The Last Threshold (Neverwinter #4)(140)

Sparks burst into the air, carrying the demon’s flames with them. The balor tried to stand against the net, but the stinging lightning explosions drove it down, down, and it roared, maddened with pain.

The ground began to tremble, the lightning explosions came faster and faster until they crackled and boomed as a single, unending note of destruction.

The net fell flat to the ground, amidst the now-dying flames, where it continued to pop and spark.

But the demon was gone, and in the next instant, it was back again, but no longer under the net.

No, Errtu had teleported from the danger and now stood directly behind Tiago Baenre. Down came the balor’s greatsword, and Tiago swung around and lifted his shield just in time to block the heavy swing. His shoulder went numb again, and his shield arm slumped. No single warrior could stand against a balor! And though this one was badly hurt, lines of lightning scars all around its head and torso, with one of its horns blown away completely, a balor was a creature of rage.

Errtu knew rage.

But so did Tiago, who had witnessed the death of Byok.

The balor swung again, but Tiago was quicker and dived aside. Out snapped the demon’s whip, but Tiago rushed back in, inside the bite of the flaming weapon. Across came the demon’s greatsword, but the drow’s shield was there, and Tiago rolled around the hit and struck a blow of his own.

Vidrinath, forged in Gauntlgrym by the legendary smith, Gol’fanin, sliced through Errtu’s flesh and muscle with ease, cutting deep into the balor’s hip. Tiago retracted, blocked another heavy swing, then stabbed straight ahead, skewering Errtu’s belly, spilling guts and blood.

The balor lifted a giant, three-clawed foot and stomped down hard, and when Tiago dodged, Errtu kicked out and sent the drow flying aside.

The beast lifted its fiery whip, rolling its flaming length back over its shoulder. Stunned from the kick, Tiago reacted too slowly, and he tried desperately to roll around to get his shield in line to absorb at least some of the vicious blow.

Forward came Errtu’s arm … almost.

For the beast froze in place, staring hatefully at Tiago, and curiously at the bulge that had just prodded into the front of its massive chest.

Not pausing to figure it out, Tiago put his feet under him, sprang up and charged, then leaped high into the air and brought Vidrinath down in a powerful overhand chop. The magnificent sword cleaved Errtu’s head in two, right down the middle, and both halves flapped weirdly as the balor sank to its knees. Somehow, though it had no mouth left, the great demon issued a huge, agonized bellow, a cry of rage and denial, an echoing promise and threat, “A hundred years is not so long a time, Drizzt Do’Urden!”

Errtu melted into the ground.

Tiago looked past the charred spot to see Yerrininae standing before him, great trident in hand, the weapon dripping the blood and ichor of the slain balor.

“He thought you Drizzt,” the drider said. “That is a good thing.”

“Let the beast know it was Tiago Baenre who slew him,” the young warrior replied. He knelt to the ground, for as Errtu’s body had melted away, the only things left behind were the demon’s sword and the head of Byok.

“The kill is mine to claim,” Tiago insisted, gently stroking Byok’s head. “The sword and whip are yours, mighty Yerrininae, and well-earned.”

A cheer from behind turned Tiago around, just in time to see the last glabrezu fall before Jearth’s warriors. To the side of that fight, the gathered folk of Bryn Shander stood in the broken gates, staring out, cheering, but tentatively.

Tiago understood their hesitance, surely, for not only had they seen the full extent of his drow force now, many more dark elves than they had expected, but a handful of horrid driders as well.

“Take your force and return to the camp,” he quietly instructed Yerrininae. “This battle is won.”

“There are more than a hundred potential enemies staring at you,” the drider quietly replied.

“Not enemies,” Tiago assured him. “Grateful peasants, more likely.” He saluted the drider and walked toward the gate, motioning for the others to remain to the side.

“It would appear as if Drizzt Do’Urden has made powerful enemies of the lower planes,” he said to the gathered folk. “You are fortunate that we were nearby.”

They all looked at him, and he noted the glances south, to the rest of his force, and many more to the north, where the five driders had gathered and started away.

Tiago thought to reassure them, but he held his tongue, letting it all sink in, trying to see where it would all lead.

It started as a small clapping of a single person, far in the back of the crowd, but grew quickly to riotous cheering and calls of “huzzah!” for the drow heroes who had saved Bryn Shander.

Tiago and his band kept their encampment south of the city, but Tiago and the Xorlarrin nobles remained in Bryn Shander after the fight. Their coin was no good there any longer, with free food and drink and lodging for as long as they desired.

In the short time before their arrival on the field of battle, Errtu and the glabrezu demons had killed scores and had caused great damage to the eastern section of the city, and only the charge of Tiago had saved them, the folk believed, and so it was true.

“Oh, the irony,” Jearth said one night in the tavern, lifting his glass in toast. “To think that Tiago Baenre would be hailed as a hero to humans on the surface world.”