The chimera, all three heads looking back at those it had left behind on the ledge or at the furious dwarf scrambling about on its back, never saw the monk. Danica's spinning kick cracked the leonine jaw and nearly sent the five hundred pound monster tumbling headlong, and then agile Danica was up beside Ivan before the chimera could begin toreact
She drew out a silver-hilted dagger from one boot, wrapped its sculpted dragon head with her free hand and went to vicious work on the central leonine head. Even more furious was Ivan Bouldershoulder, hands clasped about the goat horns, wrestling the thing back and forth.
The chimera banked in a steep roll, coming alongside the ledge so that Shayleigh managed another two shots before the snowstorm swallowed the beast and her friends.
The chimera came around again a moment later, and the elf prepared to fire. But Ivan suddenly popped up and regarded her incredulously, one of Shayleigh's arrows splintered and hanging from his deer-antlered helmet
"Hey!" the dwarf bellowed, and she lowered the bow. Ivan's distraction cost him, though, for the goat's head broke free of his grasp momentarily and butted hard against his face and forehead. Ivan spit out a tooth, grabbed the horns in both hands and butted back, and it seemed to Shayleigh that the dwarf's attack had been by far the more effective.
Then they were gone again, behind the blinding sheets of snow. All was suddenly silent, save the howl of the wind. Vander stirred and propped himself up on his elbows; Cadderly's enchanted wall of fire came down, to reveal Pikel sitting comfortably on the stone, munching a leg of mutton he had opportunistically pulled from his pack and roasted in the magical flames.
"Oo," the green-bearded dwarf said, hiding the meat behind his back when he noticed Cadderly's amazed expression.
"Do you see them?" Shayleigh asked, limping to Cadderly's side and directing his gaze back to the empty air.
Cadderly peered through the snow and shook his head. When he looked back to Shayleigh, though, all thoughts of his monster-riding friends were replaced by the immediate needs of the wounded elf maiden. Several spikes had struck Shayleigh, one grazing the side of her head and opening a wicked gash, another deep into one thigh, a third driven into her wrist so that she could not close her hand, and a fourth sticking from her ribs. Cadderly could hardly believe that the elf was still standing, let alone firing her bow.
He listened for the song of Deneir immediately, bringing forth magics that would allow him to begin the mending of Shayleigh's wounds. Shayleigh said nothing, just grimaced stoically as Cadderly slowly drew out the spikes. All the while, the elf maiden held fast to her bow, kept her gaze out to the wide winds in search of her missing friends.
Minutes slipped past. Cadderly had the worst of the wounds closed, and Shayleigh signaled that to be enough for the time being. Cadderly didn't argue, turning his attention back to the search for Danica and Ivan.
"If the monster shakes free of them ..." Shayleigh began ominously.
"Danica will not fall," Cadderly assured her. "Not with the enchantment I have put upon her. Nor will she allow Ivan to fall"
There was honest conviction in the priest's tone, but he sighed with some relief anyway when the chimera finally came back into view, speeding on a course that would take it directly above the ledge. Shayleigh lifted her bow, but her injured wrist would no longer allow her to pull the string back fast enough. Cadderly got a shot with his crossbow, but the chimera banked and the explosive quarrel flew harmlessly wide.
The monster roared in protest as it passed without any attacks, and the friends on the ledge could see that both its dragon and goat heads flopped lifelessly in the wind. Ivan, clutching the leonine mane, howled with enjoyment as he attempted to steer the beast by tugging one way or the other.
"Jump free!" Danica cried to the dwarf as the mountain loomed before them. The young woman stepped off the creature as it passed the ledge, skipped down across the empty air (to Pikel's amazed cry of "Oo oi!" and Vander's incredulous stare) to join Cadderly and Shayleigh.
"Jump free!" Danica yelled again, this time with Shayleigh and Cadderly joining in.
The yellow-bearded dwarf didn't seem to hear them, and Danica prudently rushed back out from the ledge in case the beast headed out into the empty air once more. The chimera did bank against Ivan's stubborn pull and start back out, but this time, both Cadderly and Shayleigh were presented with perfect shots. Shayleigh's arrow dove deep into the chimera's torso, and Cadderly's quarrel got the beast on the wing, its explosive force shattering bone and sending the beast into a repeated barrel roll.
Ivan tugged and yanked frantically, looking for some place to safely land as the creature flopped about, turning back toward the towering mountain.
"Jump!" the companions pleaded with the dwarf.
"Snowbank!" Ivan yelled in high hopes, twisting the monster's head in line with a white pile jutting above the smooth slope of the mountain, just a dozen or so feet above the ledge. "Snowbank!"
Not quite - the inch of snow covering the jutting boulder did not, by any definition, constitute a snowbank.
