Томас Рейд - Insurrection

Pharaun stole a glance at Quenthel and signed, where Danifae could not see, If you heal her, we can move much faster.

Quenthel shrugged and replied, She is not a necessary part of this group. I will not waste the magic on her. There might not be any left later for you, if I did.

Pharaun pursed his lips, wondering what It would take to convince Quenthel that the battle captive was an asset they could not do without. He turned his attention back to Danifae.

«Can you walk on it?» he asked her.

«Yes,» she answered. «I can keep up.»

«We will not wait for you, if you cannot,» Quenthel said sharply, «and I will not permit Jeggred to be slowed down by carrying you. Do you understand?»

«Yes, Mistress,» Danifae said.

Pharaun saw that her eyes narrowed a bit. He gestured with his palms down where Quenthel could not see, indicating for Danifae to be patient. He was not about to abandon her, even if he knew full well that she was playing upon his desires just to save her own hide.

At that moment, a single massive spider leg settled on the stone between the alcove and the shield of magical darkness that the mage had summoned, and a portion of the arachnid's body hove into view. It was the underside of the creature, Pharaun noted, holding his breath as he felt the tremor of it settling its weight on the web street. Beside him, the two females were wide-eyed, and Jeggred watched the scene warily, but none of them moved. As the spider glided down and away from their hiding place, the wizard sighed softly in relief. It had not noticed them.

Out beyond the protective blackness, Pharaun could hear the shouts of duergar—cries of terror—as the spider moved quickly away from the building where the mage and his companions were hiding. The vibrations of its steps grew ever softer as it departed.

Good, Pharaun thought. Chase them for a while.

«What in the Abyss is a guardian spider?» he asked aloud.

Danifae shrugged and said, «I don't know as much about them as Halisstra. You'll have to ask her if you want the details, but I can tell you that the matron mothers have, in the past, brought these creatures forth for various purposes. They must have conjured one today, maybe to turn the tide of the fighting.»

Quenthel sighed and shook her head.

«Madness,» she said quietly. «The matron mothers of this city pick the most foolish time to war with one another.»

«I wouldn't limit the appellation of foolish solely to the matron mothers of this city,» Pharaun muttered under his breath.

Quenthel glanced at him, but he simply smiled, and she turned her attention back to the unseen ruckus beyond the sphere of darkness, apparently not having clearly heard his remarks.

«Dispel the darkness,» the high priestess ordered the wizard. «I want to see what's happening.»

As I said, Pharaun thought, shaking his head.

Sighing, the mage gestured and the sphere of blackness vanished, revealing the street beyond. The spider was out of sight for the moment. In the street, nothing moved, though there were plenty of dead strewn about, duergar and drow alike.

«It seems to have wandered off,» Quenthel observed, rising to her feet. «We should be going, too, before it comes back,»

«Let's give it another couple of moments,» Pharaun suggested, still unnerved at the appearance of the giant creature. «Just to make sure it's completely gone.»

Quenthel scowled at the wizard then turned to the draegloth and said, «Go see.»

Smiling, the fiend bounded out from their hiding place to peer in both directions.

At that moment the duergar chose to come out of hiding.

Scores of them poured out from around the corner and from the building across the street, as though they had been waiting for the drow to emerge from their hiding place.

«Get 'em!» one of the gray dwarves shouted.

The duergar formed up a semicircle, surrounding the dark elves' position, and Jeggred leaped back into the alcove as the first volley of crossbow bolts peppered the walls around them.

Cursing, Pharaun ducked low, using the elevation of the porch as a screen. He pointed his finger toward the street and spoke the arcane phrase that would trigger one of his spells. At once, a cloud of roiling smoke, shot through with white-hot embers, formed beneath him and began to flow away from the building and across the street. The duergar, many of whom had their crossbows loaded again and were aiming at the small group, eyed the fiery haze warily as it appeared and began to churn toward them. As it reached those in the front ranks and engulfed them, they began to scream and flail, scorched by the embers.

Gray dwarves fell back before the cloud as it burned their kin where they stood. The smoke was thick and black. It moved away from the building, and the screams of the duergar intensified as more and more of them succumbed to the scorching heat.

Pharaun crept out a little way to watch his handiwork. Jeggred stood beside him, unafraid of a stray missile, eyeing the cloud with delight.

«Can any of them survive?» the fiend asked.

«Not if you go dance among them,» the Master of Sorcere replied. «The fire can't hurt you, right?»

«That is correct,» the draegloth answered, and he bounded into the smoky fog.

The incendiary cloud had pushed across to the opposite side of the street. Bodies of duergar were scattered across its surface, charred and smoking. Several of them were openly burning. Jeggred emerged from within the roiling smoke, which Pharaun redirected to flow down the street, in the direction opposite they wished to go. It would continue of its own accord for some minutes before dissipating, ensuring that another horde of the enemy couldn't come up behind them. The draegloth was dripping with blood but had a very satisfied look on his face. He had an amputated arm in his hand and was chewing on it as he trotted back to where the three drow were crouched.

Pharaun studiously ignored the fiend's dining habits as Quenthel asked, «Are they all dead?»

«Either dead or running,» the draegloth answered. «The street is clear.»

«Then we should proceed. The spider could return at any moment, and we have no time to waste. Where did you say the others went?» the high priestess asked Pharaun.

The wizard pointed toward the alleyway where he had seen Ryld vanish moments before.

«The weapons master went in there,» he said. «It's possible that one or both of the others joined him.»

Before Pharaun could take more than a couple of steps, though, the street heaved and shook.

«Damnation!» he heard Quenthel cry out, and the mage risked a glance back.

The spider had spotted them and was skittering along the street, easily stepping over the roiling cloud of flame Pharaun had sent in that direction. The arachnid came toward them, and fast, its mandibles flexing eagerly.

Pharaun turned and fled from it.

«I'm telling you, I want that thing killed, now!» Ssipriina Zauvirr screamed. «If you don't do it, we are all in a midden heap of trouble!»

She loomed over Khorrl Xornbane as the two stood on the steps of an upscale fashion shop, abandoned in the fighting, situated in the interior of the gray dwarves' position on the plaza. The shop was well back from the lines of battle, but Khorrl could plainly see the spider in the distance as the matron mother pointed at it. The massive creature clambered over a building near where Clan Xornbane was locked in a pitched battle with a force of antagonistic drow.

«And I'm telling you , I'm not sending my boys to fight that thing!» Khorrl snarled back, losing patience with this haughty dark elf. «You hired me to win you a seat on your blessed council by defeating your adversaries, not to clean up your mistakes. You and your cronies brought it here, so you and your cronies can figure out how to stop it. It's not my fault you can't control it!»