Recovery

Sophia and Khord race to rescue Muld, Syndi, Zeatt and Allea.

21.

Recovery

 

In Westmark, it took several minutes for some of King Eleazar’s wizards to dispel the alarm that Tadd had set in motion.

The Halfling was carried to healers by some of the royal guard, along with Rick, Shel, Ant and Jevon.    A message reached them from Mutt, who had indeed been wearing an Autocaster Ring (a gift from his Halfling girlfriend) and was hurrying to see his friends at the healers.

 

After giving her husband a healing potion, Sophia paced back and forth, waiting nervously while the Losasidhe King and Queen spoke privately with King Eleazar.

“Stop blaming yourself, Sophie,”  Khord said to his wife as she chain-smoked Dart’loxinchu and fretted.

“If Gelden was watching what happened…”  She responded, not finishing her thought.

“I imagine he is busy attacking Windhaven.”

“Yes, but why haven’t Mom or some of her group contacted us yet?”

“Excuse me, ma’am?”  A timid voice came from behind them and they turned to find a young wizard’s apprentice who seemed both fascinated and terrified of the pregnant Drow sorceress.

“Yes?”   Sophia asked.

“Ma’am, I was sent from my master --- Archmage Keith- who returned to Westmark when his Autocaster activated-“

“Take us to him!”  Sophia interrupted the young man and he obeyed without further instruction,  leading them through the palace to the royal wizardry keep where Keith taught a select group of six young men in the art of wizardry.

They were led to the elderly wizard’s room, where his other apprentices were hovering around him.     Keith was lying in bed, seemingly restored, but weary and enjoying the fuss being made over him.

“Mage Keith; are they alright?”   Sophia asked as soon as they entered the room.

The wizard told them about the assault on Windhaven that he had experienced before being knocked from the hold of the airship by a spell.

“Never have I been so scared,” He told them, shaking his head, “I felt like I fell forever.    A horrible way to die!    I remember impacting the ground and then I’m lying here screaming at the top of my lungs.    Thank Yesh for Autocasters!”

“So you don’t know what has happened since then?   You haven’t tried to look by Crystal Ball?”

“No, but remember, the Queen Eioldth has wards that prevent scrying unless it is from crystal ball to another crystal ball, and both must be activated even then.   I don’t know how the battle is going, Sophia, I am truly sorry.”

Sophia smiled and leaned over and kissed the wizard’s forehead, which made him grin from ear to ear.

“I’m just thankful that you are alright,” She told him.

“What are you going to do, my dear?”

“Try to find a way to get to them,”  She replied with a sigh, hurrying from the Archmage’s room with Khord following close behind.

By the time they had reached their quarters in the palace, news had arrived that most of the members of Alleania’s team were reappearing one by one in their various ‘safe places’ as their individual Autocaster rings were activated.

First came Alleania and Drake, both of whom were healed when they reappeared, but the seriousness of their wounds left them unconscious.     

Then Alvis, Amala and Carn reappeared, all three alive but still seriously injured, which indicated that what had injured them had been especially serious.   Of course they too were unconscious and none of the messengers knew any more information than Sophia did.

“Mom’s not reappeared and neither has my sister.    I’m not sure if Muld and Syndi have Autocasters, but for now let’s assume that they are alive.”    Sophia was pacing again, this time around their apartment, trailing plumes of Dart’loxinchu smoke as she pondered and fretted.

“So what do we do, Sophie?   Do you have a way to reach them?”

“No…I can’t think of any way to get us there quickly,”  She sighed in frustration.

“If only we could teleport.”

“That’s no good,”  Sophia replied, dragging on her cigarette as she tried to think of a solution.

“Muld used a spell and Bags of Holding to move people from one place to another; could we use something like that?”   Khord asked his wife.

“If we knew there was a Bag of Holding on their side and if they knew what we were attempting so they could let us out, that would possibly work, but we can’t tell them.”

