Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [106]
Still, as Dragonbait constantly reminded her, it wouldn't hurt her to give the priestess's blessing the benefit of the doubt.
Grypht turned to Alias again. This time the swordswoman agreed wholeheartedly with the saurial wizard's suggestion.
"Stay behind Grypht," Alias told Zhara, repeating the saurial wizard's message.
The priestess glared at Alias. "I will not! I will fight at my husband's side. I do not need additional protection. I am wearing your old plate mail beneath my robe," she argued.
"You swing a mean flail," Alias said, "but we'll need your skill as a healer again before the battle is over. Besides, Grypht is vulnerable when he's casting spells. He needs someone to cover his back. That's you."
Akabar addressed a few words to Zhara in Turmish. Zhara sighed and nodded.
Breck and Alias took the lead, creeping up the passage, and Dragonbait and Akabar followed closely behind. Grypht hung back some distance, saving his magic to deal with whatever sort of evil minion of Moander ruled this place. He kept Zhara behind him, hoping to hide and shield her from anything that might rush toward them.
A hundred feet up the passage. Alias and Breck halted. Another thirty feet ahead of them were a dozen large orcs clearing away a pile of rubble. It appeared that the ceiling had collapsed in the tunnel just as it had in the main room. As they watched, a set of orc legs disappeared down a hole in the rubble, and another orc prepared to follow.
"Greater evil lies beyond the wall," Dragonbait said softly to Alias.
"So does Nameless," Alias replied in saurial, pointing out how the beacon emanating from the finder's stone was striking the pile of rubble.
Breck, who couldn't hear their conversation, asked, "What are we waiting for?
Torn Ear!" he shouted loudly. "Prepare to die!"
The dozen orcs at the cave-in whirled around with drawn battle-axes or loaded crossbows. Breck leaped forward with his sword in one hand and his dagger in the other. He beheaded one orc with a single swing of his sword and sent another one stumbling backward to avoid being jabbed by the ranger's flashing dagger.
Two crossbow bolts whizzed past Breck's head, missing him narrowly, but a third buried itself in his chest. Three orcs with axes surrounded the ranger and began hacking at him. Alias sliced down one orc who had foolishly turned his own back on her to position himself at the ranger's back. Then she and Dragonbait took position on either side of Breck. Having reestablished a defensive line, the swordswoman and the paladin were careful to hold the line across the width of the corridor so that no orcs could break through and engage Akabar as he cast his spells.
From behind her, Alias could hear the southern mage raise his voice in a Turmish chant. In a moment, two pairs of magic missiles whizzed past her shoulders, burying themselves in the chests of two orcs armed with crossbows. The orcs' crossbows fired wildly, hitting the ceiling, and the orcs fell to the ground, dead.
Another orc positioned himself in front of Alias. He leered at her and aimed his battle-axe over the part of her sternum that her chain mail did not protect. The field of enchantment surrounding her armored shirt deflected the axe's edge before it could cleave her chest open. Taken off guard by the way his blade had skittered across the woman's chest, the orc lost his balance and fell toward Alias. With a backhanded swing, the swordswoman skewered the orc's midsection.
She lost a few moments pulling her weapon free, but she had it readied before another orc, intent on destroying the female fighter, stepped over his dead compatriot.
Dragonbait called out in saurial, "Toast!" and his sword began glowing, then burst into flame. The two orcs before him cried out in fear. One dropped his axe and fell back, but the other held his position, only to lose