What manner of creature are you ? one of them asked in its coarse, whispery voice.
"He is called a gnoll," Gair supplied.
A gnoll, it repeated. It cackled then, a sound like glass shattering. A living thing. We hate life, it continued. We will end the gnoll's life.
The others cackled, too, and Orvago threw his paws over his ears and backed away faster. The laughter was physically painful.
We will end your life, the second parroted, and we will make you one of us. You will thank us for your death.
They shot forward with a speed that amazed the gnoll. Impossibly black arms grew claws and reached out, slashing at Orvago's chest. He waved his hairy arms in an effort to fend them off.
The cackling continued, and two more spirit shapes floated forward. Four of the things circled the gnoll now, taunting him, darting in and scratching him with nails as sharp as any sword. The cuts were not deep, but they hurt terribly. Each swipe brought with it a freezing jolt. Their touch was colder than the snow!
Orvago retaliated with his own claws, but to little effect. His arms passed right through the black bodies and made him feel as if he'd thrust his arms into an icy pond.
We'll make you one of us! another tittered. The sentiment was quickly repeated until the coarse whispers drowned out his snarls. Make you dead!
Make you dead! The words became a chant that was echoed around the clearing. Dead. Dead. Dead.
"No!" The voice was Gair's, and it gave the creatures pause. "Leave the gnoll alone!"
The black creatures still hovered around the gnoll, darting in and out, eyes burning. The gnoll continued to bat at them as he backed away, glancing around. The hollow tree where he'd hidden the sword wasn't much farther away.
"Leave the gnoll alone," the elf repeated, moving forward even as Orvago continued to back away. "I want to talk to him."
The gnoll continued to back away as he tried to look beyond the black bodies to see his friend, carefully looking him over to make sure the black creatures had not injured the elf.
Gair understood the gnoll's concern. "I'm all right. They haven't harmed me."
We would not hurt him. Only help him. The master summoned us and gave us life, one of the black creatures explained.
Orvago's heart thundered in his chest, and his thick eyebrows rose in bewilderment.
Intensely glowing eyes moved to within an inch of the gnoll's face. They exuded a frigid wave, and they took on a reddish cast that grew steadily brighter. The gnoll's teeth chattered, and he backed away faster now. He was at the edge of the clearing now, nearing the hollow tree.
"Orvago, don't leave." It was Gair's voice again. "We need to talk, you and I. Well, I suppose I have to do the talking, and you have to listen very carefully."
The gnoll's eyes darted back and forth between the black shapes, vigorously shook his head and motioned frantically for the elf to come with him.
"That wouldn't be a good idea-not right now, anyway." Gair's tone was terse. "I need to stay a while longer with my new friends."
Orvago howled mournfully, and he desperately motioned to the elf once more to come with him. The woods had closed completely about Orvago now as he had maneuvered himself farther down the trail. The black creatures were still following him, passing through trees and effortlessly keeping pace.
Kill him? one asked in its whispery voice. Can we kill him, Master? Then we can go to your settlement, drink the life there.
Gair shook his head. "Not the citadel grounds. Goldmoon is there."
Not the citadel, Master. As you wish. But this animal? Let us drink the life from this animal, Master. You summoned us to do your bidding. Please let that bidding be to kill this creature.
The gnoll glanced through a gap in the icy black bodies, met Gair's stare.
"I summoned them, Orvago, just like the spirit said." The elf was keeping pace too, but he remained behind the black creatures, sticking to the center of the trail. "I used a spell that Goldmoon taught me, and because I summoned them, I am their master," He paused and threw his head back to look at the stars, inhaled deeply, then dropped his gaze to the gnoll. "I owe Goldmoon much for this enchantment, Orvago. She uses her magic only for the living. I simply made a few adjustments and called upon my father and Darkhunter for help. I choose to use my magic on the dead now."
Orvago was close to the tree now. Just a few more steps. The gnoll raised his hairy arms, trying to bat the creatures away.
The black things cackled. It sounded like breaking glass to the gnoll's sensitive ears. Gair was laughing, too. "Orvago, it takes more than that to drive them away. Indeed, I don't think I could make them go away even if I wanted to." His eyes narrowed. "Which I don't."
Suddenly Orvago's back was against the tree. He was feeling behind him for the hollow spot. There. He was working the fingers of his right hand inside the hollow trunk, stretching them lower.
"I know you consider me your friend, Orvago," Gair began.
The gnoll nodded his head animatedly.
"I'm not sure I can trust you. I know you can't talk, at least not in my language, but you can get your point across when you want to. I don't need Goldmoon finding out about my dark companions, my loyal wraiths."
Can we kill him now, Master? the largest of the black creatures asked. Its eyes consumed Orvago's vision. He reeks of life. Let us drink the sweetness from him.
The gnoll's red eyes grew wide and he swallowed hard. That word "Master" again.
Can we, Master? the large wraith repeated.
"I suppose so… yes, Darkhunter. You may kill him."
Orvago howled in disbelief.
"You may kill him," Gair continued, "but do so quickly. I do not want the gnoll to suffer for long."
The large wraith moved to Orvago, touching its icy chest to his hairy gray-green one. The gnoll yowled in agony at the painfully frigid sensation. The undead creature persevered, and Orvago slid to his rump, sobbing and twitching, growing weaker by the moment.
The gnoll's paw fumbled behind him, his fingers moving erratically. The pain was becoming even more intense, threatening to render him unconscious.
The wraiths' whispers grew louder, filled with promises that the gnoll would die but not die, that he would be raised at the behest of their elven master to walk with them. Stronger than the living, more powerful in darkness.
Behind them, Gair's voice grew irritated. "I told you to finish him quickly. There will be others to kill at your leisure!"
Tears poured from the gnoll's eyes, both from the pain that wracked his body and from the knowledge that his elven friend was ordering his death. His fingers continued to fumble about in the opening as one of the creatures thrust its intangible hands into his thighs. The icy sensation was almost more than the gnoll could bear, and he screamed, his voice sounding practically human in its pain.
"Enough of this, I said!" Gair spat. "Kill him now!"
With his free hand, Orvago tried desperately one last time to bat the creatures away. His hand passed through them again, adding to his icy agony. But when his claws raked at the eyes of the creature in front of him, the one called Darkhunter, the thing backed away. If he couldn't harm their ghostly forms, maybe he could hurt their eyes. And if he could hurt them, maybe he could kill them, or at least make them return to wherever they had come from.
The clawed fingers of his right hand finally closed about the carved pommel of the hidden sword. He drove Darkhunter back with the other by poking at the creature's eyes. Another spirit darted in under the sweep of his shaggy arm, its claws out and digging into his side.