Surfacing Ch. 35

That horrid voice again, with Suna clearly laughing along with her: "We can't wait to fuck that tight netherhole again, Ausslan."

The Consort swallowed a whimper but it was clear he was terrified. And none of them could see anything. Everything happened so fast; first Gaelan heard a strangely tangible thump of a boot knocking against a wall followed by a sinister growl of threat and frustration.

"Shield up wall-to-wall!" Shyntre said.

That helped, but it also meant she couldn't shoot back—

Something exploded over their heads, cracking the ceiling. Something struck a glancing blow on Gaelan's shoulder and both males and Sirana cried out as heavy pieces of the ceiling fell on both sides of Shyntre's magic shield. This was immediately followed by a second explosion at their feet, and the mage's shield protected them from the full brunt of back-to-back blasts.

But that was all it could take.

"Shield's down!" he cried in despair.

*Weak spots in the floor between us and the door!* Sirana warned in the same moment.

She was right; even if they tried to get out of the room, the females had a chance of responding to holes or weak stone while blind, but the two males...

*Cornered!* Gaelan cried through the pearl. *I can't see to jump safely, and I can't leave any of them alone!*

*Nearly there!* Mourn answered. *Stay alive!*

"ARGH!" Thena screamed in pain, the anger swelling to an equal level of the black sickness Gaelan had felt in the Drider pit. "Fffuck YOU, Sirana, you meddling CUNT-rot, you RUINED EVERYTHING, you corrupting SLIT!!!"

Sirana groaned aloud and Gaelan followed up with a blind-cast of air to throw them back again. It didn't work as well the second time; the Red Sisters saw it coming, but shadow jumper heard Suna skid and stumble while Thena screamed at whatever Sirana was doing to her head.

"Sirana!" Auslan cried, and Gaelan heard him scrambling over stone.

Abruptly—just when her vision began to recover and grow spotty, Shyntre went berserk.

"NO!"

The ground shuddered and shifted as if an earthquake was to begin, a few more pieces of ceiling fell, and Sirana shouted at the wizard, "DON'T...!"

Then Gaelan blinked and made out Thena grappling with Shyntre and laughing, clearly getting the upper hand. "That the best you can do, wizard?! You slutty cock, I love it when you fight back! "

*Sirana?!* Gaelan practically screamed through the pearl.

*Don't touch them!* she warned, and she sounded terrified. *He's about to—*

"Suna and I have our Feldeus ready to go, Shyntre, feel that?! They never go limp like you! We'll take turns all fucking cycle long—!"

Thena and Suna both gasped as Shyntre freed his hands and clapped them on either side of the elder Red Sister's head. They were glowing a bright and angry orange, and the first whiff of burning flesh reached Gaelan's nose.

"Shyntre!"

"I already took what can save hi—" Thena snarled before the searing spell overcame her ability to taunt him further. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"THENA!" Suna roared, then suddenly two bolts struck her, jutting from her throat and her chest, both from Sirana's marrowcaster.

The resurrected Red Sister remained standing far too long even as the shots were solid, and Gaelan shoved her over with another air blast, slamming her against the far wall and clearing out a mass of the oily, black smoke rising from her melting partner at the same time.

Meanwhile, Shyntre burned the flesh off Thena's bones then seemed intent to work on the bones themselves as he kept his hands planted on a blackened skeleton with mottled clumps of charred flesh still clinging, pushing them back from a broken part of the floor. It was one of the most disturbing sights Gaelan had ever watched, even including the grisly bodies at Gavin's Tower and for a moment, she was afraid of Shyntre.

"Sirana! Thena's dead, make him stop!"

She did not answer, not mentally or otherwise.

"SIRANA!"

No answer.

Gaelan glanced at her Sister; she was keeling over Auslan, who was breathing erratically. The two had eyes locked, and they both looked scared to death. There was a poison dart on the floor, barely poking out from beneath a rock, and Gaelan recognized it as one even she had used before.

*They got him,* she thought dully.

And Shyntre might've just burned up the anti-venom.

The shadow-jumper heard Mourn and Jael charging through the hall; they'd be here in moments. She blurted all she could as she leaped the softened floor to approach Suna with extreme caution.

*Thena's scorched to bone, Suna's shot down with the 'caster's bolts, I'm searching her! We need an anti-venom for Auslan fast!*

*Rausery, what poisons and neutralizers would they have had on them?* Mourn demanded.

