Zellohar

by Chris A. Jackson

  A new scream of pain reverberated throughout the cavern.

  "He's alive!" Avari shouted in triumph. Gaulengil flashed into her hand as she dashed to Jundag's aid.

  Excruciating pain exploded in his leg as Iveron fell. Gasping for breath, he looked down to find the source of the agony, just as the tribesman's fingers closed once again on the sword hilt. The blade twisted savagely, severing tendons and blood vessels. Waves of agony washed over the Nekdukarr, tearing another scream from his throat. Wrenching Doom Giver from its scabbard, Iveron swung the fell weapon at his stubborn attacker, who by all rights should already be dead. Just before the dark blade met its target, an unintelligible cry of grief and rage from the bridge assaulted the Nekdukarr's ears.

  "NOOOOO!!"

  As Darkmist's sword struck, Avari felt something deep within her snap. Thoughts of the gem, herself and her remaining friends melted from her mind like burning wax; the only picture in her mind's eye was of herself tearing the filthy Nekdukarr to pieces. To this end, she tore along the bridge, straight at the prone figure, Gaulengil raised to strike.

  Doom Giver swept farther than intended, passing through its victim to hit the blade impaling his leg, snapping it off at the point of entry with more searing waves of pain. The fool who had attacked him lay motionless, the hilt of his broken sword still in his grasp. The tribesman was no longer a threat, but the damage had been done. The massive injury to Iveron's leg would have to be tended, but for now he was going to blast—

  Wait! The rational portion of his mind overrode the desire to unleash a devastating spell upon the three remaining surface dwellers. One of them has the gem! It must not be destroyed!

  Truthfully, Iveron did not know if the gem could be destroyed, but he also did not know what would happen if his spell came into contact with the innate power of the gem. The result could be disastrous. He had to do something, and quickly; the tall female was charging at him, brandishing an obviously enchanted weapon. The haze of pain ebbed, forced aside by sheer will. His mind clear, Iveron cast a quick defensive spell, then turned to the ravaged doors; his troops hung back, curious yet fearful, astonished that their heretofore invincible leader had actually been harmed.

  "GET THEM!" Lord Darkmist bellowed. "Bring them to me! One of them has the gem!" A feral cry leapt from the throats of his bloodthirsty troops as they charged past their commander toward the intruders.

  Avari saw the wounded Nekdukarr raise his hand as if to ward her off, then turn away. She continued her sprint across the bridge at full speed... straight into an invisible wall of magical energy. Light exploded behind her eyes, then darkness edged in, and she realized that she was lying flat on her back.

  Shay and DoHeney helped her to her feet. Blood flowed from a broad gash across her forehead, clouding her sight. She looked at them with a dazed expression, then remembered...

  "Jundag! We've got to save him!"

  She turned back toward the barrier. When pushing brought no result, she proceeded to hack at it with the Gaulengil, sparks flying with every stroke. She didn't heard Darkmist's command, or see the wave of troops as they began their rush, but Shay and DoHeney did. They saw Jundag's body and the dark paladin swallowed in the slavering mass of beasts charging at them, oblivious to the magical obstacle that divided the bridge.

  "Ahhhh!"

  Shay spun at Avari's cry. The barrier had vanished with a shower of sparkling light. She thought herself victorious, but the priest knew better. The shield spell had been cancelled to allow the troops to reach them. They once again had to flee for their lives, but this time they were only three.

  Shay grabbed Avari's arm before she could run headlong into the mass of monsters. She turned with a snarl and tried to shake off his grip, but the half-elf's other hand clenched his hammer, and the power of the earth itself coursed through his sinews.

  "Avari, we are leaving, now!" he insisted, pulling her toward the far side of the bridge, toward their only path of escape. If they could cut through the Tomb of the Ancients, they could reach the last stair before the beasts.

  "Nooooo!" Avari's cry brought tears to Shay's eyes.

  "He's GONE, Avari!" he yelled at her, breaking through the anguish that had dissolved her reason. He had no choice; Jundag was gone and there was nothing they could do to save him. They would be lucky if they could save themselves. He dragged her toward DoHeney, who caught her wrist and pulled her on. Then the half-elf whirled back to the advancing forces, raised his enchanted hammer and struck the support obelisk.

