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"Ferran Martinez ... I am Ferran Martinez, ruling cleric of the sacred order
of Tyr. I am the high cleric who remained in the temple while each of my men
died, then died of star-vation myself because I could not bear to go outside
and face them. The bloody dragons came.
They burned and killed and left our mission's work undone."
"What keeps you undead, Brother Martinez? What work remains undone? Can I be
of help?" Ren and
Shal just looked on as Tarl coaxed and soothed the agitated ap-parition.
The creature swung its phantom arms straight through the altar repeatedly, as
if to strike it, but
man-aged only to knock over several dust-coated candlesticks from the flurry
of wind it generated. "Devils to the Abyss! Blast them in the fiery furnace!
Sleep, men! Rest." He ended in a piteous scream.
"Brother Martinez, can I help?" Tarl repeated.
"The city of Phlan is dead! Monsters! Nothing but mon-sters! And the temple
... it was never used. We had just finished building it, but there were no
worshipers, only the clerics who built it. No peace in the city!
No peace! Nothing but walking dead and unending nightmares ... and the Lord of
the Ruins, Tyranthraxus, still lives! Cursed creature from the pit!
Power-grabbing blas-phemer! May his soul rot!"
"They've reconstructed part of the city, Brother Mar-tinez. It's civilized
again. In fact, they call the new part Civilized Phlan."
" 'Civilized Phlan'?" the specter repeated, then grew still and floated closer
to Tarl.
Tarl flinched involuntarily but stood firm. "Yes, and we're building a new
temple to Tyr. That's why I
came, to aid others in the construction and startup of the new temple."
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"A new temple to Tyr? Then you can use the holy scale?" The specter whisked to
the altar and pulled back a cloth. A silver balance, the balance of Tyr, God
of War and Justice, stood on the table. "You will see that this gets used in
the new temple?"
Tarl dropped down on one knee, both awed and hum-bled at the prospect of being
given a second chance to de-liver a holy symbol of his god to the temple in
Phlan. "I will see that the scale sits proudly on the altar of the tem-ple in
Phlan."
"Then I can at last rest," said Ferran Martinez, "and so can our brothers." He
held the scale out to Tarl, and Tarl wrapped it carefully in the cloth that
had covered it for five decades.
And the apparition of Ferran Martinez reclined at the foot of the altar, with
its ethereal hands folded across its chest, and vanished in a puff of mist.
* * * * *
Outside the keep, the grounds stood empty. No skeletal warriors walked the
courtyard. In fact, the most notice-able thing was the sunshine that filled
the sky over Thorn Island. The brilliant orange of the setting sun glis-tened
unimpeded off the walls of the temple and the tall grasses that covered the
courtyard.
6
Restless Spirits
When he heard that the three tavern brawlers had ac-tually returned from Thorn
Island, Porphyrys
Cadorna left his dinner and rushed to the council chambers. He had waited
anxiously before for the return of other groups, but he had always been
disappointed. This time he had intentionally gone about his normal business,
not wanting to waste his energies only to be left disap-pointed. But the three
were back, and according to Ca-dorna's attendant, they claimed to carry proof
of their success. The councilman positioned himself at the dais and signaled
for the attendant to let them enter. He would inform the rest of the council
of his victory when he was sure of their achievements and not before.
The cleric, Tarl Desanea, entered first, followed by the big man who called
himself Ren o' the Blade and the young mage, Shal Bal. They were covered with
dirt and grime, and from the big man's movements, Cadorna could see he was
struggling with some great pain. Still, they made an impressive trio. Cadorna
felt a chill run through him at the thought of meeting any of these three
under less than amicable circumstances.
"So... what have you learned that will help us recover Thorn Island?" Cadorna
asked after thumping his gavel twice, as if to silence a nonexistent audience. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]