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"When the fighting got worse, several of theTower and asked us to aid them," Q&039;arlynd explained "They said it was a full-scale civil war and the rebels were going to tear the city apart if we didn&039;t stop them Matron Mother Lirdnolu explained to me what had happened to House Melarn I knew Mother was dead, and we&039;d heard that she was killed by Ssipriina Zauvirr with collaborators from the outside anted to see the downfall of Ched Nasad"
"And you thought I&039;d perished, too," Halisstra said, squatting down beside her brother
"Yes, either at the same time Mother was one?" the Melarn wizard asked
Halisstra only nodded
"By the Dark Mother," he breathed
"Well, the faet out of this city," Pharaun said, standing "What&039;s the situation? Where&039;s the closest way out that we can get through?"
Q&039;arlynd shook his head and said, "There are none, so I&039;ve heard All the gates have either been commandeered by rebel forces or hordes of escaped slaves or they&039;ve collapsed outright because of the fighting This alche havoc on - "
"Believe me, we know," the Master of Sorcere interrupted, "but your report doesn&039;t leave us with et free of the city"
Quenthel had just opened her ure out a ined, when a commotion broke out from farther down the boulevard Pharaun turned and looked just in ti to their feet in disarray Many of theray dwarves ere e in the air only a couple of feet above the street The duergar were strea off crossbows at any drow targets they could find before casting theout axes, hammers, and the occasional mace
"Attack! We&039;re under attack!" the cry went up asto stop the advance of the gray dwarves
"Coet up there and fight before they split us down thefro troops forward as fast as shecould get to them "Wizard! Throw a spell! Drive them back If they reach the square, we&039;re done for"
Pharaun sighed and nodded, grabbing the battle priestess and spinning her around to face hione
"Tell your troops to fall back to this point," he said
"What? And let them come at us unopposed? I think not"
"Do it, or they will be trapped Set up three positions of missile fire, here - " he pointed to several positions in the street - "there, and there"
The battle priestess looked at the h he were crazy but finally nodded and shouted for an organized retreat
Pharaun rolled his eyes at the battle priestess&039;s short-sightedness and began organizing the drow soldiers hi them where he&039;d pointed earlier As ar, they fell in with the others already positioned As a unit, they began to fire into thethe few relers
They&039;re lost to us, the wizard said to hi the width of the street, anchored to the paves on either side A handful of the dark elves were caught in the sticky strands, and perhaps a dozen or so were trapped on the other side, but the gray dwarves were effectively sealed off fro, at least until they penetrated the webs or the spell wore off
"Coan to levitate
Pharaun followed the other wizard upward to a position where they could see over the top of his webs, down into the field of battle where the gray dwarves had quickly killed the few rear were ly unsure what to do Halisstra&039;s brother had components out, ready to cast a spell, and one look at the luuano in his hand told Pharaun what the wizard planned
"Hold on," Pharaun said, laying a hand on Q&039;arlynd&039;s ar down at the duergar "They want a sha to come try to dispel the webs He&039;s probably the sah, a duergar dressed in robes and wearing several tote doorway One of the duergar addressed hi said - and pointed to the webs The shaan to cast
"Do it," Pharaun said
Q&039;arlynd went into action, letting loose with his spell, ai it directly at the shaman It was a direct hit, and that entire side of the street was engulfed in a white-hot ball of fire that blossomed outward and vaporized an instant later Charred and burning gray dwarves lay everywhere A fewsurvived, but they were few and far between Most i outwhen the shaman who created it died
The tizards settled back to the ground again, noting that Q&039;arlynd&039;s fiery ball ofaway Already, though, another gateas for, this one at the opposite end of the street The battle priestess rallied her troops to deal with the new threat
"You know you only delayed the inevitable," Quenthel said as Pharaun and Q&039;arlynd returned "We&039;re wasting tiet out of the city"
"I know," the Master of Sorcere replied, "but it was fun"
"Look!" Danifae shouted, pointing toward the new gateway
Duergar were strea fro from the web streets on the two adjacent levels
"It&039;s House Zauvirr troops," the battle captive explained "They&039;ve got us pinned"
"Fall back," the battle priestess coar had coan to direct her soldiers, she took a crossbow bolt in the ear The h and protruded from the other side of her head, and she was alreadydead, motionless, as she fell to the pavement
"We&039;re surrounded!" Q&039;arlynd cried out "Stand and fight!"
