Feathered Dragon - Douglas Niles [57]
At the same time, Storm raised her head, ears cocked for ward, alert. Daggrande and Halloran followed the mare’s gaze down the ravine toward the open valley beyond. “I think we’ve got company,” grunted the dwarf. Instantly the others turned to look, their hearts chilling at the apprehension in Daggrande’s voice. The narrow ravine floor twisted slowly downward, the first bend some hundred yards away.
The first creature to come into sight was a hulking troll its arms nearly dragging on the ground. Its black, expressionless eyes fastened upon the companions, and it threw back its head to utter a sharp, harsh bark.
Hal saw others, then-vacant-faced trolls with out stretched, clawlike hands, emerging from around the bend in the gully. The first troll leaped forward, covering the distance between them with prodigious bounds.
“Come on! Up the ravine,… go!” barked Halloran, He took [.mill’s arm and bodily lifted her onto the back of the prancing Storm.
“Take her and her father! We’ll try to hold them back!” he barked at Colon. With surprising quickness, the cleric took the horse’s reins and started up the narrow draw. Lotil touched the mare’s shoulder and started to follow, stumbling, but then Erix and the priest quickly boosted the blind! man into the saddle.
Daggrande fired a bolt and Jhatli launched a steady stream of arrows into the approaching horde. The missiles cut deep wounds in their flesh, forcing howls of pain from the beasts. But even the trolls that fell continued to advance slowly squirming forward in the wake of their charging! comrades.
Halloran, with Helmstooth ready for blood, stood between and slightly ahead of the two archers, The trio
blocked the narrow ravine floor. Several dozen of the beasts rushed toward them now, with more coming into sight every moment. Their snarls and barks filled the. air, prelude
to a slaughter. The only victory he and his companions could hope to gain, Halloran knew, was time for the others to escape.
The tribe from Sunhome linked up with Traj’s warriors after only two days’ march. Luskag saw with pleasure that those doughty fighters had progressed well with the plumastone weaponry. Nearly all of Traj’s dwarves carried blades of the shiny black stone.
Other bands of desert dwarves joined them steadily as they moved toward the City of the Gods, until nearly a thousand stocky fighters-called, by Mazticans, the “Hairy Men of the Desert”-marched across the House of Tezca in a long, apparently tireless column. More than half carried weapons of enchanted stone that seemed every bit the
equal of steel.
The last of the tribes to reach them was Pullog’s, since they had had the longest march. But finally the entire nation had massed, and with Pullog and Luskag in the lead, they began to march toward the dry valley near the center of the desert.
The night before their arrival, they camped in a low, dusty bowl a dozen miles from the City of the Gods. But even from this far away they could hear the thunderous conflict raging through the desert night.
“We are too late,” muttered Traj dejectedly. “We hear the world torn to pieces before us!”
“Nonsense!” barked Pullog, surprising and pleasing Luskag with his encouragement. “We hear the sounds of battle joined, but we will arrive before a decision is reached.” The southern chief patted the hefty stone axe at his side, a plumastone blade given to him by Luskag.
“Aye,” grunted Luskag, who had emerged as their overall leader, since it had been his initiative that had gotten the
tribes together in the first place. “Though I sense that must make haste.”
SO urgent was this sense that the dwarves broke camp without sleeping and trudged through the long night. At dawn, they arrived on the ridgeline surrounding the city of the gods.
And they saw their enemy below.
* * * * *
“Watch your back!”
Daggrande’s shout pulled Halloran’s attention around. The bloody tip of Helmstooth followed a split second later, plunging into the heart of the troll that had somehow slipped around him. Fortunately-and it was the only good fortune they had