Rikus looked down at the king, who was less that ten feet away, hanging from the cliff face by all six claws. “The fight’s started!” the mul yelled. “Hurry up!”
Rikus jumped to his feet and started up the rugged slope. He had taken only three steps when a long chain of yellow runes squirmed off the great arch and streaked down to the mound’s crest. They struck with boom after thunderous boom, and the entire summit seemed to explode into shards of basalt and plumes of acrid smoke. The mul covered his head and waited for the eruption to pass. When the choking haze thinned, he saw thirteen obsidian statues standing on top of the ridge. They had round, featureless heads with no faces, and their arms ended in fan-shaped blades.
The statues came lumbering down the slope with plunging, stiff-legged strides that sent loose rocks skittering down the hill before them. As the golems came nearer, Rikus saw a single, yellow flame twinkling in the dark breast of each one.
“What’s that racket?” called Tithian. He was still hanging on the cliff and could not look over the top to see the approaching golems.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” Rikus answered. “But watch your head. There might be some falling rocks.”
Rikus drew the Scourge and waited, deciding that he could use the cliff to good advantage against the clumsy statues. The four golems in the center reached him first, slashing at his neck. The mul ducked and counterattacked, bringing his blade through the breasts of all four attackers. The enchanted steel cut through the obsidian like flesh. As the sword sliced through the yellow flame inside each golem’s breast, the statues burst into shards, opening more than a dozen deep slashes along the mul’s side.
Rikus hardly noticed the cuts, except as a warning to be more careful about how he destroyed the other statues. He had not suffered any crippling wounds when these golems exploded, but he might not be so lucky next time.
The mul turned and charged one flank of the golems’ line. He ducked the flailing arms of the first statue, then counterattacked with a series of vicious slashes that took the legs off both it and the next one in line. The third golem stooped over to slash at Rikus’s legs, anticipating that he would duck again. The mul leaped over its head and sent it tumbling over the cliff with a stomp-kick to the back. He found himself descending straight into the thrashing blades of the fourth golem.
Rikus flipped his blade around and drove it straight down to the thing’s yellow heart. It exploded as the others had, but the shards sprayed out horizontally, and the mul suffered no cuts as he came down before the last statue. This one split its attacks, one arm slicing low and the other high. Rikus leaped back and waited for the appendages to cross, then darted forward and sliced them both off at the elbows. The thing threw itself at him. Rikus grabbed a stump and sidestepped, bracing a foot against its ankle. When he pivoted, the golem’s own momentum carried it over the cliff.
As it shattered on the stones below, Rikus faced the last four golems and found them forming a semicircle above him. The mul backed to the edge of the cliff and braced himself. The dark statues closed ranks and rushed, their hands slashing high, low, and through all points in between. Rikus parried for a moment, lopping off a couple of obsidian hands, then stepped back and dropped off the precipice.
As he fell, Rikus drove the tip of the Scourge down into the cliff at a steep angle, catching himself just a yard below the top. Only two golems followed him over the edge, unable to stop their advances in time to keep from falling. Still attacking as they plummeted past, one managed to open a deep gash next to the mul’s spine. Then they both shattered against the rocks below.
The last two golems kneeled at the cliff’s brink.
The mul thrust his free hand into a crevice and knotted his fist, twisting against the stone to jam it in place. As the two statues above began to slash at him, he pulled the Scourge free and severed one golem’s head. The thing hardly seemed to notice, thrashing at the arm Rikus had thrust into the crevice. When it could not reach, it dropped to its belly. The other golem, now excluded from the combat, returned to its feet and stepped away, where the mul could not see it.
Rikus waited until his attacker’s arms spread wide, then pulled himself close and thrust the Scourge up through the brink of the cliff. The blade passed through the basalt easily, driving deep into the golem’s chest. The statue exploded, though the cliff edge sheltered the mul from suffering more cuts.
When the last golem did not take this one’s place, Rikus began to pull himself up. A pair of heavy steps sounded atop the precipice. A boulder slowly appeared over the brink, held between the statue’s glassy arms. Cursing, the mul stretched across the cliff face and drove the Scourge deep into a knob of rock. He pulled his other hand from the crevice and swung away just as the huge rock plunged past.
The golem peered over the cliff and cocked its head at Rikus, then turned away. The mul pushed himself up and grabbed the statue’s ankle. As the thing stepped away, it dragged him back onto the cliff top. Leaving the Scourge planted in the precipice, Rikus rolled into the back of the golem’s legs. The thing tumbled over his body, landing flat on its back. The mul did not even stand but simply whipped himself around and pushed it over the edge with his feet.
“Most impressive, Rikus,” called Tithian. The king was just crawling onto the top of the cliff. “Aren’t you glad now for all that time you trained in my gladiator pits?”
The mul clenched his teeth and reached down to pull the Scourge free. “Stop talking and start climbing,” he growled. “The fight’s started, and we’re late.”
Gliding silently and invisibly along the gorge wall, Sadira watched Borys’s scouring breath bubble around Neeva and Caelum. He had been spewing sand at them for nearly a minute now, with no sign that he would stop soon. Thanks to the enchantment she had placed on the blade, the scalding wind caused her friends no harm. Nevertheless, the attack did keep the pair pinned close together, and the sorceress suspected that was why the Dragon continued to assault them with it.
The sorceress dived toward the battle, coming down the face of the arch, her hand vibrating with a soft hum. She knew the noise would alert the Dragon to her presence, but she did not care. By the time he cast a spell to undo the magic that made her invisible, her attack would be made. The sorceress descended past several yellow runes and slipped beneath the arch’s vault. She saw her target below and dropped.
Borys continued to spew sand at Neeva and Caelum, his arrow-shaped head pushed forward and his beady eyes flashing with rancor. The sharp spines of his crest glistened under Sadira like so many spears. He was stooped slightly forward, presenting his scaly shoulders to the sorceress.
Caelum cast a spell from outside the arch, and a layer of flame appeared beneath Sadira. She lost sight of the Dragon and had to slow her dive. Then she saw a clawed hand pluck the fire from the air like a silk cloth. Borys hurled the spell back at the dwarf. Neeva caught the blazing sheet on the heft of her axe, then whipped it away. The flames blanketed the canyon wall and continued to burn.
Resuming her dive, Sadira looked into the palm in which the Dragon held Rkard. Her stomach twisted into knots, and a cold hand clutched at her heart. The young mul was still not moving, and he looked almost starved. She could see every rib on his torso, and his stomach was distended with hunger. His skin was flushed and scaly from lack of water, and his limbs were as thin as sticks. Still, the sorceress had to bite her cheek to keep from calling out to Neeva. The boy’s eyes were open, and he was touching one hand to the sun-mark on his forehead. He had survived!
As Sadira slipped past the Dragon’s bony shoulder, the beast abruptly closed his mouth. He cocked his ear toward her, and a knowing gleam flashed in his eyes. The first syllables of an incantation began to slip from his leathery lips.