"Imoen—" Jaheira said.
"She's not herself," Yoshimo whispered.
Imoen laughed, and it wasn't her usual pleasant giggle. "Who am I, Kozakuran?"
"Bhaal. ." Jaheira answered for him.
As if in response, Imoen fell back onto the bed of leaves and was asleep.
Abdel pulled the punch he threw into Gaelan Bayle's midsection, which was the only reason Bayle survived.
"I'd like very much to kill you," Abdel told him.
Bayle's only response was a series of rumbling coughs.
"Oh," Minsc breathed, "I'm sure that did hurt, Boo."
Abdel looked over at the red-haired madman and said, "You need to go for a walk or something, Minsc. The Copper Coronet is closed for the night."
Minsc looked at Bayle then back at Abdel, smiled, and left quickly, whispering, "Looks like we'll need a new job soon, Boo."
"Where is she?" Abdel asked for the third time. "And remember what I told you would happen if I had to ask a fourth time."
Bayle looked up and forced a spittle-lined smile. "All right," he gasped, "all right. . two thousand. . gold pieces. That's my. . that's my final. . my final offer."
Abdel returned his smile and drew back his arm. Bayle closed his eyes, trying to prepare himself for the blow that was coming soon and would likely kill him.
"I knew you'd come," Bodhi said, sliding out from behind the curtain leading into the back room. "You can let him go."
Abdel turned back to Bayle, who smiled at him and winked. Abdel smashed his fist into Bayle's face and dropped the bartender like a bad habit.
Abdel didn't bother watching Bayle hit the ground. He looked up at Bodhi and took her in all at once. She was dressed in a tight silk dress that shimmered in patterns of vines and spiders. Her hair fell around her pale face and accentuated her gray eyes. Her face was regal and perfect, and Abdel could see that she might have once been an elf. She wore no jewelry or shoes.
She stepped closer to him and said, "You've come to kill me."
Abdel saw her glance at the wooden stake in his belt, and he met her gray eyes. They seemed calm and confident. Abdel knew she was sure he wasn't going to kill her, but of course he was.
"Everyone has been lying to you, Abdel," Bodhi said, her voice as sincere as any voice Abdel had ever heard. "I've lied to you. . over and over. . but I'm not the only one. What did they tell you?"
"Who?" Abdel asked.
"The elves," she said, stepping closer still. Abdel's hand went to the stake, but he didn't pull it out. "They told you, what? That I was an elf once? That I did something terrible to them or one of the sacred thises or holy whatses?"
"They told me—"
"A giant crock of horsesh—"
"Enough!" Abdel roared, yanking the stake from his belt but stepping back one stride.
"Abdel. ." she said, and he looked her in the eyes again. "I'm sorry. I had to do all these things. I had no choice and neither did you."
"I had—"
"No choice," she said again. "Name one thing in the last month you decided to do on your own."
Abdel sighed, and Bodhi's eyes softened. Her pupils seemed to widen, and Abdel felt his jaw relax, felt his grip on the stake relax, then a yellow fog passed over his vision.
"Abdel," Bodhi whispered, "be with me.."
Irenicus had warned her that this might happen, and Bodhi had very casually brushed it off, saying she'd seen monsters before. In more ways than one, she was a sort of monster herself, wasn't she?
But what she saw Abdel transform into, she really wasn't ready for.
The stake in his hand snapped in half first, then the link she'd established with him broke all at once, and his body contorted and transformed.
Bodhi was fast, fast enough to stay away from the Abdel-Bhaal thing—the raving, murderous beast. It smashed the bar to splinters and sent stools and chairs hurtling through the air so fast and so hard they shattered the plaster when they hit the walls. White dust was in the air, and the room was full of deafening sounds: roars, the footfalls of something heavier than an elephant, shattering glass, splintering wood, crumbling brick, and disintegrating plaster.
At first the thing was just breaking up the place, lashing out at everything close enough to smash. Bodhi wasn't sure exactly what to do. This was as close to an avatar of the dead God of Murder that anyone alive had ever been, and she admitted to herself that she was well out of her depth.
She knew she couldn't turn and run … or could she?
She didn't have a chance to decide before the thing that used to be Abdel turned and fixed its blazing yellow eyes on her.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jaheira was practically panting, and Yoshimo's hand was still on her shoulder for a very long time after Imoen had collapsed back into a deep but fitful sleep.
"She might kill us all before she dies," Yoshimo said.
Jaheira spun out of his grip and spat, "That's enough!"
The Kozakuran bowed his head, his eyes fixed on Jaheira's, and took one deliberate step back.
"She is possessed," he said pointedly.
Jaheira closed her eyes, calmed herself a little, and said, "I wish it was that easy, Yoshimo."
She opened her eyes and saw that Yoshimo was looking down at Imoen, his right hand resting uneasily on his sword hilt. She needed to get the Kozakuran away from Imoen before he tried to do something either cowardly or heroic. She stepped to him and put a firm hand on his chest.
"Let's let her rest," she said.
Yoshimo glanced at her, then back at Imoen, and said, "Wouldn't it be the safest thing?"
"Her soul is being drawn away from her and into the part of her blood that carries the essence of the God of Murder," Jaheira explained. "You haven't seen what she's capable of. A burst of temper and an unsettling change in the tone of her voice … you have no idea, Yoshimo."
"All the more reason," he said, looking Jaheira in the eye. "There may not be another chance."
Jaheira pushed him gently and said, "Let's talk about this outside."
Yoshimo looked down and nodded reluctantly. "You have a few moments, but if she moves again…"
Jaheira sighed, happy to feel Yoshimo step back, happier to see him turn and duck out of the lean-to.
"If I have to," she said to his receding back, "I'll kill her myself."
She followed him out, and they walked a short distance in silence before Yoshimo turned to her and said, "What will convince you that you have to?"
"All hope exhausted," she answered flatly.
"Spoken like a true priestess," was his curt reply.
"Druid, actually," she joked, though her heart wasn't in the banter.
"There's a chance Abdel has already failed," Yoshimo said. "I understand your confidence in him, but Bodhi is no ordinary woman and more than a match for your strong young friend, blood of a god or no."
"I'll have to tell you again that you have no idea what this god's blood can do."
Bodhi's whole body exploded in pain—a kind of burning agony she hadn't experienced since before she'd become a vampire. Things had pierced her flesh before, but weapons of steel or claw never hurt her. A blade had to be enchanted to make her bleed. No fist could bruise her, and no claw could rend her, but here she was, being torn apart by this thing's bare hands.
She'd tried to speak to him, to hypnotize him, to run from him, but nothing worked. The roof had been ripped off the Copper Coronet, revealing the dark, moonless sky. The thing that was once Abdel Adrian had destroyed the tavern, then turned its full attention on Bodhi. She'd even tried to tell him where to find the pieces of the Rynn Lanthorn. She'd tried admitting all her lies and manipulations. She'd even said she was sorry.