The Ghost King

CHAPTER 30

THE LAST MEMORIES OF CHANGING GODS
She did not lie limp in Drizzt's arms, but rather seemed to be watching an awe-inspiring spectacle, and from her twitches and gasps, Drizzt could only imagine the battle his friend Cadderly was waging with the Ghost King.
"Kill it," he found himself whispering as he stumbled out of the ruined cathedral, through the double doors and onto the wide porch. What he really meant was a private prayer to Cadderly to find a way to bring Catti-brie back to him. "Kill it," meant all of it, from the tangible and symbolic dracolich to the insanity that had gripped the world and had entrapped Catti-brie. It was his last chance, he believed. If Cadderly could not find a way to break the spell over his beloved wife, she would remain forever lost to him.
To the relief of them all, no monsters remained to confront them as they escaped the building. The courtyard was littered with dead, killed by Drizzt or by the ferocious assault of the Ghost King. The lawn, once so serene and beautiful, showed the blackened scar of dragonfire, great brown swaths of dead grass from the dracolich's touch, and the massive trench dug by the diving wyrm.
Jarlaxle and Bruenor led the way out of the structure, and when they looked back at the grand cathedral, at the life's work of Cadderly Bonaduce, they understood better why the assault had taken such a toll on the priest. Fires leaped from several places, most dramatically from the wing they had just departed. Where the initial assault of dragonfire had been muted by the power of the cathedral's magic, the protective spells had worn thin. The fire wouldn't consume the place entirely, but the damage was extensive.
"Put her down, friend," Jarlaxle said, taking Drizzt's arm.
Drizzt shook his head and pulled away, and at that moment, Catti-brie's eyes flickered, and for a moment, just a moment, Drizzt thought he saw clarity there, thought he saw, within her - she recognized him!
"Me girl!" Bruenor cried, obviously seeing the same.
But a fleeting thing it was, if anything at all, and Catti-brie settled almost immediately back into the same lethargic state that had dominated her days since the falling Weave had wounded her.
Drizzt called to her repeatedly and shook her gently. "Catti! Catti-brie! Wake up!"
But he received no response.
As the weight of her condition sank in, Athrogate gave a cry, and all eyes went to him, then followed his gaze to the cathedral's open doorway.
Out walked Cadderly. Not flesh and blood, but a translucent, ghostly form of the old priest, hunched but walking with a purpose. He approached them and walked right through them, and everyone shuddered with a profound sense of coldness as he neared and passed.
They called to him, but he could not hear, as if they didn't exist. And so, they knew, in Cadderly's new reality, they did not.
The old priest ambled to the tree line, the other six following, and against the backdrop of leaping orange flames, Cadderly began to walk and whisper, bending low, his hand just off the ground. Behind him, a line of blue-white light glowed softly along the grass, and they realized that Cadderly was laying that line as he went.
"A ward," Jarlaxle realized. He tentatively stepped over it, and showed relief indeed when it did not harm him.
"Like the barrier in Luskan," Drizzt agreed. "The magic that was put down to seal off the old city, where the undead walk."
Cadderly continued his circuit, indeed walking the perimeter of Spirit Soaring.
"If the Ghost King returns, it must be to this spot," Jarlaxle said, though he seemed less than confident of his assessment and his reasoning sounded more like a plea. "The undead will not be able to cross out of this place."
"But how long's he got to weave it?" Bruenor asked.
"He knew," Drizzt gasped. "His words for Danica ..."
"Forever," Jarlaxle whispered.
It took a long while for the priest to complete his first circuit, and he began his second anew, for the magic ward where he had started was already fading. Barely after Cadderly commenced the second pass, a voice called out from the darkness of the forest. "Father!" cried Rorick Bonaduce. "He is old! Mother, why does he look so old?"
Out of the trees rushed Danica and her children, with Ivan and Pikel. Joyful greetings and reunions had to wait, though, dampened by the pain that lay evident on the faces of three young adults, and on the woman who had so loved Cadderly.
Drizzt felt Danica's pain profoundly as he stood holding Catti-brie.
"What happened?" Danica asked, hurrying to join them.
"We drove it off, and hurt it badly," said Jarlaxle.
"Cadderly chased it when it left," said Bruenor.
Danica looked past them to the burning Spirit Soaring. She knew why her ghostly husband seemed so old, of course. Spirit Soaring was ruined, its magic diminished to near nothingness, and that magic supported Cadderly as surely as it held strong the timbers, stone, and glass of Deneir's cathedral. The magic had made Cadderly young, and had kept him young.
The spell had been destroyed.
Her husband had been destroyed, too, or ... what? She looked at him and did not know.
"His last thoughts were of you," Drizzt said to her. "He loved you. He loves you still, as he serves Deneir, as he serves us all."
"He will come back from this," Hanaleisa said with determination. "He will finish his task and return to us!"
