“You do not.”
Lhors started as a resonant, low female voice wafted through the room. He hadn’t seen any movement of the drape, but she was suddenlythere.
The clerics had seemed small to the youth, but Eclavdra-ifthis was truly she-was smaller than Agya. Unlike the little thief, the drow wasalmost fragile-looking. She wore a flowing black robe barely touched with silver. Sheer fabric slid smoothly over high breasts and a flat belly. Long silver hair rippled from beneath a cap the color of her skin. Tendrils of her hair slipped across her wrists and shoulders as she shook her locks back from sharp ears.
Lhors caught his breath.
Faint as the sound was, the delicately boned face turned his way and large, dark eyes met his very briefly. Her lips turned in amusement.
The youth could feel himself blushing, but Eclavdra’sattention was again fixed on Nemis.
“You do not control the palace,” she said again. “I would know.” She laughedthroatily. “But it is good to see you again, Nemis. I expected you to return tome, but scarcely like this.” She gestured. “A handful of would-be heroes to…what? Take your vengeance against one who cared for you? I did, you know. Why else did I put up with your sulks and your angers, your loathing for your uncle, and your kind touch on my-”
“Save that,” Nemis said flatly. “This is justice, notvengeance-”
Whatever else he would have said went unheard. Eclavdra’speals of laughter stopped him.
“I see. You will take vengeance against me for the sake ofgrubby peasants and ignorant herders, is that it?”
Agya gripped Lhors’ arm when the enraged youth surgedforward.
“Stay put!” the little thief hissed. “Can’t y’tell? She wantsus angered! She wants t’get Mal and Nemis so mad as they can’t think proper,then she c’n kill us all.” She kept hold of him until he took a deep breath andlet it out slowly. She was right, of course.
Lhors had missed something in listening to Agya. The sorceress had apparently said something to upset Malowan. His mouth was grim as he took a step toward her. “What can you hope to get from this? All the fieldsand cities of Oerth? They are no use to you!”
“No? We could live again on the surface, if we chose-if itwere ours. In the meantime, it will be a source of wealth, worked for us by slaves with giants to oversee the harvests, collect the cattle and sheep, even dwarves to mine for us. Of course,” she added with a tight-eyed smile inRowan’s direction, “we will do away with aberrations such as that atonce.”
The ranger merely raised her chin and sighted down her arrow.
“Do not bother with that toy,” Eclavdra added with a nastylaugh. “I can turn it against you-or better, turn it against your sister.”
The drow’s hands moved sharply.
“Mal!” Nemis shouted a warning as, with a faint cry ofprotest and pain, Rowan turned away from the drow and aimed it at her sister. She struggled against the magic, but it was of no use. She let go the arrow, and it shot through the air straight into Maera’s throat. The ranger fell, oneflawless end of the arrow protruding from under her chin, the bloodied point emerging from the back of her neck.
Lhors dropped his daggers and ran to take the half-elf’sweight in his arms. She weighed less than he would have thought. He scooped her up as gently as he could and backed away. Agya was at his side, holding his daggers and ready to throw. Lhors eased Maera back close to the wall. He set her down gently on the floor, careful not to jar the arrow. The ranger was shuddering slightly but seemed to have passed out from the shock. Lhors could just hear a faint rasping. She was still breathing!
“Don’t touch the arrow,” rasped Gerikh, who had come over tohelp. “She’ll bleed more, and it might kill her. As long as she’s breathing, thepaladin can still save her.”
Lhors couldn’t see Rowan, but he could hear her franticweeping, then even that was lost under Eclavdra’s wild laughter. The rest of theparty had been stunned into inaction at the attack upon their comrade. Even Vlandar and Malowan stood stunned, eyes wide. In that instant, the sorceress darted forward to touch Vlandar’s arm then threw herself back against the drape,Vlandar screamed and staggered, his arm bleeding from shoulder to elbow.
“Get back!” Nemis bellowed.
Lhors half-expected some taunt from Eclavdra, but the drow seemed too intent on her spells to bother. As her lips moved this time, Malowan threw himself to one side and began a spell of his own.
The colorful drape behind the sorceress suddenly sprouted thorns. Eclavdra jumped, and when she stepped away from the wicked points, there was blood in her hair.
Not enough to slow her, Lhors realized unhappily. He glanced back at Maera. Dreadful as the rangers wound was, it was scarcely bleeding, and she was still breathing in ragged, shallow breaths. Maybe the paladin could heal her, if any of them managed to get out alive….
Lhors swallowed and turned away. Agya handed him his daggers and drew her own, shoving the dazed-looking Florimund behind her.
A swarm of lights darted around Nemis’ head-some spell ofhers, no doubt. But the lights didn’t seem to bother the mage. As Eclavdrabegan another spell, Nemis began one of his own.
Rowan, still sobbing, ran out to grab Vlandar from the melee and drag him back behind one of the couches. Her eyes were puffy and red, and tears ran two pale tracks down her dusty cheeks.
Movement along the wall caught Lhors’ eye. Bleryn hadKhlened upright and was trying to get him out of the open. Eclavdra shouted something and a searing flame tore across the room. The fire slammed into Bleryn, throwing him into the wall with a bone-shattering crunch, and the dwarf went up like a torch. He didn’t move as the flames consumed him.
Khlened, who had fallen heavily when the dwarf let him go, dragged himself onto his hands and knees. He tried to escape the hellish heat, but he was too near to get away. The barbarian’s cloak began to smolder, hishair steamed, and then he too was enveloped in flames.
Lhors clapped his hands over his ears to try to shut out the barbarians howls of agony, vaguely aware of Agya huddled tight against him. The agonized cries suddenly ceased, and the only sound from the far end of the chamber was the cruel crackle of flames.
Malowan turned briefly to speak in that direction, his eyes dark with pain. Whatever he did, the fire stayed where it was, and even the smoke didn’t seem toget any thicker.
“We end this now!” roared Nemis.
The drow laughed wildly. “You end this? I think not.”
She lashed out with a spell, and Malowan stumbled and clutched his eyes. Lhors tackled Agya before the girl could run to the paladin. A sidelong glance from Eclavdra told him the sorceress had wanted that.
Ignoring Lhors and Agya for the moment, Eclavdra caught hold of a mace and took a cautious step toward the paladin.
“Mal!” Nemis shouted. “Metal weapon!”
“Can’t see!” Malowan said. He sounded furious.
Eclavdra laughed again, and Malowan turned toward the sound, his hands moving. The handle of her mace suddenly turned a dull red and the drow’s laughter rose to a shriek of pain. She dropped the weapon, and it fellwith a dull thump, the carpet beneath it beginning to smolder.
Malowan’s lips curved in a grim smile.
“Paladin!” Rowan’s voice was low, but it cut throughEclavdra’s wailing and the crackling flames.
Malowan began backing toward her, moving his feet cautiously across the carpet so that he wouldn’t trip over anything.
Eclavdra held up her hands, and Lhors could see that her palms were red and badly blistered.
“You have only one spell to neutralize whatever I use againstyou,” Nemis said grimly. “I know you, Eclavdra-and that was your greatestmistake. When I woke today, I made sure I would have several such spells. Go ahead and try to blind me. You’ll be the one who cannot see. You wasted yourfire on two who couldn’t have fought you anyway. Now you cannot touch me.”