Finder's Bane - Kate Novak [50]
"They won't be able to charge their horses up the shale slope," Joel noted.
Jas nodded. "There's a ledge on the upper slope, blocked by a rock with a narrow opening, like a needle," she said. "Unless they can fly, too, they can only come at you one at a time through the rock.
"Get Holly up there first," Joel ordered. "I'll see if I can find a way to hold them off."
"Ill be back," Jas promised as she took off with the paladin.
Joel considered carefully what spells he should call on Finder for. When he was finished praying, he dragged a deadfall branch along the valley floor until it lay between two boulders. Unless they were prepared to go up a steep shale slope, the Xvimists would have to ride their horses between the boulders over the branch. Quietly Joel began singing a spell over the branch. Jas arrived before he finished. She paced impatiently until he finished.
"Trip spell?" she asked, pointing to the branch.
Joel nodded as he wrapped his arms around her neck.
Jas took off, flying low, until she reached the end of the valley. She struggled to gain altitude until a thermal of air caught her and practically dumped her and her passenger on the mountain slope.
The needle was an excellent defensive position. It was a thin cleft in a wall of rock situated on a smaller peak just in front of the major peak. Except for a stretch of steeply sloped shale, the other sides of the lesser peak were cliffs. The base of the major peak and the saddle that led to it were all cliff faces. The valley below was a gorge, and the only way up out of the gorge was through the needle on the minor peak.
Holly stood just behind the rock needle, her crossbow loaded, her sword drawn.
Joel looked at the ground just behind the needle. It was worn smooth and flat, like a trail cut into the rock. It went down along the saddle to the major peak before it disappeared beneath another shale slide.
"This led somewhere once," Holly said. "Did you see any sign of a cave from the air? My people used to use them as crypts."
Jas shook her head. She began gathering up large rocks in her cloak. "You don't have to stay, you know,' Joel pointed out.
Jas stood up and looked at Joel. "Like that old joke about two guys running from a bear."
Joel grinned.
"What joke?" Holly asked.
"Two guys are running from a bear," Joel explained. "One says to the other, "We'll never outrun this bear.' The other guy says, 'I don't have to outrun the bear'-'
" 'I only have to outrun you,' " Jas finished.
"That's terrible," Holly said.
"That's life," Jas said. She looked at Joel with a grim expression. "I'll stay until I have no reason to stay," she said.
Joel nodded. She expected to be the last standing, or flying. When he and Holly had fallen, she would be free to fly away.
It seemed to take forever for the Xvimists to reach the base of the mountain. Joel squinted into the sun. Leading the hunt was the loping figure of a man-beast If it wasn't Bear, it was his twin brother.
"How did he survive?" Holly wondered aloud.
"Maybe he wasn't quite dead and the priest of Xvim healed him when they found him," Joel suggested. "Or maybe there was some sort of regeneration spell woven into his transformation,"
"I've got to remember to start cremating the things I kill," Jas muttered.
Below them, Bear howled, even though his master, the priest of Xvim, rode right behind him.
"He's doing that just to annoy me," Jas snarled.
They counted fourteen others behind Bear and the priest. One wore robes like a mage, but the rest were dressed as Zhentilar. Nine of the soldiers were on foot. The trip trap Joel had left behind must have injured their mounts.
The horses balked at the shale slope. The riders dismounted and eyed the slope warily.
Holly turned to Jas and whispered, "If you find Anathar's Dell, tell Lord Randal everything that happened. Tell him I thank him for the trust he had in me. Tell him I died fighting the Zhentilar and the servants of Xvim in Lathander's name."
"I'll never remember all that," Jas said, giving the girl a gentle squeeze on the shoulder.