gaudy golden unicorn pommel, now sadly battered out of shape, fell clanging to the ground. Jus cursed, half turned, and caught sight of Escalla being shaken like a leaf on the end of a kuo-toa pincer staff.
“Escalla!”
The kuo-toa slammed the faerie against a wall. She fired magic golden bees at her captor, but the swarm bounced and scattered from the monsters hide. Another bash against the wall rattled Escalla’s teeth. Nowcluttering mad, she gave a snarl of rage and raised her hand, preparing her most savage fireball spell.
Jus took one look at the building storm and screamed, “Escalla,
The spell detonated, catching Escalla’s captor in the backand blasting it apart. The explosion whirled Escalla like a leaf, sending her wailing through the air.
The girl flew through the air, landing bottom-first upon a carving of an angler fish. The carving’s dorsal ridge felt indelicate enough tomake Escalla’s eyes start from their sockets. She grabbed the carving to slidefree, hung for a moment on a lever, and then fell as the lever shifted and a grating nose began from somewhere inside the walls.
The wall beside Jus and Henry slid open, revealing a set of steps leading west. Jus lunged toward Escalla, grabbed the stunned faerie by the scruff of her wings, and ran toward the closing door.
A shimmering gateway was opening in the room behind them. Apparently the sea goddess was miffed. Kuo- toa fought their way into the room through Escalla’s poisoned cloud, some dying, some wheezing, and others foamingwith rage. The Justicar dived and rolled through the swiftly narrowing doorway just before the sliding door slammed shut. Coming to his feet, he tucked the faerie under his arm, Polk still giving muffled yells from down her cleavage. With the battered sword in his hand, Jus pushed past Henry and led the retreat.
With her pommel shattered, Benelux made outraged noises, but Jus was long past caring. A doorway sealed the top of the new stairway. Jus crashed into it with his shoulder, breaking the door off its rails. He burst into the passageway that led into the underdark. A single kuo-toa was running past, heading for the temple beyond. Jus caught it with a savage flail of his unbalanced sword, sending the creature reeling into the wall where he stabbed it through the gills.
Five more kuo-toa stood just inside an entrance that led back into the temple. They turned, roared, and snatched up their harpoons to attack Jus’ unprotected back.
Reeling out of the stairs, Private Henry screeched a thin noise of panic as he tugged and struggled at his captured crossbow. The huge boxy mechanism fumbled in his grasp. Spell runes flashed, the boy pressed one with his thumb, and suddenly the weapon bucked like a maniac. A blurred stream of crossbow bolts ripped into the kuo- toa, the crossbow flashing as spells blurred its mechanism back and forth. Henry stared in shock as the kuo-toa spun with bolts ramming into them. Still hanging over Jus’ shoulder, Escalla lookedback at the boy and gave a dazed thumbs up as she saw him fire.
“Hoopy!”
The entire temple had been roused. Jus began running up the northwestern tunnel, heading into the dark. Jolting up and down, Escalla fired her ice wand behind the party-the last shot from her wand, which finallysputtered out and died. The spell stabbed back down the tunnel and made a wall of ice, blocking the angry kuo-toa from pursuit. Escalla shook her wand and cursed, slinging it across her back upon its strap.
“That’s it! The wand’s out until I get it recharged!”
There were hundreds of angry foes just behind them. It might take five minutes for them to break the ice wall or five hours. Escalla could not afford to wait and see. She summoned her floating disk spell beneath Jus’feet. The big man blinked in astonishment, then grabbed Henry as they began to whiz speedily down the tunnel.
Escalla led the way. Her ribs were crushed; she was ripped and battered. With hundreds of baying enemies just behind her, she chose to look down at herself and make a little rant of outrage.
“They tore my dress! Those fish tore my dress!” The girl hadworked for hours to make something out of the drow fabrics. “What the hell doesthe underdark have against my clothes?”
The faeries slim little middle was now bared, framed by ragged strips of silk. She flew upside down and backward, peering at herself as she flew, somehow missing a stalactite in her path.
“Actually… I think I can work with this!”
Blank with fright, Jus ducked beneath a gibbering stirge.
“Escalla?
“Sure it’s safe! I’m totally unharmed!” Ahead, the passagewaybranched then branched again. “Hey! Does anyone remember that map we found?”
She chose the narrowest passage, a tiny thing only a few feet wide. The floating disk blurred over a forest of shrieker fungi, the huge toadstools wailing like banshees as the party passed, awakening monstrous shapes burrowing in the muck nearby. The companions left the cacophony far behind as they wound through twists and turns, ducking beneath low ceilings that almost skinned Cinders off the Justicar’s back. They dodged right and left through amaze of caves, muddling their trail.
Quite suddenly, the disk spell dissipated. Hanging in midair and still shooting forward, Jus and Henry blinked then went crashing to the ground. Escalla heard the noise and doubled back, hovering above the two men and managing to look immensely pleased.
“Hoopy! I never had one last that long before! We must havecome four miles!”
Motion sick, slashed, half choked and dangerously annoyed, Jus arose, straightened Cinders on his head, and dusted himself off.
“Polk?”
From inside the portable hole, a muffled voice replied, “Yes,son! What is it?”
“Get out of there!”
“I’m just sorting a few things!” The hole unfolded. Escallathrew it away in alarm, and Polk’s head emerged. “I’m writing us a schedule! Weneed organization and planning. That’s the backbone of any good adventure!”
“Right.” Jus fetched Escalla, inspected her, then sank ahealing spell into her ribs to clear up her bruises and scrapes. “Have you gotthe map?”
“Lich took it,” Polk replied.
He shrugged, then clambered out of the unfolded hole. Inside the pit, a scatter of pearls, gems, bent copper coins, and old keys glittered in the gloomy light. The teamster heaved out his chronicles, slung them safely over his back, then took a sharp look at Escalla’s face.
“You all right, girl?”
“I’m fine.”
“Did you know you’ve got some freckles down your front?”
Escalla hovered, regarding Polk through lofty eyes. “Polk, awoman without freckles is like a night without stars!” The tiny faerie posedsweetly, them smacked the human up the side of his head. “Show’s over! We needto hole up for a while. Let’s find a stream, get some water, then get moving!”
A side cavern gave access to a freezing cold, clear little river, a stream haunted by eerie eyeless fish and transparent shrimp. Helping herself to a cup of water, Escalla shook her head and dabbed at her countless bruises, cuts, and scrapes.
“Damn! Why didn’t my stoneskin work? That was a perfectlygood spell!”
Sitting beside her and carefully filling his water bottle, Jus shot the girl a droll glance. “Did the beholder ever look at you?”
“Oh. Oh yeah.” Crestfallen, Escalla helped herself to a mugof water. “I can’t be expected to remember everything.” She sipped her water,made a face, then held out her little cup for Polk to sweeten from his magic whiskey bottle. “Well, we can’t go to the drow without all of us havingstoneskin put on us. We’ll get creamed!”
“How long would it take to conjure the spells?”
“Ah, well, I’ll have to rest overnight.” The girlthoughtfully ticked off each stage upon her fingers. “Probably
