Page 22 (2/2)
Dahlia rolled to her back and kicked up with her free foot, and untangled her flails to ward away the assassin’s blades, particularly that awful dagger She had no choice now and unloaded Kozah’s Needle’s pent up lightning energy with each connection, buying herself ti hiet her free foot under her, but the leathery lash snaring her trailing footsound from the displaced floorboard behind her
"It’s not too late, Lady," Beniago said, his teeth chattering with Kozah’s Needle’s residual energy "Ship Kurth desires your services"
Dahlia threw herself into a sitting position and grabbed at the lash, to find that the obviouslyaround her ankle She thought to go for her ser utility blade would be of no use against the tendril She flipped the end of one flail up high and snapped her wrist hard, flipping it and driving it straight down She released lightning energy as it connected on the floorboard and blew a clean hole with the force and thethe pole deeply into the wood She threw herself against that pole, gripping and pulling for all her life
But the gears of the trap kept turning, kept dragging her She wriggled her foot, trying to extricate it from the boot Her arms stretched out inexorably froth to resist the pull
Her arms stretched above her head as she stubbornly held on to her anchoring flail pole She wriggled and jerked her foot every which way Her frustration er flashed in front of her eyes
"Last chance, Dahlia," he said, the blade poised to strike and with Dahlia having no way to prevent it
So Lady Dahlia did the only thing she could: She spat in his face
With a growl of protest, Beniago slashed that awful knife toward the woman’s extended aro
"The pit take you then!" the assassin said, and there seerinding stopped
Dahlia didn’t waste a heartbeat in rolling around and up to her knees, facing the assassin, her re wildly as if she expected hih, apparently too perplexed by the failure of the trap
The riddle was soon answered as a dark form moved out froo had first appeared The newcomer didn’t waste a word of introduction, just ca the way in a o turned and fled He reached into a pouch and pulled forth so them doith each step They hit and exploded with brilliant, blinding flashes, one after another, allowing Beniago to get to the door and out into the street
Drizzt lost ground with each blinding flash-bo around and rushed to Dahlia He leaped past her and drove Twinkle down hard on theit cleanly
He reached for Dahlia, but she didn’t take his offered hand She leaped to her feet and kicked away the renantly to her planted flail and pulled it free of the floorboard Her proud deh, as she moved toward the broken display, for she stu, and nearly pitched headlong into the case
Drizzt was right beside her, propping her
She cast him a hateful look and pulled away, and indeed, Drizzt fell back a step, caught by surprise
"I’ainst the wounded expression on her lover’s face She reached out for hied him to her "I feel so ed hione," Drizzt replied "Don’t underesti over the broken case
"Without securing enough treasure for our life outside the city?" Dahlia quipped, and Drizzt turned back on her, his expression hard
"Why, are you afraid of these foolish high captains and their scalawag ar while digesting that, his expressioninto Dahlia to discern her intent The elf also noted a flicker of pain on the drow’s strong features, a revelation and a re, clearly but without words, that he’d fought these reat loss and pain
Dahlia didn’t want to push it any further Drizzt’s pain resonated with her and she found, to her surprise, that she didn’t want to inflict any more on hi the rope fro herself up to the top of the case, and trying, unsuccessfully, to hide her unease as she planted her wounded foot on the o would have dropped into the pit"
Drizzt nodded, but obviously only to grant Dahlia her pride
"I straightened rip of the lash lessen," the elf explained She hooked her flails into her belt and began to clio ca my foot" She left it at that, for even in her ears, her words sounded inane