“You have got to be kidding!”
Fluttering in midair, Escalla looked down at the floor of the dungeon’s latest room. Two trenches blocked access across the floor, and thebottom of each trench was filled with jagged, rusted blades. The floor between the two ditches gleamed as slick as polished silver.
Escalla thoughtfully hovered above the floor and touched it with a fingertip. The floor was so smooth that it would be impossible to keep a grip. It was literally slipperier than grease and made a deadly trap between the two pits. Were Polk or Jus to venture out onto the floor, they would fall, slide down, and come to a grisly end.
“Lovely.” Becoming more annoyed by the obstacle course,Escalla breathed out an angry puff of breath and shook her head. “I gotta getyou two guys some wings!” The girl twisted her wand in frustration. “Jus, ifyou’re going to get an idea, get it quick! That bitch is getting away!”
Standing in the doorway and measuring the room with his eyes, Jus drummed fingers on the pommel of his sword. Above his helmet, Cinders sniffed at the air, keeping watch for the elusive erinyes.
Polk peered out from behind the Justicar, uncorking his scroll case to once again begin his chronicles. He shook his head sadly as he flicked a glance at the Justicar.
“Son, the place has got you this time! Stymied! Flummoxed!This is the end of the road.” The teamster licked his wax marker and began towrite. “You just weren’t up to the challenge of evil, I guess.”
“Polk, shut up.” The Justicar nodded over at Escalla. “Thatwand of yours… Can you mold an ice wall into different shapes?”
“What? You mean ice sculpt?” The girl looked at her wand.“Dunno. You want me to do you a nice little elf or a dragon?”
Jus gave the girl an impatient glare. “Lay an ice wall on thefloor like a sheet. Bridge the pits. Polk and I will slide over on the ice.”
“Hey, now that’s thinking!” Escalla unstrapped herweapon. “This thing doesn’t have that many charges left, though. I’ve probablyonly got a dozen shots before I have to get it recharged.”
Despite the drawbacks, the Justicar’s plan was the bestpossible solution. Happy to be useful, Escalla thumbed her wand and flew backward, the ice wand hosing frost down onto the ground. A broad layer of ice made a flat road along the frictionless floor and above its two chasms. Escalla gave the ice an extra layer of thickness beneath the bridges, then switched off the wand and fanned away the frost vapors with her wings.
A gleaming causeway now stretched across the room. Six inches thick, the ice glittered as it stretched above the trenches and their rusty blades. More than satisfied, Escalla fluttered down to rap a bridge with her knuckles. The echo rattled through the hall.
“Solid as a frost giant’s privy!” The faerie rubbed her handstogether and looked expectantly at the two humans. “All right, guys, it’s overto you!”
Jus grabbed Polk’s backpack full of gear and threw it skatingacross the room, following it with the magic trident and hammer. The ranger then grabbed Polk by the belt and the scruff of his neck and held him facedown above the ground.
Struggling like a captured bug, Polk thrashed and stammered in fright.
“No, son! Stop! I can’t go!” The teamster wailed as he felthimself being swung to and fro. “Son, someone has to outlive you to write thechronicles! Son, just think this through!”
With a mighty heave, Jus sent Polk shooting like a toboggan over the ice. The man gibbered as he whizzed above the razor-sharp spikes. When he hit the far wall, he clung like a monkey to the stone.
From the far side of the hall, Jus frowned and asked, “Areyou all right?”
“Yes, dagnabbit!”
“Damn.”
The Justicar shook his head then sank carefully down on all fours. He arranged Cinders carefully across his back and slid slowly upon his belly out on the ice. He used rags bound about his gloves to give him some grip as he stolidly wormed his way above the lethal traps.
Escalla hovered overhead, being rather less than helpful and beating time with her hands. “Come on! Hurry-hurry-hurry-hurry-hurry! Wehave to beat the erinyes to the sword!”
Ice creaked and groaned in the gloomy hall. As Jus reached the mid-point of the first bridge, the ice suddenly fractured beneath his weight. Long cracks whipped out across the bridge and a flake of ice fell tinkling from the bridge’s underside. The man froze, his eyes wide as he feltthe entire bridge threatening to give way.
