Adobe Acrobat Format - The Grey Company

"We'll have none of that Nalynn." Ebonstarr said. "Sar'Nav'ell, are you ready?" With that,
Sar'Nav'ell came into the room holding the deep gnome from Brisid's cell. She moved the deep gnome up
towards the altar. As she neared, the gnome stomped on her foot. She let go of the gnome, and he tried to
run. Muttering a prayer to the Spider Queen, Ebonstarr flipped the dagger over in her hand and threw. The
dagger impaled itself into the gnomes back, sending him to the ground. Crawling, Dwaerten tried to move
away. Ebonstarr moved up to him and stood in his way. As she stood there, the dagger began to glow.
Dwaerten screamed and arched his back. His body began to shrivel up. In a matter of minutes, the dagger
stopped glowing. Ebonstarr pulled the dagger out of the corpse.
"One more is all I need." Ebonstarr said. "Who shall be the one?"
Chapter 31
As the light of the tunnel entrance left them, Dînalqua mumbled softly and a small glowing sphere
appeared in her hand, illuminating the tunnel walls and floor. Turning, she saw a look of concern on
Randow's face.
"Worry not about the humans, mellon. Judging by what they wore, I know them to be of the
Knights of the Order, and quite capable of taking care of themselves. Besides, we must find the others."
Even Dînalqua was surprised with the harshness in her voice.
Having only one direction to choose from, the six elves continued on. After traveling along the
winding passageway for some time, they came upon an enormous cavern in which a rather large stalactite
had fallen from the ceiling. The walls of the cavern were severely charred, as if recently burned in a great
magical heat.
"It looks as if something big happened here," whispered Tarion. The six elves searched the cave,
each in a different direction, to try and discover what had transpired to cause such destruction.
Suddenly, Caran spoke. "I've found a way out!" As his words echoed in the cavern, the rest of the
party turned to look.
Noticing the amount of rubble and debris near the opening Dîna asked tentatively, "But whoever
did this, were they going out, or coming in?"
From another corner of the cavern, Jem replied, "In, I think. Judging by the footprints I found
going into this corridor." She pointed down a well trodden path, the second entrance to the cavern. This had
barely been said when they heard another voice coming from somewhere down the tunnel Jem had
indicated.
"Yeessssssss..." the voice was low, but definitely female. All stood in silence for a moment,
looking to one another, and then knew what they had to do.
Then Jem spoke again, "Before we follow that voice, I must tell you, these are drider tracks here..."
"Drow...," was all Dînalqua could say.
"We must stay on guard then, mellon," Randow cautioned as they started down the second
corridor. A little ways down the corridor Dînalqua stopped short, causing Edan to trip over his brother.
"What is the problem?" Tarion asked, somewhat annoyed at having been walked on.
"It seems someone had tripped a trap..." Dîna then mumbled something again and her sphere got a
little brighter. As Randow moved to take the lead, something caught his eye.
"Dîna, bring that light down here a moment, please." In response, she stooped down with the
sphere to see what he was looking at. As she did so, he picked up a piece of cloth. Looking at it closely they
both noticed fresh blood on it.
"I hope they survived," was all he could say. From somewhere down the corridor they heard a
scream. Randow and Dînalqua stood, turned and looked at each other. Then in unison, "Nalynn!"
At the realization that one of their guild was in trouble, they took off at a run, the other four trailing
behind. The party stopped when they reached a door that had an gold emblem of a spider on it. Listening
carefully, they heard movement behind the door, and assumed a party of drow was on the other side.
Whispering as quietly as possible, Dîna asked, "What now?" in an almost distraught tone.
Tarion replied softly, "Edan and I will distract them. The rest of you go ahead."
Nodding in agreement, Randow very cautiously opened the door. Seeing neither drow nor drider,
they all continued together. Then they heard another scream, this one, however, was not elven. Reaching a
corner, they all became silent again. Seeing the foot of an Ogre Mage, Dîna slowly moved to look around
the corner. Then without saying anything, they all knew what they would do.