The Lost Library of Cormanthy - Mel Odom [136]
"Not far," the baelnorn answered.
"Have you been here before?"
"No. Never to this part of the library."
"You've been in the library before?"
"Of course. Shallowsoul has always been a threat. And he has been trying to recover the items that went down on Chalice of the Crowns. Not all of them would have been destroyed by the brine and the long years. You found that for him, which was something he hadn't counted on. It was the last tie holding him to this plane."
Baylee swung his head, taking in the rooms they passed as they ran down one of the stone hallways. The library honeycombed the underground, deeply entrenched in the bedrock. He caught tantalizing glimpses of displays of the past: vases, pottery, clothing, and armor. And more books than he thought he'd ever see in his life, even more volumes than were gathered in Candlekeep.
He followed Scoontiphp to the right and ran into a large room. Grabbing the lantern hanging from his armor, he flashed it around the room. The ceiling
was forty or fifty feet over his head, reached by spiral stairs that whirled around the room. Everywhere he looked were more shelves.
In the center of the room, the lantern light flashed from the swirl of gems caught up in an invisible maelstrom. Baylee walked toward the whirlwind of sapphires, emeralds, rubies, and diamonds, almost hypnotized by their beauty and motion. They moved incredibly fast, their orbits changing constantly.
"This is it," the baelnorn said. "The center of the spell Shallowsoul has woven to take him from this plane to the next."
"Are you sure he can take all of this?" Baylee gestured toward the shelves and the rooms. "He can't possibly-"
"He's more powerful than you could ever imagine," Scoontiphp said.
"But if he's killed," Calebaan said, coming up to join them, his eyes captured by the swirl of gems, "all of this will remain behind."
The baelnorn faced the wizard. "If it can be managed."
"Getting the phylactery will give us an upper hand," Cordyan said.
"It's not that easy." The baelnorn moved closer to the bejeweled whirlwind.
"Where is it?" Baylee asked.
Before the baelnorn could answer, some of the watch members shouted out an alarm.
The drow, Xuxa warned from somewhere overhead.
"Form up ranks!" Cordyan bawled lustily, the coin in her sword's hilt
shining. The members of the watch scattered across the room, seeking shelter behind the free standing shelves of books.
Baylee sheathed his long sword and ripped his bow loose. He grabbed a fistful of arrows from his quiver and nocked one back. He loosed it at the first hobgoblin he saw. An instant later, the fletchings quivered against the hobgoblin's chest. The creature slowed its all-out rush into the room and dropped to its knees, staring, perplexed, at the shaft buried in its chest.
The darkness hampered the Waterdhavian group, but they rallied quickly, meeting the hobgoblins near the center of the floor. They were outnumbered, but they were trained by Watch practice to work in closed quarters.
The line of hobgoblins broke against the shields of the watch guard. The watch members used the shelves as a skirmish line, striking from behind them.
Baylee leaped to the top of the nearest bookcase, crouching to keep himself as small a target as possible. He pulled another arrow back and put it through a hobgoblin's throat. Two more arrows sent hobgoblins down with arrows through thigh and arm.
Cthulad was at the epicenter of a mass of razor steel strokes. He moved among his enemies, taking advantage of their own pedestrian training with their weapons to use them against each other.
Calebaan stayed behind a shelf and used the magic he had available to him. When hobgoblins came too close, he whipped the iron-shod staff with grim and deadly efficiency. At least five members of the watch went down under the hobgoblins' swords, though. Their infravision versus the humans' normal sight couldn't help but be a telling factor in the battle.
Baylee moved along the top of the bookshelf, walking easily. A thrown hand axe bit deeply into the wood only inches from