impact knocked him off his feet, sprawling to his back with a clatter of armor and sword.
As the echoes of his fall rang through the darkness, he reached forward to confirm with his fingers what his intuition already told him: Someone had closed an iron grate, completely blocking further ascent up the secret stairway.
Chapter 7
Climbing to his feet, sword in hand, Ariakas pulled against the grate and found it securely locked. His senses tingled in alarm, and his eyes strained to penetrate the blackness. Had anyone heard his crash? He waited, but after a few seconds his immediate tension eased. The delay would prove fatal for whoever had blocked his path; certainly Ariakas himself would have wasted no time in slaying an enemy who so carelessly announced his presence.
He descended to the first landing and found the catch for the secret door. If his memory were correct-and he knew it was-the room beyond the door was one of the upper tower levels. He remembered the circular cham shy;ber, with its rings of stone columns. Even in daylight there would be plenty of places to hide. At night, it could be full of ogres concealed so effectively that he wouldn't be able to see any one of them.
Still, he had nowhere else to go if he wanted to con shy;tinue back to the lady's chamber. Slowly, as silently as possible, he pushed open the door. Peering cautiously outward, his eyes strained to penetrate the shadows of the large room.
The moons had risen, providing the only illumination. The red light of Lunitari spilled through the eastern win shy;dows, and the pale wash of Solinari glowed to the north. The multitude of columns in the circular room again gave him the impression of towering tree trunks and a smooth forest floor.
He felt keenly certain that there were ogres in the room. Why else bar the secret stair? For an unsettling moment he wrestled with a new thought-how did the ogres know about the secret stair? The lady had told him it was used only by Oberon himself. Could it be that none other than the great warlord awaited him within? Ariakas had no choice but to find out.
Beyond the tower the sounds of ogre pursuit had gradually faded into the night. Ariakas deduced that the monsters had finally separated, since the noise of their raucous chase had soon expanded to resound from many of the nearby heights. There had been no bellowed crow of triumph, so it seemed that Ferros Windchisel had not been caught-yet. Ariakas found himself hoping that the dwarf would complete his escape, and not only because a longer chase would make for a more successful diver shy;sion. The courageous fellow deserved his freedom, the warrior told himself, surprised at the strength of his sen shy;timent.
For long moments he held still, listening and looking. His eyes, already adapted to darkness, searched every shadow, every darkened archway between the pillars. Soon he saw the first ogre near the center of the room, waiting to the side of the main stairway. The hulking brute crouched in the darkness below the stairs, a long club or sword held across his knees, eyes staring fixedly upward.
The second ogre identified itself by a dull cough that rattled from the darkness, not terribly far from the alcove of the secret stairway. The warrior shifted slightly, but he couldn't see any sign of the creature. Still, judging from the sound, he guessed it to be hiding behind a pillar three or four columns away from his own location.
Ariakas continued his observations for many minutes. He saw no other ogres, nor was the telltale cough repeated-for all he knew the second ogre could have stealthily changed position since then. Yet, with the grate blocking the secret stair, he had no alternative but to advance into the room.
He decided to do so with aggressive stealth. Keeping as quiet as possible, he pulled the door open just enough to allow him to emerge, and then stalked quickly to the place where he had heard the ogre cough.
A shadow darker than the surrounding blackness rose before him, uttering a grunt of surprise. Ariakas stabbed, and the rude sound became a bellow of outrage as the ogre twisted away from the attack. A noise whooshed and the warrior ducked, shivering as a heavy club smashed into the column beside him.
Ariakas thrust from his crouch and again felt the steel tip of his sword strike flesh. The ogre groaned, a deep and agonized sound, and the man pressed forward, dri shy;ving the sword home with all of his strength. With a strangled, gurgling moan, the monster slumped to the floor, kicking weakly, unable to rise.
Another bellow jerked Ariakas's attention back to the main stairway. The ogre he had seen in the shadows was charging. Abandoning his wounded opponent, Ariakas raised his blade to meet this lumbering onslaught. Metal clanged sharply against his own sword, and the human staggered into a pillar, stunned by the force of the ogre's blow. The brute's weapon was a sword of immense proportions.
The monster's blade whistled again, and the human rolled to the side, just beneath an explosion of sparks where sword smashed column. Ariakas sprang upward and drove his blade toward the brute's chest, but the ogre deflected the attack as a man might swipe away an annoying mosquito. Once again that massive sword chopped, and this time the sparks flashed along the floor, barely two inches from the warrior's foot.
Frantically dodging, Ariakas darted behind one of the pillars and then rolled to another, the ogre barely a step or two behind. He bounced back to his feet and thrust again, but once more the monster parried the blow, preparatory to another crushing attack of his own.
Dancing through the wash of red moonlight, Ariakas fell steadily back. The ogre moved through the same illu shy;mination, and the warrior saw the dull glint of steel on his enemy's sword-this monster bore no blade of corroded bronze!
A slight movement in his peripheral vision whirled Ariakas around, just in time to see a shadow loom toward him. A third ogre! The beast had remained hid shy;den until the warrior was fully engaged-only the vagaries of moonlight saved Ariakas. The man dived for shy;ward, rolling between the two ogres and barely avoiding the chopping of that deadly sword and the bashing of a heavy club.
Whirling to his right, Ariakas came around a pillar and drove his sword into the flank of the club-wielding ogre. The monster howled, twisting so sharply away from the wound that he almost tore the weapon from the man's hand. Ripping the blood-streaked blade free, Aria shy;kas again lunged to the side, feeling the thunk of the other ogre's sword chopping a piece from the heel of his boot.
Now the two monsters separated, advancing carefully with a row of pillars between them. Ariakas had no choice but to fall back, since the beasts effectively blocked any sideways attempt at escape. He feinted toward the deadly sword but was quickly driven back by a vicious slash-a slash that would have decapitated him if he'd pressed his advance.
In the darkness, the third ogre, badly wounded but not killed, groaned piteously. The warrior took advan shy;tage of the sound to scuttle past the club-wielder. Once more Ariakas slashed with his broadsword into the sag shy;ging belly. Warm blood splashed onto his hand as the beast barked in sharp agony, but even that wound didn't prevent the ogre from swinging its heavy club.
The gnarled wood smashed Ariakas in the shoulder, driving him into one of the pillars, where he stumbled to the ground.
He sensed both ogres lumbering toward him, but for a precious instant, his body refused to move. With concen shy;trated effort Ariakas propelled himself into flight, scram shy;bling crablike to avoid the sword. The ogre's blade again drew sparks from the bare floor, but the man cursed in pain as the club smashed onto his left arm. He heard bones snap in his wrist, and in the next second searing agony shot through his shoulder and side.
Furiously he rose to one knee and drove his broadsword upward, piercing the soft flesh of the ogre's stomach and driving the blade all the way to the hilt. The monster's howl of agony shook the rafters of the ceiling as he doubled over in mortal pain. When the great body tumbled to the ground Ariakas could only dive away to avoid being crushed, cursing as he was forced to release his sword-and then shouting in anguish as he stumbled and tried to catch himself on his broken arm. Instead, he tumbled headlong to the floor. He executed a desperate roll as the surviving ogre pressed his advantage.
A film of agony grew taut around Ariakas's eyes, the sensation pounding at his brain, driving him toward oblivion. All his determination could barely hold blissful unconsciousness at bay-but, by dint of his will, he refused to yield.
