Too, Sunbright heard Greenwillow challenge the fiends, heard her cry out in exultation each time her elven blade struck home and dropped a foe. And he had the incongruous thought that such a fine, beautiful woman, so sleek and lovely, could be so hard and deadly in combat, like a tooled and tempered blade herself.
Even the raven above them fought, flapping and pecking and clawing, and Sunbright wondered how Candlemas could control it and blend spells at the same time.
Yet there was some sphere of protection over or around them, for many of their enemies couldn't crowd close, or seemed to struggle to cross an invisible barrier. And too, when the mages had touched their shoulders with hot hands, he and Greenwillow had been lent superhuman strength and endurance, or else they would have collapsed long ago. In some ways Sunbright hoped they would, for it seemed all his previous life had been a dream, and this nightmare was the only reality, one that would endure forever, as if he'd already died and were being punished in Hell.
But they couldn't fight much longer, for they were being steadily beaten down. Mighty as the mages were, they'd been born in the material world, and this was Hell. Even Sunbright, who knew nothing of magic, sensed their magical energies running low. Their spells took longer to pronounce and had a smaller effect each time. The living party was succumbing to death here in the land of the undead, their strength melted away like a snowball dropped into a bonfire.
Too, their foes never diminished, but increased. The pit fiend had shuffled back, wings flapping uselessly, to watch its minions battle. Perhaps the fiend enjoyed the show. Howsoever, it would raise a broken-clawed hand and wave it toward them, and from fissures and caves and even the boiling lava itself came taller, more fearsome creatures. These, Sunbright suspected, were so fearsome even their leader couldn't completely control them. From a pit climbed bone monsters with scorpion tails and blinding-white limbs that made others shrink away. Barbed creatures ridged with spines wore burning skin that ignited lesser fiends. And tall brutes with dead-white skin and blind eyes simply tore with long clawed hands into anything that moved. Sunbright heard Candlemas ask what the last were, and Sysquemalyn gasped, "… amassed… ongoing war… rivals the tanar'ri of the Abyss!" Hints of horrors the barbarian didn't even want to ponder.
It was as the blind giants wreaked havoc that the party took their first casualty. The raven, fluttering madly, must have broken through whatever protection served them, for suddenly a rearing anvil-headed genie puffed flat cheeks. Blue fire, blinding even to see, seared the raven in midair so not even a feather tip remained, only a jot of smoke and a dusty stink.
Sunbright heard a groan and risked a glance. With the bird's death, some part of Candlemas had died also. The mage went pale, his eyes bleary, his hands trembling.
With Candlemas's affliction, their well of protection crumpled. Sysquemalyn shrieked and shot both hands in the air as the fiends redoubled their attack. Sunbright stepped over Candlemas to straddle him, while Greenwillow tumbled back against his shoulder.
A roar sounded above the clash and howl of the monsters. The pit fiend, impatient, bellowed, "Hurry and die!" Raising a huge foot, it stamped stamped stamped on the stone floor of the huge cavern.
Within seconds, cracks radiated from the stamped spot to splinter the stone floor in all directions. When the cracks reached the lip of the great lava pit, they fractured ten times as wide, then wider. Sunbright saw an edge crumble and disappear, taking a handful of the scorpion-tailed bone creatures with it and flinging a gout of red-hot lava almost to the ceiling. As the earthquake shocks reached the walls, stone rained down on the horde, crushing scores to yellow and gray and red pulp. The barbarian couldn't comprehend the senseless violence of it. The pit fiend had no compassion whatsoever for those it commanded. But perhaps that was hell too, to be toyed with by unknowable monsters.
Then Sunbright was busy watching his own feet, for the cracks under him widened. Deep inside, they glimmered with lava and fire.
Hanging on to Candlemas and Harvester, he scuffed his boots first this way, then that to avoid gaps that could easily swallow him. Heat rose around him; he felt it under his long shirt and on his face. Frantic, he was holding the mage, fending off fiends, minding he didn't bump Sysquemalyn or Greenwillow into a crack, and worrying. If the gaps widened…
They did. As if made of glass, the floor continued to splinter, fragment, fracture. Soon Sunbright had only a cracked patch as big as a tabletop to stand on. He clutched Harvester and Candlemas in the same hand so he could hang on to the collar of Greenwillow's shirt with the other. Fiends no longer beset them, for many were fighting to keep their own footing. To his right, an imp tried to bound clear only to bang into a fellow and disappear down a jagged slot. One of the blind giants charged until its big feet sheared off an edge. The monster dropped to its waist in a gap, screaming in agony as its feet were seared by white-hot flames. It lashed out with long-clawed hands for support, rending lemures to yellow putty. Then the crack split anew, and the giant sank into the fire.
"Greenwillow! We need a place to stand…What?"
He gave a shout as Candlemas rose in the air. At first he thought the mage had been seized by the erinyes. But nothing held him aloft save magic. Sysquemalyn, lank red hair like dead snakes rattling around her head, had levitated herself and her comrade off the floor. She hung, tilted, a dozen feet up, crooking her fingers to bring Candlemas to her. But Sunbright clung to the man's rope belt and wouldn't let go.
"Release him!" Sysquemalyn shrilled over the noise of grinding earth and shrieking fiends. "I need him!"
"I need him too!" shouted the warrior. "Levitate us all!"
"I can't! I've not enough dweomer! I'm using 'Mas's to levitate him. Let go! We'll call for help!"
"You lie!" Sunbright was enraged but fought to control his temper at the thought of more treachery. Perhaps she spoke true. Certainly the two mages looked as wrung out as rag dolls. "Forget me and just levitate Greenwillow then! She's light!"
"I… can't!" And clenching both fists, Sysquemalyn hoicked Candlemas into the air so hard he was wrenched from Sunbright's grip. "Fight on! Help is coming!"
Sunbright glimpsed Candlemas stir as Sysquemalyn slapped his face hard three times. She shook him violently and shouted in his ear. The podgy mage nodded groggily, but Sunbright couldn't hear their scheming, and had to turn his attention back to his own situation.
The tabletop they'd occupied had shrunk to the size of a chair, and Greenwillow and Sunbright teetered on it precariously, as if balanced atop a stone column. With the elf pressed to his chest, her dark hair tickling his nose, the barbarian cast about for a direction in which to jump. The light was more hellish than ever, yellow flames splitting the floors and spilling black smoke. The chasm below them glowed red some distance down: twenty feet or a hundred, there was no way of telling. Not far off, perhaps six feet, was a shaky-looking promontory, with staggering lemures beyond. Sunbright made a fast decision.
"I'm closest. I'll leap across, turn around, and lie flat to catch you when you jump. If I don't make it, you'll know it's not safe."
But the elf wasn't listening. She wrapped both arms around his chest and hugged him tight. Almost as tall as he was, she pressed her head against his ravaged neck. Despite the heat and smoke, he felt her wet tears spill down his skin, tickling his chest under his bearskin vest and shirt.
"Sunbright, I…" Greenwillow hesitated, afraid to say the words that were in her heart.
"I know," Clumsily, the barbarian cradled her slim back and patted her dark hair. "I feel the same, but there isn't time now. We must go."