The Lost Library of Cormanthy - Mel Odom [134]
Then, in the distance, came the sound of men fighting, the crash of steel and the hoarse yells of agony. For a moment, Baylee thought the battle was coming toward the party, then he realized it was only the beginning sounds of the fight overtaking them from the right.
Scoontiphp turned and headed to the left. "Come on. Shallowsoul can only be minutes away."
Krystarn Fellhammer watched the dead rise from the floor of the library. She held a bag of holding, stuffing one tome after another into the cloth. "Chomack!"
The hobgoblin chieftain tore himself free of the group he was leading in their plundering. He hefted a battle-axe he'd evidently acquired during his underground reaving, and charged the first of the undead.
She was a wiry woman who wielded a curved scimitar in flashing swipes. She hadn't quite made it out of the hole in the stone floor that had evidently served as her final resting place when Chomack brought the battle-axe down in a two-handed stroke that almost cleaved her in half. She dropped at once.
Another man erupted from the floor in front of Krystarn. She finished shoving the book into her bag, then blocked the poorly aimed dagger blow with the small buckler on her wrist. Back-handing the morning star and putting as much of her weight into the blow as she could, she almost took the dead man's face from his head. He stumbled backward into two more rising corpses and knocked them to the ground in a flail of limbs.
The hobgoblins attacked en masse, outnumbering their already dead opponents. But the risen dead accounted for a number of the hobgoblins. The corpses refused to die by most killing strokes, requiring a blow that crushed the skull.
"You would steal from me, Krystarn Fellhammer?"
The drow elf glanced up at a high balcony overhead.
Shallowsoul leaned on the railing, peering down at her. He gestured, and Krystarn saw the ripple of magic energy leave his hand. She turned and fled, dodging through a pair of the walking dead.
Something crawled across the back of Krystarn's neck. She slapped at it with her free hand, crushing something with a crunch just as teeth bit into her flesh. Harsh groans of pain and anger from the hobgoblins echoed behind her as she raced for the library stack in front of her. She vaulted up onto the shelves, placed her empty hand on top, and leaped over to come crashing down on the other side.
A dead youth with sightless eyes reached up for her, mouth open to show rotted teeth. Krystarn quelled her revulsion as she landed on the dead boy. The corpse tried to wrap its arms around her. The drow lashed out with her morning star, breaking one of the arms with a brittle snap. Then she smashed the corpse's face and head.
Wheeling as she got to her feet, Krystarn ran to the end of the bookcase. She looked up on the balcony again and spotted Shallowsoul urging his undead minions on. She gathered her mystical energies, summoning her spell, unfolding it clearly in her head, then she threw it at the lich. Lightning bolts danced from her fingertips, streaking for Shallowsoul.
As expected, the lich blocked the brunt of the attack. The lightning bolts pealed thunder as they slid off Shallowsoul's shield and touched the stacks of books beside him. The paper of the books immediately caught fire, blazing high. It bothered Krystarn to see the damage being done to the books, possibly irreplaceable knowledge being destroyed once and for all, but not nearly as much as it caused consternation in the lich.
Shallowsoul screamed loud and long, and turned his attention to the burning books.
Krystarn looked about the library, seeing the hobgoblins still warring with the risen dead. Slowly and steadily, the hobgoblin army was being decimated.
"Sorceress," Chomack rumbled. "We are dying."
Krystarn faced the chieftain, seeing blood painted across his terrible features. "You'll raise another army, Taker of Dragon's Teeth. After this battle, you'll be known far and wide. Hobgoblins seeking a leader to help them wrest