Part 2 (1/2)
”Bell? How-look out!”
Both whirled as an avalanche crashed down Sunbright and Knucklebones had a vision of huge hoofs, gray, hairy s wrapped around tremendously wide shoulders
Carved wooden staves pointed like nocked arrows, then they were attacked by ht hollered a warning to Knucklebones There were three or four ene within ar in ambush For them, or for dwarves?
No matter The barbarian slapped his free hand onto Harvester's po sas unlike any other seen in the Rengarth tribe, won by his father decades ago in the southlands The blade curved slightly from the pommel, then widened so the nose was fatter than the shank Yet metal had been cut from the tip's back to form a wicked barbed hook Thus the sword could stab, chop, or tear on the back draw Sunbright tried all three attacks now
But so close looht by waist-high bushes, that the blade was batted aside Before the shaside the head White lights exploded behind his eyes He staggered at the knees, and dimly saw the shaft rise To do what? Stab him? Knock him onto the snow-slick path and lever him off the mountain? Either way, his stunned brain couldn't focus
Then the end of the staff erupted with red light Sunbright felt a burn sear his neck, then he fell or was tripped He crashed in snow
To one side, slick as an eel, Knucklebones shed her coat and satchels, scrunched low as a hare and leaped high She popped up ale eney beasts like upright cattle Horns jutted froled tiny bells on leather thongs that jingled These cow-beings possessed the bleached skulls along the trail, then Their long hands bore blunt, black nails, and all carried curved wooden staves
Surprised by her rush, a yak-ave hi her fist of brass knuckledusters, she slammed the yak-ht blood spurted, so Knucklebones knew he or she was hurt She smacked the same spot, and saw blood erupt from twin nostrils Good, their noses were vulnerable
A blistering red light erupted at her She heard Sunbright grunt and fall Another yak-man aimed a staff at her
She ducked just in tih cedars that ringed them
Knucklebones was shi+elded fro yak- to stay put and keep his protection, she closed again She couldn't defeat them all, but could pound hell out of one, and hope for the best
The yak-ers Crowding her luck, Knucklebones stooped and ai chin Brass knuckles batted his snowy goat's beard, bashed thin bones underneath A loud crack announced a broken jawbone She wanted to yell for joy, for the sheer thrill of battle Instead, she slid even closer as the yak-ht had fallen below the brush, and so saved his life The yak- fla burn on his chin and neck, Sunbright bulled aside brush, glih hoof worn froet was all he needed
Gritting his teeth against pain, he snaked Harvester past tough roots and hooked the barb behind the yak-e yank severed the tendon, and the creature was ha He toppled into a cohtered ox
Knucklebones heard the cry and took heart Together theyone hand against the bloody-nosed yak, she slithered around his wide ribs after another foe She found one shorter and slimmer than the others, probably a female, but the co her at the salass Knucklebones had only a second to wonder what it was- -then she was standing in the village in the valley Beside her, Sunbright asked a h caves The milkmaid had blue eyes, and rubbed the tip of her nose
Knucklebones saw freckles on her hand, se, and heard e be real? What happened to the mountain and yak- snuffled her hand, and she felt its warers How had she been transported three days into the past, and lass, she recalled Soic ties and thoughts tumbled in her mind, then a staff smacked the top of her head with a fierce crunch The ht saw his lover struck down, saw her drop as if lifeless Rage overcaht with a roar Bushes and sno as he hoisted Harvester in the air, slung it far behind to shear at the bull neck of the nearest of the four yak-ain All four turned on hion, and the barbarian was blown backward to sprawl on the snow-slick path
His head sla through his frame Before he could rise, the yak-woman stamped forith her staff, and knocked Harvester from his numbed hands A tremendous hoof sta loomed the calm, deadly face of an otherworldly executioner The yak-woman drew a curved sciht bucked against the hoof, got nowhere, gasped, and drew no breath into his squashed chest He flailed his arms uselessly He'd die now, and Knucklebones next So ended all his mad quests
Obscured by snow, the curved blade topped its arch, ca around- -and three crossbow bolts buried themselves to their feathers in the yak-woman's breast
Chapter 3
Pinned by a hoof, stunned by a head blow, half-blinded by snow and pain, Sunbright saw the yak- woman's brown eyes roll white as she died A thin trickle of blood stained her round nostrils-sign of lung puncture- then she slumped onto the snow and collapsed in a heap Her curved sword landed in the snoithout a sound
Another yak-h the air, ru command to his two comrades A black crossbow bolt slammed into the side of his neck and cut his orders off His black-nailed hand grabbed the shaft
Gliht rolled, scurried on knees and elbows to grab Harvester of Blood lying on the narrow path, its i low, he shouted, ”Knuckle', watch for arrows! So them!”
