Authors: Mel Odom

Tags: #Fantasy, #S&S

Lord of the Libraries (24 page)

BOOK: Lord of the Libraries

6.24Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

ads

“Heave!” Dusen ordered.

Smugglers shoved four of the flaming barrels of pitch over the side. Spinning and twisting, the barrels plummeted toward the water below.

“Look out!” Juhg warned.

Jassamyn took one more shot, catching a smuggler who peeked over the side. Evidently the smuggler had thought he was safe … up until the moment the arrow plunged through his head and he dropped like a child’s doll.

The flaming pitch hit the water and submerged for an instant. Even underwater, the fire refused to go completely out, feeding on the oil. Then, since it was lighter than water, the oil spread out across the flooded lower floor. In heartbeats, the whole surface of the water was ablaze.

Jassamyn raced for the stairs just ahead of the lake of flames that sped after her. She pulled herself onto the marble stairway just before the fire reached her.

Smoke boiled up at once, turning the area below murky. The acrid stink of it burned the back of Juhg’s throat and made his eyes water. He
shifted inside the net and found the weakness Jassamyn’s shot had caused. Plunging his arm through, he got purchase and began turning his body, working his head and shoulders into the hole and hoping he didn’t get stuck.

The water below was covered completely by fire. If he fell, there was a good chance he’d never survive without inhaling flames when he came up for air. And he doubted that he could swim underwater in all the confusion to reach the marble stairway where the others were. Getting back topside in the dark without knowing the way didn’t seem like a safe bet even if he could find the rope Raisho had evidently guided the others with.

Even if Juhg succeeded in his escape attempt, the first piece of
The Book of Time
was in this building. He’d have to return.

The smugglers threw large rocks and pieces of mortar from piles that had been stored there for that purpose. Raisho was able to avoid most of them with his quickness, but Cobner used his shield to block them away with thunderous claps.

Once his head and shoulders were through the opening Jassamyn’s arrow had made in the net, Juhg shot through the net like an eel through a mud pit, falling toward the hot flames below. He twisted and threw out a hand, just managing to hook his fingers into the net. His weight hit the end of his arm and nearly pulled him loose. Then he swung his other hand up and secured a hold.

Just as he took a deep breath, a crossbow bolt whizzed by his head, missing killing or blinding him by inches. Galvanized into action, he climbed the net like he would rigging back on
One-Eyed Peggie
or
Windchaser.
By the time he reached the boom arm, stretching tall to get it, Dusen had spotted his escape attempt.

“Kill the halfer!” the smuggler leader shouted.

The crossbowman raised his weapon again, took aim, and fired. The quarrel thunked solidly into the beam, skidding along the wood and ripping a long splinter free. Either the wood or the quarrel kissed Juhg’s cheek and he felt warm blood running down the side of his face.

The crossbowman worked to restring his weapon, but before he could complete the task, one of Jassamyn’s arrows found a home in his heart. He crumpled, dropping the weapon on the ledge where it hit and spun out over the ledge to drop into the flames.

“Throw the boom over!” the smuggler leader ordered.

Other smugglers hurried to get more pitch barrels while their comrades threw rocks down on the four hurrying up the stairs. Raisho was already swinging up the rope ladder. Jassamyn covered him, putting arrows into any that dared advance on the young sailor while Cobner protected her with a shield he’d picked up from the litter scattered around the room. Behind them, Craugh chanted and emerald embers whirled around him while the fire coming from his staff grew brighter. Finally, the wizard thrust the staff forward. A green fireball spat from the staff and slammed into the smugglers awaiting the torch to light their barrels of pitch.

The fireball hit the pitch barrels and blew them backward, dousing the smugglers with oil and setting them alight. Screams of dying men filled the empty hollow of the building. They ran across the second floor landing till they dropped or ran off the edge to plummet to their deaths below, or were mercifully killed by their comrades.

Clinging to the end of the boom arm, Juhg watched in horror as one of the smugglers slid across the floor. At the base of the boom arm, the smuggler levered his sword into it, then twisted viciously upward.

