His own momentum held all the way across the lake, propelling him halfway to the crest of the island's slope. As soon as Kagonos ceased moving, he kicked his feet free of the skis and sprinted up the hill, driving his moccasins into the crust of the snow with each bounding footstep. The eagle's shriek rang all around him, echoed by his own lips without accompanying thought.
The Elderwild Pathfinder bore two weapons: in his right hand the long-hafted axe with its steel blade, sharp as a razor, in his left a thrusting javelin with a head of sharpened flint. Both had served as ski poles during the descent, but now he shifted his grip, brandishing the axe upraised while he held the spear ready for jabbing. The Ram's Horn was as safe as he could make it, tied snugly against the small of his back.
Worry tightened a grip on his heart as he looked around — there was still no sign of Kyrill. Clearly the young brave led his warriors in a valiant attack on the north,continuing the diversion at the risk of their lives.
Unwilling to wait for Kagonos's braves, a lone ogre scrambled over the ramshackle wall, raising a club and bellowing in fury. The monster charged forward, heavy boots immediately breaking through the crust of the snow. Sunk to its thighs, the monster flailed madly at the charging Pathfinder.
Kagonos paused for a fraction of a second, allowing the club to whoosh harmlessly past his face. Then he stabbed with the spear, drivihg the tip into the shoulder of the monster's weapon arm. N^e ogre bellowed in pain, dropping its club and twisting away from the elf. Kagonos charged past, slashing a blow with his axe that elicited another groan of pain. Knowing other warriors would finish the monster, the chieftain sprinted onward, leaping up the piled boulders of the wall.
Atop the ring of rocks, Kagonos cried out with savage delight. He saw pandemonium in the ogre camp as the brutes ran toward the unprotected sections of their wall. Many Elderwild warriors scrambled over the granite rampart, adding their own triumphant cries to the din.
Only across the compound, where Kyrill's courageous band had indeed made the initial attack, did the enemy meet the onslaught with a firm defense. There ogres massed behind the wall, while several of the monsters lunged over the top, charging into the press of the attackers. None of the elves on that side had yet made it onto the wall.
Another ogre charged, roaring, toward Kagonos. With one leaping bound, the elf jumped from the top of the wall, landing lightly in the monster's path. Startled, the ogre skidded to a halt, but when it blocked the steel head or Kagonos's axe with a stout club, the Elderwild jabbed the monster's bulging gut with the javelin. Groaning, the ogre collapsed.
To the Bluestone! Find the stone!" cried the Pathfinder as more and more of his warriors sprang from atop the wall. Dozens of clashes whirled around the camp as elves in ones, twos, and threes turned their weapons against the disjointed ogre resistance.
More bird-cries came from the right as cawing Elder- wild surrounded a hamstrung ogre, stabbing the hapless creature with their weapons. Other monsters charged to their companion's rescue and the elves turned with shocking speed to meet the new attack-but not before one of them sliced the throat of the unfortunate brute who had spurred the rescuers.
Two ogres rushed at Kagonos, and he fell back, parrying the blows of a club and a huge, bronze-bladed sword. Abruptly the sword-wielder shrieked and twisted. In the gap of a second the chieftain saw Dall there, jerking back on the short-bladed sword he had stabbed into the monster's thigh.
It was a painful wound, but not crippling, Kagonos saw with dism^-obviously the young warrior had underestimated the monster's speed of response. Dall tripped and sprawled on his back, but when Kagonos leapt to his brother's aid, the club-bearing ogre smashed his weapon straight toward the Pathfinder's head.
Barely raising his axe in time, Kagonos blocked the attack, the force of the blow staggering him. Quickly recovering, he drove in hard and fast, underneath the ogre's clumsy backswing. The bloody tip of the javelin drove upward through the gristle of the monster's neck, slicing through its mouth and finally lodging in the hateful brain. Slain instantly, the ogre toppled backward, pulling the javelin from Kagonos's fingers as it fell.
"Look out!" cried the Pathfinder, leaping past the corpse. Dall rolled across the ground as the second ogre raised the huge bronze blade for another blow. Gashed deeply on his arm, the young warrior clawed for purchase on the slippery rocks as the wound spurted blood.
Kagonos swung, all the supple force of his long arm packed into one powerful blow. The gory axe head slashed through the air, toward the thick, muscle-bound neck-a blow that would cut through bone, slice the with ultimate and undeniable authority.
But as he knew all this, Kagonos also understood that his kill would come too late.
Dall's eyes widened in terror and comprehension as the bronze blade plunged earthward. The barbed edges of the heavy weapon tore a cruel hole in his chest, and the weight of the metal did the rest.
Howling furiously, his voice more like a wildcat's snarl than an eagle's shriek, Kagonos chopped the head from the ogre's shoulders. The sounds emerging from the Elder- wild's mouth twisted and wailed in the air, a rising song of unspeakable grief, as the headless monster tumbled to the side.
His brother's eyes dimmed as Kagonos knelt at Dall's side. The younger elf stared desperately at the Pathfinder, and for a brief moment his gaze seemed to hold the wisdom, the serenity of countless ages. Then Dall relaxed, slumping backward, eyes half-closing. Knowing death, Kagonos gently reached out and closed his brother's eyes fully. Despite the gaping hole in his chest, the younger elf looked oddly peaceful, as if he'd grown tired and simply lain down for a few minutes.
Vaguely Kagonos remembered that battle still raged. He blinked and looked around, thankful that several warriors had held a pair of nearby ogres at bay during his brief moment of grief. Now the Pathfinder sprang to his feet, axe held high.
As if they sensed his grim purpose, the two ogres stepped backward, but too slowly. Kagonos leapt like a striking snake, his slender axe head lashing out to cut the throat of one ogre while the other was borne to ground by two leaping Elderwild, eager to avenge the death of their Pathfinder's brother.
The Bluestone-it must be here!" shouted Kagonos, staring across the battle-scarred hilltop, trying again to divine a hiding place. The mound of boulders still seemed the most likely location, though the monsters made no particular attempt to defend that locale-at least, no greater effort than they made everywhere else. Yet Kagonos had to believe that the rocks mounded into a flat-topped cairn concealed the hiding place of the Bluestone.
Howls of wounded ogres mingled with the shrieks of attacking Elderwild. Those elves who suffered hurt, conversely, bore injury in stoic silence-indeed, many wounded elves limped in the rear of the attack, ruthlessly finishing off any ogre stragglers that had survived the first rush.
"Follow me!" Kagonos rushed forward, amid the chaos of the shattered camp. Many ogres-and nearly as many elves-lay bleeding and motionless across the expanse of rocks and snow. A band of the monsters still stood clustered at the north wall, though now it seemed as though the ogres sought to flee, no longer interested in defending their mountaintop retreat.
The potent gemstone was large, the elven Pathfinder knew, but it could possibly be concealed in an ogre belt- pouch or satchel. "None may escape!" cried Kagonos. "Surround them-cut them all down!"
Whooping in fury, the elves closed in. Ogres trampled each other in their haste to escape, darting this way and that in a futile effort to avoid the stone and metal weapons of the Elderwild warriors.