Dark Army: Best-Laid Plans

Kas Luthien watched with satisfaction as the Dwint’lithar girl tried to assassinate Cassadia Almonda, and was foiled by her protective magics: a half-dozen images of the diminutive wizard dancing in and out, absorbing each attempt to strike. Almonda and her images paused to study the hapless girl. "Did you really expect that to work?" Then she dropped a Wall of Force, trapping Fartathren against the edge of the air dock, with nothing but emptiness behind her. 

They'd tried to turn Almonda's ambush; of course they had. The would-be King might come striding chivalrously forward to offer honorable combat, but Ruin and Fartathren knew better. And Fartathren had almost managed it, but now she was trapped, imprisoned where all she could do was watch the action. Ruin cut an ogre apart, but that no longer mattered. As long as her bodyguards held them back, Almonda could take them apart with her magics...

The Dwint’lithar girl offered Almonda a jaunty wave, then leaned back and dove off the edge of the dock. She was grinning as she did it, and it wasn't because she thought she'd sacrificed herself to escape their vengeance. No, that was one of Fartathren's accursed I know something you don't know expressions. Damn that girl--

Ah, here we go. A hulking corpse was shambling out from the sewing room, and the two ogre Lieutenants were still forming a shield wall protecting Almonda. And there was no way for the others to get behind her, with her clever wall of force in place. 

Then the human priest rushed forward, slamming into one of the ogre lieutenants and pushing him back, breaking the blockade they'd formed. The sorceress was firing off magic missiles, but they were ineffective... except in removing the last of Almonda's images. For a moment, the entire scene went red-yellow-white in the darkwater pool. Almonda had dropped a fireball, a powerful one. One of the ogre lieutenants had gone down; the other, and the hulking corpse, were damaged also. Damn you, woman, Luthien thought, though he was profoundly aware that what she'd just done was little different from what he'd done in setting this all up. But the King was there too, having arrived just in time to be burned with his fellows. That was good. 

Then the damned elderly gnome fired off a magic missile and took out the last of Cassadia Almonda's images. 

Ah, here we go! The hulking corpse reached Ruin, and bit him; it flailed at him with its arms but missed. Come, servitor! Do your work! 

Ruin cut it apart, and Luthien almost screamed in frustration. He controlled himself, barely, by an effort of will. Even here, amongst those who served his will, he must keep up appearances. 

The remaining ogre had stepped back to shield Almonda. King Tavros charged it, taking some damage on the way in but cutting into it as well; Luthien couldn't tell which of them had come off the worse from the exchange. Then the sorceress lifted her staff, and a bolt of pure darkness slammed into Almonda, staggering her. "How?" she demanded. "Kas Luthien said you would have no magic!"

They don't! Luthien thought desperately. They can't! Our mistress laid down rules to prevent it! 

And yet, clearly they still did. Not all of it, not even enough of it, but... some. He smiled as Almonda's next spell pinned the slender young sorceress and started to crush her. Yes. Try that again, you little bitch. She followed with a scorching ray that brought down the human priest, and his grin widened. The ogre lieutenant, with only one opponent left, attacked Tavros... 

...It missed, and Tavros cut it nearly in half. The half-dragon king's strength was formidable, but he could still be stopped. Almonda would know to--

Tavros moved forward, leaning into the heavy wooden crate that the halfling wizard had been hiding behind and driving it forward to pin her between it and the wall of force that she'd so carelessly cast earlier. And at that moment the Dwint’lithar girl came racing into the scene from the direction of the stairs, her hand extended to fling a dagger. 

Somehow the king knew it was coming. "Azrael," he said, and then leaned aside with the ease of long practice. The dagger buried itself in Almonda's left eye, and the halfling slumped, dead or dying. Vecna, preserve me! The prayer went out with the force of true desperation. The Blood of Vecna was an order of formidable warriors, but with Almonda down all the two berserkers could hope for was to do some damage before they died. 

He watched as they did some damage before they died. Kas Luthien swallowed as the second one fell: the tip of Tavros' blade had barely touched his throat, but the veins there had erupted like a crack in a dam. And even then, the damned priest didn't die! The sorceress, despite her obvious incompetence, had managed to stabilize him -- and the others were closing in on the two Thoughts who'd been waiting in reserve to flank them when they were occupied with Almonda's defenders. The sorceress had shrugged off their first attack, and since then they'd been fighting on the defensive -- still striving to win, but flanked at close range by Ruin, Tavros, and Fartathren. And Ruin, who'd started life as an idiot barbarian, was suddenly using a bow like a proper elf! It's not fair, Luthien thought, and then stomped on that thought and locked it away. He'd built his entire career on the knowledge that life wasn't fair, and those who know how to find the cracks and take advantage of them were the ones who came out on top.

Martini and her friends might have survived the library. They might be able to disappear from his vision. They might even have overwhelmed Almonda, and... He shrieked as Ruin threw Almonda's corpse off the edge of the dock, to sink into Mar Dentro, and then set fire to the structure that was supposed to become a flying ship. That little fucking brat...

Very well, then. Endgame. And I have been preparing my pieces for them. All my pieces for them. Hierophant Malafar will not win this bet, and they will serve me in death as they should have served me in life.

Luthien sighed and let the image fade. He didn't need to watch them any longer. Any fool could see what was coming: a reckoning. He just needed to make certain that he was on the right side of it. And with so many friendly faces to do his bidding, he could.