Pool of Radiance_ Ruins of Myth Drannor - Carrie Bebris [79]
Until the reinforcements arrived.
Without warning, a gate opened in the corner of the room. The additional forces the lieutenant had summoned earlier spilled out, surprised to find a battle in progress but ready to fight nonetheless. Cult fighters and countless enslaved drow entered the fight filling Kestrel with despair. How could they possibly prevail against these numbers?
“Close the gate!” Corran shouted.
“How?” she shouted back. Even if she knew a way to physically shut a magical portal, too many foes stood between them and the opening.
Jarial darted off to the side, positioning himself directly across from the gate. He unleashed a forked lightning bolt straight at the portal. One branch stopped the flow of cultists streaming out by electrocuting those hapless individuals immediately within. The other branch hit the gate itself, sending a crackle of electrical feedback racing through the very fabric of the portal. The gate snapped and wavered and popped. Random zaps of energy ricocheted within its walls. In a great burst of light, it collapsed.
Kestrel had no time to appreciate the fireworks-too many cultists and drow swarmed the room. Three soulless dark elves had her backed into a corner from which she feared she would never emerge. She found herself unable to land a single offensive blow on any of them-parrying their strikes was the best she could do.
Another burst of sunlight issued from Jarial’s staff, causing Kestrel’s opponents and the rest of the Kilsek to stagger under the sudden brightness. She seized the advantage and brought her club down on one foe’s skull with every ounce of strength she could muster. He slumped to the floor, but another dark elf took his place. The new opponent crippled her left arm with a retributive strike. Moments later, one of his comrades cut her legs out from under her.
Kestrel fell hard. She tried to push the pain from her consciousness, but it clutched at her mind like dark tentacles wrapping around her every thought. Her arm hung limp at her side, the broken bone protruding through her skin and armor. She transferred her club to her right hand and prepared to hold out as long as she could against the swarming dark elves. She called out, trying to draw someone’s attention to her situation, but with their whole party so severely outnumbered she doubted anyone could help her.
This was it, then, the place where she would die-beset by undead drow in the bowels of Myth Drannor. She had always wondered.
She fended off two more blows but could not block the third. It slammed into her head, knocking her flat and blurring her vision. Did she still face three drow, or did six now surround her? Through the haze overtaking her awareness, she heard Faeril’s voice rise above the din of battle. “By the grace of Mystra, I command thee to fall back!”
They were the last words she heard.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Kestrel? Kestrel!”
Faeril’s voice drifted to her through a fog, stirring Kestrel to consciousness. Her battered body hurt all over, but her left arm ached so intensely that she almost lapsed back into oblivion rather than endure the pain.
Gentle fingers searched her throat for a pulse. “Thank Mystra, she’s still alive,” the cleric said.
“How bad is she hurt?” Was that Corran’s voice or Durwyn’s? Kestrel’s head was still too cloudy to distinguish the male timbre, and she had not yet been able to force her eyes open.
“She’s got a compound fracture in her left arm. I can heal that-it’s her unconsciousness that concerns me most. I fear a serious head injury. Did anyone see when she fell?”
“Just before you turned the undead drow.” That was Corran’s voice. The other speaker must have been Durwyn. “She was surrounded by them. I tried to reach her, but-”
“We all had our hands full.” Faeril grasped Kestrel’s injured arm and-in movements that caused pain more excruciating than the break itself-reset the bone. Kestrel heard the cleric begin a prayer. In a few minutes the pain subsided, though it did not disappear completely. “That is all I can do for now,” Faeril said. “I have exhausted