Rowan loosed her arrow, which slammed into his throat. The cry became a shrill howl of pain. The other bugbears stopped dead and turned.
“That’s torn it,” Rowan said grimly, and went to one knee,hauling the arrow case over her shoulder and bracing it against her thigh where she could rapidly draw shafts. Maera came up to take a place behind her, loosing a javelin as the other bugbears came pelting toward them, swords, morning stars, and axes ready to strike.
Vlandar edged around the rangers, bringing Malowan and Nemis with him. The three ran straight for the bugbears, holding to the south wall of the passage to give the rangers and Lhors, who found himself between the two, a clear line on their targets.
“Save your javelins until they’re nearer!” Maera told him.
Lhors merely nodded. His mouth was very dry.
Malowan and Vlandar engaged the first of the hairy creatures, Vlandar blocking the morning star on his sword. Malowan dodged the swing of a bugbear’s axe, then swung around reversing his sword and digging in his heels ashe thrust the blade back through thick fur. The bugbear staggered back, clutching its belly and squalling in agony. Vlandar swung his own weapon in a full circle before bringing it crashing down on the back of the brutes head. The creature fell with a crash.
Another set on them at once, and then more. Khlened came running up, snarling. He brandished a sword in each hand, and he clenched a thick, nasty-looking dagger between his teeth.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lhors could see the rangers firing into the crowd of monsters.
The startled bugbears fell back a few paces, a few falling to the rangers’ arrows and javelins. Lhors saved his own spears in case any of thecreatures managed to break past the three warriors. Rowan finally let Maera drag her and Lhors back out of the way. Nemis came running up, stopping just behind the three men who were barely keeping the creatures at bay.
“Vlandar!” he yelled. “Help me! Get them in a line!”
“What kind of a-? Are you mad?” the warrior yelled back as heswung his sword at the nearest bugbear. Blood splurted from a deep gash on the brute’s forearm, and its morning star fell from its hand. “Will you set themdancing?”
“Get them in a clutch then! I have a spell readied, but itwon’t work on them all otherwise!”
“We’ll get them bunched for you!” Vlandar said as he parrieda strike. “Khlened, to that side! Mal, ease back this way with me!”
The three men formed an arc with Vlandar at the center. The bugbears ignored Nemis-the mage wasn’t wielding a blade like the other three,Lhors realized-and threw themselves forward. The air crackled, and a thick,bluish fog wrapped around the shaggy creatures. When it faded, the bugbears were simply gone.
Nemis heaved a sigh. “Apparently they weren’t fluent inanything but their own nasty language-if that. Stupid brutes.”
“Giants might be,” Vlandar said evenly. “Keep that in mind ifwe need to make plans on the spot, will you? Mal, you and Khlened-”
But the paladin had already moved in the direction they’dbeen heading and stood motionless in the corridor. He came back, shaking his head.
“There is at least one enormous blaze going in that chamber.The two giants I sense may be lying in wait to catch us by surprise, but I believe they are asleep or unconscious.”
Maera smiled grimly. She was coming back with all the javelins she could salvage, running the shafts between her hands to test them before stuffing them back into the case. Rowan was doing the same with her arrows. “Better if we know for certain. That would be work for rangers, I think.Come, sister.”
Lhors stared at the spear he held. He hadn’t even thrown one,he realized. The creatures hadn’t come close enough for him to have been of use.He hoped no one else had seen the panic he’d felt when those monsters camecharging.
Rowan touched his shoulder. “We’re going to make certain thegiants up there”-she gestured toward the doorless chamber and the glow offire-“somehow did not hear all that just now. Come help, will you?”
“I… help? Me?” He blinked then nodded. “If I can.”
“You’ll do, lad,” Maera allowed. She melted into deepershadow along the north wall, edging sideways toward the distant firelight. As the rest of the party sought a hiding place away from the scene of battle, Lhors and Rowan went after Maera.
13
As they neared the open doorway, Maera gestured for Lhors toease over to the south wall with her while Rowan kept to the north. She fit an arrow to the string as she vanished into the dark opening that went straight north. Maera signed for Lhors to stay where he was and watch while she slipped partway down the angled passage.
It wasn’t quite as dark that way-enough that Lhors could tellthe passage branched again farther on. Ruddy light stained the walls down there, and he could hear the distant sound of a hammer battering metal into shape and, when that ceased, the loud huff of a bellows. I was right about the smithy, he thought. He felt a little better. Maybe he had contributed something after all.
Maera was back almost at once, and Rowan came back a moment later. The rangers exchanged rapid and complex sign Lhors couldn’t follow, thenMaera moved light-footed toward the opening straight ahead. Lhors tightened his grip on the spear and was glad the rangers couldn’t hear his wildly beatingheart.
The chamber was a horror of bloodstained flooring, instruments that left him sick and weak at the knees. Some had obvious uses. Others he couldn’t begin to imagine their exact purpose. High-burning fireslicked at metal clamps or turned huge twisted branding irons a glowing red. In the midst of all this, two giants slept heavily, back to back on a filthy mat. The one facing out was smiling, as if in the midst of a pleasant dream.
Maera edged forward, gesturing for her sister to come with her, but Rowan shook her head fiercely, then beckoned, drawing her sister and Lhors back up the hall and into the shadow of the angled hallway.
“You want to kill them, Maera? Why?”
Maera sighed, clearly exasperated. “Can you even ask? Theyare torturers. They deserve to die!”
“Yes,” Rowan replied sourly. “So what do we do then, murderthem while they sleep or let them waken first and then kill them?”
“Why let them waken?” Maera demanded. “Go in, kill them, andbe done with it! It is not sporting, but this is not sport, sister. This is survival.”
“Do not lecture me, sister,” Rowan retorted. “Whateverthey are, whatever they have done, that does not justify acting in the same fashion. Leave them. I doubt they will waken while we are here. If they do, then death is their fate, but I will not dishonor myself with their blood, nor allow you to do so.”
“Arrogant,” Maera hissed. “Is it not arrogant of youto assume we will be able to kill them if they waken?”
“If, was, could have been,” Rowan replied evenly. “It doesnot matter, Maera. I will not aid you in this.”
Maera’s lips twisted, but she finally sighed and gesturedassent. “You would better serve Heironeous than Ehlonna,” she said acidly.
Before Rowan could reply, her twin was gone, moving at a swift pace to rejoin the others.
Rowan laid a hand on Lhors’ shoulder. “I am sorry you had to be party tothat,” she said quietly. “My sister is a good person, but she has a specialgrudge against giants.”
“I hate giants,” Lhors said after a moment’s thought “Myfather… my village… But I could not have killed those two while they sleptHowever evil they must be to work in such a horrid place, it does not make it right for me to act the way they do.”
“You speak for me,” Rowan said as she eased back into themain corridor, “but I would not share such opinions with Maera were I you.”
Maera had apparently failed to convince Vlandar either. She and Malowan had drawn aside and were arguing in fierce whispers as Rowan and Lhors rejoined the company. Rowan went over to Vlandar and briefly explained what the three of them had seen.