the shadow of the helmets. The orcs appeared completely oblivious to anything but the trail they followed. The snow and wind were fast obscuring the tracks Flinn’s animals had made only a short time ago, and the three orcs bent over the trail and argued which way to continue.
The largest orc sniffed the snow. Flinn stiffened. This beast was a tracker, an orc who could follow a trail by scent alone. Some trackers could pick up a trail even through rain or snow, or after days or weeks had passed. Flinn bit the inside of his cheek. Here was his first target.
Jo tensed beside the warrior, and Flinn put his hand on her shoulder. Two more orcs came into view. They stopped by the first three orcs, who were kneeling and bickering loudly. Flinn caught the gist of their words: the orcs had come upon the place where he and Jo had parted from Dayin.
Flinn whispered, “The ones on the right are mine; the others are yours.” He tightened his hand upon the hilt of his sword, waiting until the orcs’ argument reached its peak.
“Now!” the warrior hissed, springing forward. His sword sang to the right, and he heard Jo’s on the left connect with orc armor. Flinn’s blow came arcing down on the back of the tracker’s neck. The monster never knew what cleaved his spine. The orc crumpled where he stood, blood staining the snow beneath him.
The remaining orcs cried in anger and surprise. Flinn caught sight of one of them leaping toward Jo, but he had no time to call out. The other three orcs rushed him with their spears. Deftly he dodged their attack and swung his heavy blade, managing to break one spear as he parried the other two. The orc with the broken spear whirled in his charge and jumped on Flinn, a jagged knife in the creature’s gnarled hands.
Flinn tumbled backward. He and the orc rolled into the snow. Flinn grabbed the orc’s dagger hand. He twisted the rubbery wrist until the blade sunk into the monster’s back. The orc cried out in pain. With a roar the other two orcs charged again with their spears. Flinn rolled onto his back, pulling the orc on top of him as he did so. The other orcs’ spearheads sank into the chest of their comrade. Flinn scurried from beneath the dead orc, barely escaping the spears pulled from the new-fallen body. The warrior sprang backward, his sword held before him.
Jo backed up to him. He was glad to see she hadn’t been injured. “There’re two more lurking in the shadows,” she shouted.
Flinn grunted. “They’ll attack, don’t worry.” The rest of his words were cut short, however, because one of the spear-bearing orcs charged Jo. She ducked beneath the thrust and came up with her own attack. Just then, another orc charged Flinn. He leaped forward, grabbing the orc’s spear handle and pulling. The beast stumbled forward into Flinn’s waiting sword. With one quick thrust Flinn dispatched the monster.
From out of the swirling snow, two more orcs leaped toward him. They wielded battle axes, and their heavy blows rained down on Flinn. He parried them, straining to meet the weight of the axes. Jo was busy with her own orc, and Flinn couldn’t expect any help from her. The two who attacked had obviously fought together before, for they timed their attacks well. One swung his blow, and the other would immediately follow that blow with his own. Flinn gritted his teeth and smiled. The fight warmed his blood. He parried both axes and tried to snake his way past the orcs’ defenses.
A ball of bright orange light suddenly burst in the space between Flinn and the two axe-wielding orcs. The monsters’ tiny eyes opened wide at the sudden light. The orcs stammered in fear. The fiery ball hung in the air for a few moments, and then collapsed in on itself, changing into three white doves. The birds dived at the orcs, befuddling the monsters. Dayin! Flinn thought, and from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the boy with his hands spread toward the orcs. The warrior jumped forward, swinging his blade in a shining horizontal arc. One orc fell instantly, his head almost severed from his body. Flinn continued his sword’s swing, but twisted the blade so that the flat hit the second orc. The monster dropped his axe and then collapsed into the snow.
Flinn turned to help Jo with the remaining orc, only to see her draw her sword from her opponent’s belly. A brutal smile hung on her face, a smile uncommon to so inexperienced a squire. The girl had enjoyed this bout. Jo wiped her blade on the orc’s padded leather armor and approached Flinn, her step sure and sound. The young woman had killed two orcs and not been injured. Flinn was pleased. Dayin, too, joined Flinn by the fallen orc.
“Why didn’t you kill him?” Jo poked the orc with her foot when she saw the monster move his head.
