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Entreri shouted out, and the horses snorted and bucked in terror and swerved to the right,foothill
"Hold theon jolted hard, its rear wheel clipping a stone and diving into a deep rut The horse tea both Jarlaxle and Entreri with them - for the o as they ca, and neither was foolish enough to try to resist the sudden round side by side, Entreri in a roll and the drow landing lightly on his feet and running along to absorb the shock
Entreri caer in hand and already working He set opaque veils of ash in the air around hied snakes
Streah the sheets of black ash, but the assassin was not caught unaware Already turning and shifting to avoid the assault, he burst through hard, catching the snakes by surprise as they had tried to catch him A slash of Charon&039;s Claw took down a pair, and a stab of his jeweled dagger stuck hard into the torso of a third That snake snapped its head forward to bite at the assassin&039;s wrist, but Entreri was a flash ahead of it, twisting his hand down and flicking the blade to send the creature flying away
Before the creature had even cleared fro his sword to fend a trio of diving serpents and to deflect three lines of acid
More came at him from the other side, and he knew he could never defeat the back down the hill toward the tarves and the thin ular defensive posture in the back of the rolling wagon
Athrogate&039;s twinfast at the end of their respective chains He worked the their flow, but cunningly altering their angles to clip and send spinning any snakes that ventured too close Athrogate let out a series of rhyht, for lines of acidic spittle assaulted hi wisps of smoke from his beard and tunic
Pratcus stood behind him, deep in prayer, and every now and then he called out to Moradin then gently touched his wild bodyguard, using healing ic to help repair some of his led his fingers, sending forth bolts of energy that drove back the nearest creatures
Entreri knew he had to catch that wagon
"Make way!" he cried, cutting fast to the side, coon as he leaped atop a rock
Athrogate turned fast, giving hie onto the bed Before the dwarf could yell, "Hold the flank!" Entreri went right past him, between the other dwarf and the thin man He scrambled over the bench rail to take a seat between the two drivers, both of ere ducking and screa in pain
Entreri threw the hood of his cloak up over his head and grabbed the reins from Calihye The half-elf woman was obviously blinded and almost senseless
"Keep them away from me!" he shouted to the trio behind
He bent low in the seat, urging the horses on faster
Parissus, sitting to Entreri&039;s right,hi the reins and slow the tea that the woman had lost all consciousness She tuht over the side Entreri grabbed at her but couldn&039;t hold her and hold the teaon
The worunt, then a second grunt as the back wheel bounced over her
Calihye cried out and grabbed at Entreri&039;s arlower at her, to let her know in no uncertain tero of him, he&039;d toss her off the other side
She fell back in fear and pain then screaain as another strea one cheek
Hold on! Hold on!
That was all the poor, confused Davis Eng could think as the assault continued Gone were his hopes for aiding his fallen friend, for he rode on the very edge of doo serpents Lines of blood ran down his arry blisters covered half his face
"Aboyi!" he heard his beloved commander yell from somewhere far, far away - too distant to aid him, he knew
He had to find a direction and bolt his horse away, but how could he begin to do anything but hold on for all his life?
His horse reared, whinnied, and spun on its hind legs Then so the turn, and the soldier lurched over and could not hold on
But a hand grabbed hirabbed at his reigns, straightening hireat was Mariabronne&039;s control of hishits fro&039;s horse, and carried on exactly as the ranger de away
On the ground behind Mariabronne, the fallen soldier kept squir, but he was obviously beyond help It pained Mariabronne greatly to abandon him, but there was clearly no choice, for dozens of snake creatures slithered around hi his veins with their venom
The horses could outrun the creatures, Mariabronne knew, and that was this other soldier&039;s - and his own - only hope
The warrior woh the air as her horse thundered on toward the soon-to-be-overwhelnificently, Ellery had to aders at the nearby snakes He spun continually as well, his cloak flying wide and offering e of acidic venorimaced in pain, and Ellery was certain that he couldn&039;t possibly keep up the seely endless supply of missiles
She bent loinced, and nearly fell from her seat as a stream of caustic fluid struck the side of her jaw, just under the bottoh to send her axe swiping forward to tear the wing froot in over the blade and dived hard onto her wrist and hand Hooked fangs caauntlet
The knight howled and dropped her axe then furiously shook her hand, sending both the gauntlet and the serpent tu away She shouted to the drow and drove her steed on toward hirip, his second hand working fast doith a dagger, and Ellery&039;s surprise was co back froic had gripped the dark elf, she realized, for his strength was nified alloped by
She was on the ground in a flash, stunned and stu, but Jarlaxle held her up on her feet
"What?" she started to ask
The drow jerked her in place in front of him, and Ellery noted faint sparkles in the air around thelobe of some sort
"Do not pull away!" he warned
He lifted his other hand to show her a black, ruby-tipped wand in his delicate fingers
The wolanced over Jarlaxle&039;s shoulder to see a swar at thehtest fear He just pointed his wand at the ground and uttered a command that dropped a tiny ball of fire from its end
Ellery instinctively recoiled, but the drow held her fast in his rip
She recoiled even ry fla the air She felt her breath sucked out of her lungs, felt the sudden press of blazing heat, and all around her and the drow, the globe sparked and glowed in angry response
But it held The killing flah, for a score of feet all around, the fires ate hungrily
Serpents fell flaround, charred to a crisp before they landed Off to the side, the wagon Entreri and Jarlaxle had unceres already popping in the grip of the great flames Across the other way, the body of the fallen soldier crackled and charred, as did the dozen serpents that squirmed atop it
A puff of black smoke billowed into the air above the warrior and the drow The wagon continued to burn, sending a strea in protest
But other than that, the air around therew still, preternaturally serene, as if Jarlaxle&039;s fireball had cleansed the air itself
A wave of heat flashed past Entreri - the hot winds of Jarlaxle&039;s fireball He heard the thin on behind hiate&039;s appreciative, "Good with the boom for clearin&039; the roo back, though, it was quickly dismissed by the plop of acidic spittle on the hood of his cloak and the flapping of serpent wings beside his ear
Before he could evensound followed by a loud whack and the sight of the blasted serpent spiraling out to the side The thruate&039;stheot yer head," came the dwarf&039;s cry "Them snakes attack ye, they wind up dead!"
