Descent into the Depths of the Earth (39 page)

Quarrel after quarrel spat sparks and ricocheted madly from
drow armor. Missed shots ploughed across stone and spun from tunnel walls. More
dark elves ran forward, armor making bolts bounce and flicker aside. One warrior
jerked back with a bolt through his eye. Others took shots in the chest and
thigh, cursing then screaming foully as the drugged points struck them down.

A score of drow hurtled into the field of fire. Henry swerved
his crossbow left and fought the thunderous recoil. The weapon bucked and raved,
quarrels blasting toward the onrushing drow. Lying awkwardly on his side, Polk
panted in panic, cramming handful after handful of bolts into the magazine. The
arched bow blurred white hot, the string thudding like a drum. Blood and sparks
and ringing metal turned the cave into a churning storm of chaos as the drow ran
forward, screamed, and died.

The drow fell back. From behind them, leaders struck with
whips and spells to drive the laggard onward. Sheltering in the recesses of the
tunnel walls, drow fired random crossbow shots that smacked into the rocks
beside Polk and Henry or flew wide.

Shoving through her followers came a tall drow sorceress
dressed in blood red mail. She ran forward, buckler held high to deflect a rain
of Henry’s crossbow darts. Other elves ran behind, using her as cover, then
streaked away from the deathtrap of the cave mouth. One of them sped over
Escalla’s magic runes, and a massive blast of flame shot upward and blew the
drow apart. A survivor staggered to his feet, and Polk shot the creature with a
hand crossbow. Drow soldiers shrank back into the safety of the cave mouth,
lying flat behind the bodies of the dead and paralyzed.

Still standing amidst a rain of fire, the sorceress snarled
and launched a lightning bolt. The spell shot toward Polk and Henry, hitting the
metallic ores in front of them and arcing uselessly into the ground. She
screamed in fury even as a fresh stutter of crossbow bolts began smacking into
armored elves and forcing them to ground.

The woman screamed at her cowardly followers, ripped spell
energies out of her black soul, and flung them at her foes. A fireball
thundered, the flames engulfing Polk and Henry utterly. The sorceress rose, half
turned to wave her forces forward, and gave a mad ullulating cry. A dozen drow
stormed forward, only to halt in shock as a lethal rain of crossbow bolts
blurred into their ranks again.

Black cloaks smoking, Polk and Henry were back in action, the
crossbow hammering home a stream of fire. The sorceress staggered as three bolts
hit her armor and flew away. Then one dart speared through her naked thigh, and
the drugged tip instantly took hold. Jerking forward, the paralyzed drow crashed
to the ground, her spell staff and her buckler rolling in the dirt. Her warriors
fell back, firing wild shots from hand crossbows, and suddenly the air was
starkly still.

Panting and swearing, Polk kicked one empty crate of crossbow
bolts away and tipped the other on its side. He filled Henry’s magazine, cursing
dully and monotonously, his eyes glazed with panic, while somewhere behind them
the cavern echoed to countless hundreds of battle screams.

* * *

Temple steps were awash with blood. Freed captives rolled on
the ground, dying on the fangs of black widow spiders or tearing the arachnids
apart limb from limb. With captured swords, lengths of chain, or bare fists and
nails they threw themselves upon the drow, who fell back toward the altar in
fear. Drow soldiers fired wildly into the enraged crowd, only to be pulled down
by the onrushing waves. Spells flickered and blasted—pinpricks to a mob driven
wild with fear that took its last refuge in blood-red rage.

Their fury had solidified into a huge blood spattered form.
With his hell hound sheeting flames into the drow, Jus fought like a dark,
roaring god. Swordsmen leaped howling at him, turning somersaults as they flew
over the battling crowds. The Justicar cut the guts out from one in midair,
hacking another down as he fell from above. The white blade ignored drow
enchantments and alloys, shearing through metal, flesh, and bone as though they
were wet paper.

Driven by one man’s fury, the sword sheared a drow priestess
in half, showering drow with blood as the ranger clawed his way into the midst
of the exhausted drow clergy. Charm spells spattered away from him, canceled by
his old bone ring. A curse spell twisted away from him as he roared in massive
anger. An instant later, a priestess lay screaming as she died, but a second
drew a mace to fight hand to hand. The mace was parried, struck from her hand,
and her arms severed in four blindingly fast bows, leaving the vile cleric
screaming as she fell through the ring of drow and into the bowl of blood.

