R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen: Dissolution, Insurrection, Condemnation (86 page)

“Where should we go? We want to be able to find the others again, right?”

“Yes. We need to get to—”

Ryld cut his words off short as several screams erupted from the other side of the wall. It was only then that he realized that firepots were raining down on that side rather than on theirs.

“What the—?” he said, and scooted forward to the edge of the overhang.

Cautiously, he peered up to the roofline. It appeared that the duergar who had been there were gone. Then, in an instant, he spotted a drow form rise up just long enough to fling another firepot down before ducking out of sight again. Ryld began to laugh.

“What is it?” Halisstra asked, moving up beside the Master of Melee-Magthere. “What do you see?”

“It’s Valas,” Ryld replied, pointing. “He’s taken care of our snipers for us.”

Ryld placed his fingers in his mouth and gave a shrill whistle. A similar whistle emanated from above a moment later.

“He knows we know he’s up there,” Ryld said. “Let’s save your spell for later and go join him.”

Halisstra nodded.

“Before we go,” the weapons master said, crouching beside the priestess, “let me see your arm.”

He examined the bolt for a just a moment. It was sunk deep enough in her shoulder that he would have to force it out the other side.

“This will have to wait until Quenthel can heal it. However . . .” Before she could protest, Ryld snapped the protruding end off.

“Goddess!” Halisstra grunted as she jerked from the pain, squinting her eyes shut.

She reached her other hand up, but Ryld grabbed her arm and held it away.

“Don’t,” the warrior said. “You’ll only make it bleed.”

Grimacing, Halisstra shook her head.

“No,” she said. “I can heal it. Just let me—”

She pulled her arm free and reached inside her
piwafwi,
producing a wand.

“Push it out,” she said, taking the broken end of the bolt and biting down on it.

Ryld complied, bracing her shoulder with one hand and preparing to shove the head of the bolt through with the other. In one clean, quick motion, the shaft was out. Before she could jerk away from him, Ryld pulled it completely free.

Halisstra sobbed once, then she spat out the splintered shaft, waved the wand, and uttered a trigger phrase. The bleeding stopped instantly and the wound closed. The priestess sagged back and closed her eyes in relief.

“Let’s go,” Ryld said, reaching out to help her to her feet, “before those fires burn out and the grays are over this wall.”

“Wait,” Halisstra said, and produced a second wand from inside her
piwafwi.
“Let’s make it a little harder for them to shoot at us.”

Ryld arched his brow at her, puzzled. Quickly, she invoked the power of the wand twice, and the two dark elves were completely invisible.

Ryld reached out and found the priestess. He took her hand.

“So we don’t get separated,” he explained.

Together, the two drow rose upward, watching as duergar alternated between scattering from the firepots that Valas was hurling down on them with deadly accuracy and firing ineffectually at the scout with their crossbows. As they neared the top, Ryld pulled out Splitter and sliced through the netting, parting the material easily with the enchanted greatsword. He and Halisstra passed through the hole and settled to the rooftop near where Valas knelt, peering over the edge.

“We owe you one,” Ryld said to the scout as he moved away from the edge to avoid any stray crossbow bolts.

The roof was covered with the bodies of a good half dozen gray dwarves.

Valas glanced over to where the warrior’s voice had come from but didn’t react otherwise.

“I saw you come down here and figured I’d try to catch up by coming the long way around,” he said, rising up to throw the last of his firepots. “When I saw these cretins here, laughing and throwing these things down, I knew you were in trouble.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Ryld suggested. “Do you know where the others are?”

“I think they got up on the roofs on the other side of the square,” the scout replied, dusting off his hands and backing away from the edge. “We’ll find them. The wizard will be all flash and glory when they run into something, so we can track them that way.”

Ryld turned to follow the scout.

“Too true,” he said.

The three dark elves made their way across the rooftops until they came to another side street a little farther ahead of where they’d originally been separated. Valas climbed down the side of a gaudily decorated shop that had plenty of hand- and footholds, while Ryld and Halisstra descended by their customary levitating method. By the time they were on the ground, the invisibility magic had expired.

