DragonKnight - Donita K. Paul [132]
Kale jumped over the wall and stood perfectly still, giving her moonbeam cape a chance to camouflage her. She then took slow steps, one at a time, until she knelt directly behind the tumanhofer. Using her short sword, she cut through the knots that she could not undo with her fingers.
“Give me a weapon,” the tumanhofer demanded as he rubbed his wrists and stomped his feet. “It’s a good thing those beasts are inept at tying tightly. I’ve still got the use of my limbs.”
Kale pulled a short, heavy sword out of the hollow of her cape. Bromptotterpindosset grabbed it and began swinging as he worked his way from the fringe to the center of the battling circle around Bardon and Regidor.
Rather than join the two warriors and the tumanhofer, Kale chose to keep any more grawligs from joining the conflict. She created a ring of quicksand around the main fight. Four feet across and four feet deep, the mire provided an efficient barricade. The ogres stepped in, sank to their hips and struggled. Eventually, there were enough of the grawligs stuck in the loose, saturated sand that the following brutes just used their trapped comrades as steppingstones. This, of course, enraged the ogres sinking in the sand. They began reaching up to snag those crossing over, pulling them down into the mire.
Kale watched a brawl develop that far outshone the fight inside the ring. Bardon, Regidor, and Bromptotterpindosset incapacitated the last of their attackers and stood at ease, watching the chaos around them. Occasionally, almost by mischance, a grawlig ended up on their island, and they dispatched the poor unfortunate individual with speed.
Bardon called to her. “Kale, did you have a plan for how we’re to get from here to there?”
She shrugged. “Regidor can fly.”
Bardon indicated his short mapmaker. “Neither of us have wings.”
Kale grinned and directed her thoughts to Regidor alone. “My dear meech friend, shall we help them out?”
“Of course,” he replied. “The mapmaker first?”
“Yes.”
The tumanhofer rose off the ground and floated. His eyes grew big, his face turned red, and he began to pump his legs as if he could run from whatever it was that had ahold of him. Kale and Regidor passed him over the heads of the scrapping ogres and set him down. Then they seized Bardon, lifted him higher than they had the tumanhofer, and sailed him quickly through the air to land next to Bromptotterpindosset. Regidor spread his wings and took to the air.
From across the courtyard, a chorus of howls drowned out the snarls and gnashing of teeth in the quicksand ring. A thundering pack of wild grawligs charged through the open space. Kale jumped behind a statue to keep from getting run down by this new band of beasts. The swarm surrounded Bardon and Bromptotterpindosset as they passed by the grawligs stuck in Kale’s mire.
They ran through the courtyard and out the other side, while Kale ran to where Bardon lay on the ground. The squire sat up and shook his head as if trying to clear it. He looked around.
“Where’s the tumanhofer?”
Kale, too, searched the ground around them. She jumped to her feet and looked behind the two statues that were close enough for Bromptotterpindosset to have used for refuge.
“He’s not here.”
“Those ogres took him,” Bardon said as he struggled to his feet.
“Why?”
“Who knows why a grawlig does anything? And you only compound the absurdity when you have grawligs making decisions en masse.”
Kale came back to stand next to Bardon. “Where’s Regidor?”
“He probably flew after them to see where they go.”
“What are we going to do?”
Bardon sighed, picked up his sword, and turned toward the gate. “Follow them.”
46
A FRIENDLIER DINNER
Bardon asked Ardeo, Kale’s light dragon, to lead the way. He flew close to the ground, and the glow