All Shadows Fled - Ed Greenwood [112]
Gray flesh opened up around her, seeking to suck her down in and smother her. Sharantyr screamed in fear and fury, clawed her way clear, and wriggled off the beasts's far side.
She came up wild-eyed, with blade in hand and breast heaving-and gaped in astonishment at a cold-eyed man in the robes of a Red Wizard, who stood over Itharr with staff in hand, glaring at a rainbow-hued radiance in the air around him.
"Must all spells go wild?" he snarled, leveling his staff in both hands as if it were a lance. Sparks raced down its length, and from its end burst brilliantly blue butterflies.
Belkram was still cutting at the heaving, roiling ten-tacled mass that was the Malaugrym, but trying at the same time to keep watch on this newcomer. The shapeshifter rose into a pillar of flesh, reached spade-shaped arms toward the Red Wizard, slimmed those arms into needlelike pincers…
The Red Wizard said something soft and brief-and fire seemed to be born within the Malaugrym, hurling its flesh and tentacles apart in an eruption of hissing steam.
The riven body fell back onto scorched moss, dwindling into something that was almost human. Something faceless and sprawled, which blazed with many small fires.
Shar faced the Red Wizard across their smoke and asked in a shaking voice, "Why… why did you aid us?"
The wizard's cold eyes met hers, and Sharantyr was suddenly aware of how easily he could destroy them. Even with magic fraying wild, he bore several wands at his belt, something longer and more impressive sheathed like a sword at his hip, and the staff. Lights winked here and there along its carved length, and were answered by glows from among the many rings on his fingers. The Knight swallowed and stepped back, raising her sword. Belkram moved to her side, his blade also ready.
The Red Wizard smiled thinly. "Another day we might be foes to the death," he said in a voice strong with confidence and power. "But against such a one as this…"
The sorcerer gestured down at the collapsing ashes that had been the Malaugrym, and went on, "Against such a one, all must stand together-or no man in Faerun will know freedom, in the end."
He did something to his staff, and a glass vial appeared in the air above Sharantyr's hand. As it came to rest gently in her palm, he bowed to them both and turned away.
The flash of his departure lit up the rune graven in the glass. "A healing potion of the utmost power," Sharantyr said wonderingly. She went to her knees beside Itharr.
Blood was bubbling at his lips with every breath. She unstoppered the vial with infinite care and tipped it deep within, feeling his teeth tighten on the glass as a sudden spasm racked him.
"May the gods ascend to their rightful places, so that we can pray to them once more,17 she said feelingly, holding the vial firmly in place as Itharr bucked and writhed in Belkram's arms.
"May these accursed shapeshifters return to their rightful places," Belkram said to her, "so that we don't have to!"
"Gnorlgh," Itharr agreed weakly, from beneath them. "Gut thlisgh out ou my-mouth!" He spat out the vial and struggled to sit up.
"Itharr!" Shar said joyfully, and embraced him, covering his lips with her own.
"Some men," Belkram said, watching her weep and meeting one of Itharr's eyes through her hair, "are far luckier than they have any right to be." Then he discovered something must have gotten into his own eye. The world suddenly glimmered and blurred and a sound large and raw rose in his throat…
Tower of Mortoth, Sembia, early Midsummer Day
A crystal ball spun unheeded in a darkened room in the Tower of Mortoth. It flickered fitfully, then came to a sudden halt. As its inner glow died and it crashed to the privy chamber floor, a woman screamed nearby, high and despairing, and drowned out the sound of the crystal shattering…
Tilverton, early Midsummer Day
A solitary lantern guttered outside the gates in the gray hour before dawn, but its light was enough