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Entreri had his chance to strike with the eleet past its forhty blow

But he didn&039;t move, other than to look down at his weapons How could he even begin to hurt solanced to the side and considered leaping over and stabbing Jarlaxle instead, but he found the droith his eyes closed, deep in concentration

Jarlaxle had some hidden trick to play, it seemed - or at least, that&039;s what Entreri hoped

But Entreri still did not charge in against the beast, as it was no fight that he wanted He rushed away fro as much distance between hilanced back as Olgerkhan cried out, and he nearly swooned to see a line of black spittle spraying froh he was still fully twenty feet froe ahead of that spit, which engulfed the stone and ion," Entreri heard Jarlaxle explain in reference to the acidic breath weapon, tradeasped "It&039;s a skeleton, and it can breathe?"

But Jarlaxle had closed his eyes again and was paying hierkhan&039;s groans He did glance back once to take note of the poor half-orc, crule, obviously shattered How ridiculous, he thought For the first tiht be ready for battle, and there he was, out of the fight yet again before it had even begun And he was Arrayan&039;s "hero" and true love?

The momentary distraction cost the assassin dearly, for when he looked back, he saw the great bony tail swiping his way

Arrayan, too, fought a great battle, but hers was internal and not carried out with sword or wand Hers was a test of will, a battle as one e with a disease, for like a cancer did the darkness of the Zhengyian construct assail her It clawed at her life energy with demonic hands For days it had pulled at her, thinned her, sapped her, and now, so close to the king of the castle, the monstrous beast she had inadvertently awakened, Arrayan had coht back, had no strength to go on the offensive against the dracolich and the continuing intrusions of the book That was a physical battle for her coe

She had to just hold on to the last flickers of her life, had to cling to consciousness and identity She had to resist the te darkness, the proerkhan, carried her in her battle though she knew it to be a losing cause For all those years he had been her dearest of friends He had tolerated her pouting when she couldn&039;t unravel the mysteries of a certain spell He had accepted her selfishness when all of her thoughts and all of her talk had been about her own future and dreams He had stayed beside her, his arh every setback, and he cheered her on froh every victory

And she had accepted him as a friend - but just as a friend She had not understood the depth of his devotion and love for her He had worn that ring, and though Arrayan had not been in on the placement and explanation, she understood the properties of physical arbitration the matched set had created He had suffered, terribly so, so that she could get where she was, so that she would have her one chance, feeble as it seemed

She could not let him down She could not betray the trust and the sacrifice of the half-orc she loved

Yes, loved, Arrayan knew beyond all doubt Far beyond her friend, Olgerkhan was her partner, her support, her warmth, and her joy Only when she had seen him near death had Arrayan coht on

But the darkness beckoned

She heard the ruckus in the far rooed to open her eyes She heard the approach of soth to turn her head

They passed her by, and Arrayan thought she was dreaone over to the netherworld For those three, Ellery, Mariabronne, and Canthan, had certainly died, yet they walked past her, ran by her, the warrior woendary sword, the wizard preparing a spell

Hoas it possible?

Was this the reality of death?

"Bwahaha! Ye got to be quicker than that, ye bony wor claw, dived under the biting fangs, and caainst the dracolich&039;s foreleg Bone dust flew, but the leg didn&039;t give out or crack apart

Athrogate had put all of his weight behind that strike, had let fly with all of his ht, and had used the enchant it, for e

He hit the leg again, and a third tiainst his shoulder and launched hih the heap of bones, weapons, and ar back to his feet just in time to leap aside to avoid the snap of the dracolich&039;s powerful and toothy jaws

"A bit o&039; help, if ye ht!" the dwarf yelled, and that was as close to a call of panic as had ever been uttered by the confident Athrogate

The dracolich bit at hied to snap off a one-two routine with hisalternately off the thick dragon bone

The creature showed no sign of pain or fear, and the head pressed on, snapping at hied, juht up to hiet above the thing&039;s snapping maw He was spared a deadly bite but was thrown back and to the floor

When he landed and slid down onto his back, he noted Olgerkhan, still squirods, ye dolt, get up!" Athrogate pleaded

Entreri wasn&039;t quick enough He ju tail and spun halfway over He kept the presence of mind to tuck his head and shoulders and turn all the way as he landed a the bones, but when he came back to his feet, he found that one ankle would hardly support his weight He gave it a cursory glance to see blood staining the side of his boot

He hopped and lihts were to si, Entreri had expected that Jarlaxle&039;s thirst for adventure would eventually put them in a position where they could not win That tile of bones then threw hi back his way but higher off the ground He glanced back across the length of the undead beast to see Jarlaxle standing quietly off to the side, to see Athrogate&039;s desperate struggle against the erkhan squirony, and to see

The assassin blinked repeatedly, unable to co down the slope to join in the fray was Ellery Ellery! Supposedly dead at his hand And behind her calare back at Jarlaxle, thinking that his friend had deceived him He hadn&039;t seen Ellery&039;s corpse, after all Was it all just a lie?