“What about other spells?   Do you have any that can move something from one place to another?”

Sophia leaned against the wall and thought for a while, “Well… there might be something… do you remember the Backtrack spell that we used when we worked at the Flux Museum documenting and indexing magic artifacts that Drake or Kinzer would bring us?”

“Yeah, I think so - isn’t that the one that you could cast on an unknown magic item that would cause it to replay the last time it was magically activated?”

“Yes, but remember, we could set it up so it would replay it in reverse, so that if it was a Wand of Fireballs, we wouldn’t activate a fireball spell in our face, instead, we’d see a ball of fire going back into the wand as if time had been rewound.”

“You used that a lot to determine what some of those artifacts were, but it could be dangerous, as I recall.   Like the time you used the reverse setting of the spell on that old wizard’s staff that turned out to be a device for sending summoned demons back to Hell.”

Sophia nodded at the memory, “Oh, I remember that very well.    We were rather surprised when the reversing effect brought back the last demon that the old wizard had dispelled, into the museum’s office!”

Khord shuttered at the memory, “So what made you think of this spell and how would it help us now?”

“Simple - those who returned here due to their Autocasters - if two of them will loan us their rings, and we cast that spell on those rings with the reverse setting of the spell, and the last action of these rings was to take their wearers to safety, then reversing it should take us back to where they were when the rings activated - the floating city of Windhaven.”

“Sophie, that is too dangerous!”  Khord protested, “What if they fell a thousand feet and the rings activated when they hit the ground - wouldn’t the reversal put us up in the middle of the air?   The rings wouldn’t save us either, for their charges are spent.”

“The rings only activate a moment before death would have occurred, so in your example, we’d appear at most a few feet above the ground.”

Khord wasn’t convinced, “That is far too dangerous, unless we know for sure where they were the last instant before the Autocasters activated.”

“We do know in Mage Keith’s case - he fell off the airship.    I could use his.”

“Absolutely not!   Do you want to kill yourself and your babies?”

“Alright then - Drake and Alleania’s rings - we’ll both go.”

“But you don’t know what made the rings activate - what if we materialize into a raging fire or into a huge pile of rubble?”

Sophia shrugged, “We still are wearing our Autocasters, and they will activate and bring us back here.   It is worth a chance.”

Khord sighed, knowing from the tone of her voice that there was no way to deter her from trying this.

“Let’s go get those rings,”  She said with a gleam in her eyes.

 

***

 

“Oh my God… Oh God…Yesh have mercy…”  

It was Syndi’s voice in the darkness, the dust and debris still settling around them.   Then Muld heard the strong voice of Reverend Mother Zeatt in the middle of a prayer, “Protege, Domine, tuis manibus tuis ! Manus Domini perfectus protector eorum in manibus perire non patitur.”

He recognized the Divine tongue, used by the clerics of Yesh and he repeated it in the common tongue, drawing strength from the words, “O Lord, protect thy children with thy divine hand!   The hand of the Lord is a perfect shield, he will not allow those within his grasp to perish.”

"Do not be afraid, children,”  Zeatt said in the darkness, “We are safe, the Hand of Yesh has kept us from harm.”

“Momma?”   Allea called out weakly.

“I’m here sweetheart, don’t be afraid.”

“Reverend Mother, what happened?”   Muld asked, coughing up dust as he groped in the darkness trying to locate Syndi.

“The Earth Elemental weakend the wall of the tower and Gelden’s magic hand finished crumbling the foundation.”

“Oh God... we’re buried alive!”  Syndi groaned, finding Muld in the piles of debris and clutching him hysterically.  

Suddenly a pair of brightly glowing red eyes appeared, nearly causing Muld and Syndi to fall back in surprise before they realized it was Zeatt herself.

“Peace!   You’re alright, child.    The Hand of Yesh spell kept the debris from crushing us.”

“But what happens when it ends?”

