XXVI

Snarling curses, Lak’temora twirled his scepter about and then flicked the ruby end in Yoreno’s direction. A plume of purple magic shot out and enveloped him.

The constrictive nature made him gasp as his broken sword slipped from his grip and clanged to the ground. He fell only a moment latter with a grunt of pain as his head hit the hard ground.

Snapping violently, the runes in Yoreno’s armor reacted to the magic about his body, but they were unable to destroy the spell.

“Yoreno!” Xanderial called. He tried to circle around the spiderling, but the beast moved in his path, preventing him from coming to Yoreno.

Struggling, Yoreno grunted furiously. This had happened to him once before, when he was on the Isle of Morr. A mage had enveloped him in similar magic. Had it not been for Dantera at that time, he would have been swarmed by the undead and killed.

The spiderling glanced back at Yoreno, a special interest in the way that it seemed to regard him through those piled up black orbs for eyes in the middle of its forehead.

With his heart pounding against his ribs, Yoreno breathed deeply. The knight of Aevalin squirmed as he attempted to put distance between himself and the spiderling.

The beast turned, the legs on its back wriggling slightly.

“NO!” Xanderial called, and charged the spiderling. He lashed out with his blade, but the spiderling caught it with his vambrace and struck out with its own blade, taking Xanderial in the upper leg where he wore no armor. The sound of the blade passing through his flesh was once Yoreno knew all to well.

Crying out, Xanderial lunged back, limping for balance before eventually falling to the floor. “Gah!”

The spidierling then changed its path and stalked over to Yoreno, its gait wobbly and somewhat draggish—almost like an undead corpse.

Most fighters didn’t use rapiers, and so Lord Shane was unaccustomed to fighting opponents like Dantera. At the start of their duel, she had had the advantage, but now he was adapting, and fighting him had become more difficult.

Sir Xanderial cried out in alarm for Yoreno, then just a moment later again as he was obviously struck. Dantera knew this simply from hearing what was going on—but for the most part, she ignored it—had to, to stay alive.

With wide arching slashes, mostly horizontal, Lord Shane struck at Dantera, forcing her back, then back again.

She lashed out, but getting close enough to strike him seemed all but impossible.

Attempting again, she lunged left, then right, attempting to get around him, but even with his armor, he moved quickly.

She jumped back, tossed a snap grenade and shut her eyes. But what she heard was not what she had expected. Lord Shane jumped in her direction, not away from her!

Not knowing how he was striking at her through her blinding grenade, she had no choice but to jump as high as she could, pulling her feet in close to present as small a target as possible.

As she opened her eyes Lord Shane was in mid slash—a powerful strike that would kill her if it struck. And she was in the air, unable to dodge the blow. She had no choice but to block, but her thin rapier wouldn’t stop the force of his blow. She put up her forearm so the sharp blade of her rapier would hit that instead of coming back into her face as she attempted a makeshift halfswording technique.

His blade struck, the sheer force of the blow knocking her across the chamber and into the wall on the other side. When she hit, the sound that came out of her surprised even herself as all the air inside Dantera went out at once.

She fell heavily to the floor, unable even to put her forearms forward to protect her face from the impact.

Lord Shane laughed.

Grunting, Yoreno squirmed inside the magical barrier preventing him from moving. His eyes had been distracted from the imminent threat, but from his peripheral vision he saw what had just happened to Dantera.

As she fell to the hard ground, he screamed. “DANTERA!”

Xanderial groaned, his leg bleeding profusely as he glanced in her direction, then back to Yoreno.

“Xanderial!” he called. “Get me out of this!”

Gritting his teeth and snarling through what must have been excruciating pain, Xanderial reached for his sword, dragging it toward himself noisily.

As the spiderling came closer, Xanderial attempted to use the blade to support his weight in getting up, but it slipped out from under him and clattered away from his reach.

“Dammit!” Xanderial barked.

Yoreno cried out in fear of his own life, but mostly in fear for what would happen to Dantera and Xanderial.

“Now,” Lak’temora drawled. “Feast on his blood!”

The spiderling stalked up to Yoreno, much like a man might, and squatted near him. He then grasped Yoreno’s head and pulled.

Snarling, Yoreno cursed like a sailor as he attempted to squirm out of the spiderling’s grasp, the legs on its back wriggling almost noisily.

Yoreno saw his own reflection in those black orbs that were its eyes. He lifted his chin and attempted to lash out with his teeth—to bit into those shiny eyes, but the spiderling’s grasp on his head was too strong.

The pain in his skull blossomed through his head and he screamed.

