Pool of Radiance_ Ruins of Myth Drannor - Carrie Bebris [76]
The mage cried out in pain. “Their bite stings! I think they’re poisonous!”
Kestrel grabbed her club and snapped her wrist. The weapon telescoped not a moment too soon-all three arraccats reappeared, this time behind Corran, Faeril, and Durwyn. She advanced on the closest creature, but a shout from Ghleanna stopped her. “Kestrel, look out!”
She spun to discover a fourth arraccat behind her. Green saliva-or was it venom?-dripped from its fangs. Four pairs of yellow eyes glittered menacingly in the torchlight through slit lids. Kestrel avoided eye contact, knowing that if she stared into those hourglass irises too long, she’d go dizzy.
The creature sprang. She grasped her club in both hands and struck it in the head, momentarily stunning it. No sooner did it disappear from sight than another took its place. The party fought at least six creatures now-the way they kept popping in and out, Kestrel couldn’t keep track-and hadn’t managed to land a fatal blow on any.
“Backs to the walls!” Corran yelled. “So they can’t attack from behind!”
Kestrel fought off another beast and pressed herself against the door opposite the one they’d entered. No one had had time to check what lay on the other side, but at this point she didn’t care. They had to get out of this room. The arraccats now outnumbered them, and more appeared each minute. No wonder the cult sorcerer had fallen prey to the creatures-they multiplied like rabbits.
She tried the door and found it locked. Damn her luck! She fumbled in her belt pouch, willing her fingers to find the right lockpick as she tried to fend off an arraccat one-handed. A moment later, Corran was at her side. “Open it! I’ll cover you!”
The paladin’s blade sliced through the creature and injured another in the time it took her to locate the tool she needed and open the lock. “Durwyn! Faeril!” she shouted over a nearby arraccat’s hiss. “This way! Jarial! Ghleanna!”
One by one they backed over to the open door and slipped through to a small stairwell. Corran entered last. He slammed the door and fell against it, winded.
Several minutes passed in silence as they waited, arms ready, to see whether the arraccats would appear on this side of the door. None did. Jarial loosened his iron grip on the Staff of Sunlight and lowered its end to the ground. “I think we can relax.”
Faeril examined Jarial’s bite mark. The injury itself was minor, and Ozama’s boots had once again protected him from the effects of poison. While the cleric bandaged the wound, Kestrel regarded Corran thoughtfully. The paladin might be an insufferable prig, but he’d seen to everyone else’s safely before his own-unlike the debacle in the House of Gems courtyard. “I thought you never retreat from a fight?”
“Live to fight another day-isn’t that how you rogues think?” He wiped the creatures’ foul blood off Pathfinder and returned the weapon to its scabbard. “I’m beginning to believe that motto has some merit.”
She hadn’t time to contemplate his change in attitude, for Ghleanna summoned them excitedly. “There’s a door at the bottom of the stairs, marked with the Rune of the Protector. The baelnorn cannot be far away.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Fhaormiir!”
The moment the party approached the door, the Word of Safekeeping boomed out of the air in a deep voice that reverberated throughout the stairwell. Adrenaline raced through Kestrel as the door silently swung open. Soon they would meet the Protector, and ask him to use the Gem of the Weave to undo the corruption of the Mythal. With the tide thus turned against the cult, perhaps she and the others would have a prayer of completing this mission alive. She did not want to consider their chances if the baelnorn refused their petition.
Expecting a long corridor, Kestrel was surprised to discover only a small antechamber.