on long enough to get his bearings and draw his sword before leaping back into the sky.
Behind Rohini, Brin dodged Brother Vartan’s blast of magic and sank his sword into the twisted priest. The man collapsed, not only blood pouring from his wounds, but a colorless slime that Brin stepped neatly out of-the horrors of Vartan’s search for secret knowledge.
Rohini straightened, her eyes mad, the powers of the Hells and the Sovereignty warring over her skin. She spotted Brin, and her eyes took on a wicked gleam.
“Come here, boy,” she said sweetly. “I have need of your sword.” Brin straightened, his eyes glazing. He looked down at the servitor and the sword in his hand, then up at Rohini, puzzled. He took a step forward.
Rohini screamed, her wings going stiff and thrust back. Both Brin and Farideh stumbled as the traces of her magic fled.
Rohini gasped and spat blackish blood, then slid to her knees, her wings drooping.
The blade of Havilar’s glaive was buried in her back. Havilar yanked it free and Rohini fell face first into the ground. Havilar spat.
“And I
“Move!” Lorcan swept down and caught Farideh, shoving her out of the way. Havilar scrambled after them, dragging Brin behind her.
Farideh glanced back to see Invadiah swinging her blazing sword at the larger monster’s last tentacle. The thing gave a horrible scream and recoiled, waving in the air. It slammed down beside Rohini’s broken body, then slithered heavily around her, pulling the fouled succubus up and over the Wall. Back to the Chasm it had come from.
Farideh risked a glance around. The smaller monsters were all slowing, bleeding out as the remaining erinyes shook off the effects of their poisons and mental attacks. The guards up on the Wall were rallying.
Here, Farideh thought, is where things go sour. They could draw off the erinyes, but where to? Not here, she thought. If they could get the devils out of the city, Neverwinter might mount a reasonable defense.
“Come on,” she said to Havilar, “we need to catch their attention.”
Lorcan grabbed ahold of her arm. “I didn’t promise my help in getting you killed.”
“No one’s asking for your help,” she said. “If we don’t, Neverwinter could fall.”
“Then let it,” he said. “It is not yours to care for.”
“It is mine as much as it is anybody’s,” she said, twisting from his grip.
In front of the House of Knowledge, a bright line of red light sliced through the air, then split wide like an opening eye. A low buzz filled Farideh’s ears, and suddenly the gap exploded with creatures the size of wolves that swarmed over the erinyes, their sharp stingers glistening with venom.
“Hellwasps,” Lorcan said, and he pulled both twins behind the body of the largest monster. The devils swooped over the battling erinyes, breaking off in pairs to circle them, trapping them each neatly apart from their sisters. He pulled Farideh nearer into the curl of his wing. He was shaking.
A piercing cry ripped through the night air as one erinyes sliced neatly through one of the smaller devils. It vanished in a burst of flame. Before she could so much as laugh, two of the larger hellwasps descended on her and speared her through with their stingers. She collapsed with a yelp, and the other erinyes were wise enough to take the hint and sheathe their swords.
“You are to come with us,” Farideh heard one of the large ones say to Invadiah. “You are to stand for the failure of your mission.”
“My mission has not failed,” Invadiah countered. “It is still in progress.”
“The queen deems it a failure,” the hellwasp said. “You will come with us, or we have orders to kill you here. After you have reformed, you will be tried. It is your choice.”
Invadiah growled, but sheathed her burning blade and set her hands atop her head. “If you recapture that succubus and my idiot son,” she said, “then I will gladly go to see them punished for this disaster.”
“We will find them.” The hellwasps not guarding the erinyes were sweeping the street, killing the last few cultists who had the bad sense not to stay away.
Farideh turned to face Lorcan. “Run,” she whispered. “Come with us.”
“There is no running,” he said. “They will search until they have me.”
“You don’t mean that,” Farideh said. “They’ll kill you.”
“They might. And you’ll be safe. I told you before, darling,” he said, “I’m not such a bad fellow.”
The hellwasps buzzed nearer and Farideh clung to his arm, to keep him there out of sight, to keep him from making a mistake. He was stronger than she was, though. She couldn’t hold him and he broke free of her, pushing her back, farther behind the dead horror. Havilar caught hold of her as Lorcan stepped out into the open street, his hands held in a gesture of surrender. The remaining hellwasps spotted him and circled back, peering at Lorcan from one angle, then another.
Farideh found herself hoping that they would pass him over. But the pair of hellwasps seized Lorcan in their swordlike talons and ushered him through the waiting portal.
It snapped shut behind them like a slamming door, and Farideh let out the cry she’d been holding back. He was gone. She might never see him again.
It wasn’t what she wanted after all.
Havilar pulled at her arm. “Come along,” she said. “Unless you want to get eaten by those Chasm monsters or thrown in jail. The defenders are coming.”
Farideh watched from the crest of the hill where they’d first spied Neverwinter as the sun rose and the low light painted the massive walls bloody red. She pointed at a stone near the road. “
Tam and Mehen had spotted them fleeing the scene, and separated from the confused and riled guard. None of them had spoken as they rushed out of the city, carrying only their weapons, until they reached the crest of the hill.
“Rest,” Mehen ordered. “Check your weapons and catch your breath. We’ll have to get farther on before we try to camp in case …” He snorted. “In case
Farideh kept watching the city. The Chasm seemed to flicker more brightly than usual. She cast again on another stone, and again it shattered.
Havilar sidled up beside her. “Do you think they’ll kill Lorcan?” she asked in a low voice.
“I don’t know. He’s fine for now. I can’t get powers from a corpse.” Farideh rubbed her branded arm. “It was the only way for him to get home.” Havilar put an arm around her and squeezed.
“I can’t decide,” she said, “whether it would be better or worse for him to be gone. But I hope whatever happens isn’t too hard to bear.”
Farideh kept her eyes on Neverwinter, and bit her tongue. “I hope the city survives.”
“Of course it will,” Havilar said. “We routed
Farideh kept quiet. There was no way, not with the Ashmadai as numerous as she’d seen, that she would stay in Neverwinter another moment. Worse, she wasn’t sure they’d been all that successful. “Did you see Rohini’s body?”
Havilar smirked. “On the end of my glaive. Do you think that monster’s going to eat her?”
“She didn’t burn up.”
“Of course she didn’t. No one set fire to her corpse. That would be horrible.”
“She’s a devil, Havi. If she died, her body should have burst into flames like those erinyes’ did.”
“Oh.” Havilar looked down at the city a moment longer. “Maybe she’s a strange kind of devil?” she said in a small voice. Farideh only hoped Rohini wouldn’t come looking for them once she’d healed herself. Whatever the Sovereignty had made of her, she was as angry as she’d been before and far more powerful.
Havilar went to sit beside Brin. Farideh broke another stone. Perhaps he would be able to convince them. Perhaps he’d be all right.
From the road to the south, the steady sound of horses thudded. Glancing back, Farideh saw a figure mounted on a heavy charger, plate mail gleaming in the sunrise. She cursed to herself. Tired as she was, it would be easier to let the rider hurl insults and ride on.
Brin had collapsed into a pile near the middle of the road, Havilar beside him. “I feel as though I could sleep
