Extinction

Gromph was able, with a bit or concentration, to see through the rat's eyes. Kyorli was running through a tunnel, weaving through a forest of moving feet. The feet belonged to duergar, who were working in pairs, dragging away the bodies of their fellow soldiers. Two duergar, carrying the corpse or a slain companion, ran into a side tunnel.

Kyorli, Gromph commanded. That tunnel. Look inside.

Kyorli scurried to the tunnel mouth and peered in. Seeing through her eyes, Gromph saw what he'd expected: a duergar wearing a gray, hooded mantle and carrying a staff set with an egg-sized gem with a deep crack running down its center, symbol of the god Laduguer. The cleric stood in front of a dozen bodies that had been heaped on the floor of the tunnel, waving his staff over them as he cast a spell. A moment later the bodies began to stir. As one, the dead soldiers?animated with a gruesome semblance of life?rose to their feet and filed out of the tunnel.

Follow them, Gromph ordered, Watch where they go.

Kyorli did, from a safe distance. The undead duergar marched in a jerking line toward the mouth of the main tunnel. Reaching it, they cook up positions behind the siege wail, oblivious to yet another cloud of acidic vapor that boiled down from the cavern above, blistering their undead skin.

Gromph had to admit the duergar were clever. With Lolth's priestesses bereft of their magic there was no one to turn an undead army back?or seize control of it. Once the magical fire had done its work they would march, unmolested, on Sorcere, Melee-Magthere, and Arach-Tinilith?then Menzoberranzan proper. And the only mage powerful enough to stop them was imprisoned far beneath the city?or so their commanders thought.

The view through Kyorli's eyes shifted suddenly as the rat was forced to scurry out of the path of a running soldier.

That will do, Gromph told his familiar. Find yourself a place to hide. You'll be able to join me in Sorcere soon enough.

Returning his awareness to his own body, Gromph strode with confidence to the balcony. He pulled from his pocket a small piece of engraved bone, and held out his palm to the two students who turned toward him.

"I need a small piece of raw meat," he told them.

Norulle glanced around. "But Master, there is none here," he said.

Prath met Gromph's eye and slowly nodded. Drawing a dagger that had been hidden up a sleeve of his piwafwi, he placed his left hand on the rail of the balcony and sliced off the fleshy tip of his little finger. Picking up the bloody piece?and ignoring the grimace of his fellow student?he offered it to Gromph with his good hand.

Gromph smiled.

"Well done, apprentice," he told the boy. "You'll go far. What House are you, by the way?"

Prath smiled through his pain, clenching the stub of his severed finger against his palm to staunch the blood, and answered, "House Baenre, Master."

"Ah." Gromph had never met the lad before?he must have been a child of the lowest of the noble ranks.

Prath wasn't quick-witted?any other student might have used a spell to summon a minor creature into his hand, killed it, and offered Gromph its flesh, instead?but he was loyal. Gromph could use that.

Smearing the blood on the bit of bone, Gromph cast his spell. With a flick of his hand, he hurled it in the direction of the wall that hid the duergar positions.

Then he shouted his command: "Break off your attack. Turn and fight the duergar, instead!"

Spells continued to rain down upon the fungus-stem wall. It took the other mages several moments to realize that the catapults had stopped firing. Then the undead duergar soldiers turned their backs on the wall. With unsteady, mindless motions they trotted into the tunnel that led to the Dark Dominion, weapons in hand. A moment later, the clash of battle echoed out of the tunnel, as they engaged their still-living companions in mortal combat.

Seeing that, the remaining warriors of Melee-Magthere burst out of their pyramid. Rushing forward with swords raised, they clambered over the siege wall and immediately began tearing both it and the catapults apart. Others picked up the stonefire bombs the undead duergar had left behind and heaved them into the tunnel.

Gromph smiled grimly as he watched. Eventually he turned and looked out beyond Tier Breche, at the city below. Despite the toehold the enemy had gained?and lost?in Tier Breche, Menzoberranzan seemed untouched by war. The stalactites and stalagmites of the noble manors still sparkled, and a ring of magical fire was creeping up the great spire of Narbondel. Gromph frowned, wondering which of the wizards of House Baenre had been keeping it going in his absence. It seemed that he was not quite as irreplaceable as he would have liked. He'd have to speak to Triel about that.

Then, after making his report to his matron mother, he would see what he could do to put an end to the siege.

Chapter Nineteen