No one contradicted her, for what was to be gained? But a look from Danica told Drizzt that she, too, sensed the truth. Cadderly had become the Ghost King. Cadderly, his service to Spirit Soaring and to the wider world, was eternal.
The ghostly priest was halfway through his third circuit when dawn broke over the eastern horizon, and the others, exhausted, continued to follow him.
His glow diminished with the rising sun until he was gone from sight entirely, to the gasps - hopeful and horrified - of his children. "He's gone!" Temberle cried. "He's coming back to us," Rorick declared.
"Not gone," Jarlaxle said a moment later, and he motioned the others over to him. The glowing line continued on its way, and near to its brightest point, its newest point, the air was much colder. Cadderly was still there, unseen in the daylight.
The fires had diminished greatly in Spirit Soaring, but the group did not go back inside the cathedral, instead setting a camp just outside the front door. Weariness alone brought them some sleep, in cautious shifts, and as dusk descended, the Ghost King, the apparition of Cadderly, returned to view, walking, forever walking, his lonely circuit.
Soon after, some crawlers returned, a small group seeming intent on again attacking Spirit Soaring. They broke out of the forest and shrieked as one as they neared Cadderly's glowing line. Off they ran, into the darkness.
"Cadderly's ward," Bruenor said. "A good one."
The group rested a little easier after that.
"We have to leave this place," Jarlaxle remarked to them all later that night, and that drew many looks, few appreciative. "We do," the drow insisted. "We have to tell the world what has happened here."
"You go and tell them, then," Hanaleisa growled at him, but Danica put her hand on her daughter's forearm to quiet her.
"The monsters have retreated, but they remain out there," Jarlaxle warned.
"Then we stay in here where they can't get at us," Rorick argued.
"The dracolich can return inside that ward," Jarlaxle warned. "We must lea - "
Drizzt stopped him with an upraised hand and turned to Danica. "In the morning, first light," he bade her.
"This is our home. Where will we go?"
"Mithral Hall, and Silverymoon from there," Drizzt answered. "If there is an answer to be found, look to Lady Alustriel."
Danica turned to her children, who frowned as one, but had no words to counter the obvious reality. The food they could salvage from inside the structure couldn't sustain them forever.
As a compromise, they waited another two nights, but by then, even Hanaleisa and Rorick had to admit that their father was not coming back to them.
And so it was a solemn caravan that made its way out of Spirit Soaring one bright morning. The wagon hadn't been badly damaged out in the courtyard, and with five skilled dwarves supplying the know-how, they managed to repair it completely. Even better news followed when they found the poor mules, frightened and hungry but very much alive, roaming a distant corridor of the cathedral's first floor, their magical shoes intact.
They set a slow pace down to empty, ruined Carradoon, then north to the road to Mithral Hall. They knew they would find enemies in the Snowflakes, and so they did, but with the combined strength of the five dwarves, the Bonaduce family, and the two drow, no sufficient number of crawlers, giant bats, or even nightwalkers could pose any real threat.
They set an easier pace than the fury that had brought them south, and two tendays later, they crossed the Surbrin and entered Mithral Hall.
* * * * *
Hunched and uncomplaining, the Ghost King Cadderly circled the ruins of Spirit Soaring that night. And every night, forevermore.
* * * * *
It was all a blur, all a swirl, an overriding grayness that defied lucidity. Flashes of images, most of them terrifying, stabbed at her sensibilities and jolted her from memory to memory, to senses of the life she had known.
It was all an ungraspable blur.
But then Catti-brie saw a dot within that sea of movement, a focal point, like the end of a rope reaching out to her through the fog. In her mind and with her hand she reached out for that point of clarity and to her surprise, she touched it. It was firm and smooth, the purest ivory.
The clouds swirled out, retreating from that point, and Catti-brie saw with her eyes clearly then, and in the present, for the first time in tendays. She looked to her lifeline, a single horn. She followed it.
A unicorn.
"Mielikki," she breathed.
Her heart pounded. She tried to fight through the confusion, to sort out all that had transpired.
The strand of the Weave! She remembered the strand of the Weave touching her and wounding her.
It was still there, inside of her. The gray clouds roiled at the edges of her focus.
"Mielikki," she said again, knowing beyond doubt that it was she, the goddess, who stood before her.
The unicorn bowed and went down on its front knees, inviting her.
Catti-brie's heart beat furiously; she thought it would jump out of her chest. Tears filled her eyes as she tried to deny what was coming next, and she silently begged to delay.
The unicorn looked at her, great sympathy in its large dark eyes. Then it stood once more and backed away a step.
"Give me this one night," Catti-brie whispered.
She rushed out of the room and padded on bare feet to the next door in Mithral Hall, the one she knew so well, the one she shared with Drizzt.
He lay on the bed in fitful sleep when she entered the room, and she released the bindings of her magical garment and let it drop to the floor as she slid in beside him.
He started, and turned, and Catti-brie met him with a passionate kiss. They fell together, overwhelmed, and hade love until they collapsed into each other's arms.
