wrenched with energies. Frozen in place, the demons muscles bulged as it fought against the magic. The creature broke free and hurled itself backward an instant before the black sword could sever its head. The cambion dodged aside and cast a spell that struck and lifted the Justicar off his feet, throwing him a dozen feet through the air.
Huge with rage, the ranger surged back onto his feet. The ribs along his right side had broken. His enemy drew out a sword and ran to the attack, moving with the same blurring speed it had shown in the Razor Wood during their last battle. Jus whipped his blade downward and parried a lightning fast slash to his knee, ripped upward with his sword, and sliced into the teak-hard flesh of the demon’s inner thigh. The monster staggered backward, tookan arrow fired by the archer straight through its throat, yet still kept his feet to run screaming at the Justicar with weapon raised.
A lightning bolt whip-cracked across the grass from the sorcerer. With power grounding out through its flesh, the demon utterly ignored the spell and hacked down with its sword. The Justicar blurred his own weapon upward in a parry, deflected the demon’s blade, then drove the creature backwith a sharp stab.
“Allow me.”
A silver blade smacked into the cambion and sent it spinning to the ground. The demon turned, looked up at the paladin, and its eyes widened with hate. An instant later, Sir Olthwaite rammed his sword two-handed down the creature’s throat, twisting the weapon viciously to drill the monster to thesand.
Black blood spurted as the sword ripped free. With a flick of his blade, the paladin took a backward pace and let his target fall.
Breathing hard with exertion, Jus leaned on his sword and held a hand against his broken ribs.
“You know what that was?”
“Cambion, a type of lesser demon.” The paladin sheathed hissword. “Rather nasty.”
“And not used to being attacked from behind.” Shaking hishead to throw off his pain, Jus stooped over Escalla in her sticky web. “Did hemark you?”
The faerie swallowed, still seeing the cambion’s daggerstreaking for her heart. “No. What did you do-the magic, I mean?”
“Holding spell.” Jus reeled, then forced himself tostraighten. He drew in a deep, sharp breath, fought the pain, and then flicked a glance at Sir Olthwaite.
“Broken ribs. Can you heal it?”
Paladins had the healing touch, yet when Sir Olthwaite stretched his hands out to touch the wound, he frowned and slowly shook his head.
“Alas.” Sir Olthwaite’s voice rang with regret. “Such hellishmagic radiates pure evil. I cannot heal you.”
The Justicar held up his own hand, shaped a ball of light, and then stretched his ribs tight. As the magic hit them, his bones set with an audible
It seemed… simple. The Justicar looked at Sir Olthwaite,then stooped to sweep Escalla up into his arms.
The web yielded to alcohol siphoned from Polk’s whiskey jar.Reeking like a brewery, Escalla stood and unhappily allowed Jus to peel her carefully free. She still hovered halfway between gratitude, annoyance, and aftershock.
“All I wanted was some damned honey!”
“I wouldn’t try it.” Working doggedly, Jus untangled stickyweb-strands from Escalla’s hair. “These bees give you the mummy rot when theysting.”
“Oh, great.” Dazed, Escalla accepted it all. “Those damnedcorpses had a web strung between the trees for me.”
“That cambion worked for our friend the librarian. I met himonce before on the wagon trail.” Jus tried to untangle gluey strands fromEscalla’s wings. “They know we’re coming.”
“Great.” Somewhat chilled and sobered, Escalla sat herselfupon a stump. “Hey, thanks. You know-for getting here on time.”
“You’re welcome.” The Justicar pulled a last gummy strandfree from the faerie’s backside. “I liked that ‘self- respect’ line, by the way.”
“Oh, really? It was pretty nice.” The girl held out her hairand grimaced at the damage. “Too bad they were just zombies and let it ride overthem. Damn, but I need a bath!”
Cinders instantly perked up.
“No!” Jus clapped a hand over the hell hound’s nose. Escallawas still drenched in whiskey. “We’ll stop by one of the streams running fromthe mountain. They’re hot enough to make a decent bath.”
From the bushes nearby, the Geshtai priestess quietly emerged. During the whole battle, she had been conspicuously absent. With a suspicious sideways glance, Escalla watched the woman go, feeling the hair prickle on the back of her neck.
“That woman gives me the creeps.”
“Yes.” The ranger watched her go. “Cinders says he smells badmagic in the party, but the priests won’t let me close enough to try any scryingspells.”
Escalla flew up to the hell hound and scratched him between the ears. “Cinders, you keep right on sniffing.”
Polk wandered over, sniffed whiskey on the breeze, and reclaimed the last sad remnants of his whiskey store. The man glared at Jus, then wrinkled his moustache, and finally let his criticisms out into the open air.
“Son, you’re just an uphill climb for me. I try, but I justcan’t reach you!” The man swirled his jug, decided to hoard his last few swigs,and slung the jug across his shoulders. “
Polk irritably pulled a strip of sticky spider web away from his heel and announced, “Now, come on. I have to get you into White PlumeMountain before you foul up again.”
15
Over two more long days, the group moved from a landscape ofwithered grass into a folded desolation of lava plains. Molten rock had rippled as it cooled, and little jets of steam made the rock slippery with algae-laden slime. The cancerous stone gleamed a dull gray-black while the algae shimmered a slick, foul green. The only brightness came from streaks of rust and sulphur salts that crusted the edges of thermal pools.
The only life in this foul place seemed to be skittering gray rats that licked the algae from the pools. Most of the party distastefully passed the animals by, but Jus quietly and reverently went searching through the rocks. The Justicar carefully examined the boiling waters of a geyser and found tiny transparent shrimp sidling through the shallows. He showed Escalla, gently reaching down to lift a crustacean into view. For once, Escalla knew enough to still her tongue and simply enjoy the moment.
High overhead, White Plume Mountain loomed. The volcano’scone seemed stark and bare. Vast geysers shot steam thousands of feet into the sky above the peak, thundering upward with a sound that echoed across the entire wilderness. When the wind changed, condensed spray came drifting down across the rocks, and Cinders sniffed happily at the stench of sulphur in the air.
The Justicar kept himself and Escalla directly in the midst of the group. Cold calculation insisted that the other party members could never be trusted. By keeping close, Jus reduced the chance of collecting a dagger in the back.
There now seemed to be small point in stealth. The owner of White Plume Mountain certainly knew that they were coming.
In the evenings, the group made a huddled camp about an oil stove. The party bedded down on hard, warm rock in the lee of sulphur-coated stones.
Keen to recruit secret converts to their cause, each of the two priests tried sounding out their companions one by one. Their hissed whispers carried hints of fantastic promises to nearby ears.
Ignoring the conspirators, Polk ostentatiously began to polish Sir Olthwaite’s equipment He sat deliberately