The boom arm shuddered and went up, dipping at the end where Juhg desperately clung. He saw then that the boom arm wasn’t bolted on, just sat onto a support beam so it could freely turn. Weight at the end of the beam normally kept it wedged tight so nothing slipped. With sword blade worked in between, everything slipped incredibly easily.

The smuggler levered his blade again, scooting the beam up another inch or two. At the end of the beam, Juhg dropped another foot, till the incline was drastic and it became harder to hold on.

“You’re gonna die, halfer,” the smuggler chortled.

Pulling himself up, grateful now that he was a dweller and was so small and quick and agile, Juhg rolled forward, tucking his head into his chin, and came up to a standing position on the beam. His large feet overlapped the narrow beam on either side. Evidently the smugglers had been in the habit of winching up small loads.

The smuggler redoubled his efforts to loosen the beam.

Juhg ran forward. Only fifteen feet long, the beam wasn’t an impossible distance to span. However, three steps into it, some eight feet short of his goal, the beam fell away from underfoot. Even as he fell, Juhg threw himself forward, arms outstretched to cover precious inches.

His hands slapped against the ledge, slipped for an instant, then held.

The smuggler cursed in surprise and swung his sword at Juhg’s left hand. Letting go with the hand that was menaced, Juhg dangled from his other hand, swinging wildly. The smuggler drew back and swung at the other hand by that time. Juhg transferred hands again, barely avoiding the terrible blade. The beam plunged into the fire-covered water below.

Quick as a monkey, Juhg swung along the ledge with the smuggler chopping the ledge in his wake. When he had enough clearance, he pulled with both arms and threw a leg over the ledge, trying desperately to scramble up.

“Oh, and you’re a quick one, ain’t you?” the smuggler accused as he crawled rapidly on his hands and knees to reach Juhg.

Just as the man chopped at him, Juhg dropped back over the ledge, then scampered along like a monkey through the trees till he got behind the smuggler. In position there, Juhg hung by one hand and grabbed one of the smuggler’s feet with the other. He pulled with all his strength.

The smuggler had time for a surprised look as he slid across the loose gravel on the ledge. In the next moment, he lunged for a hold on the ledge … and missed. Knowing he was falling to his doom, he screamed until he hit the flaming water and disappeared.

Hating the grisly death he’d pulled the man to, Juhg hardened his heart. After growing up in a goblinkin mine and watching dwellers die harsh deaths around him every day, he’d learned to put his own survival ahead of those who would strip him of his life. He still couldn’t have dealt out the harsh deaths his companions could, but he could fight to live.

Swinging along the ledge, hoping that he didn’t get a poor grip and slip, Juhg reached the far wall away from the smugglers. Arms aching, fear sour in his belly, he pulled himself up to peer over the ledge.

The smugglers hadn’t noticed him, no doubt thinking he had fallen with their comrade. Instead, they’d turned their malicious attentions to Juhg’s friends, holding them trapped along the stairway and unable to employ the rope ladder.

Cobner raged, calling out fierce dwarven curses and challenging his enemies to meet him on common ground. High up on the rope ladder, Raisho clashed swords with a smuggler attempting to slice through the strands. Standing his ground, his pointy hat pierced by a crossbow quarrel, Craugh raised his staff and spoke words of power again.

A green blaze whipped from the staff as Craugh waved his weapon.
Eldritch flames snaked along the ledge, temporarily breaking the smugglers’ defense. Jassamyn took advantage of the wizard’s attack to put a shaft though another smuggler.

Fewer than twenty smugglers remained, but Juhg couldn’t be certain of the exact number due to the shifting shadows along the second floor. The lower floor was brightly lit by the flaming oil. Unfortunately, the smoke from the burning pitch was pooling in a great cloud against the building’s third floor ceiling, growing thicker and creeping down.

