|
The rain had slowed to only an occasional drop by the time the trio entered the pine grove. What had once been a pleasant clearing amid several dozen pine trees now looked like a war zone. Elven bodies hung from the branches of the trees, as their homes burned. The ability of the thick pines to repel the weather worked against the village, as the magical fires set by the mages in the group were able to stay lit in the dry lower regions of the trees.
Blood lay in deep puddles as much as the rainwater did. Zak imagined that if he had walked through the center clearing on any other night, he might not even realize that he was surrounded by a hundred elves or that he was in the middle of a community, so well had the elves blended their homes into the forest. Now it was impossible to miss.
Huge sections of the pine trees were torn away, laying bare the innards of the homes so that none of the elves could escape. The destruction was not complete, however, and the drow were herding the surviving children and a few young elf maidens into the center of the grove.
The bile in Zak's stomach began to rise, as he watched his companions line up the children for execution. He knew what was going to happen. These children were going to be sacrificed to Lloth. The adults would have been too difficult to handle, and they had been killed while they lay in their beds, but these children cowered before their executioners, too scared to even cry.
Dantrag took control of the situation as he entered the scene and soon had thirteen children lined up before the raiding party. Drillmick had been the only casualty, and Zak was the worst hurt among the remaining drow, though several others had cuts and bruises.
Dantrag had studied enough of the surface tongue to prepare a brief speech for the frightened children before him. Zak did not understand what was being said, but he had a good idea. In his companions' eyes, this was not savage murder, but retribution for persecution long ago brought against the drow. Though the pinnacle of this persecution was said to have been forcing the drow into the underdark, none of the dark elves seemed too eager to return to the surface. Surely a prisoner's greatest desire is to leave his cell and feel the wind on his face once again. Something made Zak think that the drow were not prisoners in the underdark but willing inhabitants.
The whole thing was a lie, but Zak really saw no gain in it. They come up to the surface to kill a bunch of surface elves and then return to the underdark. They return with no riches or wealth. They had gained no useful knowledge. All they were doing was being cruel for the sake of being cruel. It was pointless.
As Dantrag yelled particularly loud at one child, the young elf burst into tears, and Dantrag slit him up along his chest. The child fell back, dead before it hit the ground. The rest of the children stayed quiet. It did not matter though, for Dantrag was just about finished anyway, and then the killing started.
When the children realized there was no hope at all, the tears they had been holding onto came freely, and the wails were heart wrenching. Zak wanted to throw up, as he closed his eyes to the spectacle. Still the voices of the dying children called out to him, too innocent to realize that no mercy could be had.
Zak needed to act; he had to act to keep the small thread of hope he clung to. He needed to rush out and kill Dantrag right now. His conscious would not allow him to stand here and listen to the horrible shrieks of the children, shrieks made louder and longer by Dantrag's ever slowing blade. Even though his eyes were closed, in his mind's eye Zak could still see Dantrag slicing the children up as slowly as possible, some how taking pleasure from the process.
Zak needed to stop it, but he could not. He could kill Dantrag. He knew that. With Jarl's help, if it was available, he might even be able to stand up against the remaining elves. Then what? Was he to live on the surface? Could he return to Menzoberranzan? As much as Zak disliked Jarl's acceptance of the drow way, Zak realized there was some practical sense to it. Jarl wanted to survive. If Zak really did want to make some type of difference in his people, he would have to adopt that philosophy too.
Still, the children ... And then it was over, or so Zak thought. He opened his eyes and saw that one young maiden remained. She had been the oldest of the group, though still probably not a decade old. The possibilities of what Dantrag might do to her tore at Zak's soul, and he promised himself that if Dantrag in any way disgraced her before her death, he would strike the drow down and his own life be damned.
Dantrag did not touch the girl, though. Instead he took a step away from her, saying several things in her own language and pointing toward the entry to the grove. Was he going to let her go? Then it was clear to him. Dantrag wanted a surviving witness to what had gone on here today so the deeds of the drow could be spread far and wide.
Dantrag continued to point toward the exit to the grove, but the girl was rooted to the ground, too scared to even breath. Zak stepped forward. "Kill her."
Dantrag looked up from the girl and met Zak's eyes, seeing again the killing demon that had defeated him before. In the corner of his mind he heard Khazid'hea begging Dantrag to kill the rebellious drow, but Dantrag was learning how to shut the sword out.
"We must have a witness," Dantrag said calmly, looking to the rest of the drow for support.
"You would let her live?" Zak asked. "You would steal from Lloth? This child has been promised to our Spider Queen, and you would let her live?"
Zak truly wanted to save the girl, but he realized she was already dead. Even if she lived a thousand years, her soul had been taken away from her this night, and her dreams would never be the same. He was too late to save this village, but in his mind the fact that his brethren wanted word of this massacre to spread was the bigger tragedy. If this was some personal vendetta or even true justice, what did it matter if anyone else heard about it?
Dantrag did not look as confident now as he turned to the rest of the patrol for help. "You care for this child?!" Zak cried. "There should be no room in your heart for mercy if you truly serve the Spider Queen!"
