Extinction - Lisa Smedman [49]
The other captain hesitated, sword gripped in her hand, then she spun on her heel.
"Turn about!" she barked. "Back to the main cavern. Double speed!"
The look she gave Andzrel over her shoulder as she sped away behind her company, however, was as sharp as a dagger point. When the fight with the tanarukks and duergar was over, win or lose, Andzrel knew he would have a second battle to face.
He spun to face the House Baenre lieutenant and said, "You're in charge. Order half of our company to fall back to the main cavern, while the other half continue to hold the tunnels."
The lieutenant's white eyebrows lifted. "And you, sir?" he asked. "Where will you be?"
Then, realizing his impertinence, he dropped his gaze to the floor.
"I'll be making sure that Barrison Del'Armgo captain follows her orders," he said with a grin. He drew his sword. "And hopefully, I'll be giving the tanarukks a taste of this."
Triel, flanked by her House wizard and the priestess currently serving as her personal attendant, stood on the balcony that encircled the Great Mound at the point where stalagmite and stalactite met. From far below, at the base of the Qu'ellarz'orl plateau, came the clash of troops in battle. A band of tanarukks had somehow slipped past the troops she'd ordered into the tunnels and had reached the mushroom forest. The wide caps of the mushrooms prevented Triel from seeing much, but every now and then one of the puffballs would explode as a sword or axe struck it, filling the air with a cloud of luminescent blue spores.
Among the combatants, Triel could pick out the silver uniforms of her own troops. The House Baenre company under Andzrel, together with a company from House Barrison Del'Armgo, were fighting a containing action, preventing the tanarukks from advancing farther into the main cavern. As the foot soldiers repeatedly charged the tanarukks, trying to drive them back through the fence, two squadrons of House Baenre's mounted troops made an assault on the enemy flanks, their lizards scurrying along the walls.
The enemy was gradually forced back against the wall of the great cavern. But just when Triel was certain they would either be shoved back into the tunnel like a cork into a bottle or smashed flat where they stood, the tanarukks closest to the tunnel mouth parted. Triel strained forward, expecting to see a tanarukk general stride through the gap in their ranks, but what emerged instead from the tunnel mouth made her chuckle.
It was a jade spider. Three times the height of a drow, the magical construct was one of those that guarded each of the entrances to Menzoberranzan. Made from magically treated jade, it moved with fluid grace. It was as captivating in its beauty as it was deadly.
"Now we'll see some fun," said the plump wizard standing next to Triel.
Triel acknowledged him with a curt nod. She didn't much care for Nauzhror, her first cousin once removed. He had only been promoted to the position of Archmage of Menzoberranzan because Gromph was missing, but he wore the archmage's robes with a stuck-up snobbishness, as if he'd earned them. Triel instead directed her comment to Wilara, the priestess who stood on her left.
"The spiders will put the fear of Lolth into them," she chuckled.
Wilara laughed politely along with her mistress. Her laughter ended abruptly a moment later, however, when the jade spider, instead of attacking the tanarukks, strode through the gap they'd created in their ranks.
"What in the Spider Queen's name…" the priestess whispered.
Wilara's unfinished question was answered a moment later as the spider crashed headlong into the House Baenre soldiers. Plucking one of them from the ground with its mandibles, it scissored the soldier in half. Then, letting the pieces fall to either side, it continued to race forward, smashing its way through mushrooms and drow alike.
"Lolth help us," Nauzhror said in a strangled