But in just a few heartbeats, a shimmering wave rolled back and forth around the combatants and the demonic symbol sparked and disappeared. One woman stood tall against the unholy power.
Behind the initial dwarven shield wall, behind her adoptive father and his battling entourage, Catti-brie would not be bowed by demonic magic. She stood with her silvery staff upraised, the blue sapphire glowing fiercely, throwing forth disenchanting waves, inhibiting the Abyssal magic.
And so when Nalfeshnee paused to consider her, a relieved Guenhwyvar leaped upon the beast’s massive shoulder and bit down hard, igniting a fountain of demon blood.
And when Marilith moved forward fast to bury the lurching Drizzt, he came up straight in front of her, and fast turned the tables, driving her back yet again with flashing ripostes.
“Ah, good girl!” Bruenor congratulated her, and he and Athrogate worked in powerful unison to topple yet another vrock, the black-bearded dwarf hardly pausing to consider the win before sweeping out his morningstars to swat away another trio of manes.
“Bwahaha!” he roared happily. “We’re coming Drizzle-Elf! Ye just hold yer ground!”
Bruenor looked to Catti-brie, thinking to ask her for some evocations of her own to help blast clear the way to the drow and his cat, but he found the woman fully engaged, looking at Drizzt, her stare purely focused as if she were expecting some signal.
Catti-brie knew her husband better than any, and understood the flow of the battle he now waged, and so indeed, she was looking for a specific cue.
Drizzt had battled a marilith before, and knew one great trick this demon could play: a quick teleport spell to land her behind her opponent. He knew, too, the disenchantment that had come over the area, and understood the source of it. So when Marilith came at him only to find him relieved of his pain and ready to counter, then found herself in a desperate backslide, Drizzt guessed what to expect.
The huge demon hissed and brought all of her blades in for complete parries, then threw them out wide, rearing away from Drizzt-and thinking to teleport behind him.
But she could not, and so he got her with a sudden leap and thrust, Icingdeath puncturing her belly.
And chewing hungrily at her life-force.
The demon went into a berserk rage, driving Drizzt back, three arms sweeping across one way, then back again, followed by the other three with the cruel weapons they held. Around came her snakelike tail, trying to sweep the feet from the drow, and he only barely stayed ahead of the sudden, brutal assault.
And in one dodge, he glanced back and caught an opening in the demon-on-dwarf battle to catch a glimpse of Catti-brie. He found her staring back. He only had time to offer a slight nod, but that was all she needed.
Drizzt sped out to the side and reached into his innate drow magic. Purple flames of faerie fire covered the demon. Marilith’s own magic suppressed that almost immediately, but Drizzt hadn’t evoked the dweomer for any reason other than to verify that he could, that Catti-brie had correctly dismissed her disenchanting wave.
Marilith came on, and Drizzt stopped running away, turning back to her and charging abruptly.
He led with a globe of impenetrable darkness, covering the huge demon, and into it he sped. Even as his vision failed him, he heard the cries, the collective gasp, from his friends and allies behind.
It was a daring move, to be sure, and never in his life before had Drizzt put this much trust in his anticipation of his opponent’s actions-and in truth, he didn’t really know where that anticipation had come from. How could he know?
But yet again, this was not conscious thought guiding him, only instinct and confidence and trust.
He just knew that Marilith was already moving to counter. Perhaps it was the press of the air, the tiny currents from her arms and blades. She was leading with her left arms, and so her left hip was forward, and in that pose, her blades would come across up high.
And so Drizzt fell flat to the floor, and felt the rush of air above him.
He was up almost instantly and knew the backhand follow was coming fast, and from all the little things he had just subconsciously noted in the last back-and-forth of battle he knew, too, that Marilith would be shifting her left hip to an even posture, and as he understood her general positioning, so, too, must she know his.
So he leaped and turned horizontally in the air, and Marilith’s low blade went beneath him, scraping the floor. And her middle blade, too, was too low, but perilously close. The third blade slashed across so near to his face that if Drizzt hadn’t wisely turned his head, it would have taken his nose.
He rolled as he descended, even as the blades passed, twisting, driving his legs down, catching the floor in a crouch. Three more blades were right behind, but Drizzt went forward still, springing forth inside the demon’s reach.
Springing forth with one scimitar out in front of him, one blade hungry for demon flesh.
He felt Icingdeath enter the demon’s skin in the hollow between her breasts, and he kept going forward, and the material body of the Abyssal creature could not resist or repel the bite of the frostbrand.
The howl filled the vast cavern. From behind the dwarves, Catti-brie cried out in fear. On a ledge above Faelas and Jaemas, very near to the lower exit, Jarlaxle, too, cried out, seeing Drizzt leap into that darkened globe where Marilith surely waited.
“Elf!” Bruenor cried, and he and all around him held their collective breath in the agonizing heartbeat it took for the combatants to clear the darkness globe.
Marilith charged in a frenzy, Drizzt up against her. She bit at him and slapped at him, tried to turn her weapons and stab at him, and it seemed impossible that he had not been badly hit yet, and it was impossible that he would not soon be-particularly when Marilith threw aside a pair of her weapons and hugged him tight.“Elf!” Bruenor cried again, and he started to add, “Girl!”
But Catti-brie didn’t need the prompt. With no other choice, she had already raised her staff to the demon and let fly a great forked lightning bolt, one that hit both Marilith and Drizzt, a stunning, jolting blast that rocked the demon back over her serpentine tail and sent Drizzt tumbling and flying from her grasp.
The agile drow hit the ground in a roll and came up spinning back in a defensive crouch to face the demon, neither of his blades in hand.
Icingdeath ate at the demon, but not quickly enough, and on she came.
But an axe, an old, many-notched axe, newly reforged in this very place and burning with the enchantment of flames, appeared spinning out of nowhere to embed itself deeply into the face of the great six-armed demon.
Marilith stared at Drizzt hatefully from either side of that battle-axe. She held there, leaning back over her snake tail, her other weapons falling from her grasp, her hands reaching for the hilt of the scimitar that was buried deep in her chest. She wanted to grab it and tear it free, but she simply could not.
Icingdeath ate.
“By the goddess,” said Faelas Xorlarrin, shaking his head in disbelief. He and his cousin looked up at Jarlaxle to find him smiling widely and nodding knowingly.
He sensed their looks and held out his hand, inviting them to note that Drizzt was already on to other things, though Marilith remained in place. In his roll and rise, he had replaced his scimitars with his bow, the deadly Heartseeker, and now took a bead on the other demon behemoth.
The panther leaped up from Nalfeshnee, straight into the air. The demon reached high and roared.
An arrow entered Nalfeshnee’s mouth.
A second, following before the first ever struck, entered the demon’s left eye, and a third took Nalfeshnee in the right eye.