Part 12 (1/2)

”What do we do?” he asked. The wurm was nearly parallel to them now, advancing into the center of the village.

”The spars would have worked,” said Pendrake, ”if we had more of them, and seasoned troops who could swallow terror like so much cold stew.” He looked at the fallen spars and the scattering trollkin. ”But we can't pin it anymore. We need to figure out how to hurt it.”

A gunshot sounded from behind Lynus, to his right.

Edrea looked through the smoke along the sights of her rifle. There were definitely gaps in the armor plating, but she'd missed. Her round had spalled against the gorgandur's scales.

”When it extends, the flesh beneath the armor is exposed,” she shouted over the rumbling. ”I haven't figured out the timing yet!”

”Don't bother,” said Pendrake as he loosed an arrow against the beast's flank. It bounced from the gorgandur's carapace like a pebble thrown against a cliff face. The great wurm rolled, slamming into a stone home. Dust shook from among the stones, but the house stood.

”They overlap in a constant direction,” Lynus said. ”You'll need to shoot between them, from behind.”

Edrea nodded. Lynus was right. She reloaded by feel, her eyes tracking the gorgandur as it rippled through the village.

A female trollkin, barefoot, with an axe in hand and an old s.h.i.+eld strapped to her back, charged the beast's flank.

”I doubt anything vital lies an arrow's length in,” said Pendrake.

”War cleaver can reach vital,” Kinik said.

Edrea was pleased to see the ogrun had collected her wits, even if her recovered courage was ill-placed.

Horgash rode up on Greta. ”I'd curse, but I don't think invoking The Wurm amid our current company is wise,” he said.

Pendrake drew his sword, that ancient Orgoth blade that always stayed sharp. Sharp enough to cut . . .

”Lynus, Edrea . . . make sure to update the gorgandur entry in the next edition. Get Kinik admitted to the university. Horgash, you get these three and everybody from this side of the village through the Tharn.”

”Professor,” Edrea began. ”Youa””

”Won't live forever? No, I won't.” He pointed at the gorgandur's flank, where the axe-wielding female currently hacked away, chipping flecks of scale. ”That monster is going to feast on trollkin who don't know well enough to flee.”

”Muthgar Preymaker didn't know well enough to flee,” said Lynus.

”Well, maybe we didn't get his whole story,” Pendrake said. ”Now go! Punch a hole for us, and I'll either be along shortly with rest of the evacuating kriel, or I won't.”

Pendrake slung a satchel over his shoulder, adjusted his grip on his sword, and ran farther into the village, moving parallel to the wurm. Edrea watched him go. She remembered Lynus saying, just three hours ago, that he'd follow Pendrake anywhere in Immoren. He'd spoken for both of them in that moment, but here they were, not following.

”He told us not to follow him,” said Lynus, as if reading her mind. ”I still meant what I said.”

”I know,” she answered.

”Enough tears!” said Horgash with an ugly yell. ”Edrea, cast that seeing-spell and find us the holes in the Tharn lines.”

Edrea spun vossyl liumyn, closed her eyesa”which were tearless, she had half a mind to say to Horgasha”and when she opened them, the waning afternoon light and long shadows gave way to crisp details in grey.

The tree line, three hundred paces away, was spotted with amber outlines. Edrea concentrated and focused.

”There must be four dozen bloodtrackers there.” She turned a full circle. ”I can't say where they're thinnest, but they're thickest in the copse of trees on that knoll.”

”Then we know where not to run,” said Horgash.

”No!” said Lynus. ”We know exactly where to run.” He pointed at the knoll. ”If somebody is controlling this beast, they're right there, surrounded by bodyguards while casting beast magic, or Wurm-will, or some such.”

”That's not an escape, that's an a.s.sault.”

”And a fell caller doesn't run from a fight,” Lynus said. ”You're a warrior, a leader of warriors.”

”I used to be.”

”You can't sing, and you can't shout, but these trollkin can still hear you. Lead them! Get us onto that knoll, and we will save this village.”

Edrea was stirred by Lynus' speech. Chronicler indeed.

”They are going to rain spears and arrows on us before we're halfway there,” Horgash said.

”Then we need thicker skin,” said Edrea, weaving fheyissa, the fortress sigils, with both hands. She clenched a fist and swept the resulting ring of runes into a girdle about her waist.

”Stay within about eight paces,” she said.

”How many does skin-spell work on?” asked Kinik.

Edrea thought about that and reached into the weave to test it. ”As many of my friends who stay within about eight paces.”

Horgash began shouting in Molgur-Trul. Edrea winced. It sounded like he was hurting himself.

”We take the fight to the hill! I need axes and s.h.i.+elds at my side! Warriors of the kriel, to me!”

Were there any warriors here? Edrea had watched with despair as the spar-bearers fell and fled. The kriel was in disarray, and the wurm wrought a winding path of destruction through it.

But several older trollkin came running, battered s.h.i.+elds and ancient axes in hand.

”Grindar requires Gelfas' aid!” Horgash shouted.

Edrea thought she recognized the two names from Trollkin history.

”But in this tale,” Horgash continued, ”Gelfas has no full-bloods, no warbeasts at his side. He does not need them, because he marches with the Grey Champions!”

Edrea had never heard of the Grey Champions. Horgash was improvising, spinning a new tale around an old one.

Horgash pointed across the glade at the knoll. ”The enemy commander hides in those trees. We go to cut him to the ground, and the trees with him if they stand in our way!”

Edrea was startled by the full-throated, robust cheer that followed. These old trollkin, decades past their prime, were ready to live up to the legend, and write a new one.

Horgash pointed forward with his right sword and shouted, ”For Grindar, for Gelfas, for Jata and the Glade!” and spurred Greta into a slow run. The trollkin formed a phalanx around and behind him. They all began to lope across the clearing.

Horgash shouted back over his shoulder at Edrea. ”Keep up with us, la.s.s! I like what you do for my old hide!”

Edrea sprinted into the midst of the trollkin phalanx, slowed to catch her breath, and smiled to see Lynus at her left and Kinik at her right. Then arrows began to drop into the group, and she bent her smile into a determined grimace.