He produced a wand and waved it, conjuring a sudden and violent tements the size of Pharaun&039;s head The chunks of ice pelted down on the front ranks of gray dwarves, beating theuish
In reply, the duergar began throwingether and ray dwarves appeared, for a shield wall in front so that the back ranks would have protection as they fired crossbows and hurled firepots and spells
Pharaun had no idea where any of his companions were Everyone had been scattered in the initial panic of the attack He had no concerns that they couldn&039;t take care of theer they re at all He spun in place, looking for a sign of any of the smoke, when a creature materialized in front of the wizard, its back to hiical emanations made it clear to him that this creature had been summoned fro, vaguely humanoid, covered hite fur and possessed of four ar brow and a flattened nose, but the s The beast spun around, roaring in rage, and spotted the wizard Its red eyes glittered in delight as it lunged forward, claws outstretched, ready to rend the Master of Sorcere
Pharaun fumbled to free his rapier, but the fiendish creature was on him too fast, and he took a painful slash across the shoulder that knocked hiround as the thing bounded forward again, pounding its chest with all four fists and roaring a challenge
Goddess, Pharaun thought in a panic, scra to activate his rapier
Froe&039;s eye, and Valas darted in behind the beast, raking both kukris along its haly, it spun around before Valas could blend into the surroundings, slashing at the diminutive scout with outstretched claws
Pharaun heard the other drow grunt and watched hiht hiet his rapier free He mentally commanded the thin blade to attack, and when it jabbed at the beast, which was loo over Valas, the creature snarled and spun back to see what hadhurt it Valas scrarowled and roared, swiping at the dancing rapier, but the blade was too quick, darting and weaving and getting several pokes in Already, the white fur of the monster was tainted red fro the beast further, and Pharaun had to suppress a grin
With the blade now protecting hiestured and uttered a few syllables, and instantly,he was surrounded by more than half a dozen exact duplicates of himself that flickered and spun about
At the saht at the feet of the su it in flames It screamed in pain and flailed about, and Pharaun was forced to back a few steps to avoid it as it went running to escape its tored over the side of the web street, vanishing into the void below
Pharaun turned to assay the battle, his rapier still bobbing and weaving, waiting for a target, and the wizard nearly got his head taken off by a series of whirling blades This spell he kneell enough, for it was a favorite of the priestesses, but he doubted that any of the drow had cast it Two of the spinning blades tore through hispii,nipping at his ar quick, thin lines of blood Instinctively, he dropped to the ground, avoiding the full brunt of the spell, though several of his duplicates vanished after being struck The e of the spell and regained his feet
Quenthel was nearby, a wand in one hand and her whip in the other She was slashing at a duergar with her whip, and at the sa apparition of a haray dith her whip,and as he backed up to avoid the attack, she brought the ha it into the back of his skull The duergar jerked once, his eyes rolled up into his head, and he cru Splitter all around hithere was engaged with three drow, and the way they were handling their oeapons, it appeared that Ryld had matched up with felloeaponsand jabbing, trying to get the warrior to over-co from one stance to the next Pharaun could see that, despite the exhaustion that was apparent in Ryld&039;s heavy breathing, there was also a glea every ounce of concentration Ryld had, but he actually see tentacles appeared a Ryld and his three adversaries, and Pharaun watched as two of the writhing appendages latched on to the Master of Melee-Magthere, while several s and ankles of his foes All four of the co to lower his guard in order to try to free hi quickly, Pharaun yanked his wand free of hispiiand triggered it, sending five screaht into the first of the two tentacles that held Ryld down The tentacle spasreatsword, Ryld cut through the second black, shiny appendage, then leaped into the air as s reached for hie of the three weaponsto free thear closed in, firing crossbows at the helpless drow, and the dark elves went down quickly
Pharaun could see that House Maerret&039;s position had been coar had closed in on one side, and drow on the other The fight was si ju for their lives What few re quickly Opponents closed in froh, Pharaun was reunited with his cohter and tighter
"We&039;re out of tiical ha noizard!"