The spiderling then bent lower, its fangs deep within what had been the man’s mouth, clacking.

When they pierced Yoreno’s neck he convulsed once from the pain and screamed in terroror as he felt the sensation of his own blood being drawn out of him.

His head felt like it was going to explode.

There was noise on the other side of the chamber, a lot of noise—yelling, swords. There was an explosion and a bright light.

But Yoreno’s own eyes, feeling like they might pop out of his head, were beginning to darken on the edges, the world about him whirling violently.

Was it poison? Blood loss?

He didn’t know.

Couldn’t think.

Someone screamed.

Yoreno’s last thought was for Dantera.

Would she be okay?

“Hnnng!” Dantera noused as the pain in her back also spasmed in her chest.

“That’s right, Brennovo!” Lord Shane said as his fistful of her hair tightened so strongly she thought he might rip the entire wad out of her head. “Moan like a whore.”

Instead she gritted her teeth and growled. Then she heard Yoreno scream—a scream like none other she had ever heard from him before.

Her heart lept into her throat.

“YORENO!”

“He can’t hear you. He’s being drained by Lord Lak’temora’s spiderling.”

He laughed.

She struggled, but with the pain in her back, she was almost unable to move. It was so bad it hurt the front of her chest.

I’m—nngh!—I’m going to kill you!”

“Not! Likely!” he said through gritted teeth. Then he smiled. “Now I would prefer to take you alive but—“

Voices came from overhead and Dantera flicked her eyes up at the opening as torchlight lit the hole above them.

Something fell to the floor.

“Lord Shane!” one of his men called out.

Then something exploded and smoke filled the space as Shane jumped away from Dantera so quickly she almost thought he had thrown her against the wall again.

Someone dropped down in the smoke, but moved quickly enough that, in her state, she hadn’t been able to follow the movement.

Mai swallowed as Sorika dropped the grenade. It exploded into a waft of smoke below.

“Lord Shane!” someone called.

Sorika dropped down as swords flashed in that obfuscation.

“We have to help!” Andaloo said, and jumped down the hole after her. Liora loosed a shaft through the opening at a target Mai couldn’t see as Sir Wynet started climbing down the ladder.

“Mai!” Sorika called from bellow.

She was afraid to drop down into the fray—especially while everything was obscured by smoke. A random sword could lop her head off.

But Yoreno…

“Yoreno!”

It was Sorika again.

Whimpering, the mage summoned her courage and forced herself to jump down the hole. She landed on her feet, the scrabble in the obfuscation of the smoke bomb coming close to her, the air and the wind of the fighting almost hitting her.

One of the swordsmen cried out and his blade fell to the floor.

Gods! she thought, moving away as her ankles smarted. Mai lunged forward and almost landed on her face when she tripped on something. It felt like a corpse as she put her hands forward and slammed into the cold floor. Crawling forward, she moved toward the peripheral edge of the scuffle.

Sorika grunted.

Feet—many feet—stamped and tapped about.

Someone growled furiously and swords clashed.

Once Mai was out of the smoke she saw Sir Xanderial on the floor and Yoreno unmoving with—gods!

Her heart lept into ther throat. There was a spiderling leaning over Yoreno!

Mai shunted the crystal-end of her staff in the direction of the monster and cried out an invocation. The violent plumes of purple magic coalesced and shot forward, exploding brightly. The force of her magic knocked the spiderling clear to the other side of the chamber along with Yoreno in the opposite direction, his limbs slack and flailing like a ragdoll.

Treating him like that would have otherwise horrified her, but she had done it purposely to get him away from that vile beast!

“Attack!” Sir Wynet called, his voice carrying behind Mai as the entire party rushed down into the hole.

Sir Jerrin looked at her, a newly acquired weapon—some kind of scepter—in his possession. “Help!” he called, and ran past her.

But Mai had no time to be confused at his actions. The spiderling was squirming, crawling up the side of the wall from the legs protruding from its back.

She had only ever saw such a beast one other time, and she had retched like a sickly child. As the fray behind her continued, Mai ignored the shivers of fear running up her back. She screamed as she launched plumes of destructive magic at the beast.

Exploding loudly, the magic sizzled and popped, but she had missed.

The spiderling. It crawled over the ceiling above her, past her and toward the hole they had come in. She would have pursued the evil creature, but Yoreno had not gotten back to his feet.

She glanced back, then back to the hole leading down here as Sir Jerrin lunged up the ladder. His reaction to pursue the spiderling was swift.

“Yoreno!” Xanderial cried.

