The block drew Regdar half a step sideways, and when he glanced down to make sure he wasn’t too close to the edge, he saw the goblin prisoner, crouching low beneath him. The goblin snatched the stone club from the dead jailer.
The spider rolled off the dead one still stuck to Regdar’s arm and came to rest on its feet, right next to the now-armed prisoner. There was a loud growl almost in Regdar’s face, and he looked up just barely fast enough to see the hobgoblin almost upon him.
Regdar stepped backward and brought the dead spider up. The hobgoblin’s morningstar smashed into it hard enough to rip it free of Regdar’s arm and send it sailing up onto the stone platform above.
Regdar felt a hand on his ankle. He didn’t risk a glance down, but was sure it was Naull. She pulled herself up and over the edge of the pit. Regdar could hear the krenshar’s jaws snapping just below her. She whispered a curse and thanked the god of magic for her life.
The hobgoblin growled in Regdar’s face and recovered quickly. Regdar ducked a backhand swing and brought his sword up to jab at the hobgoblin’s midsection. The humanoid skipped back, letting its morningstar spin behind its head while it changed its grip on the weapon from one hand to the other. Regdar stepped in with a slash across the hobgoblin’s chest that cut through its animal hide and bone armor, but not quite deeply enough to draw blood.
The goblin prisoner had to roll out of the way and hop up onto the space between the pit and the platform. The spider followed it, and Regdar caught just a glimpse of a splash of spider guts as the goblin prisoner broke through the spider’s shell. Regdar could hear a third spider clattering up from behind him and hoped the ex-prisoner would take care of that one as quickly as it did the last.
The hobgoblin brought its morningstar down over its head with its left hand, and Regdar could see what it was trying to do. Its right hand was balled into a fist the size of a sledgehammer, and it was hoping Regdar would dodge the morningstar and move directly into the punch. Instead, Regdar dodged to the left and held his sword up over his head. The heavy steel balls wrapped the chain around Regdar’s blade, and there was a second where the surprised hobgoblin stood there and watched it happen.
Regdar took that opportunity to look behind it. The goblins along the wall were watching in obviously stunned fascination. Behind the bigger, still ranting hobgoblin on the other side of the pit, a small group of goblins and a few of the spiders were rallying around a single goblin who was growling at them in that ugly language of theirs.
The big hobgoblin turned on them, and Regdar could see the fear in the eyes of all the goblins who had been rallying behind it. The sound of the big hobgoblin’s voice was like thunder rolling through the huge cave. The thing was not happy.
The hobgoblin whose morningstar was wrapped around Regdar’s sword kicked the human in the side hard enough to push the air out of his right lung. It was an odd, painful sensation, but Regdar didn’t have time to stop and consider it. Tensing his right arm and bringing all of his considerable strength to bear, he twisted his greatsword out and to the left, flipping the morningstar from the hobgoblin’s grip.
Doing so, though, turned him around, so that he had his back to the hobgoblin. Regdar was facing Naull’s back and had to dodge to one side to avoid the young mage’s staff. She jammed it back, then sliced it down, and Regdar watched it smash onto the top of a spider that was just about to bite her in the ankle. It was the spider Regdar had hoped the prisoner would kill—it was as if he’d forgotten about Naull completely. He drew in a breath, stunned and disappointed by the realization, only to be snapped back into the moment when the hobgoblin punched him in the back hard enough to rattle his teeth.
Regdar blinked and was oddly aware of the crowd of fleeing goblins pouring down the crude stone steps. Yet another spider was making its way toward him, and Regdar tried to ignore the sounds of two more goblins being ripped to pieces by the krenshar.
The hobgoblin wrapped its huge, yellow-skinned arms around Regdar’s head, and he knew the humanoid was going to try to break his neck. When the inevitable hard twisting motion came, Regdar rolled with it. His sword was too heavy with the morning-star still wrapped around it. As Regdar rolled to the side, slipping out of the hobgoblin’s grip, he twitched his sword, so the chains would begin to unwind.
The hobgoblin must have realized that Regdar wasn’t going to sit there and have his neck broken. It let go of Regdar’s head and stepped back. The hobgoblin bumped into Regdar’s back and growled in frustration, then something brushed past Regdar. It was the goblin prisoner. The little humanoid seemed to be scurrying all over the place, getting in and under Regdar and the hobgoblin as if they weren’t even there.
The goblin stood up just as it came by Regdar and reached out to grab at Naull. Regdar barked out a warning, but at the same time he heard the telltale squeak of a dagger being drawn somewhere just behind his head.
The goblin prisoner pushed Naull to the side, away from the pit, and Regdar could see the spider scurrying toward them. The prisoner brought its club down at the thing, but stopped a foot above it. The spider reacted anyway, hopping to one side. The goblin stomped down with its right foot and cracked three of the spider’s legs, so they nearly broke off. The thing tried to jump away but only dragged its useless appendages a few inches before the goblin fell on it and killed it.
Naull took the opportunity to climb up and pass behind Regdar as if unaware of the life-and-death fight he was having with the hobgoblin. As he watched her pass he turned and stood. The morningstar slid off his sword, and Regdar kicked it into the pit at the same time he batted away the hobgoblin’s long, serrated dagger.
Over the hobgoblin’s shoulder Regdar saw the bigger humanoid barking more orders. This time, the goblins who had been content to watch started to work up their nerves. The little humanoids had weapons in their hands—javelins mostly, and heavy leg bone or stone clubs—and a strangely pathetic desperation in their eyes.
Regdar dropped his sword back and tensed for a hard slash that could end the hobgoblin when he heard Naull start to shout something that sounded like just the opposite of the goblins’ guttural grunting. The words were lyrical and intricate, set in a chanting cadence that gave Regdar pause—just long enough for the hobgoblin to slash him across the hip with the big serrated dagger. It found a place between tassets and cuisse and ripped into his skin. Regdar clenched his teeth tightly together and held back a scream. Hot blood poured from the wound.
14
Jozan tried not to take satisfaction in the way it felt to crack a goblin’s skull with his bloody mace. He wasn’t fighting for the thrill of it—he wasn’t even fighting to kill—but he had to defend Lidda, the goblin females, and himself.
His eyes had become used to the dim light of Lidda’s lantern, and he was thankful that the halfling had stopped bouncing around. The light was steady enough that he wasn’t mistaking shadows for goblins and vice versa. He couldn’t see the little thief, and she wasn’t speaking, but the light was behind him and to his right.
The goblin he’d just hit fell to one knee and put a hand to its head, dropping the sharpened rock it had been using as a weapon. Another of its comrades came up to jab at Jozan with a javelin, but the priest stepped back, and the wounded goblin rolled over on its side at the same time. The wounded goblin rolled onto the javelin-wielder’s feet, nearly tripping it. The javelin, instead of stabbing Jozan, tipped upward. The priest took advantage of that and stepped in to swat the weapon out of the goblin’s hand. There was a loud snap! and Jozan was pretty sure he’d broken one of the goblin’s fingers in the process.