They were alone again, for the hour. That, of course, was also suspicious. What were the Kudgels up to now?
“I know this potion,” Helena said. “It doesn't just put you to sleep, it wipes your memory, for a time. It's used as a truth serum, and as an aid to rape.”
“It does, and is,” Dale agreed. “It will make us forget recent events. Forget our scruples. This may be another ploy to get you to loosen your legs, Helena, as you won't remember why not and won't much care. And to make you change sides, Benny, as you won't remember which side you're on.”
“Damn!” Burgundy swore. “You mean I won't even remember the women I've had, after I lose my member?” Because it had stretched almost to the ground.
“For a while,” Helena said. “But you'll remember again after a few days, if you live.”
“Benny,” Dale said urgently. “This stuff is taking hold. We're doomed when it does. Don't you think it's time to do your trick? Before you forget how?”
Somehow, Benny had not thought of his ghosting ability, which usually manifested only in moments of dire stress. Well, this was that! He stepped out of his bonds, then went to Dale and ripped out the stakes that anchored his ropes to the ground. Then, Dale went to do the same for Helena, while Benny freed Burgundy.
But already the elixir was making him dizzy. “Get out of here!” he cried. “Anywhere! Just get away and hide before they come after us.”
“We'll have an hour or less,” Dale said. “They'll catch us for sure.”
“The hell they will,” Helena said grimly as she went to recover her weapons from the pile of netting. Then, she charged the Kudgels' mess tent.
Good strategy. The four of them, kept alert by rage, got their weapons and fell on the hapless Kudgels and slaughtered them. Benny especially wanted to get Onion, but he was not there. Evidently, he had gone instead to an officer's mess tent. “Damn!” Benny gritted, hacking at tent poles and canvas, anything that was there.
“Take it easy,” Dale cautioned. “We’ll be asleep soon regardless, and these aren't the only Kudgels. Flee before others come.”
He was making sense.
“In different directions,” Helena said. “So they can't catch all of us. We can get together again later.”
She was making sense too.
They split up, running in four directions. Already, there was the sound of other Kudgels who were just starting to catch on that there was trouble afoot.
*****
Now, Benny faced Onion, infuriated. He was halfway drunk, but his rage was burning back the fog. He focused on just one thing: killing the arrogant elf.
“Benny the Buffoon,” the elf sneered. “Who needs a spanking.”
Caution. It was the voice of the Protector. But Benny was beyond caution. He knew better than to draw his sword here in a tavern, where such an act would violate the code. He picked up a glass bottle of rum and smashed it against a table, breaking off the main part. He charged the elf and sliced open his neck, quickly and messily killing him.
Now, Onion's men charged him, their weapons drawn. The code was hopelessly compromised, and Benny was guilty; they could kill him with impunity. The Protector's warning had been relevant.
But Benny had his magic staff. The Kudgels were unfamiliar with it, and did not guard properly against it. In moments, all of them were dead.
Now, he was able to calm himself. “Sorry about that,” he told the astonished bartender. “There were old scores to settle.”
“You're a beast!” the man said. “Leave my premises!”
“Gladly.” It meant the man was afraid of him and didn't want to tangle with him. It was best to avoid further trouble.
“But first, tell me who you are.”
Onion had called him Benny the Buffoon. The bartender had called him a beast. Both were true, to an extent. The two came neatly together. “Benny the Beast. And don't forget it.”
Then, his drunken stupor returning, Benny left the premises and continued on up the road. Now, the things he had learned from his flashback returned to cause him grief. It wasn't just that Onion had tortured all the members of the party; the elf had paid for that with his miserable life. It wasn't just that the party had become hopelessly separated, and Benny didn't know the fate of the others. Or his own fate, for that matter, as he remained lost.
It was what Ammarod Current had told him of Virtue and himself. He didn't want to believe any of it, but the man had no reason to lie. How he had brutalized and raped Virtue, whom he had known before Benny did. For that, Current had to die.
Yet there was the other. That Current was Benny's half-brother. That they had the same mother, Winona, who was not only alive, but on the other side. That she was part vampire, which meant that Benny was part vampire too. He had known she was a witch; what else had she passed along to him? Did his ghosting power stem from that? And she wanted Benny to join them. That was anathema!
But if he agreed, he could save Virtue.
That was the sticking point. He would do anything for Virtue. But he would never betray his own side. He had to kill Current. But that would sacrifice Virtue, for she was surely hostage to Current's life. And how could he kill his brother? He was stuck between irresistible alternatives. He had to decide—and could not.
He wrestled with that as he walked.
Until he passed out on the street.
Chapter 8
Coming Together
H elena considered the map. It seemed to cover everything but one thing: where were the other members of the party? They had scattered in four directions so as to be difficult to recapture, but this also made it difficult for them to reunite. What good was it knowing where things were if she didn't know where they were?
Well, she knew that Dale would have the holy dwarf city of Alfen Gulfadex in mind, and well might head for it. That was where she was most likely to find him. Then they could see about finding the others.
