“Hurry!” Krystarn Fellhammer ordered the three drow males hurtling through the dimension door behind her. She carried the staff in one hand and gestured with the other. Her magic swelled inside her for a moment, then burst out to roll over the line of approaching rangers.
A streak of flame leapt from her forefinger to arc across the sky above the forest. A few of the rangers managed to stop short, evidently having seen the spell before.
Krystarn narrowed her eyes as the fiery sphere took shape in the air, then burst with a low roar that spread flames in all directions. At least a handful of the rangers died in the immediate inferno, and others were dreadfully injured. Fires caught in the grasses and trees, driving the animals back in panic.
The advance of the rangers halted when they realized they faced a truly deadly foe. A number of arrows streaked toward the drow.
Krystarn loosed a second burst of magical energy. Thick strands materialized in the air, spanning the distance between the trees in front of her, becoming a mass of sticky gray webbing that ran twenty feet across, ten feet high, and forty feet deep.
The flying arrows didn’t make it through the web, getting caught in the multilayered, sticky strands. Several of the rangers were also ensnared. A moment later and the webbing touched the fires burning in several spots across the ground. Extremely flammable, the webbing caught fire at once.
The rangers trapped within the webbing burned with it. Several of them screamed in agony. Many of them died. None of them were Baylee, Krystarn saw.
She gestured once more, unleashing the third spell she’d prepared for the raid. She felt the calm warmth surround her as the magic threaded into place before her just in time to stop two of the arrows that had managed to get through the webbing. Less than a yard in front of her, the arrows suddenly stopped dead and dropped to the ground.
Behind her, Captain V’nk’itn shook out the bag of holding that held the other drow males. They assembled around her at once, adding to her defense with their weapons. All of them were armed with hand crossbows, quivers tied down along their thighs with extra poisoned quarrels.
“The others,” Krystarn ordered.
V’nk’itn emptied the other bag and jumped back as the four figures suddenly rose up from the ground. The drow warriors drew back from their unwelcome allies, swords and axes going up in defense.
Krystarn had seen a skeleton warrior only once before in her life, before it had ripped out the throat of the woman she had been tomb raiding with at the time. She had barely escaped with her life. The experience had left its mark upon her, and she found she had to fight to retain her calm.
Now, seeing four of the skeleton warriors take up their dread two-handed swords and immediately walk toward them, the drow elf barely managed to stand her ground.
They all wore the remnants of finery, but the holes were large enough to spot the yellowed bone through the hunks of dark purple corpse-flesh flushed with congealed blood. None of the clothing or the House markings on them looked familiar. Two of them still had fragments of ears hanging onto their hard planed faces, and the ears held elven points. The elongated hands and feet also gave away the skeleton warriors’ mortal beginnings.
They growled in shrieking voices as they closed on the drow.
“Don the circlets!” Krystarn ordered. She watched as V’nk’itn and the other two men put the circlets they held on their heads and immediately lapsed into unconsciousness while remaining on their feet.
Little more than ten feet away, three of the skeleton warriors halted. The fourth continued on toward Krystarn, drawing its sword back to strike.
Krystarn fitted the circlet on her head, having no trouble at all of fitting her mind into the magic built into the band. Her senses swirled as she watched the fourth skeleton warrior suddenly freeze into position. A further mental push put her inside the skeleton warrior’s body.
She looked back at herself, noticing the way the firelight flickered over her own ebony skin. Then she tried lifting her sword arm, watching the long two-handed sword come up in the skeleton warrior’s grip.
Movement to her right drew her attention. She whirled, finding the skeleton moved slightly slower than she was accustomed to her own body responding. Before she could fully turn around, a young male ran his heavy war spear into her.
Krystarn cursed, not believing she had left herself open to such an attack. Then she was surprised when there was no pain. The spear expertly shoved through her ribs, finding the place where a heart was supposed to be. Rotted meat broke away in chunks, streaming down to the ground in front of her.
Realizing that she was in no danger of dying, Krystarn raised the two-handed sword and smashed the blade against the spear haft. The hardened wood splintered almost effortlessly. Before the ranger could get clear, she swung the blade again, decapitating her opponent.
