“Blind as a bat and meaner than ten of your dogs.”
“Huh.”
Octopus rumbled, the hairs raising on his back.
Creed froze. “They’re close.”
“How close?”
Dust and debris fell from the ceiling above.
Wham!
Something pounded the floor above.
“Is that close enough for you?”
Bone! They’re onto us.
CHAPTER 66
Slim dangled the pink flesh of Venir’s missing ear in his face. “Hold still. This is going to sting. I can put it back on, but, I’m sorry, I couldn’t find the other one.”
“That’s alright,” Venir said. “I never listened much anyway. I don’t think putting my ear on is going to do me much good eith—urk!”
Grabbing both sides of his head with extra-long fingers, Slim’s hands glowed.
“Argh!”
Venir’s bones crackled. His skin felt like it was on fire. It wasn’t pain, not like all the other torments he’d faced the past few days, but it was uncomfortable. Disturbing. Unnatural.
“Bone! What are you doing, Slim?”
A storm raged between his temples. His bones moved. His skin crawled. His arms and legs thickened.
Slim’s long, youthful face changed. His hair thinned. His eyes sunk back in their sockets.
Venir blinked hard.
Slim’s red lips turned gray, and the skin on his body became mummified and dry.
“No, Slim! No!”
He tried to push his friend away, but Slim’s lanky arms didn’t budge.
Finally, Slim let out a ragged sigh, released him, stepped back, and fell to the ground. His long frame little more than a husk of skin and bone.
“Slim! Slim!” Venir said.
The cleric’s teeth were cracked when he smiled.
“Don’t worry about me, Vee. I’ll be fine. Go get you some underlings.”
One of Chongo’s big heads licked the man.
Then Slim’s eyes rolled up in his head.
Venir’s head dipped to his chest, and his hand was white-knuckled on his knife. He was whole. So far as he could tell, he was as whole as he’d ever been. He’d been living in such pain.
Grabbing Chongo by the mane on his neck, he swung himself into the saddle. “Let’s find me an axe and shatter some bones!”
Chongo surged forward.
Outpost Thirty One was in total disarray. A hundred underlings or more dragged one giant to the ground. A dozen underlings at a time were being stomped, leaving black smears in the dust. A wagon cart was tossed into one of the towers, and a giant bigger than all the rest beat his chest and roared, slamming his weapon across the ground, sweeping underlings away like bugs.
“Now that’s an axe!” Venir yelled.
Chongo barreled through the sea of underlings, biting some and trampling others. Venir’s eyes locked on the battle axe of a fallen brigand who’d been smashed into a bloody mud hole. Riding by, he snatched it off the ground. A second later, he gored an underling’s head.
“It’s sharp! It’s metal! It ain’t Brool. Yah! But it’ll do!”
He brought the heavy axe down, busting armor and splitting through a clavicle. He was free. Unfettered by his helm, he had clarity. Sweeping the battle axe from one side to the other. In seconds, gore coated his arms and chest.
The distracted underlings didn’t see him and Chongo coming.
Crush!
Crumble!
Chomp!
“Over there, Chongo!”
Venir had spied an ailing Black Beard surrounded by a thicket of underlings. Chongo pounced on them. Venir dove into the ones he missed. Swinging left and right with all his might, opening chests and crushing in skulls. Who needs the armament!
Two strokes later, his corded arms turned to lead. His lungs caught fire. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another pack of underlings closing in on him.
“Seems fear of the giants has rerouted their attack,” he said, raising his axe over his head. “Come on, get them!”
***
Eethum led. Fogle followed. The Blood Ranger’s axes sang to the underlings. A tune of death and destruction. Fogle tasted their oily blood in his mouth and spit it out. Above, the towering giants had failed to take over. Scores of underlings kept coming. Overwhelming the giants with sheer numbers. They crawled all over.
Fogle was torn. Whose side should I be fighting for? Even if they defeated the underlings, wouldn’t the giants turn on him and the dwarves?
Thump!
Thump!
The entire fort shook. One of the giants, eyes close together, was slamming himself into one of the corner towers. Underlings spilled out, screeching on their way to the ground.
