by David Cook
Toss it aside, she mentally urged the gnoll: Just forget about it
Hakk glared with curled lips at the simple rock, and for a moment, Martine held hopes she was right.
"Krote, why does the human come here to gather rocks?" The shaman behind her sucked the air in between his fangs, clearly without an answer. Finally, he said, "Maybe she is like the little ones, the dwarves. They put much value on stones dug out of the earth."
"Since the human rame here to get this rock, what you say must be true. I will keep it" With those words Hakk tossed the stone among the furs of his dais.
Martine winced. Krote had clearly guessed wrong, but too well nonetheless.
"It's just a-a souvenir," Martine stumbled over the term and at last resorted to Sembian. "I mean, something to remember things by, Chieftain Elk-Slayer. The rock is worthless. I mean, do I look like a miner?" Stepping forward with mock helplessness, the ranger hoped, perhaps futilely, that she might persuade the chieftain by playing up her own ignorance. In the dogman's eyes, after all, she was only a human and a female at that
Hakk had let one ear loll as he cocked his head to listen. Before the gnoll could say a word, however, Krote spoke in suspicious tones.
"Brokka said the human had great magical powers, Hakk… that she shattered the tall ice." Across the fire pit, the chieftain grunted understanding as he eyed Martine sharply. "I keep this rock." Crestfallen, Martine realized she'd overplayed her hand and underestimated the gnolls, Krote in particular. The gaunt shaman didn't know why the Harper wanted the stone, but he had correctly read her desire to keep it. Don't show disappointment, she chided herself. Don't let on they're right.
"My power has no need for stones, Word-Maker." Her words were a softly spoken boast, but one which she voiced with confidence, for it was the truth. All she really needed was her sword, and then Krote and Hakk would discover just how fierce an opponent she was.
Krate's hard stare told her the gnoll had heard and understood her words. She noticed he kept one paw close to the dagger at his belt. She smiled slightly, just enough to show her pleasure at unnerving him.
"Take my mate out, Word-Maker. She has no more kaamak. Take her back to your lodge and learn her secrets," Hakk grunted from across the fire pit where he had remained oblivious to the exchange. Stifling a bored yawn, the chieftain scratched at the fleas that infested his golden furred hide and clambered lazily back onto his platform.
Prodding her in the back, Krote hustled Martine back into the cold daylight A pair of female gnolls butchering a rabbit in the bloodstained snow eyed Martine eagerly, their knives flashing too suggestively for her taste.
"What is the significance of the stone?" the shaman demanded as he pushed the woman past the smoldering remains of a fire.
"It's just a souvenir." Martine gamely tried to stick to her story. The shaman wanted answers, and she wasn't about to supply them. So long as that remained true, he would keep her alive, Martine figured.
'hat's a Be."
"It's my good-luck charm," she said with cheerful defiance.
"Another lie," the shaman shot back in a tone that showed no glimmer of humor.
"True enough," she countered wearily. "If it had been lucky, I wouldn't be here."
"What is the rock?" This time the question was more a snarl, and Martine knew she'd better sound convincing. The only problem was she was too tired and afraid to think of something clever.
"I don't know," she lied again. "I was paid to deliver it." Krote furrowed his bony brow as he considered her claim. "Still another lie," he finally said accusingly. "The Burnt Fur are the only people around here. You did not come to trade with us. The rock and Brokka's story about lights on the tall ice these two are connected."
Martine didn't bother trying to deny his conclusion. From the way the Word-Maker had countered every tale, it was clear she was too shaken by exhaustion to lie convincingly. In desperation, the ranger chose to remain silent and let herself be led across the clearing.
Krote asked no more questions, and for a moment, Martine hoped that he had relented. Then, just as they reached the small lodge that was her cell, the shaman stopped abruptly. With a swift move, he wrapped his rough fingers around Martine's neck. She floundered in his strong grasp, suddenly choking.
"Human woman," the gnoll snarled in methodically grim words, "if you do not speak the truth by tonight, I will stake you outside naked. Then you will talk or freeze."
Twisting in his grasp, the ranger finally sucked in a breath of frigid air. "You would heal me, then kill me?" she challenged. "No, Krote. You want me alive. I'm no good to you dead."
