"What do you see?" Taris asked, drawing his stone dagger.
Lannon pointed at the pines. "I'm not sure what it is."
Taris motioned to Thrake Wolfaxe and the two rode into the grove of pines. Lannon waited, hardly daring to breathe. Moments later, Taris and Thrake returned, their faces grim.
"Whatever was there," said Thrake, "departed rather quickly. We found the remains of a deer, and it looks as if the creature was feasting. It could have simply been a stray Goblin from the Bloodlands-or perhaps even a wolf or bear."
"My instincts tell me otherwise," said Taris. "I could feel a lingering aura of evil in the air-the stench of a powerful Goblin."
"It wasn't a natural animal," said Lannon. "It was something dark and strange-something that was plotting evil. I could sense that much, at least."
"The demon man?" asked Jace.
"I don't think so," said Lannon. "It was like nothing I've ever seen or felt, like a creature made of smaller creatures."
Jace frowned, as if puzzled. "If it's a Goblin, then it's one I've never heard of. Or perhaps I've forgotten. There are so many…"
The company rode on. Lannon caught no more glimpses of danger, and he started to relax a bit. The Greywind he rode seemed to know exactly where to go, and Lannon let the horse keep its own pace.
But as they neared the bottom of the mountain, along a stretch of the trail where no houses stood-just trees and rocks-a dark figure slipped from the mist and blocked their path. The figure seemed to be a mass of shifting darkness with two yellow eyes. It was clearly some kind of Goblin, but Lannon had never seen anything like it. The Eye of Divinity seemed to falter and shy away from it.
"Halt!" Jace cried out to the company. "Do not move a muscle!" Jace's voice was tense-almost desperate sounding.
The riders came to a stop. "What is it?" asked Taris, his stone dagger burning with the green fire of sorcery.
"I think this is a Host Goblin," said Jace. "If I'm right, it will use smaller Goblins as projectile weapons. Beware of flying objects!"
The shadowy creature simply stood in the trail watching them, its flesh squirming as if in agitation. Lannon tried again to focus the Eye on it, but again he was turned away. He suspected the creature was shielding itself from him somehow. He could sense great danger, but the Goblin didn't look very powerful. In fact, it looked small and weak, hunched over as if with age.
"No one must move except to defend," Jace called back. He signaled to the archers to hold back. "If you move, you will be attacked. Taris and I will handle this. The goal is to flank the creature. I'll move closer and allow myself to be attacked. Then Taris will move closer. And slowly we will close in on it!"
"I hope it can't understand speech," said Taris, rolling his eyes.
Jace didn't reply. He guided his horse toward the Goblin. Immediately, the Goblin hurled something at Jace with blinding speed. Jace batted the projectile away-a shadowy centipede that landed unharmed and scuttled off into the fog. He slowly wiped sweat from his brow. "Taris," he said, "move around to its right side-just a couple of yards for now. Be prepared."
Holding his burning dagger in front of him with one hand, Taris prompted his horse forward. Immediately, the Goblin plucked a squirming Centipede off itself and threw it at him. The projectile's speed was arrow fast, but it struck the dagger's green flames and disintegrated.
"Excellent," Jace said calmly. "This is going very well." His face was tense, sweat dripping from it. Jace started forward, but this time he was a bit too slow in blocking the Goblin's throw. A Centipede struck him in the face and knocked him off his horse into the mud.
Lannon's heart sank, but he dared not move to help Jace. He felt terribly helpless, like a prisoner confined to the saddle while his friends faced death.
"Hold your position-all of you!" Jace called from where he lay. A moment later, he jumped up and batted aside another Centipede projectile. His face was streaked with blood.
"How badly are you injured?" asked Thrake Wolfaxe. The Red Knight held his battle axe in one shaking hand-clearly growing tired from holding the heavy weapon in that position.
"I'm fine," said Jace. "I removed the Centipede before it could poison me-though it was a very close call. Taris, keep moving in."
Taris guided his horse closer-and blocked another squirming projectile that flew at his face. In spite of being blocked, this one hit with such impact it nearly threw him off his horse, but he remained in the saddle. His eyes smoldered with anger. "Vile creature!" he muttered.
Jace stepped around his horse, but the Goblin hurled a Centipede at Vorden this time. Somehow, Vorden's spider sword rose in time to slash the projectile from the air. Vorden cried out in triumph.
"Well done, Squire!" Jace called out, grinning. "Now, continue to hold your ground. We'll get through this."
But Timlin wasn't listening. The attack on Vorden drove him into a panic, and he leapt from his horse and ran for a boulder. The Goblin threw at him and barely missed-though the Centipede hit Timlin's horse in the neck and stuck there. The Greywind reared up, whinnying, and then collapsed in death. The Centipede scuttled away from the horse and vanished behind a pine.
Taris groaned in frustration. "Timlin, you cowardly wretch! Now you've lost a fine horse!"
"Did I not say to hold your ground?" Jace called out, his voice weary. "Fleeing will do no good. We must be patient."
Taris moved in. This time, the Goblin hurled a Centipede at Aldreya. The young Birlote sorceress had her own burning dagger in front of her. She screamed, even as the Centipede disintegrated against the blade, and toppled from her horse.
"I've had enough of this!" Taris said.
"Wait!" Jace insisted. "If we rush in, some of us will die!"
But the Tower Master ignored him, clearly enraged. Taris' stone dagger burned so hot the others couldn't look at it, the green fire becoming almost white in hue. The creature shrank back, blinded. But then the Host Goblin launched a flurry of projectiles at the company, even as Taris leapt in and struck with his dagger.
Taris drove his dagger into the Goblin three times, causing the creature to erupt into green flames. As the Host Goblin crumbled to the ground, burning, a cry of agony arose from near Lannon. One of the Blue Knights had thrown himself in front of Lannon to block a flying Centipede-and it had struck him in the throat. His howl was choked off as he lay in the mud, and soon his body went still.
Reacting on instinct, the Knight had leapt onto Lannon's horse to shield him. But he'd been too slow in raising his sword to block the projectile. The Centipede had poisoned him on contact, and he'd died in a matter of seconds from the sorcery-infested venom-perhaps even before he hit the ground.
Lannon stared down at the fallen Knight in shock. The Eye of Divinity revealed the Knight's spirit, departing from his body in death-like a luminous mist uncoiling into the air. Lannon looked away, not wanting to know the path of the dead. He wondered if he could have stopped the projectile with his power, if the Knight's death had been needless.
With a cry of sorrow and anger, Lannon seized the Centipede with the Eye before it could escape and crushed it into ruin. But the damage was done, and not even the great Eye of Divinity could change that fact.
Taris bowed his head, as he stood over the Host Goblin's remains. He didn't turn around. "Check on the fallen Knight, Jace."
His face somber, Jace did as ordered. "Zannin Firespear is dead, Taris."
"Wretched Goblins!" Thrake Wolfaxe bellowed.