by T. H. Lain
Tordek spied a movement in the grass to the east-a motion contrary to the breeze. Before he could call out a warning, Lidda sent an arrow toward the disturbance. The first shot evoked a frightened yelp, but the second stilled the movement.
"Gulo!" called Vadania, standing tall atop a clump of grassy earth. She pointed at the spot where the arrow fell, and the gigantic wolverine surged forward, a mountainous wave of flesh. When its jaws found the wounded goblin beneath the grass, even Tordek had to turn away from the creature's quick, brutal demise.
"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 villag
ers 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.
After healing Tordek, Vadania readied her sling, but no more javelins fell near them. Tordek listened for any sound of approaching troglodytes. He heard nothing but the sloshing of the marsh water around them, but Vadania tucked her sling into her belt and drew her scimitar from its scabbard. She crouched, ready to spring. Tordek followed her example.
Gulo's roar announced the start of the hand-to-hand struggle. A chorus of rasping, hissing screams answered Gulo's cry, and a dozen reptilian warriors surged out of the marsh. They stood tall as elves but slouched forward, their lean bodies balanced by long, heavy tails. Sharp teeth jutted from their crocodilian jaws, above which their yellow eyes flicked with amphibian double eyelids. Vestigial horns pricked up upon their brows, and tall dorsal ridges jutted atop their heads. Some wore scavenged or makeshift harnesses festooned with teeth and skull fragments. Half of them bore long spears and javelins, while the rest loped forward with fangs bared and claws grasping.
Devis put a bolt in a trog's throat, but still the lizard rushed forward. Lidda's arrow found the same target, crossing the first missile deep inside the trog's thick neck. The reptilian hunter fell with a red splash.
Four troglodytes thrust their spears at Gulo's face, forcing the great animal to rear up on his haunches. They stabbed at the wolverine's exposed belly, and two sharp spearheads sank deep. Gulo snapped one of the offending spears in half while the other weapon whipped back for another thrust.
Vadania turned her head and grimaced at the plight of her bestial friend, but she faced two foes of her own. She slashed at the first, but it caught her scimitar on a bark shield. The second trog leaped at her. She stepped back barely in time to evade its sharp claws. She did not see the third one rising up out of the muck behind her.
Tordek spied the trap and called out a warning. Two troglodytes stood between him and the druid. Neither creature was armed, but Tordek knew that their teeth and claws were more than sufficient to tear away even his plate armor. He knew these reptiles were keen-minded warriors who probably expected him to keep them at bay with the advantage of his weapon's reach.
Tordek lowered his head and rushed them.
The first troglodyte crouched, arms wide to grapple the rushing dwarf. Briefly, Tordek thought of the human villager who had tried catching him that way a few days earlier. He knew the reptile-man was more cunning and far more powerful than any villager. Just before he came within its grasp, Tordek leaped up and stomped on the trog's thigh. The creature trumpeted its pain as Tordek continued running over its body. His armor-bolstered weight drove the surprised trog down into the mire. Tordek's trampling attack was so unexpected that the second trog charged past the point where it expected him to be. Tordek continued running toward Vadania and her three assailants.
The elf struggled to free her sword arm from the grip of the trog that grasped her from behind, but she could not match its reptilian strength. The trog pinned her as its two fellows closed in to rip her apart with their razor-sharp claws. Unseen by either of them, Lidda's short sword licked out, biting one troglodyte on the hip and drawing its attention away from the druid. The frill upon the trog's neck rose in a threatening fan as the gaze of its beady, black eyes fixed on the halfling.
With a mighty heave, Tordek raised his axe and brought it down with all his mass and strength. The blade separated the second attacker's head from its shoulders and showered Vadania with blood.
Tordek heard furious splashing behind him. He tried to turn in time to face the foe he had eluded moments earlier, but he was too late to raise his guard against the fangs and claws. Tordek heard the snap of a bowstring and felt a quick breeze upon his cheek just before the rushing troglodyte barreled into him, then they fell together into the muck. Tordek thrust an elbow into his foe's head, but the enemy was already limp in death. As he shoved the dead trog's body aside, he saw another of Devis' black-fletched bolts that had pierced the monster's cheek and penetrated into its brain.
Tordek rose to his feet, looking around to appraise the course of battle. Vadania and Lidda had their backs together, and two more trogs lay dead at their feet. Gulo had made short work of all four of his attackers and galumphed back to bolster his two-legged allies. Behind the dire wolverine, a second, longer line of troglodytes approached warily, the frills on their heads fanned out in threatening displays. Having witnessed their clutch-mates' fate, they were less inclined toward a reckless charge.
