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.” “The traps and locks along the hallways will keep our enemies at bay,” Ahdahnia replied.Despite the surprising nature of their enemies, the woman actually believed the claim.These long corridors weaving along the somewhat circular main house of Dallabad were lined with heavy, metal-banded doors of stone and wood layers that could defeat most intrusions, wizardly or physical.Also, the sheer number of traps in place between the outer walls and Kohrin Soulez’s inner sanctuary would deter and daunt the most seasoned of thieves.But not the most clever.Artemis Entreri had worked his way unnoticed to the base of the fortress’s northern wall.It was no small feat- an impossible one under normal circumstances, for there was an open field surrounding the fortress, running nearly a hundred feet to the trees and tents and boulders, and several of the small ponds that marked the place- but this was not a normal circumstance.With a tower materializing inside the fortress, most of the guards were scurrying about, trying to find some answers as to whether it was an invading enemy or some secret project of Kohrin Soulez’s.Even those guards on the walls couldn’t help but stare in awe at that amazing sight.Entreri dug himself in.His borrowed black cloak-a camouflaging drow piwafwi that wouldn’t last long in the sun-offered him some protection should any of the guards lean over the twenty foot wall and look down at him.The assassin waited until the sounds of fighting erupted from within.To untrained eyes, the wall of Kohrin Soulez’s fortress would have seemed a sheer thing indeed, all of polished white marble joints forming an attractive contrast to the brownish sandstone and gray granite.To Entreri, though, it seemed more of a stairway than a wall, with many seam-steps and finger-holds.He was up near the top in a matter of seconds.The assassin lifted himself up just enough to glance over at the two guards anxiously reloading their crossbows.They were looking in the direction of the courtyard where the battle raged.Over the wall without a sound went the piwafwi-cloaked assassin.He came down from the wall only a few moments later, dressed as one of Kohrin Soulez’s guards.Entreri joined in with some others running frantically around to the front courtyard, but he broke away from them as he came in sight of the fighting.He melted back against the wall and toward the open, main door, where he spotted Kohrin Soulez.The guildmaster was battling drow magic and waving that wondrous sword.Entreri kept several steps ahead of the man as he was forced to fall back.The assassin entered the main building before Soulez and his daughter.Entreri ran, silent and unseen, along those corridors, through the open doors, past the unset traps, ahead of the two fleeing nobles and those soldiers trailing their leader to secure the corridor behind him.The assassin reached the main door of Soulez’s private chambers with enough time to spare to recognize that the alarms and traps on this portal were indeed in place and to do something about them.Thus, when Ahdahnia Soulez pushed open that magnificent, gold-leafed door, leading her father into his seemingly secure chamber, Artemis Entreri was already there, standing quietly ready behind a floor-to-ceiling tapestry.The three Dallabad soldiers-well-trained, well-armed, and well-armored with shining chain and small bucklers-faced off against the three dark elves along the western wall of the fortress.The men, frightened as they were, kept the presence of mind to form a triangular defense, using the wall behind them to secure their backs.The dark elves fanned out and came at them in unison.Their amazing drow swords-two for each warrior-worked circular attack routines so quickly that the paired weapons seemed to blur the line between where one sword stopped and the other began.The humans, to their credit, held strong their position, offered parries and blocks wherever necessary, and suppressed any urge to scream out in terror and charge blindly-as some of their nearby comrades were doing to disastrous results.Gradually, talking quickly between them to analyze each of their enemy’s movements, the trio began to decipher the deceptive and brilliant drow sword dance, enough so, at least, to offer one or two counters of their own.Back and forth it went, the humans wisely holding their position, not following any of the individually retreating dark elves and thus weakening their own defenses.Blade rang against blade, and the magical swords Kohrin Soulez had provided his best-trained soldiers matched up well enough against the drow weapons.The dark elves exchanged words the humans did not understand.Then the three drow attacked in unison, all six swords up high in a blurring dance.Human swords and shields came up to meet the challenge and the resulting clang of metal against metal rang out like a single note.That note soon changed, diminished, and all three of the human soldiers came to recognize, but not completely to comprehend, that their attackers had each dropped one sword.Shields and swords up high to meet the continuing challenge, they only understood their exposure below the level of the fight when they heard the clicks of three small crossbows and felt the sting as small darts burrowed into their bellies.The dark elves backed off a step [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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