Feathered Dragon - Douglas Niles [129]
“No!” Hal couldn’t allow it. He stood firmly against the men, but he couldn’t ignore his wife’s groan, and when he looked down at her and saw the pleading in her eyes, he was lost. “Very well,” he said quietly, kneeling beside her again.
“The pain has passed for the moment,” said Erix, slowly sitting up and climbing to her feet. “Let’s go!”
Jhatli led them toward the base of the stairway. Around them, the deep black of the night closed in, past moonset, as a last shroud of darkness before the first traces of dawn. Feeling his way rather than seeing anything in particular, he started up the stairs.
He had taken no more than four steps when strong, sinewy arms grasped him. A hand clapped roughly across his mouth, and insistent arms pulled him against a body.
A body covered by a hard, bony shell.
* * * * *
From the chronicles of Coton:
The beasts of darkness sweep from the steps of the pyramid. Jhatli, taken first, struggles for a moment and then grows still.
I stare in consternation and cannot help but recoil, for these are beasts every bit as corrupted as the creatures of the Viperhand. They bear every mark of a god’s punishment, in their misshapen bodies, their fur-covered, spider-like legs.
Now, among the creatures of night, I see one of pale whiteness, standing apart from the rest, looming over us all as we look upward from the ground. This one, clearly female, is full of might and danger.
And this one also is a creature of talonmagic. I sense the power of Zaltec within her, and I know that she is a menace that must be destroyed.
A WINDSWEPT DAWN
Possessed by his full battle instincts, Halloran did not stop to think. Through the dark of the black night, he saw the horrible shapes descending the pyramid as the first one grabbed Jhatli and held the youth several steps up from the structure’s base.
Instantly Helmstooth gleamed in his hand. In another moment, the sticky black blood of the leading drider dripped from the blade. The creature died as it stepped onto the ground, and the next one backed cautiously upward, away from Halloran.
With their eight legs, the driders had little difficulty supporting themselves on the steep stairway. Keen eyes, adapted to complete darkness, gave them an additional advantage in the Stygian night. Helmstooth’s glow faded almost to insignificance against the opacity surrounding them.
Help!” cried Jhatli, trying to twist away from “the powerful black arms encircling him. He kicked reflexively, shocked by the suddenness of the attack and by the ghastly nature of his opponent. The driders moved around him, and he saw three of them advance on Halloran on the ground below.
Erixitl sank to the ground beside Hal, and the terrible knowledge of her vulnerability was like a physical tie binding him to her. The fight was inevitable; indeed, it had already begun, and he could not allow it to rage at his wife’s side. Coton and Lotil went to the woman as the swordsman advanced to Jhatli’s aid, stepping onto the first steps of the pyramid.
“Get it off me!” Jhatli squirmed in the drider’s grasp as an-
other of the creatures rushed at him, raising a keen black blade. Helmstooth came between them, deflecting the drider’s blade as Hal climbed up another step. He lunged upward, driving the tip of his blade into the flank of the drider holding Jhatli, and the youth tumbled free. Halloran de-fleeted two attacking driders, backing down the steps until once more he stood upon level ground.
Jhatli sprang to his feet beside him, drawing his own shortsword. The steel blade gleamed, reflecting Helms-tooth’s brightness almost as if it held a fire of its own.
Behind them, Erixitl moaned again, and more of the driders swept toward them. Both of their blades clashed with dark steel, and then another pair of driders tried to slip past them. Jhatli spun to the side, lashing outward, but his inexperience with the blade proved a costly handicap.
The drider met his thrust squarely and parried the blade downward and away,