Holy Opposites 23

	Ryaire cleared her illusory plate and stood.  “Well.  It’s time for you to wake, little one,” she said.  She rested her hand on my shoulder.  “When you are ready, please walk through the doorway into the mist.  You will awaken from the illusion, right where I left you.”

	“Okay.”  I polished off my wine and stood too.  “Thank you for your help, my Lady Ryaire, I appreciate everything you’ve done.”

	“You are my bonded servant now, Cavria,” she reminded me with a smile.  “I extend certain privileges to the faithful.”


	I awoke with a smile on my cheeks.  I straightened up and looked at the sky – indeed, not a minute had passed, but I felt refreshed, as if I had slept ten hours.  I saw Axio’s shape appear in the doorway as I rose.  “Cavria,” he said sounding pained, “I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have assumed that tone with you before.  When you were talking about your nightmare, I was too sharp with you.”  He sighed.  “Especially since I had just done the same thing.”

	I smiled, recalling my earlier suspicion.  “It’s quite all right, my friend.  Go to bed.  I’ll speak with you in the morning.”


Chapter Seventeen


	Morning came in a rush of noise.  The door nearly blew off the hinges as one of the sisters rushed in.  “Cavria!” she said, waking me up.  “Cavria, please, come out and see the Watch!”

	I rolled over, checking to see my amulet was still in place – and I wasn’t happy about sleeping with a cord around my neck, I promise you – and clambering out from under the covers.  “What?  What’s happening?” I demanded.

	“The Watch have found the Baneites,” the sister said breathlessly.  “They’re rallying for an attack.”


	I put real clothes on and bolted out into the chapel, where two Watchmen were waiting.  Axio was right behind me, hurriedly trying on his shoes.

	“Ah, yes, Cavria, Axio, good,” Solen said, waving us over.  “The Orsar was just talking about you.”

	An elf in Watch armor straightened up and saluted as we approached.  “I’m sorry to shake you out of your beds this early, Paladins, especially so soon after your last action, but we have a problem,” he said immediately.  “The Watch wizard we sent to the sight of that gargoyle rookery found evidence of a fixed sending spell rune inscribed into the floor.  It could send and receive messages of twenty-five words or fewer, anywhere on the planet.  The wizard analyzed it, and they found a nearby resonance.”

	“A recipient of the spells?” Axio demanded.

	“It seems the sending was directed towards a small farmstead north of the city walls,” the Orsar said, “but it also infrequently communicated with a place we suspect to be in Undermountain.”

	I quailed.  Undermountain?  The most terrifying dungeon in all of Toril?

	“Which one are we hitting first?” Axio demanded.

	“The farm.  There’s a caravan headed north on the highway to Rassalantar,” the Orsar explained.  “The farm is near the road.  It’s in a well-patrolled area, so we are assuming that the enemy has some means of either avoiding or circumventing the local law.  There are over a hundred Waterdhavian Watch and a thousand Guard within a day’s walk, so they clearly will be prepared for an assault  However, having that many of our people stationed nearby means they probably aren’t relying on pure force to defend them, but concealment instead.”

	I looked out the open door of the chapel at the morning crowds.  “Do we have any clue what we’ll be facing?”

	“None whatsoever,” the Watch officer admitted unhappily.  “But at least we can prepare now.  The farmhouse is small, it’s not isolated, we can be there in under a day’s march.”

	“We’ll be ready.  When and where do we meet?” Axio pressed.

	“Tonight, midnight, the northern gate,” the Watchman said.  “Bring any magic items you may possess which can interfere with spellcasting.  Counterspell totems, holy water, that sort of thing.”

	Axio saluted, razor-sharp.  “We’ll be ready.”


	We spent the day preparing.  I asked Ryaire for my new spells, and Axio drew holy water from the small container at the back of the church we kept for emergency exorcisms.  Solen blessed the water personally, while the other few fighters in the temples, like the chapel guard and the Paladin trainees, readied to defend the place from Baneite retaliation.  I was a bit scared, but I was as ready as I could have been, and the Guard was coming with us.

	Where the Watch were the defenders of local law, the Guard were the military might.  A mixture of spear foot, light lancers, swords, bows, crossbows, and combat mages (alchemists, sorcerers and the like), the Guard represented the central military authority of Waterdeep.  Two full Sword teams, ten men each with an officer in charge of both, would accompany us into the field, alongside a Watch patrol.  The thirty of us would together hit the farmhouse like a tornado, and rip the Banites asunder.