Flitting between the ranger and the exit, Escalla irritably drummed her wand with her fingertips. “Hey Jus, did I mention the need for alittle speed here?”
The man sent her a furious look and slithered carefully on his way. The second bridge seemed even thinner and more brittle than the first. Jus blew out a breath, tested the ice with his hand, then slid carefully across the ice.
As he began to cross the second bridge, Escalla came closer and whispered, “Do you need a push or something?”
With a snarl of annoyance, the ranger rose up onto his hands and shouted, “Shut up! It’s slippery, and the stuff’s too damned thin!”
A cracking sound came from the bridge, and Jus’ eyes wentwide. With a sudden snap, the whole mass broke free. Escalla screamed in fright as the bridge slammed down onto the steel blades below. The faerie flung her hands to her face and flew through a cloud of frost to flap madly in the air.
“Jus!” In a panic, Escalla bit her hands. “Jus, did youdie?”
Five feet below the rim, Jus lay sprawled on an intact six-inch-thick slab of ice. The blades had penetrated halfway through the ice, but they managed to make the bridge more stable than before. Muttering to himself, Jus picked his way from ice chunk to ice chunk and crept across the lip of the trench onto proper stony ground.
Safe at last, Jus kicked at a random piece of ice. He wiped off the frosted front of his armor and peeled Polk away from the wall.
“Let’s get moving.”
Escalla let Jus kick open the exit door, took a swift peek about the corner, then zipped forward to scout the way ahead. Jus dragged Polk along in his wake, the teamster struggling vainly to come to terms with his handful of scrolls, the magic trident, and a lantern.
“Hold up!” the teamster protested.
“Come on, move!” Jus took a swift look into thecorridor then hauled Polk behind him. “Keep close and keep quiet!”
The corridor came to a branch. Escalla risked a swift glance both ways, saw nothing, and ducked back into cover. With his sword at the ready, Jus planted his back against a wall and edged up to the intersection.
“Cinders?”
The hell hound sniffed at traces of monster stench and said, Left.
Jus jerked his chin at the faerie. The girl turned down the left-hand passage and flew on her way.
It was yet another corridor, this time dry floored and well traveled. The long walkway led down to yet another door. This time the door hung open, and a horrific stablelike stink wafted through the air from beyond. In haste to catch her foe, Escalla flew into the room, saw that it sank deeper into the ground in a series of huge steps, then caught a flash of white wings at the lowest level of the room.
The little faerie yelled, “There she is!”
Wand at the ready, Escalla shot down at the erinyes. She gave a whoop of victory that suddenly turned into a scream as a cloud of silver came hissing through the air. A line of spikes stitched a line in the wall behind her, three darts smacking into her midriff and hurtling her aside.
The Justicar threw himself in front of the faerie as three more darts came flashing up at her. The black blade whipped in a figure eight, battering aside the missiles. He backed away from the room, going to ground and gathering Escalla up by the roots of her wings.
The ranger snatched a glimpse of a flat arena below as the erinyes raced through a door. Behind the erinyes, three man-headed lions screamed in hate. The three manticores whipped their spike-studded tails through the air. Jus ducked an instant before a fresh cloud of iron darts hammered into the wall behind him. With Escalla cradled bleeding in his arms, he backed back in the dungeon corridor so that he could study the room from relative safety.
The room had been constructed like an inverted ziggurat. A huge space sank downward step by step, each layer forming a platform in which monsters roamed. Three manticores occupied the lowest level, screeching as they shot darts up toward the passageway. Jus kept flat on the floor out of the manticores’ firing line and wrenched the darts out of Escalla’s side.
He worked with grim efficiency, holding the girl with an uncommon gentleness as he staunched her wounds.
Doubled up in agony, the faerie tried to push Jus away and said through clenched teeth, “Get her! Get after her!”
“To hell with that!” Jus crammed his hand against the girl’swounds, then wrapped her in a length of bandage. He poured their last healing potion down her throat, cupping her in his arms until she swallowed every drop.
“Lie still! Let the potion work!”
