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.The young scholar was frozen with fear, stricken by the sheer evilness of the powerful undead presence.The skeletons had been terrifying, but they seemed only minor inconveniences next to this monster."Irrational," Cadderly tried to tell himself.It was acceptable to be afraid, but ridiculous to let that fear paralyze him in so urgent a situation."Outta me way!" Ivan roared, bearing in.He chopped viciously with his axe, scoring a hit, but, unlike the battle against the skeletons, the weapon met stiff resistance this time.The mummy's thick wraps deflected much of the blow's force, and pieces of the linen came unraveled, snarling the axe-head and preventing Ivan from following through.The hit hardly hindered the mummy.It clubbed with its arm, catching Ivan on the shoulder and sending him spinning into the nearest alcove.He crashed heavily and nearly swooned but stubbornly, unsteadily, forced himself back to his feet.The mummy was waiting for him.A second hit knocked the dwarf down to his back.That would have been the end of Ivan Bouldershoulder had it not been for Cadderly.His first attack was almost inadvertent, for the mummy, in going after Ivan, crossed the direct, narrow beam of Cadderly's fight tube.A creature of the night, of a dark and lightless world, Khalif was neither accustomed to, nor tolerant of, brightness of any kind.Seeing the mummy recoil and lift its scabrous arm to block the beam restored a bit of composure in Cadderly.He kept the fight focused on the monster, forcing it back from Ivan, while he nimbly loaded another dart with his free hand.Cadderly held no reservations about using his crossbow on this monster; the mummy was simply too hideous for his conscience to argue.Still shielding its eyes, the mummy advanced on Cadderly, slapping at the beam of fight with every sliding step.The first dart buried itself deeply into the mummy's chest before exploding, and the blast sent the monster back a couple of steps and left scorch marks both front and back on the creature's linen wrappings.If it had suffered any serious damage, though, the mummy didn't show it, for it came on again.Cadderly scrambled to reload the crossbow.His design had been good, fortunately, and the crank was not difficult to execute.A second dart joined the first, again driving the monster backward.The mummy came on again, and again after Cadderly had shot it a third time, and each time its stubborn advance brought it a step or two closer to the frantic young man.The fourth shot proved disastrous to Cadderly, for the dart's initial momentum drove it right through the mummy without ever igniting the magical oil.The mummy hardly slowed and Cadderly nearly held the crossbow right against its filthy wrappings when he fired his fifth shot.This time the dart had more effect, but again it only slowed, and did not stop, the monster.Cadderly had no time to load another dart."Coming!" slurred Ivan as he crawled from the alcove.Cadderly doubted that the dwarf could help him, even if Ivan could reach the monster in time, which he obviously couldn't.The young scholar knew, too, that neither of his conventional weapons, spindle-disks or walking stick, could hurt this monster.He had just one weapon to use.He stuck the light tube out in front of him, slowing the mummy further, causing it to shield its eyes and half turn away from him, then he dropped his crossbow and reached with his free hand for the water skin hanging at his side.He grabbed it by the extended nozzle, tucked it tight under his arm, and used his thumb to pop off its gooey cap.Cadderly squeezed with his arm, slowly and steadily sending a stream of the blessed water into his attacker's face.The holy water sizzled as it struck the evilly enchanted monster and, for the first time in the battle, the mummy revealed its agony.It let out an unearthly, spine-chilling wail that filled Cadderly with fear and even stopped Ivan- temporarily.It was the proverbial bark with no bite, for while the mummy continued to advance, it purposely shied away from the man with the light beam and the stinging water.Soon it had passed Cadderly altogether, but it continued down the passage, roaring with pain and frustration, clubbing with its powerful arms against the walls, the sarcophagi, and anything else that got in its way.Ivan came rushing past Cadderly, intent on resuming the battle."The man who killed your brother is behind the door!" Cadderly cried as quickly as he could, desperate to stop the dwarf this time.He couldn't know the truth of his claim, of course, but at that critical moment, he would have said anything to turn Ivan around.Predictably, Ivan did wheel about.He let out a growl and charged back past Cadderly, forgetting all about the fleeing mummy, his unblinking eyes glued instead on the door at the end of the passage.Cadderly saw disaster coming.He recalled the newly constructed wall in the wine cellar and the blasts that had followed Pikel's battering-ram charger He had to believe that this door might also be magically warded, and he saw that the door was heavy, iron-bound.If Ivan didn't get right through, but was held in the area of exploding glyphs…Cadderly dove to the ground, pulling a dart and grabbing for his crossbow.In a single motion, he cocked it, fitted the bolt, and spun about, using his light beam to show him the target.The dart passed Ivan just a stride from the door.It didn't hit the lock area directly but exploded with enough force to weaken the jam.Surprised by the sudden blast, but unable to stop even if he chose to, Ivan barreled in.A Well-Placed Blow"No!" she heard the druid say at her back, but it was a distant call, as if Newander's voice were no more than a memory of some other time and some other place.All that mattered to Danica was the wall, made of stonework now and not like the natural dirt tunnel that had led them in.The wall, inviting her, enticing her, to emulate her long-dead hero.That distant voice spoke again, but in clicks and chatter that Danica could not understand.A furry tail fell down over Danica's eyes, breaking her concentration on the stone.She moved one hand merely by reflex to push aside the distraction.Following the druid's instructions, Percival promptly bit her.Danica dipped her shoulder and came across with an instinctive chop that would have killed the squirrel.She recognized Percival before she struck, though, and that led her again out of the red mist and back to reality."The wall," she stammered."I meant to…" "It is not your fault," Newander said to her."The curse affected you again.It would seem to be an endless fight."Danica slumped back against the stone, weary and ashamed
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