Rufo laughed at him. He laughed at Deneir, and Cadderly knew it, knew that everything Kierkan Rufo had become mocked Deneir and all the goodly gods, mocked the value of, the very concept of, morality. And in Cad-derly's thinking, that, in turn, mocked the very purpose of life.
The young priest, gray eyes steeled against this instrument of perversion, began a slow chant, demanding that the song of Deneir come into his head. Fire, Cadderly knew. He needed a spell of fire to hurt this one, to burn wounds that would not regenerate. How he wished Dorigen's onyx ring still held its dweomer!
Cadderly dismissed that wasted, unproductive thought and focused on his call to Deneir. He needed fire to cleanse the perversion, fire given to him, channeled through him, by his god. Cadderly's head began that familiar ache, but Cadderly did not relent, sent his thoughts sailing into the main flow of the melody's stream.
"I have her," he heard cocky Rufo say, and Cadderly's heart fluttered at that moment, and his concentration, for all his sense of purpose, wavered.
Pikel gave a squeal and rushed out in front of Cadderly, waterskin tucked under his arm. He howled and pressed, and the skin responded with a flatulent burst. Pikel looked down at the empty thing, the last drops of water dripping from its end. Then the dwarf looked to Rufo, looked into the monster's angry scowl.
"Uh-oh," Pikel whimpered, and he was diving aside before Rufo's backhand even connected. He rolled through several tight somersaults, until he collided with a tree, then hopped up, dropped his club to the ground again, and began that same curious dance he had taken up in the corridor of the library.
Cadderly did not turn aside, did not, would not, retreat from Rufo this time. The reference to Danica had disrupted his concentration, had pushed him from the flow of Deneir's song, and he had no time to fall back into it. He had his faith, though. Above everything else, young Cadderly had his convictions and would not show fear in the face of the vampire. He planted his feet firmly and presented his holy symbol, crying with all the strength he could muster, "Get you back!"
Rufo staggered to a stop and nearly retreated a step before he found, within the evil swirls of the chaos curse, the strength to resist. There was no smile on the vampire's face, though, and where his expression had once shown confidence, now there was only determination.
Cadderly advanced a step, so did Rufo, and they stood facing each other, barely three feet apart.
"Deneir," Cadderly said clearly. How the young priest wanted to fall back into the song of his god, to find a spell of fire, or a most holy word that would send waves of agonizing discord through the vampire's skinny frame! He could not, though, not with Rufo so close and so very strong. This had become a contest of will, a test of faith, and Cadderly had to hold on to the ground he had found, had to present his symbol with all his heart, and all his focus, squarely behind it.
The very air seemed to spark between them, positive and negative energy doing battle. Both men trembled with the strain.
In the distance, a wolf howled.
Every second seemed an eternity; Cadderly thought he would burst from the pressure. He could feel Rufo's evil, a tangible thing, washing over him, denying his faith. He could feel the strength of Tuanta Quiro Mian-cay, a diabolical brew he had battled before, a curse that had almost defeated him and all the library. Now it was personified, stronger still, but Cadderly was older and wiser.
Rufo tried to advance, but his feet would not come to the call of his desires. Cadderly concentrated on merely holding his ground. He didn't hope that Pikel would come rushing in, as before. He didn't hope for anything. His focus was pure. He would hold Rufo here until the dawn if necessary!
Bolts of green energy slammed into the young priest's ribs. He gasped and recoiled, and by the time he straightened and regained the edge of concentration, Kierkan Rufo was upon him, clutching his wrist, holding Cad-derly's arm high to keep the symbol of Deneir out of his face.
"Allies have their places," Rufo chided.
Cadderly managed to glance to the side, to see Pikel hopping about and swinging his club desperately, chasing a teasing Druzil around the lowest branches of the nearest trees.
Rufo pressed forward, and Cadderly struggled helplessly. Ivan groaned on the ground behind him - Cad-derly was surprised that the dwarf was even close to consciousness. Ivan would be of no help, though, not this time.
"I have her," Rufo said again, confident of his victory, and despite the rage that welled within Cadderly, he was caught in such a disadvantageous position that he could do nothing against the vampire's terrifying strength. Rufo was bending him backward; he thought his backbone would snap.
The vampire jerked suddenly, then again, and Rufo straightened, easing the pressure on Cadderly's spine. Rufo jerked again and groaned, his features twisted in pain.
