Anusha? If so, she didn't look anything like the meek dream image he'd glimpsed before. Was she, as he had half suspected, really working for Behroun? Would she attack him if he threatened her half-witted half brother, who might very well have left the pact stone back in the world? If he struck suddenly enough to kill Behroun, then he could return to the world and retrieve his pact stone from wherever Behroun had secreted it. He'd be free!
Indecision cost him. Malyanna rose from her chair, pushing it back so hard it slammed into the wall and splintered. She did not stand-no, she hovered in the air with no support, her hair whipping dramatically in a wind as cold as the Hammer's worst blizzard. She pointed a finger at Japheth and said, "Think not to harm this fool. Behroun is under my protection… for now."
Japheth realized he was flanked by enemies. A dream assassin at his back, maybe, and an eladrin noble before him, whose abilities he couldn't gauge, though he suspected she was formidable.
And he didn't have his cloak.
Japheth smiled at the floating woman, at the still seated Lord of Bats who watched the proceedings with great interest even as he nibbled on an apple, and finally at Behroun, whose struggle to stand up ended with both him and his chair sprawled on the floor.
He said, "I'm done with fear, Behroun. You should have brought the pact stone with you."
Japheth uttered his most potent curse, aimed it at Behroun, and loosed it as if it were a hunting kestrel.
A blaze of fire swept down upon Behroun, who already sprawled behind his fallen chair. When the flames settled over the man, he began to scream.
The hovering eladrin noble sang out a single syllable. The motes of flame bedeviling Behroun instantly died in puffs of white smoke. A backwash of cold air touched Japheth's cheeks.
The Lord of Bats began to laugh, even as he reached for a platter of sugar-crusted toast.
The warlock reflexively moved to step back into his cloak, «to retreat into shadow. He failed, of course he failed; his cloak still served as a bridge between Darroch Castle and the Green Siren back in the outer cavern! He cursed anew, this time with | words devoid of arcane power; they were merely fragments of j frustration and renewed fear.
Malyanna looked down her nose at him. A hint of interest, passion even, animated her eyes. She said something in a tongue Japheth didn't know a language that would have been beautiful in nearly any other creature's mouth. In her mouth, it seemed sinister. Suddenly she switched to Common and said, "I will kill you now."
A skirling blast of winter began to chase around her upraised hand and arm. She flung it at Japheth. It raked him as if an ice-clawed beast.
The warlock uttered a counter chant, sending eldritch rays of red light to nip and bite at the eladrin's flesh. She flinched with each impact, but her eyes only grew wider and more excited, even as the miniature storm of ice she'd summoned continued to enfold Japheth.
He began to bleed, but his blood froze before it could drip on the floor.
This woman was powerful. Too powerful to be a moon elf native to Faerыn who'd spent her life wondering about stories of a fey realm nearly unreachable, until now. No, this was an eladrin who'd lived always within the Feywild. She had never suffered a separation from her homeland as so many of her kin had. Now that the Spellplague had reunited the world and Fairie, moon and sun elves of Faerыn could seek their ancestral homeland. For the first time, it occurred to Japheth that eladrin might have an interest in Faerыn equal to what the moon and sun elves of Faerыn had in the Feywild.
The woman's strength was, he recognized, too much for him. Its chilling cold communicated an old and deadly determination. Ice crystals accumulated and began to encase his skin. He sent another red bolt Malyanna's way, which she caught on a shield of ice and deflected. He wondered if he had met his end. Without his cloak, it could be. His cloak, which indeed was once the Lord of Bats's, contained half his power.
"No!" yelled Behroun, trying to shout over the Lord of Bats's insane mirth. "Malyanna, we need him! If you kill him, all our plans will be for nothing!"
Malyanna sniffed. "Another will serve. That pirate captain of yours will get the relic. Thoster? This one is mine. My blood's up, and I mean to finish." She drifted forward, her hand still outstretched, her fingers subtly whirling with the icy winds that thieved away Japheth's life. Her eyes were rapacious, as unlike a moon elf s as any he'd ever witnessed.
Japheth drew a breath to utter his last true curse, but the air was like sandpaper granulated with ice crystals. Instead, he fell into a coughing fit. His cloak! He needed it! Could he summon it to him? Try, damn it, he pleaded with himself. But he was so cold…
A crystal goblet of sloshing wine rose from the table without any visible means of support.
"Now the crockery is haunted?" murmured the eladrin.
Only Japheth had the proper angle to see a distorted reflection in a bowl of pomegranates. The goblet was in the hands of the armored figure Japheth had seen reflected moments earlier.
"Anusha?" whispered Japheth. His voice was too faint for anyone to hear.
"What trick is this, Neifion?" inquired the eladrin, glancing to the Lord of Bats. When her eyes left Japheth, the cold immediately lessened. "Stop playing games."
Neifion, still laughing, merely shrugged and shook his head.
The goblet suddenly rushed at the eladrin noble, its enchanted, red contents sloshing uncontrollably from its Up.
Behroun and Malyanna simultaneously uttered, "No!"
A moment before the liquid could strike the eladrin, she faded in a flurry of blowing snow.
The goblet continued its lazy arc and smashed messily on ' the flagged floor.
If it had struck the eladrin in the eyes or mouth, she would J have been bound to the table with the Lord of Bats, there to eat away eternity, until released by Japheth.
The warlock started breathing easily again. The ice coating his flesh was already melting. But his strength was uncertain.
He felt a hand upon his arm but saw no limb. A whisper in his ear urged, "We must flee before she returns!"
"Wait-" he began, turning toward Behroun. But the man was already gone. He must have disappeared with the eladrin. Which made sense. Lord Marhana did not possess the craft to reach this realm under his own power. The man would survive this day, it seemed. He might already be back in his home, looking for the pact stone. Japheth had missed his chance to end his bondage.
Seeing where Japheth looked, the Lord of Bats ceased laughing. In a voice containing not the least hint of hilarity, he said, "Let us hope he is breaking that stone even now. I find this feast has whetted my appetite. Perhaps I will quench it by dining on your liver before the day is done."
Japheth shuddered. He allowed Anusha's unseen pressure on his arm guide to him through the exit.
He slammed the iron door and slid home the bolt. Not that he had any confidence left in its ability to keep intruders out of Neifion's prison.
He turned and took the steps into the Great Hall two at a time. At the bottom of the stair lay Anusha's sleeping form, curled on her side like a child. He tried to wake her. She didn't stir.
A tiny silver vial rolled away from her right hand.
"Oh, Anusha!" He picked up the girl. Her head lolled on his shoulder.
"Japheth, I can't wake up!" The voice came from a few paces to his left.
"Yes, yes, don't worry. It's the potion. It'll take a few hours to clear out of your blood. Plus, you last used it only a few days ago."