The Nether Scroll Chapter 13: Riots, Mind Flayers, and Tiep's Bravest Moment
Book: The Nether Scroll by Lynn Abbey Series: Lost Empires, Book 4 (Forgotten Realms) ISBN: 0-7869-1566-8
Chapter 13 switches to Tiep’s perspective, and it’s the best decision Lynn Abbey makes in the entire book. What happens next is absolute chaos, and seeing it through a terrified teenager’s eyes makes everything hit harder.
The Riot
Tiep remembers a riot from when he was six in Berdusk. Everyone ran toward the market. Then everyone ran away. A baker’s daughter he knew ended up dead. He didn’t connect the riot to the hunger that followed, because kids don’t string events together.
That memory lands perfectly because Ghistpok’s goblins riot exactly the same way. They see the dead swordswinger that used to be Grouze and just lose it. They stampede through their camp, trampling hovels and scattering the cooks preparing Hopper’s feast. The stew pot gets knocked over. The sacrifice that was supposed to buy goodwill is wasted because the goblins are too panicked to eat.
Going Underground
Sheemzher somehow gets Ghistpok to commit. The whole tribe will march into the mines. Women, children, everyone. Druhallen needs them as a sentience shield. A hundred goblins thinking their thoughts should create enough mental noise to mask three humans sneaking toward the athanor. While the Beast Lord feeds on the sentient buffet, they grab the scroll and run.
It’s a terrible plan. Everyone knows it. But it’s the only one they’ve got.
Underground, the goblins march in near-silence, herded by swordswingers the Beast Lord sent to guide its worshipers. Then Tiep notices something wrong. The goblins who went underground yesterday, who saw the proof, don’t even react when swordswingers appear.
“They don’t remember why they’ve come down here,” Tiep whispers.
The Beast Lord has already started eating their minds. The sentience shield is becoming a sentience trap.
The Sacrifice
Dru hands Tiep the freezing glass disk and gives Sheemzher his enchanted gloves. “Get to the athanor, get the scroll and get out. Don’t worry about me.”
Dru saw something. The plan has failed. The Beast Lord is already in control. So he does the only thing left. He offers himself up.
Goblins and swordswingers swarm him. They take his sword. Rozt’a charges in and gets frozen by the alhoon’s mental grip. Both become prisoners.
And Tiep stands invisible in the corridor, holding Sheemzher, watching his foster parents dragged away.
Getting the Scroll
Here’s where Tiep becomes more than the thieving kid everyone expected. He takes Sheemzher into the egg chamber, lifts him to the top of the athanor. Sheemzher claps his hands and pulls the scroll free. The chamber explodes with light. Sheemzher gets thrown across the room but holds the scroll. Tiep wraps it in his shirt, tucks it against his back, and gets the injured goblin on his feet.
Then he has to decide. The exit is right there. He has the scroll. He could leave.
But he hears Dru groaning. The Beast Lord has its tentacles wrapped around Druhallen’s head. One has pushed into his nose. It’s eating his brain, thought by thought.
Tiep offers the scroll to Sheemzher. “You take this to your good lady.”
Sheemzher refuses. He puts his spear to Tiep’s chest. “Good sir friend. Sheemzher kill god. Sacrifice.”
Sheemzher tells Tiep to wait for a signal. When the fourth tentacle goes rigid, the Beast Lord is fully committed to feeding. That’s when to strike.
Tiep charges. His sword vibrates against the alhoon’s defenses. Plain steel can’t penetrate. But it gets the Beast Lord’s attention. It turns away from Dru. Dru collapses. And the Beast Lord goes after Tiep.
The experience is horrifying. His memories flow away. A tentacle enters his nose. He can’t breathe. He wishes for death.
The Real War
Then something saves them. Not something they planned. Living mind flayers from the Underdark. Six of them, maybe more, gliding into the chamber. Slick and shiny where the Beast Lord is dry.
The battle is spectacular and horrible. Fire falls on prostrate goblins who can’t move. Ghistpok lights up like a candle. The mind flayers fight with invisible spells. The Beast Lord fires back with stolen wizardry.
But the humans don’t matter anymore. Three wounded people and a goblin are background noise in someone else’s war. Tiep recovers enough to move. Dru gets to Rozt’a. They grab unconscious Sheemzher and stagger toward the exit.
One last look back. An explosion. The Beast Lord vanishes. The surviving mind flayers notice the humans. Tiep learns a word he’ll never forget: cephalophagy. The consumption of a living brain. Then the mind flayers turn away to chase the Beast Lord, and the humans are free.
They stumble through dark tunnels with a shirt-wrapped scroll and a dying goblin, leaving Dekanter’s war behind them.