Krystarn grinned, then reached down and pulled the spearhead from the skeleton warrior’s dead flesh. A moment later, she waved to the other three skeleton warriors and headed in search of more victims. Baylee Arnvold was at the forgathering somewhere, and she meant to kill him. No matter how many she had to kill first to do it.
Baylee spotted the skeleton warriors moving among the twisted shadows where the fireball had detonated. He had his sling in his hand, but against the undead, he knew the weapon would be almost useless.
A woman in priest’s robes ran toward the undead warriors. She lifted her staff and drove the bottom into the ground. The holy symbol at the top glowed a lambent orange as she stood her ground.
“It’s Vithyr!” someone shouted. “She’ll turn these undead horrors!”
Baylee wanted to shout a warning to let the cleric know that even her powers wouldn’t turn a skeleton warrior. Before the first word tore free of his throat, however, the lead skeleton warrior ran her through with its spear. Then the creature hurled her body away contemptuously.
“Gond protect these people,” Carceus the priest said. His round face held intense sorrow as he surveyed the dead and dying.
By then, Baylee was already in motion, heading back toward the undead at a run.
What are you doing? Xuxa demanded.
I’m going to help, Baylee replied.
They’re skeleton warriors, the azmyth bat protested. In order to harm them, you’ll need a magic weapon. Even then, there is the skill they still possess to consider as well.
They’re killing people, Xuxa, Baylee said. People I know … friends. I can’t sit back and do nothing. And those skeleton warriors are being guided by someone. They didn’t come here on their own.
Aymric, Karg, and Serellia caught up to him, their weapons bared in their fists. “Do you know about the circlets that bind them?” the elf asked.
“Yes,” Baylee replied. “Golsway and I have—” The pain hit him again, muffled partly because he couldn’t believe everything the watch lieutenant had told him. He’d have to see Golsway’s body to believe it. “There was one we faced a few years back in Lathtarl’s Lantern.”
“You survived,” Karg growled, “that means you learned something.” He held the dwarven double-bitted axe in his hands. “Me, I’ll trust this axe of mine. She’s got a bit of magic in her that’s stood me in good stead over the years.”
“My sword has been blessed by the Lady herself,” Serellia said, her weapon in hand.
“And my father gave me my falchion and this dagger.” Aymric brandished the two weapons. “Both had been in his family for generations, and both carry magic. But you are weaponless.”
“Slow the skeleton warriors down,” Baylee said. “Xuxa and I will see if we can scout up the people controlling them.” He mentally contacted the azmyth bat, sending her winging ahead. Many of the animal followers had already fled the immediate vicinity of the attack, driven before the fire and by the fear the undead creatures instilled with their very appearance.
Then they were in the thick of the fighting. Most of the rangers tried to hold their ground, but few of them possessed magical weapons that would do any damage to the skeleton warriors. Conventional weapons shattered against them or had no effect at all. The same held true for magical spells.
Leaping forward, Karg caught one of the skeleton warriors from the side, smashing his great axe down on its left arm. The keen edge of the magical axe slashed deep into the arm bone. Fractures split through the ivory. Amazingly, the arm remained intact.
The skeleton warrior turned immediately, striking out with the two-handed sword.
Karg blocked the blow with the head of his axe, trying to capture the blade between the bits and shatter it. Serellia stepped in as the big giant killer fought for his life. She drew her blade back, then brought it crashing against the undead creature’s ribcage. Bits of bone tumbled through the ribcage.
The skeleton warrior whirled back to face her. Both hands locked around the pommel of its weapon. It swung, bringing the sword off its shoulder.
Serellia ducked, moving under the whirling blade. Then Karg chopped down on the weakened arm again, this time cutting it from the skeleton warrior while the woman swung at one of the knee joints. Aymric met a second undead warrior with a flash of steel that quickly echoed with the grate of steel on bone. Then three hawks joined the battle, attacking the pits where the skeleton warrior’s dead eyes were. The creature itself would have known there was no hurt that could be taken, but the person controlling it didn’t. The skeleton warrior flinched away from the battering wings and tearing talons.
