“Liars! Incompetent liars! I’ll rake out their heartsand eat them whole!” The she-devil whipped her wings in a lather of rage,sending a sulphurous breeze twisting through the hall. “Of course they werefollowed! Someone knew exactly who to watch and where to strike! I demand to know who!”
The senior thieves of three different guilds quivered. The erinyes had welded them together by bloody force and terror, and it had been Blackrazor as much as sheer fear of her powers that had made the thieves her slaves. She sensed the thought and whipped her head about, her eyes suddenly flashing green. Her spell instantly brought a senior thief kneeling at her feet.
“I want Blackrazor back, and I want it now.” Saaladrew a dagger from her belt, and it dripped an acid that burned sour patches in the floor. “All guild magicians are to use every scrying spell at their command.I want to know who has foreseen our plans.”
Her spell held the kneeling thief helpless as a lamb. Saala cradled her chosen victim against her lean, silken belly, feeling the man’s mindfight helplessly against her control. The erinyes slowly cut his throat, sawing her dagger back and forth to let the man’s blood spurt up over her naked flesh.She breathed in the terrified horror of her audience, then slowly sawed her victims head free from its neck.
The head thudded to the ground. Picking her nails with the blood-drenched dagger, the erinyes turned toward her underlings with a smile.
“I’m a reasonable woman. Now does anyone here have anythingto contribute to this discussion? No?”
Men stood and stared at the bleeding body of their comrade as blood flowed across the floor. The erinyes sat herself in a chair and used her victim’s corpse as a footstool. Her long, blood-spattered legs gleamed in thecandlelight as she sensuously wriggled her long toes.
With her dripping dagger, she pointed lazily at the door.
“Now then. Let us discuss our successes. We now have thetrident and the hammer. At least something has gone well.” The erinyes crossedher feet, heedless of her nakedness-shape shifting could change a body, but itdid nothing about providing proper clothes. “Open the door and bring the weaponsin. Let us see just what we have.”
No one moved. The thieves seemed to shrink in upon themselves, afraid to meet their mistress’ eye.
Saala interlaced her bloody fingers and used them to rest her chin. “Yes?”
“L-lady…” One of the guild’s senior sorcerers swallowedin fright. “Th-the strike t-teams have-”
“What have the strike teams done?” Saala leaned forward, herskin gleaming slick with patterns of fresh blood. “You will never get anywherein life unless you learn to articulate.”
“Lady, th-the strike teams b-both report that they w-wereattacked just after making their escape from the temples.” Quite terrified, thesorcerer turned a pale shade of gray. “Each group was attacked by a singlesorcerer dressed in gray robes. Th-the magic w-weapons were taken from them. The hammer Whelm and the trident Wave… are g-gone.”
Keeping her face perfectly controlled and expressionless, the erinyes leaned back in her chair. Her eyes seemed to chill the room with an infinite dark.
“Find them.”
“Y-yes, Mistress!” The sorcerer began to back away. “It shallbe done, Mistress.”
Slit-pupilled eyes danced with flames as Saala flexed her dagger blade.
“I was attacked by a huge warrior armed with a fire-breathinghell hound skin. He was accompanied by a faerie, a pixie that has elected to become an accomplished sorceress.” The erinyes lifted her pure white wings.“They are involved in all of this somehow. I suggest that you also spy onthem.”
“Of course, Mistress.” Thieves began to move, realizing thatthey had survived their mistress’ rage. “At once, Mistress.”
“And cancel my appointments for the rest of the afternoon.”Saala slowly caressed her dagger blade. “The strike team leaders and I shall bein… discussion… for a great many hours to come.”
Heavy oak doors shuddered, the latch splintering as a bootslammed against the lock. A second blow sent the doors crashing inward, followed by a huge dark shape that dived and rolled across the ground. The Justicar slammed up against a wall, then sped into the shadows, his black sword hunting for prey.
The interior of the library remained still, the lights extinguished and the windows shuttered. Jus rose, took a glance around the corner, then dived amongst the tall library shelves.
Whirring in a panic behind him, Escalla hid herself behind her friend.
“Jus! Jus, this is not a good idea! I’m out of spells, anddoggie’s fires are low!” Escalla flapped and fluttered, weaving from side toside to make herself a hard target. “Jus, are you listening to me?”
The big man swiftly hunted through the line of library shelves, slamming a hand against the last shelf as he failed to find anyone. The building was deserted apart from the scratching of a rat somewhere deep inside the reference section.
Annoyed, the Justicar signaled to the faerie and said, “Startsearching. Look for places where books are missing from the shelves. Look for books on Keraptis. Look for secret exits. Anything!”
Emerging timidly through the library’s front door came theshaken figure of the young law officer Jus and Escalla had rescued in the market. Still dazed from the fight, the man blinked in nervous horror as he saw Jus begin tearing at the library shelves.
“Um, I don’t think we should do this. This is privateproperty.”
The Justicar dug into his purse and pulled out an amber token-the personal symbol of the countess of Urnst.
“This private property has been used as a base for banditry,murder, and attempted assassination.” The Justicar shoved the countess’ tokenaway. “I am under commission from the countess of Urnst. There’s a soul-eatingsword in town, and your librarian has just stolen it!”
“Soul eating…?”
The Justicar began looking behind rows of books on the shelves that adjoined the walls, hunting for secret triggers and hollows. He had less time than usual to waste on polite conversation. “Eats life energy,accelerates the user’s speed… It’s called Blackrazor. It apparentlybelonged to an erinyes. She seems to be controlling your local thieves.”
“An erinyes?”
Jus finished with the shelves. Above his helmet, Cinders sniffed, hunting for the slightest hint of magic.
“Erinyes,” the ranger continued, “a type of diabolical agentfrom the plane Baator. Seductive like a succubus, only smarter.”
The young law officer froze. “How… how do you knowthat?”
“If you want to dispense justice, first study. Itmakes for a universe filled with fewer surprises.” The Justicar dragged a bookfrom a shelf in passing and threw it open on a desk. “Read. They’ll be in thereunder ‘Baatezu’-very nasty.”
The Justicar began using the pommel of his sword to check flagstones of the floor for hollow spaces, moving fast in the hope the job would be over before the sorcerer’s guild could arrive on scene.
High above, Escalla was making an inspection of the library’sbooks. She had found a big, valuable-looking tome bound in gold, but it proved far too heavy for her to lift. There was scroll after scroll piled in confusion all over the shelves, most written in who-knew-what sort of languages. Escalla began to pry at a big, brightly colored stone that graced the cover of a gaudy volume entitled Manual of Puissant Skill At Arms-then suddenlynoticed a tasty pile of documents on the library’s main desk right in the middleof the hall.
Gold glittered amongst the documents. Intrigued, Escalla opened her little wings and drifted happily down to inspect her find.
“Hey, Jus! Look!”
A pile of parchments teetered on the desk-big heavy sheetscovered in maps and diagrams. The whole pile was held down by a golden jewelry box that seemed to cover over some sort of symbol written on the uppermost parchment sheet. Escalla hovered above the pile, looked this way and that at the jewelry box, then reached out happily toward the jewelry box with her hand.