"Boom," remarked a grimacing Pikel as the chimera and Ivan crashed heavily, the dwarf bouncing back, skidding and slipping until he came to a stop, amazingly on his feet on the ledge.
The crushed chimera thrashed about near the rock until Shayleigh's next arrow sank into the leonine head, ending its agony.
Ivan turned to regard Cadderly and the others, his pupils rolling about their sockets independently of each other. Somehow, Ivan still wore his deer-antlered helmet, and somehow, Shayleigh's splintered arrow had not been dislodged.
"Who knowed?" Ivan asked innocently, giving a lame attempt at shrugging his shoulders as he fell facedown on the path.
Test of Willpower
Cadderly and Shayleigh broke immediately for the stunned dwarf, but Danica rushed back to the ledge, grabbed Cadderly and spun him about, her lips crushing against his as she kissed him hard. She backed off suddenly, her features twisted with admiration and appreciation - and ecstacy.
Her breath came in excited gasps; her eyes darted wildly, from the open air beyond the ledge to her enchanted feet and to the man who had saved her life. "I want to do it again!" she blurted, fumbling over the words as though she couldn't help but say them,
Cadderly seemed perplexed, until he realized that his love had just walked on air. What an incredible experience that must have been! He stared at Danica for a long moment Then, remembering Ivan's situation, he looked to Pikel, who was happily munching on his roasted mutton once more (apparently, Ivan was not too badly injured), and looked to the rock where Ivan and the chimera had abruptly ended their wild ride. All of this apparent insanity in the midst of a desperate plan, the success of which could well determine the very existence of the peoples of the region.
And Danica's sparkling brown eyes, so full of admiration, told Cadderly something more. He was coming to the forefront of it all, inevitably taking up the lead in this crusade. He had grabbed at this responsibility - fully when he had bent Dean Thobicus's mind - but now, as the true weight of that responsibility became clearer to him, he was worried. Always before, Cadderly had depended on his powerful friends. He pointed the way, and they, through stealth and sword, facilitated the plans. Now, though, judging from the look in Danica's eyes, Cadderly's burden had increased. His mounting magical powers had become the group's primary weapon.
Cadderly would not shy away from his new role, would fight on with all his heart and all his strength. But he wondered if he could live up to his friends' expectations, if he could continue to keep Danica's eyes sparkling.
It was all too much for the burdened young priest What began as an embarrassed chuckle ended with Cadderly sitting on the stone ledge, laughing at the very edge of hysteria.
The sight of Vander, up again and moving toward him, sobered Cadderly. Although Vander's brutal wounds had already somehow begun to mend, the giant's face showed his pain, and showed that Vander did not see anything humorous about their situation.
*I told you that we were too high up," the firbolg said in a low, firm voice.
Cadderly thought for a moment, then began to explain to the giant that, while the strange, animated snow creature might have been natural to the region, both the chimera and the other winged beast, the mutated manticore, were magical in nature and not denizens of the cold and desolate high peaks. Cadderly never finished the explanation, though, suddenly realizing the implications of his own thoughts.
Magical creatures?
What a fool I've been! Cadderly thought, and to Vander and his friends he offered only a sudden, confused expression. The young priest closed his eyes and mentally probed the region, sought out the magical eye of the scrying wizard - for someone had certainly guided the two monsters! Almost immediately, he felt the connection, felt the directed line of magical energy that could only be the probing of a scrying wizard and promptly released a countering line to disperse it Then Cadderly threw up magical defenses, put a veil around himself and his friends that would not be easily penetrated by distant probing eyes.
"What is it?" Danica demanded when he had at last reopened his gray eyes.
Cadderly shook his head, then looked to Vander. "Find a sheltered area where we might set a camp and mend our wounds," he instructed the firbolg. Danica was still staring at him, waiting for an explanation, but the young priest only offered another shake of his head, feeling positively foolish for not warding them all against scrying wizards much earlier in the journey.
Again Cadderly wondered if he would disappoint those who had come to trust in him.
*****
The chimera and the manticore were Aballister's creatures, his children, brought into existence and nurtured to mighty maturity by the magics of the powerful wizard. When they fell in the mountains, Aballister sensed the loss, as though a part of his own energy had been stripped from him. He left his private quarters so abruptly that he didn't even bother to close his spellbook, or to put up wards against intruders. The old wizard bounded down the hall to Dorigen's room and pounded on the door, disrupting the woman's studying.
"Find them," Aballister snarled as soon as Dorigen opened the door, pushing his way in.
"What do you know?" she asked.
"Find them!" Aballister commanded again. He spun about and grabbed Dorigen by the hand, pulling her to the seat before her crystal ball.
Dorigen tore her hand free of Aballister's grasp and eyed him dangerously.
"Find them!" the older wizard growled at her for the third time, not retreating an inch from her threatening glare.