"And that?" Thaena asked, wide-eyed.
"Bones," Syrolf answered as he approached from the stairway, his voice unusually calm-a sign that many might misconstrue as non-threatening, but to a berserker it was merely the first stage of the battle-lust. "Wizard summoned them just before the wall went up."
"What was that explosion we heard?" Duras said. "I thought I heard you screaming."
Thaena looked away from the writhing shadow, blinking as the situation came into focus.
"The Creel destroyed the entrance hall," she said, recalling the newly open pit behind them and the bridge beyond. "We're trapped."
The shadow slammed into the ice wall again, this time followed by several smaller impacts. The tiny shadows of arrows could be seen embedded in the ice.
Thaena pictured the tower in her mind. The lower levels a ruin, the path to the bridge now a gaping well of stone and ice created by a Nar woman's sacrifice.
These Creel are mad, she thought.
"And they are trapped as well," she said aloud, then to Duras, "Prepare the fang. Be ready when that ice falls."
He held her gaze for a moment. All that could be said was understood as he turned to join the berserkers on the stairs.
"Your strategy?" Anilya asked when they alone stood on the balcony.
"They are ready to die," she said and crossed her arms to match the durthans stance. "That's why they're here. We should be prepared to do the same."
"Fair enough," Anilya replied, flinching as the beast thudded once again against the wall, then she added, "But if we don't have to? Are you prepared to do what is necessary?"
Thaena found herself staring at Duras, sword in hand, ready to charge down the stairs. His dark eyes turned to her, and she could not bring herself to think of not looking into those eyes again. She turned to the durthan, heart thumping in her chest, anger in her throat, and fear creeping through the back of her mind. In the end she found the decision surprisingly available-almost easy.
"Do what you must," she said coldly.
"For the good of Rashemen," Anilya said, a dark smile in her eyes as the ice wall split down the middle and began to crumble.
Yellowed fangs burst through the ice, revealing the skull of some fiendish beast at the end of a whiplike neck of bones. A row of spines lined the thing's jaw and long horns swept back from its equine head.
Thaena fell back as the thing lunged and crushed the balcony's railing between its teeth. Anilya had her back to the wall, her voice summoning things that the ethran did not wish to contemplate. Thaena's own hands began to twist and turn as she cast, her voice echoing in the space between stone and ice.
Arrows flew from the opposite balcony and through the hole in the ice, but clattered harmlessly to the floor. The Creel archers would be useless unless their creature opened the wall further. The bone-beast thrashed against the ice, pushing its way through as it unleashed a rattling growl from the bones in its throat. Finishing her spell, Thaena opened her mouth to roar back.
Her voice rose in a powerful scream, the sound amplified by magic into a thunderous roar. Everyone covered their ears, the warriors backing away from the ice wall as it cracked and fell, shaken apart by the ethran's shout. The wave of sound produced rippling spasms through the undead beast. Bones fell away and broke apart in midair-only to be pulled back into the serpentine form's interlocking pieces.
Anilya completed her spell, and a black swirling cloud appeared over the head of the beast. As the last of the ice wall crumbled, the berserkers led the charge down the stairs with a war cry. The sellswords loosed arrows up into the higher balcony to slow the bows of the Creel and keep their wizard busy.
The durthan spun her hands with the growing cloud, her head rolling on her shoulders. The darkness took shape and groaned with monstrous voices. Lurching forward, the beast's head swung back and forth as it faced Thaena. Studying the swaying bones and the fanged skull, she began another spell.
It lunged again and she rolled to the side, whispering magic. The massive head crashed into the floor of the balcony, cracking the stone where she had stood. Rising to one knee Thaena threw her hands out, releasing a fan of flames to engulf the skull and neck of the bone-serpent. Fires leaped to life among the dried bones, but the beast merely drew back to strike again.
From above, bits of Anilya's cloud broke away. Shreds of darkness, shaped into floating robes and gnarled claws, moaned as they flew through the chamber. Yells and curses echoed from below, the pile of bones at the base of the undead beast producing grasping arms and biting skulls. The fang hacked at the bones even as half-formed skeletons surrounded them. Thaena could not see Duras among them.
Glancing quickly at the serpent, she ran down the stairs, casting as she neared the bottom. The whoosh of flames and the rattling of bones followed her descent. Heat pressed through her cloak as the skull neared and she completed the spell. A shimmering shield of force appeared over the warriors even as another volley of arrows rained down from the Creel's balcony.
The arrowheads flashed as they touched the shield, most of them deflected by the enchantment, but many still found their marks. Several sellswords and berserkers cried out as they were struck and then pulled down by the swarm of bones and skeletons. Before Thaena could react, bone jaws clamped on her legs and hips, lifting her into the air. Floor and walls fell away as she was lifted higher and shaken like a rag doll. Pain erupted in her left hip, a fang pressing her hard against a blunted tooth in the bottom jaw.
Smoke entered her lungs and flames licked at her skin. Her stomach turned as the chamber swam before her eyes, blurring as the beast shook her from side to side. Crackling Are and screams filled her ears as she fought to conjure a spell.
Her vision filled with spots of blackness, the pressure making her nauseous and dizzy. She struggled to breathe in the smoke and heat. Between one bone-jarring shake and the next she felt certain she would die here in a room full of bones. Anger gave her a measure of renewed strength. She gripped her hands together, her left holding tightly to a small pearl ring on her right as she fought to mouth the words of a spell.
The serpent raised her high, bones rattling and turning in its neck as the fangs opened wide to get a better grip. She fell, rolling to the back of its throat, screeching the last of her spell. The pearl crumbled to dust that became a large, cloudy gray sphere of swirling air. Obeying her will, the sphere slammed into the skull, shattering teeth and bone as the jaw closed. Darting left and right, the sphere demolished everything it touched, snuffing out flames and breaking the bone-beast apart.
Broken pieces of the jaw continued to bite and snap ineffectually. Thaena held tight to bones inside its throat as the bone-beast reared and shook. She could see the floor far below as she fell forward, clinging to a broken tooth. Concentrating on the sphere's flight of destruction, she watched as half the skull was ripped apart into flying shards. The neck collapsed, bones clattering against the walls of the chamber as the sphere of wind hurled the bone-beast's bits away from the whole.
The grasping limbs and skeletons below faltered as the sphere tore apart the magic that had created them. Many melted back into the serpent's body as it attempted to maintain its shape, but the berserkers destroyed them. A few arrows still fell among the warriors, but far fewer than before and with much less accuracy. A shuddering rattle passed through the undead form, a tide of snapping bone that pulled painfully at the ethran's shoulders and elbows.