As Skkreel peered at the scene evoked within the crystal, Lysethra stared at her sister in astonishment. What has got her in such a disgusting mood? she wondered. And what is that thing around her neck? Something from that filthy tribesman?
"It is a preparation for summoning,” Skkreel said, “though it's of an intricacy I've never seen. Note the wrought-gold stands at the cardinal points of the circle. They are focal points for energy sources of some kind." He looked at them with concern. "This is quite beyond my skill."
"What is he summoning?" Lysethra asked in a monotone.
"No way to know without examining the inscriptions," Skkreel said, “but the preparations look nearly complete."
"Well, it's of little consequence." Calmarel's ingratiating tone made Lysethra's teeth ache. "Our first concern is to disarm the traps on this case so we may bring the evidence to the mediator. Please proceed, Master Skkreel. You'll find the adjoining chambers quiet and isolated from any disturbance."
"The items you require will be brought presently," Lysethra assured him. "We will return when you have finished."
A conspiratorial glance flickered between the two as they left; Skkreel would never leave that room. Lysethra cringed at her sister's beaming smile; something had changed in Calmarel, and not, she thought, for the better.
"Well, he's got a mighty impressive front door." DoHeney gaped at the yawning cave mouth as the others ascended.
"From the round shape, I would infer that the cave is not natural." Shay took a few steps forward. "At the very least, the ice has been reworked. This is undoubtedly the place."
"And here we stand, right out in the open!" Avari snapped in a stage whisper. "Has it been so long since the Black Swamp that you've lost your sense? Over to that jumble of ice. Now!"
Slipping and sliding into concealment, they scanned the cave and surrounding ice for signs of any unpleasant welcome, but DoHeney's curses of self-admonishment were the only sound.
"Standin' out there like a prize hog fer the slaughter, we was! What in bloody blue blazes was I thinkin'? A wonder we weren't filled full o' arrows!" He shrugged apologetically to Avari.
"I don't like this!" she hissed. "I keep asking myself why we haven't been attacked yet, especially on that narrow trail."
"It does seem like they would keep a lookout,” Lynthalsea whispered.
"Well, somethin’ lives here. Let's get closer." DoHeney led them around the plateau and along the cliff face to a spot nearer the cave mouth. They waited for a moment, exchanged shrugs, and moved toward the opening. Then DoHeney froze, his stubby fingers splayed out behind him.
"I seen somethin' move 'round the corner," he hissed back to the others. He raised his crossbow.
"Unlink!" Avari whispered, coiling the rope over her shoulder as the slipknots were loosened. "We'll go all at once."
The others nodded, and Shay fished a pinch of something from a pouch at his belt. With Lynthalsea and DoHeney's bows, Shay's spells and a tight grip on Gaulengil, Avari felt ready.
"One... two... THREE!"
The companions sprang from cover in perfect unison, weapons ready, prepared for anything; anything except the treacherous footing that lay under a light dusting of snow.
Avari's feet shot out from under her, and she crashed to the hard ice. Shay fell next, and DoHeney fired wildly at the movement to his left, then went down with a hard thump. Lynthalsea remained standing long enough to take careful aim and fire a shot. She stared in shock as her arrow transfixed her own reflection between the eyes, then lost her footing and fell.
"Get the rope!" Shay shrieked, panic tainting his voice as they all began to slip inexorably down-slope into the cave.
Avari struggled with the line as she slid. Swearing, she smashed Gaulengil’s crosspiece into the ice. It bit deeply, stopping her progress, but she only had one hand for the rope.
"Hurry!" Shay's voice was even more frantic.
"Shay, catch!" Avari screamed around the rope in her teeth as she threw the coiled length. The line tangled, but reached him before he went over the steepest incline. Shay was safe.
But not so Lynthalsea.
DoHeney had stopped himself by using the same tactic as Avari, wedging his new axe into the far wall of the cavern. He watched in horror as Lynthalsea slid by.
"Yer bow!" he yelled, thrusting his crossbow out to try to catch her. The elf flung her weapon out, looping the string over one arm of DoHeney's crossbow. The link came taut, but DoHeney had stretched too far; his grip on the crossbow failed, and Lynthalsea continued her downward slide.
