Temple of the Dragonslayer (24 page)

Fear started rising within her and this time, she didn’t struggle to hold it back. There was no hope. Her head began to fill with pressure and her skin felt as though it were on fire. That
strange power she’d felt so many times was coming back. She knew she should fight against it but she was so very tired.

But then the darkness was broken by a gentle blue glow. As Nearra watched, the glow came closer and closer until she could see the outline of a human form. No, not a human—an elf. It was Elidor, and the blue-white glow came from a number of small insects he held in the palm of his hand.

Nearra was so happy to see Elidor that, without thinking, she opened her mouth to call out his name. But Elidor quickly put a finger to his lips to indicate that she should remain silent, and she nodded.

Elidor then knelt and lowered his hand to the floor. He let the glowing insects crawl off his hand. Nearra heard the sound of their tiny legs on the stone as if it were the pounding of horses’ hooves. And then Elidor reached over and gently picked Nearra up and cradled her in his arms.

Elidor stood and began walking, his footfalls making only gentle whssk-whssk-whssk sounds, no louder than the noise a human might make walking through a field of tall grass.

Nearra relaxed in Elidor’s arms as he carried her silently through the darkness.

“The goblin we questioned told us how the crypt worked,” Davyn whispered. “So Elidor decided to go in to get you. He can move more quietly than the rest of us, and with the way these walls echo, we knew you’d need a quiet escape.”

The group crouched in a shadowy alcove, not far from the place where Nearra had been imprisoned. Nearra chewed a mouthful of biscuit given to her by Catriona. She took a drink of water from the warrior’s water skin to wash it down, then smiled gratefully at the elf. “And I’m so very glad he did. It was awful in there.” She shuddered. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to explain just how bad it was, but if you hadn’t come to my rescue, I believe I would have eventually gone mad.”

Elidor executed a gallant bow. “Think nothing of it, milady. It’s all in a day’s work for a daring rogue-adventurer such as myself.”

Nearra laughed, but as she did, she noticed Davyn scowl and look away. Was Davyn jealous?

Nonsense, she told herself. It was only her imagination.

They’d gagged Oddvar and the three goblins and bound their hands and feet. Catriona had wanted to throw them all into the Crypt of a Thousand Voices, but Nearra wouldn’t allow it. The place was so horrible that she wouldn’t put the Dark Queen Takhisis herself in there. So they’d left the goblins and Oddvar farther back in the tunnel, where, with luck, they wouldn’t be discovered until after the group had departed Underfell.

“We’re not out of here yet,” Catriona said. “We still need to get past the rest of the goblins—as well as Ugo—and then return to the surface.”

“It shouldn’t be that hard,” Sindri said. “We were able to sneak in, weren’t we? We should be able to sneak out the same way.”

“There’s one difference this time,” Davyn said. “Now we have Nearra with us.”

“So?” Jax said. “She can pretend to be another mercenary if necessary. Not that I condone such deception,” he hastened to add. “But in this situation, it seems to be less distasteful than it might be.”

Elidor shook his head. “You refuse to kill Oddvar and the goblins because of your honor—although doing so would have made our escape more certain. But you find the idea of telling a little lie ‘distasteful’?”

Jax frowned and his thick bovine lips curled away from his broad, flat teeth. “There is no honor in slaying such pitiful opponents, especially once they are no longer a threat.”

“We’d never get away with Nearra posing as a mercenary,” Catriona said. “The goblins would recognize her as Oddvar’s captive.”

“Oh, for Paladine’s sake!” Nearra snapped. “We don’t have time to stand around and argue. Every moment we stay here increases our risk of capture. I don’t know where my pack is—Oddvar must’ve taken it when I was unconscious—but if one of you would lend me a rain cloak, I’ll wear it and keep the hood up to hide my face. That should be enough of a disguise to get me out of here.”

The rest of the companions looked at each other.

“Sure,” Davyn said. “You can wear mine.”

Nearra wondered why they were suddenly looking at her so strangely. Then she understood. Despite the fact that they were her friends, they viewed her as someone who needed help, not someone who could help herself.

Davyn removed the rain cloak from his pack and handed it to Nearra. As she put it on, she thought, just because I lost my memories doesn’t mean I’ve lost the ability to think.

She pulled up the hood of the rain cloak and said, “All right. I’m ready.”

Davyn nodded and the six companions continued down the tunnel toward Underfell’s main cavern.

Nearra had been unconscious when she’d been brought to Underfell, so she’d never seen the vast cavern and the ruins it held. Despite the danger they were in, it was hard to resist gazing in awe upon the remnants of the ancient city and the millions of glowing insects that illuminated it. But Nearra knew that if she did, she risked drawing the attention of the goblins milling about. So she kept her hood up and continued walking as if she were unimpressed with her surroundings.

They were halfway across the cavern city when their path was suddenly blocked by the hulking figure of Ugo the ogre. The great man-beast sniffed the air several times before looking down at them and grinning.

