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.Taking bandages and mendicants from her pack, she approached Haarn with caution.The bear rumbled and watched her through winking eyes as she began to tend to the druid's wounds.When she finished, she returned to the fire.She satnear the flames, letting the welcome heat bask into her.Painful twinges poked at her body as she pulled her knees up and rested her chin on her knees.Her eyes burned from the smoke, the storm, and fatigue.Hunger pangs made her stomach feel hollow.She kept her sword at her side and took the time to re-string her bow.It was doubtful that the wolves or any other creature would try to gain entrance into the cave with the fire and the bear, but she wanted to be prepared.After a time, despite the anxiety that filled her, Druz's eyelids grew heavy.With the warmth from the fire filling the cave, she retreated to a wall and placed her back against it, resting her sword across her thighs and her bow near to hand.Just as her eyes were about to close again, a reflection from the campfire flashed out in the woods.Awake at once, Druz gripped her long sword and rose to her feet.Tired as she was, she made the mistake of stepping between the fire and the movement.Shifting to one side, heart pounding faster even though her head didn't feel very clear, she gazed at the woods opposite the cave.The wolves had noticed the movement as well.The pack closed in on it with menacing growls.Druz thought at first that it was a traveler, stranded by the storm, who knew about the cave.The possibility of sharing the cave with a stranger wasn't welcome, but she wasn't going to leave someone to the mercy of the wolves.She started to return for her bow, then noticed that the pack had clustered around a section of ground beneath an aging sycamore tree.Rainwater washing down from the mountain had eroded the earth from the sycamore's roots, baring the woody knees.Something glittered on the ground, reflecting more light than even the wolves' eyes.Judging from the pure ruby glint that captured the gleam from the campfire, Druz guessed that it was a piece of glass or a jewel.Curiosity stilled her, and she was surprised to feel the hair lifting on her arms.The wolves backed away.Their whines echoed under the trees as the muddy ground pushed up and broke open like an egg white bubbling in a frying pan.An arm shoved through the mud, followed by a hollow-eyed skull and bony shoulders.CHAPTER THIRTEENFear dried Druz's throat and locked her breath in her lungs as she watched the skeleton continue to force its way from its unmarked grave.Instinct made her reach for Tymora's coin tied at her neck.The skeleton lay still for a moment after it had crawled from the ground.One of the wolves, emboldened by the skeleton's apparent helplessness, crept closer.Snarling black lips twitched back from white teeth.With a growl, the wolf launched itself at its intended prey.The wolf's teeth grated against the mud-slick bones.Orange light flared in the hollows of the skeleton's eyes.It moved, snapping like a trap.The bony hand curled into a fist and jerked around like a mallet, cutting through the air.Almost too quick for the eye to follow, the skeletal fist crashed into the wolfs skull.The animal collapsed, its skull destroyed.Lurching, the skeleton forced itself to its feet and swayed in the storm winds.Ignoring the rest of the wolves, the skeleton turned its attention to the cave.Druz drew herself farther back into the cave, aware that it wouldn't do any good.The fire was all the skeleton needed to see to know that the cave was occupied.She tightened her grip on her sword and asked Tymora's blessing.Glancing over her shoulder, she said to the bear, "We've got trouble."The bear shook himself then rose from the floor.Hunkered below the cave's low ceiling, the bear crept forward, snuffling for a moment, then cocking his head and loosing a fierce growl.The skeleton strode from the tree line without hesitation.Clods of mud mixed with grass and tree roots dropped out of the skeleton's ribcage.Taking a two-handed grip on her sword, Druz glanced at the bear and said, "Go get it."The bear growled again and dropped to all four feet, and retreated to Haarn's side."Damn it," Druz swore, stepping up to block the way.The cave that had offered them shelter from the rain had become a deathtrap.Lightning flashed again, setting the jeweled shape in the skeleton's ribcage blazing with ruby light.The skeleton spread its arms as it neared.Druz made herself breathe and thought, What is it about this damned druid that seems to draw so much bad luck?She was certain that had Haarn been awake he'd doubtless wonder the same thing about her.She set herself and got ready to swing, but just before she committed herself, the skeleton stopped.The grim jaws closed and resumed their mirthless grin.Relaxing, the raised arms clacked against the mud-smeared ivory thighs.Orange glow dimming in the eye hollows, the skeleton turned and walked away.Druz released a sigh of relief, but she didn't relax until the skeleton abandoned the washed-out game trail and vanished into the forest.Even then, she stood at her post for several more long minutes until the stinging rain propelled by the cold storm winds drove her inside to the deeper shelter of the cave.Frightened and near exhaustion, she sat with her back to the cave wall and kept watch over the entrance.The campfire flickered at the corner of her vision as she fought to keep her eyelids open.When she closed them, intending to rest for only a moment, sleep claimed her.Wrapped in bloody priest's robes and shrouded in the night, Borran Kiosk walked Alaghôn's streets once more.Hunger and madness warred within him as what he saw conflicted with what he remembered.Eldath's priests had trapped him for years.He had the sense of that from the changes in the city around him.Once familiar, Alaghôn had grown yet imploded as well.New buildings, taller and grander, stood where claptrap buildings once teetered.In other parts of the city, once grand buildings had been left to decay like bad teeth
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