She didn't respond to Steorf's voice or his gentle shaking. She was completely drenched in sweat and convulsing. Steorf licked his lips nervously and rapidly ran his hands over her body. He could find no major wounds on her. Her lips whitened and she slipped into total unconsciousness, her breathing almost undetectable.
Steorf, not knowing what else to do, lifted her in his arms and rocked her slowly. The change in position caused her head to loll against his chest, and Steorf was then able to spot the cause of her condition.
Just below her chin was an inflamed cut and he realized that she must have been bitten by one of the spiders. Cradling her shoulders with one arm, he placed his other hand, palm down, on Tazi's wound.
'I won't let go of you,' he whispered.
Steorf gazed at her ashen face and closed his eyes.
During the few days between discovering Ebeian's body and his journey through the gate, Steorf had studied madly. He had gone through his mother's extensive collections of spells and tried to learn as much as he could before leaving Selgaunt. The only problem was that though he had expanded his realm of knowledge, he hadn't had enough time to practice some of the new spell abilities fully. His skills were lacking. What he was about to attempt was untried, but he knew he had no choice. Steorf's hand began to glow slightly white and darkened to brown as he drained the poison from Tazi's system. The torn flesh on her neck started to knit under his touch until no trace of the small wound remained.
Steorf slowly opened his eyes and looked expectantly at Tazi. Her eyes were still closed but Steorf could see that her chest rose and fell evenly. A rosy stain began to spread over her chalky lips. Steorf tenderly brushed a strand of her ebony hair from her eyes and held his breath expectantly. Soon enough, Tazi's eyes flew open and she wildly clawed out, disorientated. Steorf effortlessly caught her hands with his free one and made soothing sounds, trying to calm her.
'It's all right now, dear heart,' he whispered.
'What happened?' Tazi asked with some confusion.
Steorf didn't release his hold on her.
'I think the fight just caught up with you,' he told her easily, but his words belied his expression.
Tazi could see the worry lines still etched on his face.
'I think it was a little more than that,' she replied, her voice growing stronger by the moment. 'I think I was dead.'
'I wouldn't ever let that happen,' Steorf responded.
Their eyes locked briefly.
Seeing that she was rapidly gaining strength, Steorf released her hands and stood up, helping her to rise as well. When he was certain that she was steady, he let her stand unaided.
'You don't have to watch me like a hawk,' Tazi told him after she caught him studying her while she stretched her limbs experimentally.
'Don't I?' he asked.
She had shaken off most of the effects of the poison, thanks to Steorf, and she scrutinized him. He looked tired, and she knew whatever he had done to expel the venom from her body had taxed him immensely. It was one more strength that she hadn't known he possessed. The tunnel was not nearly as bright as it was earlier and Tazi realized that was because Steorf was much weaker. She pushed some of his unruly, blond locks from his eyes, unknowingly mimicking his earlier gesture.
'Maybe I should keep an eye on you,' she said gently.
Asraf, having dispatched his last opponent, was breathing hard. He watched as Steorf clasped Tazi's hand, the Sembian woman seeming to have recovered completely under the mage's ministrations. He was so caught up in their plight that he lost track of his own surroundings. An aranea in spider form, forgotten by all three of them, scuttled after Asraf and clambered up the rock wall behind him. When the spider was on the cave ceiling directly over the Child of Ibrandul, it dropped a silken strand of webbing down ten feet until the thick thread was level with Asraf's neck. Then the creature waited for the inevitable and it didn't have to wait long.
Asraf took a step back a moment later and sealed his fate.
The instant he brushed against the strand of webbing, his neck was caught. Instinctively, Asraf spun around to see what he was trapped by and that only exacerbated the situation. He had wrapped the silken cord mostly around his neck and he was held fast.
That was all the aranea needed. It hauled Asraf up as though he weighed nothing. Tazi and Steorf, both still recovering from their clash, didn't see his perilous predicament.
Face to face with the fanged horror, Asraf called out, 'Ibrandul, deliver me from this beast,' but the prayer failed to reach the notice of any deity.
Tazi heard his plea, though, and turned at Asraf's shout. She watched, horror-struck, as the spider enveloped Asraf in its multi-limbed embrace and bit down on his shoulder. Asraf hissed in pain, and Tazi rushed to free her guardblade, which was still embedded in the back of the dead drow.
Steorf, too, had recovered enough to realize Asraf's predicament.
'No!' he shouted, and a bolt of flame leaped from his outstretched hand.
As soon as the flame touched the aranea, it dropped Asraf. He fell to the cave floor with a dull thud. The aranea squealed as its carapace burst into flames, and it followed Asraf's descent to the ground. Landing on its back, the spider screeched pitifully for a brief time as its limbs worked futilely in the air. Eventually, its arms stopped their twitching. The cavern filled with the acrid smoke of burnt arachnid flesh.
Tazi sidestepped around the fiery remains of the spider and rushed to Asraf's unmoving form. Steorf followed close behind. Tazi dropped to her knees and rolled Asraf over with trembling fingers. His eyes were shut tightly against the pain of the poisonous bite. Tazi gently lifted his head and placed it in her lap. She hardly noticed that Steorf had dropped down beside her. He reached across Asraf's shoulders and tore aside the robes that covered the place where the spider had inflicted its venomous bite.
Tazi grimaced as Steorf's actions revealed a shoulder already horribly swollen, with purple lines of toxin running toward Asraf's neck, head, and heart. She looked helplessly at Steorf as Asraf writhed in pain. He returned her glance and looked determinedly at the wounded Child of Ibrandul. She didn't want Asraf to die, but she was afraid the strain of saving him might prove too draining for Steorf.
'Steorf,' she started to say, but he shook his head.
Decisively, Steorf tore more of Asraf's robes away to further reveal the injured site and laid his hands on the wounded man. Asraf's eyes flew open at Steorf's touch. He weakly reached up with a palsied hand and grasped Steorf's wrist.
'Don't,' he pleaded to the young mage, a desperate look in his fevered eyes.
'Why not?' Steorf asked.
'Because this is the way it should be,' he reasoned weakly.
'What?' Tazi asked.
Asraf tried to smile at her but couldn't. Instead, he whispered, 'This is my punishment, and I accept it willingly.'
'Why should you be punished?' Steorf argued.
His anguished helplessness made his voice harsh. However, he had come to respect Asraf and Tazi realized Steorf wouldn't intervene if Asraf refused his assistance.
'Because I betrayed Ibrandul,' Asraf answered with a fading voice. Tazi stroked his young face, and his eyelids flickered at her touch. He did manage a final smile.
'I just didn't believe that you two were evil,' he said, then his breath rattled for the last time.
Tazi and Steorf kneeled in stunned silence for a few heartbeats. Finally Tazi gently removed Asraf's head from her lap and got up. Steorf remained where he was with his legs crossed and his head in his hands. Tazi looked down at Asraf's body and whirled to pace the cavern, gently lit by the still smoldering body of the last spider to fall. That was the only light left as Steorf's spell of illumination had all but faded away. It was enough light to see that the cave floor was covered with unmoving aranea bodies. She strode over to a pile of three corpses and began to kick at them viciously.
'That won't do any good,' Steorf finally told her.