  The impact sent cracks shooting through the twenty-foot-thick pylon, and the strain of the support cables did the rest. Fifty feet of stone fell with a squeal of tortured rock, hitting the bridge and taking a section half its length into the chasm. Wrist-thick cables snapped, raking across the span.

  Howls of bloodlust mutated into screams of terror as the cables swept a score of Darkmist's troops to their deaths. The rest teetered on the crumbling brink, looking at the yawning gap in shock. Miraculously, most of the span remained intact. A tangled mass of cables and shattered stone draped like a spider's tattered web above the chasm.

  Iveron strained to control his fury as he watched his quarry escape; he needed to think. Only a small section of the bridge had collapsed; the cables and buttresses still supported the rest.

  "The doors!" he yelled to a nearby ogre. "Use the planks from the doors to cross the gap. I want those intruders!" While his soldiers scurried to do as he bid, Darkmist lay in anguish, waiting for his priests to arrive.

  CHAPTER 30

  Blood ran unheeded into Avari's eyes. The pain in her legs meant nothing. Indeed, time meant nothing. Her legs carried her up the steps merely as a reflex to keep her from falling as her friends dragged her onward. Her mind was blank; she saw the steps and the walls and the braziers and her companions, but they left no impression. This oblivion was preferable, however, to the occasional moments when an agonized scream would once again reverberate through her mind. Then her heart would rush into her throat, she would break into a sweat and stop cold on the stairs until Shay or DoHeney urged her on. She did not recognize the cry as her father's or as Jundag's. All she knew was that she was helpless to save the screamer.

  "Pray that we encounter nothing on its way down," gasped Shay as he struggled to keep his legs pumping.

  DoHeney grunted in reply. "Jist be hopin'—that patrol—that went out last night—ain't due back fer a coupla' days."

  They continued climbing, concentrating on breathing and moving. Even the dwarf, tireless until now, lagged as he tried to keep pace with his longer-limbed companions.

  "Quiet!" DoHeney hissed, pulling them to a stop, feeling the walls, and sniffing the air like a bloodhound. "The door's 'round the next bend. I'll check and see if it's clear."

  Before they could reply, he disappeared. Shay and Avari stood in the gloom, leaning on one another for support as they tried to regain their breath quietly. After a much-too-short rest, the dwarf was back. He put a finger to his lips and motioned for them to follow him up the stairs. They emerged from the alcove and peered around the corner into the main corridor.

  "Should we shut the doors?" Avari asked as she glanced into the shadows of the winding stair. Her thoughts were still hazy, as though the blood that clouded her eyes also shadowed her mind. She feared something down there, but had no idea what it was. She only knew that she felt angry, scared and empty, as if something had been wrenched out of her.

  "Do no good," the dwarf answered. "No way ta lock 'em wi'out the gems." He shrugged, then started out. "Let's go."

  The upper keep was quiet, but they took no chances. They followed DoHeney on tiptoe toward the entrance. The light of day streamed in through the portal, inviting them to come out and revel in its warmth and illumination.

  "Day!" Avari gasped. "Have we been in here so long?"

  "It felt like longer to me," Shay said as they paused in the foyer to allow their eyes to adjust. "Finally..."

  Then he h
eard it.

  His sensitive ears picked up a distant rumble. It was faint, but he recognized it as the harbinger of doom. In moments, the others heard it also, their eyes widening with the same realization.

  "RUN!!" he yelled and, grabbing his comrades by their arms, leaped toward the exit with a new burst of energy.

  Avari was only a half step behind him, but as her foot hit the courtyard, she realized that DoHeney was finally falling behind. His short legs would not keep up the pace any longer. She skidded to a stop, turned, snatched up the struggling dwarf like a bail of hay and dashed toward the ruined gatehouse.

  DoHeney's breath left his lungs with the impact—not for the first time that day—but he managed to hang on to his weapons and pouches as Avari's long legs took them across the courtyard and past the charred portcullis. Shay was ahead, urging them forward as they shot through the gate and plunged down the trail.

