Exton

Marc and his crew - now depleted by one - hang back, letting the injured go first. Once Tannr and Ob are out of Underdark, he gives the signal and his remaining men move forward. Andy and Addley share the weight of Hugh's body between them. It would be folly to leave it behind; Ardara might well be able to make the corpse speak; and even if that is beyond her powers, Underdark's network of spies and informants is well known. Give them a body to work with, and this night's work would inevitably be laid at the Ravens' door.

They can hear the sounds of pursuit close on their heels and they make a desperate sprint for the Gate. Suddenly the sounds of the mortal plane supervene; Marc can hear Lily - "Moveitmoveitmoveit!" - and the Ravens throw themselves recklessly through the magical portal, following the prearranged path. He hears Lily snarl a savage laugh and turns to look back at the Gate.

For a moment there is nothing; then a heavily-armed group of warriors burst through the Gate, ravening for blood.

Marc claps his hands to his ears just in time. There is a thunderous roar and the first of Ardara's army, some ten or twenty warriors, are trapped in the murderous crossfire between the three Claymores. Sleeted through and through with Cold Iron, they come apart like a beef carcass fed through a meat grinder - but much quicker and far messier. For a moment they hang there suspended, like raw hamburger in the approximate shape of men; then they drop to the ground in a steaming, bleeding mass.

Marc spares another glance at Lily. She's swaying unsteadily on her feet, absorbing the raging energies of the explosion. He's seen this before; she'll be giddy, nearly drunk till she can assimilate it all. Even as he watches, she clicks a handheld switch, then drops it, goes to her knees, still swaying.

Another group of the Drow come through the rapidly destabilizing Gate. It shudders, its energies nearly spent, on the point of collapse. Seeing the reeking mess in their path, the Drow move to either side, flanking the bodies of their former comrades. They march with cold deliberation toward the Ravens, blades drawn.

There is another explosion, and then another. Warriors disintegrate into bloody sacks of meat as Lily's secondary trap is activated - land mines, activated by pressure plates. Step on it, it's armed; step off, and it explodes. And since this is a scrap yard, most of the shrapnel is various types of steel or iron....

Ardara's warriors seem to stagger in mid-air, held up only by the force of the explosions, and Lily sways back and forth with more abandon than ever. The Gate suddenly collapses in on itself, and the last of the Drow fall, dead or dying, their bodies perforated by the death metal.

Lily is out of it, so Marc himself detonates the final blast - a combination of thermite and napalm. By the time the fire department gets here - it's well outside the city limits, and the fire departments of city and county argue constantly over whose responsibility it is - there will be nothing left to find. Not that either city or county will be in any real hurry to put out a fire at a scrap yard....