clearly stunned by what she had done.
“Run!” Morgis shouted. “Run!”
His cries stirred her to action. She fled down the hall and out of sight. The wolf raiders, however, were already more than halfway up and closing.
Brandishing his sword, the remaining Aramite angrily approached the drake. “Be silent you! I’ll-”
But as he neared, Leonin, who had remained subdued all this time, pushed himself up on his feet and charged into the guard.
They collided with a heavy thud and despite Leonin’s tied hands, he managed to bowl over their captor. The two fell in a desperate jumble, the guard’s helmet rolling away.
Morgis was right behind him. Also unable to use his arms, he came around the Aramite and kicked at the other’s now-unprotected head.
With a groan, the Aramite stilled.
“Can you reach his sword or dagger?” the drake asked of his comrade.
“The dagger would be better! And if I can’t, nobody-aah! You see? Turn around!”
Turning away from Leonin, Morgis waited tensely. Behind him, he could picture the human, his own back to that of the larger drake, trying to sever Morgis’s bonds with the procured blade. With Leonin’s own wrists still tied, the work was difficult. Morgis expected the other guards to return before the deed was done, but at last the bonds loosened, finally falling to the floor.
Spinning around, the towering drake dealth with Leonin’s ropes, then seized the sword dropped by the Aramite. His companion hurried to where the wolf raiders had deposited the captured weapons, locating his own beloved blade.
“We go after Kalena?” Leonin asked.
In response, Morgis simply headed toward the stairway. The cat woman had risked herself for them when escape had already been hers; they could do no less.
He had no doubt that with her claws she had climbed up the back of the crumbling structure and in through a window, but doing so in secret was a lot easier than trying to descend safely while being pursued. At the very least, if they chose not to follow her, the Aramites would drop whatever they could on top of Kalena, more than likely ensuring her death.
He and Leonin paused at the top of the steps. “I don’t hear anything,” the human declared anxiously. “Do you think-”
“We can only hope not.”
They entered the room where they had last seen the Aramites heading. The chamber was so dark that even Morgis, who could see better at night than Leonin, could not even make out the back of his own hand.
“We need light, Morgis. I’d better grab a torch.”
“It would not be good to separate-”
The bearded fighter backed out of the darkened chamber. “They’re still out searching the landscape. I won’t be a moment.”
The drake hissed. “Just flee, Leonin. Take your horssse and ride fassst! Alert others to what we found!”
“And leave the reward for our friend D’Kairn all for you? I’ll be right back! You do what you can, all right?”
Nodding wordlessly, Morgis watched his partner hurry down the hall, then turned to confront the darkness again. Kalena and her captors had to have gone this way. But where were they then?
As he stepped cautiously into the room, it seemed to get even murkier. A chill wind coming from well ahead wrapped around him, making the drake hiss again. An uneasy feeling crept over him.
His foot struck something solid.
Morgis bent down and felt for the obstruction with his free hand-then pulled the hand away when it immediately touched a hard yet ominously-moist surface.
A body.
V
His first reaction was to think of Kalena, but then common sense reminded him of the hard shell he had felt. His estimation of the cat woman grew by leaps and bounds. Now she had managed to slay yet another of their foes.
But that still did not answer the question of where she was now.
Wiping his hand as best he could, Morgis stepped beyond the body, seeking the source of the wind. He found it a few seconds later, a wide, shaded window opening into the pitch-black night. Again it struck him that the room was uncommonly dark, for the window, despite the decrepit shade, should have been obvious.
Pushing it open, the drake peered down, seeking some sign of Kalena.
Only then did he hear movement behind him.
“Leoni-”
“Die, monster!” roared a voice on the edge of insanity. “Die, damn you!”
An armored body struck Morgis with such force that the scaled knight tumbled out the window. As he fell, though, he reached back to grab something, anything-and took his attacker with him.
Morgis’s sense of direction vanished utterly. He heard the Aramite cry out. One arm struck stone and with what strength he could muster, Morgis seized a jutting piece and held on.
He swung back and forth like some mad pendulum, the strain on his shoulder almost too much. Desperately he reached with his other hand, trying to find some hold there. In his present form, he was subject to many of the risks of humans. A fall from this height might not kill him, but it would certainly shatter his bones.
From below came a harsh thud.
Spurred on by the wolf raider’s fate, Morgis finally located something for his other hand to grab. Still dangling, he tried to judge whether he had better hopes of climbing up or down.
The stone he had first seized made his decision for him, abruptly crumbling. Caught offguard, Morgis nearly plunged to his death. Instead, what remaining grip he had with his other hand gave him just enough time to locate another hold lower down.
Brute strength and luck had saved him so far, but the drake had no intention of trusting either to last much longer. Finding some stable if still precarious footing, he lowered his other hand and, with a force no human could have mustered, dug his fingers into the aged wall of the structure.
Repeating this risky act, Morgis managed to climb down more than half the distance to the ground. Each moment he expected either Leonin or the Aramites to find him, but the area was eerily silent.
When at last he could find no more handholds or footing, Morgis peered down again, trying to make out what lay below. Outside, he could see a little better, enough to at least let him judge the gap. The fall could still kill or maim him, but if he managed to position himself right, he might survive with only a few bruised bones.
Not satisfied, he scanned the darkness for a better landing place. Just beyond the rocky area where the Aramite had fallen, Morgis noted what looked like a softer, shrub-covered region. If he pushed himself hard, then tightened for impact, it might save him from any shattered limbs.
Might.
Little choice remained. The fact that neither Leonin nor Kalena had come in search of him worried Morgis. The sooner he rescued himself, the sooner he could do what he could for them.
“I ssswear I will make you pay for thisss, keeper!” the drake hissed. If not for D’Kairn’s spell, he would not have had to suffer this indignity.
Bracing himself, Morgis pushed off the stone wall.
He fell much faster than he had expected, the black ground rushing up to greet him. Barely had the drake folded himself into survival position when he collided.
Despite his best efforts, Morgis could not keep a cry from escaping him. Every nerve, every bone, vibrated with such intensity that he was certain that he had broken all of the latter.
Then a shrieking pain in his right shoulder and a savage cracking sound left him bereft of any conscious