Baylee ran, noting that a third skeleton warrior was being delayed in its attack by the Waterdhavian watch lieutenant. Blue sparks jumped from her blade’s edge every time contact was made.
Xuxa! he called.
I have found them! she cried.
Baylee followed her directions, stepping over a man who had been disemboweled by one of the skeleton warriors. Burned bodies, the dead and the soon-to-be, lay scattered across the sward. Knots of fire hung in the trees and grew larger on the ground as more of the brush caught.
He followed the azmyth bat’s commands, going to cover when she bade him. Then he saw the drow elves spread out before him. His blood ran hot in his veins. He’d never had a love for spiders. Even during his earliest years when his tolerances were more forgiving, he’d never learned to like the eight-legged creatures. When he’d still been small, a giant spider in a dungeon Golsway had taken him to in Hluthvar had captured Baylee from the party and tied him up in its web before the old mage had found and freed him.
And the drow worshipped Lloth, Queen of the spiders.
The drow spread out in a semi-circle. A few dead surrounded them, but the rangers for the most part had fled before the skeleton warriors. A burning branch from the tree above broke loose and dropped, smashing against the invisible barrier in front of the woman Baylee surmised led the group. The drow society, he knew, was matriarchal rather than patriarchal, led by women rather than men. She would have to be the leader.
Surprise will be your only edge, Xuxa said.
Then we’ll have to make the most of it Baylee reached under his tunic and touched the white star of worked silver and the green leaf that was the older known symbol of Mielikki, his chosen goddess. He prayed to her as he touched the symbol, asking her blessing while he gathered his spell. When he felt it roaring and strong within him, he flung his hand toward the area where the drow hid behind the invisible shield.
The long grasses around the drow shimmered and came to life, suddenly twining around the dark elves. As they yelled hoarsely and started beating at the underbrush with their swords and axes, Baylee gathered himself and stood. Before the drow could react, the trees leaned down and seized some of them in their branches, wrapping them securely. In places, fire still clung to them, and drow screamed as they were burned.
The branches curled around the four stationary figures as well. Two of the drow lost the circlets from their heads, coming back to their senses and immediately fighting for escape.
Baylee looked at the confusion of drow and plants and trees, and knew that his actions must have been blessed by the Lady of the Forest herself. Never had he thrown the spell and had so much success with it.
He ran for the drow. Xuxa, attack the dark elves with the circlets first.
The azmyth bat flapped ahead of him, disappearing against the night sky. Of course.
A drow male fought free of the entangling underbrush just in time to meet Baylee’s rush head-on. The ranger held nothing back, covering himself so he didn’t risk serious injury.
The drow’s breath exploded out of him as Baylee’s shoulder drove deeply into his stomach. They went down in a tangle of limbs. The drow drew his mace back to swing, but Baylee rammed his head into the warrior’s mouth. He captured the drow’s wrist in one hand and fought for control.
A shrieking growl filled the area, and Baylee knew exactly what it was. With the circlets knocked from the heads of the drow elves, the skeleton warriors were free from their slavery. And the first urge that would hit them would be to destroy whoever had controlled them last, that was part of the sorcery.
The drow tried to bite him, mouth open wide and showing blood between the teeth. Motion to the right drew Baylee’s attention. Two other drow warriors sprang free of the underbrush as his spell faded. One of them swung his short sword at Baylee.
Yanking the drow under him, Baylee rolled over and used the man as a shield. He felt the drow’s muscles tighten as the short sword sank into his flesh.
Struggling to keep from getting stabbed, the ranger got only a glimpse of leathery reflex as the azmyth bat swooped in. One of the drow staggered and fell, muscles still shuddering and giving evidence of being hit with Xuxa’s controlled shock that her system could put off.
Throwing the dead man off him, Baylee pushed to his feet. Perspiration drenched him, but his muscles felt loose and ready. He wrenched the mace from the dead drow’s fist and blocked the other drow’s sword swipe. Metal clanged, then the ranger stepped away and whirled, coming at the drow again with a backhanded swing.