Krote dropped his hand with a laugh. "I like you, humanYou have much-umm-anger, strong feeling, for a female. That is good. In our tribe, females must be ready to fight to claim mates. The kits you bear Hakk will be strong and clever." Laughter mingled with wheezing chuckles accompanied his claim. The tall shaman stooped to pull open the lodge's door curtain.
Martine paled. Unschooled in gnoll ways, she still couldn't miss the irony in Krote's thin voice. The thought of bearing the spawn of a monster like Hakk shook her body to the core.
Still chuckling, Krote shoved her through the doorway of the lodge. Stumbling into the darkness, she let herself collapse weakly on the furs. Faintly she could hear the birch scroll, her letter to Jazrac, crackle beneath the layers of her fur bed and remembered the knife Hakk had given to Krote. Rolling over, she saw the gleam of the ivory handle jutting from the edge of Krote's crossbelts.
Desperate plans raced through her mind. The thin shaman was clearly not a fighter, but right now the ranger doubted she had the strength to best a kitten. Guile was her only chance, if she could just think clearly.
"Who are you?" Krote demanded, interrupting her thoughts.
"I told you Martine of Sembia."
The shaman thrust a stick into the fire's coals, just enough to make the end smolder, and Martine sensed the interrogation was about to begin in earnest.
"Why are you here?" The gnoll jabbed at the coals.
The truth, to a point, seemed her, best response. "I crashed nearby."
Krote raised one ear, though whether in interest or skepticism, Martine did not know. "Tell Krote about it."
"A storm brought down my hippogriff." Once again she had to resort to Sembian, not knowing the gnoll term for hippogriff.
'Me storm on the tall ice?"
Martine guessed he meant the rift's geyser, which from the base of the glacier must have looked like a roiling thunderhead. She nodded.
Krote pulled the stick from the fire and blew on the ember at its end until it glowed orange-red. "You are a spy for the little ones, right?"
"Little ones?" Martine slid back, trying to keep as much distance between herself and the gnoll as possible.
Krote smiled, his black lips pulled back to show yellow, cracked fangs and pinkish gums. "The little people in the south valley. They sent you here to spy on us."
"No," she said, emphasizing it with a shake of her head. "I didn't even know you lived here!"
With a snort, the gnoll thrust the stick back into the fire, making Martine wonder just how sincere his threat had been. "My people have rived here since Arka, the chieftain before Hakk Elk-Slayer. Now the little people steal our hunting grounds."
The shaman's claim made no sense. Judging by what she'd seen of the Vani warren, the gnomes had been there a century or more, building and tending to their home. No gnoll chieftain, she guessed, could have that kind of lifespan.
"What do you mean, they stole your hunting grounds? Surely they were there first." The Harper part of her, the part that always hungered for information, was speaking now.
"It is our right because we need it," was the shaman's sharp answer.
"Because you need it, the valley belongs to you?"
Krote's long tongue licked his lips. "It is right of rrachk-kiah."
"Rrachk-kiah?"
The gnoll groped for an explanation as he unexpect
edly warmed to her interest It seemed as if he wanted to explain, to justify the ways of his tribe. Perhaps she had triggered a passion within him, part of what earned him the title WordMaker.
"What is seen is owned," the shaman continued. 'Me gods gave my people everything in the world. Everything we can see belongs to the gnolls. So the little ones steal our hunting grounds."
"That's… quite a claim." Martine picked her words carefully, trying not to let any sarcasm creep in, despite the arrogant egotism of the gnoll's beliefs.
"It is right. Why else would the gods make the world?" Word-Maker proclaimed.
A series of shouts from outside interrupted any need to reply. Krote's ears twitched as he stepped to the door flap and peered outside. The woman braced herself to spring at him while he was distracted, but before she could act, the shaman whipped out a knife. Involuntarily a savage growl welled up in his throat
The chorus of barking yelps from outside intensified. The dog-man suddenly whirled, pointed the knife in her direction, and barked, "Stay!" before disappearing through the door flap. It wasn't the ranger but something outside that had triggered Krote's reaction.
Martine sat dumbfounded for a moment, but only for a moment. Scrambling to her feet, she hastily gathered whatever she could find that might be of use in her escapefurs, a pouch, a sharp stick, even a few trinkets from the walls. Wrapping them into a tight bundle, she paused at the lodge's flap to listen before venturing outside.
