Extinction

Acting purely on his soldier's instincts, Valas touched the nine-pointed star pi

Seizing the opportunity, the other two wraiths rushed forward. Before they could close with Danifae, however, Valas leaped into the air, his magical boots propelling him upward. Arms wide, he drove the points of his kukris into the wraiths. As Danifae's mace had, the blades passed through the bodies of the wraiths without stopping. The one in his right hand exploded with magical energy, but the one in his left merely tore a rent in the keening wraith's mistlike body.

Unable to avoid following through on his knife thrusts, Valas found both arms engulfed by wraiths. A shudder passed through him, and he fell back to the ground in a barely controlled landing, stumbling on the invisible, shifting gems. He thought his heart was going to falter and stop as the ache that chilled him to the bone was drawn upward into his chest. Then it was gone, absorbed by the amulet that hung around his neck, which suddenly felt much heavier.

Having driven the wraiths away from Danifae, Valas expected her to make her escape. Surely she was smart enough to realize that Pharaun had paused not for her but for the wand which only he could see. Three more wraiths were nearly on them, and others were descending through the ceiling every instant. But instead of fleeing toward the portal, Danifae dropped to her knees and began patting the ground.

"Protect me," she barked up at Valas, not even bothering to look up.

Valas considered for a heartbeat?battle-captive or no, Danifae was a priestess of Lolth, and her word was his command?then he shook his head.

"No time," he bellowed. "Jump!"

Ducking just in time as a wraith swooped past, he called upon the magic of his star-shaped amulet and stepped between the dimensions a second time, arriving at the portal. He paused just long enough to observe Danifae suffer the same fate as Pharaun, her face blanching to a pale gray as the wraiths swept through her body. Meanwhile Pharaun had managed to dispatch another wraith with his dust?leaving his pouch empty.

Glancing up at a wraith descending through a tangle of exposed tree root, Valas suddenly realized something. The surface could be no more than a few paces above the ceiling. After a quick calculation of the time, he realized he had overlooked one of the most powerful weapons of all. He pointed up at the ceiling with one of his daggers?goring a low-flying wraith in the process?and shouted to Pharaun.

"There's daylight above?use it!"

"Ah!" Pharaun exclaimed, understanding instantly.

One hand darted to his pocket. He barked out a spell, flicking a pinch of seeds into the air. Even as he did, six wraiths dived down toward him and another four at Valas, eyes blazing. Then, like a cork being pulled from a wine bottle, a portion of the ceiling disappeared as the spell bored a tu

He closed his eyes and breathed a deep sigh of relief. Then he glanced down at his sun amulet. The metal had lost its bright gold sheen. It was left a dull, lead gray. All of the rays were drooping.

Valas tucked the amulet inside his tunic, out of sight. It had done its duty.

So had he.

"I'm leaving," he told Pharaun and Danifae. "You two can stay and fill your pockets with treasure if you like."

He glanced down at the floor and saw the magic that had limned the portal in light had faded. No matter, he remembered where it was. As he stepped forward onto the portal, Pharaun, the vault?and Danifae, who had risen to her feet and was glaring at him with eyes that blazed more furiously than the wraiths' had?all disappeared.

The air around Valas was cooler and more humid, a welcome change from the vault's oppressive atmosphere of death and dust. He had the sense of enormous distance in front of him and a stone wall at his back. Shaking his head to clear the slight dizziness that traveling through the portal had produced, he saw Quenthel and Jeggred standing nearby on a narrow shelf of rock that was splattered with bat guano. Far below the ledge a vast, dark lake stretched as far as the eye could see, illuminated by beams of winter sunlight that shone in through crevices in the rock above. The ceiling of the cavern was high overhead, but even from a distance Valas could see the thousands of bats that clung, sleeping, to it. When dusk fell the air would be thick with them.

"Where's Pharaun?" Quenthel asked urgently, confirming Valas's earlier guess about himself and Danifae being little more than wraith fodder, in her eyes.

Jeggred, meanwhile, sniffed at the rock face, prodding it with a finger.

"We can't go back," he growled. "Pharaun didn't follow us?and we can't go back."

"Pharaun's still in the vault," Valas told them.

The vipers in Quenthel's whip gave Valas a baleful look.

"You left him?" Quenthel spat.

"Why not? The wraiths are defeated?no thanks to you," Valas grumbled?then realized he'd spoken out loud.

Stepping back a pace, he lowered his eyes, but the reprimand he'd expected did not come. Quenthel's whip was still in her belt, and her attention was entirely on the wall behind him. Her body radiated tension as she waited, silently staring at the wall, as if willing Pharaun to step through it.

A few moments later, Pharaun obliged by emerging from the portal, together with Danifae, whose legs were articulated normally again, Pharaun's spell having ended.

Jeggred growled softly at the mage, but Quenthel silenced him with a curt wave of her hand as she spotted the object Danifae held in her hands. It looked, to Valas's unschooled eyes, like a forked twig, plated in silver, but Quenthel seemed to recognize it at once.

"A wand of location," she said, holding out her hand in silent demand.

"It is indeed, Mistress," said Danifae, her face expressionless. "The rogues who were in the vault before us must have dropped it."

She handed the wand to Quenthel, bowing her head.

Quenthel stroked Danifae's hair in what Valas, had he not known Quenthel as well as he did, would have taken to be a sign of affection.

"At last, Danifae, you've proven your usefulness. This will make finding the ship of chaos much easier."

So fixated on the wand was Quenthel that she missed something that Valas did not: the look on Pharaun's face. Once again, the Master of Sorcere was plotting something. Valas, neither wanting to know nor caring what it might be, turned away and stared, brooding, out at the lake. Then, spotting something in the distance with his keen eyes, he stiffened.

"What is it?" Pharaun asked, peering in the same direction. "More wraiths?"

Valas shook his head, and pointed to a distant spot where bats were frantically circling above a disturbance in the water.

"Something's stirring up the bats. . something big. And it's headed this way."