“It ended a few minutes ago - but it created a pocket of clear space.   The stones around us are supporting some larger stones that fell flat across them, so I don’t think they will shift.”

“How do you know for sure?”  Syndi asked, unconvinced.

“Dear child, I am a Drow; I lived decades underground, believe me, like most of my people born in the Underdark, I can tell that the rock above is stable.   Now I need both of your help - I want to free Allea from the rocks pinning her.”

The Drow priestess’ words calmed the Losasidhe princess down enough to enable her to focus on her friend.    Allea was nearby and Muld chanted a light spell on a piece of rubble to give them a bit of light for a while.

They all were covered with soot and dust, enclosed in a roughly circular area about eight feet in diameter.    Rocks were everywhere, but fortunately several large sections of wall had fallen flat across the top of the debris, forming a roof of sorts.

Allea‘s legs were still pinned under several large boulders and was only halfway conscious.

“Levitating the rock or a push Cantrip might be too dangerous - if the levitated rock was to hit the side of the rubble, it could all give way,” Muld said as he looked at the situation.

“We need a passwall spell,”  Syndi commented.

“I don’t have that spell,” Zeatt replied, “What about you, Muld?”

“No, I’m afraid I don’t know that one.”

“If only the rock wasn’t so heavy!”  Syndi sighed.

“Wait a moment!”   Muld exclaimed, “We might have a way to make the rock less heavy.   A transmutation spell.”

“Do you know such a spell?”  Zeatt asked hopefully.

“Yes, we use one that converts certain types of sand into glass, and changing types of rock.   It is nothing glamorous such as turning lead to gold, and it only converts about ten cubic feet of material, but I think I can safely free Allea from the rock.”

“Go ahead; what can Syndi and I do to help?”

“When the rock changes, pull her toward you; she should come out easily.”

“Alright; are you ready, Syndi?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Muld began chanting the spell, which took several minutes to complete.    As he finished, he placed his hands on the rocks covering the half-Drow girl’s legs.     The stone turned bright yellow for a moment then suddenly changed into sand.   Syndi and Zeatt, each holding one of Allea’s hands, pulled her backwards, out of the pile of shifting sand.

“She’s free!”  Syndi told Muld.

“Dust the sand off of her; this spell is not permanent unless a Permanency spell is cast immediately afterwards.”

Syndi and Zeatt did as he ordered.   Syndi used a Gust of Wind Cantrip to blow any missed grains of sand from her friend only moments before Muld’s spell duration ended.   The grains of sand moved and reformed into the boulder in the same position that it had been before Allea had been moved.    With her body gone, the rock fell a short distance and cracked into several pieces.

“Just in time!”   Muld commented as he assisted Zeatt and Syndi examining the girl.    Her legs were partially crushed and the sight temporarily unnerved Zeatt, who wept while cradling her youngest child.

“We can repair the damage by healing spells, Reverend Mother,”  Syndi told her as she patted the Drow Matron’s back.

Zeatt nodded with a weak smile, “Yes, in fact I can do it, but I had to get my motherly reaction out of the way first.    Muld, if you could gently straighten her legs, Syndi and I will hold her hands to keep her still.   Her legs need to be as straight as possible for my healing spell to work.   It will take some time to cast, so I would ask both of you to try to keep Allea still.”

Muld gently pulled her twisted legs straight, which caused the girl to awaken with a piercing scream from the pain.   They held her hands for nearly half a minute as she cried out in agony, but it was too much for her and she fainted away again.

Zeatt was trembling and wide-eyed from seeing her daughter in such torment.   Syndi hugged the priestess of Yesh until she regained her composure.  With a smile of thanks to the Losasidhe princess, she began the long healing spell to restore her daughter’s legs.

As she chanted the spell, Muld tenderly moved close to Syndi and took Allea’s hand, praying that Yesh would keep the girl unconscious until the spell completed.

