Paul Kidd - Descent into the Depths of the Earth

The drow with the silver swords rose, snarling, but he went after the Justicar after a curt jerk of the nobles head sent him away. Dragging a hand crossbow from his belt, the remaining elf took aim at Escalla and opened fire.

Escalla tumbled wildly, head over heels, the crossbow bolt missing her by a hair. She whirled in her roll and fired her wand, and this time the spell blasted home. The elf slammed back against a wall, ripped by ice shards. An instant later, he lifted a hand and blasted his own ice storm straight toward the faerie. The impact smashed Escalla into the wall behind her, sending her tumbling to the ground.

In the passageway beyond, Jus moved with a wild blur ofsteel. Drow leaped in and out, short swords and bucklers flashing. Jus spun and kicked one elf in the head, breaking the drow’s jaw, then parried a short swordwith his blade before running its owner through. The elf screamed a silent scream, staggering aside and gushing blood.

Short swords stabbed, and one ripped a mark across Jus’thigh an instant before the elf behind it fell back with his arms severed. Cinders fired flame, and two elves staggered while others ducked beneath their cloaks. Steel flashed as the fight swirled in a maelstrom of blood.

Back down the tunnel, Escalla’s enemy moved to cast a spell.Stunned, Escalla flickered into invisibility and shot to the ceiling. A lightning bolt blasted inches beneath her, hit the ice wall, and smashed back into the dark elf. Killed instantly, the creature fell steaming and hissing to the floor.

The ice wall cracked. Something struck it a blow from behind the melted impact point, and the entire sheet of ice began to break and fall. Escalla took one look, then threw herself behind a stalagmite.

“Jus! We got visitors!”

The drow bearing twin swords ran toward the Justicar, joiningthe only survivors-two scarred drow veterans. The nobleman signaled one to goleft and one right while he struck sparks from his swords and faced the Justicar.

With his back against a wall, Jus stood with his sword on guard, Cinders wreathing the scene in sulphurous smoke. The ranger loomed above the elves like a sinister black giant. To his left and right stood drow with swords and bucklers. Before him stood their war leader with twin blades weaving. The three drow paced for a moment then sped suddenly backward as Jus lunged at one swordsman with his blade.

Evading the huge man, the drow lunged at Jus, parried the savage black sword with crossed weapons, then flew backward as Jus’ kickcrashed into him with enough force to shatter steel.

The elf leader instantly scythed high and low with his blades. Jus turned, still leaning sideways from his kick and parrying one blow and letting the other crash against his cuirass of dragon scales. Sparks flew. The elf drew blood, but Jus spun, trapped the blade beneath his arm and hammered a blow down onto the drow’s elbow. Bone broke, and the drow leader howled insilent agony.

Cinders blasted flame at the third elf, making the creature cower within his cloak and winning Jus an instant. The big man stood with legs bent, sweeping one arm up, back, and over to crash the elf leader across his knee. The drow’s back broke, and as his victim fell Jus whirled to face theremaining elf.

A short sword ripped through Cinders and cut Jus’ back, butthe man smashed the skull hilt of his sword into the elf’s teeth and whipped theblade in a savage blur, shearing open the drow’s abdomen. As sheet ice shatteredlike an exploding wall of glass, Jus drove his black blade through the final swordsman, twisting the weapon free and beheading the dark elf as it fell.

The ice wall splintered, and a half-dozen female drow came raging into the corridor. Frost-burned and smothered with blood, they hurled themselves straight at the Justicar.

Escalla swung out of cover behind the elves and fired her wand. Two drow jerked and died, while others leaped untouched out of the storm. The drow whirled, saw Escalla, and opened fire with a shower of crossbow darts. Screaming in fright, Escalla covered her face with her arms, bolts smacking into her and ricocheting free-victims of her stoneskin spell.

Hugging the cave wall, Private Henry watched anxiously, panting as he saw the Justicar charge savagely into the attacking elves. A silver-haired head fell to the floor as the drow scattered to surround their foe. One leaped spectacularly above the fight, landing behind the Justicar. Pale with panic, Private Henry ran forward, dragging his unfamiliar sword from its sheath. He charged with the heavy blade held in front of him like a battering ram, crashing into the elf from behind. The drow whirled, Henry’s sword juttingthrough her ribs, and felled the boy with a backhand blow of her fist. She loomed over him, grinning in insane bloodlust as she stabbed a short sword down at his chest again and again, the blade striking sparks as it struck against Escalla’s stoneskin spell. Henry screamed and tried to fend her away withhelpless hands. An instant later, her head snapped back with a crossbow bolt buried in her face. Private Henry looked up in shock to see Polk standing and reloading the crossbow. The teamster shook his head in annoyance at having to work so hard for his drink.

Female drow fought with a wild, manic indifference to life. They leaped like acrobats, spinning handstands and dodging madly from side to side. Looming like a bear amidst a flock of sparrows, Jus hacked one in mid flight, sending both halves of her smacking to the ground. He fought fast and furiously, kicking another, catching her by the skull and pulping her head against the cave walls.

Two elves held back behind the fight, both trying to cast spells, and both finding that the silence spell blocked their chants.

Escalla fired her wand again-the frost blast failing againstone but staggering the other. As the last female warrior died, the two sorcereresses flicked a look at Escalla, then leaped into the air, shooting like lightning bolts down the corridor in magic flight.

Jus dived forward, rolling to come up with his sword moving. As the sorceresses flew past, he whipped out his magic rope, making it crack like a lash at it fastened about the neck of one of the fleeing elves. The drow jerked like a victim on a noose, clawing at her throat.

Escalla shot past in hot pursuit of the remaining elf, who rolled to fire a spell at the faerie, snarling in anger as Escalla’s shieldswrenched the spell aside.

Escalla sped like a meteor, dodging spellfire left and right. She cranked the focus ring upon her wand and blasted a bolt down the corridor. The fleeing drow rolled, the bolt shot past beneath her, and the evil sorceress gave a cackling screech of mirth.

An instant later, the drow smashed into an ice wall at top speed. The crash broke half a dozen bones and sent her tumbling to the floor. Escalla fell on her like a diving hawk, screaming out a spell that blasted at the stunned drow. Once again, the magic seemed to die an instant before it hit.

Broken and staggering, the drow snarled and swept her cloak about her body. She shimmered and changed into a sinister gray manta that flew up into the air, fanged mouth open and screaming. The manta plunged down and folded around Escalla, intending to crush the faerie to death. The manta swirled, clamped its mantle around its prey, squeezed with all its might…and died.

Running with blood, the manta changed shape back into a drow sorceress. The drow’s corpse lay curled about a deadly little shape-a steelyurchin studded with vicious spikes. The spines had punctured the drow like a thousand knives. As the drow fell slowly to the floor, the urchin changed shape back into Escalla, an Escalla dressed in a few torn clothing threads and horribly drenched in dark elf blood.

“My clothes!” Wiping blood from her face, Escalla looked downat herself. She looked as if she had been swimming on a slaughterhouse floor. “You filthy drow bitch! Look what you made me do!”