Potions made for humans would take their own sweet time to work upon a faerie. Stirring weakly, the girl tried to rise up and help. Jus put a hand on Escalla to reinforce his order to stay down. Slithering flat on his stomach, he took a swift glance over the edge of the floor, ducked a shower of manticore spikes, and then looked again. Below him, the manticores screamed for blood.
Polk slithered forward in a clatter of trident, hammer, and backpack. “Son, ain’t this dangerous? Don’t manticores fly?”
“They’re trapped down there. And the erinyes has held themoff herself with some kind of spell.” The Justicar risked a final glimpse of theroom from a different angle. “Stay down!”
The huge chamber dropped down at least forty feet toward a central arena. Three square, concentric levels separated the adventurers from the lowest level-and the lowest level held the only other door that exited fromthe room.
The descending levels each formed a pen, and in each pen, monsters roamed. The first and third were filled with water and giant lobsters. The middle level had been dusted with sand, and here six giant scorpions roamed. The creatures lifted their claws and spread them wide, sensing prey above. From the central arena down below, the manticores roared and struck sparks from stone with their spiked iron tails.
Sitting down to think, the Justicar pondered distances and options. His concentration was spoiled by Polk’s voice and the scratching of theteamsters wax marker against one of his parchments.
“Held back by fear, hesitatin’ right at the very brink o’greatness…” Polk frowned. “Is ‘lassitude’ a real word?”
“Shut up!” Jus wriggled back from the edge, the motionprovoking fresh howls from below. Somewhere beyond the door, light flashed and a distant battle raged. “Sounds like the erinyes is fighting a guardian.”
“And she’ll win!” Polk sat up too straight and ducked as ablast of manticore spikes showered overhead. “She’ll get Blackrazor and getaway! So then where will our legend be?”
“Nowhere.”
“How do we get down?”
Jus collected up the faerie and cradled her against his chest. Her injuries were healing, but the shock of them had left her quaking and pale. She put her arms weakly about the Justicar’s neck as he carried herfarther back out into the corridor.
Polk scuttled nervously backward, hurrying after the Justicar.
“Son? Hey son! How are you planning to get down?”
“I’m not.”
Unamused, Polk folded up his arms.
“So you’re just giving up. You’re sayin’ you have no idea howto get down there?”
“Of course there are ways.” Jus tenderly lifted Escalla up,and the faerie clung against him, still leaking blood into her bandages. “We canwait until Escalla gets better, have her make a sloping ice wall and just toboggan our way down.”
Polk’s eyes went wide as he immediately fancied the idea andasked eagerly, “So that’s what you’re going to do?”
“Nope.” Jus passed the lolling faerie into Polk’s care andpushed the man farther along down the corridor. “Take her out of the mountain.”
“Son? Son, you have a devil to catch!”
The Justicar turned to plant himself in the center of the passageway. Facing the manticore room, he slowly unsheathed his sword and tested the deadly edge of the blade.
“One way in, one way out.” Square, dark, and powerful, thebig man rested with his sword cradled in his arms. “If she wants to get out ofthe dungeon, then she has to get past me.”
“Very good, Justicar.”
Cruel as a sugared knife, a female voice carried down the hall. The erinyes stood in the door to the monster chamber, her body framed by her pure white wings.
In her hand she held a black-scabbarded sword. Naked, the creature’s skin shone pale as bone. Around her waist was clasped a string ofrubies that still dripped with dark green blood. Exquisitely, lethally sensual, the erinyes walked slowly down the corridor.
“You are quite right, of course. I was expected. Whoeverbuilt this dungeon has shielded the corridors. I cannot teleport.” She haltedjust short of the Justicar and delicately folded her wings. “It seems I shallhave to pass by you the old-fashioned way.”
Dark and savage, the Justicar lowered his sword into position.
“Polk, leave!”
The teamster hid with only his head poking about the corner of the passageway, reluctant to entirely abscond.
“Final conflict, son! I can’t just leave you!”
The erinyes spoke mocking admiration. “Aww, isn’t that sweet?But Escalla looks so hurt, poor thing. And your doggie’s flames are useless. Soit seems you are alone, Justicar.”
She sidled closer-just out of sword reach-and speared a slysidewise glance at the ranger.
