Mel Odom - The Lost Library of Cormanthyr

They growled in shrieking voices as they closed on the drow.

"Don the circlets!" Krystarn ordered. She watched as Vnk'itn and the other two men put the circlets they held on their heads and immediately lapsed into unconsciousness while remaining on their feet.

Little more than ten feet away, three of the skeleton warriors halted. The fourth continued on toward Krystarn, drawing its sword back to strike.

Krystarn fitted the circlet on her head, having no trouble at all of fitting her mind into the magic built into the band. Her senses swirled as she watched the fourth skeleton warrior suddenly freeze into position. A further mental push put her inside the skeleton warrior's body.

She looked back at herself, noticing the way the firelight flickered over her own ebony skin. Then she tried lifting her sword arm, watching the long two-handed sword come up in the skeleton warrior's grip.

Movement to her right drew her attention. She whirled, finding the skeleton moved slightly slower than she was accustomed to her own body responding. Before she could fully turn around, a young male ran his heavy war spear into her.

Krystarn cursed, not believing she had left herself open to such an attack. Then she was surprised when there was no pain. The spear expertly shoved through her ribs, finding the place where a heart was supposed to be. Rotted meat broke away in chunks, streaming down to the ground in front of her.

Realizing that she was in no danger of dying, Krystarn raised the two-handed sword and smashed the blade against the spear haft. The hardened wood splintered almost effortlessly. Before the ranger could get clear, she swung the blade again, decapitating her opponent.

Krystarn grinned, then reached down and pulled the spearhead from the skeleton warrior's dead flesh. A moment later, she waved to the other three skeleton warriors and headed in search of more victims. Baylee Arnvold was at the forgathering somewhere, and she meant to kill him. No matter how many she had to kill first to do it.

Baylee spotted the skeleton warriors moving among the twisted shadows where the fireball had detonated. He had his sling in his hand, but against the undead, he knew the weapon would be almost useless.

A woman in priest's robes ran toward the undead warriors. She lifted her staff and drove the bottom into the ground. The holy symbol at the top glowed a lambent orange as she stood her ground.

"It's Vithyr!" someone shouted. "She'll turn these undead horrors!"

Baylee wanted to shout a warning to let the cleric know that even her powers wouldn't turn a skeleton warrior. Before the first word tore free of his throat, however, the lead skeleton warrior ran her through with its spear. Then the creature hurled her body away contemptuously.

"Gond protect these people," Carceus the priest said. His round face held intense sorrow as he surveyed the dead and dying.

By then, Baylee was already in motion, heading back toward the undead at a run.

What are you doing? Xuxa demanded. I'm going to help, Baylee replied.

They're skeleton warriors, the azmyth bat protested. In order to harm them, you'll need a magic weapon. Even then, there is the skill they still possess to consider as well.

They're killing people, Xuxa, Baylee said. People I know… friends. I can't sit back and do nothing. And those skeleton warriors are being guided by someone. They didn't come here on their own.

Aymric, Karg, and Serellia caught up to him, their weapons bared in their fists. "Do you know about the circlets that bind them?" the elf asked.

"Yes," Baylee replied. "Golsway and I have-" The pain hit him again, muffled partly because he couldn't believe everything the watch lieutenant had told him. He'd have to see Golsway's body to believe it. "There was one we faced a few years back in Lathtarl's Lantern."

"You survived," Karg growled, "that means you learned something." He held the dwarven double-bitted axe in his hands. "Me, I'll trust this axe of mine. She's got a bit of magic in her that's stood me in good stead over the years."

"My sword has been blessed by the Lady herself," Serellia said, her weapon in hand.

"And my father gave me my falchion and this dagger." Aymric brandished the two weapons. "Both had been in his family for generations, and both carry magic. But you are weaponless."

"Slow the skeleton warriors down," Baylee said. "Xuxa and I will see if we can scout up the people controlling them." He mentally contacted the azmyth bat, sending her winging ahead. Many of the animal followers had already fled the immediate vicinity of the attack, driven before the fire and by the fear the undead creatures instilled with their very appearance.

Then they were in the thick of the fighting. Most of the rangers tried to hold their ground, but few of them possessed magical weapons that would do any damage to the skeleton warriors. Conventional weapons shattered against them or had no effect at all. The same held true for magical spells.

Leaping forward, Karg caught one of the skeleton warriors from the side, smashing his great axe down on its left arm. The keen edge of the magical axe slashed deep into the arm bone. Fractures split through the ivory. Amazingly, the arm remained intact.

The skeleton warrior turned immediately, striking out with the two-handed sword.

Karg blocked the blow with the head of his axe, trying to capture the blade between the bits and shatter it. Serellia stepped in as the big giant killer fought for his life. She drew her blade back, then brought it crashing against the undead creature's ribcage. Bits of bone tumbled through the ribcage.

The skeleton warrior whirled back to face her. Both hands locked around the pommel of its weapon. It swung, bringing the sword off its shoulder.

Serellia ducked, moving under the whirling blade. Then Karg chopped down on the weakened arm again, this time cutting it from the skeleton warrior while the woman swung at one of the knee joints. Aymric met a second undead warrior with a flash of steel that quickly echoed with the grate of steel on bone. Then three hawks joined the battle, attacking the pits where the skeleton warrior's dead eyes were. The creature itself would have known there was no hurt that could be taken, but the person controlling it didn't. The skeleton warrior flinched away from the battering wings and tearing talons.

Baylee ran, noting that a third skeleton warrior was being delayed in its attack by the Waterdhavian watch lieutenant. Blue sparks jumped from her blade's edge every time contact was made.

Xuxa! he called.

I have found them! she cried.

Baylee followed her directions, stepping over a man who had been disemboweled by one of the skeleton warriors. Burned bodies, the dead and the soon-to-be, lay scattered across the sward. Knots of fire hung in the trees and grew larger on the ground as more of the brush caught.

He followed the azmyth bat's commands, going to cover when she bade him. Then he saw the drow elves spread out before him. His blood ran hot in his veins. He'd never had a love for spiders. Even during his earliest years when his tolerances were more forgiving, he'd never learned to like the eight-legged creatures. When he'd still been small, a giant spider in a dungeon Golsway had taken him to in Hluthvar had captured Baylee from the party and tied him up in its web before the old mage had found and freed him.

And the drow worshipped Lloth, Queen of the spiders.

The drow spread out in a semi-circle. A few dead surrounded them, but the rangers for the most part had fled before the skeleton warriors. A burning branch from the tree above broke loose and dropped, smashing against the invisible barrier in front of the woman Baylee surmised led the group. The drow society, he knew, was matriarchal rather than patriarchal, led by women rather than men. She would have to be the leader.