Even in pain, Laud was strong enough to maintain his concentration. He still had the will to read the scroll that he held open, speaking the infernal words so rapidly that a scholar would have had trouble translating the cursed words. He tapped the half-orc with a devastating touch that pulled life and soul out of the barbarian.
Calmet watched the half-orc crumple to the ground. None of the remaining heroes could stand against Laud's power. An orc who entered the chamber with them closed on the hierarch as though to prove Calmet's assessment. Qorrg stabbed at Laud from the limit of his spear's reach, but managed only to get his spearhead tangled in the broken strands of mithril armor. Laud would have killed the orc then and there had it not been for a green bolt of energy smashing into the archprelate's chest and driving him backward.
As Laud reeled and stumbled, he looked for the source of the attack. He focused on a young woman who was surrounded by a green aura. Laud arced his hand through the air, invoking an infernal spell upon her. Before he could complete it, Jozan reached the hierarch.
He swung his mace at Laud's head just as the archprelate cried out, "Calmet, save me. Dimitto magicum!"
Jozan's swing went wide of its mark. The mace glanced against Laud's shoulder as the archprelate's spell extinguished the magic that held Calmet immobile. Calmet rushed toward the far end of the chamber just in time to see the one-eyed woman hang her emerald necklace on the statue.
With the emerald eye in place, the unnatural wind grew stronger in the sanctuary. Every candle blew out and the floor undulated like the deck of a ship at sea. As the room trembled, the ground opened up where Laud drew the ritual line. It seemed as if the statue of Gruumsh was moving its arms. A thunderclap roared outside the mountain and light from the chimney was only a hair's breadth from the ritual line redrawn by Laud.
Something about the culmination of the ritual caused Calmet to see clearly for the first time since his conversion. The raw power and destructive force descending on the sanctuary wasn't a force to be used for anyone's good, including Calmet's. He saw Jozan turn to face him and instantly chose a plan of action.
Pupil struck at teacher, but the older man sidestepped the fierce blow. Instead of counter-attacking, Calmet shoved Jozan aside with a quick kick and ran to the center of the circle. Before anyone knew what was happening, the evil priest smashed his flail down on the head of his master, cracking Laud's skull, hammering the flesh, hair, and bone into shapeless gore until Jozan pulled him off the body.
At that moment, with loose rocks tumbling around them and the statue rocking back and forth with the violent movement of the earth, the heretic sorrowfully looked at Jozan and muttered, "The light…Gruumsh will be here when the light…"
His voice trailed off and everyone looked at the light that was just reaching the edge of the emerald.
Before his teacher could finish the lesson, Jozan passed the test. He grabbed the jewel from the idol's head and placed it against the side of the statue. His mace struck unerringly. The blow smashed the emerald into minute shards and put another crack in the gold-plated idol.
"Well done," the old teacher commended his pupil. "The light will not shine through the unseeing eye on this day and Gruumsh's avatar cannot come to this plane unless he is invoked."
"I don't understand," asked Jozan. "Isn't that what you wanted?"
Calmet hesitated before he answered.
"No, it's not what I wanted," he replied with the authority one expects of a teacher. "I wanted power. I wanted power for revenge and, Pelor forgive me, I thought I could wield power better than Pelor himself."
"But you were trying to stop us," protested Jozan. "You nearly did stop us."
"Yes," responded the heretic, "but I didn't know what I really should be doing. I already had doubts about a god who needed mortal protection. After you placed that magical hold on me, I saw your devotion. I realized that you were serious about fighting, even unto death. I decided that if Pelor could turn a miserable student like you into a heroic warrior priest, he must be powerful after all."
Calmet surrendered his flail to Jozan and tossed his component pouch across the cavern.
"I'm your prisoner, now. All I ask is that you let me seek forgiveness before you give me the death I deserve. I ask only a few minutes of the grace I so despised in Pelor."
Righteous indignation rose up in Jozan and he couldn't hold back the castigation, "Do you have any idea how many lives you've ruined? How much agony you've caused?"
"To be honest," answered the heretic, "I don't. To care about such things would have been weak in the eye of Gruumsh."
Jozan ordered Qorrg to watch Calmet, then he bent down and opened another scroll case. As Calmet heard his pupil reading the scroll aloud, he watched healing course over the half-orc's body. His former charge invoked more healing, beyond the power of the scroll. The barbarian was not completely healed, but his wounds were no longer life-threatening.
As Calmet watched, the barbarian rose up and walked to the one-eyed woman, placing his arm around her as she whimpered that she might have destroyed them all. As if realizing simultaneously that they had forgotten someone, they looked back up the tunnel toward the courageous figure of the paladin. Jozan whispered a prayer for her soul, but his muttering was interrupted by Calmet's touch.
"There are many evils I cannot undo," suggested Calmet, "but this is not one of them. Take me to my sanctum. I have a scroll there that enables me to turn stone to flesh."
"You must have," responded Jozan. "I saw it happen to your heart, today."
24
In Calmet's inner sanctum, the heretic rummaged quickly through his scroll cases. As he did so, his mind sifted rapidly through a number of options. Was it possible that Jozan really did not intend to kill him? Might he really be able to re-enter the service of Pelor? He sincerely doubted it. Pelor was forgiving, but his people were far less so. Calmet grabbed one scroll case and looked up.
"I just need one more," he told Jozan and Qorrg, who scrutinized every action.
The statue of the paladin Alhandra was propped behind the two observers, while the half-orc and the one-eyed woman-Krusk and Yddith-their heads pressed together like two lovers, spoke softly in the corner.
Will they ever admit their feelings to each other? wondered Calmet. What a pair of misfits they would make, he observed, but misfits often need each other.
Such thoughts were leading him down a path he didn't want to pursue. He was a misfit himself. He no longer believed in the power of evil, but he wasn't certain that he could serve Pelor with a calling as clear as Jozan's. It was clear in his mind that no matter what he tried to do, every action would be scrutinized and second-guessed. That would be worse than being enslaved to laud's designs.
His fingertips brushed across a familiar symbol and he lifted the scroll case off the table.
"This is the one," he said to reassure his captors. "I'll need both of these to restore your comrade."
Calmet carried the two scroll cases close to Alhandra's stony form. As he neared her, Jozan and Qorrg moved to flank him. Their suspicion, though well-placed, still annoyed Calmet. He wondered why they didn't show a trifle more gratitude for his helping their companion.
"You'll need to stand on each side of her," cautioned Calmet. "She may be weak when she returns to her natural body. These transmutations take a lot out of a person."
Calmet hoped that he had the right amount of concern and sincerity in his voice as he urged his two guardians to take their positions at Alhandra's side. Krusk and Yddith looked up and were watching his preparations with great interest, so he opened the scroll case and prepared to read it with exaggerated fanfare.