  "Mother of Earth and Rock, I'll be good, I'll be good! Jist please don't let her drop me!" DoHeney repeated like a litany, taking in the expansive view when Avari spun around a corner. His prayers seemed to meet a sympathetic ear, for the headlong charge down the narrow, winding trail went without mishap.

  Avari ducked through the tunnel at the bottom of the trail and stumbled into the snow-covered vale. As if the light of day had cleared her mind, she knew what she had to do. She tossed the dwarf to the side and grabbed the broadsword from her back. She drew the weapon and faced the foot of the trail, waiting for the enemy. This narrow crevasse was the only place she would have a chance of buying her companions any time.

  "Get out of here!" she spat over her shoulder. "I can hold them here while you two get the gem clear, otherwise they'll surround us. Go, damn it!"

  "Avari, keep running!" Shay yelled as he helped DoHeney to his feet and urged him on. "They were stunned by the light when they came out. It bought us some time!"

  She looked to Shay, then back to the surprisingly vacant trail and made up her mind. She dashed after her friends and the dubious safety of the trees.

  DoHeney was running as fast as his short legs would allow him, plunging through powdery drifts that reached his chin. He glanced back and saw Shay and Avari following, then looked up at the cliff face. Less than a hundred yards from the exit, the trail was packed with a solid mass of dark shapes, slipping and sliding their way down after them.

  "If we can just make it to the trees, we can—"

  All his hopes melted into despair as he looked back to the trees. Bursting from the concealing shadows poured waves of dark lupine shapes, hackles raised and teeth bared. He and his friends now had two options; they could either die at the hands of Darkmist's unnatural fiends or in the jaws of natural predators of the forest. DoHeney dashed back to the others; they would make their stand together. He reached them, drew his daggers and turned as the wolves bore down on them.

  "What..." He stared as the pack split and passed them by, the scent of their closely-packed bodies washing over them like a musky tide. Avari and Shay's lack of concern with this unexpected turn of events struck him as even more curious.

  A burst of growls, roars and screams heralded the arrival of the creatures from the keep. Several foundered in the snow, and others stood dumbfounded at the curious, cold stuff, shielding their eyes against the glare. The wolves, unhampered by the environment, hit them in a wall of fangs and claws.

  The first to fall were the smaller goblins and orcs in the lead. They squealed and flopped about, trying to retreat while being pushed forward by those behind. The tightly packed crevasse overflowed, spilling a dark tide onto the snow-covered clearing, and the two forces merged into a single living, dying beast. The air filled with growls and barks, high-pitched screams and the larger brutes' guttural commands. Shay, Avari and DoHeney backed slowly away from the fray.

  "Let's get out of here!" Avari half-whispered as she tugged on Shay's cloak. The battle was spreading, overflowing as more and more beasts poured into the vale.

  "Agreed!" said the dwarf. He turned and started to plow toward the forest's edge, but Shay was mesmerized by the battle. His eyes swept the scene as if expecting something... or someone. Finally, after continual prodding and tugging by Avari, he acquiesced. With a sigh, he turned to escape.

  But they had waited too long.

  In a rare display of coordination, a small group of creatures had skirted around the wolves, slipping into the sparse trees to emerge behind the companions. They now burst from concealment only steps in front of the trio.

  The great grey wolf sank her teeth deep into a goblin's throat. The warm, salty blood gushing into her mouth was usually a pleasurable sensation, but the taste now elicited only rage. The thing's fists battered at her, but were too weak to do much harm. Finally, it slipped to the ground, dead. The wolf stepped back to see how the pack was faring. There were many injured and some deaths but, all in all, the wolves were holding their own. The pack leader looked across the clearing to see if the companions had escaped.

  No! They were beset with monsters! Why did they not flee when they had the chance? The wolf shook her head in an oddly intelligent fashion, threw back her head to howl a challenge, and raced across the clearing to where the beasts from below had surrounded the three figures.

  Shay backed away under the blows of a ravening waglok, his shield arm throbbing from the heavy impacts. The beast reared back and the priest ducked in to drive a rib-crushing blow to its chest. It screamed bloody froth and fell, its lungs shredded by broken ribs. The force of Shay's swing carried him around so he was facing Avari and DoHeney. Avari had finished off an ogre, and was turning to help the dwarf.

