Apparently, Aziz’s spell didn’t require vision to be deadly, because the hand didn’t vanish. It picked me up and slammed me downagain.I tried to grab it, but my flesh and blood hand passed through the ghost hand. Despite being incorporeal, somehow it was strong as a Fire Elemental, and it hoisted me effortlessly once more.
There was a loudthumpand Aziz bellowed in agony. Immediately the spectral hand vanished and I was dropped on my ass.
When theObscuradissipated, Krachma was standing there with his mace, while Aziz was lying on his back, with one leg bent at a really awful angle and a jagged bone sticking out the side. You didnotwant to get clubbed by a lob. The mercenary wizard saw the bloody bone protruding through his pants and began screaming for help.
All the help he got was Rade covering him with biting spiders.
With no real cover, I threw down another smoke cloud, followed by more screws. There was a lot of noise and chaos as we fought in the dark. Gerzog shouted orders, but I couldn’t make them out over the ringing in my ears. That spectral hand had clobbered me good.
When the last of ourObscurascleared, I realized the mercenaries were retreating, and I had no idea why, because they still had the numeric advantage. We’d killed several of them, but those who could escape were doing so. Bognar waslying there, and Morton was huddled at the top of the stairs. Gerzog must have carried Dathka off with him.
“Why are they running?”
Trax’s oblivious yet enthusiastic voice appeared in my mind.
“They are fleeing from the sea monster.”
“What? What sea monster?”
Rade looked up from driving his sword into Aziz’s neck to put him out of his misery. “There’s a sea monster now?”
“Apparently!”
“I arrived and began biting these very rude people, when they suddenly became very frightened, declaring a sea monster to be present, so the green one in command ordered them to fall back to their boats.”When Trax came around the side of a brick wall, he still had a severed arm clamped between his razor-sharp teeth. “Wait. Could they have been talking about me? Am I the sea monster?”
“You’reoursea monster, buddy.” I limped over and clapped Trax on the back, and it was a good thing I was wearing gloves, so I didn’t cut my hand on his hide. “Good job.”
“I’ll take the high ground and keep an eye on the enemy.” Azarin did a quickAscendand landed on top of the largest rock pile.
Bognar was still on his side, pathetic and bound. “Uh, guys, I think I’ve been shot.”
Rade went over and cut Bognar’s hands free. “Indeed, you have. That looks exceedingly painful.”
“It does hurt a whole lot.”
Gerzog’s blindly fired bullet had been meant for Morton, but he’d thrown himself down the stairs in the dark, and it found poor Bognar instead.
“How bad is it?”
“The bullet’s stuck in his thigh. There’s no exit wound. There’s not that much blood, so the artery has not beensevered.” Rade took out a silk handkerchief that was so white and clean that he surely must have stolen it from someone more respectable than us, and pushed it against the hole. When Bognar cried out, Rade gave him some encouragement. “You have done well, my friend. Your bravery is a credit to the Slumps. Now hold this here to keep your blood inside, and later it will leave a fine scar to accompany the story.”
Bognar gritted his teeth and kept pressure on his wound. “I’m sorry I let you down. Danny volunteered to watch that side of the island, but he didn’t say nothing until they were already right on top of us.”
I looked toward the body of our dead traitor, lying there blue-faced with his tongue sticking out and nearly bitten off, only a few feet from the wizard who’d killed him. “That wasn’t your fault, Bognar. It’s mine for being too trusting.”
Azarin was atop the rocks, lying on her belly to not provide a tempting target. “Gerzog and his men are heading for their boats. Looks like they left more men there to guard them. I think they’re going to regroup and all come back to wreck us.”
“Does he have Dathka?”
“He’s got her thrown over one shoulder. Unfortunately, she’s kicking, which means she’s still alive.”
I looked around, seeing no sign of our lizard man. “Where’s Sifuso and the lamp?”
Trax sent us a mental picture of our lizard man crawling across the ceiling of the flooding chamber and escaping through one of the newly formed holes in the roof. “The lizard told me he was going to keep the treasure away from the bad men.”
“That’s actually a good idea. Hey, everybody, Sifuso didn’t run on us. He’s hiding the lamp from Gerzog. Lacertians can swim and burrow, and they’re masters at concealment.”
Azarin called down to us, “Too bad he’s got the sense of direction of a brain-damaged griffon.”