Lynthalsea scrabbled with wolf claws that sprouted from her fingertips, but the ice was too hard. Shay tried to loop the tangled rope around his hand so he could reach her, but he knew that she would pass well beyond his reach.
"Lynthalsea!" he yelled, his voice now steady. "Catch!"
Lynthalsea looked up, hopeful that someone had found a way to help her, then realized what Shay was about to do.
"No, Shay! Don't—"
The tangled rope slid toward her as her scream tore at her throat. She caught the rope just as Shay slipped from sight.
"SHAY!!" Avari shrieked. She considered wrenching her sword free and following her friend down, but she was the only thing keeping Lynthalsea from sliding farther. She flung her leg over Gaulengil's crosspiece and hauled on the rope. Once Lynthalsea was safe, maybe she could find a way down to Shay. The sobbing elf clung to the line. She had kept her bow, but DoHeney's had been lost.
"I couldn't..." Lynthalsea cried, tears streaking her face. "He was safe and he—"
"I know." Avari clutched the elf close, trying to calm her wracking sobs. "We'll find him, Lynthalsea. We've just got to think." She looked around for an idea, any idea. "DoHeney! How do we get down there?"
"Aside from slidin' on our backsides?" he asked as he pounded in an iron spike to secure his position. "We could tie all our ropes together and climb down, but I think we'd better be a mite careful. This here ice didn't get so smooth and hid under snow by itself. And the way that that there wall was set to reflect like a mirror... This whole thing is a trap, lass."
"You mean they wanted us to slide down there?" Avari asked, horror edging her question.
"But that would mean..." Lynthalsea's embittered conclusion trailed into another sob.
"Aye, lass," DoHeney said, inching to his feet. "There's very likely nothin' pleasant waitin' at the bottom o' this hole. We'd best find another way down."
"I would rather you simply throw me an untangled rope.”
Avari nearly lost her grip on Gaulengil at the voice from above. DoHeney fell flat on his backside, but snagged one of his securing spikes before he started sliding. When they all looked up, their surprise was replaced by relief.
"Shay!" they all exclaimed in unison.
The half-elf levitated above them near the cavern's ceiling. He lowered himself toward Avari, reaching down to take the proffered line. Lynthalsea lunged up, clenching him in a desperate embrace. She cried openly, burying her face against his cloak and squeezing the breath from him.
"I thought... When you disappeared, I thought I'd lost you." Her voice cracked with emotion far exceeding that of their casual friendship. "Oh, I could never stand to lose you, Shay!"
Shay was struck dumb. He just floated there, trying to maintain the spell that kept them both aloft.
So she does love him, Avari thought, grinning as she secured the rope around them both. Lynthalsea finally broke away, looking embarrassed, and wiped the tears from her face.
"That was a mighty slick move, there, boyo," DoHeney quipped, unable to resist the pun. "I don't suppose ye managed to snag me crossbow as it passed, did ye?"
"I am sorry, DoHeney," Shay said. "I was a little busy."
"I understand, laddie," the dwarf said, "but mayhaps we be findin' it once we get to the bottom o' these here caverns."
"You still want to go down there?" Avari eyed the slope to the foreboding depths of the cave. "Even
knowing it's a trap?"
"Nay, lass. Not them caverns, but these here caverns." He shoved on the ice just above the crack where his axe was wedged. A huge slab slid inward. "By the luck o' the Delver, I found this here door. No tellin' where it goes, but I'd be willin' ta bet me warmest winter britches our gem's at the bottom."
His companions worked their way toward the revealed ingress. Within moments they were all safely within and the smooth ice slid back into place behind them.
The eyes of the great ice drake snapped open from a deep sleep, pupils the length of scimitars narrowing to scan its lair, mouth tendrils writhing in annoyance. Its eyesight was not particularly sharp, but was keen to catch the faintest movement. However, there was no movement here, just the remains of past meals: piles of antlers and bones, weapons and armor dented and torn... and a single piece of wood. Wood was rare here, and its scent drew the drake's attention. Its tendrils curled around the piece, telling it that the wood was not alive and would not taste good. But other scents lingered on the wood's porous surface: oil, sweat, and even blood.
