The queen's body twisted, writhed in pain. "Imoen!" she screamed.
Abdel's flesh crawled.
"It's the Slayer," Ellesime gasped. "I can … feel it…" Her face twisted into a mask of revulsion so intense Abdel had to look away.
"Mielikki save us all," Jaheira said, dropping to one knee.
Abdel saw the look of resignation pass over Jaheira's face and understood. Jaheira was watching this woman she had known all her life, like all elves, as the immortal symbol of her people. This elf was less a woman than a monument. Nothing could touch her, not time, not even death. Now, here she was, twisting in agony, reeling at the mistake she made before she became that solid core of Suldanessellar, when she was still a girl, seduced by an elf who dreamed of immortality.
Abdel stepped to her and took Ellesime's face in his huge, rough hands. Her eyes rolled into her head, and Abdel felt a stern hand grip his arm.
"What are you doing?" Elhan demanded. "She is in pain. Release her!"
Abdel brushed him off and said harshly, "Ellesime! Ellesime, look at me."
The queen sobbed and closed her eyes, trying to shake her head out of Abdel's hands. "He will live forever now. He will be like you are."
"Ellesime!" Abdel roared.
Elhan stepped back and drew his moonblade. "Unhand—"
"No!" Ellesime said, her eyes popping open to fix on Abdel's. "The link has been made. Irenicus is feeding from the Tree of Life!"
"I understand," Abdel said, though in fact he was still struggling with the sheer impossibility of it all. "Imoen—the Slayer—do you see it? Do you know where she is?"
"It's coming," the queen whispered, not struggling now. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
"How do we kill it?" he asked her.
Her eyes softened, and a look of relief came over them. "You might have a chance."
"Tell me."
"The Rynn Lanthorn. ." she said, her voice barely audible, squeaking pain and sorrow now mingling with hope.
"The lanthorn will kill the Slayer?" Jaheira asked, standing.
"Breaking the link with Irenicus and the tree will make it mortal. It will not kill it, but it will make it possible to kill it," Ellesime answered.
Abdel let his hands fall from her face, and she looked down and away.
"Mages," Elhan barked, "we will prepare the lanthorn—gather yourselves." He started to repeat the order in Elvish, but Abdel held up a hand, stopping him.
"I cannot kill it," Abdel said, his eyes burning into Ellesime. "That is … that was Imoen. She doesn't deserve to die for your mistakes, Queen Ellesime."
The elf queen turned her face up to him, a look of haughty displeasure crossing her brow for the briefest moment before she realized he was right.
"What would you risk to save her?" she asked him.
"Nothing," Elhan answered for him. "We will risk no more lives for this girl."
"No," Jaheira interrupted before Abdel turned on the elves. "Abdel is right. She's only one, but one is enough."
Abdel smiled and turned to Ellesime. "How?" he asked.
"The link I shared with Irenicus was transferred from him to the Slayer the moment he made contact with the Tree of Life. He's bonded with it now and has set the Slayer out along that link to find me," the queen said. "This link.. it could be transferred from me to … to you."
"Ellesime, no …" Jaheira said.
"What would that accomplish?" Abdel asked, ignoring the druid.
"You share something with Imoen that goes way beyond … well, that…"
"Go on," Abdel prompted.
"If the link between her soul and yours is strong enough," Ellesime said, "it's possible that you could destroy the Slayer but anchor Imoen's soul to this plane. The avatar would return to the hell that spawned it, and Imoen would be free."
"Or?" Abdel asked.
"Or," the queen sighed, "it will kill you both."
"Abdel—" Jaheira started to say.
"There's a chance," Abdel said simply.
The queen nodded in response, and Abdel turned to Elhan. "We need this artifact."
The prince nodded and said, "Either way, the Slayer is destroyed?"
"It looks that way," Abdel answered.
"Then let us be off."
"Abdel," Jaheira said, her voice tight. "I can't let you risk this. With all respect, Your Majesty," she said to Ellesime, "you're not sure."
The queen writhed in obvious agony, then shook her head no.
"If I let Imoen die," Abdel asked Jaheira, "let her soul follow this monster's into Gehenna, what have you taught me? Where have I come?"
Jaheira couldn't answer. She knew there was no way to stop him, that she shouldn't even try.
He reached out and touched her cheek. "Maybe I was hypnotized," he told her softly. "I would have to have been."
She smiled and let herself cry.
"Jaheira," Elhan said, "they'll need you in Suldanessellar. Go to the tree, but don't engage Irenicus."
"I'm coming with you," Jaheira said to Abdel.
Abdel looked her in the eye and shook his head. She looked away, knowing he was right again. Only Abdel could do what needed to be done.
Elhan helped Ellesime to her feet. Abdel, his eyes still locked on Jaheira's, stepped next to them, and in a flash of purple light, they were gone.
Ellesime had placed it on the rough ground in the center of a ring of standing stones, which might have been the columns of a once-mighty temple, now worn by years of lashing wind in to featureless stubs of their former glory. The elf mages sat themselves in a wide circle around the lanthorn, contorting their legs in a way that confounded Abdel. Ellesime was weakening still, able to move now only when her brother carried her. She motioned Elhan to set her down on the ground near one end of the artifact.
The mages began a grinding chant. They all closed their eyes, and Abdel could see their shoulders sag in unison. It was as if they were pouring every pinch of energy from their bodies into their minds and out through those arcane words.
"Sit across from me," Ellesime told Abdel, her voice thick, quiet, and labored. With great effort she reached out and laid her right hand on one end of the lanthorn. With a nod she told him to do the same.
Abdel set the enchanted sword down reverently next to him and placed one big, callused hand on the lanthorn.
"What now?" he asked.
Ellesime didn't answer. She closed her eyes, and her neck quivered when she tried to shake her head.
"She's dying," Elhan said. He was standing outside the circle, his face gray with exhaustion and fear.
Abdel looked up at him, then had to look away. Elhan was stalking around the circle of mages, trying to look everywhere at once but never managing to keep his eyes from straying to his dying sister.
The Slayer dropped out of the sky five paces in front of Elhan, and the movement startled him. Elhan's hand went instinctively to the moonblade at his belt, and the ancient sword came out of its scabbard and bathed the circle in a blue glow. The Slayer brought its hands up. Two daggers carved from bone seemed to appear in its hands from thin air.
Elhan didn't wait for the thing to attack. He charged at it with brazen courage born of knowing there was no one else there to keep it away from the chanting mages.
Abdel flinched back, and Ellesime hissed, "No!"
The sellsword looked up at her. Her eyes were half open, and her dull gaze lolled over him.
"You must not break the link," she told him. "Just a little longer. I can … feel.. it."