A deafening roar sounded from the direction of the orc horde. Malik glanced toward the cacophony, and his face went pale with fear. For an instant, Arietta thought he would use his Chosen ability to vanish again-which would have been the smart thing to do, given that he was still carrying the Eye.
Instead, Malik clambered over Hadarog’s body and pulled her to her feet. “I should never have doubted you,” he said, tucking the black dagger back into his robe. “Your plan is working beautifully.”
Arietta glanced back and found Joelle racing toward them at a sprint, with a long line of orcs just a half-dozen steps behind her. She took Arietta’s arm from Malik, then stepped past Hadarog’s corpse to take a position close behind Kleef. Malik positioned himself in the center of the group, his ability to vanish so effective that were he not pressed against her, even Arietta would not have known where he was hiding.
“Now, Kleef!” she said. “And make it fast!”
Kleef quickly pivoted to one side, then used the flat of Watcher’s blade to send first one, then two shades stumbling past them toward the charging orc horde.
The result was instantaneous, a cacophony of sizzling shadow magic and clanging blades, punctuated by the screams and squeals of dying orcs. Kleef pivoted toward the opposite side of the bridge and, aided by some timely butts from the goat, sent three more shades staggering into the fray.
After that, the battle quickly became the chaotic three-sided melee that Arietta had hoped for. Kleef killed another shade, and the goat knocked one off the bridge into the Underchasm. Malik slipped away from the group and vanished into the general confusion, and the orcs continued to push the fight back toward the earthmote. Finally, there was just Yder ahead, standing in the mouth of the tunnel, less than a dozen steps ahead.
Yder studied the companions for a moment, glaring, then raised his hand and sent a disk of shadow spinning down the bridge toward them.
Kleef leaped to defend them, bringing his sword around to deflect the attack. The disk divided on Watcher’s blade, then hit the support lines beneath the suspension cables.
Arietta felt her stomach rise into her chest, half-expecting to feel the bridge fall away and find herself plummeting into the Underchasm below, but that didn’t happen. Sadrach’s magic was still too strong, and it was the shadow disk that dissolved into a spray of darkness.
Yder smiled, displaying a mouthful of long, white fangs.
“Not yet,” he said. “But soon.”
The Shadovar stepped back into the tunnel and vanished into the murk.
CHAPTER 18
The goat reared up on his hind legs, then dropped his head and slammed his horns into the castle gates. A hollow boom echoed through the entryway, and the goat staggered back, bleating and shaking his head. It was the fifth time the beast had rammed the gates, and Kleef saw no sign that he intended to stop until he had battered them down.
“There is something wrong with that goat,” Malik said. “Surely, even a stupid beast can see that the only thing he is cracking is his own skull.”
“Determination is a virtue,” Kleef said, glancing around. “Besides, he has the right idea. That looks like our only way in.”
After a long, arduous flight across dozens of bridges and sagging earthmotes, the companions had finally reached Sadrach’s Spire and were now stalled inside a small entrance grotto. The walls and ceiling had been carved from native stone, without any of the arrow loops or murder holes that would have lined the entry vault of a typical gatehouse. Beyond the grotto, a fierce fire-hail raged over the entire Underchasm, hammering the bridge they had just crossed with pellets of yellow flame-and forestalling any attempt to scale the castle walls.
Out on the bridge, only a few hundred paces distant, the orc horde was just coming into view through the fire-hail. They were advancing at a snail’s pace, crouched down low and creeping across the bridge with their breastplates held over their heads. Kleef was too far away to tell how well the makeshift shields were protecting them, but it would not be long, he suspected, before they saw the dark shape of the grotto’s mouth and grew eager to reach shelter.
Another boom echoed through the grotto, and Kleef turned to find the goat staggering back from the gate again. Deciding to take his cue from the beast and try something, Kleef drew Watcher and stepped forward to start hacking-then heard stone crackling beside him.
He turned to find a horizontal viewing slot opening in the grotto wall. A pair of large brown eyes appeared behind the slot and stared out at him. Rimmed in kohl and set into a face the color of alabaster, they were young and female-and so distant and expressionless that Kleef was not quite sure they belonged to a human.
“Well met,” Kleef said. “My friends and I beg leave to come inside. It’s important.”
The eyes flickered from Kleef to the goat to the front of the grotto, where Joelle was cleaning the four long slashes that ran down Arietta’s ribcage. Despite Joelle’s best efforts to heal them, the wounds had started to fester, and Arietta’s brow was beaded with fever. Malik claimed the purulence was because Gruumsh’s fury was stronger than Sune’s love, and Kleef was beginning to fear the little man was right.
A small voice arose from the other side of the viewing slot. “But she’s not dead yet.”
“No,” Kleef said, puzzled by the odd response. “She’s been wounded, but she’s a long way from dead.”
The eyes clouded with confusion. “Then why bring her here?”
“Because we weren’t about to leave her behind,” Kleef said. “We’ve traveled a long way to-”
“But you’re not dead, either.”
“Not yet,” Kleef said, glancing toward Malik. He was starting to think that there was something the little man had neglected to tell them about Sadrach’s Spire. “But that may change soon, if you don’t let us in.”
Again, the eyes clouded with confusion. “You want to come inside while you’re still alive?”
Kleef nodded. “That’s right,” he said. “We need to deliver-”
“No, that can’t happen.” The eyes vanished from view, and the voice grew muffled. “Come back when you’re dead.”
The goat hit the gate again, this time so hard Kleef could hear the boom echoing inside the gate tower itself. The kohl-rimmed eyes appeared again immediately.
“And make Peox stop that,” the woman said. “He’ll wake Grandfather.”
“Peox?” Kleef repeated. “You know this goat?”
“Of course,” the woman replied. “He was one of the wallbound, but now he makes too much noise. That’s why I left him for the tribes.”
Before Kleef could ask what the wallbound were-or who the woman was-the eyes vanished from the viewport again.
“Wait!”
Kleef rapped on the grotto wall-then cried out in astonishment as a stone hand emerged beneath the viewport and grabbed his arm. He tried to jerk free, only to have the hand clamp down and stop him. A heavy-jawed face formed out of the rock above the viewport and glared out at him.
“Quiet!” The voice was deep and grating. “Gingrid is right. You’ll wake Sadrach-and nobody wants that.”
Kleef resisted the urge to attempt freeing himself again. “Then let us inside,” he said. “We need to reach Grumbar’s Temple.”
The stony hand clamped down so hard Kleef feared his arm would break. “Your need means nothing to me,” he said. “And you are in no position to threaten.”
Kleef started to raise Watcher to free himself, but Malik was already at his side, pushing the sword down.
“We are here to threaten no one,” the little man said. “Please forgive the oaf his poor choice of words. He is a fool who will be dead soon enough as it is.”
The face continued to glare at Kleef for a moment, then finally said, “Until that happens, see that he stays quiet.”