Whatever was happening, it was important, judging by the noise. From the mingled chorus of barking shouts, Martine imagined the entire tribe had turned out. The words were unclear, but the excitement was obvious.
This is my chance, the Harper thought as she crouched
low by the entrance. With luck I can make it into the forest unnoticed.
Pulling back the door flap slightly, Martine was greeted with a view of an assembled throng, their backs facing her. The massed gnolls, some robed, others bare-skinned in the cold, were gathered in the center of the clearing, their attention transfixed by something the Harper could not see. The gathering piqued her curiosity, but not nearly as much as the chance of escape. Grabbing her bundle, she slipped through the opening and edged her way along the front of the lodge, moving quietly in hope of avoiding attention. Her breath steamed out in tense bursts, and each crunching footstep made her wince even though there was little chance of being heard over the racket made by the gnolls, which sounded like battle cries and war alarms. Had Vilheim returned with the gnomes? Or was it Jazrac? Martine paused, hope rising that someone might be coming to rescue her.
Even as she stood eagerly wafting, the fierce war cries of the gnolls gave way to howls of panic, and the tightly knit mass of bodies abruptly exploded as the gnolls turned and bolted, those at the back thrust aside by others from the front lines. Females scooped up their kits and ran for the shelter of the lodges. Latecomers scrambled for weapons stacked near the lodge doors. Through a brief gap in the crowd, Martine saw Elk-Slayer, muscular and nearly naked, berating his warriors to form a wavering arc of spears against whatever approached.
Then Martine saw the intruder and understood the cause of the gnolls' panic. It was her tormentor, the creature from the rift, icy bone-white, moving with clicking stiffness as it stalked into the center of the village. Its head snapped from side to side, its icicled brow hiding eyes that swept over the gnolls. The small, rasping mouth clicked together in threatening snaps, while its long arms swung to and fro, thin claws cutting gouges in the hard snow. Seeing the fiend, Martine paled and promptly forgot about caution. Relying on the confusion the creature's arrival was creating, she clutched her bundle tightly and sprinted from the shelter of the lodge into the gap that separated it from the gloom of the forest. A gnoll charged past, forcing the ranger to veer madly, but the creature seemed to pay her no mind.
I've made it! she started to think as the trees drew nearer.
The second she entertained the thought, the woman knew it was precipitous. Before she had completed another two steps, a rough hand seized her. "Hah!" snarled a harsh voice as clawed fingers gouged into her tender shoulder. Her arm jerked in a spasm of pain and her bundle spilled from her grasp. Kicking and struggling, she tried to break free from the gnoll, but his grip did not loosen. With a fierce twist, she was pulled about to face her captor.
"I thought you might try to escape," Krote grunted as he held her fast, his amulets jingling as she squirmed about "Cyric take you!" Martine tried to kick him, a move the gnoll easily avoided.
"Varka, bring the human," the shaman barked to a warrior hurrying by with sword and shield in hand. Varka, a short, mangy creature, grinned wolfishly, and with a sharp poke of his sword, urged Martine into obedience. Realizing her chance to escape was lost, she sullenly pretended surrender, all the while still hoping for a chance to break free once more.
"Female, what is that creature?" Krote rasped as they hurried to where Hakk's warriors uneasily faced off against the intruder. So far, neither the gnolls nor the fiend had done more than glower at each other.
"I don't know. Its the same creature that captured me on the glacier." Her near escape and failure had crumbled the
Harper's resistance.
Krote started to say something else, but his words were silenced by a warm buzzing as the fiend spoke.
"Warm thingz," the newcomer droned slowly as it surveyed them all, talking as if they did not matter. "Many warm thingz: Good. You will be my slavez. I am your master."
To Martine's ears, the claim would have been preposterous were it not for the monotonous confidence with which the creature spoke. It was not a thing of this world, and there was no sure way to say what it was capable of doing. Beside her, Krote sucked in the cold air with a snarling hiss.
An eerie silence fell upon the tribe. Martine had expected outrage, or at least more of the wild tumult that had heralded the fiend's arrival, but instead the gnolls seemed to go dumb. The warriors in the half-circle around the fiend wavered. Martine assumed it was cowardice until she realized they were waiting. The eyes of the warriors, indeed of all the crowd, turned to their chieftain, Hakk Elk-Slayer.