The beast nudged the crossbow out of its bed and curled up once again. It would remain awake for a while. No sense going out to hunt when dinner might very well arrive on its own.
CHAPTER 19
Light filtered through the glacier, painting everything a ghastly pallor and illuminating the frozen remains of plants and animals entombed in the ice. Death, and the creak and pop of the shifting ice, kept them company. A glance at her companions' pale blue faces sent a shiver up Avari's spine, even though it was, as Shay had predicted, warmer within the glacier.
DoHeney touched her elbow; the gem in his hand lent a warm red cast to the dwarf's face. He nodded down another twisting stair, indicating the path. The proportions of the cavernous place worried Avari, but she reminded herself of Zellohar's towering vaulted halls, and that dwarves had created them. The logic didn’t give her much peace of mind.
As the light faded to the red of DoHeney's gem, the green of Gaulengil's emerald, and a sliver of white from Avari's partially drawn dagger, her eyes were drawn to the interplay of colors. She noted that Shay's eyes rarely left Lynthalsea, and thought, That's a problem. His attention needed to be focused on their peril, not the subject of his long-repressed affection.
"What the devil?" DoHeney muttered, startling them to a stop. "Damn! We must o' took a wrong turn. This dern thing's pointin' at a blank wall."
"Maybe the corridor turns back," Avari suggested. She drew her knife and held it aloft to illuminate the cavern, which ended about twenty strides ahead. "Then again, maybe not."
"We have already encountered one concealed doorway. Perhaps this is another," Shay said as he glanced warily behind.
"I'll jist have a quick look, then." DoHeney raised the ruby for light. The wall before him was mottled, like ice over a frozen lake. He looked for any hint of a concealed opening, but instead caught a flicker of movement.
"What the—"
The half-second it took his reflexes to respond was a half-second too long. Shards of ice showered the dwarf as a huge three-fingered hand smashed through the wall and enveloped his arm, jerking him off his feet. With a yell, DoHeney swung his axe. The blade bit into the pale flesh and blue-grey blood gushed from the wound. The owner of the injured member flung DoHeney over Avari’s head like a discarded rag doll; his cry truncated as he hit the far wall.
Avari had no time to see how he fared. The attackers loomed more than twice her height, their skin pale blue-white, lips harsh blue slashes over black teeth. Fortunately, the opening into the hidden chamber was only wide enough for two of the hulks. She lunged forward to block their egress, Gaulengil parrying a blow from a huge axe and slashing the thing's arm.
The monster facing her howled in rage, raising one arm to fend off Lynthalsea's arrows while it swept its axe in deadly arcs. Strangely, the other didn’t attack, but stooped to scoop something off the floor. The red glow in the thing's hand hit Avari as hard as a blow; DoHeney had dropped the ruby.
As the troll with the ruby retreated to let another advance, Avari gritted her teeth; she might be a match for one, but there was no way she could survive against two of these monsters.
"AVARI! DOWN!!"
Avari heeded Shay's command with a diving roll, knowing better than to linger in the path of one of his spells. A blast of heat flashed by, warming her face. She squinted against the glare of the fire spell to catch the trolls' wide-eyed horror in the second before they were caught in a cyclonic inferno.
Skin and cloaks crackled amid howls of terror and pain, but torrents of water, ice melted from the intense heat, poured down to extinguish the flames and cool their injuries. Steam filled the corridor, and the footing instantly became treacherous.
Avari sloshed to her feet, staying close to the wall to maintain her position, but as the fog cleared, her hopes melted. The trolls, although singed, still stood. She lunged, taking advantage of their disorientation to plunge Gaulengil deep into one of the broad chests. Her victim grabbed the blade, but Avari thrust it deeper, twisting savagely. The troll gaped and fell, its clenched hand taking Gaulengil with it.
"Not again!" she swore. Wrench and pull as she might, she could not free the blade.
As an axe swept toward her head, she dove out of the way, leaving Gaulengil behind. But as the axe struck ice, one of Lynthalsea's arrows struck home. The troll, pierced through the eye, toppled onto its dead companion, burying Gaulengil under a mountain of dead meat.
