Extinction (War of the Spider Queen #4) 6

As the mouth of the tunnel came into view, Ryld's heart sank. Fresh snow lay ankle-deep on the slope that led up to the surface, and enor-mous flakes of white were falling into the tunnel so thickly it was im-possible to see more than a few paces beyond the opening. How were he and Halisstra ever going to find their way across the Cold Field in that curtain of white? Without landmarks to guide them, they were likely to wander in circles until the cold finally claimed them.

Over and above that small problem, Ryld was already tiring. His House insignia allowed him to levitate, so that Halisstra could tow him through the air like a child's floater, but the concentration required to sustain the brooch's magic was wearying him. Allowing it to lapse, he sank gently to the ground and contemplated the snow falling into the tunnel.

Halisstra shivered, making him aware of just how woefully inad-equate her clothes were to ward off winter's bitter chill.

"Do you have any magic that will keep you warm?" Ryld asked.

She nodded and answered, "Eilistraee will grant me a spell that will help me resist the cold, but. . ."

"But what?" Ryld prompted.

Halisstra sighed and said, "It only lasts a short time. I'd have to recast it - several times - to keep warm all the way to the edge of the Cold Field. And that would mean not being able to recast the spell that's keepingyou alive."

"Then leave me."

The look Halisstra gave him needed no words.

"How long do I have?" he asked instead of arguing.

"The spell I cast on you should last the rest of the night, at least - until just after the sun rises," she told him. "I'll use my magic sparingly until then and count on the sun to keep me warm afterward. That should leave enough magic to slow the poison a second time. Let me know - immediately - if your pain worsens. The spell's duration isn't that precise. It could wear off suddenly, without warning. If the poison returns full force to your body, the shock could kill you. The fewer times I have to recast the spell, the better."

Ryld nodded.

Halisstra shivered, then added, "Let's get moving. I'll be warmer if I'm walking."

Once again Ryld levitated. Halisstra trudged up the slope and onto the open plain, boots squeaking in the fresh snow, towing him behind her, then she broke into a jog. After no more than a dozen steps Ryld was unable to see the worm hole behind them. Ahead lay a thick veil of falling snow that hid the landscape from sight. No stars or moon could be seen overhead. The sky was a solid, sullen gray. Thick flakes landed on the weapons master's close-shaved scalp, melted, and froze again.

For a time,the rapid pace Halisstra set kept her warm. But by the time the snow had deepened to calf level, she was shivering. She pressed on until her teeth began to chatter, then at last she paused and whispered a quick prayer to Eilistraee, her breath fogging in the bitterly cold air. When it was done she breathed easier. Gradually her shivers subsided.

As she'd predicted, the soothing effects of the spell didn't last long. Halisstra was able to continue for some time more, her jog slowed to a walk by the deepening snow, but then she began to shiver again. When she raised a hand to her lips, blowing on it, Ryld saw to his dismay that her fingertips had a grayish tinge. The surface elves had a word for it: frostbite. Ryld was coming to un-derstand why they'd chosen such an odd term. His own fingers and toes - and the end of his nose - felt raw, as if invisible creatures were gnawing on them.

"That spell doesn't last long enough," he observed.

"No," Halisstra agreed, her teeth starting to chatter again. "It doesn't."

Ryld squinted at the thickly falling snow that formed a curtain on every side. Though the sky was getting lighter, he could no longer see the battlefield debris that littered the ground due to the snow. A moment later, however, Halisstra's boot crunched down onto a piece of frozen bone, snapping it, reminding him that they were still on the Cold Field.

"We're not going to make it," Ryld said. "Not without help."

He paused as pain twisted his gut, making him gasp.

Halisstra's eyes widened.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "It can't be the spell ending - it's too soon."

Ryld allowed himself to sink to the ground and stood for a time with his hands on his thighs, breathing away the pain. When he felt steady again, he answered her question.

"It's the strain of levitating. I'm weak. Your spell delayed the poison, but by then the venom had already done a fair bit of damage, by the feel of it." He nodded at the Crescent Blade strapped to her backpack. "I'm expendable, but you have a job to do. If you're going to make it off this plain, you've got to save your magic for yourself. Leave me."

Halisstra didn't argue. She merely stared at Ryld, her eyes watering.

Lips pressed in a tight line, she took his hand and squeezed it. He nodded at her, encouraging her, and she started to turn away.

Then she stopped.

"No," she said, turning back to him again. "There must be a way. Let me think. There must be a spell I can use - something that will help me to move more quickly."

Ryld nodded, staring dully at the falling snow. The flakes drifted straight down from the sky; there wasn't a breath of wind. Strange, then, that patches of falling snow seemed to be swirling, taking vague shape and breaking apart again . . .

With a start, he realized what he was seeing.

Halisstra,he signed, not daring to speak out loud.Ghosts. We're surrounded by them,

"We m-m-may be among them, s-s-soon enough," Halisstra said through chattering teeth. "It's nearly d-d-dawn. C-come closer s-so I can c-c-cast - "

Quiet,Ryld signed.They can hear you.

One of the ghosts had glanced briefly in their direction as Halis-stra spoke. As it did, it seemed to solidify a bit. Ryld recognized it as a soldier, his face so smudged with soot it was almost as dark as Ryld's own. The front of his wooden shield was burned nearly to charcoal. The ghost remained corporeal just long enough for Ryld to recog-nize the emblem on the back of its tunic - the tree of Lord Velar's army - then it dissolved into a swirl amid the snowflakes.

