Extinction - Lisa Smedman [113]
For a while, at least.
You and the others should make a run for it, he signed. With a running start and a leap, you should be able to levitate down onto the portal without touching anything in the room. I'll use my amulet to make the jump. With luck, the wraiths-if there are any-won't even know we're here.
You're forgetting that Danifae can't levitate, Pharaun signed.
Valas groaned-softly. Was he the only one capable of tactical thinking?
Use one of your spells on her-the one that enables you to leap around like a flea. She'll be able to make the portal in one or two jumps. He paused, then added, Just make sure she goes last. She'll be the clumsiest-if there are wraiths here, it will be her noise that attracts them.
Pharaun frowned at that but made no comment. Instead he raised a hand to his lips and pointed back down the tunnel, where Quenthel, Danifae, and Jeggred waited.
"We're through," he breathed, his spell carrying his whispered words to Quenthel. "The portal looks clear-and active. Come quickly, but quietly."
Valas, still intently watching the room below, heard a faint clink of armor from the far end of the tunnel-Danifae and Quenthel moving along it-and the faint click-click of Jeggred's elongated toe-nails on the stone. He gritted his teeth, praying that his companions would learn the value of moving silently-and learn it soon. Then he heard the clicking pause and the sound of a low growl.
His patience at an end, Valas spun around, an oath on his lips. He saw Quenthel moving toward him, leading the others down the corridor. Danifae was just behind her, but Jeggred was lagging several paces to the rear and was looking back over his shoulder, still growling.
Mistress! Valas signed angrily. Tell Jeggred to keep-
Before he could finish, the relative silence was split by a fierce roar. Jeggred launched himself back down the tunnel, bellowing his battle howl as his claws scrambled on the floor. In another instant, Valas saw what had triggered the draegloth's attack.
Two twisted caricatures that had once been duergar, with claws as long as Jeggred's own and mouths filled with needle-sharp teeth, were stalking up behind them. Rotted clothing hung from them in tatters, and their hair was a tangled mass, crusted with dirt. Their eyes blazed with the malevolence with which all undead regarded the living. Unlike the drow they'd been stalking, the two wights moved in utter silence. Seeing they had been spotted, they ran forward to meet Jeggred's charge.
Jeggred crashed headlong into the first wight, smashing it against one wall with a powerful swipe of his fighting arm, then ripping its belly open with a rake of the claws on one foot as he stomped on it. As the pungent odor of death and rot filled the air, the second wight darted under Jeggred's other arm and casually slapped Jeggred's chest. The draegloth grunted and clutched one of his lesser hands against him-the first time Valas had heard him express pain aloud-and he staggered slightly. An instant later, however, he recovered. Roaring fiercely, the draegloth grasped the wight's face with a fighting hand and, wrenching violently, tore the head from its neck.
The first wight was still moving, crawling furiously after Jeggred with its rotted entrails dragging along behind it. Before it could reach him, Danifae rushed forward, morningstar in hand. There wasn't much room to swing the weapon in the low-ceilinged corridor, but she managed an abbreviated downward smash. The spiked ball of the morningstar connected with the wight's head in a blaze of magical sparks, filling the air with a sharp ozone tang. The wight dropped and laid still.
Pharaun stared at Danifae with a look of open admiration. He held a tiny leather pouch in one hand, which he'd drawn from his pocket as the wights attacked.
"Well done," he said, tucking it back into a pocket of his piwafwi.
Quenthel looked past Danifae.
"Are there more?" she asked Jeggred.
Jeggred stood panting, head turning from side to side as he searched for the scent of additional