Estriss fell to his knees, his head ringing with fire. His thoughts would not hold together, and he knew he needed time to regroup and concentrate properly.
You are the enemy! Trebek screamed in his mind. / knew I should have killed you when you first arrived! I smelled even then the taint of human influence on you!
Trebek's tentacles wrapped around his head. He felt the illithid's ragged teeth scrape his scalp, and Estriss lashed out instinctively, defensively, with a blast stronger than any he could conceive. Trebek's eyes widened as a jolt of fire flared in his mind; then Estriss pulled himself from Trebek's grasp, and he concentrated, levitating swiftly above the leader and across to his other side.
Trebek spun around, his hands again to his head. Coward! Face your superior like a true illithid!
I am not a true illithid, as you already said. In blood, yes. But I believe in life. And I believe in honesty. You believe in nothing but your own hunger, and your own self-interest.
Estriss stared Trebek in the eyes. They met in the center of the room. Their powers were great, evenly matched, but Estriss had less of a stomach for fighting, for hatred, and Trebek had staked his claim on the Spelljammerwith his uncompromising skill as an illithid warrior, and as a very smooth diplomat.
Trebek knew that he would win.
Estriss tired easily under Trebek's mental onslaught. The physical plane was forgotten as their mental powers hammered at each other with blows of electric pain. Estriss lost ground as Trebek pressed hard against him, arid found himself cornered against a line of Trebek's warriors.
He knew that all was lost if he could not reach within himself and fight as he should. He was a researcher, a scholar. He was an anomaly, a friend, an individual.
He knew what the battle was really about. It was not about mind flayers and humans, or the cloak, or the Dark Times. It was about hatred, about the fear and hatred that many have for those who are different.
He was the first illithid to know the meaning of friendship. And he was the first to throw off the mantle of group identity and rejoice in his individuality.
He brought himself up. Shaking, focusing his powers, Estriss felt his mind harness all his reserves for one last burst of mental energy. His muscles stood out under his purple skin, and he tensed, seeing only Trebek's evil face in his eyes. He pushed with his mind until he felt as though his brain would snap under the strain, and he reeled as the power flowed out of him in a single, concentrated bolt of energy.
Trebek screamed and fell to his knees. His mind was a white blur of stabbing pain, exploding, spreading across his field of vision, hammering behind his eyes with needles of ice.
Estriss doubled over and gasped, his focus released. Trebek swayed, then forced itself up on one knee. He hissed weakly, defiantly at his nemesis. Estriss shambled over, sword in hand, and casually slapped Trebek across the face with the flat of his blade. He lowered his sword to a point between the leader's eyes.
Surrender, Estriss said mentally.
Trebek grabbed the illithid's ankle.
Estriss flicked the point of his sword into Trebek's tentacles. The mind flayer snapped back his head and tightened his grip on Estriss's ankle.
Surrender, Trebek.
You use the weapon… of a human, the fallen leader said. I will never surrender… to a traitor.
Trebek shook with the strain of toppling Estriss, but the illithid stood firm and slashed his sword across the side of Trebek's purple face.
I do not want to kill you. What would you have me do? We have no real quarrel. You have shown me hospitality. You are my brother.
Trebek's answer was an angry grunt as he tried to stand. Estriss shoved him down with one hand upon his head.
Then Trebek's voice shouted in Estriss's mind. Then act like a true mind flayer, brother,… not like a human!
Estriss nodded slowly. He threw down his sword. His tentacles tightened around Trebek's head, and his teeth sank deep into the leader's thick skull.
The warriors around them stepped back. Chaladar and CassaRoc sprang to Estriss's sides as Trebek's limp body fell to the deck. Blood oozed from the round orifice concealed under Estriss' tentacles, and he slurped the last of Trebek's brains into his mouth.
He picked up his sword and took a deep breath. His head swam with the invigorating taste of Trebek's memories, his desires. Then Estriss's eyes cleared and he saw his companions and the enemy mind flayers. They stared at the blood dripping down his tentacles, down the front of his tunic.
Trebek is dead, Estriss said to the illithid warriors. The mantle of leadership is now mine.
The mind flayers shifted uneasily. Go now, Estriss commanded. Destroy the enemies of the illithids, but leave the Cloakmaster to me. Go!
The illithids turned and trotted away toward their tower. Estriss looked over at the Cloakmaster. They will not harm us now, he said, though he was not truly sure of that. We must leave as well.
A hand clapped the Cloakmaster on the shoulder, and Teldin spun around angrily, his sword raised. CassaRoc stepped back. "Whoa!" he said. "Are you all right?"
Teldin turned around. His opponents were all laid out in a bloody heap before him, killed by his own hand while he had been thinking about the cloak. "What happened?"
Stardawn came over, sheathing his sword. "I've never seen anybody fight like that before. You cut through them like they were ghosts."
Teldin thought out loud. "It's the cloak. It has… merged with me in some way. I can't control it-I guess I never could-but now I've somehow absorbed its powers." He stood up straight. "I feel better and stronger than I've ever felt before, and the cloak feels as if I never should have been without it."
The warriors stared at him. Djan smiled and whispered under his breath, " Verenthestae."
"Where do you think Gaye is?" CassaRoc inquired.
"Gaye is no fool," Teldin said. "Apparently she's more powerful than I ever knew. I don't know much about psionics, but I'd guess that she could transport us using her abilities, but not transport herself at the same time."
"That sounds right," Na'Shee said.
They paused for a moment and looked around them, surrounded by the bodies of their foes. Sounds of battle came from all sides: the screams of the dying, the clangs of steel against steel. The Spelljammer was covered with puddles of blood, and the many towers seemed fragile, vulnerable.
"It's irreversible now," Teldin said softly. "The war lust has started. This isn't just about me and the cloak anymore. This is about hatred. Each race thinks that it is superior to the others, and no one will be satisfied until all the others are dead."
Stardawn watched him solemnly. The elves are superior, he thought, and I will soon be dancing upon all of your graves.
"We should go," Djan said to Teldin.
The Cloakmaster nodded. "Yes, I know," he said. "I just hope there's something left of the Spelljammer after I reach the adytum."
They broke into a run and headed around the corner of the beholder ruins toward the elf tower. The deck was strewn with the bodies of minotaurs, of a few mind flayers and elves and humans. Fighting was going on here between the ruins and the elf tower. A huge hill giant pummeled his way through the ranks of elves and illithids, who fought among themselves with bloodlust in their eyes. One dying beholder lay gasping against a cracked pillar of the ruins. Its great eye widened as it spied them, and it screamed out a loud, shrill cry that grated like the soulless clawing of fingernails across slate.
A beholder floated out of the ruins, followed by two of its scaly kinsmen. They spied the Cloakmaster and his group. One beholder hurried back to the doorway, and a beam of light lanced out from one of its wavering eyestalks with a hiss of burning air. It shouted, "The Cloakmaster has come! Attack him! Attack!"