Bladesinger - Keith Francis Strohm [79]
Within moments, the spiders had secured Marissa and began to scuttle up in to the shadows, crawling quickly up their nearly invisible strands of web. Taen shouted separately to his companions for help. In silent accord, Borovazk and Roberc plunged their weapons into the remaining ogre. It fell to the ground, shaking the bridge. At its demise, the few remaining goblins shrieked in fear and fell back into the undertomb.
Quickly Borovazk dropped his weapons and drew his curved long bow. With surprising speed, he loosed two arrows. The feathered shafts hissed into the shadows, pursuing the retreating spiders. Taen watched them cut through the air like hunting falcons-only to veer quite suddenly to the left, as if swatted by an invisible hand.
Taen cursed and fell to his knees.
Above him, spiders carried Marissa's web-covered form into the darkness.
CHAPTER 21
The Year of the Serpent
(1359 DR)
Thunder rumbled among the storm-wracked sky.
Chill rain fell like a hail of arrows upon those tael still battling in the forest clearing. The senior apprentices fought hard, their bodies carried forward in a complex dance of deadly steel. Loud gasps of breath echoed in the clearing, cutting through the silence left behind by the harsh clamor of blades, the ring of steel upon steel.
Despite a bone-deep fatigue that threatened to slow and paralyze muscles worked hard to the point of failure, Taenaran was enjoying himself. An opponent's sword snaked toward him on his left side. Without breaking stride, he flicked his own blade in a downward stroke at the incoming attack. As the weapons met, he raised his right foot and twisted his hips, using the initial momentum of his parry to carry him into a sideways flip. The maneuver allowed him to avoid a second opponent's incoming sweep toward his legs. He slid to the left, and his two opponents attacked each other.
Such was the way of alu'dala, the water battle. Alu'dala was an ancient exercise, a group combat where each participant met and blended with the attacks of all others near him. The purpose of the exercise was not so much to vanquish opponents as to flow with the energy each attack created. Among masters, the alu'dala could last days.
Taenaran would be satisfied if he made it through the next few candle lengths. At first, the rain had been a welcome gift, cooling off his overheated body. Now the frigid water mixed with his own sweat, running into the half-elf's eyes and making it difficult to see the whole battlefield. He barely avoided the slashing attack of a long-muscled apprentice to his right. With an inward curse at his own lapse of concentration, he sucked down a lungful of air and rolled across the rapidly muddying ground, bringing his own sword up to attack the nearest opponent. It was a difficult maneuver, one that required a great deal of coordination. The fact that he executed it perfectly brought a smile to his face-and a grimace of dismay from the defending apprentice, who obviously hadn't expected the half-elf to succeed quite so spectacularly. Even though the apprentices' blades were not honed to combat sharpness, they could still do some damage. Taenaran's sword slipped beneath his opponent's guard and pierced the elf's skin. The wounded apprentice fell backward just as one of the masters called out his elimination from the exercise.
Taenaran had little time to worry about his erstwhile enemy, as two more swords whipped at him from behind. He spun quickly, knocking both blades away in a precise parry that brought a murmur of approval from the junior apprentices and those senior tael who had been eliminated from the alu'dala.
The half-elf felt his face begin to flush. For many years, he had endured the whispered