"Lolth!"
"She's trying to leave the plane." Escalla clambered onto Morag's back, dragging Cinders behind her. "She's headed for the door into the Demonwebs!"
Morag surged up from the floor. As she began to teleport, Escalla yelled back at the Justicar.
"We'll take her!"
Recca had torn free from the black tentacles spell and was already screaming.
"Kill Recca! Take out his heart! It's not his! It's like his foot and hand!" Escalla's voice hung in the air even as she teleported away. "His heart…!"
With a flash, Morag, Escalla, and Cinders vanished. Wiping blood from his face, the Justicar turned, looking across the corpse of his friend the sphinx. He flexed huge shoulders and strode slowly toward Recca to deal Justice.
The cadaver held its red sword, dropped into its fighting stance, and hissed like a serpent.
The Justicar never slowed. His stride sped into a hard march, then a run that ended in a sword blow against Recca's sword that drove the cadaver to the floor. Jus spun and kicked, sending the corpse flying like a puppet.
Recca smashed into a broken furnace, and the Justicar bellowed in fury as he relentlessly closed on his foe. Recca staggered and came back into the attack, lightning fast. The red blade flashed in a mad web of attack, severing pipes and levers as Benelux hammered it aside. Steel rang on steel. Sparks flew.
Henry groaned. Polk stirred. Both of them stared as the Justicar strode past them, driving Recca back in fury.
Recca fought exactly as he always had-his showmanship immaculate, his acrobatics dazzling. He leaped over his foe-exactly as Jus knew he must. Jus abandoned swordsmanship and grappled, and the fight suddenly became a battle of pure rage against rage. The Justicar's helmet smashed into Recca's face. He hit three times, then roared and punched his fist through the rough-stitched hole in Recca's ribs. Roaring, the Justicar clamped his hand and ripped the stolen, bloody heart out of his enemy. Recca screamed, green troll blood spurting from the wound. Jus shoved Recca back. Green blood drained from Recca's head and upper body, spattering the floor.
Recca staggered, took a two handed grip on his vampire blade, then made a wild swing at the Justicar. Jus blurred sideways, Benelux slicing a deep wound into Recca's thigh. Green blood drained from the wound. The cut flashed and healed, but Recca's upper torso was now drained of troll blood.
The monster attacked, leaping, whirling, screaming, slicing. Jus met the blade in three lightning-fast parries, spun, and severed Recca's arm. The limb flew free, green blood closed the wound, but this time the arm did not grow back. Yammering in rage, Recca blundered away, cocked his long sword clumsily in one hand, and charged straight at the Justicar.
Jus turned, caught the sword, and shattered Recca's elbow. The vampire sword flew out of Recca's hand. The undead warrior slashed with clawed fingers, and Jus twirled into the blow, caught, tripped, and shoved, ramming Recca backward to smash the cadaver's spine over his bent knee.
Recca screamed.
The undead swordmaster thrashed like a broken toy as the Justicar lifted him up over his head. Recca shrieked as the Justicar walked to the furnace, his huge strength holding the living corpse over his shoulders. The Justicar gripped, wrenched, and bowed Recca's body, bending it like a green stick. Bones split, flesh tore. With a hideous crack, Recca split in two, top ripping from bottom and troll blood spraying onto the walls. The Justicar tossed the monster's thrashing legs into the furnace where they instantly caught fire. The upper body still fought and screamed. Jus held Recca by the neck, looked at Enid's corpse, and said-"Here's Justice"-then flung Recca's body to the flames.
Recca wailed as he burned. The Justicar held Recca's stolen heart in his hand and pulped it, hurtling the remains into the flames. Recca's stolen troll blood boiled, and his flesh blazed like paper. The blazing skull howled once more then split in the ferocious heat. Bones and teeth scattered as the monster crashed dead into the fires.
The Justicar turned and retrieved Benelux from where she lay. The sword seemed strangely subdued.
Well done, Justicar.
"Not well done. It cost a friend."
He strode over to Polk and Henry, both now stirring-both smothered in dead spiders and splashed with blue fluid. Dazed, Polk stared over at the furnace where Recca burned.
"Son…?"
"You're all right. It's done." The big man set the badger on his feet then helped Henry to stand. "We're leaving."
The whole palace suddenly gave a titanic shudder. The floor split open, and blank, empty space appeared in the gap. Whatever will had held this plane together, it was now breaking apart.
Henry tried to lift Enid and drag her away, but she was too heavy. Stricken, the boy looked up at the Justicar. The big ranger sank to his knees and rested a hand upon Enid's braided hair-still soft, still warm and fragrant. He surged to his feet, pushed Henry on his way-and with one stroke of his sword, cut off Enid's tail. Henry cried out, but the Justicar already had the bloody fragment through his belt. The ceiling ripped open, and blank nothingness flooded into the hall.
The Justicar grabbed Polk and Henry and ran hard and fast for the stairs.
"Go! Back to the bronze gates! We're leaving!"
The spider palace tilted as its legs gave way. Fighting through the crash and fall of wreckage, the Justicar hauled his friends outside, leaving Enid's corpse to the flames.
Lolth lurched down the trail, blind from the pain. Her entire body was a raging ocean of fire. Flesh still hissed and dripped from her bones. She promised eternal torture to every one of her enemies.
The bronze gates that led into the Demonweb were just ahead. Once there, she could hide, heal, and abandon this damaged body for a new one. On any plane but here, she was immortal. Anywhere but here, she could come back to fight another day. Feeling each step tearing her flesh, Lolth lurched into a run.
That damned Justicar and his worthless faerie! Lolth turned, saw her huge spider palace through a haze of agony, and then croaked out words of command. Explosions rocked the palace and it began to dissolve, breaking apart as Lolth abandoned the magics that held it together. She betrayed her palace staff, her handmaidens, and her followers as she left the palace behind, certain of killing her enemies in the wreckage.
The gates were only a dozen steps away, when a voice snapped out at her from the rocks.
"Hey, bug bitch! Here's a present from Enid!"
Escalla!
Lolth dived, and a jet of blue holy water crashed into the ground behind her. A tiny splash of it seared her flesh. Lolth blindly fired a lightning bolt, shattering rock and dirt, but the faerie had gone. Looking wildly about, Lolth prepared a spell-then decided to turn and run. She saw the bronze gates ahead, laughed wildly, and ran through the shadows as she sped along the path.
The Demon Queen focused all her attention on her goal. She was only four steps away from salvation when the ground fell away beneath her. A cry of agonized despair escaped her as she looked down and saw the yawning portable hole, filled with shiny blue liquid.
There was a splash and a scream. Morag slithered up the path, over a boulder, and stopped at the big brass gates. She stared as she saw Cinders the hell hound lying splayed over a rock, his nose pointing down and his tail all a-wag. Escalla-filthy, tired, and worn-was wiping her face. She looked up at Morag, then stooped to pick up the portable hole that lay spread out across the trail.