“Hate sting!” the larger creature bellowed, its deep voice bouncing off the cavern walls. “Sting! Sting! Get tiny one!”
“Can’t!” the smaller growled. “Cave grab me! Move can’t!”
The stone, like molten lava, flowed away from Feril, around Palin and Rig and Blister, and oozed across the wyverns* taloned feet.
“Hard ” she urged it. “Be strong again.” Her sides heaved from the exertion, but she felt the rock responding, returning to its solid state. She pushed herself to her knees, shook her head to clear her senses, and watched as a bolt of Palin’s flame struck the largest wyvern. It engulfed the creature’s head, and in the close confines its screams were practically deafening. The smell of the wyvern’s burning flesh was overwhelming.
Palin, realizing the wyverns were no longer a threat, released his concentration on the orb and the flames died down.
The kender looked up at the larger wyvern’s face, and grimaced when she saw bits of bone showing through on its lower jaw. It continued to howl in agony and swing its tail toward them, but the kender and mariner were several inches beyond the reach of either wyvern now.
Palin edged forward and helped the mariner to his feet. The sorcerer glanced at Rig’s wounds, gently prodding the swollen area around them. “Some kind of poison, I think,” he said. “We should have brought Jasper with us. He’d know what to do.”
“What about them?” The kender stared up at the trapped wyverns.
“They’re abominations of nature,” Feril said. “They’ll die here. Let’s get going before the dragon comes.”
“No argument,” Rig said. He gritted his teeth as another wave of heat coursed through his limbs. It was followed by an intense chill that sent him into a fit of trembling. “I feel terrible.” He slumped, unconscious, against Palin.
“You’ll have to help me carry him,” Palin told the Kagon-esti. “Once outside we can—” The sorcerer’s words were cut off as a spear of lightning struck him squarely in the back and propelled him and the mariner several feet forward. A miniature thunderclap resounded as they landed on the sand-covered floor.
“Spawn!” Blister shouted, as she reached for her sling again.
Feril spun around in time to see the creature step from a shadow-draped tunnel deeper in the cavern. It had a manlike shape, and there was something haunting about its eyes. It was covered in tiny blue sapphire scales that shimmered in the light from Palin’s still-burning fire. A ridge of triangular-shaped scales ran from the top of its head down its back and to the tip of its short tail. Gently curving wings swept outward from between its shoulder blades. The creature flapped its wings slightly and rose a few feet above the cave floor.
Feril had encountered creatures like this weeks ago when she was with Dhamon. They weren’t easy to defeat.
“Get bad people!” the larger wyvern coaxed the spawn.
“Kill people!” the smaller urged.
The spawn grinned, revealing a pearl-white row of pointed teeth across which miniature lightning bolts flickered. Traces of lightning skittered along the claws on its hands and feet. It sped toward the Kagonesti.
At that moment Blister released her sling, showering the spawn with colorful bits of tile and metal. The creature was unhurt, but surprised, and it dropped to a crouch on the cave floor.
The Kagonesti used the precious seconds the kender had bought to dash toward Rig’s fallen cutlass. Her fingers dosed about the pommel just as she heard a second crackle of lightning. Blister screamed, and was thrown against the cavern wall by a bolt from the creature’s claws.
“Thing of evil!” the elf cried as she rushed toward the spawn. The weapon in her hand felt heavy, but she wielded it as she’d seen the mariner do, rushing forward and raising it above her head. She swept in close, then brought the sword down as hard as she could. The blade cut through the scales of the spawn’s shoulder blade. The creature’s arms flailed and lashed at her as she tugged the blade free.
This time she aimed for the creature’s neck, her blade flashing down and practically severing the thing’s head. It struggled for a moment, its eyes wide and unblinking, then it exploded in a ball of crackling lightning. Feril closed her eyes, but too late. Blinded and tingling uncomfortably all over, she stepped back, and felt about with her free hand, trying to find the wall of the cave.
“Blister, are you all right?” the Kagonesti called.
“No,” came the kender’s reply. “I hurt all over.”
“Can you walk?”
“Yes, but Palin and Rig can’t. I think they’re alive, but they’re not moving.”
“Keep talking,” Feril urged her. “I’ll follow the sound of your voice. You’ll have to help me drag them out of here.” She was beginning to see bits of color—the gray of the stone, the white sand, the red of Palin’s still-burning fire—but the colors were running together. “This isn’t going to be easy, Blister.”
The kender groaned. “Easy? Try impossible. They’re both awfully big.”
She tried to concentrate as she moved toward the kender, tried to bring everything into sharper focus. Then abruptly she froze, tilting her head. There was a sound of flapping wings, faint, but it was there, coming from behind her— deeper in the cave. She turned in time to see a smeared bolt of lightning arc toward her from a hazy patch of dark blue— another spawn. Four more blue splotches were behind it.
“Blister, run!” she cried as she dropped to her knees. A bolt of lightning shot over her head. Another spawn opened its maw, and again lightning crackled toward her. She pitched to the side, avoiding the bolt, and fell into the path of another spawn. The lightning struck her shoulder, and she was driven hard against the cave floor.
“Feril?” The kender took one last look at her fallen friends and the approaching spawn, and ran faster than she had ever run in her life.
Chapter 2
Mirielle Abrena
The knight of Takhisis ran down the dusty path, his sheathed long sword slapping against his leg and threatening to tangle itself in his long black surcoat. He ran awkwardly, weaving around burning huts and the bodies of ogres who had foolishly dared to challenge his talon. They should have surrendered, he thought as he leaped over a decapitated corpse and through a cloud of insects drawn by the spreading pool of blood. The knights had offered them that opportunity. Why hadn’t they listened to reason? Other ogre clans were allied with the knights—they knew that to submit to the Order was the only prudent course.
The knight paused a moment to catch his breath and to stare at the tiny body of an ogre girl. Twisted and broken, fixed eyes bulging, she looked like a discarded toy. She was one of the many children who had been killed during the attack. Couldn’t be helped, he knew. The knights typically avoided fighting those who couldn’t defend themselves. It wasn’t honorable, but sometimes children got in the way.
He dashed toward a clearing at the far end of the village, where part of his unit was gathered. When he spied his commander, he slowed his pace to a walk, squaring his shoulders, taking long, measured steps—as if he were marching—just as he’d been taught since he joined the knighthood nearly three years ago. He brushed the dirt off his surcoat, and straightened his helmet. Coming to a halt in front of his commander, he sucked in his stomach, and snapped to attention. “Sir!” he said as he saluted. “The governor-general is coming, sir!”
“Here, Arvel?”
“Yes, sir! Knight-Officer Deron spotted the governor-general’s entourage heading through the gap, sir! He told me to inform you immediately, sir.”