Viperhand - Douglas Niles [118]
But now the Revered Counselor was dead, and the uprising already raged throughout the plaza below. He could no longer perform his task-it seemed that it was too late. But should he still slay her? What was the will of Zaltec now?
Surely if her death would signal the murder of Naltecona, killing her was no longer necessary. He wished Hoxitl stood beside him to give him advice. In the absence of such instruction, he must decide for himself.
Shatil convinced himself that the use of his venomous talon now did not meet the commands of his god. And so Erix would live.
At least until her brother received another command.
"No!" Cordell barked, suddenly regaining his senses and turning savagely toward Halloran. The attackers surging below seemed to bring him back to some semblance of his former generalship. "You're wrong!"
"He's right," said Darien, finally regaining her own calm demeanor. Suddenly she threw back her head, her white face turned toward the moon. She uttered a strange cry, something like the cry of a hawk, only deeper, more forceful.
Erix clenched Hal's arm, staring at the albino wizard. She sensed Chitikas floating up behind her and derived a vague comfort from the serpent's presence at her other side. Yet she didn't forget that the snake had brought her here, and then held her spellbound while she watched the nightmare begin.
In the next instant, a dozen black-robed figures popped into sight beside Darien, teleporting from some location where she had summoned them.
"The Ancient Ones," Halloran said, pointing. "Do you need more proof?"
"Greetings, sister," said one. He threw back his hood to reveal a tall shock of snow-white hair above a face of deepest midnight black.
"By Helm, it's true!" growled Daggrande. He raised his axe and took a step toward the dark elves.
"There stands the woman. You can see that she still lives!" Darien pointed to Erixitl, and they saw the drowV eyes widen in shock, perhaps fear. "Kill her!" barked the mage.
Instantly the dark elves pulled swords of black steel from their robes, rushing Erix in a pack. Their white eyes reflected milky hatred in the moonlight, but their blades sucked the light from the air and showed only as black, deadly shadow.
But Halloran saw them coming, and he would not lose Erixitl again. And so, too, did Chitikas Couatl.
The feathered snake suddenly glowed with a light like the sun, and many of the draw swordsmen recoiled, shrieking and pulling their robes across their eyes. Dwelling all their lives underground, emerging only at night, their vision was seared by the couatl's sudden brilliance.
Halloran sprang forward, cutting down one with a single hammer-like blow of his sword. Poshtli, too, thrust a blade through the heart of a blinded drow, while Daggrande cut the legs from under a third with a vicious swipe of his axe. The others-Cordell, the Bishou, Shatil-stared in awe at the shocking explosion of violence and magic.
"Strike her down!" shrilled one of the surviving drow, stumbling back to Darien's side. Halloran, Poshtli, and Daggrande advanced menacingly.
"I cannot," the wizard snapped. She would waste none of her precious spells on attacks she knew to be futile.
Halloran rushed forward and hacked a fourth drow in two with a savage sidearm swing. Black blood sprayed the others, and they recoiled, vivid fear marking their features. He leaped toward Darien, murderous hatred propelling his blade.
But he struck only empty air as the blade whistled past the place where Darien had stood. She and the remaining drow blinked out of sight together, teleporting away from the fight on the rooftop.
"She's gone," said Cordell slowly. "What have you done?"
"What have you done?" demanded Halloran savagely. "You've led these men into a trap, and now your wizard is gone! tou'll have to fight your way out!"
"Shatil!" Erixitl suddenly recognized her brother, standing off to one side. The priest of Zaltec looked at her dazedly. He dropped an object that looked like a small