trench filled with flames and Leif cheered. Piro was heartened, but suspected that celebrating would be premature.
'Right, you two come with me,' Florin ordered Piro and Leif. 'Orrade and Garzik go that way. Then spread out and make as much noise as possible.'
They ran down the length of the palisade, about a body length from the wood, spilling pitch and lighting it as they went. At this point, it was only a bow shot across Narrowneck. Soon the palisade's length was a line of leaping flames.
'Now that they can't get out, we'll drive them before us,' Florin urged. She began shouting, making the dogs bark madly. Piro and Leif took their cooking pots and banged them together, shouting for all they were worth. Every so often, Florin tossed a pitch-dipped flaming torch to each side, lighting up the night.
Piro could hear Orrade and Garzik, just make them out through the trunks. At its widest, Narrowneck was only two bow shots across, growing more slender until it came to the tradepost which was built just up from the cliffs that led down to the beach. Narrowneck tradepost even boasted a weighted lever that could lift the heaviest load up from the beach and lower it down again.
The shouting and the leaping flames made Piro feel safer. She only hoped Byren was as safe and that his plan worked.
Byren set off alone, heading for the platform above the cliffs to the beach. The platform was designed well, with rails and a gate the fed onto the extendible ladder. This could be raised quickly. From here, defenders could shoot down on the beach. But the platform was not defensible from the inside. When the builders had planned the tradepost they had not foreseen the need to defend the gate from this direction.
The excited barking of the hounds, then shouts and clanking told him the others had begun their part. Cutting off the manticores' last avenue of escape was his responsibility. He poured a trail of pitch in an arc around the platform which stood head high, set fire to the pitch and climbed onto the platform.
After stringing the borrowed bow, which was a little short and too light for him, he strode to the far side of the platform, avoiding the frame with its heavy weight and glanced down onto the snow-covered beach four body lengths below. It was empty of tracks. Good. None of the manticores had escaped. If all went well several would topple over the cliffs and die. The wolfhounds might account for one or two of the juveniles and, if any attacked his companions, they had their bows.
He turned to face Narrowneck and the tree line, paced to the edge of the platform and closed his eyes to adjust them to the night before opening them. Then he focused on the ground about a body length below the platform on the inland side. He had a good view of the approach to the only way off Narrowneck.
The baying of the wolfhounds changed pitch and he knew they had been let loose. They would flush out any manticores that tried to take shelter in the outbuildings.
The hunting horn sounded, high and piercing. Florin and Orrade each carried one. It meant that one of them had killed a manticore. He spotted a dark shadow with the distinctive manticore tail that curled forwards over its body, slinking through the tree trunks. He raised his bow, taking his time with the shot because he wanted to sever the spine behind the neck. The angle was good.
Thung. He let the bowstring go.
The great cat screamed, legs collapsing. It wasn't dead, but crippled like that, the wolfhounds could finish it.
Another hunting horn sounded. That accounted for three of the manticores. He hoped it was the adults. The dogs could handle the juveniles, if they got them cornered one at a time.
This was going to work.
Byren turned to survey his field, reaching for another arrow.
A manticore confronted him. It was the male, with a mane dark as old blood. While he was looking the other way, it had crept close, body low to the ground until it was about a body length from him. A short leap for a beast of its size.
'Easy… easy…' He breathed slowly, bring the arrow over his shoulder, nocking it, drawing.
Too late. The beast leapt. It was the leogryf all over, but this time there was no Lence to push him to safety.
He let the arrow fly, even though he knew it was hopeless, then threw himself back, left arm raised to fend off the jaws. He expected to hit the rail, but the manticore was already on him. It caught him on the upward arc of its leap. The impact drove him over the rail, off the platform. For an instant he and the beast hung in the air.
Then the ground called them and, with a sickening lurch, they dropped.
The world spun around Byren, icy lake gleaming in the starlight, snowy rocks flashing past, sparkling sky. The manticore writhed, trying to right itself as it fell. With a reverberating thud they struck a rocky outcropping halfway down, with the beast under him. The impact of their fall sent them ricocheting off, out and down again.
Piro caught Leif and thrust him behind her, as Garzik reached for an arrow. The wolfhounds had one of the juveniles trapped in a corner of the dairy. Florin and Orrade were doing a sweep of Narrowneck to be sure they had got them all.
Garzik notched his arrow and drew, waiting for a good shot.
The side of Piro's neck prickled with warning. She turned. Another juvenile stood in the shadows, poised to attack Leif.
'Garzik!' she hissed, reaching for an arrow and nocking it.
'Quiet, Piro. I don't want to hit one of the dogs.'
She couldn't take her gaze off those gleaming orange eyes, but at the same time she was aware of the raised tail, the poisoned spike dripping with venom. Could her arrow drive through the manticore's eye into its brain before it struck Leif? She didn't think so. But she had to do something.
She thrust Leif behind her, saw a stray bucket and, quick as thought, kicked it at the beast.
The manticore struck instinctively, tail hitting the bucket with a resounding ring of chitin striking metal.
Piro loosed her arrow. It took the manticore high in the shoulder where it met the neck. Garzik swore. A dog howled, then whimpered. The other two growled as they attacked, tearing the second manticore apart. The cornered Affinity beast screamed in pain and fury.
Piro's manticore took one step before its legs folded under it. She darted aside, dragging Leif out of the way of the falling tail. They collided with Garzik's back, driving him to safety and fell in a heap on the dairy floor.
'Whaa?' Garzik rolled to his feet. He gaped as he took in the second manticore.
Piro climbed to her feet. Odd, her legs didn't work properly.
'You all right?' Garzik asked.
She tried to say of course, but no words came.
Garzik hauled young Leif to his feet.
'Piro saved me,' Leif whispered, awed. 'She saved you, too.'
Garzik turned to her, with a look she couldn't interpret. 'Piro, I — '
She found her voice. 'That's two more down, better tell Orrie and Florin.'
Her knees felt like water as she moved towards the dairy door. Leif whistled to call off the dogs. The surviving two came readily, muzzles bloodied, coats torn in places.
'Poor Crusher.' Leif shed ready tears.
Garzik rubbed his back. 'You can be proud of them. They've earned their keep tonight.'
They'd only just stepped from between the outbuildings when Orrade came running towards them.
'Byren's missing,' he called.
Piro's heart lurched sickeningly.
'Are all the manticores accounted for?' Florin asked, coming in from the other direction with a flaming torch.
'We just killed two juveniles,' Garzik said.
'Then there's only the large male — '
'Are you deaf?' Orrade rounded on her. 'Byren's missing.'
'If we don't know where the pride leader is, more of us could go missing,' she told him.
Orrade blinked and nodded once. 'You're right. Leif, fetch some more torches.'
The lad ran across to the wood pile. Piro opened her jar of pitch, dipping the new torches in it and setting them alight.
