Oath of Vigilance (Abyssal Plague) by James Wyatt

Author:James Wyatt [Wyatt, James]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780786959327
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Publishing
Published: 2011-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

With Captain Damar’s permission, Albanon led Kri out of Moorin’s Glowing Tower and into the streets of Fallcrest. Though the sky was only hinting at the approach of dawn, frightened and desperate looking people were everywhere. Families huddled together for warmth against the autumn chill, taking shelter under the eaves of the larger buildings as they snatched at sleep. A few people just stumbled around, wide-eyed with shock, oblivious to the cold and dark.

“The Tower of Waiting,” Kri said, for the fourth or fifth time. “It’s on an island, yes?”

“Correct. We’ll go to the Upper Quays and find a boat to take us over to the island.”

“How far to the quays?” Kri asked.

“Across town,” Albanon said. “A quarter of a mile, perhaps?”

“Quickly!”

Albanon quickened his pace, striding along the Bluff Ridge Road toward the river. Fear and anxiety welled in his chest and gripped his stomach. The town was unlike anything he’d ever experienced, the fear of its people hanging over the streets like smoke. Moorin had occasionally shared stories from his childhood, in the dark decades after the fall of Nerath and the Bloodspear War, that suggested such horrors as Fallcrest was now experiencing, but to Albanon they had been nothing more than stories, coated with the romance of memory of the distant past.

As he walked, his eyes met the despairing gaze of so many refugees—people, citizens of the town, who had lost family members, their homes, all their worldly possessions in this attack. Here and there he saw people laid low with illness, sleeping in alleys for lack of a safe sickbed. Some had great sores on their skin, and on one young man he saw a distinctive crust of red crystals growing around the sores.

For seven years, Fallcrest had been Albanon’s home as he studied with Moorin, and he felt their pain. It wasn’t the same town he had left behind in such a hurry, and it might never be the same even if the demons were driven off or destroyed.

“If the demons are all over Lowtown,” Albanon said, “what’s Nu Alin doing in the Tower of Waiting? Commanding Vestapalk’s troops?”

“You saw the demons at the Temple of Yellow Skulls,” Kri said. “Calling them troops implies some kind of order in the horde. Most of them are stupid brutes. I expect they have pack leaders, but I think Nu Alin has other purposes in the tower.”

“But won’t the tower be crawling with demons? What makes you think we can even get to it?”

“I suspect most of the demons are busy spreading chaos and destruction in Lowtown,” Kri said. “A stealthy approach should serve us well, and if that fails, well, they should not underestimate our power.”

“There’s only the two of us,” Albanon said. “And no one to keep the demons from getting too close.”

“The demons that frighten the Fallcrest guard pose no such great threat to the likes of us.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I’m right,” Kri said. “Now walk faster!”

Albanon quickened his steps again, though he was getting short of breath.

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