Unfortunately, now that she had decided, she discovered an obscurity in the map. The city was marked on it, but the route through the mountains was fuzzed out. It seemed that something did not want the route to be known, and the map reflected that. She would have to pick her own way through, and that could be mischief.
What would be would be. She paused to organize her facilities for a possibly dangerous trek. And felt something.
It was…it was the soft ambiance of someone she knew rather intimately. Green and purple, no, magenta. Magenta! The late Purp's sister, now to be the leader of the Kudgels, if she could just get them to obey her. A lovely, fine, compassionate person. Helena had lent her body for Magenta to animate when bidding farewell to her brother as he lay dying; that was why she knew the feel of the woman. She had, in effect, become Magenta for the occasion, and it had left an imprint on her soul. She believed in her, and trusted her. In an obscure but profound way, she loved Magenta.
If Magenta needed to borrow her body again, for some local purpose, she was welcome to it. Helena relaxed, letting the spirit take her.
And found herself transported not to another person, but another place. She recognized it: Dale's mansion in Upper Sultry. Which was far away. Was she imagining it?
Magenta was there, standing before her, her skin and eyes green, face hair, hands and feet purple, and utterly lovely. “Thank you for allowing me to bring you here, Helena,” Magenta said. “May I embrace you?”
Helena had to smile. “You have been closer to me than that.”
The woman hugged her. “I feel that I know you well, though our contacts have been peripheral. You are a good woman.”
“So are you. But how did you move me here?”
“I am still learning to use the magics I inherited from my brother. Among them is a teleportation stone. I had to reach you telepathically, which I could do when I tried, because there is now some of each of us in the other. We have, in a manner, become sisters. Then, I needed your acquiescence. When you granted that, I was able to draw on the power of the stone t
o bring you to me physically. Now, we can catch up on details and work together toward the common mission of saving our world.”
“I was looking for Dale,” Helena said. “This is his house.”
“Yes. He is bound to return here at some point.”
“We have to stop the Kudgels from blowing the horn that summons the Sky Titans, lest they destroy everything.”
“Yes, of course. But we need also to stop the Kudgels from laying waste that 'everything.' Most of all, we need to coordinate our efforts so we do not work at cross purposes. Meanwhile, we can relax and catch up on things, as I will not be able to use the stone again for several hours; I'm not sure whether it is I or the stone that needs to recover between efforts.”
Helena knew that the energy of teleportation could not have come from nowhere. It was probably a joint contribution, depleting both woman and stone, at least for a while. “We can relax,” she agreed.
“Tell me what you have been doing recently. I made mental contact with you, but I didn't read your mind; I merely verified your identity and location.”
Helena launched into the story of their travel, capture, torture, and escape. “And so I learned of Dale's father,” she concluded. “And his little half-sister, Noletta, a fine girl who can do illusions. She actually saved my life by scaring away the pursuing Kudgels.” She smiled. “And her mother, the dryad Desdemona, who inhabited a white ash tree, and I think has not entirely left them despite her death.” She lifted the pendant. “I must deliver this to Dale, so that he knows. Or rather, its twin, so we each have one. If he accepts it, there will be a rapprochement with his father.”
“May I touch it?” Magenta asked.
Helena held out the pendant, still on its chain around her neck. Magenta touched it. There was a thrill of mutual recognition. The woman and the dryad liked each other.
“And your story,” Helena said. “What have you been doing since we last interacted?”
“I have been struggling to learn my proper role, and the powers I have come to possess. Since my brother's death, the Kudgel factions have split. Half are surrendering and seeking peace, following my guidance because I am Purp's sister. The other half remain true to the original Kudgel war, following Ammarod Current and another leader whose identity I do not yet know. It is roughly in balance at the moment, but the tide will shift, and either I will prevail or Ammarod will.”
“Ammarod,” Helena said. “I know little of him.”
“He is a monster!”
“Surely so. But I am also mystified by how your brother, Purp, got around so widely so as to be active in seemingly many places at once.”
“That I can tell you,” Magenta said. “He used the stones I am now learning. I can't yet do it as well as he did, but I am slowly gaining proficiency. There are a number of them stashed at key locations. They enabled him to see their areas, and then to travel to them telepathically. That was how I brought you here: first I saw you, then I fetched you. But this Ammarod—he is a demon, or at least part demon. He can dematerialize and jump to distant places without needing the stones. That makes him doubly dangerous. He's absolutely horrible.”
“So you said,” Helena said. “But what makes him worse than Purp?”
“I am not sure I should tell you. It's ugly.”
“I can handle it, and I think I need to know. What is it?”
“I was experimenting with the several stones, orienting on one and then another, not yet trying to teleport there, just feeling out the terrain. And Ammarod was there at one and sensed me. He recognized me, maybe because he knew my brother, so was attuned. His mind was sheer malignancy.”
Helena saw the scene as Magenta narrated it. The two minds were hovering near the stone, forming into ghostly figures. One was the lovely woman, the other a handsome man. But appearance was superficial; their personalities were quite different.
“Give it up, purple flower,” Ammarod thought to her. “You can't win, and might as well make it easier on yourself.”
“'Who are you?” she replied, startled by being thus recognized when it was only a trace of her mind there.