Syndi had her friend’s other hand in hers and was silently weeping, her tears dripping down on Allea’s dust covered face.

The spell seemed to last forever, but finally Zeatt completed it, spreading herself across her daughter’s lower half with her hands on her legs.

White light gently covered mother and daughter in a cocoon for another long period of time.     Slowly the light faded, leaving them in darkness, for Muld’s light spell had dispelled minutes before.

“Mom?”  Allea said, stirring in the dark.   Her red eyes shined in the blackness and they heard her moving.    Zeatt was weeping in thankfulness to Yesh, feeling Allea’s legs working.

“What happened?”  The girl asked Syndi, her Drow eyes seeing everyone in the darkness with perfect clarity.

“You were pinned underneath a boulder, “  Syndi told her, and then informed her of their situation.

“So we’re trapped?”   Allea asked.

“For the time being,”  Zeatt reassured her daughter, “Don’t worry child, somebody will rescue us.   I’m sure your father is looking for a way to get to us right now.”

 

***

 

At that very moment, about six feet above them, some of the pirates had timidly dared to leave the safety of their hiding places.   The collapse of the main tower on the floating island had been too much for them.    Though the raiders were not to be seen and their airship still hovered at the docks, most of the pirates thought of nothing but escaping the floating city before it too collapsed.

There were no pirate ships left in the docks, and they were not willing to learn if the raiders had left more men on their airship, but the floating city had smaller levitation boats that travelled up and down from the city with sailboat sized sails so they too could travel in the air.    Into these levitation boats the pirates were slowly but steadily fleeing, anxious to escape the city before the raiders reappeared.

A handful of the pirates were lingering, debating as a group whether they should plunder the city before they left in the last levitation boat when two flashes of light close to the rubble of the fallen tower drew their attention.

Suddenly there appeared two Drow - a tall male and a beautiful and extremely pregnant female- both looking a bit disoriented.    From the male’s twin long swords strapped to his waist and the sorceress outfit that the female wore, the pirates knew they had to be some kin of the queen of Marksylvania and that meant more trouble.

“Let’s get out of here before they get their bearings,”   One of the pirates suggested, and all the others agreed, abandoning their dreams of plunder over the logic of saving their necks.

 

“Well, it worked!”  Sophia said to her husband as she looked around their destination.    Figures fleeing like cockroaches in bright light told her that the battle for Windhaven had ended some time ago, but the pirates had not been victorious.   Otherwise they would have challenged them.

“If the Autocaster Rings took us here in front of this pile of rubble, then this must be where the rings activated last,”  Khord theorized examining the debris.   It was recent by the smell of dust and the unshifted position of the smaller stones.

“They could have been buried under that,”  Sophia agreed, kneeling down to look at the rock with care, “High heels, advanced pregnancy and loose rubble don’t mix well.”

“Please be careful,”  Khord demanded, “There could be some wizards or archers that are concealed from sight taking aim at us right now.”

“They wouldn’t attack a poor helpless pregnant woman,”   Sophia joked.

Khord snickered, “You are certainly not poor or helpless.”

“Yes, but I am most definitely pregnant and squatting like this is killing my back,”   She stood back up with a slight groan, “Since Mom and Allea’s Autocasters didn’t activate, I’m guessing they are alive but possibly injured under this rubble.”

“Yesh have mercy!    It would take a hundred men all day to clear that away to get to them!”

Sophia just smiled confidently, took her husband’s hand and led him back a short distance, then kissed him on the lips and turned toward the pile of stones.   

She began chanting a spell that was unfamiliar to Khord, but he didn’t focus on her, instead he monitored their surroundings.    Years of experience told him that the sound of a spell being cast would often draw out hiding adversaries.

He only saw one person moving - an injured elf- probably one of Gelden’s men, sprawled out on the pavement nearby, an arrow sticking out of his leg and blood pooling around him.   He groaned in pain and slightly moved one hand, but was clearly close to death.   Other than this man, nothing stirred.

