Lady of Poison_ The Priests - Bruce R. Cordell [89]
Marrec held forth his hand, waiting for Justlance to return. Instead, Eschar plucked the bloodied spear from its side. The demon shouldn't have been able to do that. He shouldn't… his spear flashed back through the air, arrowing for Marrec's heart. He fell forward, trying to dive, but simply tripped. The tip of Justlance scored the back of his armor.
Ususi was beside him. She said, "Get inside the dome and get the token. Command the queen to aid us. We'll distract this whoreson of the Nine Hells."
So saying, she shot a narrow beam of energy directly into Eschar's eyes. It caused the demon, which had grabbed Elowen by one leg and begun squeezing, to cry out and loose the elf. It clapped both hands to its eyes, rubbing furiously while continuing to bellow.
Marrec used the moment to slip past Eschar into the dome.
CHAPTER 24
Elowen's leg bled freely where Eschar had squeezed with its clawed hands. She saw Marrec slip past while the demon continued to rub its eyes. Time to provide further distraction.
She darted to the demon's left, at the same time drawing Dymondheart along the inside of her foe's overlarge knee. The living bladed sliced deep through tendon and sinew. Had her own leg not pained her so, she wondered if she could not have ended the fight right there, but hampered as she was, she had to settle for what she could get. Eschar's new scream of pain seemed a good reward
Then Elowen noted that the tissue was reknitting, disappearing before her eyes. She yelled to Gunggari to her left, "His wounds are healing!"
Gunggari, who continued to batter the demon, seemingly to little effect, scowled more deeply. At the very least, he was keeping the demon off balance with the force he imparted with each blow.
Its eyes finally clearing from Ususi's magical blast, the demon glanced at Elowen then kicked her. She fell into a bed of small clay vessels that were half-buried in ash. Her mouth filled with a sharp, metallic taste as she choked on the cloud of dust her flailing body fountained into the air. Blinking her eyes to clear them, she looked up to see that Eschar stood over her. The demon must have decided to be done with her once and for all.
Gunggari jostled and vibrated the demon from behind, but his war club lacked sufficient magical charge to fully penetrate the demon's magical hide. The Oslander wasn't going to save her.
The demon slashed a claw down upon the prone elf. Elowen flipped her sword, on which she had retained her grasp despite her short arc through the air, into a high block and held it with both hands.
Any other weapon might have shattered, but the living blade, despite its strange diminishment, held true. Elowen felt her arms buckle beneath the impact, but the claws failed to rake her. That time.
A wall of yellow instantly grew between Elowen and her attacker. It was Ususi, who once again called upon the power of her precious wand. The elf hunter used the seconds the wall bought her to scramble to her feet.
As Elowen rushed around the side of the wall, she heard a great yell. It was the demon. Gunggari had managed to crack the demon on the back of the head hard enough to get its attention.
Eschar whirled and advanced upon the retreating Oslander. Eschar growled, "If I can't suck the marrow from the elFs bones, man meat will have to satisfy… until I catch you all."
The demon breathed in deeply then exhaled. Again, the very air ignited with hellish fire, sending a snaking tendril of white-orange flame in Gunggari's direction.
Gunggari dodged aside. Though the flame failed to fall full upon him, the backwash of heat still brought blisters to his skin and choked a grunt of pain from his lips. Worse, he dropped his dizheri.
Eschar paused then, a slightly puzzled expression looking out of place on the demon's horrendous visage. He said, "Wait. You numbered one more…"
Screaming in sudden fury, the horned demon whirled and raced toward the open mouth of the white dome.
***
Marrec ran along a narrowing corridor of egg-shell white. Like the inside of a conch shell, the corridor seemed