Lady of Poison_ The Priests - Bruce R. Cordell [93]
When his thoughts tried to return to the abyssal infestation occupying the white room and what his pursuer's fate might be, he shook his head. Of the abominations that lay scattered throughout these vaults, he doubted he had yet stumbled upon the worst. Thinking about any one of them for too long was unlikely to prove healthy.
He continued forward again, his gait lighter. The elf retained his grip on the child's hand. She seemed capable of keeping up with his rapid pace without tiring. As a matter of fact, she didn't even seem to be making that much of an effort. Again, he wondered what she represented. He knew, based on his experience with her and a feeling that was transmitted merely by touch that, if nothing else, she represented something good, something uncontaminated by poor decisions and something that would not, or could not, recognize the concept of betrayal.
For Fallon, her touch hinted at restitution and perhaps redemption.
When a hint of fresher air brushed his face, he wondered for a moment if his thoughts had conjured a memory of open air. No, he really did feel a faint breeze, issuing from yet another side passage.
Fallon bent, sniffed, held a wetted finger in the air and considered.
"Well, girl," he finally said, grinning, "I may have found us an exit to the surface."
CHAPTER 25
Eschar collided with Marrec, knocking the cleric to the side. Marrec nearly lost his grip on the icy token he'd collected from the nine-fold chamber.
The demon squealed in anger. Marrec supposed he survived the contact because his sudden exit caught Eschar off guard. The time it took the cleric to wonder about his survival was too much. Already, Eschar's hellish eyes tracked him. The demon's claws moved to make an eviscerating strike. His hand cold on the token of control, Marrec felt his options were down to but one.
The cleric yelled, "Queen Abiding, I release thee! Come, and serve he who gives you freedom!"
Things happened all at once. Eschar's eyes widened as the import of Marrec's words penetrated his consciousness.
Ususi yelled "Marrec, you fool."
The crystal sphere in the cleric's grasp shattered, sending a spray of ice in all directions.
That which had been caught in the center of the crystal remained, hovering, a blot of nothing the size of a beetle, a breath of winter cold expanded, chilling all.
Eschar mouthed a curse whose vileness surpasses mortal ability to comprehend. Despite his ferocity, he seemed frightened, then he vanished.
The hovering blot expanded, doubling, tripling, quadrupling it size in under a second. It rippled outward and upward exultantly, growing in height and width and dimension until it was at least as large as the white dome over which it hovered. The plunging temperature proclaimed winter's arrival.
The Queen Abiding was loose.
Marrec, looking into the void of evil above him, said, "Your tormentor flees. Get him."
Tendrils of darkness instantly grew downward from the hovering mass, reaching for the area where the horned demon stood a few seconds earlier. When the tendrils reached the vacated space, they continued reaching, but not in any dimension Marrec was capable of viewing.
The tendrils retracted. Eschar popped back into existence, tendrils wrapped about his straining torso. The horned demon screamed in defiance.
The pleasant female voice of the queen spoke from the darkness. It said, "I told you you'd pay for your effrontery, Eschar."
Eschar craned his head back and belched forth a thread of seeking flame, which probed like a fiery lance into the darkness' underbelly.
The bonds of darkness surrounding Eschar loosened. Taking advantage of the slackened grip, the demon struggled mightily and managed to escape the bonds completely.
Marrec, only a step away from the struggle, uttered, "No."
He stabbed Justlance into the horned demon's abdomen. Eschar flinched in pain but tried to make good his escape, ignoring the cleric's bold attack. The demon began to sprint toward the edge of the cavern.
Eschar made about ten strides before