Tordek grunted his approval at the tide of combat. He felt that his companions and he had little more to fear before they could begin withdrawing from the territorial troglodytes.
The stink hit him like a stone.
For an instant, Tordek was sure he would vomit uncontrollably. Tears streamed down his cheeks and into his beard as the noxious vapor stung his eyes, yet his dwarven fortitude withstood the full power of the toxic stench.
Devis and Lidda were not so fortunate. The bard doubled over and spewed out his own nasty contribution to the already filthy mire. Lidda managed to keep her insides on the inside, but she staggered back from the approaching trogs as if tipsy. Both looked wan and feeble, like ghosts in the gray swamp mist.
"To me!" cried Tordek. He stood as tall as possible upon a miserable, damp clod and raised his axe and shield to draw the enemy's attention.
Lidda bounded through the swamp as fast as her little legs could carry her, mostly avoiding the muck and puddles that impeded her. Devis hesitated, seeming to consider casting a spell before thinking better of it and running toward Tordek.
Vadania was already by his side, scimitar in hand. Gulo crouched nearby, his dark lowering indicating that the beast was ready to deal more slaughter.
Rather than charge, the troglodytes crouched down among the grass and reeds. Those with javelins and shields began beating them together in unison.
"What are they doing?" asked Lidda, still gagging from the disgusting trog musk. She grabbed Devis' arm for support, but he too was so weak that she nearly pulled him down off their little island before they steadied each other.
"They expected easier prey," said Vadania. "They hope to frighten us away." She turned to Tordek for agreement.
He nodded slowly, wondering whether the druid was sure of her assessment. "It's time to get out of here."
"Won't they just begin tracking the villagers?" said Lidda.
Tordek sighed. Lidda's concern for the villagers was admirable, and he too hated to think that their rescue might be for nothing, but saving them was not part of the mission at hand. He took a deep breath and prepared to explain exactly that when Vadania pointed beyond the trog position.
"Look," she said.
Tordek could see little more than the blurred outlines of the nearest trees, dark green in the fog. Some of them were slender and lonely, while others clustered in twisted columns.
One of the thickest columns lumbered toward them.
The thing was well over twice Tordek's height and built massively. When it moved, waves rippled out in all directions through the watery ground, and Tordek thought of the giant footprint he had seen earlier.
The enormous monster grasped one of the lone trees. With a terrible sound of tortured wood and deep suction, it rent the tree from its roots and hefted it like a club.
Devis uttered a long and artful dwarven curse that impressed even Tordek. He concluded in the common tongue, "What in the nine hells is that?"
"Maybe a hill giant," said Tordek, hopefully. He longed to test his skills against one of the gigantic foes of his people, and he prayed fervently tha
t he could defeat one such creature with a little help from his allies. He feared this was not his time for that battle-not when the thing had so many of its allies nearby. As the monster lumbered toward them, Tordek saw that it did not have the roughly humanoid head and shoulders of a giant. Instead, its reptilian skull hung low from its hunched shoulders, and what looked like three separate pairs of yellow eyes pierced the gloom like lanterns.
Gulo lowered his head and whined like a frightened dog.
Vadania looked at Gulo with an expression of astonished disappointment. Tordek guessed that she had never seen the great animal so cowed with fright.
"I'm with the big fellow," said Devis. Beside him, Lidda nodded emphatically and pointed at herself before jerking a thumb over her shoulder in the universal sign for, Let's get out of here.
Tordek felt the earth trembling. The monster's steps came ever closer, gradually picking up speed. He saw the thing's gray jaws clearly for the first time. They seemed as vast as a portcullis gate, with sharp teeth as hard and sharp as iron spikes. He hated to flee a fight, and yet…
"Damn it," Tordek rumbled. "Run!"
The trogs hooted in triumph as they saw their foes scatter. Another flight of javelins fell to the ground all around, but neither Tordek nor the others turned to see where they struck.
Tordek and Lidda soon lagged behind their longer-legged companions. With every six of his own labored steps, Tordek felt the impact of another of the gargantuan beast's long strides shudder up through the ground. He heard the thing's breathing, deep as a forge bellows. He wanted to call out for help, but his pride forbade it.
"Hey, it's catching up!" Lidda screamed to Devis and Vadania. Apparently, she was unhindered by Tordek's qualms. "Do something!"
There was no time to hope for help, thought Tordek. He slowed his pace, preparing to turn and swing his axe around to fight the beast. He would not prevail, he knew, but he might delay the thing just long enough to give the others time to escape. Maybe the bard would make a song of him, maybe not.