“Ugo thought he smelled something familiar, but Ugo not
remember what it was. But now Ugo know—it you!” The ogre scowled then and his grin fell away. “Hey, you those brats that hurt Ugo.” He looked at Nearra, who was doing her best to try to disappear into the folds of her rain cloak. “You girl Ugo caught for dwarf. What you doing out running around with these others?” A sly look came into his eyes. “Say, you trying to escape, aren’t you?”

Jax and Catriona started to reach for their weapons, but Davyn said, “We can’t fight—there are hundreds of goblins in Underfell. All we can do is—” Ugo roared and lunged toward Davyn, “—run!”

The companions detoured around the slow-moving ogre. Behind them, Ugo howled in frustration and turned around to give pursuit. Alerted by the ogre’s cries, goblins turned away from their drinking and fighting to join in the chase, and soon it seemed that every inhabitant of Underfell was coming after them.

Nearra was breathing hard and sweat poured off her, making her skin feel clammy in the cool cave air. She’d been starved for the last two days, and her body was still suffering from the effects of the chemical Oddvar had used to render her unconscious. Her head began to throb and she felt suddenly weak and dizzy. She stumbled and started to fall, but then Davyn was at her side. He put an arm around her waist to steady her, and together they continued running.

“Stop!” Ugo bellowed. “You not supposed to run away! Wizard be very mad if you don’t come back!”

The goblins were shouting now too, though they spoke in their own guttural tongue and Nearra didn’t know what they were saying. But she didn’t need to speak goblin to know it was probably all variations of “Get the human girl!”

Nearra saw the tunnel entrance ahead of them. It was flanked by two towering stone columns that leaned inward. And then they were past the columns and inside the tunnel. Unable to run any longer, even with Davyn’s help, Nearra’s legs folded beneath her and she slumped to the ground.

“Get up!” Davyn said as he tried to pull her to a standing position. “We’re not in the clear yet!”

“I don’t think I can run anymore.” Her vision began to go gray, and she feared she was going to faint.

“Let me carry her,” Jax said. The minotaur scooped her up in his powerful arms as if she weighed less than a feather. But before they could start running again, there was a loud
whumpf!
The tunnel shook and a shower of rock-dust fell from the ceiling.

Nearra turned her head and saw that Ugo was wedged in the tunnel opening between the two columns. The ogre grunted in frustration as he struggled to free himself.

“Ugo forgot to get down and crawl like dwarf showed him. Now Ugo stuck!”

“Come on!” Catriona shouted. “We have to reach the surface before the ogre gets free!”

“If he does free himself, then we’ll have both him and several hundred goblins pursuing us!” Elidor said.

“What’s wrong with you, Ugo?” Sindri called out. There was a harsh, mocking edge to the voice of the normally sweet-natured kender. “I can’t believe an ogre as strong as you would let something as insignificant as a pair of stone columns stop him. I’ve heard it said that ogres are as stupid as they are strong, but now I know that ogres are way stupider than that!”

The ogre growled and pushed harder. The columns trembled slightly, but that was all.

“Oh, come on!” Sindri said. “Is that the best you can do? Those columns are so old that my arthritic grandmother could shove them aside without breaking a sweat!”

Ugo shrieked in frustration and rammed his body into the columns. They trembled once again, and this time the cracks on the ancient stone widened and began to spread. Bits of rock fell from the tunnel ceiling.

“Let’s move!” Davyn shouted.

Catriona grabbed Sindri’s hand and the six of them started
running once more. As they ran, Sindri fired off a last parting shot.

“An imp could do more damage to those columns than you!”

Ugo screamed in rage and threw himself against the columns with all his might. The tunnel filled with a loud cracking noise.

“Uh-oh,” Ugo said.

And then the columns—and all the rock and soil they had held up for so many centuries—came falling down upon Ugo’s head, burying the ogre and sealing off the entrance to Underfell.

Nearra sighed in relief. They were safe, thanks to Sindri’s taunting. She started to thank the kender, but weariness finally caught up with her and she fell asleep in Jax’s arms as the minotaur, along with the others, continued running.

S
he stood upon the battlements of a high stone tower. The wind was coming from the north and she faced into it, her long raven-black hair streaming behind her. A wind this strong normally meant a storm was coming, but the night sky was free of clouds and the stars shone clear and bright like chips of ice.

Two of the moons—Solinari the silver moon and Lunitari the red moon—were in low sanction this night. They hung near the horizon, their power weakened. A third moon, one that few on Krynn knew about and even fewer could see, was moments away from being at high sanction, the point of its greatest power. And when the moon Nuitari reached that point, it would be directly over her tower. It had been for this reason alone that she’d had the tower constructed on this very spot in the first place.

She had worked for many years to prepare for this night. She had studied ancient and forbidden mystic texts. She had built this tower and had fought to protect it from those who either wanted to stop her or to steal her prized magical possessions.

But soon all her efforts would bear sweet, dark fruit. For in mere moments, when Nuitari had reached the proper position in the sky, she would begin the spell she had created. And then,
using her tower as a focusing and channeling device, she would tap the vast mystic power of the moon and draw its dark energies into herself. When she was finished, she would be like a god. No, she would be a god, and then no living being on Krynn could stand against her.