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Berun ground his teeth, looked off into the dark, and took a deep, controlled breath. He'd have to play this just right. He'd done this before, but never against so many, and never against a hunter like Sauk.

Closing his eyes, Berun let out the breath, nice and slow. Still standing, he relaxed his muscles and took another breath, this time through his nose, drawing in strength. Keeping his gaze set on the dark, Berun reached out with his other senses.

Scent. He smelled the wood smoke of the campfires, the thin stew bubbling in a cast iron cauldron, the damp of the streamside mud, the slight musky tang of sweat, leather, and unwashed clothes from Sauk and his men.

Sounds. The crackling of the nearby fire, loudest of all. The shuffle of men beside their fires, their low conversation, the scrape of their boots over ground. A slight breeze rattling the tops of the trees. Crickets, frogs, a night bird or two. The flutter of a moth past his ear.

Feeling. The air, tinged by smoke, passing in and out of his throat, filling his lungs. The soft scrape of his clothes against his skin. Cool air along his left cheek, warmer air on the right side that faced the fire. And deeper down, deep behind his eyes where men could only see in dreams, Berun sensed Perch, the edge of the little animal's mind touching his own. Berun knew that the treeclaw lizard crouched above them somewhere in the darkness amongst the branches, watching. Perch could sense the tiger in the area, taste her scent on the air, but he couldn't see her.

Returning his gaze to the half-orc, Berun said, "Nothing I can say to change your mind?"

Sauk stood, slowly, watching Berun, perhaps sensing something out of the ordinary. He returned Berun's stare, eye to eye. "No," he said.

"That's what I thought you'd say." Keeping his face turned to the half-orc, Berun fixed his gaze on the man on Lewan's left. That one, he told Perch. Strike. Tooth and claw. Tooth and claw!

Perch's excitement lit up. Fight-fight-fight! Strike-tooth-and-claw!

A shadow fell from the darkness overhead…

Chapter Six

And hit the man next to Lewan in the face. The man went down screaming, the lizard hanging on. Berun shouted, "Lewan, go! Go!"

The man on Lewan's left thrashed on the ground and slapped at the leathery shape clawing at his face. The other man had hold of Lewan's forearm. The boy twisted and brought his knee into the man's crotch. The man's eyes squeezed shut and he crumpled to the ground.

Lewan, eyes wide, cast one quick glance at Berun.

"Go, Lewan!" shouted Berun, just as Sauk screamed, "Get that boy!" 1

Seeing five men coming for him, Lewan turned and ran for the woods. Sauk's men leaped after him. Berun let his bow slide down his grasp so he held it only a foot or so from the end. The bow was only thick in the middle and wouldn't make much of a staff, much less a club, but it might serve to distract the half-orc if nothing else. These men, if they were from Sentinelspire, were most likely trained killers. The best at what they did, surely. But Berun was willing to bet that Sauk was the only true woodsman in the group.

Berun turned, cocked his arm, and swiped the bow outward, aiming for Sauk's face.

The half-orc sidestepped and ducked. He turned and looked at Berun, his lips curling in a snarl over his incisors. "That's how it is, then?"

Seeing their master facing off against Berun, two of Sauk's men-Val and Gerrell, if Berun remembered right-stopped just inside the reach of the firelight and turned around.

"Let him go, Sauk," said Berun. "The boy isn't in this."

"He is now," said Sauk-and lunged, aiming a jab at Berun's face.

Berun sidestepped, brought the bow up, and turned the punch aside-just as Sauk's left fist hit him in the gut. In that last instant, he thought he felt Sauk's knuckles scrape his backbone. All breath burst out of Berun in one gasp. His legs turned to water and he fell. His next thought was plain, stupid pride-he was grateful his bowels had held and he hadn't retched up his last