Drizzt crawled out and forced himself to his knees, trying to find his breath.
Catti-brie lay below him, pale and torn, a dozen wounds visible, most vividly the gash from the wererat’s quarrel. Blood soaked much of her clothing and matted her hair, but Drizzt’s heart did not drop at the gruesome sight, for he had noted one other event when they had plopped down.
Catti-brie had groaned.
LaValle scrambled behind his little table. “Keep you back, dwarf,” he warned. “I am a wizard of great powers.”
Bruenor’s terror was not apparent. He drove his axe through the table, and a blinding explosion of smoke and sparks filled the room.
When LaValle recovered his sight a moment later, he found himself facing Bruenor, the dwarf’s hands and beard trailing wisps of gray smoke, the little table broken flat, and his crystal ball severed clean in half.
“That the best ye got?” Bruenor asked.
LaValle couldn’t get any words past the lump in his throat.
Bruenor wanted to cut him down, to drive his axe right between the man’s bushy eyebrows, but it was Catti-brie, his beautiful daughter, who truly abhorred killing with all of her heart, who he meant to avenge. Bruenor would not dishonor her memory.
“Drats!” he groaned, slamming his forehead into LaValle’s face. The wizard thumped up against the wall and stayed there, dazed and motionless, until Bruenor closed a hand on his chest, tearing out a few hairs for good measure, and threw him facedown on the floor. “Me friends might be needin’ yer help, wizard,” the dwarf growled, “so crawl! And know in yer heart that if ye make one turn I don’t be liking, me axe’ll cleave yer head down the middle!”
In his semiconscious state, LaValle hardly heard the words, but he fathomed the dwarf’s meaning well enough and forced himself to his hands and knees.
Wulfgar braced his feet against the iron stand of the Taros Hoop and locked his own iron grip onto the demodand’s elbow, matching the creature’s mighty pull. In his other hand the barbarian held Aegis-fang ready, not wanting to swing through the planar portal but hoping for something more vulnerable than an arm to come through to his world.
The demodand’s claws cut deep wounds in his shoulder, filthy wounds that would be long in healing, but Wulfgar shrugged away the pain. Drizzt had told him to hold the gate if ever he had loved Catti-brie.
He would hold the gate.
Another second passed and Wulfgar saw his hand slipping dangerously close to the portal. He could match the demodand’s strength, but the demodand’s power was magical, not physical, and Wulfgar would grow weary long before his foe.
Another inch, and his hand would cross through to Tarterus, where other hungry demodands no doubt waited.
A memory flashed in Wulfgar’s mind, the final image of Catti-brie, torn and falling. “No!” he growled, and he forced his hand back, pulling savagely until he and the demodand were back to where they had started. Then Wulfgar dropped his shoulder suddenly, tugging the demodand down instead of out.
The gamble worked. The demodand lost its momentum altogether and stumbled down, its head poking through the Taros Hoop and into the Prime Material Plane for just a second, long enough for Aegis-fang to shatter its skull.
Wulfgar jumped back a step and slapped his war hammer into both hands. Another demodand started through, but the barbarian blasted it back into Tarterus with a powerful swipe.
Pook watched it all from behind his throne, his crossbow still aimed to kill. Even the guildmaster found himself mesmerized by the sheer strength of the giant man, and when one of his eunuchs recovered and stood up, Pook waved it away from Wulfgar, not wanting to disturb the spectacle before him.
A shuffle off to the side forced him to look away, though, as LaValle came crawling out of his room, the axe-wielding dwarf walking right behind.
Bruenor saw at once the perilous predicament that Wulfgar faced, and knew that the wizard would only complicate things. He grabbed LaValle by the hair and pulled him up to his knees, walking around to face the man.
“Good day for sleepin’,” the dwarf commented, and he slammed his forehead again into the wizard’s, knocking LaValle into blackness. He heard a click behind him as the wizard slumped, and he reflexively swung his shield between himself and the noise, just in time to catch Pook’s crossbow quarrel. The wicked dart drove a hole through the foaming mug standard and barely missed Bruenor’s arm as it poked through the other side.
Bruenor peeked over the rim of his treasured shield, stared at the bolt, and then looked dangerously at Pook. “Ye shouldn’t be hurtin’ me shield!” he growled, and he started forward.
The hill giant was quick to intercept.
Wulfgar caught the action out of the corner of his eye, and would have loved to join in—especially with Pook busy reloading his heavy crossbow—but the barbarian had troubles of his own. A winged demodand swooped through the gate in a sudden rush and flashed by Wulfgar.
Fine-tuned reflexes saved the barbarian, for he snapped a hand out and caught the demodand by a leg. The monster’s momentum staggered Wulfgar backward, but he managed to hold on. He slammed the demodand down beside him and drove it into the floor with a single chop of his war hammer.
Several arms reached through the Taros Hoop, shoulders and heads poked through, and Wulfgar, swinging Aegis-fang furiously, had all he could handle simply keeping the wretched things at bay.
Drizzt ran along the smoky bridge, Catti-brie draped limply over one shoulder. He met no further resistance for many minutes and understood why when he at last reached the planar gate.
Huddled around it, and blocking his passage, was a score of demodands.
The drow, dismayed, dropped to one knee and laid Catti-brie gently beside him. He considered putting Taulmaril to use, but realized that if he missed, if an arrow somehow found its way through the horde, it would pass through the gate and into the room where Wulfgar stood. He couldn’t take that chance.
“So close,” he whispered helplessly, looking down to Catti-brie. He held her tightly in his arms and brushed a slender hand across her face. How cool she seemed. Drizzt leaned low over her, meaning only to discern the rhythm of her breathing, but he found himself too close to her, and before he even realized his actions, his lips were to hers in a tender kiss. Catti-brie stirred but did not open her eyes.
Her movement brought new courage to Drizzt. “Too close,” he muttered grimly, “and you’ll not die in this foul place!” He scooped Catti-brie up over his shoulder, wrapping his cloak tightly around her to secure her to him. Then he took up his scimitars in tight grips, rubbing his sensitive fingers across the intricate craftings of their hilts, becoming one with his weapons, making them the killing extensions of his black arms. He took a deep breath and set his visage.
He charged, as silently as only a drow elf could be, at the back of the wretched horde.
Regis rose uncomfortably as the black silhouettes of hunting cats darted in and out of the starlight surrounding him. They did not seem to threaten him—not yet—but they were gathering. He knew beyond doubt that he was their focal point.
Then Guenhwyvar bounded up and stood before him, the great cat’s head level with his own.
“You know something,” Regis said, reading the excitement in the panther’s dark eyes. Regis held up the statuette and examined it, noting the cat’s tenseness at the sight of the figurine.
“We can get back with this,” the halfling said in sudden revelation. “This is the key to the journey, and with it, we can go wherever we desire!” He glanced around and considered some very interesting possibilities. “All of us?”