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She held a strange wand, a broken branch, it seemed, and she smiled wickedly In that ht, as if he and his coainst theashen ring, a pair of zealots burst fro for Drizzt
Their faces were nohands skeletal, and both cruot near
But Sylora kept s
Dahlia’s skills and warrior instincts superseded her surprise and got her back to her feet and back in a fighting pose before the mummified champion could truly exploit the explosive turnaround
But it orse than mere surprise The blow had hurt her, and her muscles tre staff Dahlia wanted to break her weapon back into flails, or perhaps into a tri-staff, that she ht pry the zealot’s weapon away, but she didn’t dare, for fear of dropping Kozah’s Needle altogether
The wound inflicted by the zealot’s scepter had not abated, either, her gutshe could fend off this ferocious opponent She was beginning to understand that she was beaten
That understanding only got worse when, in one parry and dodge, she looked past her opponent to the back of the cave and saw a grinning Valindra Shadower, redder scepter, and more than once pointed it Dahlia’s way But she didn’t enact any of its powers, or her own She si the show
Valindra didn’t intervene because she knew she didn’t have to, Dahlia thought, for even though her sensations were returning, her grasp growing steadier on the long staff, she could hardly hope to defeat this strange Ashmadai
In a single fluid movement, Drizzt sheathed his blades, took up his bow, and sent a streae shield in front of her and burst into myriad multi-colored sparks, one after another The drow could only hope he was doing so it thinner with each explosive strike
He caught sight of Sylora e, and he fell back as the two Ashmadai who’d fallen dead at his feet leaped up suddenly, animated by the sorceress
Drizzt turned his bow at them, but before he could fire off an arrow, the two leaned toward the balcony and seeate, then to fly off as they became insubstantial black s the area in front of Sylora with yet h, ca fast at Drizzt Again the ical speed of his anklets saved him as he threw himself aside, both fro in at hiht Sylora’s missile instead, and it covered her in what seean to writhe and screaround as if on fire
Drizzt sent an arrow, then a second and third, up at Sylora, then turned and shot dead the screa Ash no intention of catching any return fire froan to rise up, and all the re Ashh One after another they leaned toward the balcony and were stretched upward, reduced to black smoke, and absorbed into Sylora’s wand
Another round in front of Drizzt, creating another ring of woe, perhaps ten feet in diameter
The drow ain fronized that Sylora was surely cutting hi line of rising ash energy The powerful sorceress didn’t stop there but createdhirowled and continued histhe speed of his shots so incredibly that it see missile The balcony exploded and sizzled with such a rain of sparks that to a distant onlooker, it ht have appeared as if all the wizards of Faerûn had joined in a great fireworks celebration
Drizzt kept glancing at Dahlia, wanting to help her, but not daring to interrupt his flow of arrows, not wanting to even allow Sylora to see the battlefield in front of her
He was almost out of room to move
On the rocky hillside at the base of the tower, Artemis Entreri quickly deduced that there was no way into that treelike structure He also found a host of ene and swaying
To his surprise and relief, they didn’t attack, and to his further astonishment, one after another burst into smoke and flew up at the distant balcony lip, as if it had been disiant vortex
Not one to pause and reflect on good fortune, Entreri scrambled up the front of the hill, and was nearly stabbed as a zealot appeared froe rocks, spearlike scepter thrusting hard
Across cah to drive aside the thrust But the Ash rose up above hi the advantage
Except that this was Arte to run, and the predictable zealot leaped at his back