Even as he contehter Jarlaxle, however, he realized that he had indeed seen Mariabronne lying in the utter stillness of death

Entreri&039;s gaze was drawn up to the s at the top of the ra his arms

Now that man was dead, Entreri knew More than dead, his soul had been destroyed by the jeweled dagger

Yet here he was, casting a spell

Farther down, still forty feet froround, Ellery took up her axe in both hands and leaped out into the air

Suicidal, Entreri thought But could it be suicide if she was already dead?

She soared fro forward as she crashed down beside the dracolich, her axe sla a chunk of bone and tearing a long line of tough skin all the way down to the ground She landed hard but ca with abandon, without concern for any se far and wide He slammed down on the dracolich&039;s back face-first, and so position straddling the beast&039;s huge spine He locked his legs around a vertebra, took up his sword in both hands, and began sla away

The dracolich reared - and fro that crackled around the creature&039;s head

But if the lightning hurt the dracolich at all, the beast didn&039;t show it

It all lanced back at Jarlaxle The drow just stood there, serene, it seemed, with his eyes closed in concentration Entreri shook his head That one always had a trick to play

His sigh was one of disgust, his shrug one of helplessness, but Entreri changed direction and lifted Charon&039;s Claw above his shoulder Perhaps it wasn&039;t the end after all

The dracolich was focused on Canthan, and Athrogate charged back in from the front as Entreri limped in at the back Ellery and Mariabronne pounded aith abandon The assassin still shook his head, though, doubting that it would be enough

He watched the serpentine neck lift the head fast toward the wizard Canthan let loose a second spell and the dracolich&039;s skull momentarily disappeared within the fla and blackened in spots

With his free hand, Entreri pulled out the side of his cloak and whispered, "Red" into a pocket, then grabbed Charon&039;s Claith both hands, determined to make his first strike count

Up above, the dracolich&039;s head snapped Canthan fro in the wizard to the waist and cla its neck side to side and Canthan&039;s lower torso fell free froround into pulp

Entreri wanted to screarowled instead and ca all of his weight behind his strike

He did soh, and it occurred to him that he would have to hit the creature a thousand tione The dracolich fell to all fours and swiveled its head around to spit forth another streaulfed Mariabronne and melted him in place

Entreri reconsidered his course

Beside hi broadsword The assassin slashed at it, felling it with a single stroke But all around him, more bones rattled, collected themselves, and rose Entreri looked everywhere for some way out He moved to strike at the next nearest skeleton, but he stopped short when he realized that he was not their enemy

The skeleton warriors, formerly men of the Army of Bloodstone, attacked the dracolich

Stunned, Entreri looked again to Jarlaxle, and his mind whirled with the possibilities, the insanity, as he noted that Jarlaxle stood with one hand extended, a purple-glowing, skull-shaped geate yelled froreereat chamber, the Ared decades before A hundred warriors stood tall on skeletal legs, lifted sword, axe, and warhaular purpose, and as one they rushed in at the beast Metal rang against bone, leathery skin tore apart beneath the barrage

Athrogate had no idea as happening around hiood fortune, though, for had the dead not risen, he undoubtedly would have met a sudden and brutal end

The dracolich&039;s roar thundered through the room and nearly felled the dith its sheer power A line of acidic spittle roup of skeleton warriors, but as the beast lowered its head to breathe its devastation, another group of warriors charged in

Athrogate saw his opening He called forth ed in behind the group of skeletons, pushing through the

The explosion shattered dragon teeth and took off a large chunk of the dracolich&039;s jawbone, but before the dwarf could swing again, the great skull lifted up beyond his reach

Then it caate cried out and dived away Skeletons all around hi skull s frorasp He tried to rise but could not He sensed the dracolich co in at his back and kneas doo half-orc who yanked hiround then fell atop him defensively

"Ye still serkhan would have taken that as a thank you, except that the half-orc was barely conscious by that point, overwhel

Entreri slashed and bashed with all his strength, hissohters was their only chance, he knew, and he played his part

But not too well, for in Entreri&039;s thoughts, first and foremost, he did not want to draw the dracolich&039;s attention

Wherever that attention went, the beast&039;s enereat creature was in a frenzy by that point, its wings beating and battering, its tail whipping wildly and launching warriors through the air to sainst the cha out, on and on, snapping against bones, tearing rotting dragon skin One wing came down to buffet Ellery, but when it reached its low point, a dozen undead warriors leaped upon it and hacked away, and bit and clawed and tugged on bones with skeletal arms The dracolich roared - and there seemed to be some pain in that cry - and thrashed wildly

The skeletons hung on

The dracolich rolled, and bones splintered and shattered When it caed, but so was its wing, snapped right off at the shoulder

