Pool of Radiance_ Ruins of Myth Drannor - Carrie Bebris [27]
“Let us bargain, then.” Kestrel walked toward the door.
Just as she reached it, Ghleanna uttered a single word aloud. The darkness that had engulfed Preybelish’s chamber immediately dissipated, revealing a large purplish-black snake with a humanlike face. Around his neck, supported by his inflatable hood, dangled necklaces, chokers, and other neckwear of varying lengths and ostentation. The naga’s thick coils disappeared beneath a sea of coins and jewelry, but Kestrel guessed his body must extend at least ten feet. His eyes shuttered to thin slits in the sudden light.
Preybelish hissed, baring his long fangs. “You’ll regret that, you foolish half-breed!” His tail, barbed and sharp as a razor, emerged from the treasure hoard and flicked violently, showering gold around the room and sending Kestrel diving for cover behind the decapitated marble head-and neck-of what had once been an enormous statue. Preybelish’s attention, however, was focused outside his chamber. On Ghleanna.
A moment later, a jet of flame shot forth from the naga’s tail straight at the female mage. Ghleanna howled as the entire left side of her body caught fire. She dropped to the floor to extinguish her clothing, rolling out of Kestrel’s sight.
Corran, who had been standing a little too close to the doorway when the attack shot past, sucked in his breath as his armor-heated by the flames-seared his skin. Despite the obvious pain, he advanced on Preybelish, Durwyn close behind.
“I have to agree with the little bird,” the dark naga said. His eyes were wide open now, sinister glowing yellow orbs. “I do so hate the company of paladins. So holier-than-thou.”
Corran brought his sword down with enough force to cleave the snakelike creature in half. The attack, however, glanced off some invisible barrier, not even nicking a scale. “Vile serpent!” the paladin shouted in frustration.
Durwyn swung his axe. The blade found its mark, sinking into the naga’s muscular body. Preybelish hissed and swung his tail, catching Durwyn in the chest and knocking him off his feet. Blood started seeping from a gash in the warrior’s neck.
Kestrel looked through the doorway to see what Jarial was doing, but the wizard had disappeared from view. Was he attending Ghleanna? “Not now, Jarial,” she muttered. “This can’t be left up to me.”
From her vantage point she had a clear shot at the creature’s back-or whatever one called the part of a snake’s coils opposite the underbelly. Preybelish seemed to be focusing his attention and his mind-reading abilities on Corran at the moment. She withdrew her daggers from her boots but paused before throwing them. Once she hurled the weapons, then what? She’d accomplish nothing but angering the creature and drawing his attention back to herself. While Loren’s Blade would return to her hand, she did not trust its magic.
The holy knight attempted another attack. This swing managed to bite into the monster’s flesh, though it visibly slowed before impact. Preybelish uttered a string of foul epithets and thrashed his tail at the paladin. It hit Corran with enough force to knock a lesser man to his knees, but Corran caught his balance, his armor apparently shielding him from the tail’s sting.
Durwyn lay slumped on the floor, unconscious. Though the gash in his neck bled, the flow was not profuse enough for such a large man to have passed out already. Kestrel looked back at the wicked barbs on the end of Preybelish’s tail. Two of them dripped black fluid.
Poison.
The creature muttered arcane words under its breath-another spell. Where in the Abyss was Jarial? She let the daggers fly before the naga could finish his incantation.
The evil serpent howled in rage as the weapons drove into his flesh less than a foot from his head. Thick brown blood welled from the wounds. He twisted around to glare at her, fangs bared, yellow eyes