There was no answer, and a spas silent for the fight?
Or had she been killed, or pitched off theHe must- A brawny hand clamped onto his shoulder from behind, and he was hurled flat, so hard his spine rattled Etched against a white fluttering sky surged figures like short brown bears bristling eaponry The bear-beings swept to either side One leveled a crossbow, let go with a slap and clack of string and bow Another hoisted a long-faced battle-axe and hollered a cry like a condora kill In a furry wave, the newco yak-ht winced at the slaughter The yak- the shaft, and tried to rip free his sci dwarf-for such were their rescuers-hopped in the air and swung his battle-axe so hard the cow-being's arm was severed at the shoulder Blood spurted over attacker and attacked Before the yak-ely at a backwards-bent leg Cut down like a tree, the yak-y body aside
Sunbright crawled tohere he'd last seen Knucklebones; he didn't want to rise in front of a crossbow The other two yak-h snowy brush, a dwarf lanced a bolt into a yak- it to his skull Another stabbed upith a short spear under broad ribs Driving the spear deep, the short one shoved so hard the yak-ain the dwarf shoved, until the shaggy body was slaain, so hard the shaft snapped, and the dwarf stu foe The last yak-n of surrender, but died Tarves with mattock and falchion slammed blades into the beast's bowels, so it doubled with a cry of agony, and a third dwarf smashed down on the broad head with a warhammer square between the horns Even then their ferocity was unquenched, for other dwarves swarmed around the fallen creatures to hack the clear of the battle-crazed warriors, Sunbright found Knucklebones lying on her side in her woolens atop smashed brush The tiny woman was already half-covered by snow, unconscious The shaman scanned her with his hands, found a crease in her skull and blood narled hands, he lifted her eyelid to peer at her pupil One way to gauge brain dae was to compare a victim's pupils, check they were the sa on her eyeball ot her warht fetched her shed coat and wrapped her tight, then hung her satchels on his shoulders He hoisted Knucklebones in his arht as a lamb, made him dizzy, for he'd also been head-bashed by a curious staff He leaned on a rock until his head stopped spinning Too, a burn alongside his left ear and neck itched and throbbed abominably, and he knew lymph and blood wept fro his teeth, he wondered what the dwarves had in store for thee fury abated, they resorted to their usual industrious ways
With an axe they methodically hacked off the four oxen heads, then propped and wedged the, they sliced off the gray rags that passed for the yak-, chopped off hands and cloven feet and threw them off the mountain, then hoisted the still- waruts, which they left in a stea the dressed carcasses, booty of satchels and staves and swords, they stamped free of the brush and trooped up the trail with their burdens
The last pair faced Sunbright, as fighting fatigue, cold, and dizziness while clutching Knucklebones, who hung li doll The barbarian blinked when he realized the dith the thick, braided hair was fey and seaht hadn't known there were dwarven woole, blood-spattered woman paused, a thick falchion at the ready, and said, ”Why have you coroaned The abrupt question flustered the shaor”
He was never sure if his sincerity or the proift turned the tide, but the dwarven wo rocks The other growled back, then the first said, ”Follow ht nodded gratefully The tarves, no higher than his belt buckle, stu he didn't faint and tuot worse for the suffering Sunbright toting Knucklebones, for eventually the dwarves turned from the path and mounted steep steps hacked from stone, then entered a pass no wider than his shoulders The narrow chas snoere crouched sentries with crossbows Stuht kept up with the sturdy, sure-footed dwarves, and eventually passed into a black slot where warushed into the barbarian's face
After that he saw little, for he had to hunch over The ceiling was so low, and stretches were entirely black, though all the caves were gloriously warh paint splashed here and there on the walls, paint infused with soic luminosity The dwarven woman turned once to say, ”Go in there and stay put,” then ht blundered into a rough-cut rooot running along the craggy wall and daubed with glowing paint He thanked the Gods he could stand upright Cradling Knucklebones, he shucked off his heavy coat andthe rusty spigot singed his hand, for it was scalding hot He guessed all the caves were heated by boiling water springing froot, soaked a rag, and cleaned Knucklebones's scalp wound and face and hands He drank so of iron, then cleaned and bandaged his neck wound Sitting, he straightened his tackle, honed his sword back to razor sharpness, and-ordered to stay put-sat beside the sleeping Knucklebones Lulled by the delicious heat, he nodded off
He awoke to heavy sta and jumped off the shelf with sword in hand, quick and lithe as a panther, but groggy in reeted his frowning hosts