“Justicar. You never were a man for talk. Can you guesswhat was guarding Blackrazor? No?” The erinyes shrugged then fingered thebloodstained rubies at her waist. “No matter. It was a relatively minor entity.I fed it to the manticores.” The erinyes held up the black sword, a spark ofpure venom glittering in her eyes. “And so now I have regained possession of mytoy.”
She sank slightly down into a combat stance, the dungeon light glittering from her naked skin.
“I can’t charm you, fear spells don’t work on you, and yourlittle doggie sees straight through illusions, so I suppose I shall have to kill you.” The devil-woman walked forward, framing herself with her wings. “You haveannoyed me once too often.”
Jus stared flatly at the erinyes as though measuring her for a coffin. Framing his helm, Cinders grinned in feral glee, slowly waving his tail. The Justicar gently flexed his grip upon his sword, the blade responding to his touch like a living stream of steel.
“You can’t wield the sword, can you?” he said mirthlessly.“That’s why you were using thieves as minions.”
“The sword has an ego, dear. It has a mind.” The womanslowly drew the demonic sword from its sheath. “However, it now knows thatthrough me it will gain the souls it craves. So you see, for once, I can use Blackrazor quite easily.”
Blackrazor shimmered evilly as it slid free. Dancing with the light of countless stars, the weapon gibbered madly in its need to feed.
The evil sword blasted a storm of energy up into its mistress. Her naked body jerked, and the erinyes spread her wings and arched in ecstasy. Her slitted pupils dilated. Breathing deep and ragged, the creature turned toward her enemy and slowly gaped her fangs.
“Oh, this is sweet!” The erinyes moved with a syrupyslowness, like a creature soaring through its own ultimate dream. “I’m not justgoing to kill you, Justicar. I’m going to obliterate your soul!”
The sword stabbed energy into the devil-woman, and she suddenly blurred with speed. With a haste spell burning through her blood, she streaked into the attack, her blade slicing the air with stars.
The Justicar’s sword snapped up to parry, sparks spatteringas the enchanted steel wailed in agony. The screaming erinyes whirled like a dervish, whipping the soul-blade in an almost invisible blur. The Justicar stood like a rock, his own sword blocking Blackrazor time and time again. The soul-sword howled in hunger as it lunged and slashed, but the Justicar smashed it aside even as it screeched for his blood. Sparks showered and skittered all across the dungeon floor. Still lying helpless, Escalla made a little sound of fright as she saw Jus standing at the center of a dizzy blur of steel.
Never once going over to the attack, Jus stood his ground and gave a display of pure, savage skill. He reserved his strength, letting the erinyes come at him in a wild storm of hate. Magical speed accelerating her to fantastic speeds, the erinyes screeched and swirled like a whirlwind. The sword blows rained down faster and faster, high and low, coming at unbelievable speed. A tuft of hair sprang free from Cinders, and then a slash ripped through the hell hounds hide. A line of blood appeared on the Justicar’s thigh as if bymagic, and leather scales went flying from his cuirass. Still the ranger stood in place, his blade flashing short, staccato arcs as he fought against Blackrazor’s speed.
The erinyes cut high, cut low, then made three lightning fast thrusts at the Justicar’s flesh. The blade flashed left and right as Jusslightly swayed aside-then suddenly the man whirled and trapped the erinyes’arm against himself. He locked her wrist and hammered viciously against her elbow, breaking her arm with a horrific snap. Moving inhumanly fast, the devil-woman ripped free, transferring Blackrazor to her other hand.
The erinyes danced back out of range, her sword arm hanging broken at her side. The Justicar breathed hard, gave a cold growl, and then surged forward like an attacking bear. His enemy let her venomous hiss trail up into a scream of manic hate and spun into the attack behind a whirlwind of sorcerous steel.
She snarled in from above-cut high, cut low, and cut again.Blackrazor’s passage was marked by screams as it smacked time and time againagainst the Justicar’s black sword. The Justicar shifted his weight back and forth, his face cold with concentration as he moved with the short, efficient motions of a master swordsman.