“Help the dwarves, Fogle!” Eethum said. “Keep your eyes out for Venir!”
Find Venir! And get out of here!
Wading through underlings and dodging oversized feet and weapons, Eethum led them up the stair onto the catwalks.
“See anything?” Fogle said.
“No!” Eethum said. The Blood Ranger was holding them off.
“There!” Fogle pointed.
Two Black Beards were fighting for their lives in the corner. Fogle unleashed his power. A bolt of lightning leapt from his fingers.
Sssram!
The chain of lightning ripped through one underling, then another. Piles of ash were scattered in the air.
A giant, bald and cock-eyed, leered down at him, raised his axe and swung. Eethum shoved Fogle out of the way. The catwalk shattered. They tumbled hard to the ground.
Breathless, Fogle got back to his feet just as the giant reached down for him.
Wham!
The ugly giant roared.
Somebody swung a club the size of a tree into its knee. It was Barton.
“Leave my Wizard friend alone, Haddad!”
Whack!
Haddad struck Barton across the face, knocking him from his feet, and turned back to Fogle.
“I’LL EAT YOU, WIZARD!” He patted his belly. “YOUR MAGIC MAKE HADDAD STRONG!”
Eethum burst into action, chopping into the bone below the giant’s knee.
“ARGH! BLOOD RANGER! YOU SHALL PAY!” The giant was quick. It snatched Eethum off the ground and squeezed him.
Fogle drew his arms back, summoned his words, and started to cast.
Clonk!
A sling stone ricocheted off his head. Blood trickled in his eyes. The next thing he saw was Eethum flying through the air and the giant reaching for him.
I don’t want to fly like that.
***
Fighting to lift his arms to swing, Venir’s knees buckled when an underling’s shield clipped the back of his chin. Trying to shake it off, he was too late. The underlings piled on top of him, clawing and tearing at his throat.
“Heeyah!” a familiar voice rang out, scattering the underlings like bloody moths.
Mood’s arms pumped those axes into one underling after another, rekindling Venir’s fire.
Venir caught his breath and burst into motion.
“Ain’t so savvy without that helmet on, are ye?”
Venir, arms high, sunk his axe down into an underling’s chest, shooting black and red blood up everywhere.
“No!”
Two more black beards joined in, the five of them forming a circle, keeping the underlings at bay.
“Where in Bish are all these roaches pouring out from, anyway!” Mood shouted, deflecting a chop at his neck on the blade of his axe.
“Northside War Room! There must be a tunnel in there!”
Hundreds of underlings lay dead, but where one fell, two more were coming. So far as Venir knew, the underlings never had a tunnel to the Outpost, but they could have dug one over the past few years. Chopping away, he watched another giant fall, leaving only three.
“What was your plan, Mood?”
“Carve a way in and rescue you! Carve a way out to freedom!”
<
br /> That wasn’t going to happen. The underlings covered the gates, and many were watching the giants fall. Ropes, grappling hooks, and magic cords wrapped the giants’ legs and pinned their arms. Another giant pitched and stumbled, his head slamming into the wall. He roared while the underlings cut and stabbed at his back.
Thwack!
One of the Black Beards caught another ballista bolt in his back.
“Bone!”
“Tis a shame,” Mood said, still swinging.
“What!”
“We could have made it, if not for all the extra underlings.”
***
Fogle’s plan had unraveled. He’d had on his lips the same spell he’d used to fight Tundoor and his breed. It was lost. Now, mind addled, he tried to recall another spell before he was crushed, then eaten.
One foot from his nose, the giant’s fingers stopped. An enormous black shadow fell from the sky, shaking the ground.
WHUMP! WHUMP! SNORT!
Fogle’s heart skipped. Two citrine eyes bore into him.
Blackie!
***
A tide of flames ripped through the underlings.
Ka-Chow!
Ka-Chow!
Ka-Chow!
Bolts of lightning fell from the sky, blasting underlings off the ground. Every portion of the battlefield was either lit up in a spectacular array of fireworks or consumed by flame.
Venir’s attackers paused. Their hesitation was fatal.
Chop! Hack!
Two underlings fell.
“Head for the North Gate,” Venir said. “The south is on fire!”