“I want to question him as to why the orcs are on the move,” Flinn answered. “Dayin, get some rope, will you? And bring the animals back with you; we’re going to have to find shelter soon. I don’t want to chance questioning him here in the open at the risk of our not finding shelter.” The boy nodded and disappeared into the falling snow.
“But after we question him, he’ll know where our camp is,” Jo protested. “Or will we just have to kill him after questioning him?”
“No, we’ll tie him up and keep watch over him. In the morning we’ll leave him tied to a tree. He’ll escape by next sundown, but we’ll be long gone.” Flinn turned toward the orc. “Jo, watch him-if he looks like he’s coming to, hit him on the head with your sword’s pommel.”
“Where are you going?” Jo asked as Flinn moved away.
“I’m going to hide the dead. My guess is that these orcs won’t be missed, but if they are, I don’t want them found. We’ll have to trust the storm to cover our tracks.” Flinn finished, dragging the first dead orc off the hill. He deposited the body in a deep gully and returned for the next ones. Meanwhile, Dayin brought the animals to the hilltop. When Flinn finished hiding the dead, he returned to Jo. She was holding her blade to the orc’s chest, and she had bound and gagged the now-conscious monster.
“Goodjob, Jo.” Flinn nodded. “We’ve got to find shelter quickly, but we also have to put as much distance as possible between us and this place. I don’t know if any more orcs remain in the hills, and I doubt this one would tell us one way or the other-” Flinn glowered at the orc “-so we’ve got to get out of here. We’ll question him later when we’re in a safer place. Jo, lead Ariac. I’ll walk. You and Dayin follow close. Night’s falling, and we could lose each other easily otherwise.”
Flinn pulled the orc to his feet and held onto the length of rope left over from binding the creature’s arms. He pushed the orc toward what he believed to be north and mumbled “Go!” in orcish. After Jo mounted the horse and Dayin the mule, they both followed Flinn as he led the way. A short distance after they set out, Flinn directed them off the hilltop to escape the snow and wind. His arms, which once tingled with the heat of battle, were now cold and numb.
The landscape of snowdrifts and frozen trees seemed something from a dream. In the vale curving between the hills, the wind didn’t whistle so strongly-didn’t wrap them in violent noise and motion. Snow still fell, but less heavily, and the winds bore it in a billowing arc overhead. Flinn felt as though he were leading the party through a dim cave of snow and ice. Light filtered meekly through the storm that raged above the protecting hillsides. Flinn hoped the light would see them to shelter.
As the group wound its way through the gully, the snow grew deeper and footing became treacherous. The blizzard might protect them from the orcs, but it might kill them in the process. Flinn’s lungs began to ache with the cold air, and his eyes grew weary from squinting. They needed shelter to survive. The orc also appeared to sense their danger, for it moved along with little prodding.
Just as night was beginning to fall, Flinn happened upon a deep, narrow ravine. The roaring wind and falling snow relented in this sheltered area. All noise faded away, and the silence left their ears ringing. The cold, too, seemed not quite so biting. Jo and Dayin both sat up; they had been lying on their mounts for additional warmth. Flinn led the group farther into the ravine, seeking a suitable outcropping of rocks for shelter. When he found such a spot, he halted the orc and tied him quickly to a short, stubby tree. Jo and Dayin gratefully slid off their animals and stretched their legs.
Flinn turned to the young woman and the boy. Snow and ice clung to the long strands of his hair, his moustache, and the fur cape he wore. “I think it’s safe enough to have a small fire here,” he said. “We’ve traveled quite a distance away from the orcs-or at least I think we have-and the ravine should hide the flames from view in this storm. We’ll set up the shelter, warm ourselves, and eat a bit of food. Then I want to ask the orc some questions.”
“Like why the orcs are gathering?” Jo asked between teeth that chattered.
“Exactly,” Flinn answered. “Dayin, you gather some firewood. I’m trusting to your woods’ sense not to get lost. Jo, you take care of the animals, and I’ll set up the shelter. Nobody get too close to the orc. I don’t want him to escape.” Jo and Dayin moved away, eager to finish their tasks and warm themselves. Flinn, too, hurried. None of them had eaten that day, and suddenly Flinn was famished.
Flinn poked the orc once with his foot. The orc’s eyes shone at him, but it did not respond. It was gagged and bound tightly to the tree. As Flinn began setting up the tent, he hoped the creature would be able to answer his
