33 Transitions 2 The Pirate King

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The catapult crew let fly a third missile, and a fourth right behind.
On the bridge, Brambleberry's forces pushed hard against the magic barrage and the leading
edge managed to get across just as Sea Spriteslid in behind the secret, submerged wharf, a hund-
red yards downriver. Planks went out beside the securing ropes, and the crew wasted no time in
scrambling to the rail.
Robillard closed his eyes, trusting fully in his detection spell, and sensed for the magic target.
Still with his eyes closed, the wizard loosed a searing line of lightning into the water just before
the wharf's guide poles. His shot proved precise, severing the locking chain of the wharf. Buoyed
by a line of empty barrels, free of its shackles, the wharf lifted up and broke the water with a gre-
at splash and surge. The crew poured down.
"Now we have them," Deudermont cried.
He had barely finished speaking, though, when a great crash sounded upriver, as a span of the
century-old Harbor Cross Bridge collapsed into the Mirar.
"Back to stations!" Deudermont yelled to those crewmen still aboard. The captain, though, ran
to the nearest plank and scrambled over the rail, not willing to desert his crewmen who had alre-
ady left the ship. "Port! Port!" he cried for his ship to flee.
"By the giggling demons," Robillard cursed, and as soon as Deudermont hit the wharf run-
ning, the wizard commanded his elemental to let go the ship and slide under it to catch the drif-
ting flotsam. Then he helped free Sea Sprite by pulling a wand and shooting a line of lightning at
the heavy rope tying her off forward, severing it cleanly.
Before the crew aft could even begin to free that second heavy rope, Sea Sprite swung around
violently to the left, and a pair of unfortunate crewmen flipped over the rail to splash into the
cold Mirar.
Sputtering curses, the wizard blinked himself to the taffrail and blasted the second rope apart.
The first pieces of the shattered bridge expanse swept down at them. Robillard's elemental def-
lected the bulk, but a few got through, chasingSea Sprite as she glided away toward the harbor.
Robillard ordered his elemental to rush up and push her along. He breathed a sigh of relief as
he saw his friend Deudermont get off the makeshift dock, right before a large piece of the fallen
bridge slammed against it, shattering its planking and destroying its integrity, as it, too, became
another piece of wreckage. Barrels and dock planks joined the sweep of debris.
Robillard had to stay with the ship, at least long enough for his summoned monster to assist
Sea Sprite safely out of the river mouth and into quieter waters. He never took his eyes off of De-
udermont, though, thinking that his dearest friend was surely doomed, trapped as he was on the
northern bank with only a fraction of Brambleberry's forces in support, and a host of angry wi-
zards against them.
Drizzt saw it coming, a little burning ball of flame, enticing as a candlelight, gentle and be-
nign.
He knew better, though, and knew, too, that he couldn't hope to get out of its explosive range.
So he threw his shoulders back violently and kicked his feet out in front of him, and didn't even
try to break his fall as he slammed down on his back. He even resisted the urge to throw his arms
out wide to somehow mitigate the fall, instead curling them over his face, hands grasping his clo-
ak to wrap it around him.
Even covered as he was with the wet clothing and cloak, the darkness flew away when the fi-
reball exploded, and hot flames bit at Drizzt, igniting a thousand tiny fires in his body. It lasted
only an instant, mercifully, and winked out as immediately as it had materialized. Drizzt knew he
couldn't hesitate-the wizard could strike at him again within the span of a few heartbeats, or if
another wizard was inside the house, a second fireball might already be on its way.
He rolled sidelong away from his enemy to put out the little fires burning on his cloak and
clothing, and even left the cloak smoldering on the ground when he leaped back to his feet. Aga-
in Drizzt ran full out, leaning forward in complete commitment to his goal, a tight strand of birch
trees. He dived in headlong, rolling to a sitting position and curling up, expecting another blast.
Nothing happened.
Gradually, Drizzt uncoiled and looked back Regis's way, to see the halfling still crouched in
the muddied ground behind the damaged water trough.
Regis's little hands flashed the rough letters of the drow silent alphabet, approximating the qu-
estion, Is he gone?
His arsenal is depleted, perhaps, Drizzt's fingers replied.
Regis shook his head-he didn't understand.
Drizzt signaled again, more slowly, but the halfling still couldn't make sense of the too-intrica-
te movements.
"He may be out of spells," the drow called quietly, and Regis nodded enthusiastically-until a
rumble from inside the distant house turned them both that way.
Trailing a line of fire that charred the floorboards, it came through the open door, a great beast
comprised entirely of flame: orange, red, yellow, and white when it swirled more tightly. It se- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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