Windwalker - Elaine Cunningham [132]
"Exactly," she agreed.
The young man did not look convinced. "And if there was no second way?"
"Then we would have to fight our way clear," the drow told him. "It could be done, but I'd rather save the men for the battle to come. There will be a battle if even one of the drow remains standing. You've made sure of that. Now go!"
The boy looked uncertainly to his cousin. "Fyodor?"
"Do as she says, and hurry!"
Petyar took off at a run. Liriel followed close behind. Her mind raced as she sped along behind him, planning strategy, listing spells.
"These newcomers might join the other drow in battle," Fyodor said.
She shot a glance back at him. "It is possible, but they belong to House Baenre, and they are accustomed to following the orders of Baenre priestesses."
"Even if the battle is won, any surviving drow will have learned much about Rashemen's defenses and magic."
Petyar came to an abrupt stop and whirled to face the others. "Now I understand what you meant," he said in an appalled whisper. "I should not have said what I did about Rashemen's magic. From my words they might conclude that Rashemen is worth pillaging, perhaps even conquering!"
"We can't let them return to Menzoberranzan," Liriel acknowledged.
The boy's consternation turned to puzzlement. "You would lead them into battle, knowing that you must later slay them?"
"They won't take it personally," she said. "They're drow. They expect allies to turn on them."
Petyar turned helpless eyes to Fyodor. The warrior reached over Liriel's shoulder and gave him a shove. "Remember the men held by these drow, and go!"
The moon was high when Liriel and Fyodor climbed out of the tunnel. Petyar and the freed Rashemi warriors awaited them. All stared at her for a long moment before the fyrra ordered them to join the forces gathering in the clearing.
Treviel fell into step with the pair. His gaze flicked from Liriel to Fyodor, and he shook his head.
"She'll turn, my son. No doubt the others already have. There are more drow down there than rats in the sewers of Immiltar."
"She will stand," Fyodor said firmly.
There was no more time for talk. The mountains were suddenly alive with dark forms. A silent army marched from the mouth of a nearby cave. Drow females, larger and stronger-looking than the males who had ambushed the scouting party, advanced in grim precision. Moonlight gleamed on their bald pates and ready swords but found no answering glimmer in their dead eyes.
"Zombies," Fyodor whispered. The memory of his last battle on Rashemaar soil flooded back in full.
A sharp pain exploded in his thigh and jolted up his spine. He dived forward and rolled to one side, coming up with his black sword in hand.
The drow female whose life he had spared regarded him with contempt. The point of her long, slender sword was wet with his blood. She snarled something at him and beckoned him to come closer.
He glanced around for Liriel, but she had already been swept away by a fierce battle with two of the males.
The drow female advanced on him quickly, Her sword slashed the air in a dazzling display of speed and grace, taunting him with her superior skill, flaunting the promise of death.
Fyodor waited, hating what he must do. The beautiful drow lunged at him. He blocked the drow's attack with a slow, clumsy parry, one that drove her sword down toward his thigh. Contempt flared in her red eyes, and she leaned into the stroke.
Fyodor was no longer there. He spun away from the contrived blunder and swung his sword in a circle-a move many times faster and more fluid that his first. He smacked the drow hard with the flat of his sword and sent her sprawling.
An arrow sang past him and buried itself in the base of the fallen drow's neck. She twitched once and went still.
Thorn ran past him, nocking another arrow. This she aimed at one of the drow males who fought Liriel, backing her away from battle and toward the caves. Liriel dodged his falling body and tore the arrow free. This she plunged into the throat of her second opponent. With a quick nod of thanks, she raced off