Pool of Radiance_ Ruins of Myth Drannor - Carrie Bebris [37]
Durwyn battled two of the cultists. His second arrow protruded through the shoulder of one. He landed a blow on the arm of his injured foe, then managed to parry the other’s strike. Corran also fought two opponents. His warhammer easily deflected the attacks that came his way, but he appeared unable to gain the offensive. Emmeric, though fighting with an unfamiliar weapon, seemed to be holding his own.
Ghleanna gazed balefully at one of Corran’s adversaries, her fingers tracing ancient runes in the air. A moment later the sorceress uttered a single command word. The cult fighter shrieked, but Kestrel could discern no physical damage. His blows, however, lost their precision. When Corran’s other foe caused the paladin to shift his position, the spellbound cult fighter swung wildly, apparently trying to hit anything within reach of his weapon.
He’s blind, Kestrel realized. With one of Corran’s opponents thus disabled, she darted around the room’s perimeter to aid Durwyn. As she moved, she kept one eye on the unfolding combat.
Emmeric, gaining familiarity with the weight and balance of Corran’s sword, backed his opponent against an open trunk. The cult fighter’s calves bumped into the chest, knocking him off balance. As he struggled to regain his equilibrium, Emmeric seized the moment and scored a hit. The thrust opened a deep gash in the cultist’s shoulder. Undeterred by the blood oozing down his arm, the fighter lunged forward to return the blow. Emmeric anticipated the strike but not the handful of diamond dust the fighter grabbed from the open trunk with his free hand and threw in his face. The distraction lasted only a moment, but that was long enough for the cultist to open a wound in Emmeric’s sword arm.
A glance at Durwyn indicated that the large warrior still managed to fend off both of his opponents, so Kestrel elected to aid the injured Emmeric. She maneuvered behind the cult fighter, planning to stab him in the back. Just before moving in for her strike, she glanced toward Jarial and Ghleanna in the doorway to make sure they saw her and didn’t inadvertently direct any magical attacks her way.
Her heart stopped.
Behind the door stood a hooded figure with the green tattoos of the cult sorcerers. The wizard’s sinister gaze focused on Emmeric, his hands gesturing rapidly as his mouth formed unheard words.
“Cult sorcerer!” she shouted.
Her warning came too late. A crackle of electricity rent the air as a lightning bolt blasted from the wizard’s fingertips to strike Emmeric. The bolt struck the fighter with so much force that he flew through the air and into the wall a good eighty feet away, the smell of burning flesh following in his wake. His scorched body dropped to the floor.
Kestrel took the dagger she’d meant to plunge between the fighter’s shoulder blades and instead hurled it at the cult sorcerer. It buried itself in his stomach. The evil sorcerer looked up, surprised-but not stopped. As blood welled around the weapon and ran down his legs to pool on the floor, the cultist muttered the words of a new incantation. His gaze never left Kestrel.
Movement to her left, however, wrested her attention to a closer opponent. Emmeric’s foe, alerted to her presence by the dagger that had sailed past his ear, now turned his attacks on her. She parried his blows with her other dagger, staggering under the force of his strikes. When a shout from one of the other cultists distracted him momentarily, she seized the opportunity to grab her club.
Even with Quinn’s familiar baton, the cultist’s hits came too quickly for her to manage any offensive blows. He laughed mockingly when she tried to strike back twice-and both times nearly lost her right arm to the cult fighter’s superior weaponmastery. Meanwhile, she braced herself for the sorcerer’s spell. When would it come? She dared not avert her gaze from the hideous visage of the cult fighter, even for a second.
Suddenly, a flash of orange light silhouetted her adversary. Beyond