In front of them, the giants waded through the flames like they were water, stomping and chopping at every underling in sight. The black bodies were burning and dying by the dozens now, the others trying to flee.
Venir led Mood and the remaining Black Beards north under the catwalks, picking their way through the dead.
“We can take the drainage tunnel, if we can get to it.”
“MOOD!”
The loud voice shook his bones. The biggest giant of all, hefting a battle axe over its shoulder, was coming after them.
“I’VE GOT YOU NOW!”
***
The Black Dragon was the last thing Fogle expected to see, until he saw Cass, sitting on its back.
“Cass!” he yelled, but nothing cut through the chaos.
Inspired, Fogle launched a magic missile into the hesitating giant’s eye.
“ARGH!” it roared, stumbling backward.
He sent another one past Cass’s face.
She jerked back, pink eyes hot with anger before she caught his gaze.
He waved and ran toward her at full speed.
Blackie whipped his serpentine neck in front of him, opening his mouth that was full of flames.
“No, Blackie!” Cass cried. “He’s on my side.”
***
One spell. One spell. One spell.
Boon soared off Blackie’s back and floated into the sky.
Above Outpost Thirty One, five underling magi hovered, attacking the giants. He let them have it.
Ka-Chow! Ka-Chow! Ka-Chow! Ka-Chow! Ka-Chow!
Lightening ripped out of the clouds and through their robes, sending them twirling and smoking to the ground. Below him, Blackie, flames shooting from his mouth, landed on the ground.
“Burn them! Burn them all, Blackie!”
***
The smoke was black and thick, and the smell of burning flesh foul, but Venir and Mood waded through it, trying to avoid the giant.
“I CAN SMELL YOU, MOOD!”
CRASH!
The giant was destroying everything in its path, trying to get at them.
“GIANTS! SECURE… THE… GATES! THE… KING OF THE DWARVES… IS HERE! KILL HIM… AND… HIS KIN!”
Ka-Chow!
The giant’s face was lit up by a lightning strike.
Venir stopped and took a look.
“Are ye mad?” Mood said. “Keep moving.”
Venir gazed up at the man floating in the air. It was the old wizard, Boon, scraggly hairs whipping in the wind, eyes filled with power.
Where’d he come from?
“PARLEY!” Boon said in a voice that was loud like thunder.
The giant, Haddad, rubbed his temples. “WHAT, WIZARD? HAH, YOU… CANNOT… PARLEY… WITH US. WE… HAVE… YOU. ALL… OF…YOU.”
Venir tugged at Mood’s shoulder. “Let’s move.”
Mood rose his hand up. “Nay, let them parley, Venir. It buys us time, if nothing else.”
Behind Haddad the giant, another one had Barton slung over his shoulders. The deformed giant was kicking and screaming.
“TOYS! VENIR, GIVE ME MY TOYS! BARTON WON’T GO BACK WITH YOU, HADDAD! BARTON HATES YOU ALL! AND BLACKIE, TOO!”
“THE TOYS ARE GONE, BARTON!” Boon said.
“LYING WIZARD TRICK BARTON JUST LIKE VENIR DID BEFORE! BARTON WILL SMASH VENIR. CRUNCH HIS BONES. HE IS A LIAR!”
Haddad the giant reached back and walloped Barton in the head.
“NO MORE… TROUBLE FROM YOU… TEASER OF DRAGONS!”
Barton’s hand went to his eye. He started to cry.
“HE STARTED IT!”
“SIIIIILENCE!” Haddad said, shaking everything on the ground. “WIZARD, I OFFER THIS! I TAKE PRISONER THE BLOOD RANGER KING, MOOD. BLACKIE THE DRAGON AND THE TINY GIANT,” He pointed at Barton, “MUST COME HOME.” He spat a giant gob onto the ground. “THE REST CAN LEAVE.”
Another giant stepped forward, squeezing a black beard between his fingers.
Venir swore the black-faced dwarf was purple.
***
Giants are liars. But are they good liars?
Remaining still, Fogle’s eyes were transfixed on his grandfather, who was negotiating with the giants. Out of nowhere, a pair of warm pale arms wrapped around his waist.
