Lady of Poison_ The Priests - Bruce R. Cordell [10]
Then he saw the little girl behind the tree. She had to be Hemish's foundling, Ash.
Marrec bolted forward, trying to skirt the volodnis. Gunggari would be able to deal with them. He hoped. Marrec doubted that the valorous woman would do as well against the savage beast without some help. It was his cue to act.
A bolt of black rot diverted Marrec. One of the rot fiends was tossing around potent magic. The bolt missed, striking an old tree stump. The stump immediately began to rot and molder. Marrec hoped the courageous woman could hold out a few more seconds against the beast. He first had to deal with the blighted forest creature that was versed in sorcery, and not a pleasant sort of sorcery.
He pointed his spear at the one who'd cast the enchantment his way, saying, "Leave, and we'll let you go without harm."
The one he pointed to sneered, breaking open a fluid-filled boil on its face as it did so. "It is you who should leave. We require the Horned Aspect. Lest blight take you, deliver her!"
Horned Aspect? He'd worry about that later. Too many names to match up with faces, though he wondered if the creature referred to Ash. He decided that his job of the moment was to see that the sorcerer ate its words.
Almost of its own accord, Justlance took flight. He knew even as the shaft left his grasp that it would speed true. He had just time enough to see the sorcerer's filmy eyes widen before another volodni knocked him to his knees with a blow from behind. Where'd that little stinker come from?
He tried to spin around and back, though it was difficult on his knees. His immediate aggressor clutched an iron-headed mace. It grinned. "Too bad you had to kill Molkai," it said, gesturing to where the sorcerer volodni was pinned to a tree by Justlance. "Now I kill you, easy."
The mace-wielder had no way of knowing Marrec's secret, so when the rot fiend's triumphant charge ended suddenly on the point of Justlance, its look of surprise before it expired was absolutely justified. An instant prior to stopping the charge, Justlance left the quivering body of the nearby volodni sorcerer. His spear could never be parted from its owner for long.
Gunggari had about mopped up the last of the remaining volodnis. Marrec levered himself to his feet and looked for Ash… Ah! The child still sheltered partly behind the roots of the large tree. Ash's unknown female protector was also still in the game, rushing in to hack at the fungal lion, then dancing away just in time to avoid a lethal claw swipe. If the creature hadn't been so focused on going back for the child, Marrec wondered if the woman would have fared so well. Each time it broke off its pursuit of the woman, she slashed it again with her blade. Still, she was obviously tired, while the greened lion seemed as strong as ever despite several lines of its own blood on its sides and some quantity of the same squalid fluid the volodnis leaked.
"Let's get the cat, Gunggari!" shouted Marrec as he dashed in on the lion's flank.
The woman heard him, too. As he came up behind and to one side of the lion and gave it a good jab with his spear, she closed on the opposite side, her leaf-shaped sword stabbing and slashing. The lion turned and swatted at him with a huge claw, green with rot, but he got out of the way. The woman got in another few telling blows, taking advantage of the creature's divided attention.
Gunggari finally showed up, his dizheri soaked and matted with evidence of its recent work. He swung it around with both hands, connecting solidly with the side of the creature's head. It yelped, blinking, and shook its head.
"It's dazed," yelled the woman. "Finish it!"
Marrec didn't need to be told twice. He and Justlance got to work. With another mighty bash from the dizheri, the lion collapsed, unmoving.
In the ensuing quiet, Marrec and Gunggari eyed the woman. Dressed in sturdy