DragonKnight - Donita K. Paul [161]
Bardon let go of Kale and faced Pretender. He raised his sword and stepped closer to the meech.
Pretender laughed. “You think I would bother to fight you myself, boy?”
Kale shrieked. “Bardon!”
He whirled to see stinger-schoergs scrambling over the edge of the chasm. The creatures crawled on thin, black, furry arms and legs. Their thick bodies supported an equally thick head. They stared out of beady black eyes and snapped oversized, sharp, yellow teeth. Tails curved up over their backs. A glistening arrow-shaped stinger tipped each tail. The creatures hissed as they approached.
One sprang at Kale. She swung her sword hand, and the beast’s head rolled across the floor.
Bardon jumped to her side as the next foray of schoergs swarmed up from the black pit.
Kale and Bardon fought as one. Both trained to use their swords efficiently, they sliced and stabbed the enemy’s minions, keeping the spiderlike horrors at bay. Occasionally, one of the beasts made it past their blades, alive and grasping. Bardon or Kale would use a well-aimed kick to stun the creature, if not kill it outright by breaking its neck.
Two of the creatures began clearing away their dead. These two did not engage in the battle but grabbed the mangled bodies of the fallen and threw them back into the chasm.
As the creatures kept coming, Bardon had the horrible notion that the lifeless schoergs somehow regenerated down in the depths to return. He heard a shout from above and glanced up to see the balcony crowded with wide-awake knights. However, the way down from the high entrance had been destroyed. Bardon refocused on the horde attacking him and Kale.
Arrows rained from the knights’ bows, slaying the black stinger-schoergs. The first assault ceased. Bardon looked up to see Wizard Cam replenish the knights’ supply of weapons. Bardon realized that it would be difficult for the wizards and knights to keep an adequate barrage against this swarming mass of creatures.
His body grew weary, and he knew that Kale, too, felt the fatigue of battle. The adrenaline that pumped through him had long since worn off.
“Paladin. Oh, thank Wulder!” Kale’s voice in his mind sounded as though she was close to tears.
Still swinging his sword with deadly accuracy, Bardon looked up again to see their leader at the front of the crowd of witnesses. Before him, a bridge was forming across the gap, supported by nothing that could be seen. The brief glimpse of help on the way gave him hope. He felt energy from Kale as she too recognized they were no longer in the fight alone.
In only a moment, the last bit of rock connected the balcony with the floor of the cavern. Paladin’s concentrated stare left the new bridge, and he turned to the warriors.
“Slay every one,” Paladin ordered. “Let not one of the abominable beasts survive.” He raised his sword and led the charge across the bridge. A half-dozen knights remained on the bridge with the tumanhofers and Holt. They used the advantage of the narrow space to fight off the schoergs who tried to climb up after them. The wizards, Cam, Lyll, and Regidor, jumped to the floor of the cavern on the unoccupied side of the chasm. They knelt together with their palms pressed against the stone flooring.
Six of the restored warriors circled Kale and Bardon, allowing them to rest.
Bardon did not doubt that somewhere in the fray, the tiny minneken warrior, Jue Seeno, did her part to decrease the number against them. In front of each of the sleeping servants and beside the unconscious boys stood a kimen, their garments, made of light, shining into the darkness.
The ground began to tremble as the three wizards closed the gap created by Pretender. Soon it was too narrow for the schoergs to pass through. The attacking horde already out of the abyss continued