All Shadows Fled - Ed Greenwood [60]
In its wake lay a blackened path of dead Zhentilar, sprawled wherever the bolt had danced, and the air was sharp with the smell of the strike that had felled them. The surviving Zhent warriors drew back in disarray, leaving the defenders alone with the dead.
" Florin!" Itharr shouted. "Lord Florin!"
The Shield of Shadowdale turned his head.
Itharr called, "We must pray to Mielikki for a downpour!"
"But if all the gods are cast down and powerless…" a Rider leaning on his sword nearby said.
"No! He's right!" Illistyl snapped. "Mielikki and El-dath dwell in Faerun; their power is sourced here. Shaerl! Is your maid, Jenna, anywhere about?"
"I-I sent her to help Jhaele tend the wounded at the Old Skull," Shaerl said doubtfully, wiping sweat and tangled hair out of her eyes. "Why?"
"She worships Eldath," Illistyl snarled. "Come!"
"And what of the Zhents?" Mourngrym bellowed. He waved an arm to indicate the hundreds of Zhentilar still facing them, though the blackhelms seemed to be retreating to the trees at the edge of the dale.
"Fall back," Illistyl told him. "Back to this ridge of bodies. You can see the inn from there, and Florin and the Rangers Three can join Jenna in prayer. If the woods burn, we are all lost, whether we fight for Shadowdale or Zhentil Keep!"
They all stared at her a moment, then scrambled to take up new positions among the mounds of fallen. Belkram, Itharr, and Sharantyr found themselves trotting toward the inn, panting, while Florin ran on ahead, feet racing as if he were rested and fresh. Shaerl and Mourngrym ran along behind them as rearguard, and the stout priest Rathan puffed after the hurrying band.
"Gods," Belkram said, stumbling as his throbbing feet sent fresh lances of pain upward. "I don't think the gods meant me to be a hero! Being one of those sleeping temple guards seems more within my grasp!"
"Here, now!" Rathan Thentraver said in offended tones. "Dost thou slander the holy?"
"All too often," Itharr told him as they picked their way among the wounded laid on blankets, restless in their pain. Someone was wailing in grief, and blood-soaked bandages-and flies-were everywhere. "What does this Jenna look like?"
"Just look for Florin," Belkram instructed, pointing at the open inn door, "He must be in th-"
The ground heaved. A deafening howl of rage and grief smashed into the ears of everyone in Shadowdale. Thrown to their knees, the three rangers looked back east, from whence the sound had come.
A sphere of raging flames hung high in the air over the burning trees, spinning. The flames from the woods below were being drawn up into it. It pulsed, becoming almost blinding in its fury-but against the bright whirling flames a figure could be seen standing in its fiery heart; a wildly leaping figure clad in the black tatters of a gown.
"Oh, sweet gods spare us!" someone gasped.
The woods were dark and hissing now as the last fire soared up out of them. The sphere spun once more before it hurled its fire down in a ravening beam of utter destruction, into the Zhent soldiers crowded along the Voonlar road. They did not even have time to scream before they were tumbling ashes. The scouring flames lashed the very stones into rum.
The Central Blade of Bane's Black Gauntlet was no more.
"Who-?" one of the Riders asked in awe, staring up at the figure who stood on empty air above the trees, all her flames spent now.
"The Simbul," Shaerl whispered. She turned, swept a tankard off a table, and drained it at a single gulp.
"The Witch-Queen?" the man gasped. "The Shield Against Thay?"
"The same," Shaerl replied bitterly, and turned into Mourngrym's arms with a sob.
"This can only mean one thing," the lord of Shadow-dale said grimly, holding his shaking, weeping lady. "El-minster is dead."
The Castle of Shadows, Shadowhome,
Flamerule 18
In a deepness that very few Malaugrym know, in the ever-shifting cellars of the Castle of Shadows, there was a place where thinking shadows glided endlessly through the gloom, vast and slow. These ponderous phantoms circled a grotto where shapeshifters