The Lost Library of Cormanthy - Mel Odom [137]
rendering the bow almost useless. Still, he loosed his shafts deliberately, making them count.
A hobgoblin charged the bookcase, aiming himself at Baylee. The ranger kicked the creature in the face, breaking its nose in a wild spatter of blood. Baylee dropped the bow and abandoned the high ground. He ripped his long sword free of its sheath.
Two hobgoblins rushed at him, screaming foul obscenities as they raised their swords. Baylee met their charge with a lightning fast display of sword play. One of the hobgoblins went down almost immediately, its throat sliced open by the long sword. The other hobgoblin fell back for a moment, long enough to draw a hand axe and bring it arcing toward Baylee's head.
Baylee reached up with his free hand and swatted the axe away. Using the movement and speed he'd already invested, he whipped around in a full turn, bringing the long sword in a short, powerful blow that cut halfway through the hobgoblin's chest. The ranger wrenched his sword free of the corpse.
He scouted the terrain, trying to find Cordyan and the baelnorn. Instead, he found Cthulad ringed by hobgoblins only a short distance away. The old ranger's skill kept his attackers respectful of his sword, but he was still presenting his back to his enemies as he turned about in their midst.
Baylee filled his free hand with throwing knives and threw them with deadly accuracy. Two hobgoblins died before they could turn around, and three others were out of the fight with grievous wounds. Another hobgoblin turned on him, a sword in each hand.
"Now you die, human!" the hobgoblin declared. It swung its swords in a double-attack, well seasoned in two-handed fighting.
Baylee gave ground, batting the blades aside as he reached for the parrying knife. He flipped the spring release loose and caught one of the hobgoblin's swords in the dagger. He twisted, but was unable to pry the sword from the hobgoblin's grip. He blocked the other sword, then stepped forward and kicked the hobgoblin in the crotch. The swords came loose then.
Reversing his long sword in his hand and grabbing it by the hilt again, Baylee drove the point through the hobgoblin's throat and twisted, leaving the creature dying behind him. He glanced over at Cthulad, who was finishing up the last hobgoblin before him.
"For a man who would rather talk than fight, lad," the old ranger said with a grin, "you're a remarkable warrior."
Baylee brushed his shirt sleeve across his face, removing the fresh blood that covered it. "I never said I couldn't fight, just that I like to figure a way around it where I can. There's no way for that here."
"Agreed." Cthulad took a glance around the large room.
Only a few feet away, a hobgoblin rushed a member of the watch, knocking them both back into the mad whirl of gemstones. They flew off their feet, twisting into the invisible vortex, still wrapped in a death embrace as each sought to kill the other with their daggers. Before the struggle could last more than a few heartbeats, they were sucked into the center of the whirlwind. The gems moved with such speed and force that they penetrated the bodies of man and hobgoblin and left only corpses twisting in the storm winds.
Nevft Scoontiphp stood near the swirl of gems. He thrust his hands out to his sides, his robes snapping and cracking with the pull of the wind. His bone-white hair fluttered around his face. Without warning, lightning jumped from his hands.
A tongue of wild lightning climbed to the top of the room and ignited into a ball of white fire that illuminated the impromptu battlefield. It stayed there, lighting the whole, cavernous room. The rest of the lightning gathered around the whirl of wind and gems that were the lich's planar spell.
"You have no time, Baylee Arnvold," the baelnorn shouted grimly. "If we are to succeed here, you have to get the phylactery and destroy it. Hurry."
"Where is it?"