Page 19 (1/2)
CANTHAN&039;S CONFIRMATION
The door opened into a circular room that encompassed the whole of one floor of the keep A basalt altar stood out froe of the rooh the rock, accentuating the decorated covering of bas relief i braziers, sat a huge egg, large enough for a man Entreri&039;s size to curl up inside it
"This looks like a place for fighting," Athrogate muttered, and he didn&039;t seem the least dismayed by that probability
Given the scene outside with the undead, the dwarf&039;s words rang true, for all around the rooi of polished stone and decorated gold The facings of the ornate caskets indicated a standing hu feet and a long, canine snout
"Gnolls?" Jarlaxle asked Behind hi the lock
"Let us not tarry to find out," said Mariabronne, indicating the one other exit in the rooht It was bordered by a waist-high railing, with the entry all the way on the other side of the roous, one hand ready on his sheathed sword, stepped out toward the center of the room He felt a ruus, and he started to call out
But they didn&039;t need the warning, for they all felt it, and Entreri broke into rabbed onto it and rolled right over, dropping ni, he was at the second door in an instant, working his fingers around its edges, his eyes darting all about
He took a deep breath Though he saw no traps, the assassin knew he should inspect the door in greater detail, but he simply didn&039;t have the ti on the stairs, followed by the creaking sounds as the undead i pushed open their coffins
He went for the lock
But before he could begin, the door popped open
Entreri fell back, drawing his weapons Nothing cah, and the assassin cal Canthan on the stairs behind hi?" Entreri asked
"We haven&039;t the tiht it prudent"
Of course you did, so long as I was close enough to catch the brunt of any traps or ht but did not say - though his expression certainly told the others the gist of it
"They&039;re co out," Conolls," Jarlaxle said "Interesting"
Entreri was not so interested and had no desire to see the strange creatures He spun away froh the door
He was surprised, as were all the others as they cah, to find that he was not on the keep&039;s lowest level Froh to hold three stories, but sure enough, Entreri found himself on a balcony that ran around the circu stone stair on the northern, its balusters shaped to reseured out the puzzle For the floor level below hiround - the circular section of it, at least On the southernmost side of that bottoular alcove that held the tower&039;s main doors, so that the profile of that lowest level reminded the assassin of a keyhole, but one snubbed short
And there, just at the top of those stairs, set in the rectangular alcove opposite the doors, sat the book of Zhengyi, the tome of creation, suspended on tendrils that looked all too familiar to Artemis Entreri The assassin eventually pulled his eyes away froet and completed his scan of the floor below He heard the door behind hi and Jarlaxle saying, with his typical penchant for understatement, "We should o down the stairs or over the railing He noted a pair of iron statues set east and west in the room below, and vividly recalled his encounter in Herminicle&039;s tower Even worse than the possibility of a pair of iron golems, the room beloas not sealed, for every few feet around the peri to a tunnel of worked and fitted stones, burrowing down into the ground Might the horde of undead be approaching through those routes even then?
A sharp ring behind hiate stood at the closed iron door, the locking bar and supports already rattling fronolls
The dwarf round and fishing out one piton after another He set theically around the door and drove the star - the one enchanted with oil of impact
A moment later, he hopped back and dropped his hands on his hips, surveying his work "Yeah, it&039;ll hold them back for a bit"
"They&039;re the least of our worries," Entreri said
By that point, several of the others were at the rail, looking over the roorierkhan, though The wo there, in such close proxier partner didn&039;t seem much better off
"There are our answers," Canthan said, nodding toward the book "Get me to it"
"Those statues will likely aniate roared with laughter as he walked up beside the drow "Ain&039;t ye seen nothing yet from Cracker and Whacker?" As he named the weapons, he presented them before the dark elf
"Cracker and Whacker?" the drow replied
Athrogate guffawed again as he glanced over the railing, looking down directly atop one of the iron statues "Meet ye below!" he called and with that he whispered to each of his weapons, bidding theh, he hopped up atop the railing and dropped
"Cracker and Whacker?" Jarlaxle asked again
"He used to call thehter," Ellery replied, and Entreri noted that for the first time since he had met Jarlaxle, the drow seemed to have no anshatsoever
But as there was no denying Athrogate&039;s inanity, nor was there any way to deny his effectiveness He landed in a sitting position on the statue&039;s iron shoulders, his legs wrapping around its head The golean to animate, as predicted, but before it could even reach up at the dwarf, Cracker slapped down atop its head The black iron of the construct&039;s skull turned reddish-brown, its integrity stolen by the secretions of a rustwith oil of iolem&039;s head caved in
Still the creature flailed, but Athrogate had too great an advantage, whipping his weapons with precision, defeating the integrity of his opponent&039;s natural ar aith the other An iron lirab the dwarf and throw hiate bounced up and hit the gole free Then he caved in the side of its chest for good ed in, and other noises echoed froed around to the stairhile Entreri slipped over the railing and dropped the fifteen feet to the floor, absorbing his landing with a sidelong roll
Canthan, too, went over the railing, dropping the end of a rope while its other end ically anchored in mid-air He slid down off to the side of the fray with no intention of joining in For the wizard, the goal was in sight, sitting there for the taking
He wasn&039;t pleased when Jarlaxle floated down beside him and paced him toward the front alcove
"Just keep them off of me," Canthan ordered the drow
"The He paused with every step and began casting a series of spells, weaving wards around hiic that no doubt protected the tome
"Jarlaxle!" called Ellery "To lanced at the woman The situation in the roo, he could see, ate&039;s abilities and effectiveness against iron gole helplessly, and the second was already lilting and wavering as blast after blast wracked it, with the dwarf rushing all around it and pounding aith abandon
"Jarlaxle!" Ellery cried again
The drow regarded her and shrugged
"To lanced back at Canthan, who stood before the book, then turned his gaze back at Ellery She meant to keep him away from it and for no other reason than to allow Canthan to exa hiht would be on
He glanced back at Canthan again and grew confident that he still had tireat caution and seehly perplexed
Jarlaxle started across the rooerkhan and Arrayan werethe bone-weary woman
"Secure the perimeter," Ellery instructed them all, and she waved for the half-orcs to return to the balcony "We ive Canthan time to unravel the mystery of this place" To Mariabronne and Entreri, she added, "Scout the tunnels to first door or thirty feet"
Entreri was only peripherally listening, for he was already scanning the tunnels All of theht-foot wide corridor bending to the left after about a dozen feet Torches were set on the walls, left and right, but they were unlit Even in the darkness, though, the skilled Entreri understood that the floors were not as solid as they appeared
"Not yet," the assassin said as Mariabronne started down one tunnel
The ranger stopped and waited as Entreri moved back from the tunnel entrance and retrieved the head of a destroyed iron golem He moved in front of one tunnel and bade the others to back up
He rolled the head down, ju an explosion, and as he suspected, the item bounced across a pressure plate set in the floor Fires blosso flames of a fireball trap Rather, the torches flared to life, and as the head rolled along to the bend, it hit a second pressure plate, lighting the opposing torches set there as well
"How convenient," Ellery remarked