Her voice got straight to the point. *What are the symptoms?*

*Sirana's got two fingers down his throat to keep it open,* Jael said; they had just entered the room and could actually see more than Gaelan could, so focused was she on a dying-but-not-dead Suna, anticipating and avoiding any last-chance attacks by stabbing her for the second time through the heart.

*Throat's swelling shut,* Mourn agreed. *Convulsions within moments. Frothing. Fever.*

*That's the fastest one we got, Morix, and it's not standard issue,* she said. *Diaphragm should've seized already.*

*Sirana is mind-linked and forcing it to move. That's why she's not answering us.* Mourn met Gaelan's eyes. *Nothing on Suna?*

*No,* she answered, trembling.

*Jump back to camp, Gaelan.*

She left that moment, hearing voices each time she stepped out of the shadows and slipped into the next one.

*We still have a chance, Rausery.*

Jump. Two floors down.

*Sirana's prolonging the time takes him to die. Will a healing gem work?*

Another jump, and she was outside.

*Might prolong it further and start the suffering over again,* Rausery said grimly.

*Do it anyway,* D'Shea broke into the conversation. *We have an antidote. I'll meet Gaelan on the Fifth Road. I'm moving via lizard.*

Gaelan turned toward the Fifth Road. *Confirmed, Elder.*

*******

Inside the shattered room, Mourn watched Shyntre collapse abruptly as Thena's bones had turned to charcoal and ash in his arms. Covered in black streaks, he was on his knees and vomiting all over the Red Sister's remains. He wasn't aware of the added insult; the mind-link was bleeding over onto him as he began to convulse as well.

Mourn indicated Shyntre. "Jael, put his belt in his mouth so he doesn't bite his tongue off. Keep him from cracking his head further against the ground."

She nodded without words and leaped lightly over to the Dark Priest, getting down to tend him despite the vomit and ash everywhere. Sirana was using part of her body to hold down Auslan and she had changed her hold in his throat to three gloveless fingers, spreading his throat wide as possible against her Consort biting down harder as she psionically forced air to keep passing raggedly through his throat. She wasn't aware of anything; not her fingers beginning to bleed from his teeth or mixing with the froth so that the spray was tainted pink. She wasn't aware of Mourn beside her, not of Shyntre's spasms, anything at all.

In a trance like this, she might pass along with him if it was too late and she could not untangle herself. As before with the Underdark queen, Shyntre may or may not survive his bondmate's death if he was convinced he was poisoned, too. They were on the cusp once again of losing the Sisters' Priests before they could ever leave the Underdark. Lolth's final retribution before she was cast from Miurag.

His heart pounding as the To'vah tried to remain calm, Mourn took one of Auslan's hands and pressed Gaelan's healing gem into it, speaking the command word and swiftly reversing some of the damage the virulent toxin hand done to his body.

Rausery was right, though; it only started the process over again.

*******

*Breathe. BREATHE...!*

Goddess, it hurt...!

*We have no choice. We command Us: Breathe.*

Another breath, as One. Our heart raced, spreading the toxin faster, molten agony following close after.

*Again.*

Pain. Air. Fire.

*AGAIN.*

Pain....a-air...f-fire....!

*Please! Not again! Let Us rest...!*

*BREATHE. By Our Goddess of Light, not one sundered instant will We stop. AGAIN.*

Another partial lungful. Fluid was filling our chest. We were drowning.

Someone else loaned Us more strength, cooled the fire for a few precious seconds...

*Fight!* he said. *Fight for us as hard as we fight for you!*

*******

Gaelan grabbed D'Shea without asking and jumped the first long leap back with her toward the Palace. The pregnant Drow puked upon landing again on her feet and the shadow-jumper swayed on her feet, feeling incredibly dizzy for a moment after so many frequent shifts through the shadows.

"Whoa..." She put her head down, catching a whiff of D'Shea's leavings. *Sorry.*

*Never mind.* D'Shea scowled seriously at her though she noted how far they had come. *Can you do it again, now that I know what to expect?*

Gaelan nodded, taking a deep breath and grasping hold of her Elder again.

She'd probably collapse herself when they made it back, but anything to shave off every footstep it took them to reach Sirana and the Consort.

*****

*Here! Safe to enter?*

*Yes,* Jael answered.

D'Shea ran into the room full of rubble; she had no choice but to leave Gaelan where she'd fallen down the hallway. Her former conduit was conscious but couldn't get to her feet yet. The Elder saw Jael kneeling on the floor; she had Shyntre's head in her lap and had removed his belt to lash it between his teeth and keep him from swallowing his tongue. D'Shea approved.