"Just shut up and kill theht A roar of laughter froate clued him in that he had said it a bit too loudly
Another serpent went flying away, right past his head, and Entreri heard a quick series of impacts, each accolance to the side to see the re to roll off the side of the wagon With a less-than-aed her back into place beside hi around in a fury Histhe theround
Behind the tarves the thinthe way they had co spewed forth froon
The serpents in close pursuit pulled up and began to writhe and spas A round
"Aye!" the other dwarf cried
"Poison the air, ye clever wizard?" said Athrogate "Choking them stinkin&039;, spittin&039; liza - "
"Don&039;t say it!" Entreri shouted at him
"What?" the dwarf replied
"Just shut up," said the assassin
Athrogate shrugged, hisdown at the end of their respective chains
"Ain&039;t nothing left to hit," he re hi line
"Ease up the teaged the reigns just a bit and coaxed the horses to slow He turned the wagon to the side and noted the approach of Mariabronne and the wounded soldier, the ranger still handling both their mounts Entrerihi cloud of green fog began to dissipate, and the distant burning wagon ca into the air
Beside hiroaned
Mariabronne handed the soldier&039;s horse over to the care of Athrogate then turned his own horse around and galloped back to the body of the other fallen wo past him, Entreri noted that the other soldier was dead, for the ht of the fallen woathered that they had lost two in the encounter
At least two, he realized, and to his own surprise, a quiver of alar almost immediately when he noted Jarlaxle off to the other side, up in the foothills, cal toward the after her scared and riderless roaned and Entreri turned to see Mariabronne cradling her head The ranger gently lifted her battered form from the mud and set her over his horse&039;s back then slowly led the on
"Parissus?" Calihye asked She crawled back into a sitting position, widened her eyes, and called again for her friend, more loudly "Parissus!"
The look on Mariabronne&039;s face was not pro Nor was the lifeless
"Parissus?" the woently as her senses returned She started past the assassin but stopped short "You did this to her!" she cried, ht up to Entreri&039;s
Or trying to, for when the final word escaped her lips, it caainst her throat, fingers perfectly positioned to crush her windpipe She grabbed at the hold with both hands then dropped one low - to retrieve a weapon, Entreri knew
He wasn&039;t overly concerned, however, for she stopped short when the tip of the assassin&039;s jeweled dagger poked in hard under her chin
"Would you care to utter another accusation?" Entreri asked
"Be easy, boy," said Athrogate
Beside hian to quietly chant
"If that is a spell aimed at me, then you would be wise to reconsider," said Entreri
The dwarf cleric did stop - but only when a drow hand grabbed him by the shoulder
"There is no need for animosity," Jarlaxle said to them all "A difficult foe, but one vanquished"
"Because you decided to burn the half-elf soldier
"Your friend was dead long before I initiated the fireball," said the drow "And if I had not, then I and Commander Ellery would have suffered a sied as if it did not matter "I saved myself and Commander Ellery I could not have saved your friend, nor could you, in any case"
"Abo close to the others "More may be about We have no tier, then at Jarlaxle, who nodded for hi her one last warning glare
Calihye gagged a bit and fell back froon bench and over to her fallen companion Mariabronne let her pass by, but looked to the others and shook his head
"I got some spells," the dwarf cleric said
Mariabronne walked away fro the woman with her fallen friend "Then use them," he told the dwarf "But I doubt they will be of help She is full of poison and the fall broke her spine"
The dwarf nodded grirabbed at the s uncontrollably, and seeround beside the horse
"Parissus" she whispered over and over
"A streaate muttered
"At least," said Jarlaxle
The sound of an approaching horse turned theard Ellery
"Mariabronne, with o back and see e can salvage I need to retrievefree I&039;ll not leave it behind" She glanced at the fallen wo her down from the horse "What of her?"
"No," Mariabronne said, his voice quiet and respectful
"Put her in the wagon then, and get it rin froitated under that calm facade
"I am Canthan," he heard the thin man tell Jarlaxle "I witnessed your blast Most impressive I did not realize that you dabbled in the Art"
"I am a drow of many talents"
Canthan bowed and seemed impressed
"And reat hat and sh, for the assassin had caught the gaze of Calihye He saw a clear threat in her blue-gray eyes Yes, she bla, ye dolts, and load the wagon!" Athrogate roared as Mariabronne and Ellery started off "Be quick afore Zhengyi attacks with a dragon! Bwahaha!"
"It will be an interesting ride," Jarlaxle said to Entreri as he climbed up onto the bench beside the assassin
"&039;Interesting&039; is a good word," Entreri replied