Gunggari reached into the haversack and pulled out one of the vials, glinting with red highlights. He hurled it at the creature bedeviling Ususi. The creature evaded, but as the vial flew past, it exploded in flame. The wave front of fire expanded, encompassing the frantically flapping mud creature in an instant, before burning itself out. All that remained of the flame was smoke, and all that remained of the animate ooze was a crumbling form of flash-dried earth, which fell quickly into the unlit silence of the Nadir.
Gunggari said, “I wondered what the ‘Bead of Flame’ might accomplish. Good thing that I did not drink it!” The Oslander grinned at his witticism.
The remaining visible creature, which continued to evade Elowen’s reach, reconsidered its chances. Breaking off, it made a beeline for the glowing exit.
“Don’t let it get away,” yelled Marrec. He wondered what had become of his spear, it wasn’t like the enchanted shaft to take so long to come back “Return, Justlance!” he yelled in frustration.
Elowen drove Dymondheart point first into the root-path with one hand while her other hand simultaneously pulled out her longbow. Problem was, she didn’t have it strung, though she made a valiant effort to quickly pull it
Ususi flipped the latch on the bright yellow wand pouch she wore on her belt, quick-drawing a slender glass rod, also yellow, but translucent.
A sizzle of magic leaped from the wand’s tip, closing the gap between Ususi and the creature in an instant, but the bolt continued past the creaturewho had not been its true targetand impacted the portal. A slab of crystal force sprang up, completely blocking the doorway. The daylight beyond continued to stream through but filtered by the translucent wall to a brilliant gold.
The fleeing creature managed to avoid dashing itself against the newly created wall. It squealed in rage, but instead of turning to face its foes, it winged off into the darkness, snarling threats all the while.
Ususi sheathed her wand in satisfaction. She said, “The Wand of Citrine Force is nearly spent. I like to conserve it… but I did not want that beast warning its master that we were so close.”
Marrec had privately speculated about that wand pouch. He said, “You may have saved us a nasty greeting on the other side. Good thinking.”
Ususi smiled, and Marrec found himself smiling back. She had a good smile, when she chose to flash it.
Justlance sparkled out of emptiness, falling into Marrec’s grasp. “Finally,” he murmured.
“Everyone ok?” wondered Gunggari.
When no one spoke up immediately, Marrec said, “Good. Surprise is hopefully our friend still. Ususi, dismiss your blockade. Fallon can’t be far, and poor Ash with him.”
As Elowen finished stringing her bow, Ususi walked across the oozing surface to the blocked portal. She touched the tip of her wand to it and looked at Marrec. “Ready?” she asked.
Marrec took up a position directly in front of the door. Gunggari was right behind him, and Elowen was off to the side, an arrow strung. He nodded.
Ususi pulled the wand away from the crystal surface. The wall wavered and was gone, as if it had never truly existed. Beyond, Marrec saw the edges of a great forest.
Behind, Elowen said, “It’s the Rawlinswood. Looks like Fallon couldn’t penetrate to its heart in Dun Tharos. We’re lucky.”
Marrec studied the scene carefully. Nothing moved, save branches idly swaying in a breeze. No sound penetrated the portal’s mouth. A great arch of weathered and vine-encrusted stone was visible at the forest’s edge, standing like a great gate. Further in, he thought he spied another. Marrec estimated that the mouth of the portal was not more than twenty feet from the first arch.
“What’re those?” he asked Elowen.
“‘Those’ are the reason I know where we are; I recognize them. They are called the Arches of Xenosi. Sounds scary, but they’re just another ruin claimed by the Rawlinswood.”
“Fallon’s gone that way,” said Gunggari. “By the look of it, he’s moving quickly.”
He pointed to the ground immediately in front of the portal. The unmistakable prints of small hooves angled toward the first arch.
“He’ll never know what hit him,” promised Marrec. “Let’s go.”
They stepped through the portal mouth directly into the mouth of a savage ambush.
CHAPTER 15
Trashing branches behind the portal, poised out of sight, fell on them as they exited the Nadir. Marrec was knocked over and rolled through the dirt. Pain lanced his side. His vision was filled with violently swaying tree limbs, leafless and gnarled, like a forest seen too close in a thunderstorm. He couldn’t see his friends. The cleric tried to stand, but a large branch smashed him face down onto the ground.
He heard Elowen calling to her blade Dymondheart and the sound of Ususi chanting, closer, behind him, maybe. Another effort saw him to his feet.
Constructions of leafless, interlocking branches, each forming a sinister humanoid shape, surrounded them. Faceless, their empty visages inspired terror all the more. The sound of their combined movement was horrible to hear: a rush of creaks, the dry saw of wood on wood, and a low roar like wind in the trees. Some were only three feet high, but others topped ten. One of these large ones again menaced Marrec, but he dodged the massive arm as it again tried to smash him flat.
An eruption of flame to his left and behind caused many of the creatures to flinch. He heard Ususi’s voice
“You twigblights don’t like that, do you? Just wait, I have more.”
Amidst the rushing, thrashing branches, he saw the mage.
Ususi stood in a self-created circular clearing littered with burning twigs and branches. The creatures outside the periphery seemed more interested in staying away from Ususi than closing on her. The portal mouth at Ususi’s back, from which he’d exited, was still visible as a dark void in the air. More of the creatures shuffled forward from behind the portal, skirting its edge. They had lain in wait, that was obvious. So much for his theory about their arrival being unmarked.
A knot of activity to his right and closer to the first arch drew his eyehe could see the gleam of Dymondheart as it rose above the branch tops of their attackers. Elowen was there, but where was Gunggari?
Deciding his friend could take care of himself, he rushed toward Ususi. Her magic was impressive, but his experience taught him that impressive magic often came at the price of a fragile body. Apparently, one of the large monsters had the same thought. Just as Marrec was about to reach Ususi’s side, a branch crashed down on the mage’s head. The woman fell like a puppet with severed strings.
“Ususi!” he screamed.
Justlance finally in hand, he drove its spear point into the dark heartwood of the creature, using all the strength granted him by his glovesit felt as if he could draw more or less strength as he needed. He realized at the same time that the reservoir of might offered by the Nentyarch’s gift was not without limit. He used up a great quantity of that strength with that thrust. The twigblight, as Ususi had called it, groaned like a live thing, its branches flailing randomly as it was felled. When it struck the ground, it shattered into hundreds of smaller unmoving pieces. Where its heart would have been were it a living creature, a double-handful of stinking mud burst and oozed. Marrec was reminded of the ooze creatures they’d faced within the Nadir. He realized that his strike for the “heart” of the monster had been a lucky strike indeed. He doubted his spear would have the same lethal effect on these creatures if he didn’t pierce the ‘heartwood.’
The still-burning splinters of the creatures Ususi had blasted seemed a deterrent to the other, smaller stick monstrosities. He stood, and Ususi lay, at the center of that safe zone. The dark portal to the Nadir remained open, only a step away, held open by the solidified mass of mud and ooze that made up the island on the opposite side. He considered pulling Ususi back through to get her out of harm’s way. That would mean leaving Gunggari and Elowen to their fate, something Marrec could not bring himself to do.