Extinction - Lisa Smedman [106]
Gromph smiled to himself. The illusion was holding.
"From Sluuguth," he answered, holding up the jade spider amulet.
At the same time he reached into a pocket and carefully grasped the item it contained-the prism-by the end that protruded from the oiled sheath he'd constructed for it. He'd made some magical alterations to the prism before embarking on his quest to find Nimor, weaving new spells into the magic the device already contained.
"Sluuguth got busy and couldn't bring the amulet himself, so he sent me," Gromph continued.
Nimor started to reach for the silver chain, then stopped.
He eyed Gromph warily and asked, "Busy with what?"
"That wizard that Lord Dyrr captured-the one from House Baenre. He escaped from the sphere."
"Gromph?" Nimor waved a hand dismissively. "Old news. Gromph's dead now."
Gromph shook his head vigorously and said, "No, he's not. Sluuguth says he's up to something that could hurt our army… some spell."
"Where is he?" Nimor demanded.
Gromph scratched the bristles on the top of his head and frowned. Fortunately he didn't need any help looking stupid with the illusion of a tanarukk cloaking him.
"Who? Sluuguth… or Gromph?"
Nimor's eyes narrowed in irritation, and he said, "Gromph."
"Oh… yeah. Sluuguth said to show you this," Gromph answered, as if just remembering.
As he spoke, he slid his hand from his pocket. The prism he held came out of its oiled sheath with a jerk and emerged from the pocket without any of the sovereign glue that coated it sticking to the fabric.
So far, Gromph thought, so good.
Nimor glanced at the prism.
"What's that?" he asked.
Gromph's gamble was still holding up. Like most drow, Nimor was unfamiliar with the magical items of the World Above.
"It's a scrying device," he told Nimor. "You can see Gromph in it."
Nimor folded his arms across his chest and said, "You look into it. Tell me where he is."
"All right," Gromph said with a shrug.
Again, all was going according to plan. He'd factored the drow's suspicious nature into his plans. He stared into the prism, angling it this way and that.
"Can't see anything," he said. Then he suddenly held it still. "Oh, there he is… but is Gromph the skeleton or the drow with the rat on his shoulder?"
Nimor reached for the prism and said, "Let me see that."
The moment had come. As Nimor's fingers touched the prism, Gromph let go of the end he held and dropped his illusion, revealing himself.
At the same time, he shouted, "Andzrel! Now!"
Behind him, Gromph heard a thud and a grunt-the sound of the duergar guarding the door being felled by Andzrel's weapon. An instant later, as a wide-eyed Nimor backed away, flicking one hand to try to rid it of the prism that was stuck to it with magical glue and drawing his rapier with the other hand, Andzrel burst into the cavern, battle-axe held high. Unused to his tanarukk form, he swung it awkwardly, but even so his charge looked formidable.
Nimor, seeing that he was cornered, did exactly what Gromph had expected him to. He shadow walked.
But even as Nimor began to slip into the Plane of Shadow, a smirk on his lips, the contingency spell Gromph had woven into the prism was triggered. It, in turn, triggered the prism's tertiary power, causing the prism to flare with a blinding flash of light. For an instant, it was as if the sun of the World Above had been teleported into the cavern, bathing its walls in the most intense light Gromph had ever experienced. Nimor screamed-a howl of anguish and a bellow of rage in one. Then both the light and the sound of Nimor's voice winked out.
Gromph heard the swoosh of a blade through the air and the clang of metal against stone as Andzrel's battle-axe split the air where Nimor had been standing. Unable to see, trying to blink away the aftereffects of the brilliant flash, Gromph patted the air around him with his hands. His outstretched hands encountered only air. Nimor seemed to have completed his "escape" into the Shadow Plane.
"Andzrel!" Gromph called. "Can you see? Where's Nimor?"
Someone moved closer to him. A gnarled hand touched