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The scrying spell opened into the portal's arch, again showing the seashore. With a push of will, Alustriel commanded it to re-center, to show the dark elf that was linked to the spell-bound locket in her hand.
The image shivered and reformed. The scene of combat shocked her, and for a moment the spell's control almost slipped from her power. Two horsemen crowded the figure of the drow, trying to get a clean strike on him. Guenhyvar bared her teeth, her snarl silent in the scrying spell's view, as she snapped and sprang at two quick dogs.
"Let us through!" Bruenor shouted, ax in hand, and ready to rush to his friend's aid.
A horse blocked their view for a moment, and in that moment Alustriel commanded the portal to open, there in a place it was never meant to open. The ancient spell groaned, a sound they all felt grating through the marrow of their bones...
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Bruenor Battlehammer stepped through the portal, and it made every hair on his body itch. "Elf!" He bellowed, as the now-riderless horse almost trampled him, passing so close that its tail whipped at his face. There was a glow behind him, and he knew it was Catti-brie with her bow, ready to guard his back.
And then he saw his missing friend again. He was on the ground, and a human man kneeled over him. Bruenor tried to make sense of what his eyes were telling him. The drow's lavender eyes were wide with pain and shock. He could see the hilt of a dagger jutting rudely from the ranger's side.
As Bruenor charged across the intervening space, he watched the man bare his teeth in a savage grimace, reach down, and grasp the dagger. Drizzt screamed, the sound torn from his throat without a moment's hesitation, without even an attempt to resist it. His back arched from the pain of it.
Bruenor howled with anger and swung his ax. The human looked up at the last moment and caught a glancing blow from the flat instead of the blade on the side of his head. Eyes still open with surprise he crumpled on top of the elf.
"Bruenor!" Called a clear female voice, and he looked back to see Alustriel standing in the doorway of the portal. "I cannot hold it for much longer!" Strain showed in her face, in the set of her shoulders.
He grabbed the front of Drizzt's tunic with one hand and pulled. The ranger's body was dragged across the ground, carrying the assassin's with it. With a dwarfish curse, Bruenor kicked at the body. The human rolled over, and Bruenor saw Drizzt's fingers, gripped tight in the man's shirt.
As the dwarf tried to decide if he should just drag them both through the portal, or if it would be easier to stop and pry the elf's fingers off, a dark-haired slip of a girl rushed out at him, screaming and trying to pry his fingers off of Drizzt. He realized with a sinking feeling in his guts that the girl who was trying in such a frantic way to save Drizzt from him looked disturbingly like the young man he had just struck down.
"Bruenor!" screamed Catti-brie, and he looked back. The portal wavered in his sight like a mirage in the desert. There wasn't much time.
One dog yelped as Guenhyvar finally got a good swipe at it, and then another.
"Durned elf, why does everything you get into have to be so complicated?" He grabbed the girl by her shirt, and shoved her towards the portal. She took a step, two. Her eyes were wide with distress. He caught up with her again, pulling the man's unconscious body and Drizzt's pain-wracked one.
"Go!" He bellowed at her and she took another step towards the portal. He spared the panther a glance as he dragged his burden towards the way out. "You, too, cat! Git!"
The portal was screaming now, a sound that to grated on his teeth and ached in the hinge of his jaw. Catti-brie stepped out, shouldering the girl into the portal without lowering her bow, scanning the area for enemies. He turned his attention to his burdens, trusting her to stand guard.
He hit the portal, and for a moment, the very marrow of his bones vibrated. Then he was tripping on the uneven bricks of the cave floor, dragging Drizzt down with him. They were through.
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Close. So close. And now her prey was being snatched from beneath her fingers. Stolen, by this freakish looking man and a red-haired bitch with a bow.
The blatant use of powerful magic had given her pause. The glowing doorway and the brilliance of the girl's arrow were like nothing she had ever seen.
But then the girl looked back over her shoulder, her intensity broken for a moment as the bearded creature passed through the door. And she was just a girl with a weapon, worried for her friend, mortal as anyone.
The hunter grinned in her heart, but steeled her face into the cold mask of authority. She spurred her horse forward, keeping her seat as it sidestepped around the corpse of one of her dogs. That too will be repaid, she thought.
"That boy is property of Lord Relder," she announced. There was something happening to the glowing doorway. It was making the air tremble. "He must be handed over to me to be returned to his master."
The red-head shouted something in return, in a strange tongue the hunter had never heard before. She took a step back, towards the door. Through the door, and disappeared.
The door began to waver.
Gritting her teeth, the hunter spurred her horse. It took a jerky leap at the door, trying to fight the spurs, the bit in its mouth, trying to go anywhere but there. It planted its hooves and the hunter could have kept her seat, but the door was closing and the easiest way to get there was to let the horse's momentum take her.
Heels over shoulders, she landed on the other side with a grunt.
There was a sharp crack behind her and the stone arch she had fallen through began to crumble.
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Drizzt and Brionne had been separated. The strange man and the red-haired woman were tending the dark Fey, pouring a tiny bottle of liquid down his throat. Nala ran to Brionne, pulling him into her lap, cradling him close against her. Blood trailed down from his temple, and his eyes were slightly open, his pupils constricted to tiny black specks in the silver. His breathing was shallow, coming in irregular little gasps.
Desperate, she dove into the healing without the time to gather her thoughts and center herself. Chaos struck her, Brionne's damaged brain sending erratic and sometimes conflicting orders to his body, and through it all, the red rush of pain. She tried to push through, to find a way to heal the damage, but couldn't hold. With a broken cry she found herself outside again. He was dying.
A cool hand rested on her shoulder, and she turned a tear-stained face up to behold the most regal figure she had ever seen. Pure Fey, as fair as Drizzt was dark, blonde and beautiful and so serene. The woman's voice spoke, the words foreign but the tone comforting. The awe-inspiring being knelt next to Nala, next to Brionne. Without moving him, the woman took a vial of blue liquid and put it to his unresisting lips, holding his head back so it would run down his throat. Her fine slender fingers came away sticky with blood as she paused a moment, watching.
Brionne's breath became deeper, steadier. His eyelids fluttered a fraction of an inch. He would live. Nala realized she was shaking. She looked up at the pale Fey, awe and gratitude on her face. The woman reached out, gently wiping a tear from Nala's cheek then, with a sad smile, moved back to her feet and turned away, moving towards where the form of their fallen companion made weak movements against the floor.