archer sent one arrow after another wingiHe drew Splitter, sprang out into the openg his wayn, and strode toward his foe. The , and he knocked them out of the air
. The defense was considerably more diff
irregular surface of the roof than it would have been staicult advancing across the R nding still on the ground.
yld began to sweat, and his heart beat faster, but he was managing. There
came another shaft, this one aglitter with some form of enchantment, and he
swatted it down. Rattling, it rolled on down the pitch of the roof.He took another step, slapped aside another missile, then heard som
e
didn't know what, just an indefinable change in the sounds around himthing—he . He
remembered that some enchanters created magical weapons capable of more
than flying truer and hitting harder.
circled around behind himHe spun around. The sparkling arrow had launched itself back into the air and . It was streaking toward its target and was only a few
feet from his body.
Ryld wrenched Splitter across in a desperate parry. The edge caught the arrow
and split it in two. Spinning through the airshoulder , the piece with the point hit his
, but, thanks to his armor, did him no harm.He lurched back around with barely enough time to deflect the next shaft, th
en
marched on. Four more paces brought him to the end of the roof.
running start, mThe gap between this house and the next was five yards across. He took aade himself nearly weightless, and jumped. The twin tried to hitwhen he was in the air
, but for a blessed change, his arrow flew wild. Ryld thumped down atop the sam
e structure his opponent occupied. It felt as if it had
taken forever to get this far, even though he knew it had really been less than a
minute.
including one that gave an eerie screamNot that he was done running the gauntlet. The arrows kept hurtling at him, filling him with an unnatural fear until ,he quashed the feeling, and another that turned into a
mi
Y niature harpy in flight. et another struck two paces in front him
Squinting at the glare, he wrapped
his piwafwi
and exploded into a curtain of fire. around him and dived through,
emerging singed but essentially unscathed.
After that, he was close enough to the tower to cancel most of his weight and
platformleap up to the top. He sprang into the . The twin hastily set down his bow and drew his scimair like a jumping spider and alit on the itar."Do you have any healing m
agic?" Ryld asked. "If so, give it to me, and I'll let
you go."
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The other warrior smiled unpleasantly and said, "My comrades will start arriving any second. Surrender now, tell me where Pharaun is, and perhapsPrincess Greyanna will let you live."
"No."
Ryld cut at the warrior's head. The other male jumped back out of rangesidestepped, and slashed at the weapons ,master's arm. Rscim yld parried, beat the
Over the course of the next few sitar aside, and the fight was on. econds, the Mizzrym warrior gave ground consistently. Twice, he nearly stepped off the flat, round tabletop that was theapex of the tower but on both occasions spun himself away from the edge intime. He was a good duelist, and he was fighting defensively while he waited forreinforcements to arrive. That made him hard to hit. Hard, but not impossible.greatsword down and around, and cut low on the outside. Splitter sheared into Pressing, Ryld feinted high on the inside to draw the parry, swung his the Mizzrym's torso just below the ribs, and he collapsed in a gush of blood.
Magic trilled and flickered through the air. When Ryld spun around, the othertwin and Relonor popped into being on the rooftop below
. Obviously, House
Mizzrym's mage could teleport on his own, without the aid of the broochPharaun had pilfered.
His voluminous sleeves sliding down to his elbows, Relonor lifted his armsand started to cast a spell. The newly arrived twin nocked an arrow and drewback the string of his pale bone bow
.
Ryld threw himself down on his stomach. He was ten feet above his adversaries, and he hoped that they couldn't see him. Sure enough, no maarrow flew in his direction. He scuttled across the platform gic or
—enchantments in his armoopponent'r deadening the sound of his footfalls—and grabbed his previous s bow and quiver, then scrambled to his knees.latter soaring in an arc that revealed soThe twin and the wizard rose above the platform, the former levitating, theme magical capacity for actual flight. The archer loosed an arrow, and mystical energy flashed from Relonor's
The Mizzrym' fingertips.s magic reached its tarthrough R get first. A ghastly shriek stabbed yld's ears and into his brain. He cried out and flailed in agony. The warrior's arrow plunged into his thigh, and the razor-edged point burst from the other side.
After a moment, the screaming stopped. Ryld could feel that it had hurt him,perhaps worse than the arrow had, but had no time or inclination to fret about it. Quickly as few folk save a master of Melee-Magthere could matwo shafts of his own. nage, he loosed
The first took Relonor in the chest, and the second stabbed into the warrior'sbelly
R . They both dropped down out of sight.yld looked at the twin with the sword cut in his flank. The mabe le appeared to unconscious, which would facilitate searching him. Ryld hobbled over to him to rifle his pockets and the leather satchel he wore on his belt.
Blessedly, he found four silver vials, each marked with the rune for healing.Greyanna had indeed outfitted her agents properly for a martial expedition. It was the twin's misfortune that he hadn't had timegoing into shock. to drink of her bounty before His brother and Relonor no doubt carried healing draughts as well, and Ryldhad no guarantee that they'd be unable to use them. They might come after himagain any second, and he'd just as soon avoid a second round. He needed to
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War Of The Spider Queen
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Dissolution
beat a hasty—Enormous wings beat the air
. A long-necked, legless beast passed overhead
with Greyanna and the other priestess, down at R
yld, Pharaun's sister pulled at the laces securing the m
the skinny one, astride its back. Glaring
of monsters. outh of her bag
Ryld dumped the remaining arrows out of the quiver, the better to examine
them. One was fletched with red feathers while the rest had black.
He'd already seen his first foe shoot one fire arrow.
fletched arrow was another Praying that the red-, he drew back his bowstring and sent it hurtlin
into the air g.
The arrow plunged into the sack, and burst into flampriestess reflexively dropped the bag, and it fell, burning as it went. The me. The scarred high
agic
spores combusting inside turned the fire green, then blue, then violet.Greyanna s
creamed in fury and sent the foulwing swooping lower. Ryld looked
for another ma
one, and his hands began to shake, no gic arrow and found that nonedoubt an afteref were left. He nocked an ordinary fect of the punishment he'd taken.
For a moment, it seemed to him that he was finished. If he couldn't shoot
accurately, he couldn't hit one of the foulback, for that m wing's vital spots, or the riders on its
atter. Nor was he in any shape to fight them hand to hand.
Then he realized he still had a chance. He surrounded his arrow with a cloud
of murky darkness, then shot it upward.
et. Even shooting blind with tremblin
hands, he had a fair chance of hitting inThe descending beast was a huge targ g somewhere, and the foul-wing gave adouble shriek that told him he'd succeeded.
He watched the mass of darkness he'd created tumble and zigzag drunkenl
th y rough the air. Stung, suddenly and inexplicably sightless, the winged mount
inside had panicked, and Greyanna was evidently unable to control it. She quite possibly could have dissolved the darkness with som
e scroll or talisman, but she
couldn't see either or lay hands on her equipment easily with the foulwi
lurching and swooping about beneath her ng .R
yld snapped the head off the arrow in his leg and pulled the offendinobject out. He gathered up the healing potions, and quickly as he was ableg
activated the m , agic in his talisman, floated down off the roof, and limped away.
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