The creature gave one last screech of pain and toppled, with ground splitting thunder, to earth. Taslin followed, wheeling like a leaf in the wind.
"For you, Asson," she whispered as she tumbled toward death.
Twilight's mouth opened as the purple monster screamed and rasped, whipping back and forth like a headless snake in its death throes.
"Burn me," was all she said.
Gargan tossed Liet his axe and sprang forward to catch the priestess's acid-spattered body. Taslin, miraculously alive, coughed and sputtered in the goliath's arms. She had somehow kept hold of her sword-the half that still remained. The other half-a full two hands of steel-was lodged in the dying purple worm's head.
Again, silence settled over the cavern, and the exhausted adventurers stood rapt. Then a chorus of vengeful shrieks came from the exit tunnel. A score of grimlocks, all wielding stone axes, flooded in to avenge their fallen god.
Davoren cursed in single infernal syllables as the creatures swarmed toward him. He waved his hands, spreading dark power like slime. It struck the ground in the grimlocks' path and spread into a pool of impenetrable blackness, its gleaming surface reflecting the charging monsters. Then he fled.
As the first grimlocks stepped into the pool, a thousand tentacles of dark energy sprang from the black matter, wrapping the limbs and bodies of the eyeless creatures. Many were caught, and they screamed against the sucking blackness. Half the grimlocks charged through the tentacles, however, and they ran toward the intruders with slavering mouths and single-minded purpose.
Twilight saw Davoren running ahead of them, but only just.
"Run!" Twilight shouted to the others. "We can't fight them all!"
"We aren't to save Davoren?" asked Liet, drawing a startled look from the elf. "We need him-you said it yourself!"
"Sand," hissed Twilight. She had never hated being right this much. "Gargan! Slip! Take Taslin! Run!" She looked to the exit but shadows of grimlocks moved within. She cursed. "Another exit! Go!"
The goliath and halfling nodded. "Another tunnel," said Slip. "That way!" She pointed to a small opening halfway around the cavern from the exit. They ran for the tunnel, Gargan cradling the limp priestess like a child swathed in a wet blanket. Taslin moaned in the goliath's arms.
With a brutal nod, Twilight turned to Liet. "Lad, you're with me."
"Uh," said Liet, looking at the oncoming horde, "I didn't mean-"
"Now!" shouted Twilight, darting toward the grimlocks like an arrow.
Liet cursed and sprinted after her, huffing and puffing as he went.
Ahead of them, the warlock panted and fought to keep running. The grimlocks were still gaining. They would soon overtake him, or drop him with a spear throw. Unless Twilight had a chance to argue the point.
"Here!" she said, wrenching Liet to a halt.
"What is it?" Liet stopped and leaned over, hands on his knees, his bloody sword dangling. His shield was split and would hardly withstand more punishment.
Twilight closed her eyes. With a hiss of her will, she brought the shadows flickering about her body, ready to to cover their retreat. Then she paused, cursing. She had no energy left for a shadowdance, and little enough for manipulating the darkness. And the creatures had no eyes anyway-shadows could not save them.
Liet misunderstood. "It only now occurs to you that we're going to die?"
Twilight ignored that. "I guess we'll have to do this the energetic way," she said. She fell back into a fighting stance, awaiting the rushing grimlocks. Davoren came roaring past, running full out, and didn't even slow to help them.
"Typical," murmured Twilight.
At that moment, an ear-splitting roar came from the entrance tunnel, drawing all eyes and ears. There stood a distorted troll with limbs of various sizes and patchwork, greenish and reddish skin.
"Blind-dims!" roared Tlork, hefting his hammer. "They's mine!"
Only half a dozen paces from Liet and Twilight, the grimlocks skidded to a halt. They turned and charged Tlork, hissing with rage.
"Run!" Twilight snapped, snatching Liet's arm. "Come on!"
Together, they followed Davoren back to the side tunnel, fighting the exhaustion seeping into their limbs and the fire tearing at their lungs. Gargan waited there, the last grimlock's black sword in hand, ready to fend off any that pursued.
He needn't have bothered. Drawn to the troll by some unknown animosity, the grimlocks lunged at Tlork with flailing axes and the troll beat back at them. The troll outpowered the grimlocks-his muscles, fiendish body parts, and ferocity made him the perfect killing machine-but there were so many that Tlork would be long delayed.
"Poetic, really," said a voice at Twilight's shoulder. She turned to find Davoren watching the battle with more than passing interest. "Playing one foe against another. Amusing to watch so much death, isn't it?"
Twilight kept calm. She wiped Betrayal on her thigh and sheathed it. For now.
"Should we-ah-help?" asked Slip.
"Help who?" put in Liet. "I'm thinking we'd best flee before-"
A massive hand on his shoulder stopped the boy, and Twilight looked up to see Gargan there. The goliath, still holding the unconscious Taslin, did not speak, but his gaze conveyed volumes. His eyes fixed upon Tlork-analyzing, weighing, judging. He had looked at Twilight and Liet in the same way, as though sizing them up for a duel.
"Aye," said Twilight. "The longer we watch, the more we learn about the troll."
Tlork's massive warhammer appeared awkward in his ten-foot skeletal arm, but the troll wielded it with exceptional skill and balance. Each swing of the weapon knocked two or three monsters aside, and his fiendish stinger caught those the hammer missed. When a grimlock came inside his reach, Tlork would simply flatten the eyeless wretch with his elephantlike leg or eviscerate him with a snap of his claws.
Twilight had to wonder. Why had the grimlocks been drawn to the troll, if they could not defeat-nay, couldn't even injure-the creature?
As Twilight studied the foes, the assault made perfect sense. The grimlocks' world was one of sounds and smells. The troll had bellowed loudly enough to rival the purple worm, and his stench was so pungent Twilight could catch it even at her distance, a spear-cast away. Tlork was perceived as a much greater threat than the seven of them.
Six, Twilight corrected herself with an inward wince. She felt empty, as though something had been clawed out of her.
Then Tlork broke through the grimlock horde, shattering a monster's chest with a pulse of the mighty hammer. Those that did not lie dead had already fled in terror before the half-fiend, half-troll monstrosity. The path cleared, Tlork fixed his mad eyes on the six companions, and charged.
"Time to be going!" Liet hissed.
Twilight stayed him. "Wait."
Summoning her will, she wrenched the shadows to her and sent them forth. This was not the dance-it would not consume all her strength. The shadows coalesced and melted into scything blades-a wall of shadowy steel that flashed through the air-sweeping straight for Tlork and the few remaining grimlocks. She heard Liet gasp beside her, and knew it was because her gray eyes had flashed black.
Twilight was used to it. She preferred it to her other powers. The shadows were another aspect of Neveren's legacy, rather than part of her service to a god who hated her.
The fleeing grimlocks who yet lived ignored the shadowy wall of razors-the illusion was only visual, and they had no eyes-emerging unscathed and oblivious. The troll, however, immediately fell to the important business of knocking the blades out of the air and smashing them to splinters against the ground. Not surprisingly, the hammer passed through the swords like the shadows they were.