The Coral Kingdom

weapons-Brandon, his great, double-bladed axe and Hanrald his immensely long sword wielded in both his metal- gauntleted hands.

Even Pawldo darted forward, spurring his pony into a gallop while he drew a shortsword from a sheath on his saddle. Whooping savagely, he dashed up to one of the monster's legs and chopped with all the strength in his small, tough body. The pony skipped nimbly away as the beast swiveled toward the annoying attack.

The earth elemental, its feet still firmly planted, pulled on the monster's tentacle, and the force of the creature was enough to jerk the monster around, allowing Pawldo and his pony to barely escape the beast's clutching grasp.

Alicia spurred her horse and drew her longsword. Her instincts as a warrior ran deep, and loyalty to her companions told her that she belonged beside them. Thus she reacted with outrage when her mother seized the mare's bridle and hauled back as the princess rode past.

'Let go!' demanded Alicia.

'Use the staff!' Robyn cried, ignoring her daughter's command.

For a moment, the princess simply stared at her mother as if the queen had lost her mind. Alicia held a perfectly good-indeed, an exceptionally good-sword in her hand, and she had trained for much of her life in that weapon's use.

Yet now her mother urged her to set that aside in favor of a shaft made from a piece of wood.

But then Alicia remembered the reborn power of the goddess, and she wasn't so sure. 'How?' Alicia asked, one eye on the heroic charge of the fighters. Brandon's axe bounced off the monster's shell, while a tremendous blow from Hanrald's sword inflicted a tiny nick in its bony plate.

Pawldo circled back, darting in with his shortsword raised when he saw an opening. The beast seemed to sense his approach, however, turning back toward the halfling and ignoring the two human warriors. The pony squealed as a tendril seized its foreleg. Another limb with sharp, bony edges slashed at the small horse, ripping a great wound in its flank as Pawldo flew from the saddle.

The halfling bounded to his feet, his face twisted in fury, and was about to charge with his shortsword when Hanrald rode up behind him. Seizing Pawldo by the collar, the earl yanked the little fellow off the ground and carried him, screaming and cursing, away from immediate danger.

'Plant the staff in the ground, then use the word!' Alicia's mother said urgently.

In a flash, Alicia remembered Robyn's instructions at the Moonwell. Her mother had been mysterious about the shaft's use, yet there was no time for questions. She pulled the staff from her saddlebags and leaned over to plant its base on the ground.

'Phyrosyne!' she shouted, mimicking the word her mother had given her with the staff.

Immediately the wood expanded upward and grew thicker-like a tree undergoing thirty years' growth in mere seconds, the princess thought in amazement. Branches shot out to the sides, armlike appendages with stout, grasping twigs as fingers. The trunk split into two, forming a pair of solid pillars that held the creature upright. Then the mighty legs flexed, to carry the tree thing forward in steady, ponderous strides. It marched as rigidly as a soldier trying to impress a strict sergeant-major. Higher it grew, reaching twice the height of the earth elemental. Alicia gaped at the tree creature in awe.

'Now-command it!' her mother urged.

The princess blinked. 'Attack!' she shouted, willing the thing to stride forward and strike at the monster. The tree lurched forward, its gait stiff, the two trunklike legs plodding steadily.

The arm limbs came up as tentacles from the monster lashed toward this new combatant. Like the elemental, the walking tree anchored its feet and seized the tendrils and pulled. Indeed it seemed to Alicia that the tree's base sank into the ground like roots, until the thing was as firmly planted as any stately oak. Now the earth elemental held two of the tentacles and pulled one way, while the tree creature entangled more of the monster's tendrils and anchored it on the opposite side.

Keane unleashed a barrage of spells against the beast. Meteors thundered down from the sky, shuddering the ground with the force of their impact; a great fireball blossomed around the monster, searing the faces of the watching humans with the force of its fiery blast. No sooner had the flames died than Keane unleashed a blast of killing frost, a chilling wash of pale light that coated the monster with ice and even froze several of the exposed tentacles so that the brittle limbs broke into pieces when the rampaging creature moved.

The elemental and the tree thing continued to tug in opposite directions, holding the monster immobile against the onslaught of magic.

Two silver-plated fighters scrambled from the stream to join them, and Alicia wasn't surprised to see that they were female. More stunning, to her, was the reality of their blond hair and their small, pointed ears that peeked through their light tresses. These were elves!

Any delight at the sight of them was quashed thoroughly by the menace that had brought them together. The two sister knights charged bravely on foot, trying to strike at the soft, vulnerable-looking mouth. Alicia found that her staff continued its assault without her concentration, so she drew her sword and rode forward, joining the others who battled against the lashing tentacles and probing, sucking aperture.

Despite the damage caused by Keane's spells, the monster met them with a tangled mass of tentacles, reaching forward with whiplike strikes at first one, then another of the attackers. Alicia's horse skipped back from one such thrust, but then she saw the ropelike limb snare one of the elven women around the waist. The Llewyrr warrior screamed in stark panic as her companion, the one who wore the steel helm, darted in to help, only to be knocked aside by another blow.

The Lord of Lowhill tucked his short body into a roll and tumbled forward, springing to his feet directly in front of the monster's maw.

'Pawldo!' Robyn screamed, terrified for her friend.

Before the druid could react, the halfling whirled and chopped his shortsword into the tentacle that imprisoned the knight. His small body concealed a surprising strength of sinew, and the keen edge bit deep. With a palpable grunt, the monster relaxed its hold, and the elfwoman and halfling tumbled away together.

The fighters rode in again, Hanrald and Brandon close enough to chop at the thing's trunklike legs while Alicia and the helmeted elfwoman chopped at the strands of the monster's limbs that still lashed through the air. The sister knight darted backward, tripping and sprawling to the ground from the intensity of the beast's attack. The monster seemed to seek her over all the rest of the combatants.

Alicia dashed toward the elf, hacking with her sword against the seething nest of tendrils that reached toward the prostrate knight. Hanrald, too, leaped forward to strike. The force of his two-handed blow severed the tentacle closest to the trapped Llewyrr. Then, before the princess could spring away, she felt a cold grasp around her ankle. She tried to jump, but the powerful grip of a tentacle tugged hard, and she sprawled headlong to the ground.

The force of the fall knocked the breath from her lungs, and as Alicia gasped for air, the tendril tightened around her ankle, pulling her toward the monster with shockingly brutal force. She twisted and kicked in desperation, but still she slid along the ground, scrambling for some hold. There was nothing to grab, nothing that could stop her slide!

The Earl of Fairheight leaped from his saddle and landed at her side, bringing his two-handed sword down in a savage chop that completely severed the ropelike tendril. Pawldo grabbed Alicia's hand and pulled her from the lashing limbs. Quickly the princess scrambled away as the unarmored halfling lunged between her and the horrible, devouring monster. Pawldo raised his blade and swung again at the lashing tentacles that reached out in an attempt to encircle the knight.

'Get back!' shouted Alicia, watching in horror as two of the clutching limbs wrapped around the courageous halfling's shoulders. Pawldo stumbled backward, but the grip that held him was too firm.

'Help!' shouted the stocky halfling, desperately struggling against the grasping tentacles.

A fresh surge of explosions rocked the beast backward as Keane saw the danger and blasted every spell that he knew into the looming horror. Brandon raged forward in a berserker frenzy, hacking at the tentacles with his axe, then stumbling away before they could enwrap him. Hanrald, too, attacked without regard for his own safety. The monster kicked brutally, pounding both of the brave warriors back before they could break the grip that imprisoned their comrade.