dark mouth. The demon skated past the fallen doors and through the arch without a pause, and those he led followed after.
Beyond was another hallway carved and dressed, but damaged by time. The smooth walls of the original tunnel were tumbled and breached. Strewn about the floor was loose rubble of the dilapidated hallway, bones, loose teeth, and patches of hide. A low susurrus of blended clicks, moans, and gurgles echoed from somewhere ahead. The sounds, or perhaps the evidence on the floor of recent habitation, gave the ice demon pause.
“What is it?” Marrec asked the demon, whispering.
The icy monster shrugged and said, “Never gone here before. Know the way, not the terrain, not the impediments.”
“Are we even close?”
“Close. Maybe,” responded the demon, before giggling.
“After you, then,” urged Marrec, motioning the demon ahead with his illuminated spear.
The demon giggled again then slid ahead. The thick rubble was enough to cause it to raise its paws, pushing off walls, and step over boulders. It was moving almost like a natural quadruped. Almost.
A shape stepped out of the darkness directly into the path of the demon. It was a misshapen humanoid with a single horn upon its head. Great claws hung from its ungainly hands like infestations. Saliva ran from its tusks, whetting its leathery hide.
The ice demon made to sidestep the sudden obstacle, but the newcomer, exploiting the demon’s lack of response, jumped onto the icy creature’s back with an ear-piercing howl of glee.
Answering howls rose from further back in the darkened hallway. The howls swiftly drew nearer. “Here we go,” sighed Elowen.
The hunter unsheathed her gift from the Nentyarch. A glimmer of emerald vigor played at its edges. Marrec heard Ususi begin chanting. Gunggari already had his dizheri in hand ready for anything.
Their guide twisted mightily, trying to throw the horned attacker from its back, but the horned monster’s claws found crevices in the ice, sinking in like pitons. The two began to tumble back and forth, grappling like miniature titans.
A group of smaller but similarly horned creatures broke into the light, some running on all fours, others sprinting on two legs. All were misshapen and horned. All were monstrous. None were of a type of creature Marrec had ever encountered or even heard described. Demons? He counted six, including the grappler.
Ususi ceased speaking and thrust one hand forward. A hail of sharp ice followed after, materializing at the behest of the wizard’s incantation. The storm of ice, composed of razor-sharp crystals so thick that they momentarily obscured vision, pelted the faces and bodies of the advancing creatures, including their guide. The temperature in the hallway fell several degrees in the aftermath of the potent spell. Their adversaries screeched their displeasure and pain.
Marrec, Gunggari, and Elowen ran forward on the tail end of the blizzard. The ice had bowled over the creatures, leaving welts and oozing wounds, but all remained breathing. They began to scramble to their feet with unholy vigor.
Marrec didn’t wait. He hurled Justlance directly into the gut of one creature. It squealed, slumping. Greenish fluid poured from the wound.
Gunggari and Elowen ducked past their chaperone demon and its attacker. The ice demon and the horned attacker had become a blur of flashing arms and legs, claws and teeth, tusks and spikes. Normally such an exhibition would draw Marrec’s eye, but not then.
With a clatter of claws and hooves, the remaining four attackers surged forward.
Elowen engaged the foremost, Dymondheart pulsing in her grip like the live thing it was. Her foe was dismayed by the flashing green blade; a roundhouse slash to its neck lopped off the creature’s head before it could lay a single claw upon her.
At her side, Gunggari wielded his war club, facing off against two of the monsters simultaneously. His grip on the length of his dizheri was fluid and shifting, allowing him to attack with one hand then the other, sometimes poking, other times spinning and bashing with the full force of his extended arm and weapon length.
Marrec ran forward, screaming Lurue’s name as a battle cry. Justlance returned to him while he ran, and he used it to stab one of the creatures facing Gunggari. It pawed at him but continued to devil the Oslander.
“What are these things?” yelled Marrec.
Elowen ducked a clawed-tipped swipe of the last attacker and yelled, “Ogres, maybecrossbred with something nastier.”
The light shed from Justlance pierced the darkness further, revealing two more of the “ogres.” Slinking up quietly, they roared as the light touched them and charged. Marrec snagged one with his spear. The other flashed past.
He backpedaled, keeping the one he’d distracted busy with Justlance’s tip. Ususi was a powerful wizard but fragile if undefended. Glancing back, he saw the wizard trace a pattern in the air before shooting her assailant through with sizzling bolts of fire. The monstrosity fell, but its violent momentum tumbled the bleeding, smoking body to within a foot of Ususi.
The two on Gunggari were working together, attempting to distract the tattooed warrior so that the other could attempt a killing blow. Before Marrec could assist, Elowen lunged sidewise with Dymondheart, which strobed green for the tiniest moment. Where the blade brushed one of Gunggari’s attackers, the monster’s hide erupted in green flame. Screaming, the creature ran back the way it had come, beating at its side. A heart beat later, the Oslander dropped the other creature with a resounding blow from his war club.
Only three creatures remained, one on Marrec, one on Elowen, and the first and the largest still grappling with their chaperone demon. The horned ogre seemed to be getting the best of the fight. It was tearing away icy chunks, burrowing like a rodent in loose earth.
The Oslander called out his cry to battle as he turned and attempted to strike the horned ogre from the rear. Before Gunggari’s cry was fully formed, a clawed foot pis-toned backward directly into Gunggari’s neck. The man’s cry choked off, and he was down, unmoving.
Marrec could do nothing; his attacker was trying to get past his whirling spear with its claw-tipped arms flailing. He considered using his talent, then paused, horrified that that particular thought would come so easily. His opponent nearly knocked Marrec to the floor in the cleric’s distraction.
Yet another swarm of fiery strands erupted from Ususi’s fingers, striking Marrec’s adversary before it could finish off the human who stumbled before it. Scratch one more horned ogre, thought Marrec, scrambling to his feet.
“Thanks, Ususi.”
“I don’t like debts outstanding,” replied the wizard.
Glancing to his left, Marrec decided that Elowen had her foe on the ropes. He dashed to Gunggari’s side and bent to check on himstill breathing but very hurt. Marrec studied the battle, wondering if he should pull Gunggari away from the flailing demon and horned ogre or help their chaperone. It wouldn’t bother him too much if their chaperone were slain. It was a demon after all…
Elowen finally pierced the defense of her foe. It dropped, gushing something other than blood onto the floor of the debris-strewn hallway.
Marrec decided to let queen’s envoy and the attacking monster fight without interference. He grabbed Gunggari’s satchel off the Oslander’s belt, the one the Nentyarch had provided. Rummaging through it, he was surprised to note four vials, each labeled with a nameMarrec, Gunggari, Elowen, and Ususi. Strange. He’d have to ask Gunggari about that later. A moment later his hand found a potent elixir of healing, as he’d guessed he would.
Back before Lurue’s presence had faded from his day to day life, he had been able to brew similar miracles in a vial. Someday, he vowed, he’d regain that connection, but all he could do then was pour the pale blue contents down Gunggari’s throat. A convulsive wave suffused the unconscious man’s body, visibly closing wounds as the flush of health passed over his skin. Gunggari woke, coughed, blinked, and was on his feet only a second later. It wasn’t the first time he’d been revived by magical resuscitation at Marrec’s hands.
In a sudden turn-around, the ice demon finally managed to grasp its adversary’s head between both of its front claws, something it had been trying to do the whole time. With the sound of crunching bone, the attacking creature’s head was crushed in an instant. The horned ogre joined its brethren on the floor. The ice demon rose
