threw himself to the side. Adolan followed, stabbing his spear down. The hunter was faster though, rolling aside and leaping back to his feet. His next swing was even heavier than his first. Adolan barely managed to check it with the shaft of his spear. The blow still sent him staggering back and left a deep notch in the spear's shaft.
'Ado!'
Geth's roar rolled across the battlefield of the common. Singe saw the shifter's sword and great-gauntlet flash as he tried to fight his way past a pack of dolgrims to the druid's side.
Atop the barricade, Hruucan's tentacles twitched in frustration. His eyeless face turned toward Dandra. He tensed, ready to leap at the kalashtar.
Singe's chest clenched. 'Hey, wormface!' he bellowed. He jumped at Hruucan and grabbed the rough fabric of the loose pants the dolgaunt wore. Hruucan turned, kicking to try and shake him off, but Singe held on grimly. Spreading the fingers of his free hand, he pointed up at the dolgaunt's head and bony chest and let the words of a spell ripple from his lips.
Fire rushed from his fingers, washing over the foul creature. Some of the flame rebounded to pour down over Singe, but the magic of his ring protected him. Hruucan had no such protection. The dolgaunt let out a grating screech as his deformed flesh bubbled and charred. He tore himself from Singe's grasp and tumbled from the barricade, fleeing blind into the smoky darkness.
His flight struck confusion into the dolgrims. Their charge slowed, turning into a chaotic mass. Beyond Adolan and his big, black-eyed opponent, however, the rest of the Bonetree hunters were still closing rapidly. Singe scrambled up onto the barricade where Hruucan had stood only a moment before and spoke a word of magic. A tiny, intense tongue of flame sprang into the palm of his free hand.
Picking his target carefully, he drew back his arm and hurled it. The flame streaked through the air as far and fast as an arrow-though not quite fast enough. Singe caught a glimpse of the old hunter leaping back hastily with his eyes wide and heard him shout for others to do the same.
The tiny flame exploded with a roar, flashing in a sudden inferno so bright it forced the wizard to fling up an arm to protect his eyes. Even Dandra gasped at the blast.
So did Adolan.
The massive hunter-so caught up in his rage that he didn't seem to notice the fiery magic at all-swung his axe in a heavy, overhand blow that sheared through the druid's spear and into his chest.
Adolan fell to his knees. Dandra's gasp turned into a scream. Singe froze in shock. The hunter planted one foot on Adolan's chest and forced him backward as he wrenched at his weapon. The axe came free in a spray of blood. Adolan swayed but remained on his knees, his eyes watching the wide blade sweep up…
With a bellow of pure animal rage, Geth surged out of the night and leaped onto the hunter like a beast. His gauntleted hand seized the handle of the axe above the hunter's grip and wrenched it back so hard that Singe heard the man's thick wrists snap. In the same movement, he jammed his sword vertically into the hunter's belly and all the way up under his breast bone. Blood burst out of the warrior's mouth.
Geth's weight carried his body to the ground, but the shifter rolled free and groped for Adolan. 'Ado! Ado!'
The druid was still on his knees, still staring up into the night. Blood trickled through his red-brown beard. At the shifter's desperate touch, though, his eyes seemed to clear. His mouth moved, shaping words that emerged as a froth of blood. His hand fumbled toward the collar of polished black stones around his neck-
— then fell away as his body shuddered. Somewhere in the sky above, Breek screamed. A moment later, Geth roared at the night.
CHAPTER 6
A sound like an avalanche brought Singe's head up. Out on the common, the elemental that Adolan had summoned from the Bull Hole was falling apart in midstride, the earth and stones that had formed its body tumbling to the ground. The dolgrims it had been pursuing stopped and stared-then advanced cautiously to prod the heaped stone with their weapons. Singe swung around to stare past the scorched circle of his spell. A few human bodies lay within the blackened ring, but not nearly enough to account for all the Bonetree hunters. In the shadows beyond, he could make out figures emerging from the trees and picking themselves up from the ground.
'Moons!' he cursed. He leaped down from the barricade and dashed to Dandra. The kalashtar seemed frozen, watching Geth as he held Adolan's body, his forehead touching the druid's. Singe caught her arm. 'They're regrouping!'
She started and whirled around, picking out exactly what he had. Their enemies were gathering themselves for a new attack. 'Il-Yannah,' she breathed. There was an edge of terror to her voice. 'Will they never stop?'
'We need to find somewhere defensible,' Singe told her. 'Somewhere we can put our backs to a wall-'
'No,' said Geth.
Singe spun back to the shifter. He was standing, Adolan's collar of stones around his neck. The druid lay at his feet. A line of dirt had been traced down his pain-twisted face. Geth's face was smudged with dirt as well. Beneath it, the shifter's features were hard with barely restrained emotion.
'We aren't staying here,' he said. He bent and ripped his sword out of the Bonetree hunter's corpse. His eyes swept around the ruins of Bull Hollow. Singe followed his gaze and realized that there wasn't a living inhabitant of the hamlet left on the common. Dol Arrah, he prayed, let them be safe in the woods!
Geth strode toward him and Dandra. 'You said before,' the shifter asked Dandra, 'that if you fled, the hunter and the dolgrims would follow you. Do you think they still will?'
Dandra nodded. 'Yes. More than ever.'
'Good. We're leading them away from here. All of us.' He gestured with his armored hand toward still-closed doors of the stable. 'Singe, get horses-battle measures.'
The old words of the Frostbrand. Instinct pushed Singe to obey before he even fully understood what Geth was proposing. Understanding came as he fumbled at the stable doors.
Battle measures-act quickly, take the best, deal only with the necessary. They would use Dandra as bait to lead their vile enemies away from Bull Hollow, to give any survivors a better chance to hide.
He glanced at Toller's body behind the barricade, killed by the dolgaunt while defending a place and people he didn't know. His jaw tightened.
He pulled open the door of the stable. Inside, the building echoed with the cries of panicked horses. An everbright lantern hung beside the door. He took it and lowered the shade to expose the light within, then made his way down the center aisle of the stables.
His own horse, battle-trained, was waiting quietly. He saddled the animal with a speed born from long practice, then turned to Toller's horse, trained like his own, and a spirited-looking mare. Unused to strange hands, only the mare gave him trouble.
'Singe!' called Geth from outside. 'We need those horses!'
'Almost ready!' he called back. He got a bit into the mare's mouth, then released his horse and Toller's before backing the mare out of her stall.
Outside, the hunters and the dolgrims were still sorting themselves out. A shout went up, though, as an alert hunter spotted the horses. Their enemies began to close, warily this time.
Geth took the mare's reins and nodded at the lantern in Singe's hand. 'Keep it open,' he said. 'We want them to follow us.' He swung into the mare's saddle. Singe climbed onto his horse, then held Toller's steady as Dandra scrambled awkwardly into the saddle. Geth watched her with an unpitying eye. 'Hold tight and stay low,' he advised her. 'Now follow me!'
With a tight shout and a kick at his mount's sides, he galloped straight at the clustered Bonetree hunters. Singe darted a glance at Dandra. She nodded grimly-then raised her voice in a fierce, rippling cry. 'Adar! Adar! Bhintava adarani!'
Toller's eager horse needed no other urging. It sprang after Geth instantly. 'Deneith!' called Singe, pushing his horse into a gallop, too.
Geth's roar was less prosaic. 'Follow us, you murdering bastards!' he screamed as he raced by the hunters, then pulled his horse around to flash past the dolgrims as well. 'Follow us!' He plunged his horse into the forest