Surviving drow had made a ring about their demon queen, but
the gigantic spider still had her head below the blood and was drinking deep.
Buying time as their queen charged herself with power, the drow roared defiance
and hacked into the human swarm. Blood flew in red streams from both drow and
captives.

Jus launched himself at the elven lines, smashing home with
hell hound flames blasting before him. The huge man crashed into elves,
scattering them, and the mob surged forward through the breech to drag drow to
the ground.

The high priestess gathered thirty desperate followers and
made a counter attack. Raising her hand, the priestess began to scream out the
syllables of a spell. Jus heard the spell, turned, and caught the priestess’
eye as she gasped in an instant need to kill.

Jus looked at the woman and gave one low, predatory growl.

Screaming in hate, the priestess launched a spell. A
lightning bolt blasted toward the Justicar. The man swung out with his sword,
striking the bolt aside and ploughing it into the drow. Dark elves were blasted
from their feet while others ducked, magically immune.

The mob hesitated, fearing to come too close to Lolth. Taking
the fight to the enemy, Jus hurtled himself at the high priestess, who drew out
a long staff that trailed writhing tentacles. With a manic scream, the woman ran
headlong through the corpses, wild with the need to tear open the Justicar’s
heart.

* * *

“Bastard!”

Naked and bloodstained, Escalla flung herself at the enemy
faerie, who stood beside the bone gateway. Masked in white, it had a clear stone
on a ragged string hung about its neck—the slowglass gem! The masked faerie
spared a glance at Lolth, who kept feeding, building up the power that could
crush the intruders and seize the Nightshade key. The faerie whirled, saw
Escalla’s rush, and shot out a magic shield to hold off the inevitable blast of
spells.

Screaming in fury, Escalla blurred forward with accelerated
speed and ploughed through the shield, crashing full tilt into her enemy’s
chest. The white-clad faerie flew backward, slamming against the temple gates
and tumbling into the pitch-black interior. With a wild scream, Escalla sped
forward in pursuit, moving almost faster than the eye could see. She shot like a
meteor above Jus and the drow, leaving a monster summoning spell sparkling in
her wake. A swarm of giant damselflies flashed into existence behind
her—creatures that plunged down onto giant black widow spiders, plucked them up
into the air, and began eating the arachnids greedily.

Still moving blindingly fast, Escalla sped through the temple
doors. An ice spell blasted at her, ripping the flesh from her bones and
smashing her to the floor. As she screeched and writhed, the other faerie
whirled down from the ceiling, blasting a fireball down to incinerate Escalla’s
remains to ash. Scorched bones hissed, an obscene parody of Escalla’s beauty.
The enemy faerie stood over the corpse, then turned back in triumph to glance
toward the demon queen.

Leaning against a nearby column, Escalla waved to catch the
enemy faerie’s eye.

“Hey, moron!”

An ice blast of Escalla’s own punched through the other
faerie’s shields. Ripped and torn, the other creature dived aside, a spell
flashing to repair wounds before the creature even hit the ground. Escalla
walked forward, laughing as the dazed faerie crawled across the floor.

“Simalcra are so hoopy, huh?” Escalla’s opponent had the
typical fault of all court-raised faeries: just not enough experience from the
school of hard knocks. “Aw, and I bet that was your best combat spell!”

Whirling in silent rage, the other faerie fired another ice
blast. Escalla was blown apart—the pieces falling to the earth, turning to
singing cockroaches and running around and around the floor. A nasty little peal
of laughter came from somewhere in the shadows above the door.

Escalla appeared, now masked by magic shields of her own.

“Nope! Guess you had one more!” The naked girl gave a smile
filled with pointy teeth. “Simalcra are just too, too hoopy.”

A lightning bolt thundering off her magic shield, Escalla
lunged with the lich staff pointed straight ahead. The enemy faerie threw itself
aside, and a chunk of masonry exploded as the staff struck home. Escalla
whirled, but her enemy sped deeper into the temple. She threw the staff like a
javelin, the weapon missing by a hair as the enemy faerie fled madly away.
Swooping to retrieve her weapon, Escalla flew hot on her enemy’s tail.

