Death of the Dragon - Ed Greenwood [19]
It took only the space of a few breaths for the first of the expected ghazneths to streak in, flying low and hard from the south.
"Gods above, but they're fast," Alusair murmured at the king's shoulder. She glanced over at the three war wizards-Stormshoulder, Gaundolonn, and Starlaggar, that was his name, Mavelar Starlaggar-and saw them, to a man, pale-faced and trembling with fear. "Are you sure our war wizards are up to this?"
Azoun followed her quizzical glance in time to see one of the young mages convulsively lose his last meal onto the ground. The king lifted his shoulders in a shrug and said, "We all have to face our first battle sometime, and I can't hold the realm if only old, grizzled veterans know how to stand and fight for Cormyr."
"Old, grizzled veterans like the king?" Alusair said with a smile.
"Exactly," Azoun snarled back, and sprang forward. "Here comes a bolder bird now…"
The second ghazneth to appear over the hilltop wasted no time in the circling and shrieking that its fellow was engaged in. Without pause it swooped at the tent.
One war wizard moaned in fear and fell over his nearest fellow mage in his haste to escape, causing them both to topple over into the tent. The third one stood desperately trying to roll them out of the way as the ghazneth-a large, powerful one with a bald head and the shoulders of a large and imposing man-plunged down at it.
With seconds to spare, War Wizard Lharyder Gaundolonn got his two companions out of the way and threw himself over their bodies into the dim interior of the tent. The ghazneth raced in behind them like a laughing bolt of black lightning whose swift flight ended in a crash of splintering bones and reluctantly rolling cage that shook the entire hilltop.
A swordlord threw the slide that locked the cage, thrust the two iron spikes that would hold it from moving into place, and waved forward the spearmen whose weapons would keep the captured ghazneth away from them. "Well, majesty," the swordlord said, "you've got your caged bird-faster and cleaner than I'd feared it'd come to us, too and now?"
The king shrugged and said, "We only have the one cage."
He looked out over the tumult of bloody battle where Purple Dragons were slowly advancing to meet each other, hacking down the orcs trapped between them, then up at the-three, by now-ghazneths who were swooping down to claw off a head here, and rake open a face there.
"Enough," he said. "Dauneth, is the senior war wizard ready?"
"Majesty, he is," the warden replied, and gave a chopping hand signal to a man the Obarskyrs couldn't see.
A long moment later, a small foundry of cold iron daggers, arrowheads, and spear points appeared as a midair cloud above the nearest swooping ghazneth and fell on it like pelting rain.
Its shriek was raw and deafening as it fell helplessly into the heart of the hacking fray. Long before it rose, flying raggedly, and fled low over the raging battle, the other two ghazneths had flown away.
"That worked well," Alusair said admiringly. "Now all we have to do is hold off another few thousand orcs while you go and horse trade with a wounded, furious ghazneth. Blood of Tempus, look at them coming down the hills. How can any orc tribe feed so many mouths?"
"Horse trade indeed," the king said with a smile. "By the looks of him, we've landed the worst of them after Boldovar, too. It'll be Luthax, I've no doubt, once second only to Amedahast among the war wizards of his day."
Alusair shook her head ruefully and said, "You never did believe in doing things the easy way, did you?"
Azoun's grinning reply was lost in the fresh howls of orcs, charging furiously up the hill on all sides.
5
The rat bites had withered to little red puckers, leaving Tanalasta's pale breasts and belly strewn with star-shaped scars and oozing abscesses. Though her head throbbed and her joints