Tielle closed carefully with her sister then paused. She hovered just short of Escalla, tilting her head carefully, looking for hidden dangers and traps.
"No staves, no poisoned rings, no daggers…" Tielle flexed her fingers, suddenly intent-her skin tingling with building pleasure as she thought of her sister's life being choked out between her hands. "And just how were you planning on hurting me, Escalla? Have you been off training with the monks?"
Escalla bunched a fist. "Nope. But I'm shacked up with someone who has!"
She flew at Tielle and punched her with a savage left hook. Tielle tumbled in midair, then caught herself and attacked in a wild fury of fists and nails. Tielle screeched, howling in bloodlust as she attacked, and Escalla whirred about, punching fast and drawing blood with her hands.
Tielle grappled Escalla and choked her. The two faeries smashed into the roof, then Escalla had her teeth locked in Tielle's arm. Tielle screeched and changed shape into a flying serpent, crushing Escalla in her coils. Escalla flashed, changed into a spiny urchin, and pierced Tielle in a hundred places with her spines. The snake dropped the urchin, which turned into a flying squid and grappled the snake in a mass of tentacles. Turning into acid slime, the snake wrenched itself free.
The two faeries battled in a raging fury, shifting shapes almost faster than the eye could see. They hacked and battered at each other with tentacles, stingers, arms and tails, gored with horns, and ripped with claws. Escalla turned into a flying puffer fish and fired a stream of poisoned spines. Tielle switched into an armored ribbon-snake and whip-cracked Escalla, spinning the puffer fish away. Both faeries tangled again in a welter of blood and screams, shifting shape into lizards, wasps, and crayfish high up in the air. They surged and fought even after Escalla's anti-magical shield finally faded away. They smacked into stalactites, crashed into walls, then crashed into the shoreline in a tumbling mad fury of hate.
The monks gathered in shock around the battle. A stonefish lurched out of the fight, and changed into Tielle. She pointed at her opponent in a foaming rage as she screamed orders to the monks.
"Kill her! Do it! Kill her!"
Chain monks lashed at the other faerie, who wailed and turned back into Tielle. Shaking herself, Escalla dropped her last, most repellent form, no longer pretending to be her own sister. She watched the chain monks flailing madly at Tielle. They were tightly packed, like jackals ripping at a kill. Torn and hurting, Escalla rose into the air.
"Hey!"
The chain monks whirled, saw Escalla hovering in midair-and then disintegrated as she detonated her last fireball spell. The chain monks flew apart. Tielle jerked up out of the wreckage, having formed into a stone tortoise to save herself from her own monsters' chains. Bleeding and exhausted, she took one look at Escalla and fled toward the faerie gate at the back of the cave. Tielle hit the portal-Enid's stun scroll flashed-and the faerie crashed down, beaten unconscious by the magical blow.
Escalla scarcely bothered to give the fallen girl a glance. She sped into the dark, searching the cavern floor, and found Tielle's magic horn. She dragged horn, portable hole, and Cinders over to the lake. She dived into the hole and found their paltry few grooming goods-Cinders's fur brush, her own hairbrush, soap, and the straight razor Jus used to shave. The razor was absurdly sharp. Escalla tried not to think about it. She laid bandages, razor, regeneration potion and Tielle's magic horn out by the edge of the lake. Cinders lay watching her, beating at the cave floor with his tail.
Faerie have plan?
"Yeah. Faerie has plan."
Safe plan?
"Maybe. A bit." Escalla stopped, retrieved Lolth's gems from the portable hole, and popped them into Cinders's mouth. "Cinders, if this doesn't work, then call for Morag. Tell her that her true name is on the gem. Make her take you and Tielle to my father. He'll look after you, all right? Good dog." Escalla shook, mortally afraid. She put her arms around Cinders's head and hugged his beloved furry skull. "Love you."
Faerie? Faerie what do? Faerie? Cinders panicked as he saw Escalla flip open the razor. Faerie, no!
Escalla slit her wrist with one long slash of the razor. She tried to keep quiet, but one awful sob escaped her as she sliced open her artery. Faerie blood squirted out over the shore, and Escalla held her arm over the silver lake and let herself bleed into the horrible liquid.
Her blood ran fast, driven by a pounding little heart. There was so very little faerie to go around. Already drained white, with her blood spattering fast out of her arm, Escalla flipped open the potion of regeneration. She hoped Morag had played straight. She quaffed it down.
It tasted like spring water.
Escalla swayed, then felt herself fall. She caught herself at the last moment before pitching into the lake. Slumped sideways, she lay on the shore, her arm stretched toward the lake and her blood running in a shocking stream down into the fluid. Yawning, she felt her legs go numb and knew she was bleeding to death.
Beside her, Cinders mewed and thrashed in place, tail pushing at the ground and his chin smashing at the stone.
Faerie! Faerie! The dog sobbed, helplessly trying to reach her. Faerie no die! No die!
"… 's all right, Cinders." Escalla wanted to blink but couldn't move her eyes. She felt like a rag, all washed out and worn. "Don't cry. Don't cry…"
Faerie, no!
The room faded, and Escalla wasn't frightened anymore.
Escalla felt something nuzzling her face-Cinders's nose, cold and firm. Blinking, she stared at her arm. Blood flowed out of the gash she had cut from wrist to elbow-far more blood that any faerie body could hold. Her heart beat slowly, weakly-but steadily. The girl watched herself bleed for a while, then felt an image of Recca's regenerating flesh settle in her mind.
"Blood. He does it with green blood. That's how he heals."
Cinders nuzzled more insistently, and Escalla sat up. Giddy, she reached for a length of cloth and carefully bound her arm. The bandages were stained red, but she kept winding the cloth tight until the bleeding stopped. The severed muscles hurt. Her arm was useless. She tied a knot awkwardly with one hand and her teeth. She found herself sitting, staring at the lake, and patting Cinders's warm, furry head.
"It's all right, Cinders. It's all right now. See? No one touches the faerie."
The lake glowed a pleasing, restful blue-like liquid sapphire or a perfect morning sky. Escalla looked down at her arm as it tingled. She could feel her feet again, and her heartbeat grew stronger. Beside her, the empty potion bottle rolled twinkling in the light.
Morag had given them a real potion of regeneration. Escalla prodded the empty bottle with her foot and felt her little body beginning to heal.
"Hey, Cinders."
Hello, faerie.
Morag had told Escalla the secret. The lake was blue. Blue for healing, blue for good-a blue that would burn evil just as the red water burned good. Escalla picked up the magic horn and filled it, then dipped the edge of the portable hole into the lake and topped it to the brim. She folded the hole, took Cinders and planted him over her head, then marched back to where Morag waited in the caves.
The tanar'ri stood, trying to appear serene. Her thin, beautiful face betrayed her nervousness. She looked anxiously at Escalla as the faerie appeared.
"What happened?"
"I got it. The vampire pool's water, charged with the lifeblood of a good creature." Escalla nodded. "Lolth's vulnerable to holy water."