“I am Ammarod, new leader of the Kudgels, and this world will be mine.”
“You are not,” Magenta responded, annoyed. “I am the leader. They follow me.”
“Half of them follow you, you delicious creature. The rest follow me. All will follow me once I dispose of you.”
“What makes you suppose you can win their loyalty from me?”
“I am powerful and competent in ways your stupid brother was not. I take what I want and destroy the rest. You must either join me or suffer rape and death, as your friend Virtue Vampire is suffering now.”
“Virtue!” she exclaimed, shocked by the reference. “She is not a combatant.”
“She is merely a victim. I beat her up and raped her, and will kill her when I am done with her. That will be when I have another pretty doll to take my fancy.” He stared lewdly at her. “And I believe that will be you, with the added convenience of bringing your followers back to the true cause. So you're next, you colorful creature.”
Appalled by his threat, Magenta vacated the site and jumped her mind to observe Virtue. One look satisfied her that it was true: the lovely vampire had been brutalized. He really did do such things to women. And now she knew that the demon was tracking her.
“That is why I came here to Dale's mansion,” Magenta concluded. “It has wards against magical intrusion, and magic of its own. I am safe here. Meanwhile, I continue to organize. Ammarod must be stopped.”
“Ammarod must be stopped,” Helena agreed, similarly appalled. “Poor Benny! Does he know?”
“I don't think so, and I don't know how I will tell him. This is already awful.”
“It is,” Helena agreed. “I must rejoin the others and stop the Kudgels from blowing that horn.”
“I must help you in that, and continue organizing my Kudgels. I hope to establish peaceful relations between my good Kudgels and Upper Sultry. Here, let me give you this.” She fetched a small tubular object.
“What is this?”
“It is a special flute that will alert me ahead of time when to teleport to Alfen Gulfadex, to join your group there. Make sure to play it ahead of time, as it will take me a while to set up the teleportation.”
“I will,” Helena said, moved.
“Now, I will send you back to where you were so you can resume your search for the others. I will search too; if they pass near one of the stones, I may see them.”
“May all of us be lucky,” Helena said fervently.
They kissed each other in parting.
Then, Helena was back where she had been, traveling north, but now with greater confidence.
Dale and Burgundy resumed their trek north, but now they had a map that would guide them through the perilous passes of the mountains. That made all the difference.
Then, there came an awareness to Dale's mind. There was a presence he remembered, with a green and purple association. “Magenta!” he exclaimed.
“What?” the dwarf asked, startled.
“I felt her nearness. Her mind, at least.”
“What does she want?”
“I'm not sure.” He focused on the feeling, accepting it.
Then the two of them were in his mansion. There was Magenta standing before them. “It worked!” she said, pleased.
“What worked?” he asked, confused.
“I came here because your house is safe,” she said. “Helena was here, looking for you. I said I would look, too, and I did, but I did not expect to find you so soon. I had no idea you'd be so near the sage's scrolls. So I used the teleportation stone to bring you both in. I found more than one stone, so I can do it without having to recuperate as long.” She went on to explain about the stones, to their amazement.
“We just visited the sages,” Dale explained. “They granted us safe passage through the mountains to Alfen Gulfadex. We have a
map.”
“Then you should be able to catch up with Helena on the trail. I was trying to teleport you there so you could connect more rapidly. Had I known I would find you so quickly I would have kept her here. But you will surely find her soon on your own.”
“Yes, we should,” Dale agreed enthusiastically.
Burgundy was silent. “Are you all right?” Magenta inquired solicitously.
“Forgive me,” the dwarf said.
“Forgive you what? I don't believe we have met before.”
“That's it. I thought we would never meet. I dreamed of you.”
“Dreamed of me?”
“When I sleep I have passionate relations with beautiful women. You were delightful. But now that I see you in person I fear you will be annoyed.”
“So you were the dwarf I sensed last night,” Magenta said. “Passionate is an understatement.”
Burgundy hung his head. “Yes, ma'am.”
She laughed. “Be at ease, lover. For years, I was a prostitute. I had relations with hundreds of men. Some were giants, some were dwarves like yourself. Some had truly weird urges. You were in the middle range. Certainly better than what I face if we lose this war.”
“What you face?”
“Ammarod Current desires me. I don't desire him. He is an evil demon. I would much rather be with you.”
The dwarf was amazed and gratified. Dale suspected that, while what Magenta said might be true, that did not necessarily indicate that she liked Burgundy, merely that he was less worse than the demon. But he kept his mouth shut. The woman was being kind.
Then, she conjured them back to where they had been. Now they had far more confidence.
Benny woke on a pallet in a dark tent, by a small fire, clutching his staff. He knew he must have spent several hours passed out drunk in the street, and must have had an awful hangover, but actually he felt reasonably well. Someone must have dosed him with an antidote. Why? That bothered him almost as much as the hangover would have. He had provoked more fighting than he needed to, and killed a number of people who probably didn't deserve it. Onion, he didn't regret, but the others were only peripheral and could have been spared with a warning beating. He was not proud of himself.
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