Glissa scrambled up behind the leonin and hacked wildly at another nim that was creeping in from Ellasha’s blind spot. She severed its arm and necrogen tube on her third strike, a lucky hit. The nim went down, but the rest still plodded inexorably onward. Yert’s apparent absence disturbed her. She was sure she’d heard him only moments ago. She wondered idly if vampires could become invisible.
In the clear for a moment, she flipped the latch on Ellasha’s pack and looked inside.
“The wide pocket in the back,” she growled. “Hurry.”
Glissa spotted the pocket easily and reached inside. She pulled out what looked like a folded sheet of silver linen.
“What’s this?” Glissa asked, baffled, as the pair of them backed closer and closer to the deadly drop.
“Just put them on,” Ellasha said as she jabbed her longknives into two nim at once, pushing them back into the clacking mob, “They’re for emergencies, so they’ll only carry one person. Well, maybe one and a head. Cross the straps over your chest. Do it now!”
“Okay!” Glissa yelled, and slipped two thin cables over her shoulders. The silvery linen rested against her shoulder blades, above Geth’s head. Preoccupied, Glissa didn’t get her sword raised in time to block another set of nim claws, but the late parry caused her to strike the nim’s soft, exposed joints, which worked just as well. She moved shoulder to shoulder with the skyhunter, and risked a look back over her shoulder. More nim were milling about the opposite side of the deep pit as well. Several spread their black beetle-wings and launched themselves lazily across the chasm “Now what?” Glissa shouted as the noise of clacking nim feet and buzzing wings became almost unbearable.
“Your friend!” Ellasha shouted over the din between slashes of her longknives. “She’s important? She’ll help the Kha save our people and beat these monsters?”
“Of course!” Glissa replied. “But shouldn’t we be worried about-”
“Then make sure the loremasters hear of the leonin who died today,” Ellasha said, and shoved Glissa out into open space. As she plummeted into the dark, she heard the leonin skyhunter roar, a sound that drowned out the nim above and was followed by a furious clanging of steel longknives on iron claws.
The elf girl fell at least twenty feet before the silver linen on her back unfolded of its own accord into a set of four thin wings. The wings began to buzz like those of the nim, and Glissa felt descent slow, cease, and slowly reverse. How would she stop?
Glissa stopped.
And to go up? With the thought, the wings responded to her urgent need, gaining speed quickly. It wasn’t unlike Bruenna’s flight magic.
She emerged between two hovering nim that slowly turned inward to face her, claws clicking menacingly. Glissa willed the wings to carry her higher, which would buy her a few precious seconds to spot Ellasha.
The skyhunter was some thirty feet back from the chasm, awash in a sea of nim, and fighting with utter ferocity. The skyhunter was a gold and silver blur, leaping and twirling through the black mass of zombies with longknives blazing. Green ichor and necrogen steam sprayed in the air.
The leonin briefly made eye contact with Glissa. “GO!” Ellasha shouted.
Glissa’s sword arm began to tremble with rage and frustration. The flying nim below were almost close enough strike. Ellasha was buying her time, and the chance to save Bruenna, and the brave skyhunter was going to die in the process. Glissa might be able to save the leonin if she dove into the fray herself, but even then there were only two of them. Yert’s supply of nim seemed limitless. They would both eventually be overwhelmed.
“I’ll tell the loremasters,” she whispered. She turned and willed the wings to take her onward to Bruenna. Bruenna, who could still be saved.
Glissa gritted her teeth, fighting back fresh tears. If Ellasha’s sacrifice was going to mean anything, she couldn’t lose it now. She wanted nothing more than to lay into the nim with every last ounce of her strength. Her anger demanded it, but she couldn’t waste the time.
Fortunately, Glissa found it was relatively easy to keep clear of the nim’s strikes, though she had a few close calls at points where the tunnel narrowed. Flying nim were a problem, too, but they were so clumsy in the air that she had little trouble avoiding them. But every nim turned and followed her.
The elf girl still had no idea what she was going to do when she found Bruenna, or even how she was going to get her out. But one problem at a time. They had to find the Neurok first. Glissa had been forced to remove Geth’s head from her pack and carry it along so he could guide her, which would be a liability as soon as she landed and had to turn and face the mob behind her. She would have gladly tossed the undead thing aside, but she still needed Geth to get them out, too. Still, if he didn’t lead her to Bruenna soon she might pitch him anyway. He smelled even worse than the nim, and she was beginning to wonder if Geth really knew where he was going.
“Wait, turn, turn!” the head shouted. “Back there, the branching passage!”
Glissa whirled and followed Geth’s direction. This offshoot was much narrower, but there were no nim, and dim light was cast by the occasional necrogen lamp.
“This way isn’t used much,” Geth said, as if reading her mind. “It’s the back way.”
“Not bad, Geth,” Glissa said. “It’ll also keep the nim from attacking us all at once. So why don’t I trust you?”
“Beats me,” Geth replied. “But trust that I want my body back, and I don’t see any other way to do it but help you. Now slow down, eh? We’re almost there.”
The tunnel ahead glowed brighter green, and appeared to open into a larger room. Glissa willed the wings to slow down, and she took a moment to turn Geth’s head so it was facing backward. “Nim?”
“I hear them, but can’t see them yet,” Geth said. “Could you turn me back around now?”
Glissa obliged, peering into the green glow ahead. She could make out a single shape in the mist-filled room, something like a statue on a pedestal. She stopped short and turned Geth to face her.
“Time for you to get back into your pack,” Glissa said. “I can’t fight with you in my hand.”
“See, you know you love me,” Geth cackled.
“I despise you, but you’re going to get me back out of here,” Glissa said. “Before I put you away, can you tell me anything else about that room?”
“Sure. It’s a room. There are prisoners. Looks misty. What do you want? I’ve been severed from my body for weeks,” Geth said. At Glissa’s scowl, he added, “Okay, there are cells lining the wall, five of them. Probably two guards.”
“Probably?”
“That’s what I would have posted. Can’t speak for Yert. Will you get it through your head I’m not in charge here?” Geth’s head smirked. “And that thing in the middle is the torture platform.”
“Lovely,” Glissa said.
“You’re not kidding,” Geth replied. “It’s amazing. I got it from a vedalken slavemaster who told me he used it for ‘motivation through pain’ on all his stock. It looks like a simple table, but I had it enchanted to transform into eighteen different configurations. And of course it changes size to fit the occupant. That slavemaster knows his-”
Glissa stuffed the head into the pack. “Quiet,” she said, squinting into the green light. The pedestal must be the torture table, which made her think that was probably no statue. She couldn’t make out anyone else in the room. No nim, no vampires, no Yert, nothing.
It was an obvious trap. But Glissa had to walk into it.
No, not walk into it. Fly into it. That was at least one advantage. Still, she decided a cautious approach might be warranted. The nim were some distance back down the narrow tunnel, her ears told her. She could afford to move deliberately this time instead of charging head first-her usual opening tactic, and one that of late had been meeting with mixed results.