Mai sucked in a short breath and glanced at him.

“It was him!” Xanderial pointed back toward the hold as he clutched his leg. “Sir Jerrin. He’s Lak’temora!”

“What?!” Mai screeched.

Her heart nearly tore itself out of her chest as fright shot through her entire core, like she was falling off a mountain.

“It was him! Lak’temora! Gods! The Spiderling is his creation!”

She rushed to Yoreno’s side. “Yoreno?”

“He was bitten!”

“Oh gods,” Mai said as the purple spell of immobility surrounding Yoreno faded and disappeared. That’s when Yoreno’s head lolled to the side, the two puncture wounds in his neck clearly visible.

All but ignoring the fray in the smoke, Mai put her hand there, sensing the damage and found a taint like non she had ever known. Gagging, she almost had to bend over and retch as she pushed her magicks into Yoreno, draining herself and giving him her strength.

“KILL HIM!” someone snarled.

“Mai!” Xanderial shouted.

Another person touched her shoulder and she jerked suddenly with the surprise, but realizing he was one of their own, she continued feeding her magic into Yoreno’s body, flooding him with rejuvenating magic and life-force, cleansing the taint. But it stuck, clung onto Yoreno like a foul ochre.

Blinking, she realized she had gone too far trying to fight that taint. Everything began to sway abnormally.

She let go, found Sorika at her side, her hand over Mai’s shoulder. She looked up at the other girl—at their rogue, everything around her darkening.

“Sor…”

“You over did it,” she said.

Breathing heavily from that sudden and intense combat with Lord Shane, Sorika squeezed Mai’s shoulder and glanced down into her tired eyes.

Her scar was as pale as milk.

Mai’s eyes closed and she slumped against Yoreno in her lap.

Heart beating from exertion, tension and fear for Yoreno and Mai, Sorika slumped to her knees and checked Yoreno’s pulse. His heart was beating.

Mai would be fine, but she had just overexerted herself with her healing magic. Sorika had seen her do it before, but never this bad. “We need help!”

Boots thundered over the cold cavern floor and Andaloo kneeled beside her, along with several others. Sorika heard Sir Wynet speaking among the others in the other cavern with the entry hole. “Who are all these dead knights?” he asked.

It was Dantera who spoke next. “Black Guards. Led by Lord Shane. He’s a Schuarist.” She grunted painfully.

“They’re alive,” Andaloo said to Sorika as he nodded to Mai and Yoreno on the floor. “They’ll be all right.”

“I know,” she said, and realized her cheeks were wet. She wiped them.

“We can’t carry them out on our own.”

“Good gods! The carnage!” Sir Wexel said, his tone blustering and filled with astonishment.

Sorika did not turn to look at them. Instead she kept her eyes on Yoreno and Mai. They could be sleeping, had she not known better. But finally Sorika glanced behind herself, saw that the Blue Dragon men-at-arms—what was left of them—were climbing down the ladder.

She didn’t see Sir Jerrin.

It had been strange. He had looked at her, his visage gaunt and bruised. He had ran like a coward, but where—

That was right.

Xanderial said he was Lak’temora?

Somoone groaned near the wall and she turned her head. There was a black guard there, barely conscious. “More wounded!” she called.

Now they needed to get Yoreno and Mai out of here.

“Dantera is injuried,” Andaloo said. Sorika jerked her chin up at him, but he raised a hand. “She’s all right, but we need to get her to the castle.”

Dantera was lying against the rough cavern wall. “There’s more,” she said, making eye contact with Sorika. “Yoreno?” she called.

“He’s unconscious,” Sorika said.

“Is he… is he all right?”

Sorika nodded. “Wounded, but Mai healed him. She passed out.”

Dantera sighed heavily.

“All right!” Sir Wynet said. “You!” he called up at the hole. “Go fetch help and more ropes. We have injured down here that we need to haul back up this ladder.”

“Yes, sir!”

Between both parties and the torches, men spoke and light flickered. Sorika was tired, but alert. It would be hours before they manage to get everyone out and into the castle to see a proper physician.

Hopefully Kornet had a magical healer as well.

“Be careful,” Dantera wheezed. “They got away, but they could still be near.”

“Don’t worry,” Sir Wynet said. “They wouldn’t attack our whole party, even with you and Lord Brendara wounded.”

“Now…”—she grunted—“now would be a good time, though.”

“Let’s get you up. Can you climb?”

She nodded “Si.”

Sorika sighed heavily as she waited for help to arrive. Yoreno was still inconcious and Mai was stirring as soft groans escaped her mouth.