Richard Baker - Corsair

Selsha Erstenwold clung precariously to the topmost part of the old gatehouse, which was little more than a leaning heap of stone about fifteen feet tall. On the plaza below her feet, several small arachnid monsters, with long eel-like necks and furred carapaces dyed in strange whorls and marks, hissed and chittered to each other, eyeing the girl hungrily. A spearcast behind the spider-monsters plodded enormous, insectile apelike creatures that Geran recognized as umber hulks. He’d encountered them before in a long-ago venture into the Underdark as a member of the Company of the Dragon Shield. The hulks were burdened with heavy chests.

Mirya swore a startled oath. “The monsters from the keep!” she cried. The spider-monsters at the foot of the ruined gatehouse hissed in surprise at the three adults’ sudden appearance, and then began shouting orders in their own strange tongue. The hulks coming up behind them set down their chests and began to lumber forward.

Geran glanced at the umber hulks and back to the small arachnids. If he was swift, he could reach Selsha before the hulks … but he’d have to chase off the arachnid monsters quickly. Best not to think this through, he decided. “Get away from her!” he shouted at the spider-things and charged recklessly straight at them. Hamil shouted and followed on his heels.

“Geran! Hamil!” Selsha shouted. She scrambled back another foot from the spider-creatures, rubble sliding out from under her feet. “Watch out for the monsters!”

The arachnids recoiled with hisses of agitation, apparently none too eager to let Geran come within sword’s reach, but the umber hulks were hurrying to the aid of their small masters. Geran’s feet flew over the mossy old stones of the plaza, and he raised his sword for the first strike-but suddenly a black, hopeless malaise descended over him, a hopelessness so powerful and complete that he stumbled to a halt, his knees buckling and his sword point drooping to the ground. He knew that he had to drive off the spider-monsters before their towering servants caught up, but the effort simply seemed impossible. Try as he might, he couldn’t muster the volition to even take another step toward the little eel-spiders. Three of the creatures stood before the gatehouse, weaving their forelimbs in strange passes as their small black eyes, fixed on him, glittered with malice. They’re spellcasters of some sort, he realized. Yet the knowledge that they had somehow conjured the torpor that held him motionless while their monstrous servants rushed to their aid still was not enough to break their grip on him.

“Geran, what’s wrong?” Selsha called. She slipped a few feet down, dislodging more rubble, but she caught herself and looked at her mother. “Mama! There’s something wrong with Geran!”

Hamil did not hesitate. He darted past Geran, daggers in hand, and struck with serpentlike swiftness against the nearest of the spider-monsters. The creature shrieked in anger and fear and scuttled back from the halfling’s attack. Geran! he shouted mind-to-mind. They’re using magic against you. Fight back!

The swordmage tried to muster his willpower against the insidious assault, to summon up anger or denial, any emotion that might give him the beginnings of resistance. He struggled, searching for something as the spider-things circled closer and their umber hulks rushed into the old plaza. He wondered if they’d have the hulks tear him to pieces, kill him with their own sharp teeth, or simply disarm him and leave him helpless where he stood, unable to move or act to protect himself against the first jungle monster that came along.

“Take them alive!” one of the small creatures hissed. “They may be valuable slaves!”

A bowstring sang behind Geran. He felt the arrow speed past him, its passage a faint breath of wind on his cheek, before it sank deep into the body of one of the three spider-creatures holding him with their enchantment. The creature leaped into the air with an agonized hiss and fell on its back with its legs kicking … and the malaise holding him in its grip vanished, as if it had never existed.

With a sudden shout Geran lunged at the nearest of the spider-monsters drawing close and half-severed its neck with his thrust. “Don’t look the hulks in the eyes!” Geran cried. That much he remembered about the creatures; umber hulks could drive a human mad with their magical gaze. The rest of the spider-monsters retreated at once, spitting and snarling in anger. An umber hulk reached for the swordmage with one enormous claw, its sharp mandibles clacking together, but now Geran was free to move. He turned his back on the monster, refusing to look at its face, and rushed over to the spot where Selsha clung to the wreckage of the gatehouse’s upper walls.

“Jump, Selsha!” he cried. “I’ve got you!”

Selsha took one glance at the monsters surging close and leaped down into Geran’s arms. He staggered under her-it was a good drop, and he only had one hand free-but he caught her and lowered the girl to the ground. Hamil chased off another of the spider-monsters, but then he gave ground himself as he saw Geran falling back from the terrible umber hulks. Mirya loosed one more arrow that bounced from the thick chitin protecting an umber hulk’s torso; the creature bellowed and turned toward her.

As matters stood, discretion was clearly the better part of valor. “Through the gate, quickly!” Geran shouted. “We’ll outrun them!”

Mirya drew another arrow and took aim, but Hamil seized her by the arm. “No more of that!” the halfling said. He pushed her ahead on the path. “Run!”

Geran took Selsha by the arm and led her out of the gate and down the road outside the old city walls. The hulks’ mandibles clacked eagerly as they lunged after their quarry. It was a very near thing for the first thirty yards or so, but then Hamil, Mirya, Geran, and Selsha began to pull away; the umber hulks had the size and power to flatten most of the undergrowth in their way or tear their way through hanging vines and creepers, but each time they did so, they lost a step or two on their smaller quarry. Geran was momentarily tempted to try to lead their pursuers off into the forest, but he discarded the idea at once. The last thing he wanted to do was split up now that they’d finally found everyone, and there was always the chance that the umber hulks and their small masters wouldn’t fall for the ruse. He plunged into the new trail behind Mirya and concentrated on speed. If they could outdistance the umber hulks, he doubted that the smaller creatures would be very eager to follow too closely.

After a couple of hundred yards, they struck an intersecting path. “Turn right!” Geran called to Hamil; if his reckoning was true, that should lead them back to the lakeshore and the Black Moon keep. They hurried in the new direction for a long time, until the path began to climb slowly upward again, ascending another hill. There they paused. Their pursuers were nowhere in sight, at least for the moment.

Hamil looked at Geran with a wry smile. “I suppose the little ones don’t fancy the idea of catching up to us without the big monsters to lend a hand,” he said.

“Mama!” Selsha threw herself into her mother’s arms. Mirya met her halfway, dropping to her knees to wrap her arms around her daughter and weeping with her face buried in Selsha’s hair. “I was so scared! The monsters chased me!”

“I know, my darling, I know,” Mirya said softly. “But you’re with me now, and I’ll keep you safe from them.”

The two Erstenwolds stayed that way for a long moment. Geran could hear the distant thrashing of the umber hulks in the forest behind them, but he smiled to see Mirya and her daughter together nonetheless. To the darkest Hell with Aesperus and his words of warning, he decided. He knew it couldn’t have been the wrong choice to rescue Mirya and Selsha from this terrible place. He’d gladly bear the cost of his decision later, whatever it proved to be.