The creature roared again

Then it bit Ellery in half and launched her torn corpse across the rooain, bashing away, but Entreri recognized that the ring of metal on bone had lessened

A line of spittle s tore another undead soldier in half and threw its bones at yet another The dracolich flattened another pair with a doard sreat skull

All hope faded from Entreri Despite the unexpected allies, they could not win out against that hty beast He looked over to Jarlaxle then, and for the first tietic shrug, then tugged on the side of his hat&039;s wide brim His body darkened, his physical form wavered

The dark elf seemed two-di, breathing creature He slipped back to the wall, thinned to a black line, and slid into a crack in the stone

Entreri cursed under his breath

He had to get away, but how? The rae section burned out of it

So he just ran, as fast as his wounded ankle could carry him He stumbled across the roohter of the skeleton army He looked back over his shoulder to see the creature&039;s massive tail sweep aside the last of the resistance, and his heart sank as those terrible red points of light that served as the beast&039;s eyes focused in on him

The monster took up the chase

Entreri scanned the far wall There were sos but they ide - too wide

He had no choice, though, and he went for the narrowest of the group, a circular tunnel about eight feet high As he reached its entry, he leaped to a stone on the side, griher off of it, catching the archith both hands He worked his hands fast, hooking a so and ran on into the tunnel

But it wasn&039;t a tunnel, only a small, narrow room

He had nowhere to run, and the dracolich&039;s head could easily snake in behind hiainst the short tunnel&039;s back wall He drew his weapons, though he knew he could not win, as the creature closed

"Coone If he was to die then and there, so be it

The beast charged forward and lowered its head in line Its serpentine neck snapped with a rattle of bones, sending those terrible, torn jaws forward into the tunnel, straight for the helpless Entreri

The assassin didn&039;t strike out but rather dived down, curled up, and screath

For as the dracolich&039;s skull caon statuette that Entreri had just placed there, the devilish trap fired, loosing a blast of fire that would have given the greatest of red dragonkind pause

Flames roared down fro the very bedrock The dracolich&039;s head did not continue through to bite at Entreri, but the assassin knew nothing but the sting of heat He kept curled, his eyes closed, screa the roar of the flae

The defenders of Palishchuk fought bravely, for they had little choice More and oyles came in at them from out of the darkness in the latest wave of a battle that seemed without end After the initial assault, the townsfolk had organized into s those who could not fight To their credit, they had lost only a fenspeople to the gargoyles, though a host of the creatures lay dead in the streets

In one small room, a lone warrior found less luck and no options For, like soht, Calihye had been cut off fro helplessly crying out behind her

Three gargoyles were dead in the roo battle After an extended lull, the third had coone down Its cries had been answered though, with the next two crashing in, and Calihye knew that others were out there, ready to join the fray

She dodged and stabbed ahead, and she thought she ainst the pair, but she knew she couldn&039;t keep it up , who lay there with the starkest look of terror on his face

Calihye growled as she turned her attention back to the fight She couldn&039;t leave him, not like that, not when he was so utterly helpless

So she fought on, and a gargoyle went spinning down to the floor Another came in, then another, and Calihye spun and slashed wildly, hoping and praying that she could just keep the fleay, but she continued her desperate swinging and turning, clinging to the last oyles screeched so loudly, so desperately, that it stung Calihye&039;s ears, and behind her, Davis Eng cried out

But then the gargoyles were gone Just gone They hadn&039;t flown out of the roooyle corpses were gone too, Calihye realized She blinked and looked at Davis Eng

"Have I lostas confused as she, had no answers

Out on the street, cheering began Calihye made her way to the brokenand looked down

Abruptly, without explanation, the fight for Palishchuk had ended

From a crack in the wall across the charation A pillar of fire had rained down fro the dracolich&039;s upper neck and head The great body, one wing torn away, shuddered and trembled

What trick had Entreri played?

Then it hit the drow The statuette he had placed over their aparton sisters

My clever friend, Jarlaxle thought, and he thought, too, that his clever friend was surely dead

The flames relented and the dracolich ca head and neck, and when it turned unsteadily, Jarlaxle could see that half of its head had been ain or tried to

It took a step back across the room It swayed and fell, and it lay very, very still

Jarlaxle slid out of the crack and rerown eerily quiet

"Get off o&039;the silence

The drow turned to see the dwarf roll Olgerkhan over onto the floor Up hopped Athrogate, spitting and cursing He looked around, trying to take it all in, and stood there for along while, hands on his hips, staring at the dragon cadaver

"Damned if we didn&039;t win," he said to Jarlaxle

The drow hardly heard hi what he would find

He breathed a lot easier when Artemis Entreri walked out fro from his head and torso In one hand he held the cruusted look at the drow, he tossed it aside

"Always dragons with you," he reatest of treasures for the taking"

Entreri looked around the bone-filled but otherwise ehed