Finder's Bane - Kate Novak [20]
Joel had the presence of mind to roll away from Butternut's hooves, but before he could rise to his feet, another Zhentilar booted him in the stomach. The bard doubled over and fell back to the ground. When he'd finally caught his breath and looked back up, Bear was standing over him, smiling, finally amused by the bard.
Behind the huge man, Joel could see the priest of Xvim, still mounted, also smiling. "Alive," the priest said to Bear. "Make him hurt all you want, but keep him alive for later."
Some of Branson's instructions in combat finally worked their way to the bard's thoughts. He rolled away from Bear and up to his feet with his sword drawn. The weapon did not stop Bear's advance.
Determined that the huge man should at the very least learn to respect his steel blade, Joel lunged outward. The tip of his sword hit something hard beneath Bear's leather jerkin and skittered out and downward until it finally sunk into something soft. Joel jumped back a step, yanking his sword with him. There was blood on the end of the blade. Bear remained standing like some magical golem.
A split second later the huge man closed on the surprised bard, wrapping one massive hand about Joel's right wrist and the other about Joel's windpipe. The sword clattered from Joel's nerveless fingers. With his left hand, Joel grabbed for the wand at his belt and pointed it at Bear's belly, hoping it might turn the huge man into something small, like a beetle, but without air, the bard couldn't choke out the wand's command word. Bear let go of Joel's right hand and yanked away the wand. Once he'd thrown the magical stick to the ground, he tightened his grip about his opponent's throat. Dark spots began appearing before Joel's eyes.
Then suddenly Bear released both his neck and wrist. Joel tumbled to the ground. Groggy, he rose again to his feet, expecting some worse punishment from the traitorous Bear. After a moment he realized Bear's attack would not be forthcoming any time soon.
As the dark spots faded from his eyes, he could see that the Zhentilar were fighting with someone else, Someone mounted on a Zhentilar horse, wielding a sword. Someone wearing a crimson and yellow blouse with blue and green peacock stitching.
Holly followed us, Joel realized. The damsel in distress has come to my rescue. Now we have to escape from the Zhents again. I've got to get my wits about me.
Most of the Zhentilar had begun swarming around Holly. Bear turned half away from Joel to warn them "Look out!" the huge man bellowed. "She's a practiced killer!"
Joel caught sight of the wand lying on the ground at Bear's feet. He looked back up at Bear and caught the glitter of the traitor's steel eye patch. He was on the huge man's blind side.
Keeping bent over low, Joel dashed past Bear, scooping up the wand as he moved. He stopped and spun about with his back to a tree and the wand out before him. He looked back at Holly. At least three Zhentilar lay on the ground around her, but those remaining had managed to trip her horse to the ground, yank her from the saddle, and disarm her. Still she fought, kicking and punching with unerring precision. Unfortunately, Joel realized, he couldn't fire the wand at her attackers and risk injuring her.
He had other targets, however. The priest of Xvim. still mounted on his horse, sat watching the paladin's battle with an amused smile on his face. Joel aimed the wand at him, pleased to see that Bear stood in the line of fire. The bard whispered the command word.
Vast cloud of black smoke issued from the wand and coalesced a moment later into a horrific creature completely unknown to Joel. It was larger than the largest bull Joel had ever seen, with wrinkled gray skin and a single horn in the center of its head. It charged toward Bear and the priest with a bellowing roar.
Bear spun about just in time to sidestep the beast's charge, but the priest of Xvim, his attention focused on Holly, did not react quickly enough to keep his horse from being gutted by the beast's horn.