"You!" cary shout fro the co Quenthel, was Ssipriina Zauvirr, glaring at all of the herat them "You should never have cory shout, a ruff voice, froinally been watching and spotted a large, well-arar, one obviously of rank "Foolish droill see you dead!" the gray dwarf called
"Betrayer!" Ssipriina spat back "I should have known better than to trust you, Khorrl Xornbane You can die with thesoldiers, erein a line "Kill them all!"
"Death to all drow!" Khorrl Xornbane roared, and motioned his handful of troops forward
Pharaun&039;s shoulders sagged
We&039;re never going to get out of here, he thought, swinging hisstone was blinding Ryld,it hard to see more than a few feet in any direction The battlefield had suddenly grown quiet There were nobursts from the firepots Only the sound of steel on steel, but even that was greatly dient of gray dwarves To his left, Halisstra also entered the fray, her heavy mace and an impressive mithral shield held ready Quenthel took up a position on the warrior&039;s other side, swinging her whip back and forth experiar, dozens of theroup, bloodlust plain in their eyes Two cah The weaponsat his shoulder and sidestepped a cut to the knees froreatsword down atop the axe, snapping the haft cleanly, but then had to shift his weight aler to the ribs Spinning, he kicked out with one booted foot, catching the gray dwarf square on the wrist and sending the dagger flying
A third duergar looth of chain that he spun in a circle over his head Ryld saw that the foe was eyeing his legs, so when the attack cah that theacross the paveed to turn co his blade across the head of the first gray dwarf&039;s axe, unable to knock it co to force the co Splitter back around again, swiping at the chain-wielder&039;s throat The duergar jerked back fro in his chain for another attempt then stiffened in pain as the head of Danifae&039;sstar came down squarely on his skull in an enchanted shower of sparks The creature slumped over as Danifae spun away to attack another foe
Ryld ained his balance and had bis axe level again His co his injured wrist limply at his side, had fu around Ryld, still trying to h he were trying to avoid being surrounded, even as he casually blocked a couple of strokes froray dwarf rear back for another, even more powerful cut, he planted his toe inside the coils of chain that the downed duergar had been swinging and flipped it up with his leg As the chain sprayed out, it caught the hu his attack
The Master of Melee-Magthere saw the hand axe co toward his shoulder and twisted himself so that the blade justcleanly through the gray dwarf&039;s arar stu the momentum of the blow bear hi spin hi once led hi it away
Ryld shifted his greatsword a couple tiray dwarf, the two of the one another up The weaponshalfhearted attacks toward the dwarf that never really threatened it but allowed Ryld to see just how eager his opponent was to engage with hiray dwarf shied away frothere knew the duergar would break off the fight soon, assu its companions dwindled to sufficiently sain, keeping his blade low and squarely in front of hiar trod backward another step Then, as if out of nowhere, Valas appeared froray dwarf&039;s haar&039;s knee buckled, and the scout ca it into the creature&039;s chest The duergarsound as he shivered and fell over
The Master of Melee-Magthere shifted his attention elsewhere as soon as he saw the threat eli a drow to shreds Only two others were visible, looking for a way to get inside the draegloth&039;s reach, but Ryld doubted that would be the case for long Another dark elf was fighting to keep Pharaun&039;s rapier away froh priestess lashed out with her scourge, allowing the snake heads to sink their teeth deeply into the creature&039;s neck Jerking fro of the bites, the droas unable to h his eye