Lady of Poison_ The Priests - Bruce R. Cordell [62]
"You want this?" asked the blightlord, a playful note in his voice. He dangled the Keystone higher, causing it to swing back in forth before Ususi. "I'm afraid I've grown quite fond of it in just the short time it's been with me. Quite an interesting little area this trinket unlocks. Once I've dealt with you, I intend to explore it at my leisure."
Marrec came to the end of his patience. "You've had your warning."
Anammelech sighed. He said, "Don't you think Gloomgate has informed me of your abilities? Even now, it whispers to me of your failing spells, your needy spear with its inability to be parted from you, and your sad devotion to a diminished goddess. And you," he turned his empty sockets on Ususi, "are completely reliant upon spells, especially fire. Good thing fire has no power over me."
Like the head of a striking adder, the axe head of Gloomgate lashed out, slashing Ususi down the side. Black mist smoked off the halberd, tracing its deadly path through the air. The blade left a horribly long, deep gash. Blood flowed. Ususi screamed as she collapsed backward then fell prone, unmoving.
"Now, you're dead," concluded Anammelech.
Marrec berated himself for speaking to the blightlord. Anammelech had lulled them with his calm approach and insipid conversation. Without speaking, he drove Justlance hard into the blightlord's body, attempting to thrust through the migrating plate armor, but the enchanted armor resisted.
The moving plates caught his thrust and held his spear fast between two segments. He grunted, attempting to push the spear through.
Anammelech was back to chuckling.
Marrec mentally grasped the remaining charge of strength left in the gauntlets given to him by the Nentyarch. In one gulp, all the remaining magic stored in the gloves was drained and instead danced in his sinews. With a truly superhuman effort granted by that strength, he broke through the resistance of the sliding armor as if it were tissue. His spear penetrated all the way through Anammelech's body. His gaunt-leted hands still held to the shaft but were pressed up against Anammelech, so far had the blightlord been run through,
"I should have told you," confided Anammelech, his face inches from Marrec, his breath as rotten as spoiled flesh, "Armor is just a shape I like to take on occasion. Really, I'm much more amorphous." The blightlord's 'armor' began to writhe where it touched Marrec's spear. A horribly sentient surge of liquid ooze ran up the spear shaft, up Marrec's arms, and across his face.
Marrec convulsed, attempting to throw himself back. The flowing ooze had too strong a grip on him. The blightlord's entire body opened up like a wet glove and attempted to engulf him.
Realization flashed for Marrec. He had seconds to live, and his mind was giving him the grace of slowed perception to allow him to come to terms with his fate. Nothing he did would matter; all his options pointed to his ending. He could accept that, he decided, but not without a statement.
The flowing grip of Anammelech strengthened as he was pulled more firmly into an all-encompassing grasp of living ooze.
Marrec would die, yes, but he would expire while being true to his long-hidden nature. Maybe he could do some good and redeem both himself and the sin that still stained his heart since he had slain Thanial so long ago…
The blightlord's voice purred, close and intimate, "I told you I knew all about you."
The unicorn warrior whispered back, "Did your damned weapon tell you about my eyes?"
"Why would it?"
Marrec's terrible gaze was drawn out like a sword from its scabbard.
"What's this? What… That's not…" Anammelech tried to heave his flowing body away from the searing gaze of the cleric. Marrec's eyes had become a strobe of light and dark illumination, blasting into the flesh of the blightlord with a transformative grasp that Anammelech was incapable of resisting.
Laughter was gone then. As the stone tide overtook the soft-bodied blightlord, one last whimper escaped the Talontyr's servant before his voice, too,