Sophia’s voice raised as she neared the completion of her spell, so Khord turned in time to see a sheet of light leave her outspread hands and fall like a huge sheet until it blanketed all the rubble of the tower.

The rubble began to shift and change until it took the appearance of wet, sticky mud.   The mud flowed downward, leveling out as all liquid does and in the mess came thrashing and shouting, coughs and gasps of air.

Sophia used her staff, pointing at the sound beneath the mud and making an upward gesture.

A moment later a form completely covered in brown was pulled into mid-air.     As she did this, Khord waded through the thick goop and pulled two figures backwards out of the area of effect of the spell.

A fourth figure stumbled out of the mess, coughing and sneezing from the mess.   

“I’d say we found them,”   Sophia shouted to her husband, then chanted a Gush of Water spell to wash off the figure that she still held suspended in the air by magic.  

Water came out of nowhere, covering the figure as if it were a waterfall.    When the flow of water ended, the figure of Matron Zeatt could be seen, shaking the water off of her.

“Lady Sophia, thank Yesh!”   Muld said as he staggered onto solid land.

“Hello, Master Muld... or maybe I should address you as Master Mud!”   The Drow lady laughed.

“I’m just glad you found us,”   Muld replied, turning to the muddy figures of Syndi and Allea.    He chanted a Clean Surface Cantrip and touched his fiancee.    Though her clothing remained muddy, the mud covering her skin disappeared.

“Thanks,”  She said, accepting his hand to stand up, while Khord assisted his sister-in-law.

“Lady Sophia, what happened to Gelden?”   Syndi asked, fearful of his answer.

“We haven’t seen him, but if he was in the same tower that you were in, I’d say he is quite dead.”

“Dead?!”   Syndi exclaimed, her hands covering her mouth as the implications of this dawned on her.   Muld grabbed her as her legs gave way.

“My parents!”  She groaned.

“Your parents are fine, Princess,”   Sophia told her happily while she lowered her mother to the ground, “We rescued them while you were assaulting this tower.   They are safe and well.”

“Praise Yesh,”  The Losasidhe princess replied, bursting into tears of relief.   Muld lowered her down into a sitting position, where she clung onto him trembling and weeping as the burden of fear eased from her.

“Hello, sis, how are you?”   Sophia said to her little sister.

“Muddy!”   Allea responded, “But I am more than happy to be muddy right now!   My father and the others in our group-“

“They’re fine,”  Sophia interrupted her question, “They’re injured, but resting and they’ll be as good as new in a few days.”

Allea sighed happily, “Thank God!”

Sophia turned now to her mother, who was hugging Khord.

“Mom, are you alright?”

Zeatt turned to her daughter with a bright smile, “I’m overjoyed to see both of you and to have all of my children well and to know that my husband is safe and whole.     Glory to Yesh for his salvation.”

“Lady Sophia, you said that Syndi’s parents are alright and well?”   Muld asked as Syndi began to regain her composure.

“Yes, they are with King Eleazar and Queen Aurei.”

“How’d you find them?”

“It was a bit of detective work by one of our Bitter Dreg friends.   Then we led a surprise raid upon their hideout.   It was in Westmark, not far from your main guild building.   Your guild members - well, your top guild members, actually- participated in the raid.”

“Are they okay?”

Sophia turned to Khord, who was emptying mud from his boots.

“They all were injured, but they’ll be fine as well,”  Khord told them.

“I can’t believe it’s all over,”  Muld said, looking down at Syndi, who nodded in agreement.

“We learned why Gelden was doing all of this,”   Sophia said, sitting on a low stone wall that had marked the courtyard boundary of the former keep’s compound, “He had far bigger plans than just getting Windhaven.    He sought to assassinate King Eleazar and Queen Aurei and probably hoped to inspire a new Faesidhe uprising.”

