Unable to help them from the ground, Tordek fired at the second goblin. The first arrow from his mighty longbow passed completely through the goblin's right arm, severing the bone and leaving the limb and the weapon it still clutched hanging by a ragged strip of flesh. A bright stream of blood blew into a dull mist in the wake of the spider-eater's droning wings.
Tordek spared a quick look up to see that Lidda and Devis had dragged Vadania into their shelter. That was a relief, but it left Tordek alone to face three furious insects and their invisible commander. He bellowed curses at them, hoping to draw one close enough to test his axe against its shell. Before they got within axe reach, he fired two more arrows at the one that stung Vadania. One glanced off the insect's chitinous hide, but the other cracked the surface and sank deep. Thick ichor dripped down the arrow shaft and blew away in black streamers.
The attack had its desired effect. The insect flew straight toward Tordek, followed closely by its companion with the invisible rider. The dwarf barely had time to drop his bow and reach for his war axe. As he gripped the weapon's haft, an icy thrill gripped his spine and shot out through every nerve until his body trembled with ineffable fear. He gritted his teeth against the unmanly emotion, but still his weapon shook in his grip. The spider-eater closed and struck at him, and he turned away to run. He felt the monstrous stinger scrape across his armor. The metal saved him from the foe he could not face. Tordek bit his lip and cursed himself for cowardice as he ran. That the terror undoubtedly came from a spell cast by the invisible foe did nothing to cool the shame.
Despite the fear, fury rose up from Tordek's belly, filling his heart with gleeful hatred. It routed the magical fear and drove it from his body. With a roar, he wheeled around and heaved his axe up in a powerful overhand arc, cutting through the tough sinew connecting the insect's membranous wing to its body. The spider-eater hurtled past him, spinning out of control, until it crashed on the shore of the polluted stream. Its remaining wing beat uselessly against the pebbles.
Tordek whirled again to face his unseen enemy, but the invisible rider was too cagey to be lured close. The spider-eater hovered well out of reach. The drone of its wings barely covered the nervous muttering of its unseen master. Before the monster could complete whatever foul spell it was about to utter, the air above the spider-eater shimmered, and its rider was invisible no more.
The thing was only two feet tall, with twisty horns and pustulant, green flesh. It was naked and unadorned but for a spiraling black tattoo that roamed from one gnarly shoulder across its thin chest and torso before ringing its opposite leg. The creature gripped the spider-eater's reins in one slender hand and shook the long claws of its other hand at Devis.
"Got you, you little bastard!" cried Devis. Tordek looked up to see the bard dropping a scroll whose magic he had just discharged. Devis ducked back inside the passage in time to avoid another rush from the third hovering insect.
Tordek was loath to give up his axe, but he dropped it in favor of the longbow. The previously invisible rider screeched a command, and its mount rose farther away from Tordek. The other remaining insect swooped down from the secret passage to join its fellow.
Devis whooped a note so musical that Tordek thought at first he was singing. Instead, the bard leaped from his high vantage and fell with all his weight upon the retreating spider-eater. Together they plummeted toward the dwarf, Devis shouting, "Kill it, Tordek!"
At the same moment, the strange insect-rider shrieked. Tordek glimpsed its fall out of the corner of his eye. The tiny creature tumbled off its steed with a green-fletched arrow lodged in its knotty hide. It seemed more startled than injured.
Tordek's attention was wrenched back to Devis when the bard and the other spider-eater crashed into the gravel at the cliff's base. Devis rolled away from his unwilling steed onto the shore. The creature's wings were broken and its carapace cracked, but its razor claws thrashed furiously in all directions. Tordek snatched up his axe and after slashing off the flailing limbs, set to work chopping the spider-eater to messy bits. The monstrous insect squirmed and chattered horridly until the blade cut it into dozens of sections.
Devis regained his feet as Tordek turned to face the third and final foe. Instead, he saw it disappear over the top of Jorgund Peak, followed by an erratically flapping bat he had not spied before. There was no sign of the little demon.
"We'd better hurry," said Devis, beckoning him back to the rope. "When that giant bug returns to camp, they'll send out a larger party."
Tordek nodded, collecting his bow and shield. There was no time to send up his gear and climb unhindered, but he paused before climbing the rope to consider the bard.
"That jump off the cliff," he said. "Not bad at all."
"Well, thanks," said Devis, "but when you tell the ladies, use the words 'brave' and 'dashing,' will you?"
Tordek pulled himself up the rope, guiding his ascent with his feet upon the cliff face. He grunted and said, "I'll think about it."
THE BURIED FOREST
At Tordek's suggestion, Lidda crept back to close and jam shut the secret door. While the halfling worked, the other three crawled more than twenty feet into the passage before finding a chamber large enough to shelter them all together. The smooth, regular lines of dwarven chisels gave way to a cool, damp chamber shaped by eons of trickling water. A natural passage continued to bore deeper into the mountain, but they paused to tend to injuries.
While he could see perfectly well, albeit in shades of black and white, Tordek drew his magical torch from the black cloth that hid its continual flame's enchantment. Lidda had already struck a sunrod, filling the small cavern with golden light, but Tordek knew it always paid to have a second source of light. Even a few seconds of blindness could mean the difference between life and death in the subterranean world, especially one shared with fiends and gods-knew-what-else.
Vadania's injury had swollen so horribly that she had to slit the side of her trousers lest it burst. The wound was scarlet against her white flesh, even after she cast a spell to cure the injury. The effort exhausted her strength, and her muscles were beginning to seize up in paralytic convulsions.
"It's infected," said Lidda. She drew a dagger and sighed. "That leg's going to have to come off."
"Keep her away from me," said the elf.
"Some people!" said Lidda, sheathing her blade. "Try to raise their spirits with a little levity."
"I thought it was funny," said Devis.
"Yeah?" said Lidda, brightening as she sidled up to the half-elf. "I hear you were daring out there."
"Stand back, both of you," said Tordek. He knelt beside the injured druid.
He already regretted his earlier praise for Devis, and he suspected the bard had somehow tricked him into it. The scamp was already contaminating Lidda with his childishness. In the months she had spent with Tordek, the halfling rogue had never been a liability in a dangerous spot. She might make a snappy remark now and then, but she was never so easily distracted when there was serious work at hand. Now Tordek was beginning to wonder whether he could rely on either of them.
"Do you have anything for it?" He wished he had more than a cool splash of water to offer. Despite years in battle, he never learned more healing than the simple tasks of binding wounds and splinting broken limbs.
"Devis already tried one of his spells," she said. "Here, take off this pack. Find the scrolls inside."