Escalla breathed hard, still shivering with the aftereffects of the demon’s fear spell. She lowered her hand, wisps of spider web stillfloating down from her fingertips.
“Jus, look at his sword!”
The newcomer roared. A myriad of faintly pulsing and flickering stars seemed to dance slowly along the blade, and a weird energy pulsed up from the blade into his flesh. The man began to move with unholy speed, each sweep of his black sword severing a dozen sticky web strands. The sword eked a sinister black radiance and moaned in ghastly hunger as it smelled the scent of blood. With a final slash of his sword, the man ripped out of the web and threw himself toward the Justicar
“Jus, look out!”
Escalla saw the devil-woman charging toward her friend’s backand fired a spell. Swarms of biting, stinging insects formed high above the street then slammed into the woman, wreathing her in a cloud of agony.
The erinyes began to fight off the insect swarm. Escalla cursed like a stevedore and backpedalled madly in midair as the woman sprang aloft to lunge up at her. Escalla led the screaming monster away from her friend, firing a stream of little magic missiles at the creature in an attempt to hold it at bay.
Far below, the Justicar readied himself to fight the sinister, moaning sword.The sword’s wielder-a tall, scarred man-raised the screeching blade and racedforward. He made one huge, twisting cut, and Jus’ parry rang against the weaponlike a bell, both black swords meeting in a flash of light.
The Justicar moved as fast as he could to block another strike, but the man was pushing him to his limit. His attacker was filled with a magical energy that seemed to skitter him forward through time. Moving insanely fast, the man made cut after cut with the evil sword, laughing and overconfident in his magical speed. He sliced at the Justicar’s feet and when the blow wasparried, he whipped the hellish blade around in an overhand cut intended to shear his enemy in two.
The Justicar parried, pivoted aside, and struck, aiming for his enemy’s forearms rather than the sword. His blade struck, severing thethief’s arms clean through. Screaming, the thief spun away, and the black bladefell skittering across the cobblestones. Still accelerated by magical speed, the thief bled to death in a single horrific gush of blood.
From high above, the woman gave a terrified scream.
“Blackrazor! No!”
The creature forgot her attack upon Escalla and whirled to save the sword. She had only just begun to move when a figure stepped suddenly forward from the nearby crowds.
A gigantic opaque fist shimmered into existence, picked up the sword, and whipped it though the air. Floating above the street, the fist settled above a thin, balding sorcerer who awaited the sword with open hands.
The Justicar started as he recognized the face of the librarian laughing in triumph. As the erinyes lunged for him, the librarian simply stepped through a glowing portal in the air. With a silent flash, librarian and magic sword instantly disappeared from view.
The devil-woman screamed in loss and panic, passing through the empty space where the librarian had stood. She searched wildly for the portal, found nothing-then saw the faerie and the Justicar racing toward her.
“Jus, be careful!” Escalla screamed.
Escalla hammered at the erinyes with a spell that sent swarm of darts shaped like little golden bees arrowing straight for their foe. Staggering under the assault, the erinyes broke into a retreat. She raised her hand, and sinister energies twisted at the air. All about the Justicar and Escalla, butchered corpses streaming blood rose to their feet and made a barrier between the devil-woman and her enemies. She spread her white wings and shot up into the sky, moving at a pace that left Escalla tumbling in her wake like a butterfly.
Six shambling corpses charged the Justicar. He smashed the arms from one and clove another’s shoulder off its torso. A third corpse rippeda wound across the rangers shoulder. Cinders raked flame across two of the undead abominations and set them afire, sending them blundering off into the crowds.
Two of the undead still locked swords with Jus. Escalla poised in midair, licked her index finger, and pointed at a zombie. A stream of little explosive golden bees blasted into the creature’s spine, raking themonster as it tried to turn. The last zombie turned to make a clumsy swipe for the faerie but was smacked apart by one savage blow from the Justicar’s blacksword.
The city’s military had finally come on the scene. Soldierscame running into the marketplace, and priests and temple guards instantly withdrew from the fighting. The trident and magic hammer were hurried back into their respective homes. This left the common people fighting, leaderless and insane with fury as soldiers armed with staves tried to bring the fighting to a close.
A law officer stood bellowing helplessly at the crowd, waving his warrant over his head as though it were a magic scroll. A dozen rioters instantly surged toward the man, and he backed against a wall and drew his sword. The Justicar wrenched himself back from staring after the fleeing erinyes and began to shove his way toward the struggling man.
“Escalla, help the lawman!”
The faerie backed away from the open skies. She turned, spread her fingers in a sleep spell, and sent six members of the crowd slumping to the ground. The Justicar leaped over the bodies and brought his blade down on a rioter from behind. He killed a second man with a stab through the back, then joined the lawman side by side.
Rioters surged forward to attack only to be flung back by huge blows from the Justicar’s sword.
With the onrush of armored soldiers, the rioters soon began to scatter. Some dove into the river while others fled into alleyways. A great many of the refugees from the Duchy of Tenh managed to pour into their respective temples, barring the doors against other citizens following behind.
The Justicar hacked the legs out from under a last enemy and then stabbed the man through the heart. He wrenched his sword free with a look of absolute distaste and knelt to wipe the blade upon a dead man’s clothes.
Escalla had managed another sleep spell to clear a path for an inrush of city militiamen. Winded, panting, and scored by a rioters blade, the rescued lawman watched the soldiers come. He fought for breath, looking up at the grim shape of the Justicar as the huge man sheathed his blade.
“Whoever you are, I thank you.”
Escalla came twinkling down from the sky.
“All part of a day’s work, hon!” The faerie perched herselfprettily across the Justicar’s huge shoulders, reclining across the grinninghell hound skin.
With an expressive glance toward the faerie, the Justicar strode forward to help the law officer to his feet. The city streets were littered with corpses, and the main marketplace was awash with blood. Jus kicked a weakly flopping zombie out of his path as the stench of burning slowly began to fill the air.
Escalla peered down from between the ears of the grinning hellhound skin. “Hey, could any of you boys go for a drink right now?”
Beer! Cinders wagged his tail.
Helping the law officer keep his feet, the Justicar led the man away from the carnage. A tangled maze of corpses now marred the city streets, while from the temples there rose a fresh new chorus of screams.
10
“Who? Who did it?” Naked and screaming in rage, Saalashoved one of her thieves, the sheer force of the blow sending the man slamming a dozen feet back against a wall. “Who stole Blackrazor?”
“Lady, we weren’t there!” A senior thief half hid himselfbehind a chair in the Thieves Guildhall. “Our operatives swear they have neverbeen followed or observed at any time.”