"We are the best!" crowed Lidda, leaping with delight as she stood among the rescued villagers. They had anticipated at least a few casualties among the prisoners before they launched their attack on the goblin captors. Thanks to Vadania's immobilizing spell and the swiftness with which they dispatched the goblins, every one of the men and boys taken from Croaker Norge now stood shaken but alive. They stared at their saviors with awe and gratitude but also with more than a little fear. They looked weary from the march of a night and most of a day, and their faces were blackened by the smoke of their razed village.
"Wait a moment," said Tordek. "Did someone remember to keep one of the buggers alive?"
"Of course, my fearless friend," said Devis with a flourish of one hand. Just when Tordek was beginning to think the bard might be more useful than annoying, the half-elf had to take on those courtly airs once more. Devis beckoned to a nearby stand of pussy willows. "Come on out, little fellow."
Fearfully, a particularly small and ugly goblin emerged from the reeds. One of its arms-unnaturally short-was bound to its chest with dirty, blood-crusted bandages. Tordek noted with grim amusement that he had probably seen the goblin's hand back in Croaker Norge.
"Let's find out what he knows," said Devis, beckoning his new "friend" closer. Tordek had seen the effect of charm spells before, and he knew the goblin would be no friendlier to him or the women. Only Devis would seem to be its ally and only so long as the spell endured. Still…
"Leave him to me," said Tordek. He set his axe aside and pulled the goblin close by the collar of his studded leather armor. The creature's teeth were yellow where they weren't black, and its breath stank of decay.
Devis stepped close and put a hand on Tordek's pauldron. "Maybe it would be easier if I were to-"
"Go help the others get the villagers sorted out," snapped Tordek.
White flecks of spittle appeared on the goblin's face. The captive flinched. This would not take long, he thought. Just to make sure, he smacked the crippled goblin sharply in the face.
"Tordek?" called Vadania.
He did not even turn to look at her. He had no time for qualms about the way he chose to interrogate this wretch. "Later," he said to her. Turning back to the goblin, he demanded, "Where were you going?"
The captive did not immediately reply, and Tordek grasped the goblin by the crotch and throat. He lifted the smaller creature completely off the ground before hurling it back down with a bone-crunching impact. If not for the soft, black muck of the swamp, the blow might well have broken the goblin's back. The creature gasped and whined, trying to climb back up to its feet, a difficult feat for a goblin with only one hand. Before it could stand, Tordek grabbed it by the face and lifted it up again, one-handed.
"I'll ask only once more," he warned. "Answer me, or be damned." He gripped the goblin's jerkin with his other hand and released its mouth.
"The dwarven delve!" yelped the goblin in the common tongue.
"This is important," interrupted Vadania again.
Tordek snapped his head around to glare at the intruding druid. "What is it?"
"We've found some tracks," she said.
"Good," said Tordek. "We'll follow them as soon as I'm finished inter-"
"Lizard tracks," said Vadania. "Two-legged lizards, probably troglodytes. From the look of them, we are in their hunting grounds."
"We'll be gone long before they return."
"The tracks are fresh," she insisted.
"All right then," said Tordek. "I'll make this quick."
"Lidda is sending the villagers back immediately," added Vadania.
She stepped close to look into Tordek's face, but he kept his gaze locked on the goblin, striving to burn his hatred into the creature's skull by force of will. Vadania's words seemed far away.
"We can't keep guarding them all, and it will be dark soon."
"All right. Just give me a few more moments." He put his face right up to the goblin's scabby visage. "Who led you there?"
The goblin shrieked a protest in its native language. Unlike some of his kin, Tordek never bothered to learn the corrupt tongue of the least of the dwarves' eternal foes. Lidda could talk their gutter-speech, but he preferred not to have a translator for this. It made the goblin work harder to tell the truth, and that pleased Tordek. He shifted his grip again, digging his hard fingers into the goblin's armpits.
"Who?"
"Har-!" shrieked the goblin. Twin fears fought over the word in its mouth like two feral dogs over a bone. Perhaps the goblin thought its master was more fearsome than Tordek. Perhaps it would need a lesson to correct that mistake.
"Tordek!" said Vadania. The elf's normally cool voice was shrill with urgency, but Tordek barely heard it. He felt as if his head was spinning, and hot blood surged just behind his bulging eyes.
"What did you say?" roared Tordek, squeezing the goblin so hard that he felt the creature's ribs begin to creak.
The goblin gurgled, "Harg…Harg…"
As his fury grew, Tordek wanted nothing more than to crush a skull between his fists, no matter that this particular goblin was not the foe he truly wanted to murder.
"Tordek!" shouted Vadania, shoving him hard and pointing at the ground. "Look!"
Tordek shook his head, but the gesture did little to dispel his dizziness. Looking down where Vadania directed, he saw that he was standing in a deep depression in the mud.
"What?" he said, keeping a tight grip on the squirming goblin.
"Step back and look," said Vadania.
He did as she instructed and realized the depression was actually a gigantic, three-taloned footprint. From its middle toe to the dewclaw, the print was nearly as tall as Lidda. After a good rain, any two of the companions could have taken a bath in the concavity. Water was only just beginning to ooze into the print, and Tordek didn't need Vadania's wood-cunning to understand that meant the track was fresh.
Tordek stared for a moment, his mind unable to calculate the size of the monster that must have left that print.
"We have to leave," said Vadania. "Now."
Tordek nodded dumbly, still stunned by the size of the footprint. He lowered the goblin to the ground but maintained a grip on its collar.
"Does he have the hammer?" Tordek demanded.
Without warning, the goblin leaped at him, knocking Tordek back a step. The anger came rushing back into his limbs, but before he could retaliate, he felt the burning-cold spot on his ribcage and saw the other side of the short javelin protruding from the goblin's back. From the butt of the weapon dangled fetishes of frog bones and vulture feathers.
Tordek realized the goblin had not attacked him after all.
Vadania helped him pry the dead goblin away. The corpse took with it the javelin that had penetrated its entire body with enough force to pierce Tordek's armor and sink deep into his side. Only after the shock of the goblin's final, sudden, and involuntary lurch began to fade did the wound begin hurting.
The druid called a warning to the others as she and Tordek crouched for concealment. A few more javelins arced down from clusters of weeds and leafy shrubs in the west. None of them was as accurate as the weapon that had silenced the goblin.
"They are testing us," said Tordek, "to lure us into a hasty response."
"Then we had best run now, before they see how few we are," she said.
"Psst!" Lidda parted a clump of grass behind them. "Come on! We need to draw them off so the villagers can get away."
Before Tordek could protest, the halfling fired an arrow in the direction of the incoming javelins. With a sharp twang, Devis's crossbow joined her bow.
"By Abbathor's thumbs!" grumbled Tordek. Crouching, he recovered his axe. Vadania pressed a leaf of mistletoe to his bloody side and chanted a word of healing. He smelled a fleeting odor of pine needles and felt the warm magic suffuse his torn flesh, knitting the deep wound back into seamless skin.