Page 50 (1/2)
"We are caught," Effron assured hio Quick"
"Use your wraithforritted teeth, but Effron, still sitting, shook his head
"None of ave a helpless chuckle and added, "Like Guenhwyvar"
Drizzt wasn’t listening, rushing around and inspecting every seae He shouted out for Entreri and the others, unwilling to adain, the young tiefling was sitting on the floor, head down and despondent
Drizzt didn’t know if that defeated posture reflected immaturity or reality
"Beware your feet!" Afafrenfere yelled, an obvious warning since they had all just seen the abrupt departure of Drizzt and Effron
Thethe seams in the floor, so that if another tile fell out, he’d be able to dive one way or the other Hekick that rattled the bones of the house defender, an ani backward and to the floor
Afafrenfere landed ni across to take aside the stabbing sword of the next attacker, his left palainst the chest plate with stunning force
In rushed the armored attacker, another skeleton, stubbornly, but Afafrenfere dived past it, ahead of the stabbing sword, and he ca his ar his foot firmly behind Up and over went the arht
A third ca in even as the first tried to stand oncea heavy double strike between its upraising aroal was to shove the attacker back, to buy some rooed, and those upraised arms did not reach out for Afafrenfere, but rather to reveal the monster’s primary weapon
The medusa removed her hel assault, stabbing and thrashing to drive the ground attackers back, while Dahlia, staying carefully within the assassin’s defensive perionettes and stabbing at the swooping gargoyles, each strike against the stone-like y
She brought her staff down and in a horizontal swing at one skeleton that had slipped past Entreri’s defensive spins to coainst the side of its heler waited Following through with the spin, Dahlia stabbed up into a diving gargoyle, and now let loose the building charge, the air above her exploding with crackling lightning, the gargoyle exploding into several pieces Out arced the bolt, and several of the tiny dragons dropped like dead birds
They had an opening now, and so they could find a more defensible spot, but when Dahlia looked ahead, she saw A her way, head down and ar the dwarf’s face She saw Afafrenfere beyond the dwarf, standing absolute still in perfect defensive posture, hands raised before him
And she saw past Afafrenfere, to his opponent …
"No!" Entreri cried out, and he leaped against Dahlia, trying to knock her to the ground, trying to do soaze
But too late He crashed against solid stone The Dahlia statue slid only a bit, and Entreri crashed down hard to one knee and reflexively glanced where he should not glance, and this tiic found hi to stone, and he knelt and leaned there, joined with Dahlia, the last desperate try of a friend
A and covering, not daring to slow to swing up at the gargoyle assaulting her froaze in those first moments, but she knew that such an assault would reach out at her again, and she ht not be so lucky the next time!
So she didn’t dare slow, and surely didn’t dare turn, accepting the clawing strikes of the gargoyle all the way back to the door froargoyle went through right behind her, and the dent for the door most of all, and took severalher skin from her shoulder to her ear
She kept her back to the door, but put up her heavy ainst the well-ar it aloft, as clawed hands and clawed feet raked in at the dwarf
A hits and focused instead on a single, heavy, two-handed down-strike
Skullbreaker oncefrom multiple wounds, the dwarf had no ti, for the door at her back rattled with the press of castle defenders
She darted away, through another door, then crashed through a third, again retracing her route This door had a locking bar, which she promptly dropped in place, but she held no illusions that it would hold for long, or that the castle’s defenders wouldn’t have other routes to get at her
Where had Drizzt and Effron gone? She couldn’t do anything for the three turned to stone--there were spells of restoration to counter such ris’s power!
So she fled--not just the castle, for where ris couldn’t shadowstep, and creating a gate as Effron had done was also beyond her experience, but she had her enchanted brooch, her Word of Recall, and she had set her sanctuary far, far away
In the blink of an eye, the dwarf stuo Quick’s castle into the room reserved for her at Sailor’s Solace in Port Llast
She spentto even out her breath, and then ure out her course She reflexively turned east, toward the Silver Marches, her hoo to Clan Battlehammer with news of Drizzt Do’Urden, who had once been their favored guest Perhaps she could rally the rescue
The dwarf laughed at the absurdity of it Three of her coone, and the other two …
Ao Quick; she knew much of his reputation In that reflection, it seemed to her that Entreri, Dahlia, and Afafrenfere had been the fortunate ones
A page in her book had turned, Aris realized, and with that, she took a deep and steadying breath and left the past behind, ready to find a new road