Ryld could see dozens of the ghostly figures, moving in the same direction he and Halisstra had been. He caught only glimpses of them - like the first soldier, they seemed to be shifting between solid and mistlike form - but those glimpses were enough to tell him that it was an army in retreat. Shoulders slumped and eyes staring dully at the ground, the soldiers listlessly dragged their weapons behind them. Every now and then a ghostly animal of the Surface Realms would race past, the rider on its back whipping it frantically. When-ever that happened the foot soldiers would glance fearfully over their shoulders as if looking to see what was pursuing the rider, and some would break into a run. After a few stumbling steps, however, theyslowed to a trudge again, some of them falling and failing to rise, their ghostly forms sinking into the snow.

The army of ghosts took little notice of Ryld and Halisstra. The soldiers seemed to sense, somehow, that the drow were also walk-ing wounded - that they too were trying to retreat from that cold, lifeless plain. One of the soldiers - a standard-bearer who still car-ried an iron pole topped with a pennant emblazoned with the tree emblem - crumpled to the ground right in front of Ryld, taking no notice of him. Though the pennant brushed Ryld's arm as it fell toward the snow, the pole itself made no mark in the smooth white surface. Like the standard-bearer's body, it sank into the snow with-out a trace.

Ryld noticed that the snow in front of him was slightly humped. Curious, he reached into its cold depths and felt a skeleton, and be-side it a cold metal pole, its surface flaked with rust. Like the ghostly officer Ryld had met earlier, the soldier had acted out the final mo-ments of his life, crumpling once again in the same spot where he had died, centuries gone by.

Ryld, feeling the pain in his gut start to grow, wondered if he was about to join him.

Halisstra touched the symbol of Eilistraee that hung from her belt.

"The s-s-spell," she said, shivering violently, then switching to sign language.I should cast it soon.

Ryld's attention, however, was focused on a ghostly rider racing toward them on one of the surface mounts - a "horse," Ryld sud-denly remembered it was called. The horse's feet did not disturb the snow, yet Ryld could hear - faintly - the sound of hooves strik-ing the ground. The horse was still strong, still capable of running swiftly - and was corporeal, at least for the moment. And that gave him an idea.

Grasping the fallen standard-bearer's pole, he wrenched it up out of the snow and stood as straight as the wracking pain in his gut would allow.

"In the name of Lord Velar, halt!" he shouted. "I bear a message that must reach your commander's ears."

For an anxious moment, Ryld thought his ruse wasn't going to work. The standard in his hands was ancient and rusted, the pennant long since rotted away. But the officer seemed to see it as it once had been. Immediately, the ghost pulled up its mount. Fully corporeal, the dead man stared down at Ryld. Its horse mirrored the ghost's appre-hension as it flared its nostrils and - perhaps catching scent of a dragon that was long-since dead in Ryld's time - whinnied nervously.

The undead officer's eyes narrowed, however, as it glanced be-tween Ryld and Halisstra.

"You aren't soldiers," the ghost said. "You're not even human."

"We're drow," Ryld said quickly, silently praying that his race had not been at war with those humans in their day. "Dark elves from the Realms Belowwho have come to fight beside Lord Velar."

"You're too late. Look around you. Lord Velar's army is defeated. The dragons . . ."

The ghost shuddered, unable to go on.

"Yes, I know." Ryld raised his left hand, drawing the officer's eye to the dragon-shaped ring of Melee-Magthere on his finger. "I am quite familiar with dragons, and I know how terrible a weapon they can be. I have knowledge that can help Lord Velar defeat them - if I can reach him in time. Loan me your horse, and this defeat may yet be turned into a victory."

Behind Ryld, Halisstra stood shivering, her arms tucked tight to her chest.

The officer gave one last nervous glance over his shoulder, then swung down out of the saddle.

"Take her," the apparition said, thrusting the reins into Ryld's hand. The ghost drew its sword and turned back toward the direc-tion from which it had ridden. " 'Better to die proud than live in shame,' " it said, reciting the words like a quote.

The ghost officer strode away, dissolving into a swirl of mist amidst the thickly falling snow.

The horse, however, remained. As it shifted its weight, its legs ploughed a furrow in the snow. Reaching up to stroke its neck and steady it, Ryld found that he could smell the sweat and dust that clung to its hair. The animal's body gave off a welcome heat - one that Halisstra, shivering violently, could use to stay alive.

"Can you ride it?" he asked her - a bit belatedly, he realized.

Halisstra gave a shiver that might have been a nod.

"I've r-r-ridden lizards. This beast sh-shouldn't b-b-be any more d-difficult. Wh-what is it?"

"It's called a horse. I saw one for sale in the Bazaar in Menzober-ranzan a few years ago. Heard it fetched a pretty penny but only lived a couple days," he said, then realized again that time was of the essence. "Sit in the saddle, and I'll - "

A wave of pain flowed through Ryld's gut, forcing him to gasp.

Halisstra gave him a worried look.

Ryld, irritated by his lack of control, forced the pain out of his awareness. He gave Halisstra a tight smile as he handed her the reins.

"You ride," he said, "and I'll hold on, levitating behind. The ani-mal will be able to move faster that way. With luck, we'll reach the forest and make contact with the priestesses before the spell you cast on me runs out."

"Not luck," Halisstra chastised. "With the b-blessing of the g-g-goddess."

She gave him a brief kiss - with lips that seemed as cold as those of the dead - then she climbed, still shivering, into the saddle.