	Axio was just finishing with the holy water bottles when I found him.  He was splashing a bit of water on the palms of his hands and whispering a prayer.  I waited for him to finish before I spoke.  “Axio?”

	“I’m ready,” he said.  He turned to face me, and his expression rang with certainty.  “Are you?”

	“I’m fine,” I said, and it was weird.  I was scared, but not as scared as I thought I would have been.  Maybe it was what I knew about our force.  With thirty people, this would be heavily slanted in our favor.

	“Good.”  He hefted his sword and shield.  “Time to go.”


	Outside, Axio saluted his parents and Solen, and marched down the street towards the north gate in full battle regalia.  He had his cloak, coat, armor, cape, hood, and helm all on, and he cut a swathe through the crowd with his imposing bulk.  Cavria followed in his wake, and the two made excellent time.  They were at the Gate just as the Guard contingent rolled up.

	The officer was addressing his men, and the Watch.  “All right, soldiers,” he snapped.  “We’re heading north, to put a stop to this Baneite filth.  When we reach the farm, we hit from the south, and attack the main house.  The Paladins… ah,” he said, as he registered the approach of the two divine fighters.  “Yes, these two are the ones who found the gargoyle rookery, so they’ll be joining us.  We need to try to leave the buildings intact as possible, since we need to ascertain that there is a sending circle there.  Any questions?”

	One Guard raised his hand.  “Ah, Captain?”

	“Yes?”

	“These cultists, er… they’re taking kids, right?”

	The officer sighed.  “Unfortunately.”

	“Do we need to worry about crossfire, then?” the Guard asked uncomfortably.

	“Absolutely.”

	“I see.”  The rest of the Guard fell silent.  The Captain looked around, then over at the two Paladins.

	“You, Paladins… Axiopistos, and I’m afraid we haven’t met,” he said politely.

	Cavria offered him a parade-perfect martial salute and clicked her armored heels.  “Sir!  Sister-Paladin Cavria, Order of Ryaire, sir, and long-arm specialist.”

	The Captain returned her salute.  “Yes.  You and Paladin Axiopistos will provide healing and counter-magical support.  Have you holy water?”  Axio held up a pair of jugs and a small satchel of glass bottles.  “Excellent.  It is not unknown to us that the slaves of Bane may summon daemon mercenaries to protect their installations,” the Captain explained.  “Have you been briefed?”

	“Thoroughly,” Axio replied.

	“Good.”  The Captain returned his attention to his soldiers.  “Men, we depart at midnight.  Prepare your rations and waterskins, because we’re not stopping until sunrise.  When we reach the place we’ve set aside for staging, we will rest under cover of our camouflage blankets until evening, then storm the place under cover of night.  Fall out.”

	The Guard saluted, and they and the Watch moved over to a bag-and-blanket-stuffed cart.  The Captain turned to the two holy warriors.  “And you two,” he said.  “These Baneites.  Anything to expect?”

	Axio shook his head.  “Bane cultists like magic that causes pain, but they don’t really focus on any one specific spell above others.  They may use undead, they may not.  We won’t know until we arrive.”

	The Captain scoffed under his breath.  “So we shall,” he said darkly.


	The two Paladins rode behind the Guard in their mounted patrol out from the gate at midnight.  The ride was a mere twenty miles past the edge of the city, but in the darkness, they were bound by their need for stealth.  The group left the road at the appointed place and walked off into the fields.  The carts and horses were tied up under the eyes of the Watch.  The soldiers and the Paladins crept forward as far as they dared and pulled camouflage blankets, covering themselves.

	The day was longer now.  The group sat still under their blankets, flat on the ground, eating their hardtack and sipping water.  When the sun went down, the group rose again, walking the final two miles to the farm in silence.


	The Captain held up a mailed fist when the collection of soldiers was within firing range of the farm with their bows.  “Hsst!  Darkvision front, eyes out for traps,” he muttered.

	Axiopistos and Cavria were both among those present with darkvision.  Both crept forward, glancing about as they did.  The ground and sparse vegetable crops didn’t seem to be trapped in any way.

	Axio felt a mote of concern in his mind as he advanced, crouching low and holding his weapons for silence.  He scanned the windows for any movement – nothing.  The barn and farmhouse had dim candles in a few windows, but there were no people he could see, even as he closed to a hundred feet.

	The Guard followed them from patch of vegetables to patch of vegetables.  The candlelight didn’t spread far from the windows, and the moon was dark tonight behind storm clouds, though the rain hadn’t started.