  Good, Shay thought, starting to turn back, they are—"Uh!"

  The snow came up and slapped him in the face, a thankfully soft cushion to the numbing blow to his back. He rolled and looked up at a grinning creature that looked to be half ogre, half waglok. He rolled to regain his feet as the creature raised a massive club for the killing blow.

  As he thrashed in the snow, a great wolf lunged at his attacker, its gaping jaws aimed at the exposed throat. Instead of hitting Shay, the club came down on the wolf's back with a sickening crunch. The wolf fell away with the impact, taking a large portion of the humanoid's throat with it. The creature turned back to Shay, then noticed the blood pouring down its chest. It fell beside the still form of the wolf, hands clenched to the gaping wound.

  Shay's hammer ended its torment, and he checked on his companion's progress once again. They were safe, the last of the beasts dead or dying; once again they were ready to flee. But as they turned from the battle, the wolf at Shay's feet began to change. The fur lightened and grew sparse until the underlying skin was smooth and golden. The limbs elongated and lost their claws, becoming shapely arms and legs. And the head—Shay watched as the wolf's muzzle disappeared to reveal the beautiful face of Lynthalsea, the elf woman. Her battered torso rose and fell, her breathing short and shallow. He could only stand and stare, oblivious to the battle still raging yards away and the calls of his friends.

  "Shay!" Avari's voice broke his reverie as she caught at his arm. He was still gripping his hammer, his feet rooted to the earth like a mountain's, making her grip as useless as a child's. "We're not losing this chance to get away. Why..." Her question trailed off as she spied the figure on the ground. "It's her!"

  "A werewolf!" DoHeney spat in disgust. "Nothing but trouble. We had word after we abandoned the keep that there was a plague o' 'em. They were all thought to be dead—I guess they missed one." He reached toward her throat with a dagger.

  "No!" Shay knocked the smaller fellow back and knelt next to the pitiful, naked figure, wrapping her in his cloak. "We must get her away from here. She needs healing. Help me, Avari."

  Shay did not see Avari stiffen, but when he received no answer, the priest glanced back and saw her outrage.

  "How dare you ask me for help with this stranger, when you... you held me back from Jundag when he needed help!" She spat the words at h
im, her face red, her hands still clenched around the hilt of the gleaming greatsword. "If she wanted to give her life so we could escape, then I'm going to do just that!" She whirled and started away.

  Avari did not get far before Shay caught up, grabbed her arm and, with some difficulty, pulled her to a stop. She dropped her weapon and seized the priest by the collar, lifting him so they were eye to eye.

  "Leave... me... alone!" she said through clenched teeth, her eyes ablaze, her grip tightening. Shay gasped for breath and, for the first time since they met, realized just how deadly this woman could be when her passions were roused.

  "It is both my nature and my calling to help those in need," he said, fixing her with those penetrating eyes.

  Shay's quiet words struck Avari like a smothering bank of falling snow; the wild light in her eyes was quenched with bright tears, her mouth softened and her lower lip quivered with pent up anguish. Her grip loosened and she lowered him to the ground.

  "Avari..." Shay began, but she did not hear him. Her eyes were focused on some far away image that only she could see.

  The priest glanced back to the battle. The wolves were holding back their foes, but they could not count on that for long. DoHeney stood over Lynthalsea, his crossbow loaded and ready, either to defend them, or put a painless end to the elf's suffering.

  Shay sighed; Avari seemed to be in a daze, and he could not wait. He hastened back and bent to lift the wounded elf himself. He knew his enchanted hammer would give him the strength, but he could not hold both the hammer and the limp body, and his reserves of natural strength were spent. He fell to one knee in the bloody snow, an involuntary groan escaping his lips.

  The noise broke Avari's trance, drawing her eyes to her companions. She snatched up Gaulengil, snapped it into the long black scabbard, and took the elf from Shay's arms without a word. DoHeney helped Shay to his feet and they followed Avari's broad back as she led them into the cover of the forest.