Pharaun gave the priestess that same placating motion that he'd used earlier and said, «We're just passersby, not here to cause any trouble.»
«Well, you'll join ranks, then. Get forward and help the other wizards.»
«We thought we'd better serve the cause by helping to watch this end of road,» Pharaun replied, smiling broadly. «You never know when those pesky grays will try to circumnavigate our flank and surprise us.»
«Get on your feet, wizard, and go join the other spellcasters. And you two! You can help me rally the troops and keep order. Up off your hind ends—now?
Pharaun could see that Quenthel was about to lash out at the priestess, so before she could cause a scene, he pulled the drow commander to the side.
«Listen,» he said quietly. «We're actually working on a special assignment for Matron Mother Drisinil Melarn. We've got permission to avoid the fighting while we take care of a very important mission.»
«Oh, is that so?» one of the male wizards replied coldly. «Well, Drisinil Melarn was my mother, and I happen to know that she was murdered by traitors before this civil war even started. Since you don't wear a House insignia, I'm guessing you're the spies who were accused of collaborating with her. Maybe it's time you died.»
The Melarn wizard stepped back, reaching into his piwafwi, but before Pharaun could react, a voice drifted from behind him.
«Hello, Q'arlynd,» Halisstra said as she and the others floated up over the side of the web street.
The Melarn wizard stopped, peering at the priestess for a moment. Then he broke into a broad grin.
«Dear sister,» he said. «I thought you were dead.»
NINETEEN
«When the fighting got worse, several of the matron mothers, including Maerret, came to the Dangling Tower and asked us to aid them,» Q'arlynd explained. «They said it was a full-scale civil war and the rebels were going to tear the city apart if we didn't stop them. Matron Mother Lirdnolu explained to me what had happened to House Melarn. I knew Mother was dead, and we'd heard that she was killed by Ssipriina Zauvirr with collaborators from the outside who wanted to see the downfall of Ched Nasad.»
«And you thought I'd perished, too,» Halisstra said, squatting down beside her brother.
«Yes, either at the same time Mother was murdered or in the fall of our House. Is it really gone?» the Melarn wizard asked.
Halisstra only nodded.
«By the Dark Mother,» he breathed.
«Well, the family reunion is nice and all, but we still need to get out of this city,» Pharaun said, standing. «What's the situation? Where's the closest way out that we can get through?»
Q'arlynd shook his head and said, «There are none, so I've heard. All the gates have either been commandeered by rebel forces or hordes of escaped slaves or they've collapsed outright because of the fighting. This alchemical fire that burns through stone is wreaking havoc on—»
«Believe me, we know,» the Master of Sorcere interrupted, «but your report doesn't leave us with many options. We've got to find a way to get free of the city.»
Quenthel had just opened her mouth, most likely to command Pharaun to figure out a method of escaping Ched Nasad, the wizard imagined, when a commotion broke out from farther down the boulevard. Pharaun turned and looked just in time to see a jumble of dark elves stumbling to their feet in disarray. Many of them fell again just as quickly, cut down by a growing horde of gray dwarves who were emerging through a magical doorway hovering in the air only a couple of feet above the street. The duergar were streaming through as fast as they could, firing off crossbows at any drow targets they could find before casting the missile weapons aside and pulling out axes, hammers, and the occasional mace.
«Attack! We're under attack!» the cry went up as more drow surged to their feet, moving to stop the advance of the gray dwarves.
«Come on, you flat-footed, sorry excuses for soldiers—get up there and fight before they split us down the middle!» the battle priestess yelled, returning from the far end of the street and shoving troops forward as fast as she could get to them. «Wizard! Throw a spell! Drive them back. If they reach the square, we're done for.»
Pharaun sighed and nodded, grabbing the battle priestess and spinning her around to face him. His smile was gone.
«Tell your troops to fall back to this point,» he said.
«What? And let them come at us unopposed? I think not.»
«Do it, or they will be trapped. Set up three positions of missile fire, here—«he pointed to several positions in the street—«there, and there.»
