Spears at the ready, we faced down the colossal arachnid. Or rather, faced up; now it was at its full height once more, Ris’kin had to crane her neck to meet its eyes. I almost felt bad for instigating so much havoc; though fear and confusion had made it behave with panicked aggression, I still sensed curiosity above all else from it.
My avatar’s fingers tightened on her weapons, reminding me that this was no friend of ours.
I don’t want to hurt you, I told it silently. But if you don’t leave, I’ll have no choice.
Thankfully the cooks chose that moment to come through. Though my avatar’s darkvision detected nothing, the trogloraptor suddenly lurched to the side, scuttling away from us toward the chefs’ first offering.
As I’d hoped, the flares of the broilcups were irresistible to the trogloraptor, just like the sound of the shrieker shrooms had been to the Zolom. The sudden boiling heat was like a beacon to the creature’s infrared senses—as was the next one they filled, and the next. Each time the creature lunged for each one, it recoiled from the burning shroom with a brittle shriek, but its instincts still sent it moving toward the next the instant it lit up.
The tribe was in possession of eight broilcups in total. With the way the cooks had spaced them out, they’d lead the trogloraptor all the way to the lake at the edge of the caldera. Hopefully that would be far enough away for us to be able to complete the exodus. Once we’d done that and the countdown was no longer hanging over us, we’d have all the time we needed to either bring it down or chase it away for good.
Time remaining for Exodus: 12 minutes, 5 seconds
Plenty of time, I told myself, though the thought was tinged with hysteria. We turned back to the plaza and headed for the temple.
“Corey, something’s changed. It’s coming back!”
“Ket?” The sprite had been quiet up till now, lost in that weird dream-like state she’d been drifting in and out of since we arrived at the mountain. Now, though, she sounded worried.
I glanced over my shoulder, then cursed and started to run faster. The trogloraptor was barreling back in our direction and was almost upon us, its straight path toward the temple a clear sign that whoever was commanding it was now back in control.
Ris’kin was easily my fleetest creation, but the trogloraptor’s stilt-like legs and jerking gait easily took it past us. It knocked over an illumishroom cluster as it bowled across the plaza, hooked toes skittering on the flagstones and crystal shards of the temple steps.
We weren’t going to get there in time.
When it reached the altar, its legs bent, folding almost in half as it lowered its rounded body almost to the ground, like a wasp contorting to sting its prey. Underneath it, Gneil, who’d been knocked down yet again by its single-minded charge, rolled onto his back, his spear braced against the flagstones. The arachnid would impale itself on the weapon’s point before it crushed my high cleric. Pride rushed through me at his quick thinking.
But then I realized. The trogloraptor wasn’t interested in Gneil. It never had been.
I cursed myself for being so stupid.
It’s after my gem! We have to stop it!
The trogloraptor continued to lower itself until it was eye-level with the altar. Ris’kin and I skidded across the plaza in a final burst of speed, but it wasn’t enough. With a quick striking movement, it snatched my gem in its palps and sprang away into the darkness.
Sixty-Three
Control
Benin
Coll’s teeth were grinding again, his body shaking. He seemed to once more be fighting for control of his own mind, and wasn’t responding to Benin’s questions. Neither was Lila.
“What are you doing?” he asked again, shouting this time.
She didn’t answer, but he could guess. Her attention was fixed in the direction of the gnomish city, and her eyelids were flickering erratically. Benin recognized scrying when he saw it. Something was up there causing trouble, and she was directing it like a conductor at an orchestra.
More like a puppet master, he thought bitterly. That’s not direction. That’s control.
Corey had once told him he had an ability called Possession, but had confessed that he didn’t feel comfortable using it except in the direst of circumstances. It seemed Lila had no such qualms. Benin didn’t know what kind of dire creature she’d had lying in wait up there, but she seemed confident it would be enough. And once again the gnomes were facing it alone.
He’d let Corey down again, despite promising to protect his denizens. A sense of failure tried to consume him. Past-Benin would have let it. Now, though, he forced it away. If Lila were controlling the creature, he needed to distract her. Perhaps that would give them a chance.
He began to wriggle his fingers. He could barely move them—the vines held so tightly they were almost cutting off the blood flow—but if he wasn’t imagining things, they were beginning to loosen the more he worked at them.
It wasn’t enough. It was taking too long!
Lila suddenly cried out. Her eyes flew open and she dropped to one knee, reaching behind her with a grimace. His heart leapt as the vines loosened a little.
She plucked something from the back of her leg and examined it.
A gnomish spear? But how—
She shouted again, lashing out at something behind her, but even her ranger’s reflexes weren’t quick enough. A small figure dodged her fist, emerging fully into Pyra’s glowing aura as it jabbed at Lila with a second spear.
Ajax?!
The warrior he’d rescued from the monstrous marsh snake planted his legs wide, standing firmly between Benin and Lila.
“Stay out of this!” she told the gnome, sounding genuinely distressed. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
That made no sense. She’d been trying to hurt them all the way through their journey. When Benin pointed this