Avari swore again, drew her father's sword, and fell back.
Two of the three remaining trolls advanced, stepping over their dead comrades. Lynthalsea's barrage slowed as she waited for a good opening, her quiver already half empty. Shay conjured the sticky pitch that had worked so well in Zellohar, but the hulks slogged through it unaffected.
Avari edged closer to DoHeney, who had regained consciousness. He gamely held his battleaxe, but clutched his wounded arm close. Her thought as the trolls advanced was not heartening: I wouldn't bet a bent copper on these odds.
Vibrations resonated through the ice, rousing the great drake once again. The commotion was close. The beast moved, its clawed feet gaining easy purchase on the ice. Its head swung first to one wall, then another, the sensitive tendrils about its mouth writhing as it tried to perceive the direction of the vibrations. Bones and antlers snapped like kindling beneath its bulk as it pulled its sinuous length toward the back wall. The activity was in this direction, but behind yards of ice. The beast's great tail lashed in anticipation, peristaltic shudders rustling its bone-white scales. Food moved beyond the ice, but it knew how to breach the barrier; the same way it had hollowed out this lair.
Gallons of corrosive juices jetted into the worm's stomach, the chemical reaction generating a nova of excess heat. Steam began to roll from the ice drake's nostrils...
Avari drove a kick into the stomach of the troll, but it was like kicking the wall that it her had pinned against. She gagged at its fetid breath, the hoary face only inches from hers. The haft of its huge axe crushed her chest as it held her suspended, her feet dangling far above the floor where her sword lay in a pool of freezing water. The troll was weak from a dozen wounds, but was still far stronger than Avari. She could feel her chest sagging with every exhaled breath. She glanced around desperately, but saw that help would not be soon in coming.
Shay had apparently deemed his remaining spells too puny to be effective against their foe, and now fought beside Lynthalsea, crimson fire flaring from his hammer as it blocked the crushing blows of one troll's axe. The nimble elf, long since out of arrows, hacked frantically if not quite professionally at the tree-trunk legs with her short sword. DoHeney scurried through the ankle-deep water, avoiding the grasping hand and sweeping blade of the third hulking humanoid, hacking at its knees.
All this slipped into Avari's oxygen-starved mind as the last of her breath wheezed from between her bluing lips. Their luck had finally run out. With Gaulengil hop
elessly out of reach and Shay's spells ineffective, there was no way to do any real damage to these impervious hulks.
Avari felt herself sinking... sinking into a cold, wet grave. The ice at her back felt like it was yielding to envelope her. She envisioned herself millennia from now, entombed in the ice of the glacier, as gray despair shadowed her sight.
A shock of icy water flooding down her back pulled her from the brink of unconsciousness. A second later, cold air flooded into her lungs as the wall behind her collapsed, and Avari and the troll tumbled through the melting wall of ice.
They splashed into a deep puddle, but the troll, in his eagerness to rise, pushed Avari down into the water. She thrashed to get air, surfacing to an earsplitting howl.
The entire glacier must be collapsing! she thought as she gasped a lungful of searing hot air and blinked water from her eyes. The troll stood over her, a watery blur trying to turn and run. Before it took two steps, a massive white shape flashed from above, snapping it up like a toy. Avari wiped a hand over her eyes to clear her vision, then wished she hadn't.
The great fanged maw of the ice drake engulfed the troll's entire head and shoulders, and would have swallowed the thrashing prey whole, but for the long axe wedged across its jaw. The beast whipped its head from side to side until its serrated teeth tore its prey in half.
Avari scrambled out of the way, frantic to distance herself from the scaly horror. She slid back into the hallway, nearly swimming in the ice melt as waves of heat from the creature sent sheets of water cascading down the walls. The warrioress plunged into the waist-deep pool where her sword lay, surfacing as the last of the troll passed down the ice drake's gullet.
She made her way out of the opposite side of the pool, trying not to attract the nearby trolls' attention, though she need not have worried. The trolls stood with her companions, all of them shocked immobile, staring at the ice drake in horror.
"Methinks things jist went from grim to totally black," DoHeney mumbled as Avari joined him.
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