“So he wanted Windhaven as a base of operations?”   Syndi asked as she wiped the mud from her Sorceress outfit.

“I guess so, though it seems like it was rather suicidal for him to attempt such a raid with so few men.”   Sophia answered, lighting a Dart’loxinchu cigarette with a flame Cantrip.

“I’ve wondered about that,”  Muld said, “He was determined to take this tower at all costs.   But just gaining control of this tower wouldn’t necessarily mean he had control of the whole floating city.   I’m not sure how this city is moved, but even if the Keep was where the controls were located, there still would be plenty of pirates hiding in the city that could oppose him.”

“Well, most of those hiding pirates have fled now,”  Sophia answered, contently exhaling a plume of smoke.

“Thank Yesh for that.   It all seems so pointless now.    When we were attacking the city, I knew we were going to be overwhelmed.   You’d think Gelden would have suspected that too.    It’s like he wasn’t just trying to take the Keep and get control of Windhaven but was... looking for something.”

“Such as?”   Syndi asked.

“Maybe Hobnail had some sort of powerful magic item that Gelden wanted.    I’m sure that one of Hobnail’s captains would have taken their boss’ stuff when he died, so I guess it would be possible that whatever captain that got his stuff was still here in Windhaven.”

“Well he didn’t find it,”  Allea commented.

“Are we sure?”  Muld asked, “We don’t know for sure, actually.    He may have escaped.    A man like Gelden could have had his own Autocaster.    Perhaps that was why he used the Ring of the Hands to attack the Elemental, because he knew that he could end this whole thing and escape by his Autocaster.   We’d all assume that he was dead.”

“Well, we can find out,”   Khord spoke up, pointing to the large pool of mud that had been the rubble of the keep, “If he is dead and didn’t have an Autocaster, his body should be somewhere in that mud.”

Sophia put her cigarette between her lips, stood up and waved her staff over the pool of mud.    A few moments later things began slowly rising up out of the mud.   Most were weapons or some of the non-stone items that had been inside the tower when it collapsed.

But amidst these items were about two dozen bodies, all caked with mud.   Sophia slowly pulled these corpses over to the edge of the muddy pool with her staff’s magic, and deposited them onto the pavement.

“What was he wearing?”  Zeatt asked as the group walked over to the bodies.

“A robe,”   Muld answered, “That should make it easier to locate him.”

Muld was right, for all but three of the corpses wore clothing or armor.       Khord turned all three of the robed figures over and wiped the mud off of their faces so they could examine them better.

The first one was half bald, quite fat and clearly human.   The second man’s robe was, on closer inspection, a long nightshirt and he too was human.

The third figure had blonde hair and at first they were sure that they had found Gelden until they looked closely at the corpse’s face and noticed the slight swell of breasts.   

“She’s half-elven, I’d say,”  Zeatt told them as she examined the corpse.   She turned to Muld and Syndi, “You are certain he wore a robe?”

“Yes,” Both of them responded, Syndi adding, “I remember seeing him just before the tower collapsed; he was wearing a robe.”

“Well, that means either someone pulled his body from the rubble or he did have his own Autocaster ring.”   Muld said.

“Great,” Syndi moaned.

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Princess,” Sophia replied, “Even if he did have an Autocaster, if it activated, he was seriously injured and it took him home.   He’s probably too weak to do anything and most likely far away from here.”

“But exactly where is he now?”  Muld wondered, “He could be back in Westmark.   Plus, we don’t know what he was looking for in the tower -if anything at all- and if he did locate some sort of magic, then he could be about to use it to assassinate King Eleazar and Queen Aurei.”

Everyone was silent at that for a moment.  

“I’ve got a small crystal ball in my pouch,”  Sophia finally said, “I’ll try to contact the royal court in Westmark and tell them of our fears.”

“I just hope it’s not too late already,”   Muld mumbled, wondering if this whole nightmare would ever really end.