Laraelra smiled and said, "I'm ready. Let's go."
Meloon and Osco moved ahead, and Laraelra stepped forward to cross Kulzar's Alley. For the third time in as many days they stood at the threshold of Roarke House.
"Ready?" Meloon asked, hefting Azuredge, the blue runes shining brighter than the golden sunshine rising behind them.
"No," Laraelra said, her voice intermingled with Vajra's. "Let» us.
She leveled the duskstaff at the door, and a blue-black beam erupted from the globe. Laraelra saw four separate flashes of energy as the beam punched through and dispelled Ten-Rings' defenses. A massive hand of energy formed from the beam, and a blue-black fist punched down the door to Roarke House. A brief shimmer around them all, and their shadows fell across the threshold.
"I suppose this means we can enter," Laraelra said, turning to Meloon and Osco. She smiled. "After you."
She heard a voice in her head from Vajra. Don't be overconfident, Elra. I can only cast spells and counter those I'm expecting. Ten-Rings is predictable when it comes to his outer defenses, but his spells in combat may be less so.
The trio moved cautiously into the star-and-moon covered entrance hall, Meloon in the lead. He stepped toward the cellar door, and Laraelra hissed at him, shaking her head. She whispered, "Even if he flees that way, Harug and his friends have some surprises behind every way out down there. What we need to find is probably upstairs." She pointed up the stairs that spiraled up the outer wall and overhead.
"I'll scout ahead and disable any traps or locks I find along the way," Osco whispered. "Just don't expect to see me easily, thanks to this ring." With that, Osco hopped up the stairs silently, slipping into a shadow and vanishing from sight.
Meloon dashed up the stairs after him, Laraelra following. Energy flared out of the crystal, enveloping Meloon and then Laraelra in protective spells, though Laraelra still felt nervous heading into unknown territory. They reached the first landing and paused at the first ajar door. This floor had a number of doors off this hallway while the stairs continued up, winding along the wall. Laraelra barely noticed the ball of flame bouncing down the stairs ahead of them when Meloon grabbed her and forced her through the door. He shoved her inside and kept his shoulder to the door as explosive gouts of flame scorched the wall alongside the partly open door.
"Thanks, Meloon," Laraelra gasped. "How did you-"
"Just lucky, I guess," Meloon said, and he dashed out the door and up the stairs toward the next level.
Laraelra followed, looking up the winding stairwell that led to the third and fourth floors of Roarke House. Dominating the stairwell atrium and facing east on the front wall of the house was a massive stained-glass mosaic filled with crescent moons and stars. She spotted a figure on the stairs ahead of and above Meloon- Khondar Naomal in olive green robes and a bear-pelt cloak, as if he intended to go out in the cold quickly. Elra cast a spell at him, and the purple dart caught him in the throat. His hands stopped glowing and his current spell dissipated, allowing Meloon the chance to catch up to Ten-Rings. He swung the axe and shattered some kind of magical shield around his target, but the mute wizard held his right fist toward Meloon, and a ring on his thumb pulsed with gray magic. As if he'd been shoved hard, Meloon fell backward, rolling down the stairs until Laraelra broke his fall.
On her knees, Laraelra leveled the duskstaff at Ten-Rings, and Vajra's illusory image settled over hers as the Blackstaff cast a spell Elra had never seen. A flurry of tiny feylike beings flew out of the staff s crystal, and they zipped around Khondar, each trailing snowflakes, glowing embers, a high-pitched buzz, and a light green mist. The faeries harassed his remaining shields and unleashed fire, ice, sound, and poison gas upon him. The faeries managed to pierce some of his defenses. He roared in anger. Meloon shook his head clear and got to his feet.
Khondar looked down at his foes and chuckled. "They sent you two to stop me? Is the new slip of a Blackstaff too tired to face me?
Or too afraid?" He squinted and saw the duskstaff in Laraelra's hands. "Ah, so she works through you, scrawny creature. Well, we can't have that. You cannot hold the staff."
Horrified, Laraelra was unable to stop her grip from opening, despite Vajra's voice in her head screaming, No! While in a slight daze, Laraelra willed her freed hands into casting a spell, and a cone of blinding colors flashed out of them and up the stairs to envelop the wizard.
"An apprentice's spell, easily thwarted," Ten-Rings said, behind his magical shield.
"Kept you distracted, though," Meloon said as he swung the massive blue-edged axe and let it go. The axe flew straight at the wizard, easily slipping through his spell defenses. Khondar's left arm went up and he lowered it, the wide sleeve torn and darkly wet with blood.
Ten-Rings howled in anger and pain, but his attention was now on the axe, which landed on the stairs beside him. "Ha! You've given me another key, foolish barbarian. The First Lord Ahghairon made Azuredge himself. You've sealed my victory!"
But when Khondar reached for the axe, the blue sapphire set in the pommel flared with light. The axe twisted in Ten-Rings' grasp, as if it tried to get away from the wizard's touch.
"She won't work with anyone but a wielder she's chosen," Meloon said, drawing his little-used short sword from his belt. "A wielder worthy to defend Waterdeep."
"I'm far worthier than you, boy!" Khondar yelled, as he stepped backward up the stairs and away from Meloon and Laraelra. "You'll not keep me from my destiny!"
"They kept you from noticing me, Dumb-Rings," Osco said, his voice coming from behind the wizard.
Khondar twisted to see who spoke, and the halfling became visible as he drove his two daggers into Khondar's back, eliciting another raw howl from the wizard. More than twice his foe's size, Khondar's backhanded slap was more than enough to send Osco tumbling down the staiis and colliding with his friends.
Khondar panted, in pain and blooded by the attacks, but he still limped up the stairs by leaning on the railing. His free hand moved furiously, preparing a spell. "I've no time for this or for you. My destiny awaits, but I neither want you three to escape my wrath, nor do I want to damage my house overmuch."
Ten-Rings cast his spell as Laraelra lunged for the duskstaff on the stairs below her, but she could not wrap her hands around it and only shoved it along.
All three of them yelled as the world flipped, and they fell upward.
Meloon grunted as he slammed into the underside of the stairs above him, but Osco and Laraelra, who were closer" to the railing, fell up toes over brows all the way to the top of Roarke House. They lay stunned and groaning against the skylight four stories above the hard marble floor below. Ten-Rings stood at the railing, his feet hooked to its underside, while his robes and cloak fell upward. Strangely, the duskstaff made no noise at all when it fell upward to cling to the jagged perch under the stairs near Meloon.
"I'll not waste another spell on you lot," Khondar said, but he held onto the railing with white knuckles. He gritted his teeth as the red gem on his left forefinger ring glowed with regenerative magic, and his wounds closed.
"Khondar, catch!" Meloon yelled from above him.
The wizard's attention snapped upward, and he saw the warrior using his short sword to flip something at him against the pull of the reversed gravity. The duskstaff flipped end over end, and reflex brought up Khondar's arm and hand to catch it or fend it off. The staff settled against his palm with a crackle, and Khondar's eyes went wide as he remembered what happened when unworthies touched a Blackstaff.
The explosion blew Khondar up the stairs and through the stained glass window, launching him out across Gunarla's Dash and onto the roof of Kendall's Gallery. From his odd vantage point, Meloon could see the wizard laying stunned. Meloon and his friends remained pinned helplessly by his spell. I've got to try to get them before the spell ends, Meloon thought, or they'll fall. Maybe I can reach Elra's staff…