That was when another half dozen knights materialized on horseback, charging into the mass of goblins thronged around the well. The horses panicked the goblins, as the knights, three of them wielding lances, must have anticipated.
Those lances impaled goblins, lifting the bodies high and tossing them behind the horses as they passed. The other three knights were leaning low and lashing out with long swords in their hands, holding the reins between their teeth and using their knees to guide the horses.
Spittle shot from the knights’ mouths as they cursed the escaped slaves and called on the memory of their Dark Queen to aid their struggle. Even the horses seemed in a rage. The animals’ eyes were wide and wild, and foam flecked on their lips. They reared back, flailing out with their front hooves and coming down hard, crushing goblins everywhere they stepped. The harsh whinnies, coupled with the clash of swords and the screams of the slaves, unnerved even Direfang.
“Only six horses, six men,” Mudwort said. Yet there was a quaver in her voice the hobgoblin had never heard before. “Only six of each. Should not rout Direfang’s army. Should not. Cannot.” She snorted and jabbed her fingers at the hobgoblin’s shoulder. “Should not, but could. Six of each could undo all this. Big knights on big horses are a scary thing.”
Direfang roared, a welcome sound in his own ears after his throat had been dry for so long. Giving no thought to Mudwort on his shoulders, he hurled himself toward the horsemen, with Mudwort holding on tight, clamping her eyes shut to keep Direfang’s flying hair and the dirt and dust and blood spurting in the air from clouding her vision.
The horses and riders continued their brutal attack. The largest of the knights had two goblins skewered on his lance, the weight tugging the weapon from him when he impaled a third. Releasing it and bellowing, he pulled his long sword just as Direfang reached him. The hobgoblin barreled into the side of the horse with his sword thrust forward. The horse shrieked as the blade cut through its chain barding, and it reared back, trying to edge away, giving Direfang an opening to pull the sword out and jam it in again, deeper, into its belly. Blood showered out and the horse collapsed just as Direfang leaped clear. The beast rolled on its side and momentarily trapped the knight under it.
Mudwort held on so tight, she made it difficult for the hobgoblin to breathe. He spun around behind the fallen horse, pulling his sword free and thrusting it into the struggling knight. Direfang shook his head to get Mudwort to relax her grip. Then he dashed toward another horseman who saw him just in time to swing around and ready his lance.
“Foreman!” the knight bellowed loud enough to be heard above the battle sounds, recognizing Direfang from the mine. “Foreman! To the lowest level of the Abyss with you and all of your kind! May you be food for the worms by midnight!” Then he lowered his lance and prodded his horse into a gallop.
Direfang didn’t balk. He ran straight at the horse and knight, Mudwort still keeping a stranglehold on him. The hobgoblin’s bleeding feet pounded across the hard, uneven ground, stone shards and broken bits of things stabbing at his every step. His hand was so bloody from the fight with the other knight, Direfang nearly lost his grip on the sword. It struck his own leg as he ran, the blade scraping him and throwing the hobgoblin off balance. The mishap proved to his fortune, for Direfang lurched just as the knight’s lance whizzed by. He didn’t avoid the blow completely, though, as the side of the lance caught him and spun him around.
Direfang fell, Mudwort leaping from his shoulders and rolling on the ground to avoid the hobgoblin landing on top of her. The horse reared when the knight pulled back on its reins and brought its hooves down-one clipping the side of Direfang’s head, the other just missing. The hobgoblin howled and brought his right hand up to shield his face; his left was still useless from the deep cut on his arm. He howled again, that time in rage, scooping up the sword he’d dropped, jumping to his feet, and swinging hard. Luck guided his aim. Direfang’s blade sliced the horse’s leg, causing it to retreat.
The world seemed off kilter as he struggled to keep his balance. Raising his sword, Direfang took a wobbly step toward the knight, who was dismounting from the injured horse.
“To the Abyss I’ll send you foreman!” The knight gripped the pommel in both hands and bent his knees, assuming a stance that would block Direfang’s charge. “To the Abyss, I say!”
But the hobgoblin didn’t budge. He was having a difficult time just standing erect. The ache in his skull from where the horse clipped him throbbed inside his head and made it difficult for him to concentrate. The thrumming in his head grew louder and louder, and he barely heard the knight cursing at him. He heard too many goblin voices all around. They sounded like the buzzing of persistent flies. His vision was clouding-everything looking feathery.
“I’ll send you and all your pitiful slavekind to the darkest, hottest pit!” The knight began to advance on him when it was obvious that Direfang wasn’t going to charge him first.
Around them, the battle raged. The goblins had managed to unhorse two more knights, beating and tearing at them, and were regaining ground by virtue of their sheer numbers. The two remaining horsemen continued to fight on, concentrating on the hobgoblins, who were proving to be more dangerous because of their size and the long swords they were whipping around maniacally.
The hobgoblins surged forward, one accidentally striking a horse and cutting through links in the chain barding. The mounted knight thrust down with his sword, the blade sliding into the base of the offending hobgoblin’s neck and killing him instantly. Another hobgoblin stepped in and drove his sword so hard into the knight’s leg that it went all the way through and sank into the horse’s side. A third hobgoblin, frenetic with a battle fever, finished the knight and the horse, leaving only one knight on horseback.
“Traitorous foreman!” Several yards away, the other knight continued to taunt and spar with Direfang. “I’ll die this day, I know it. Perhaps all of my brethren will die. But I’ll take you with me to the bottommost pit!”
Direfang offered no retort. It was all he could do to remain on his feet. He felt the weight of the sword in his right hand but couldn’t tell if it was raised and pointed at the knight. The knight looked blurry and indistinct to him, like a watercolor painting where all the colors had run together in the rain. All the noises ran together too, words sounding nonsensical and punctuated by the clang of swords.
“Do you hear me, beast?” The knight took a step closer then another step. “Do you hear me, you damnable, hairy thing? I’ll see you in the pit!” He wove his sword in a disciplined pattern and, noting that the hobgoblin’s eyes did not follow his movements, smiled and pulled the blade high above his head.
“Now!” Mudwort hollered. “Direfang, now!”
In the same moment that the Dark Knight started to bring the sword down, intending to cleave through the hobgoblin, Mudwort dashed in and shoved a dagger into the gap between the knight’s leg plates. The knight howled in surprise as his knee buckled. Mudwort tried futilely to pull the dagger free, but it was stuck fast. She leaped back, narrowly avoiding his sword crashing down, thunking impotently against the earth.
“Direfang, kill the knight now!”
Stirred by Mudwort, Direfang lumbered forward, lifting his sword arm as high as he could. The sword came down sluggishly but met resistance. Direfang pushed forward, planting his feet as his sword pierced the Dark Knight’s abdomen, and knight and hobgoblin fell upon each other in a heap.
Mudwort darted in close and grabbed at her dagger. She wasn’t able to tug it free, but she wrenched it back and forth to cause more excruciating pain for the knight. In a daze, Direfang tugged his own sword free and shoved it into the knight again, satisfied when the blood spilling out washed over his hand. The knight gasped, then lay still. The hobgoblin pushed away from the body and sat, blinking furiously, trying to make some sense of the chaos around him.