthippe informed the Barbarian. "Okay, that looks like all the demons. Qual-kehk will be pleased to know his siege has been lifted."

This took a few minutes to sink in. While the knowledge penetrated the thick muscles the Barbarian used to insulate his brain from the cold, Xanthippe and Kasim picked through the loot of the battle. Hey, the padded armor was Greyform, a piece out of legend. Not that it was all that wonderful, just an interesting antique.

Behind Shenk's platform, they found a large open area, with stairs carved out of the living rock of the mountain, leading up. No more demons were back there, but they did find a crowd of rabbits. Not the long-legged, fast-moving hares of the deserts, these rabbits were small, with compact bodies, relatively small ears, and the thickest, fluffiest pure white coats Xanthippe had ever seen.

"Aw... look, Kasim! Look how cute!"

Kasim raised an eyebrow, and nodded vaguely. "Uh... yeah, sure."

"Oh, they're adorable!" Xanthippe dropped to her knees and tried to catch one. "Look at those huge white paws, and the big brown eyes!"

"Uh... yeah, sure." Kasim was starting to feel uncomfortable.

Bounding here and there, the bunnies were hard to catch, but Xanthippe kept crawling after them, trying. "They're so fluffy! They look so soft. Hi, little guys! Don't you worry, all those nasty demons are gone far, far away!"

Now sure his blood sugar was spiking, Kasim mumbled, "Hey, you're gonna wear out the knees on your armor like that..."

"Don't worry, they're steel boots. Oh, look! That one's sitting up to look at me! His nose is wiggling! Oh wow, that's so cute!"

The Barbarian, now recovered from his shock, watched Xanthippe crawl around with thinly disguised contempt. "Why did yoo bring a woman into combat, fool? Though yoo be a great warrior, even I know little girls have no business in war!"

After a moment's consideration, Kasim decided to be charitable, and not smack this bastard around for calling him a fool. "I didn't bring her into combat. She brought me in. She's the one who killed Diablo."

The Barbarians jaw dropped again. "No... yoo've got to be jokin'..."

"Sure," Kasim smirked. "She ordered me not to go after Shenk 'cause he might hurt me. Wouldn't have been any danger at all for her."

At the moment, Xanthippe was skidding on a patch of ice, her butt in the air, trying to get a bunny to come to her. "Hey, fuzzy-wuzzies! Do you like carrots?"

"Yoo've GOT to be jokin'... I don't believe it! Yoo CAN'T be serious!"

"I'm serious, man." Kasim shrugged. "Never seen her act like this, though."

"Did she take a blow to the head, yoo think?"

"Probably not. She acts weird sometimes."

There was a convenient waypoint at the top of the steps. Back in Harrogath, Qual-kehk had noticed many more of his warriors coming home from battle this time. Some returned with tales of thunder and lightning rattling the mountain, of fierce, exotic warriors dealing death with graceful sweeps of their huge weapons, and the fiery glow of enchanted steel slicing demon flesh. Barbarians do love to tell epic tales. So, when Xanthippe returned to town, Qual-kehk greeted her very differently than he had on their first meeting.

"So, it seems the siege is lifted, and in a very short time. Perhaps I have misjudged yoo."

"I guess you did," Xanthippe smiled. It was always a pleasure to watch someone swallowing their pride, and the harder it is to swallow, the better. "Do you have a smith in town? My armor's been scratched."

"Yoo'll want to speak with Larzuk, near the south wall. Don't speak too long with him; he's not right in the head. But he's a fine smith."

"Not right in the head?"

"He gets... strange ideas."

The warmth of the smithy was welcome; Xanthippe knew she'd find herself spending a lot of time there. Larzuk was an absolutely huge man, even by the standards of Barbarians. And not just in terms of width, either; he had to be close to seven feet tall! Kasim looked puny next to him. Xanthippe wasn't sure she should even go near him, for fear he'd step on her. If he was... mentally challenged... he might be a real danger.

While polishing and repairing their equipment, Larzuk spoke quite amiably with them, and seemed curious about the outside world. He certainly didn't sound mad; perhaps by lacking the typical Barbarian insularity, his fellows thought him mad. Eventually, Xanthippe warmed up to him, and asked him about the demonic invasion.

"Och, it's terrible to see what's been happening," Larzuk said. "We're protected by the shield of the elders, but the danger didn't come from swords. I thought that, soon, I'd have to put down my hammer and take up a sword myself, and abandon our city. Or die trying."

"You let yourselves get boxed in," Xanthippe said. "That's not good."

"I thought of somethin' we might do... ah, but it's foolishness."

"No, what was it?"

"Well..." Larzuk paused to think. "Suppose yoo were to take some of the alchemical powders used to make explosive potions. Instead of dissolving and bottling them, place them in a strong iron tube, so the force of the explosion could be directed."

Xanthippe thought about that. "Yeah... you could aim it. Go on."

"Now, if the tube were to have a great steel ball in it, the explosion would force it out and down the tube with great velocity. I think it would have to be a ball, but maybe a collection of sharp blades or bits of iron would do as well. They might spread out, propelled by the explosion, and injure or kill many foes."

"Huh." Pondering, Xanthippe nodded. "That makes sense."

Larzuk laughed. "Qual-kehk didn't think so. And when yoo give it some thought, it isn't very practical. Where could yoo get so much iron? And forge it strong enough not to burst with the explosion?"

"Well, it wouldn't have to be big... if the powders are powerful enough, you wouldn't need a really big tube to hold them. Maybe one or two guys could carry the thing around."

"Och, to break the siege, yoo'd need to destroy many demons. The thing would need to be big enough to destroy one o' the catapults, or smash through a wall. The demons took over the fortifications we built. We're going to have to smash our own walls to defeat them."

"Hmm... yeah, something that big, made of iron, would be really heavy. It would have to be set on a cart, and hauling it up this mountain would be hard."

With a sigh, Larzuk nodded. "Aye. Qual-kehk was wise enough to see that. I'm no war leader, just a smith. But I do want to help."

"That's a good thing," Xanthippe smiled. "And you know something? I think you have a good idea there. Maybe it's just ahead of its time. With a little work and some experimenting, you might have something."

Larzuk smiled. "Yoo think so?"

"Sure." Xanthippe smiled. "Where would we be, if it weren't for new ideas? Somebody has to think them up. Maybe it won't help in this battle, but there will be other battles."

Thoughtfully, Larzuk nodded. "Before Baal came, men might have hoped there would be no more wars. Now, yoo can only hope this isn't the last one."