Watching the big man fight, Polk simply gaped in awe. Escalla managed to raise herself up, watching in amazement as she saw Jus fight the ensorcelled monster to an utter standstill. Framed by a maze of sparks, the Justicar scarcely seemed to move, his huge bearlike figure moving slowly forward through a storm of screaming steel.
Damage slipped through piece by piece. More fur flew from Cinders, with blood welling up from the Justicar’s shoulder to soak into the fur. The ranger’s magic light suddenly went flying from his chest as Blackrazorslashed a line of blood across his chest. Cinders immediately trickled flames from his mouth, filling the corridor with blood-red light. The combatants cast huge shadows as they battled back and forth along the hall.
And then suddenly the erinyes’ power was gone. Blackrazorhad squandered its energy. The erinyes faltered, and the Justicar instantly sliced his black sword down. In response, the devil-woman threw Blackrazor up to block the blow, the immense power of the attack slamming her off her feet. Knocked backward, she slid along the corridor, dodging wildly as the Justicar’sblade came smashing down. One wing was sheared through as she tried to roll aside, and the she-devil screamed in utter agony. The Justicar’s sword slashedin a blur of steel. She dodged left, right, then left again. Despite her best efforts, she lost the other wing in a sudden horrific swipe of the Justicar’ssword.
Blood sprayed across the corridor. One handed and without her magic speed, the erinyes was no match for the raw violence of the Justicar. The man roared in anger, and the entire dungeon seemed to shudder to his rage. The erinyes blocked a cut that would have sheared her in two, panic suddenly sparking in her eyes. She retreated in fright, only just meeting each attack as the warrior’s raw force smashed her blade aside. Blackrazor came back into theattack, only to be flicked away as the Justicar ripped his sword across the erinyes’ waist. Rubies fell skittering on the ground, and the devil-womanstaggered backward with black blood springing beneath her hands.
Clutching Blackrazor, the erinyes backed into the monster room. Satiated manticores still tore at their meal, while giant scorpions scuttled angrily toward the sound of prey. In the water levels, the surface foamed as predators fought to come closer to the battle up above.
Sheathed in blood, the two combatants poised themselves a dozen feet apart, then charged toward each other in a titanic clash of force. The two black swords met in a blast of force, the erinyes whirling in a circle to hack at the Justicar’s heels. The big man jumped the blade and kicked hisenemy in her broken arm, hammering his boot into the wound. Broken bones grated, and the erinyes gave a screech of agony.
Reeling free, the devil-woman staggered to the edge of the first ring of pens, and a huge crayfish claw lunged upward at her from the water. She whirled and hacked away the claw-then gave a feral hiss of excitementand jammed her soul-blade down into the crayfish as it rose toward her. Blackrazor plunged into the crayfish’s tiny brain, the star-spattered steelcackling as it ripped the life-force out of its prey.
A black surge of stolen energy thundered into the erinyes. Blood flow from her wounds instantly stopped, and her injuries closed and healed. With the storm of stolen life-force rippling across her skin, she whirled and came racing at the Justicar.
He smashed her blade high and then chopped a lethal blow across her breast. Black energy sucked into the injury, healing it the instant it was made. The devil-woman laughed in victory, hacked out with Blackrazor and stabbed the blade through the skin of the Justicar’s waist. He snarled and smashed his elbow hard across her jaw, making monster and her soul-blade stagger free.
Running with blood, Jus shook his head and parried a lethal lunge aimed straight at his eye. He blocked the blow one-handed, ramming the heel of his fist up into the erinyes’ chin. His enemy rocked, and the Justicar’sblack sword whipped to tear great slashes across her hide.
The erinyes’ wounds closed instantly, each one diminishingthe haze of stolen energy. As she stabbed at him, Jus roared and made a killing thrust, ramming his sword into the devil’s heart. He viciously twisted the bladelike a corkscrew, and the erinyes screeched in torment on his hook. She ripped free, the black life-force from the sword hissing into the wound. The energy flickered out and died. Only half-healed, the erinyes’ breast ran with blood.
Panting, the erinyes bared her fangs. She clutched her wound and slowly backed away. With a malicious hiss, she flicked up her hand. A brilliant flash of magic flooded from a ring upon the creature’s hand.