“Lead on,” Ryld said to Valas, gesturing, and the scout took the fore as the three of them prowled through the street, making their way back toward the main thoroughfare.

The ground began to vibrate.

“What in the Underdark?” Ryld muttered, steadying himself as the street bounced beneath his feet. “What is that?”

“I don’t know, but it’s big,” Valas replied. He looked over at Halisstra. “Do you have any clue?” he asked her.

Halisstra shook her head, but she had a worried look on her face.

“Let’s not stay and find out,” she said.

Valas nodded and proceeded out into the main street. Peering in both directions, he had to reach a hand out to stabilize himself, for the quivering had grown stronger.

“Oh, no,” Halisstra said, her voice stricken.

Ryld looked over at her and asked, “What? What is it?”

“Oh, by the Dark Mother,” the priestess said, putting a hand to her mouth in terror. “They summoned one.”

“Summoned
what?
” Ryld demanded.

“One of those,” Valas said from the warrior’s other side, and when Ryld turned to look, he saw the scout pointing.

The weapons master turned to peer in the direction his companion indicated and saw a spider the size of the entire square clambering into view. He sucked in his breath, feeling his knees go weak.

“Oh, no.”

Pharaun knew that with his magically enhanced boots he could easily outrun the other drow, and that’s precisely what he did. The wizard sprinted ahead, careful to maintain his balance on the quivering web street as the colossal spider pursued them. He had but a handful of spells left, and there was little if anything left in his repertoire that might affect the huge arachnid. A far better bet, he decided, was to misdirect the creature, perhaps conjure an obscuring mist that would allow him and the others to hide and sneak away while the spider was distracted—but he didn’t dare stop to weave the spell.

“Pharaun!” someone shouted from ahead, and the wizard glanced over in time to see Ryld, Valas, and Halisstra standing in the mouth of a side street, gawking slack-jawed at the massive spider behind him.

He veered in their direction and darted into the shadow of the alley. Only then did he stop to catch his breath.

“I’ve never . . . seen anything . . . like it,” the wizard panted. “Danifae called it a . . . guardian spider.”

“Yes,” Halisstra said softly, still staring at it. “The matron mothers must have called i—Oh, by the Dark Mother . . . it’s summoning another one!”

Pharaun turned to see what Halisstra was talking about, looking past Jeggred and Quenthel as they came into view, running for all they were worth, with Danifae limping behind them. The spider had stopped pursuing them, and was rearing up on its hind legs, flailing about with its front limbs in the air. The wizard gasped when an enormous gate opened up in front of the spider, as large as the creature itself. Through the hazy murk of the bluish-white portal, the wizard watched, aghast, as a second massive spider clambered through and onto the street. The portal shut quickly behind it.

“Oh, no,” Quenthel murmured. “How many times can they do that?”

“I don’t know,” Halisstra said from somewhere behind the wizard.

“Once is too many,” Pharaun said. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

He spun away from the massive arachnids, ready to sprint in the opposite direction.

“Wait!” Halisstra cried, pointing.

The mage glanced back once more.

Danifae was still limping badly and had not been able to keep up. As the second spider passed through the portal, it appeared on the opposite side of the battle captive. She was trapped between the two creatures, and was sprawled in the middle of the street as well.

“She’s hurt!” Halisstra cried.

She took a tentative step forward to go to the aid of her attendant.

“Don’t be a fool,” Ryld said, grabbing the priestess by the arm as Jeggred and Quenthel joined them. “You’ll only get yourself killed, too.”

Halisstra jerked herself free and took another step out into the open.

“I don’t care,” she said. “I’m going to help her.”

With that, the First Daughter of House Melarn dashed across the open area to where her servant was struggling to regain her feet.

The spiders sensed the movement, and both of them began to close in.

Pharaun cursed and took a step after Halisstra, thinking he might have to magically cloak the two of them in order to save them.

“Don’t,” Quenthel ordered. “Danifae was unlucky enough to be wounded. I will not exhaust either resources or time saving her. Let’s go while the spiders are distracted.”

“But—” Pharaun began, but when he saw the look in the high priestess’s eyes, he shook his head and stepped back into the alley. He regretted the idea of losing them—or at least, losing the beautiful Danifae. “Very well,” he said.