The other faerie twisted through huge hallways lined with
spider sculptures. In a vast room filled with gigantic spider webs, the enemy
faerie dived wildly toward a little door. Escalla ripped a spell past her enemy,
and a wall of flames blocked the path. With a wild scream, Escalla ploughed
toward her foe, holding the staff before her like a spear.

The other faerie blasted out a cloud of choking fog. Escalla
shot through, felt a shape whir below her, and lashed out with one hard little
foot. A mask cracked as she kicked the enemy faerie in the face, and then
suddenly the other creature turned on Escalla like a shark.

Too close for staffs or spells, the two faeries fought
blindly, kicking and tearing at each other, but Escalla’s blood-slippery skin
gave her enemy no chance to grip. They grappled in midair, falling wildly
through the fog. Escalla managed to grip the string around her enemy’s neck and
rip it free, the slowglass gem falling to the ground.

Nails tried to rip Escalla’s face. She struck madly with her
lich staff but missed, and the other faerie punched back. Escalla crashed into a
springy surface, saw the other faerie lunging straight toward her with a dagger,
and managed to plant both feet in the other creature’s chest. Her enemy tumbled
backward and rebounded from a pillar, slamming face down into the spider web
just below Escalla’s heels.

Clouds dissipated. Both faeries hung in the giant spiders’
web, stuck fast and buzzing wildly with rage. An instant later, giant black
widow spiders emerged from the upper corners of the room. They stared at the
prey through unwinking eyes and began to creep relentlessly along the strands of
web. Escalla took one look at the spiders and felt her skin begin to crawl.

“Oh crap!”

Pointing one finger, Escalla fired little swarms of golden
bees. The spellfire snapped and rebounded off the webs, failing to so much as
break a strand. Escalla cursed, swiped clumsily with her lich staff, and blasted
one sticky rope of spider web free. The black widows bounced madly on the web,
running forward as they felt their prey beginning to escape.

Below Escalla, the other faerie jerked in a frenzy of panic.
Escalla was breaking free strand by strand, and the black widows were racing in
for the kill. The enemy faerie tore itself free, hanging by a single hand that
was stuck tight. Flapping in frenzy, the faerie tried to break free.

Spiders gathered for a death lunge, Escalla broke another
strand, and the masked faerie opened fire with a spell. Flesh blasted apart, and
suddenly the masked faerie was flying free. Reeling in agony, the creature sped
away out of the temple, leaving Escalla staring after it in shock.

The other faerie had deliberately blown off its own hand at
the wrist. The severed hand still bounced and clung to the spiders webs. Hacking
herself loose, Escalla fired a lightning bolt through the nearest spiders and
cleared the web, then used the lich staff to cut the severed hand free. The
faerie whirled, then looked down to hunt for the fallen slowglass gem… only
to see the whole floor of the hall sparkling brightly with mountains of gold and
jewels.

It was the temple’s treasure horde!

With a staff in one hand and a severed trophy in the other,
Escalla stared. Fifty black widow spiders surged toward her from all sides. The
slowglass gem gleamed and sparkled just below her, bracketed by enough treasure
to buy a kingdom. Out of time, Escalla could only look about and flap her wings
in woe.

“Oooh, shoot!”

Escalla dived, plucked up the slowglass gem, and shoved it in
her mouth. With her mouth and hands full, the girl shot faster than a crossbow
bolt out of the temple, leaving enraged spiders following fast behind.

* * *

Outside the temple, Jus fought beneath a diving umbrella of
damselflies that struck and swerved at the drow—sometimes dying, sometimes
killing. The drow high priestess screamed in fury and lashed at the Justicar
with a rod that sprouted flailing tentacles. The strands struck home in a wild
blur, whipping out to bind legs and arms, stinging with acid wherever they
touched. Jus jerked in fury pain, trying to wrench himself free. A mace crashed
against his shoulders, nearly cracking his spine. Jus kicked out viciously,
connected with a kneecap, and brought the drow priestess crashing to the ground.
Before he could finish her, he felt a blade rip into him from behind, then
another crashed against his armor of dragon scales. The Justicar managed to tear
the tentacles free and hurl the weapon aside, when suddenly the whole world
exploded in his face. The drow priestess managed to slap a hand against the
Justicar, and magic gave a hideous, brilliant flash.