Under Fallen Stars - Mel Odom [114]
She grabbed the chair she'd been sitting in and hurled it toward the front of the crowd gathered in front of Jherek. The chair hit two men and knocked them backward into the others.
"Back, you damn slime-sucking bottom-feeders, or I'll fillet you myself!" she cursed as she drew a scimitar and dirk, then rushed toward Jherek.
The young sailor turned to face her, lifting his cutlass.
"Not me, you brain-dead ninny," she told him sharply. "I've come to take a stand with you, though by Fenmarel Mestarine's kindness, I don't know why. You've cut yourself enough trouble for a small army, much less one sailor boy."
Jherek kept his blade up, wary that she could be attempting to trick him to get close enough to put a blade between his ribs." Ware now, lady," he warned. "I don't trust so easily."
"Azla!" someone in the crowd shouted. "Azla of Black Champion is here!"
"Kill her," another man roared. "Vurgrom's bounty on her head is a thousand gold pieces!"
The half-elven woman's brows arched in anger. "You'd better pick sides quickly, boy." A half-grin played on her face, but it was cold as a moneylender's heart. "I'm worth more dead than you are and I don't intend to die without trying to escape. You're standing in the way."
"Aye," Jherek replied, watching as the crowd regrouped, "but there was a mess left upstairs as well."
Azla glanced back at the tavern crowd and knocked a thrown dagger from the air with the flat of her scimitar. "Our chances of escape have got to be better there than here."
Jherek nodded, hating to lose Vurgrom and not certain what they were going to do even if they made it back up the stairs. He pulled the beaded strands to one side.
"No," Azla said. "You first." She spoke like one used to command.
"Aye." Jherek turned and raced back to the steps, waiting for her.
Azla reached for the pouch at her side and stuck enough of her arm inside it that Jherek knew it was a bag of holding. She removed a small flask, handling it carefully.
"Keep moving," she ordered, then flung the flask at the doorway as two men shoved their heads through.
The flask tumbled end over end and struck the floor, shattering and spreading slow moving oil in spots and a pool. Immediately, the oil caught fire. The flames spiraled up at once, and the spots that had landed on the two men charred holes in their clothes. They yelled in terror and pain and began beating at their clothing, but it only served to spread the flames. The fire in the doorway rose up four feet high.
"Run," Azla directed. "I don't have any more of that ensorcelled oil with me."
She sprinted after him as they ran up the first set of stairs. Three pirates were coming down, fleeing from Glawinn. The lead pirate raised his sword, yelling hoarsely to warn his mates of the danger.
Jherek reached the corner of the landing first and blocked the man's sword with his cutlass. The other two men ran into the first, and all of them struggled to keep their balance. The young sailor kicked the first man in the chest, pressing his own back against the wall to get everything into the effort he could.
All three pirates slammed against the railing, snapping the supports off and tumbling amid screams to the floor below. They'd only just landed when the first of the pirates from the tavern area burst through the oil, stopping only long enough to slap the few flames from his clothing. Now that the oil had nearly exhausted itself, other pirates followed.
Glawinn gazed down through the maze of switchback staircases. "Company?" the paladin asked calmly.
"Aye," Jherek answered, breathing hard from his exertions, "and plenty of it."
"Who's she?" Glawinn asked.
"A friend," the young sailor said, glancing at Azla again. Despite her unexpected appearance, he got a good feeling about her. "For now, at any rate."
The half-elf smiled and shook her head. "From the looks of things," she said, "I may be the only friend you people have in Westgate."
"Not the only," Glawinn snapped. "Begging your pardon for my abruptness, lady."
"That's Captain Azla," she growled.
"I stand corrected."