“Miss me?” Cass said. She kissed him on the cheek.
He struggled to choke out the words. “I thought I’d lost you, Cass. I’m so—”
She put her finger to his lips.
“Shush, Fogle, I’m alright.” She gave him a reassuring embrace. “And Blackie, believe it or not, has been quite good to me.”
He glanced over at the dragon. There was jealousy in those yellow eyes.
“But, how?”
“I’m a druid, remember. I can communicate with all living things. And Blackie and I,” she said, nodding at the dragon with great admiration in her pink eyes, “we understand one another.”
Fogle chewed on his lip. He’d seen that look in the eyes of women before. Her arms around his waist had already slackened. No. This can’t be happening. What had Venir told him on the trail before? ‘Bish is full of surprises. And women even more. Get used to it.’
“You’re going with the dragon, aren’t you? Over me—A man!”
She caressed his face, looked up into his eyes, and said, “Oh Fogle, you knew it could never last, me and you.”
It tugged at his chest, but he knew she was right. The two of them couldn’t be any more different, but what they had shared had been wonderful. He didn’t want to let that go.
“I never really thought about it. I was too worried whether you were alive or dead.” He stepped away from her a little. “And now,” he glared at Blackie, “you choose a beast over me?”
“Don’t be that way, Fogle.”
“What way? Sane?”
“No,” she said. Her cheeks reddened. “A grown man acting like spoiled child who lost his favorite toy. Shame on you, Fogle. I’m not yours to claim. I never was.”
“I risked my life for you! I fought that dragon! And this is the thanks I get? Come on, Cass!”
“Oh Fogle, don’t be so dramatic,” she said, walking away and onto Blackie’s back. “It’s not manly. An adventurer should know that.” She sighed. “At least you’ll know what to do with the next pretty woman you meet.”
Fogle turned away.
Of all the ridicu
lous things.
***
“Here,” Mood said to Venir, handing over his axes.
“For what?” Venir said, feeling a little foolish for some reason.
“Cause you’ll be needin’ them, I’m certain. I’ll not where I’m going.”
“You can’t be serious, Mood?” Venir said. He looked at the giant that talked with Boon. He couldn’t understand it. He turned back to Mood. “You’re the King of the Dwarves. You can’t leave your people.”
“It’s better to be a live King than a dead one.” He winked. “And don’t worry; they can’t hold me forever. I’ll outlive them first.”
Venir took the axes. Mood walked out to the giant. “Alright, Haddad! I’ll come with you, but all my dwarves and people stay!”
Chongo stammered his paws on the ground. Black tails flicked back and forth like whips. His big jaws snapped.
Venir got in between both heads and hugged Chongo’s necks. The dog would do anything for him. He’d do anything for the dog. But things had changed. He could feel it in his bones. Without the armament, the underlings would catch up with him sooner or later. They would catch Chongo too, if he stayed with Venir.
He couldn’t protect his dog. The dog couldn’t protect him.
“I’ve got to let you go, Boy.” He rubbed his forehead on Chongo’s big chest. “Go with Mood.” He pointed at the dwarf.
Mood stood, shoulders stooped, holding his side a little.
“Mood needs you, Boy. He’s getting old.”
Both of Chongo’s heads licked Venir one last time.
Venir rubbed his dog behind all four ears. “Take care of him, Chongo. If anyone can lead the old curmudgeon out of there, you can.” He hugged the muscular necks once more.
Chongo, with one head looking backward, walked away. Venir wiped the blood from the corner of his eye.
“Dog come with Barton? Good. Barton like that.” Barton sighed in the clutches of two other giants, like the child he was. He struggled in vain. His chin dipped. They were bigger and stronger than him.
The other giant set Eethum down, and one by one the giants faded into mist, along with Chongo, Barton, and Mood, whose thick arms crossed his bearded chest.
Whump! Whump! Whump!
Cass and the dragon lifted off the ground and into the sky. Fogle’s head was down, but Boon waved goodbye to Cass, a big smile on his face. Only three men, a handful of dwarves, smoke, fire and carnage remained.
Chaos At The Castle (Book Six) Page 33