The air already burned Juhg’s lungs and nose to breathe, and his eyes burned and blurred with tears. If his friends simply left, provided they could find a way through the flames and into the water below without having the pitch stick to them and kill them or at least hamper them, they could wait till the smoke overcame the smugglers.

But they won’t leave me
, Juhg realized, and he felt partially responsible for their plight. If he’d taken more care he wouldn’t have gotten captured. Desperate, knowing that the smugglers’ efforts to crush his friends with the rocks would succeed sooner than later, he hauled himself over the ledge.

Movement scurried along the ceiling above him. He gazed up, seeing the spiders crawling through the massive hammock webs. Their eyes glowed in the darkness, either from an inner light or from the flames burning below. Smoke collected in the webs, causing them to sag in places.

A smuggler turning to grab a rock spotted Juhg standing on the ledge. “Over here! The halfer is over here!” He dropped the rock and freed the short sword at his hip, lurching forward with teary eyes caused by the smoke.

Swiftly, his mind concocting the plan on the spot, Juhg bent and picked up a short sword, preferring that weapon’s length over the knife at his ankle. He ran back from the man, running toward the crates against the back wall of the room. Evidently the smugglers had brought stolen provisions into their hiding place. Some of the crates were broken up for use as kindling.

Another of Craugh’s magic fireballs detonated in the ranks of the smugglers, scattering a half dozen men in different directions. Two smoldering bodies did not get up to return to the fray.

Juhg leapt up onto the crates, narrowly avoiding the smuggler’s sword blow as the man closed the distance between them. Lifting the sword as he
gained the top of the stack with another jump, he slashed along the wall, reaching as far as he could. The hammock webs parted as easily as the smoke pillowed against the room.

The effort, immersed as he was in the thicker smoke atop the line of crates, brought on a coughing fit that made Juhg feel as though his head was going to explode. He jumped to another crate, leaping over the smuggler’s keen blade as he slashed at Juhg’s feet.

All along the wall, Juhg continued cutting the hammock webs, freeing them from their moorings. The webs shook and vibrated from his blows, and it was evident that the strands were weighing more and more from the gathering smoke. Before he reached the back wall, still staying ahead of the smuggler who had pursued him from the beginning and another that had joined in the first’s efforts, the spider-laden web tore free and swung toward the knot of surviving smugglers.

“Look out … below!” Juhg managed before the smoke triggered a coughing fit that took him to his knees.

The hammock webs struck the smugglers squarely, falling around them like a heavy drape. Frightened by the unaccustomed smoke and noise, the spiders attacked the men beneath them immediately. Their glowing eyes made them appear even more fierce.

Hoarse, fearful shouts ripped free of the smugglers. Abandoning their attack, they concentrated on their own problems, striving to dust the fist-sized spiders from their faces, arms, and bodies.

Unable to take another step, Juhg hunkered down on the crate. He tore a length from the bottom of his wet shirt and tied it around his head over his mouth and nose. The wet cloth served to filter a lot of the smoke, though it was still hard to breathe.

With no one guarding the rope ladder, Raisho easily made the ascent and stood guard as Cobner threw down his shield and climbed up after the young sailor. Craugh followed next while Jassamyn kept watch with her bow until finally it was her turn.

Beneath the hammock webs, the smugglers quickly stopped struggling. Evidently the spiders carried some sort of venom, though Juhg didn’t know if it was lethal or merely toxic enough to cause paralysis. He found he really didn’t care. Either would have been fine.

Only three of the smugglers hadn’t fallen to the spiders’ venom. They
made the mistake of attacking Raisho and Cobner. Cobner killed one of them almost offhandedly with his battle-axe and the two survivors quickly surrendered, though they pleaded to be allowed to move away from the webs where their comrades lay conquered.

Cobner allowed the surrender but stood over them with his weapon ready.

Jassamyn alighted on the ledge as well. She plucked a scarf from somewhere in her clothing and knotted it around her face.

“Scribbler!” Raisho called.

BOOK: Lord of the Libraries

6.24Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Read Book Download Book

ads