The Shield of Weeping Ghosts - James P. Davis [55]
"What was that explosion we heard?" Duras said. "I thought I heard you screaming."
Thaena looked away from the writhing shadow, blinking as the situation came into focus.
"The Creel destroyed the entrance hall," she said, recalling the newly open pit behind them and the bridge beyond. "We're trapped."
The shadow slammed into the ice wall again, this time followed by several smaller impacts. The tiny shadows of arrows could be seen embedded in the ice.
Thaena pictured the tower in her mind. The lower levels a ruin, the path to the bridge now a gaping well of stone and ice created by a Nar woman's sacrifice.
These Creel are mad, she thought.
"And they are trapped as well," she said aloud, then to Duras, "Prepare the fang. Be ready when that ice falls."
He held her gaze for a moment. All that could be said was understood as he turned to join the berserkers on the stairs.
"Your strategy?" Anilya asked when they alone stood on the balcony.
"They are ready to die," she said and crossed her arms to match the durthans stance. "That's why they're here. We should be prepared to do the same."
"Fair enough," Anilya replied, flinching as the beast thudded once again against the wall, then she added, "But if we don't have to? Are you prepared to do what is necessary?"
Thaena found herself staring at Duras, sword in hand, ready to charge down the stairs. His dark eyes turned to her, and she could not bring herself to think of not looking into those eyes again. She turned to the durthan, heart thumping in her chest, anger in her throat, and fear creeping through the back of her mind. In the end she found the decision surprisingly available-almost easy.
"Do what you must," she said coldly.
"For the good of Rashemen," Anilya said, a dark smile in her eyes as the ice wall split down the middle and began to crumble.
Yellowed fangs burst through the ice, revealing the skull of some fiendish beast at the end of a whiplike neck of bones. A
I I J row of spines lined the thing's jaw and long horns swept back from its equine head.
Thaena fell back as the thing lunged and crushed the balcony's railing between its teeth. Anilya had her back to the wall, her voice summoning things that the ethran did not wish to contemplate. Thaena's own hands began to twist and turn as she cast, her voice echoing in the space between stone and ice.
Arrows flew from the opposite balcony and through the hole in the ice, but clattered harmlessly to the floor. The Creel archers would be useless unless their creature opened the wall further. The bone-beast thrashed against the ice, pushing its way through as it unleashed a rattling growl from the bones in its throat. Finishing her spell, Thaena opened her mouth to roar back.
Her voice rose in a powerful scream, the sound amplified by magic into a thunderous roar. Everyone covered their ears, the warriors backing away from the ice wall as it cracked and fell, shaken apart by the ethran's shout. The wave of sound produced rippling spasms through the undead beast. Bones fell away and broke apart in midair-only to be pulled back into the serpentine form's interlocking pieces.
Anilya completed her spell, and a black swirling cloud appeared over the head of the beast. As the last of the ice wall crumbled, the berserkers led the charge down the stairs with a war cry. The sellswords loosed arrows up into the higher balcony to slow the bows of the Creel and keep their wizard busy.
The durthan spun her hands with the growing cloud, her head rolling on her shoulders. The darkness took shape and groaned with monstrous voices. Lurching forward, the beast's head swung back and forth as it faced Thaena. Studying the swaying bones and the fanged skull, she began another spell.
It lunged again and she rolled to the side, whispering magic. The massive head crashed into