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“Yeah, say stuff like that.” I gave him a sarcastic thumbs-up. “You’re anatural.”
With that, I sped back the way I’d come, pausing only to check the fallen dark elves in case one of them wore my necklace. No suchluck.
My lungs were inflating fully with blood soaring through my veins as I raced down the ramp, skidded around the edge, and ran down the stairs. My rapid heartbeats hammered my ribcage so hard that I could feel them as I ran. That manticore venom had either turned me into Wonder Woman, or I was about to keel over from a heartattack.
I came face to face with a dark elf running up the stairs and reacted a split second before he did, my reflexes faster than usual. Chopper’s hilt bashed down on the top of his head, bone crunching. I yanked his crossbow from his hand and readied my sword for another strike. He collapsed. Apparently, I was stronger than usualtoo.
“Definitely going to have a heart attack,” I muttered, racing off, though I had no idea where I was going, and Sindari wasn’t here to lead me thistime.
I passed through several intersections, continuing straight and hoping for the best as I tried to gauge how far I’d come. Was I under the chambernow?
Booms and thuds echoed down from above me. The dark elves fightingZav?
The ceiling quaked. He must have gotten his opportunity to throw an attack. Bits of rock and brick tumbled free all around me, pelting me on the shoulders. Fear drove my legs even faster as I envisioned the tunnel collapsing on top of me. I almost raced past a narrow set of stairs heading upward to myleft.
Human and animal skulls lined the walls, and the handrail was made from femur bones. A velvet cord hung across the entrance, as if to deny access to the reserved seating area at a pretentious theater. I slashed through it with Chopper and ran up the stairs. Thishadto go to thatdais.
As I charged up two levels, another whomp of power emanated from somewhere above. The stone stair treads lurched so hard that I tumbled into the wall. The femur railing jabbed into my waist, and a human skull tumbled from its mount and shattered next to my feet. Chunks of brick and ancient mortar fell all around me, bouncing off my head, and I wished for some old-fashioned platearmor.
The ground continued to quake, but I propelled myself upward. Red light came into view as I burst onto the last landing. The shouts and clangs of a battle floated to me, and, like the insane person I was, I rushed towardit.
With Chopper leading, I burst out of the tunnel right beside thedais.
Smoke and dust filled the red-tinged air of the great chamber. Zav stood on the railing now, conjuring fiery yellow spears and hurling them down like meteorites upon the dark elvesbelow.
They kept shooting back at him, but the spears somehow zigzagged and incinerated crossbow quarrels before striking down to the floor—or hitting an enemy. Some of the dark elves had the power to create invisible shields and repel the magical projectiles. Others burst into flames and ran out of the chamber like ambulatorytorches.
A fireball slammed into Zav, almost knocking him from the railing. Rage and pain burned in his eyes as he steadied himself. With sudden certainty, I knew he couldn’t attack and keep a magical shield around himself at the same time. He could probably only concentrate on one or theother.
I almost chucked one of my grenades toward a knot of dark elves responsible for most of the attacks heading Zav’s way, but right now, everyone’s focus was on him. Nobody knew I wasthere.
I peered around the bone statue and toward the dais, hoping it wasn’t too late to rescue the girl. The old dark-elf female—the priestess responsible for the ritual—had moved, and horror rushed through my veins. Was I toolate?
No, there she was. On the other side of the dais and the bone statue, her back to the wall. She still held the dagger to the terrified girl’s throat, was still using her for ashield.
“Dragon! This is your last chance. Leave this place or—” The priestess’s gaze scoured the chamber and the dais, then locked on to the egg-platter artifact. Understanding lit fire in her yellow eyes. “Or I destroy what you camefor.”
The priestess tossed aside the girl, who was too wrapped up to use her legs and tumbled to the floor, and charged toward the artifact. Zav spotted her and pointed his sword at her. A beam of liquid fire shot across the chamber, over the heads of the dark elves and straight toward herheart.
She halted in front of the artifact and raised her hands. An invisible barrier formed a foot in front of her, and Zav’s beam deflected into the ceiling. It started boring a hole into the stone above thechamber.
I could only sense the invisible barrier, not see it, but I could tell from the way the beam bounced off that it was flat, rather than convex. Off to the side of the priestess, I drew Fezzik, lined up the shot, and fired without remorse. If she’d been about to sacrifice one girl, I was positive she had slain countlessothers.
Because she looked hard to kill, I held down the trigger for automatic firing. She wasn’t looking at me, and the bullets tore into the side of her head. She toppled sideways, knocking over the vat of boiling blood. It fell on top of her, and my gorge rose as the steaming stuff flowed out all over thedais.
Zav’s hard gaze turned toward me. I thought I’d been helping him, but I had the distinct impression from the anger still marking his face that he didn’t appreciate me buttingin.
Movement to my side drew my attention. The alchemist and the bastard who was wearing my necklace were charging atme.
I whipped Fezzik toward them, but I was too late. One of them hurled a wave of magical power that catapulted me over thedais.
Pain slammed into my back as I landed on the other side next to the crying girl. The male dark elf lifted a hatchet to throw at me. I would have rolled to the side, but I was afraid the weapon would hit the girl. I aimed my gun, knowing I was toolate.
But as the hatchet left his hand, an orange fiery beam incinerated it.Zav.
His beam moved across and sliced through the throats of the alchemist and her assistant like a chainsaw downing saplings. For a second, I gaped in horror as their heads thudded to the stone floor, their bodies following soonafter.
When a dozen voices cried out with curses and orders toget the human, I jumped to my feet. Before grabbing the girl, I dug out my grenades as quickly as I could. I pulled the tabs and threw them at the dark elves advancing toward me like a tidalwave.
Then I slung the girl over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry and ran across the dais toward the door. I grabbed the dragon’s artifact on the way past, ducking when the twang of crossbow bolts reached my ear. Quarrels skipped off the bone statue in all directions, one piercing my side. I gasped, wobbling with pain, but caught my balance and ran on, using the platter as a partialshield.
The first grenade went off with a resounding boom that shook the chamber every bit as much as the magical attacks had. Maybe more. The others went off in a chain reaction that hurled me against the wall again. I glimpsed the balcony tumbling down with Zav still standing on the railing. A huge cloud of dust hid his landing from my view, but I heard the great crash, and his roar of fury. Or was thatpain?
There was nothing I could do to help from so far away. With the floor shaking under me, I grabbed my charm necklace from the floor by the headless dark elf. I rushed through the back exit and into the tunnel as massive cracks emanated from the chamber’sceiling.
Huge slabs of brick and stone tumbled down, and I caught a whiff of fresh night air as I raced away. Everything was quaking now, like the largest earthquake Seattle had everseen.
As I raced toward the only way out I knew about, I feared there was no way I could make it before the entire tunnel systemcollapsed.