Nine identical erinyes suddenly made a circle about the Justicar, all of them running sideways in a hellish carousel. Nine mouths laughed, and nine Blackrazors whirled. She sped around and around the Justicar, Blackrazor glittering in a stream of deadly stars.
Surrounded by screaming death, the Justicar stood his ground and tried to pick his enemy amongst the ring of illusions.
“Cinders, which one is she?”
Can’t tell! The hell hound twitched, trying to focus onthe swirling images. Moves too fast!
The erinyes laughed like a woman winning trophies at a fair.
“Time to die, Justicar!” A peal of mirth rose into the air.“I’ll get you! And your little dog too!”
From the corridor, Escalla tried to drag herself forward.
“Jus! Jus, hold her off! I’m coming!” The little faerie triedto drag herself forward, her bandages wet with blood. “Jus, I’m coming!”
The ring of devils raced faster and faster, coming closer to the Justicar. The erinyes gave a cry of joy-then halted as she saw the Justicarbow his head and close his eyes.
Freezing in place, the erinyes stared in amazement. The ranger stood with his blade on guard, his stance spread, and his breathing deliberately slow and calm. With his eyes closed, he left himself open to attack. The devil-woman faltered in surprise, then gave a wild, triumphant cry. She swirled like a mad dancer, and then the entire ring of images lunged inward for the kill, nine soul-swords raised to smash the human to the ground.
Cinders’ ears twitched. Moving with vicious speed, Juswhipped his blade up behind his back and caught the real Blackrazor as it came scything at his spine. The man spun, his sword blurring forward in a lunge. With a horrific sound, it rammed into the monster’s flesh and nine erinyes imagesscreamed in horror as they were run through the heart.
Eight images flashed and disappeared, leaving the Justicar’senemy impaled on his blade. The Justicar twisted his sword, ripped it free, then brought the weapon down in one enormous blow. He hacked the screaming devil in two, his blade scything down to clang against the stone floor. With blood exploding from her flesh, the erinyes fell in two twitching halves, her last scream echoing as Blackrazor fell impotent against the ground.
Breathing hard, Jus slowly lowered his sword. Blood ran from his back, waist, arms, and thighs. He knelt and wiped his blade clean in his dead foe’s hair, then grimly slammed the blade back in its sheath.
Back in the corridor, Escalla panted with pain. Her eyes fell on the glittering rubbish left behind in the erinyes’ retreat. Amidst therubies that had fallen from the erinyes’ waist, there lay a potion flask.Escalla uncorked the thing, sniffed at it, then drank. She threw the empty bottle away, then felt Polk scuttling forward to lift her to her feet. The teamster carried her into the monster room, where both he and the faerie stared at the Justicar standing amidst the horrific remains of his foe.
Polk gaped at the ranger, thoroughly amazed.
“You did it.” Surveying the damage, the teamster set his capback on his head. “Son, you can swordfight! I never saw nothing like it in mylife!”
Jus felt at the blood running from his wounds and gave an irritated scowl.
“I told you: If they can hit back, you’re doing somethingwrong.”
He reached for the faerie. Escalla clenched a bloody hand against her bandages and reached out to climb into the Justicar’s arms. She shook her head in disbelief as she gazed about the room.
“Then that’s it. We did it! That’s all three weapons found.”The faerie blinked in a daze. “We beat White Plume Mountain.”
With a roar of laughter, a voice flooded into the room from above.
“All three weapons! Well done, little insects. Well doneindeed!”
A crash of magic flooded the room, and an unseen fist clamped about Escalla and the Justicar. Polk screeched and tried to jab the trident at something, only to stagger and fall as a spell put him to sleep.
A huge image hovered above the monster pen-a human facepainted in complex patterns of black and white. The librarian of Trigol laughed and squeezed his victims inside a gigantic magic fist, lifting them slowly into the air.
“Two survivors. Or is it three?” The librarian shouted out aspell. A glowing circular portal opened, and two of his assistants stepped through to lift Polk up from the floor. “Come along, then! It’s high time weshowed you exactly why you are here!”
The fallen magical weapons were collected and brought into the magic gate. An instant later, Jus and Escalla were drawn through into the glowing hole and the entire universe seemed to explode with light.