discourage that fellow on the first boat?"
Halisstra ignored the hot ache in her hip and scrambled aft. She took the iron wand from the wizard's hand, aiming at the lead boat as she barked out its command word. The air crackled with sparks and ozone as the bolt blasted back at the pursuing boat, only to flare impotently against some kind of spell shield that had been raised by the duergar wiz-ards behind them.
Pharaun chanted out the words of another spell, and a thick white mist arose in their wake, its billows spreading across the water with startling speed. Almost instantly, it sprawled across their stern like a wall of white, completely blocking the pursuing boats from view.
"There," said the wizard. "That should slow them a bit."
"It's fog. Won't they just sail right through it?" Ryld asked.
"That is no ordinary fog, my friend. That fog is thick enough to arrest an arrow in mid-flight. Best of all, it is highly acidic, so that anyone blun-dering about in there will be slowly eaten away." The wizard smiled and folded his arms. "Ah,damn it, I'm good."
Quenthel opened her mouth, most likely to take issue with the wizard's self-congratulations, when Danifae called from the bow, "Stop! Rocks ahead! Stop!"
"Bloody hell!" gasped Coalhewer. "All back full! All back full, ye great bony louts!"
The turning skeletons slowed their furious pumping, unable to arrest the heavy wheels all at once, and slowly began to spin the paddles back the other way. The dwarf did not wait on them, slamming his wheel hard over to veer away from the black line of fanglike rocks ahead. The lake seemed to come to an end, shoaling up quickly to meet the plunging ceiling. The shoreline extended left and right for as far as Halisstra could see. The boat slued to an awkward halt,its starboard bow rebounding from a thankfully rounded rock in their path. The impact staggered everyone on board, and nearly pitched Danifae headlong over the bow.
"Now what?" Ryld asked, picking himself up off the deck. "They've got us pinned against the cavern wall."
"How long will your fog delay the gray dwarves?" Quenthel snapped at Pharaun.
"No more than a couple of minutes," he answered. "They might choose to back out and go around, of course."
Pharaun stared intently at his handiwork. In the distance, duergar screamed in pain, their cries of agony oddly muffled by the insidious white mist.
"The spell is unlikely to kill or disable very many of them," the wizard added, "and I don't think it'll sink their boats."
"Then this is where we get off," Quenthel said. She pointed at the cavern wall. "We'll take cover in the rocks there, and stay out of sight. We'll send the boat that way - " she pointed toward the east - "and let the crown prince's men chase it away from us."
"I won't be yer decoy!" Coalhewer snapped. "Ye got me into this mess, and ye'll get me out of it!"
The dark elves ignored the dwarf as they hurriedly threw their packs to the wet rocks below the bow. Jeggred bounded down into the icy water and struggled up on shore, followed by Ryld and Pharaun. Valas swarmed down from the bridge and vaulted down as well.
"You're wasting my time," Quenthel said to the duergar captain. "Go on, now, and take your chances, or stay here and face the draegloth."
She leaped lightly to the boulders below, joined by Halisstra and Dan-ifae a moment later.
"But if ye ... ah, damn the lot of ye to Lolth's spidery hells!" Coal-hewer swore.
He dashed back up to his bridge and began to bark orders at the skele-tal rowers again. The boat slowly backed away from the rocks.
"If they catch me," he shouted back, "I'll tell them exactly where to find ye!"
Quenthel narrowed her eyes. She started to gesture to Jeggred, butHalisstra shook her head and started a low, droningbae'qeshel song. She gathered the force of her will and hurled it full upon the livid dwarf.
"Escape, Coalhewer," she hissed. "Flee as quickly as you may, and do not let yourself be caught. If you are caught, better to swim to safety than to let yourself be taken."
The invisible webs of the spell settled about the dwarf like a snowfall of deadly venom. He stared open-mouthed at Halisstra, then whirled to redouble his efforts to take his boat clear before the fog lifted. Quenthel glanced at Halisstra and raised an eyebrow.
"It seemed best to make sure he would flee as we wanted him to," Halisstra