Paul Kidd - White Plume Mountain

“She’s after Blackrazor!” The girl shouted curses. “Damn it!I thought the paladin was just an agent for one of the temples!”

Polk blinked. Still covered by wet scraps of Sir Olthwaite’sold skin, the man sat on the floor in a daze.

“You-you knew he wasn’t a paladin?”

Annoyed with himself, Jus gave a growl.

“A baatezu. No wonder the creature couldn’t use a healingpotion.” The Justicar cursed himself as he carefully coiled the erinyes’ magicrope. “But Cinders hated him so much I thought he must have really been apaladin!”

“Well, good boy, Cinders.” Escalla patted the hound upon thehead. “You tried to tell us.”

Cinders good dog! Evil smell gone!

The faerie cocked an eye at jus and asked, “Hey, erinyes comefrom somewhere really awful, don’t they? Are they immune to hell hound fire?”

“Yup.” Jus scratched at Cinders’ snout. “So I’m told.”

“Ah well, he can gnaw off the bits of her when we’re done!Pooch, sniff deep and start tracking!” Escalla assumed combat stance in midair,her wand covering the way ahead. “Jus, let’s go make some iced devil-bitch!”

“You have got to be kidding!”

Fluttering in midair, Escalla looked down at the floor of the dungeon’s latest room. Two trenches blocked access across the floor, and thebottom of each trench was filled with jagged, rusted blades. The floor between the two ditches gleamed as slick as polished silver.

Escalla thoughtfully hovered above the floor and touched it with a fingertip. The floor was so smooth that it would be impossible to keep a grip. It was literally slipperier than grease and made a deadly trap between the two pits. Were Polk or Jus to venture out onto the floor, they would fall, slide down, and come to a grisly end.

“Lovely.” Becoming more annoyed by the obstacle course,Escalla breathed out an angry puff of breath and shook her head. “I gotta getyou two guys some wings!” The girl twisted her wand in frustration. “Jus, ifyou’re going to get an idea, get it quick! That bitch is getting away!”

Standing in the doorway and measuring the room with his eyes, Jus drummed fingers on the pommel of his sword. Above his helmet, Cinders sniffed at the air, keeping watch for the elusive erinyes.

Polk peered out from behind the Justicar, uncorking his scroll case to once again begin his chronicles. He shook his head sadly as he flicked a glance at the Justicar.

“Son, the place has got you this time! Stymied! Flummoxed!This is the end of the road.” The teamster licked his wax marker and began towrite. “You just weren’t up to the challenge of evil, I guess.”

“Polk, shut up.” The Justicar nodded over at Escalla. “Thatwand of yours… Can you mold an ice wall into different shapes?”

“What? You mean ice sculpt?” The girl looked at her wand.“Dunno. You want me to do you a nice little elf or a dragon?”

Jus gave the girl an impatient glare. “Lay an ice wall on thefloor like a sheet. Bridge the pits. Polk and I will slide over on the ice.”

“Hey, now that’s thinking!” Escalla unstrapped herweapon. “This thing doesn’t have that many charges left, though. I’ve probablyonly got a dozen shots before I have to get it recharged.”

Despite the drawbacks, the Justicar’s plan was the bestpossible solution. Happy to be useful, Escalla thumbed her wand and flew backward, the ice wand hosing frost down onto the ground. A broad layer of ice made a flat road along the frictionless floor and above its two chasms. Escalla gave the ice an extra layer of thickness beneath the bridges, then switched off the wand and fanned away the frost vapors with her wings.

A gleaming causeway now stretched across the room. Six inches thick, the ice glittered as it stretched above the trenches and their rusty blades. More than satisfied, Escalla fluttered down to rap a bridge with her knuckles. The echo rattled through the hall.

“Solid as a frost giant’s privy!” The faerie rubbed her handstogether and looked expectantly at the two humans. “All right, guys, it’s overto you!”

Jus grabbed Polk’s backpack full of gear and threw it skatingacross the room, following it with the magic trident and hammer. The ranger then grabbed Polk by the belt and the scruff of his neck and held him facedown above the ground.

Struggling like a captured bug, Polk thrashed and stammered in fright.

“No, son! Stop! I can’t go!” The teamster wailed as he felthimself being swung to and fro. “Son, someone has to outlive you to write thechronicles! Son, just think this through!”

With a mighty heave, Jus sent Polk shooting like a toboggan over the ice. The man gibbered as he whizzed above the razor-sharp spikes. When he hit the far wall, he clung like a monkey to the stone.

From the far side of the hall, Jus frowned and asked, “Areyou all right?”

“Yes, dagnabbit!”

“Damn.”

The Justicar shook his head then sank carefully down on all fours. He arranged Cinders carefully across his back and slid slowly upon his belly out on the ice. He used rags bound about his gloves to give him some grip as he stolidly wormed his way above the lethal traps.

Escalla hovered overhead, being rather less than helpful and beating time with her hands. “Come on! Hurry-hurry-hurry-hurry-hurry! We have to beat the erinyes to the sword!”

Ice creaked and groaned in the gloomy hall. As Jus reached the mid-point of the first bridge, the ice suddenly fractured beneath his weight. Long cracks whipped out across the bridge and a flake of ice fell tinkling from the bridge’s underside. The man froze, his eyes wide as he feltthe entire bridge threatening to give way.

Flitting between the ranger and the exit, Escalla irritably drummed her wand with her fingertips. “Hey Jus, did I mention the need for alittle speed here?”

The man sent her a furious look and slithered carefully on his way. The second bridge seemed even thinner and more brittle than the first. Jus blew out a breath, tested the ice with his hand, then slid carefully across the ice.

As he began to cross the second bridge, Escalla came closer and whispered, “Do you need a push or something?”

With a snarl of annoyance, the ranger rose up onto his hands and shouted, “Shut up! It’s slippery, and the stuff’s too damned thin!”

A cracking sound came from the bridge, and Jus’ eyes wentwide. With a sudden snap, the whole mass broke free. Escalla screamed in fright as the bridge slammed down onto the steel blades below. The faerie flung her hands to her face and flew through a cloud of frost to flap madly in the air.

“Jus!” In a panic, Escalla bit her hands. “Jus, did youdie?”

Five feet below the rim, Jus lay sprawled on an intact six-inch-thick slab of ice. The blades had penetrated halfway through the ice, but they managed to make the bridge more stable than before. Muttering to himself, Jus picked his way from ice chunk to ice chunk and crept across the lip of the trench onto proper stony ground.

Safe at last, Jus kicked at a random piece of ice. He wiped off the frosted front of his armor and peeled Polk away from the wall.

“Let’s get moving.”

Escalla let Jus kick open the exit door, took a swift peek about the corner, then zipped forward to scout the way ahead. Jus dragged Polk along in his wake, the teamster struggling vainly to come to terms with his handful of scrolls, the magic trident, and a lantern.

“Hold up!” the teamster protested.

“Come on, move!” Jus took a swift look into thecorridor then hauled Polk behind him. “Keep close and keep quiet!”

The corridor came to a branch. Escalla risked a swift glance both ways, saw nothing, and ducked back into cover. With his sword at the ready, Jus planted his back against a wall and edged up to the intersection.