Dantrag's eyes flashed red at this. "I care nothing for this pitiful creature," he replied. To illustrate his statement, he casually swung Cutter backwards toward the child without even looking. The young elf acted reflexively at the attack, raising one of her arms to block. The vicious blade severed the arm just above the elbow. The child emitted a horrible cry and fell to the ground, clutching her bloody stump.
Zak took a menacing step toward Dantrag, his weapons still in their sheathes. Dantrag quickly drew a second blade and stepped between the child and Zak, his weapons up in an X. "Stop!"
Zak just snarled at the patrol leader. "Finish the deed."
Dantrag looked deep into the eyes of his rival and saw the truth. "You care for this child," he said so only Zak could hear, echoing Zak's own accusation of a few seconds ago.
"Step aside," Zak said, barely holding onto control of his emotions.
"Don't worry," Dantrag chuckled, "she will die. This way the Spider Queen can feel her pa-"
Zak moved so quickly that afterwards, no one was really sure what had happened. Zak pulled both of his weapons bringing one of them down into the "X" Dantrag had made with his weapons. The strong parry that was already in place should have held the attack, but Zak's strength was too much at this moment, and he drove the parry apart. The "X" opened wide so that each of Dantrag's swords struck his opposing wrists. He reflexively dropped his weapons before Cutter removed a hand, and then received Zak's other weapon hilt across the head.
Dantrag stumbled to the side, and Zak stepped around him, immediately forgetting that he even existed. Zak was now focused on the child before him. He stood over her and saw her demeanor change. His weapons were poised over her dying form, and a strange calm came over her. It might have been strange for any of the drow looking on, but to Zak, the calm expression on her face gave him a sense of purpose as he finished the act Dantrag had started.
Zak turned away from the dead child after he had paid his silent respects, and turned to face whatever was awaiting him. The entire patrol was staring at him in awe. Dantrag was busy fumbling with his bloody hands, trying to figure out what had just happened. From the ground, Khazid'hea did not know if it should scream at Dantrag to pick it up and kill Zak, or if it was Zak it should be calling to. That confusion only inhibited Dantrag more.
Jarl finally stepped forward. As the group's point scout, he held some level of authority. "The night will be over soon, and we need to get back to the cave or we will be caught in the dawn's light." These words seemed to break the spell that Zak had cast on the group, and they all moved to follow Jarl.
Zak did not move for a while, standing among the dead children as the stars came out. He sheathed both weapons and reached out to the sky, as the nightlights lit up the carnage within the grove. Zak thought he could feel the spirits of these children floating up to be with their murdered families for the rest of eternity. They would exist in peace from now on. The fear and pain they experienced today would not be allowed to even approach their psyche in their new home.
Dantrag picked up his weapons and cast a look at Zak. He looked very vulnerable standing in the middle of the grove with his hands empty and his eyes turned to the sky, but Dantrag wisely sheathed his weapons and hurried after the rest of the group. Zak too followed them eventually, but only after he had rid himself of any guilt associated with this raid.
***
The patrol made it back to the cave opening just before dawn. Jarl began to lead them back into the tunnels, but Elrial stopped him. It looked like Dantrag was not going to do anymore leading on this raid, and Elrial knew the procedures just as well. "Everyone remove your equipment and return to the cave entrance. Your last memory of the surface will be the cursed sun."
The drow quickly did as they were told, storing their belongings deep inside the dark protection of the cave and returned to view the horrible sunrise. The sky in the east was already a glow with the colors of dawn and they did not have long to wait. Zak and Jarl both wanted to know if life on the surface was at all possible in the future, and the following display put several doubts in their minds.
As the sun rose slowly over the distant mountains, illuminating the rain-soaked landscape each one of the drow cried out in pain and fled back to the safety of the dark cave. Truly it was painful, but Zak and Jarl challenged each other to see which could withstand it the longest. In the end, Elrial called an end to it before either of them lost their sight permanently.
"Come back within the cave," the mage instructed, "but remember that sight well."
Zak knew he would and shifted his vision back and forth between the actual and infrared spectrums to remove the splotches that seemed to be burned permanently on his eyes. As he was about to continue inside, Jarl tugged on his sleeve. "Look at that."
Zak followed his friend's arm and looked back over the distant forest where the elves of the grove would never again see the sunlight filter into their grove. Above the drenched trees hung a very distinct arch of color. Living in the dark underworld and using infravision 90 percent of the time, Zak saw only variations on the shade of red. Now he saw every color imaginable stretched vividly across the sky.
"What is it?" Zak asked, breathless at the beauty of it.
"It is a rainbow," Elrial said from behind them. As a mage, he was very familiar and comfortable with candlelight, and he had seen the effect before in water mist that was sometime necessary for his spells. Of course the name of it came from the rain that had just felt, which did not exist in the underdark. But it could be found easily enough in any book detailing the weather patterns of the surface.
"You don't see that in the underdark," Jarl said quietly.
"Something that beautiful does not belong in our homeland," Zak agreed. He cast one last look at the rainbow and the smoldering grove above which it hung. "It looks fine right where it is. I hope it lasts forever." The two of them turned to follow the rest of their patrol back into their dark home.
|