The Sword of Retribution

The Spies - Part 5

     The priests spent almost the whole night questioning the vampire, often going over the same question again and again when they suspected that he was being evasive or not telling the whole truth. They drained him of everything he knew about the Shadowarmies, the Shadow itself and the intentions of the enemy, learning more than they had ever dared to hope, including some things they’d never even suspected, things that surprised and terrified them. Evidently, this creature had been quite high in the enemy’s command hierarchy and was in possession of a great deal of privileged information.

     Despite all this, though, he was unable to tell them anything of what they really needed to know. He’d never been to Arnor itself and knew almost nothing about the very highest levels of their command structure, such as it was. The only thing he was able to tell them was that several of their Generals were ark raks, undead wizards and priests, who lived in the ruins of the Emperor’s palace and who reported directly to the Shadowlord’s deputy himself. He was unable to tell them what kind of creature the Shadowlord’s deputy was, or whether he was actually, physically present in the Shadow. He suspected, though, that the deputy remained in The Pit, and communicated with his Generals via an interplanar scrying device of some kind.

     Eventually, he had nothing left to tell them, and the relentless questioning ceased. The vampire glared at them, and if looks could kill the three priests would have dropped dead where they stood. “I’ve told you all I know,” he said in a voice that almost dripped with hatred. “Now you will let me go, as you gave your word you would.”

     “I said there would be certain conditions,” replied Resalintas. “You may go free if you agree to them.”

     “What are the conditions?”

     “First, that whenever you feel the need to drink the blood of a living creature, you will prey only on evil people and creatures. Evil humanoids, preferably, and people who worship evil Gods. You will never again do any harm to the pure and innocent.”

     “Agreed,” said the vampire.

     He spoke too quickly for the priest’s liking, though. He had no intention of keeping his word, obviously, but Resalintas wasn’t concerned about that. He had a way of making sure that the creature kept to his agreements. “Secondly,” he continued, “you will ensure that you create no other vampires like yourself. If you do kill any evil creatures, you will do it in such a way that they remain dead forever.”

     “Agreed,” said the vampire again.

     Resalintas leaned slightly over the coffin and glared down at the creature, his eyes blazing like steel diamonds, making it cringe despite its every effort to maintain a measure of composure. “And thirdly,” he said, “there’s a little job we’d like you to do for us. Nothing too difficult, and when it’s done, you will be free to go where you like and do what you like, subject only to the first two conditions.”

     “What do you want?” asked the vampire nervously.

     “We want to know more about the Shadowarmies, more than you’ve been able to tell us so far. In particular, we want to know about Arnor, about what’s going on in there. About the ark raks and the other Generals, and about the Shadowlord and his deputy. We want you to get this information, and any other bits of information that might be useful to us. You will go to Arnor and learn as much as you can, returning here to report when your mission is complete. That’s all. As I said, nothing too difficult.”

     The vampire stared at him as if he were mad. “That’s not possible!” he protested, his voice trembling with fear. “They can read minds, even the minds of the undead, and they’d know about my intentions the moment I entered the city. You may threaten me with torture, but the best you can do is nothing compared to the agonies they can inflict, such pain as even the Gods themselves cannot comprehend. Go to Hell, priest. Only a fool would dare do what you want.”