“Quiet back there,” she replied softly.
“Everyone go right, then and up to the council chamber.Remember, watch and listen-” He broke off and looked up as heavy, slow footstepscame down the stairs from the tower.
“This grows boring,” Khlened mumbled and drew his sword.Vlandar eyed his people, cast a quick glance at the main doors, and nodded sharply.
“We kill him quick before anyone else hears,” he orderedsoftly and pulled out his own sword. “One way to learn to fight as a team,”Lhors heard him mutter. Lhors’ own hands felt cold as he bunched his sparejavelins and readied one to throw. For my father, he thought, and that seemed to steady him.
The giant who came down the passage was young, but solidly built and more awake than last night’s guard had been. He stopped when he sawKhlened and smiled unpleasantly before hauling a heavy club from his belt. “Thieves, be it?” His common was guttural. “Be a move up fer Fhrunk do I killye, red-hair.”
“Try,” Khlened said and bared his teeth as he threw himselfforward.
He barely came to the monster’s belt, and the stab that mighthave gutted a man his size went into Fhrunk’s calf, angling up to the knee. Thebrute drew breath to yell in pain, but Rowan fired three arrows in rapid succession. The first bit deep into his neck, silencing his scream. The next bounced off his hardened leather cap, and the third just missed taking out his eye. Maera’s throw was more accurate. Her javelin plunged deeply below thebrute’s sternum. The choking giant pawed at the javelin and slid to the floor.Khlened and Vlandar ran up and plunged their swords into the back of his neck, and the giant went limp.
Rowan was already at the east door. Nemis spoke in a low voice, then signed for her to come back. “There are no others in the tower andnone nearby-no closer than that feast yonder.”
“Help us drag him out of the way,” Vlandar whisperedurgently. “There’s blood, but no help for that.”
“Toss one of the cloaks over it,” Maera said. “It’s such amess here, that might go unnoticed until he’s missed.”
It took all four men to drag the dead giant. Nemis and Rowan kept watch while Agya and Lhors hastily piled two rugs and a cloak atop the brute. “Good enough,” Vlandar said. “Let’s go.”
They could hear at least one more guard snoring up in the tower. Rowan eased an arrow into place, slung her cloak off the left shoulder so she could access more bolts, then nodded once. Maera stepped aside so Khlened could ease the door open. Rowan backed up with the heavy slab of wood, then took one long stride, spun halfway around and backed along the other side. A scant breath later, those still outside heard the zip of an arrow slicing the air, a faint, “Uhff!” followed by a nasty, deep cough, then the sound of somethinglarge sliding to the floor.
Rowan backed into view and met her sister’s eyes, making acomplex gesture with her free hand before hauling another arrow to the string. Maera pelted past her as the rest of the company came into the chamber to find a guttering torch, a spilled cup of mead, and one very dead giant. Rowan’s arrowwas buried deep in one of the creature’s eyes.
Maera was nowhere in sight, but just then the ceiling groaned with the weight of another falling body. The ranger came back into sight moments later. She met Vlandar’s eyes and held up a finger before drawing her handacross her throat. One giant there. Dead.
The right-hand door opened onto a relatively narrow hall-still so wide that Agya and Nemis, holding hands, could just barely have touchedboth walls. The air reeked of sour bodies, ill-washed clothing, and stale beer. So far, Lhors thought, it resembled the map Vlandar had shown him. A passage went a few paces west before turning north. A longer passage went east. The lighting was poor-only a few torches at odd intervals.
Vlandar led the way, putting Lhors behind him and letting the others follow. Rowan brought up the rear, walking sideways with her bow strung and ready to shoot should anyone come up on their rear.
Someone was snoring behind them. The wall to their left seemed to tremble, and they could clearly hear shouting and sounds of battle. Malowan leaned forward to murmur against Lhors’ ear. “Nemis says it’s the longroom on the map-it must be a sleeping chamber. He says there are at least tenyoung male giants wagering on two others who are wrestling, and they’re all verydrunk.” The paladin eased past him long enough to tell Vlandar the same thing.Both men flinched as something massive slammed into the other side of the wall.
Vlandar was making his way to that long chamber on the west wall that Malowan had spoken of, the one with the nasty trophy heads. He sincerely hoped the warrior did not plan to invade the chamber with the cave bear. At the bend the warrior turned left and moved close to the left wall, hesitating at the first door there. Lhors eased up against the wall next to him and tried to loosen his grip on the shaft in his right hand.
This north-facing passage was shorter than the previous one, the door at its far end ajar. That must be the one that would open into another corridor and connect with the feasting hall. It did seem he could hear drunken laughter coming from that direction, though it was hard to tell with so much noise still coming out of that dorm.
Vlandar edged past the door. The noise began to fade a little. By the time they reached the next door to the left, Lhors could be certain the other shouting came from beyond the partly opened door. Vlandar hesitated, then beckoned Malowan to join him. The paladin listened intently, nodded, and held up four fingers. He frowned and waggled one-he wasn’t certainif there were three or four inside, Lhors thought.
Lhors jumped as a high-pitched scream came from inside the room.
“Serving giantesses, I think,” Malowan whispered. “Someone isbeing beaten,” he added grimly and set his hand on the latch.
Agya glanced back the way they’d come and rasped, “Where’sKhlened?”
Malowan and Vlandar swung around, swords at the ready. Lhors skin prickled and he clutched the spear close. Beyond the rangers, the hall was empty. The barbarian was gone.
Vlandar cursed, but before he could pass along more instructions, Khlened slipped through a door at the south end of the hall and tugged it closed behind him. Malowan sighed heavily, and Vlandar glared as the barbarian came up, a rough hide pouch in his hand. “Coin-and plenty of it,” theman whispered.
Vlandar leveled a finger at his nose and whispered, “Go offalone like that again and you’ll pay. I gave orders that we all stay together!”
Khlened’s mouth twisted, but he nodded and handed over thepurse. Vlandar shoved it into his pack and turned away. “Mal?”
“Someone is in dire pain in there,” the paladin repliedsoftly as another agonized scream came from the other side of the door. “Icannot walk away from this,” he added, but he waited for Vlandar’s nod before heeased the door latch aside, and threw himself into the room.
Lhors stared in open astonishment at the massive bedchamber and the four female giants to whom it must belong. All were clad in loose, plain garments like a villager’s winter sleeping shirt. Three looked youthful to him,dark-haired, olive-skinned, and rather handsome. The fourth was a creature out of nightmare. Taller than the other three by at least a head, gaunt and wrinkled, her eyes were mere slits in pasty white skin. Two old, purple scars ran down the left side of her face, and she wore a gold ring through the corner of her mouth. She loomed over the smallest of the maids, a whip upraised to strike a back bared by ripped fabric. The other two cowered in the corner behind a bed, one holding another, who was bleeding from an ugly weal across her bare shoulder.
“You horrid creature,” Malowan said in a deep, stern voice ashe drew his sword. “What have these children done to deserve such scars? If youwill strike someone, dare to battle me instead!”
The matron might not have understood his words, but she surely caught his meaning. Her eyes narrowed as she took in the armed humans. She dropped the whip and hauled a long dagger from a sheath strapped to her leg. It was nearly as long as the paladins sword.