'It looked like they all threw the circlets away,' the watch lieutenant stated. 'And the other two skeleton warriors didn't try to follow anyone.'
Baylee surveyed the bodies of the dead drow in front of him. Seven dark elves lay stretched out near the battleground. 'Then the people who controlled them were dead.'
'The ones who controlled the skeleton warriors were the most protected of the group,' Cordyan pointed out.
'I know.' The situation didn't make sense to Baylee either. The people who controlled the skeleton warriors had been deep within the group of drow. He quickly searched the dead, seeking answers.
Two of the drow had died by the sword, their bodies opened up in great gashes. But the third one he checked didn't appear to have a mark on him. Grabbing the corpse by a shoulder, the ranger pulled and rolled it over.
He spotted the black fletchings of the small crossbow bolt that jutted out from the back of the man's neck. The bolt was of dark elf design, matching ones Baylee found in the small quiver on the man's thigh. 'This man was killed by his own.' He released the corpse and let it fall back to the ground.
'As was this one,' Cordyan informed him grimly. She indicated the quarrel sticking out from below the man's left ear.
'They were taking no chances about being followed,' Baylee said. 'Someone had already taken into account the cost of failure.'
Cordyan let go the corpse she'd handled and looked up at Baylee. 'They came here for you.'
'Perhaps.'
The light from Carceus's spell faded from the sky and moonlight returned to highlight the watch lieutenant's features. 'There is no 'perhaps' about it,' she replied. 'Whether there was a drow involved with Fannt Golsway's murder or not, his death exhibited strong magic. Just like this.'
Baylee knew it was true. His thoughts had already taken the same fork in the stream. He gazed around at the carnage that had ripped so bluntly into the festive atmosphere of the forgathering. Only moments before, so many of the people around him had been involved in swapping stories, swapping possessions, eating and drinking, competing, and perhaps even flirting at love.
Now, they tended the wounded and dead comrades among them, and sought to tip the scales on the ones they might lose. Thankfully, a number of clerics and druids had attended the forgathering. Those who had healing potions shared willingly among the fallen.
Guilt chafed in Baylee's mind.
You did not know, Xuxa chided him. If you had, you would not have brought this trouble among your friends.
Baylee looked at the tree where the azmyth bat held her prize from the clutches of the skeleton warrior. The undead creature swayed unsteadily in the thinner branches near the top of the tree, searching in vain over and over, like some kind of artisan's automaton for safe passage higher.
He turned at the sound of his name and saw Serellia approaching him. Her beautiful face was streaked with blood, and tears ran down her cheeks. Her sword remained naked in her fist.
'It's Aymric,' she said.
Baylee felt like a cold fist closed around his heart. 'Where?' He knew many people in many places, but so few actually got close to him. The elf was one of the closest.
Serellia guided him to Aymric.
Pale and disheveled, Aymric lay on the ground as Karg and two other men sought to bind the horrible wound across his midsection The skeleton warrior's sword stroke had laid him open. The elf looked up at Baylee and tried to speak.
Baylee knelt beside his friend, feeling the tears burn his eyes. He took Aymric's hand and closed it tightly in his. 'I should not have left you,' he whispered in a hoarse voice.
Aymric showed him a small smile and moved his head back and forth.
'Let me through!' a voice urged. 'He may not yet be too far gone!'
Baylee shifted and let Carceus through. The priest's face remained blank as he surveyed his patient. 'Gond willing,' Carceus said, 'I'll not suffer him to die.' He pulled up his robe sleeves. 'Water, please.' He held his hands out.
Karg stood nearby and removed the small flask at his hip. 'It's spring water, god-speaker, brought from the airy heights, only one step removed from the heavens themselves.'
'Even better. Pour.' The giant killer sluiced the water over the priest's hands. Prayer spilled from Carceus's lips, coming so rapidly that Baylee understood only a few of the words.
He added his own prayers to the Lady of the Forest to the priest's. Aymric's hand in his was already growing weaker.
A smoky blue aura glowed around Carceus's hands. He kept his fingers wide-spread. Then he placed his palms against the violent wound in Aymric's midsection.
The elf s body jumped in response, bowing up. Aymric's hand closed around Baylee's tight enough to cut off the blood flow. A keening moan escaped the elf ranger's lips, spitting out blood with it.
The smoky blue aura around the priest's hands spread, covering all of Aymric's stomach and lower chest. Miraculously, the flesh knitted itself back together. Muscle reconnected to bone, then to each other. Long moments passed as the healing continued. Perspiration dappled Carceus's forehead, trickling down through his eyebrows. After a time, the blue glow faded. Even after the work was done and he sat back in exhaustion on his haunches, the priest's prayer to Gond Wonderbringer continued unabated.
Baylee stared at Aymric's face. Once the blue glow had faded, the elf s body had gone into total relaxation, his eyes shut. He didn't appear to be breathing. 'Aymric,' Baylee called gently.
There was no response.
Fear clawed at Baylee's mind, bristly as the spider's leg had been all those years ago when he'd been tied securely in the web before Golsway had shown up to save him. There were stories from time to time of those who had been healed after having severe wounds who only turned out to be well-preserved corpses. Healing could still be done on the body even though the spirit had departed. His hand trembled, surprising him. 'Aymric.' He spoke louder, but his voice was lost in the myriad moaning and bits of other conversations circling around the group with the elf.
Serellia placed her fingers against Aymric's throat. 'It's all right,' she said. 'He only sleeps. His heart beats strongly.'
Baylee.
Heartened by his friend's survival, the ranger turned to look back at the azmyth bat. The skeleton warrior had gotten closer to the circlet in Xuxa's claws. Men and women surrounded the base of the tree. Even over the distance, Baylee heard the group talking about firing the tree. Someone else told them that firing the tree would do no good, that only magic weapons had any effect on the undead creature.
We have to deal with the skeleton warrior, Xuxa urged. I have but to release the circlet and he will go.
Not yet. Baylee stood and walked toward the tree with the skeleton warrior in it. He knew that the undead creature wasn't mindless. Far from it, skeleton warriors possessed cunning intelligence far above average. But they were bound by the drive to recover the circlets and become one with their souls again. That obsession weakened them once they were no longer in a controller's thrall.
'What is it you're going to do?' Karg growled, joining Baylee. He carried his axe in one huge hand.
'We have no clue where these skeleton warriors came from,' Baylee answered. 'But they were elves.'
'Aye.'
'Where is the skeleton warrior you and Serellia fought?'
'Destroyed,' the giant killer replied. 'It put up a fierce fight for a time. Of course, it helped when I removed one of its arms. Then it erupted into a frenzy that almost caught me unawares. Serellia saved me with as fancy a piece of sword play as I've seen in a long time. We were hard pressed for a time, but it turned its attention back to the drow. Were it a human foe, I would not have attacked it from behind. The blow cut its spine in two and took its legs from it. Still, it tried to battle. Then, of a sudden, it went limp. I wasted no time in cleaving its skull to pieces, I tell you.'
'It's dead?' Baylee asked.