As the fourth sting hit him, Rufo hurled Cadderly backward to the ground and wheeled about, and Cadderly saw four long arrows sticking from his shoulder blades. A fifth bolt whistled in, slamming Rufo's chest, staggering him, his red-glowing eyes wide with surprise.
Shayleigh continued a steady walking advance, calmly putting another arrow to her bowstring and sending it unerringly into the vampire. From the side, Pikel, tired of the fruitless chase, came bobbing out of the trees, club held high as he bore down on Rufo. The dwarf skidded between Cadderly and the vampire, and readied the club.
Rufo spun about suddenly, his hand thrusting in the air, sending forth a wave of energy that froze Pikel momentarily.
"Come find your lover, Cadderly," the vampire spat, taking no heed of yet another arrow that dove into his side. "I will be waiting."
Rufo's form blurred, a green mist coming up about him, engulfing him. Pikel came from his trance, shaking his head vigorously, his generous lips flapping noisily, and wound up to swing, but stopped abruptly as Shay-leigh's next arrow passed right through the insubstantial vampire and thudded hard into the club.
"Oo," muttered the dwarf, considering the bolt.
"Is he going to keep doing that?" roared Ivan, and both Cadderly and Pikel swung about, surprised by the outburst.
Cadderly, back to his knees, stared hard at the tough dwarf - tough indeed, for Ivan's wounds, injuries the young priest had thought nearly fatal, did not seem so bad now!
Ivan noticed the stare and returned it with a wink, holding up his left hand to display a ring, a ring that Van-der had given him at their parting. Cadderly knew the item, an instrument of healing that could even bring its wearer back from the grave, and everything then made sense to him.
Everything concerning Ivan, at least. The young priest rose to his feet and looked back the other way, to Shayleigh. What was she doing here, and how much might she know of Danica's fate?
"I have just returned," Shayleigh greeted as she neared the three, as though Cadderly's impending stream of questions were obvious to her. "I left Danica and Dorigen yesterday, in a pass high from this place, and would be halfway to Shilmista."
"Except?" Cadderly prompted.
"I saw the smoke," Shayleigh explained. "And your friend, Percival, came to me. I knew then that there was trouble at the library, but..."
Cadderly's face gave her pause, the young priest leaning forward, eyes wide, mouth open in anticipation.
"But I know not of Danica's fate," Shayleigh finished, and Cadderly slumped back on his heels. Rufo had told him Danica's fate, and he found that now, with Shay-leigh's confirmation that Danica and Dorigen had reached the library, he could not deny the vampire's claim. Also, knowing the fate of the library, and the apparent probability that Danica and Dorigen had walked into its midst, Cadderly believed he now understood the source of the fire in the small chapel. Starting a conventional fire that would so consume a room in the stone library would not be easy, for there was little fuel to feed the flames. A wizard's fireball, though (and Dorigen was quite adept at those), would have sufficed.
"More than fire has attacked the library," Cadderly replied grimly to the elf. "Rufo has become something sinister."
"A vampire," Shayleigh said.
Cadderly nodded. "And there are others."
"One less," Shayleigh replied, to which the three friends looked at her curiously. "I found Dean Thobicus behind the library," the elf explained, "in the burial vault. He, too, was undead, but he was wounded by sunlight, I believe, and not so strong."
"And ye beat him?" Ivan asked, the dwarf neither sounding nor looking very hurt at all anymore.
Shayleigh nodded. She stepped near Pikel and pulled hard on the arrow embedded in the dwarfs tree-trunk club. It came out with a pop, and Shayleigh held its tip up for the others to see. Its sharp point glistened a bright gray in the moonlight.
"Silver-tipped," Shayleigh explained. "The purest of metals, and one that the undead cannot ignore. I have few left, I fear," she explained, indicating her nearly empty quiver. "We encountered some trolls ..."
"So we saw," said Ivan.
"I recovered some of those, and all the ones I used against Dean Thobicus," Shayleigh said. "But Kierkan Rufo just took a few with him, and I fear that my supply of arrowheads grows small." To emphasize her point, she reached down to a belt pouch and jiggled it.
"Me axe wouldn't hurt the things," Ivan huffed.
"Adamantine?" Shayleigh asked, nodding her head expectantly.
"That and iron," Ivan explained.
"Neither would my spindle-disks hurt Rufo," Cadderly added. "But my walking stick" - he held the fabulous ram's-headed baton up before him - "is enchanted, in addition to being silver. It struck Rufo a terrible blow."