Bladesinger - Keith Francis Strohm [89]
Taen swore. "That's done it," he nearly shouted.
"What do you mean?" Borovazk asked, casting a wary glance at the angrily pulsating symbols.
"I couldn't dispel the glyphs," Taen replied, "and now whoever set them here knows that someone has tried to tamper with them."
"What do we do?" Roberc asked, drawing his sword.
Taen reached into his backpack with the other and drew forth a triangular prism. "We'll have to move fast," he said. "I was hoping to hold this in reserve in case we needed it against the renegade witch, but it seems that our need is very great at the moment."
The half-elf muttered a few words over the prism. Pure white light blossomed from the clear heart of the item. "This prism should draw the glyphs' energy into itself," he said to the others. "Once those symbols disappear from the door, run through it. We've already lost any element of surprise."
The gleam in the crystal grew brighter, filling the room. At first, the purplish glow from the warding symbols polluted the bright light, bruising its argent incandescence. Gradually, however, the prism's power overmastered the glyphs. At first, their sickening light seemed to draw back, retreating from the crystal's illumination, but the pulsating energy moved toward the prism, entering its angular planes. The process took a few more moments as the glyphs gradually faded from the door's surface. Once completed, the light from the prism faded, and the room returned to normal.
"Now!" Taen shouted and drew his weapon once again.
The others ran toward the door, throwing open its bulk with a mighty heave. Within the space of three heartbeats, Taen stood alone in the corridor.
Carelessly, he dropped the prism to the floor. It bounced once on the obdurate stone then exploded into a thousand fragments. Taen would have spent another moment making sure the evil power had truly dissipated, but the sound of Marissa's screams reached his ears from the corridor beyond the door.
He made a wordless noise and leaped into the shadowy passageway-unprepared for the horror that awaited him.
CHAPTER 24
The Year of Wild Magic
(1372 DR)
The horror charged.
Twin skeletal heads, one human and one monstrous, opened their mouths as if to scream, while long, bony arms swung a gleaming obsidian axe. Taen nearly toppled as he dodged the weapon, caught off guard by the speed of the attack and the high-pitched keen that ushered from the creature's heads. Borovazk leaped forward, his own axe cutting through the air in a wicked arc. The axe edge struck armor, but was unable to penetrate the thick, silvery chain that covered the beast from shoulder to knees. Still, the force of the blow knocked the creature back a step, and Taen took that opportunity to pull back from the monster safely.
In the dim light of the stone corridor, Taen could see the glint of bone, some yellowed with age and others gleaming white, that made up their opponent's prodigious bulk. Unlike most of the skeletal creatures he had fought in the past, the bones of this monster didn't seem to fit together well. It was as if someone had scavenged parts from a host of different beasts and cobbled them together with magic. Arms that could have come from an ogre or a giant ended in hands that seemed delicate, almost elf like in appearance. Likewise, the beast's human-sized legs ended in elongated, three-toed feet. Bits of dried and desiccated flesh still clung to parts of the monster's bones. It was the eyes, though, that disturbed Taen the most. Deep within the empty sockets of the monster's four eyes, purple flames burned with flickering intensity. A chill ran through the half-elf whenever he found himself transfixed with that gaze.
There was little time to reflect on this puzzle, however, as the skeletal creature lurched