The blow nearly caught the drow unaware. The top of the weapon caught him on the side of his face, drawing a line of blood. The drow took a step back and raised his wavy dagger as well as the short sword.
“You’ll die for that indignity, human.”
Spotting one of the small, adamantite bucklers the other drow had lost at the moment of impact, Baylee lunged for it. He scooped it up and took three more strides to set it in his hand. Even then, he almost had the drow’s sword in his throat before he managed to deflect the blow with the buckler. The sword clanged across the black metal of the small shield, striking sparks.
Baylee feinted with the mace, drew the drow’s sword to block, then stepped in and hammered the man in the face with the buckler. The drow’s nose broke, and blood cascaded down his split lips.
The drow female’s voice rose in harsh command, speaking the grating elvish language of her kind.
Breathing hard, Baylee pressed his advantage. At first he thought he was about to be overrun by the other drow warriors flanking the one he engaged. But they pulled back unexpectedly. However, when the first skeleton warrior came crashing into the midst of the drow, he understood.
The two-handed sword wielded by the undead creature cleaved a drow in twain, dropping the halves to the ground. Fired by its own supernatural rage, the skeleton warrior didn’t hesitate about attacking the next drow. The drow warrior put up a valiant effort to block the creature from his mistress, but the skeleton warrior battered him aside, stretching him out unconscious or dead.
Slipping the sword of his opponent and pushing it away with the small shield, Baylee blocked the drow’s dagger thrust with the mace, then slammed the buckler into the man’s face again. Robbed of his senses by the blow, the drow collapsed at Baylee’s feet.
The female drow growled her order again, gesturing to the ground.
Shifting, Baylee spotted the circlet laying in the grass. Moonlight kissed the silver and glinted against the pure white of diamond. The ranger surged forward, intent on seizing the prize. If he gained control of the circlet but did not choose to exercise control over whichever skeleton warrior whose soul it contained, the undead creature would continue to wreak havoc while trying to reach its previous enslaver.
Baylee managed two steps, then a drow stepped before him. The hand crossbow in the warrior’s hand snapped as the missile fired. Baylee twisted in mid-stride, throwing himself off-balance. Xuxa! Get the circlet!
The azmyth bat broke into view, swooping low across the ground with her feet lowered. Baylee caught himself on one hand, then pushed up and swung a foot into the drow’s crotch. With a high-pitched shriek, the drow went down. Behind him, Xuxa dragged her claws across the circlet and ripped it out of the drow’s hands as he was about to take it. Her leather wings beat the air hard, trying to gain height as two other drow warriors scrambled after her.
Baylee locked eyes with the drow woman.
“Baylee Arnvold,” she hissed in the human tongue.
Roaring in rage, the skeleton warrior reached the drow it was after. The undead creature’s free hand reached out with reflex much too fast to be mortal. It caught the drow’s head in its bony grasp, then yanked the drow warrior from his feet.
Even held by his fearsome opponent, the drow did not give up. He flailed at the skeleton warrior with his short sword.
Baylee watched as the skeleton warrior’s inexorable strength shoved the drow’s head back. The ranger’s stomach chilled at the cruel death that was about to happen. It was one thing to kill a man in combat, but this was another. The drow’s eyes bulged in fear and resistance. With a snap, the dark elf’s neck broke and his body went slack.
The undead creature laughed with foul glee, then tossed the corpse to the side. It turned its empty black gaze toward the sky and spotted Xuxa. Unerringly, it took off in pursuit of the azmyth bat hovering over the area.
Baylee looked back at the drow female. She had frozen in place, the gold circlet once more on her head. She had known his name and his face. The fact that the drow party had invaded the forgathering was no accident. They had come for him.
And seeing the magic the drow female had at her command and remembering the story Cordyan Tsald had related, Baylee guessed the woman had helped in Golsway’s murder if she hadn’t planned it all herself.
He stepped toward her, intending to take the battle to her.