Next the sorceress had to leap over a small hole in the floor where Sirana was partially covering Auslan and Morix had his large arms wrapped around her former novice, his eyes closed and muttering in Draconic as he shielded the two Drow from any falling debris or attack with his own body. A spent ruby and a soiled dart lay nearby, and Sirana's gloves were off.

D'Shea wasted no time kneeling where there was room and administering the first of two doses of the anti-venom to start. She had three more to give over the next few marks; it was all Rausery had in her box in her office and almost all they had in current supply.

Few had ever survived this poison, derived from the venom of the caped albino worm though it acted very similarly to the venom of D'Shea's magical guardian spiders or even Auranka's bite; its existence maintained balance between the Sanctuary and the Sisterhood. Those who had survived had never received a full dose—they had been tests to make sure the anti-venom worked as well. Everyone else had been intended to die, and they had. Quite messily.

This would take tending for the next cycle at least if he made it past the next few moments. Auslan could still slip away if his strength just wasn't enough to come back.

*Where did Thena find it?* D'Shea frowned to herself as she watched the convulsions lessen in the Consort, a good sign, but just not enough. She pulled out a gem of her own and used it, turning the phrasing of her command word just so to alter its effects. Then she used another to heal some of Auslan's ravaged body before she would give him the second dose of anti-venom and another gem to enhance it....

She remembered this was how Phaelous had saved Jaunda.

A few tickmarks later, the next breath Auslan drew did not wheeze quite so much and some of the tension left Sirana and Morix, both. D'Shea leaned to one side to see Shyntre around the big half-breed. Her son lie still at last, exhausted, and Jael made eye contact, asking without words.

"You have clean water?" D'Shea asked Jael, who nodded. "See if he will drink. Even a mouthful will help."

*Varessa?* Elder Rausery asked through Morix's pearl.

*They're not aware yet, but I think it is getting better. Shyntre has stopped shaking as well.*

*Was he hit, too?* Rausery asked, concerned.

*No, but he could feel the Consort's approaching death. Remember they are bonded by a mage's aura, as...as Phaelous and I were.*

*I see. Hang tight, we're almost there. We're gonna take all of you back to my office. Probably where they shoulda gone in the first place.*

*You wanted to keep Auslan and Sirana away from Qivni, just to be sure. You told me what happened in the Cloister after the Valsharess had me imprisoned, and I agreed with you. So did Morix.*

*I know. Fucking regretting it now.*

*Thena and Suna were confirmed dead before?*

*As far as I was informed,* Rausery growled in frustration. *Obviously they weren't.*

*How could not only Sirana, Jael, and Gaelan all get that wrong, but also your shadows who hid the bodies later, Rausery?*

*I don't fucking know. Eyin?*

*I'm sorry, Rausery, I don't know, either. Ginat and Croer were the two who moved them, you know they are as trustworthy as I am. They told me the Red Sisters' muscles were paralyzed, they never went into rigor. There was no pulse, and each had a stab wound in the chest. We didn't have the time nor think it necessary to dismember them, and burning them would have drawn the wrong attention at the time. How could we know?*

D'Shea frowned at the poison dart as she carefully collected it in a cloth, tucking it in a double-thick pouch at her side. She was deep in thought and listening to the voices in her head. *Who are you thinking gave Thena and Suna that particular poison?*

Rausery had to be scowling as she rode her lizard to the Palace. *Not sure. Let's get this under control first before we start looking among our own.*

The sorceress sighed. *Agreed.*

*********

Shyntre and I shared a spare riding lizard to carry us to the army base, myself sitting behind him despite my belly, with Rausery, D'Shea, and Eyin surrounding us with Gaelan riding behind D'Shea. Mourn had pulls his wings into his back at some point and now shifted to his quadruped form, insisting he would carry Auslan on his back with Jael covering him. My Consort was the only one who remained unconscious, though I'd been told he still had a chance.

I dared to hope so. I had been holding on to the Life Priest as tightly as I had been the Dark Priest not even a cycle ago, clutching as desperate and afraid as I'd been with Gaelan as we tried to heal her spirit before she could dissolve completely away, fighting his will as determinedly as I had when Jael had attacked me under Soul Drinker's influence, trying to touch something that would send my innocent younger Sister over the edge into a place from which she'd never return.

