Finder's Bane - Kate Novak [39]
Holly stomped on the wrist of the cultist lying sprawled out before her and began prying his fingers from his sword's hilt. With an animal snarl, the man rolled toward the paladin, grabbed her wrist, and sunk his teeth into her arm.
Holly screamed, but she couldn't kick at him without losing her balance. Jas whirled about. She slid her blade under his neck and sliced upward. The man released his grip on Holly's arm to grab at his throat and gasped for air. Holly yanked her arm back and clutched it to her chest.
Holly eyed the third cultist, who lay unconscious by the wall. As a paladin, she believed that vanquished foes should be spared. As an escaping prisoner, she realized he was an alarm waiting to go off and an evil foe who would have handed her to back to Xvim's people for sacrifice. She watched uneasily as Jas slit his throat, but said nothing.
Jas wiped her blade off on a cultist's leather tunic.
Holly retrieved a weapon for herself, though she had to use it in her left hand. Her right arm was already bruised and swollen around the mark left by the cultist's teeth. One tooth had broken the skin, which might have alarmed Holly, but she knew her god would preserve her from any disease the cultist carried.
After grabbing up her cloak, Jas snapped, "Let's go!"
Jas took the lead, but since she'd been unconscious when the cultists had brought her to the cell, she had to take directions from Holly. As they moved down the corridor, they were assailed by the sickly sweet stench of decaying flesh. Holly remembered it came from a large room through which her captives had dragged her on the way to the cell. At the first intersection, Holly pointed in the direction of the awful smell.
Jas wrinkled her nose and raised her eyebrows. Then she spun about the corner, her sword at the ready. She motioned to the paladin that the way was clear and the two continued on. The passage opened out into a vast room.
Holly and Jas stood on either side of the corridor, peering into the room for any foes. Piles of bones littered the room, some with flesh still clinging to them. Not all of them were animal bones, and Holly felt her stomach churn yet again.
Someone was holding a whispered conversation in the room. Neither woman could spot the speakers, but they could hear them as they approached. With a quick beating of her wings, Jas leapt up to the stone ledge over the passageway exit. Holly was just about to bad away when she recognized Joel creeping along the wall just around the corner.
The paladin whispered the bard's name and rushed toward him. The bard smiled broadly and threw his arms about the paladin.
"I guess you don't need me to rescue you, do you?" Joel asked, noting the paladin had already managed to arm herself.
Holly pulled away from the bard, suddenly uneasy. She peered at the cloaked figure behind him and glared at her. "Who is this?" she hissed.
"Urn, this is Walinda of Bane," the bard said, grabbing at the paladin's arm before she tried anything rash. "She's helping us escape. We've made a truce-just until we get out of here."
"Joel, how could you?" the paladin growled, raising her sword before the priestess. "This woman is a monster."
"Holly, she helped me find you," the bard explained. "I promised her you would honor the truce."
Holly drew back, never taking her eyes off the priestess.
"We have found your friend. Now we must hurry if we are to escape before dawn," Walinda whispered. "The griffon stables are that way," she said, pointing to a staircase.
Joel started moving toward the stairs, pulling Holly with him. He turned to watch Walinda's progress behind them.
"Joel, listen," the paladin hissed, jerking away from the bard. "There is another-"
Joel never heard the rest of Holly's words. He watched in horror as a harpy with a drawn sword came swooping down on the party.
The bard threw himself at Walinda, knocking her to the ground before she was skewered by their attacker.
Joel scrambled back to his feet and drew his sword. In the large, high-ceilinged room, the harpy