"What are you waiting for? Your tribe can kill it," the Harper found herself urging the Word-Maker. Though still a gnoll prisoner, she feared the fiend more.
"Quiet," Krote whispered. 'Me creature challenges ElkSlayer. He must fight to remain chieftain."
"What? Against that thing? What kind of a challenge is that?" Unable to contain her disbelief, Martine nodded toward the elemental.
"Quiet! It is the way things are done."
It seemed to Martine that the fiend was as confused as she was by the sudden silence of the gnolls, for it swayed from side to side, glaring this way and that as it waited for an attack. The droning buzz of its voice went higher, perhaps in amusement, as it spoke again. "No fight? Good slavez…" The Burnt Fur are not slaves," Hakk finally roared out. Even before the first faint echo rebounded from the dense woods, the chieftain sprang forward, using two hands to whirl a gnarled club over his head.
Crack! The resounding crash of wood striking bone broke the spell over the crowd. The elemental reeled from the blow, pinkish-clear blood seeping from a crack in the smooth carapace of its leg. The tribe roared in approval of Hakk's assault, and the chieftain launched another blow while the creature was still reeling. The gnoll ran straight at the fiend, his club pointed toward its skeletal chest like a battering ram driven against a city's gate.
Just before the wooden club drove home, the fiend twitted sideways and let the chieftain charge past. Long, icicle-like claws flashed, and suddenly the dirty white snow was splattered with red. Hakk wobbled and then dropped to his knees, his fingers clutching at his side in a futile attempt to stanch the flow of blood. The gnoll's massive chest rose and fell in desperate pants. He dropped his club and doggedly lurched to his feet, sword in hand.
The fiend seemed to be in no hurry. Mockingly it waggled its bloodstained claws, flicking li
ttle drops of blood over the onlookers. The gnolls shifted and wavered with uneasiness, but none made a move to intercede. Krote's hand, firm on Martine's shoulder, restrained her from fleeing.
"I'll kill you," Hakk croaked as he advanced, more cautiously now, having gained a new respect for his foe.
The naturally armored fiend responded with a trilling buzz that Martine imagined was laughter. It was a morbid and heartless humor that the fiend punctuated by clacking snaps of its gleaming jaw. "Come, then, and kill me," it intoned.
Hakk was not to be goaded so easily, and the two circled round each other. The tribe formed a ring surrounding the
duelists, the warriors at the front with their spears and swords held in readiness. Krote pushed Martine, whom he still held firmly, into the forefront. There the shaman fingered his charms and amulets, his lips moving silently. Martine wondered if it was a prayer and, if so, what the shaman was praying for.
All at once the fiend staggered as its wounded leg wobbled beneath it. One clawed hand dropped to the snow as it recovered its balance, and in that brief instant, Hakk sprang forward with a wild, howling rush.
In a blur of movement, the fiend struck, and Martine saw instantly that its apparent weakness had been a trap. As the chieftain's golden-furred body lunged beneath the fiend's intentionally clumsy sweep, Hakk overconfidently left his side exposed. Even as Hakk's sword flashed upward for the kill, the fiend's head lashed downward, striking faster than Martine could imagine. Hakk's strangled shriek mingled with a pulping crunch as the fiend's razorlike teeth clamped on the gnoll's neck. Elk-Slayer's thrust was never completed, with the nerves that linked thought to action severed. The pair plunged to the ground, and the air filled with a buzzing roar as the fiend tore at the spasmodically flailing gnoll like a terrier with a rat. Blood splattered the snow. The gnolls recoiled from the gruesome scene, widening the circle around the carnage.
The end came with painful slowness. Even though the jerking convulsions had long since stopped, the creature still huddled over the body, savagely gnawing at the gnoll's neck. The tribe was held frozen in shocked surprise, the first yips of fear radiating from the edges of the throng. Martine could only gaze helplessly in disbelief, suddenly terrified at how easy it would be to pick her out of the crowd. Warily she tried to edge backward, to put bodies between her and the fiend. The shaman noted her movement and seemed to nod conspiratorially. In any case, although he didn't let her slip free, the gnoll pulled her back a step into the crowd.