And how many times had Mourn, or someone close to him, answered my plea for additional strength when I did not have enough on my own? Anyone commenting on a "bodyguard" with this many close calls not being an effective bodyguard didn't know what all he had done for us...

Rennyn was right about him. Morixxyleth could not help but guard and protect according to the unique mix of his own blood. It was all he could ever do, and I didn't think he would ever give up. Just as I couldn't.

Slowly I realized the message sent to all those watching us, the way the lizards were arranged and the tight shield around us. Our apparent importance could not be clearer yet I worried over its wisdom, to draw such attention to me, to Shyntre and Auslan. And yet again...how could they do anything else? All it would take was one more poison dart and nothing short of Goddess intervention would save Auslan.

Shyntre and I both felt miserable, closed in our own thoughts as we moved closer to the army, and no one tossed questions at us yet. My head was achingly tender from the most frightening and intense mindlink I could remember since running into Vesram, and my eyes teared up more than once as I replayed what I could remember of the attack.

Trying still sent sharp pains through my temples behind my eyes, but I tried to make sense of it. Based on what little I'd managed to snatch from Thena's tainted mind before Shyntre burned her alive, there was little to be had but I knew I had made a fatal mistake. One so basic I couldn't call myself a Red Sister after this.

Why hadn't I cut off their heads, at least? I *knew* they had each taken their most powerful healing potions before the marrowcaster's bolts did their work. Why hadn't I done anything at all, why had I just stepped back and let Jael and Gaelan take care of it for me? Had I been afraid? Weak? Hesitant? All those things would get a Red Sister killed or fail her mission. And it was supposed to be me who was down, struck by that poison, not my Consort...

Yet if Auslan hadn't clasped onto me when Thena aimed, getting between us.... I felt nauseated. With that poison, even if they could have saved me somehow—which was a big unknown—I'd have miscarried for certain. Right there in that room, I'd have bled my womb out and there would've been no saving Ionne this time.

Shyntre looked over his shoulder as he must've heard me stifle a sob. He wasn't sure how to react, so he turned back around and looked at the back of the lizard's head. I took no offense; he wasn't going to be happy with me when he heard where I'd failed.

Both of those Sisters were burned to cinders but even if Auslan was back to his feet soon, they would still do further damage. While the Elders dealt with this, they wouldn't be planning for the Illithids with their full focus.

*Damn. Damn...*

My mind wandered to thoughts less grim when I saw the expressions of several fighters as they saw—and maybe even recognized—Mourn in this predator's form, carrying what would appear to them a young, feisty warrior and a lovely male pet. Jael kept her eyes moving and made it clear none should approach if they wished to keep their heads. I half-smiled. There were going to be some interesting stories floating around, just as there were in Augran and many places. The Dragon's son only had to keep breathing to have others talking about him and giving him other names.

As we moved into an area actually lit by a circle of lanterns, I noticed the group of...odd and ends? I straightened up as I noted the Drow on the light's edge paid equal attention to all of us approaching, and I saw next and clearly that their armor didn't belong. Seven Drow mercenaries, and their eldest female walked forward to meet us. Her expression sober and respectful; she wasn't nearly as shy approaching Mourn and Jael as anyone would have been who'd just met them. She nodded toward the Elders first, swept her eyes over us and landed on Jael.

"Can we help?" she asked, and the large, feline lizard nodded his head.

"Carry inside office," Mourn said, always with less precision in his speech in this form. "Gently."

My Elders didn't override Mourn's choice, and that fact woke me abruptly from my numb stare but Shyntre beat me to speech.

"Who is she?!" he asked, loud and just bordering on belligerent.

"Someone who has never heard of you, son," D'Shea said quietly, and he tossed a look at her as this female leader slowly raised both her hands so Shyntre could see them, and she took a step back from Jael and Auslan.

"I mean no harm," she said, meeting his eyes as far as I could tell. If she was tempted to look at me just sitting behind him as well, she resisted the urge. Her accent was very clear. "I am a friend of Mourn's. I am not from this City and have nothing to gain in harming this one already unconscious."

"But why would you want to help?" he insisted. "You don't know him."

"I said already, young mage, I know Mourn. I would always help Mourn and those with him."

She kept her hands up as she spoke and reached for nothing, seemingly vulnerable to us but I wasn't fooled, glancing at the six not far behind her. They were ready to act but not too eager to do so. The fact that neither Elder spoke for her almost cinched my suspicions. Then the mounted Mourn nodded his head.