The battle priestess looked at the mage as though he were crazy but finally nodded and shouted for an organized retreat.
Pharaun rolled his eyes at the battle priestess's short-sightedness and began organizing the drow soldiers himself, sorting them into groups of crossbowmen, stationing them where he'd pointed earlier. As more and more of the dark elves dropped back from the duergar, they fell in with the others already positioned. As a unit, they began to fire into the mass of milling gray dwarves, who were slaughtering the few remaining stragglers.
They're lost to us, the wizard said to himself.
He cast, and a great mass of webs appeared, spanning the width of the street, anchored to the pavement and the buildings on either side. A handful of the dark elves were caught in the sticky strands, and perhaps a dozen or so were trapped on the other side, but the gray dwarves were effectively sealed off from advancing, at least until they penetrated the webs or the spell wore off.
«Come on,» Q'arlynd said, motioning upward as he began to levitate.
Pharaun followed the other wizard upward to a position where they could see over the top of his webs, down into the field of battle where the gray dwarves had quickly killed the few remaining drow who had been trapped with them. The duergar were milling about, seemingly unsure what to do. Halisstra's brother had components out, ready to cast a spell, and one look at the lump of bat guano in his hand told Pharaun what the wizard planned.
«Hold on,» Pharaun said, laying a hand on Q'arlynd's arm. «They're waiting,» he explained, pointing down at the duergar. «They want a shaman or something to come try to dispel the webs. He's probably the same one who opened the dimensional doorway.»
Sure enough, a duergar dressed in robes and wearing several totems and other magical trinkets stepped through the glowing doorway. One of the duergar addressed him—Pharaun couldn't hear what was being said—and pointed to the webs. The shaman nodded and began to cast.
«Do it,» Pharaun said.
Q'arlynd went into action, letting loose with his spell, aiming it directly at the shaman. It was a direct hit, and that entire side of the street was engulfed in a white-hot ball of fire that blossomed outward and vaporized an instant later. Charred and burning gray dwarves lay everywhere. A few moved, having survived, but they were few and far between. Most importantly, the dimensional pathway had been banished, winking out when the shaman who created it died.
The two wizards settled back to the ground again, noting that Q'arlynd's fiery ball of magic had ignited the webs, which were quickly burning away. Already, though, another gateway was forming, this one at the opposite end of the street. The battle priestess rallied her troops to deal with the new threat.
«You know you only delayed the inevitable,» Quenthel said as Pharaun and Q'arlynd returned. «We're wasting time, here. We have to get out of the city.»
«I know,» the Master of Sorcere replied, «but it was fun.»
«Look!» Danifae shouted, pointing toward the new gateway.
Duergar were streaming out, and drow were arriving from above and below, levitating from the web streets on the two adjacent levels.
«It's House Zauvirr troops,» the battle captive explained. «They've got us pinned.»
«Fall back,» the battle priestess commanded, turning to point back the way the duergar had come, but as she began to direct her soldiers, she took a crossbow bolt in the ear. The missile passed through and protruded from the other side of her head, and she was already dead, motionless, as she fell to the pavement.
«We're surrounded!» Q'arlynd cried out. «Stand and fight!»
He produced a wand and waved it, conjuring a sudden and violent tempest of ice fragments the size of Pharaun's head. The chunks of ice pelted down on the front ranks of gray dwarves, beating them down and slicing them to ribbons amid cries of anguish.
In reply, the duergar began throwing more of the firepots into the ever-tightening mass of House Maerret drow, who were bunched together and made easy targets. More and more of the gray dwarves appeared, forming ranks, establishing a shield wall in front so that the back ranks would have protection as they fired crossbows and hurled firepots and spells.
Pharaun had no idea where any of his companions were. Everyone had been scattered in the initial panic of the attack. He had no concerns that they couldn't take care of themselves, at least for the moment, but the longer they remained there, the less their chances became of escaping at all. He spun in place, looking for a sign of any of them in the thickening smoke, when a creature materialized in front of the wizard, its back to him.