“I’m not leaving,” Ryld said, and he turned to sprint out into the street, following Halisstra.

“No!” Quenthel shouted at the Master of Melee-Magthere, but it was too late. Ryld was already ten steps away, removing Splitter from its sheath on his back as he charged toward the closest of the two spiders. “Damn you all to the Abyss!” Quenthel raged.

Shrugging, Pharaun turned and followed the weapons master. “Go after them!” Quenthel growled from behind the wizard.

Pharaun could only assume she was talking to him, though why she was ordering him to do something he had already made up his mind to accomplish, he couldn’t fathom. Soon enough, though, the draegloth flashed past him, sprinting down the street in the direction he also traveled.

The mage pulled up a few yards from the closest spider, watching as Halisstra reached her servant and knelt down. Somehow, along the way, she had fumbled a wand free from her cloak, and she quickly utilized it, causing both drow to disappear. The spider, looming over the spot where the pair had just been visible, snapped down once, clacking its mandibles together in obvious frustration. The beast began moving its head back and forth, trying to find its prey. In the distance, the second spider had turned its attention to something else. Fortunately, it was not coming their way—at least for the moment.

Pharaun, of course, could still see the two females, for he was aware of the magic they radiated. It appeared to him that Halisstra was dragging Danifae to the side, out of harm’s way, but the spider somehow sensed where the two females were, and it dipped its head again, missing a direct bite but coming close enough with its attack that it grazed Halisstra, knocking her down. Shivering in delight at having felt its prey, the spider raised up for another attack.

Ryld had almost reached the creature, and his long legs covered the remaining distance quickly. He leaped through the air, Splitter raised high overhead. As the warrior sailed past the hindmost leg of the giant spider, he swung the greatsword around with all his might, cutting cleanly through the appendage. Black blood spurted everywhere, and the spider reared up, kicking with its ruined leg and barely missing the weapons master.

At nearly the same time, Jeggred launched himself into the air toward another leg, grabbing a hold of the spider and climbing upward. Pharaun could see the draegloth’s claws extended, and the fiend used them to great effect as he quickly ascended the creature’s limb. Fearlessly, Jeggred slashed and clawed his way to the spider’s body and began to climb the slick black abdomen, working his way higher and higher.

The effect of the two attacks was instantaneous. The spider jerked away from its intended meal and spun around, looking to bite whatever tormented it. Its one ruined leg twitched erratically, but otherwise the arachnid lost none of its stability. Ryld had rolled into a crouch after his sweeping sword strike, and he had Splitter up, ready to fend off the spider as it maneuvered to face him.

Pharaun shook his head and considered what he could do to aid in the fight. There was really only one choice. Most of his spells were gone, and the few remaining to him were not offensive in nature. He reached inside his
piwafwi
and produced a wand, a single segment of iron that was about as long as his forearm. Extending it outward, he uttered a trigger phrase and activated the magic in the wand. Instantly, a sizzling bolt of electrical energy leaped forward from the end of the wand, arcing through the air and crackling across the surface of the spider’s head. The discharge caused the spider to recoil, chattering and quivering, from Ryld’s position. As the last remnants of the bolt dissipated, Pharaun could see that the spider’s leathery hide and multifaceted eyes were smoldering.

Pharaun started when he heard the twang of a bowstring strumming, and he glanced down to his right. Valas was there, kneeling, firing off a short bow. The wizard had seen the diminutive scout carrying the weapon all along, but up until then, Valas had apparently had little cause to use it. The Bregan D’aerthe scout lined up and released four shots in the time it took Pharaun to assess the situation, and his aim was true. The arrows embedded themselves in the nearest eye of the spider, one after another, puncturing the many-sided orb like a massive pin cushion. The spider thrashed about in response.

At the same time, Ryld was on his feet again, running with the spider, looking to get in another strike. This time, however, the warrior was not so lucky. As the jerking, pain-crazed creature spasmed along the street, one of its legs swept the warrior off his feet, sending the burly drow tumbling. Ryld landed hard, losing his greatsword in the process.