Drizzt's sleep was more profound then, and when she heard the soft tap of the unicorn's horn on the closed door, Catti-brie understood that Mielikki was compelling him to slumber.
And calling her to her destiny.
She slid out from under Drizzt's arm, raised up on one elbow, and kissed him on the ear. "I will always love you, Drizzt Do'Urden," she said. "My life was full and without regret because I knew you and was completed by you. Sleep well, my love."
She slipped out of the bed and reached for her magical blouse. But she stopped and shook her head, moving instead to her dresser. There she found clothes Alustriel of Silverymoon had given to her: a white, layered gown full of pleats and folds, but sleeveless and low-cut, and with no even hemline. It was a wrap designed to flow with her every movement, and to enhance, not hide, her beauty of form.
She took a hooded black cloak and threw it over her shoulders, and gave a twirl to see it trailing.
She went out on bare feet. She didn't need shoes any more.
The unicorn was waiting, but offered no protest as Catti-brie quietly led it down the dim corridor, to a door not far away. Within lay Regis, tormented, emaciated, hanging on to life by a thread and by the near-continual efforts of the loyal priests of Mithral Hall, one of whom sat in a chair near the halfling's bed, deep in slumber.
Catti-brie didn't have to undo the bindings holding Regis's arms and legs, for there was much she would leave behind. Regis broke free of his fleshy coil then, and the woman, his guide and companion, gently lifted him into her arms. He started to groan, but she whispered to him softly, and with the magic of Mielikki filling her breath, the halfling calmed.
Out in the hall, the unicorn went down to its knees and Catti-brie sat sidesaddle upon its back. They started down the corridor.
* * * * *
A cry from a familiar voice awakened Drizzt, its panic so at odds with the wonderful, lingering warmth of the previous night.
But if Bruenor's frantic call didn't fully break the sleepy spell, the image that came into focus, at the same time Drizzt became aware of the sensations of his touch, surely did.
Catti-brie was there with him, in his bed, her eyes closed and a look of serenity on her face, as if she was asleep.
But she wasn't asleep.
Drizzt sat bolt upright, gagging and choking, eyes wide, hands trembling.
"Catti," he cried. "Catti, no!" He fell over her, so cool and still, and lifted her unresponsive form to him. "No, no, come back to me."
"Elf!" Bruenor shrieked again - shrieked and not yelled. Never before had Drizzt heard such a keen from the stoic and level-headed dwarf. "Oh, by the gods, elf!"
Drizzt lowered Catti-brie to the bed. He didn't know whether to touch her, to kiss her, to try to breathe life into her. He didn't know what to do, but Bruenor's third cry had him rolling out of bed and stumbling through his door.
He burst out into the hall, naked and sweating, and nearly ran over Bruenor, who was shaking and stumbling down the corridor, and carrying in his arms the lifeless form of Regis.
"Oh, elf."
"Bruenor, Catti-brie...." Drizzt stammered, but Bruenor interrupted him.
"She's on the damned horse with Rumblebelly!"
Drizzt looked at him dumbfounded, and Bruenor nodded his chin down the corridor and stumbled toward the nearest connecting hallway. Drizzt supported him and pulled him along, and together they turned the corner. There ahead of them, they saw the vision that had accounted for no small part of Bruenor's frantic cry.
A unicorn carried Catti-brie, riding sidesaddle and cradling Regis in her arms. Not the equine creature or the woman looked back, despite the commotion of pursuit and drow and dwarf calling out to them.
The corridor turned sharply again, but the unicorn did not.
It walked right into the stone and was gone.
Drizzt and Bruenor stumbled to a halt, gasping and stuttering over words that would not come.
Behind them came a commotion as other dwarves reacted to the cries of their king, and Jarlaxle, too, ran up to the horrified pair. Many cries went up for Regis, lying dead in Bruenor's arms, for the halfling who had served well as steward of Mithral Hall and as a close advisor to their greatest king.
Jarlaxle offered his cloak to Drizzt, but had to put it on the ranger, who was out of his mind with terror and pain. Finally, Drizzt focused on Jarlaxle, grabbing the mercenary by the folds of his shirt and running him up against a wall.
"Find her!" Drizzt begged, against all logic, for he knew where the woman lay, still and cold. "You must find her! I'll do anything you demand ... all the riches in the world!"
"Mithral Hall and everything in it!" Bruenor yelled.
Jarlaxle tried to calm the ranger and Bruenor. He nodded and he patted Drizzt's shoulder, though of course he had no idea where to begin, or what precisely he would be looking for - Catti-brie's soul?
Their promises of fealty and riches rang strangely discordant to Jarlaxle at that moment. He would find her, or would try, at least. Of that, he had no doubt.
But to Jarlaxle's surprise, he had no intention of taking a copper for his efforts, and wanted no promise of fealty from Drizzt Do'Urden. Maybe something else compelled him then.