She stared at the dead man’s sightless eyes. He had a hole in his skull. Chips of white bone stuck to his forehead. Strangely, his lips and the left side of his face were blue with frost.
Ilvani stretched out her awareness and felt an unnatural aura surrounding the camp. She realized then that the air was much, much colder than it should have been, even for the winter night.
“Fire,” she said. She lifted her right hand and called again in the tongue of magic. Her hand burst into orange flame. Torch in hand, she walked purposefully toward the lumbering shapes. She had to find Ashok and tell him it was time to release the nightmare and its deadly flame.
Otherwise, the ice trolls would kill them all.
Ashok was far enough away in the ruins that he didn’t hear the screams heralding the first attack. He awoke at the same time as Mareyn. Stiff in his arms, she listened with him to the sounds of frantic movement and shouts from the camp. Then they moved at once, grabbed clothing and weapons, and ran into the darkness.
They were in such a rush that they nearly ran up the back of one of the trolls.
A blast of frigid air assailed Ashok’s limbs. Beside him, Mareyn gasped when she ran into the troll’s aura. She fumbled for her weapon, and Ashok swung his chain above his head. Their movements were sluggish, hampered by the frozen air. Ashok’s breath was a fire in his lungs.
The troll heard them and swung around, its huge maul leading. Mareyn dived out of the way and rolled in the snow. Ashok dodged and let his chain fly over the troll’s weapon. It struck the monster in one of its black, jewel-like eyes. The troll howled in pain and clutched its face. Retreating several paces, it stepped into the light of one of the campfires, and Ashok got a good look at it.
The monster had gray, lumpy skin and a fine coat of frost-rimed hair all over its body but especially around its thick lips. Oversized ears were black at the tips. They drooped almost to the creature’s shoulders. The frost gave its skin an odd, glittering quality like crystal in the light of the campfires.
Mareyn came up in a flurry of snow and steel. She stabbed the troll in the thigh while it was still distracted with its wound. The creature took a blind step toward her and swiped at her with its free hand. Mareyn tried to dodge again, but the cold aura emanating from the creature made her clumsy. Troll claws caught her by the arm and lifted her into the air. She hit the remains of a stone wall and fell on her stomach.
Ashok hollered to get the troll’s attention and let his chain fly again. The troll turned back to face him, and Ashok fumbled the strike when he saw the creature’s face.
The monster’s eye wound had closed. Only the dark blood on its face marked where he’d injured the thing. This rapid healing was bad enough, but the look in its eyes truly gave Ashok pause. Its eyes were feverish, unfocused, almost as if the creature didn’t fully understand where it was or what it was doing.
This was not the attack of an organized party of trolls seeking food. These mad creatures craved blood and violence just like the shadow beasts that Tuva’s caravan had encountered on the plain.
Ilvani’s demons had followed her to the surface of Faerun.
Mareyn groaned and pulled herself to a sitting position. “Fire,” she said. “We have to burn them.”
He heard the distant screams of the horses. They ran free, terrified as they fought to escape the trolls. One of the creatures burst through a partial stone structure and grabbed a fleeing horse by the neck. The poor animal’s scream cut off abruptly as the troll snapped its neck.
Ashok knew at least one of the animals wouldn’t be running.
“I have to find my horse,” Ashok said to Mareyn. He struck the troll with the end of his chain, again drawing blood and a scream from the monster.
“What?” Mareyn cried. “They’re scattered, Ashok.” She got to her feet and came at the troll’s back, slashing with her blade. The creature kept its attention on Ashok and the chain. It held one hand over its face and swung its maul with the other.
Ashok took the blow to his shoulder and went down on his knees. His armor took some of the impact, but he still felt brilliant pain light up the left side of his body. The troll stood over him and raised his maul for an overhand strike that would drive Ashok into the ground. Ashok waited until the last second and teleported out from under the weapon. When he reappeared several feet away, he heard the shuddering impact of the weapon with the ground.
With the troll bent over and off balance, Mareyn came in from its left side and chopped overhand at the creature’s head. The troll scuttled back out of the way with surprising grace, but it wasn’t fast enough. Mareyn’s strike severed its left ear.
Perfect, Ashok thought. The troll held the side of its head and thrashed, spraying blood on the snow. In his shadowy form, Ashok moved to stand in front of the creature. The troll looked up at him and snarled.
Ashok smiled at it.
The troll screamed and dived at him, but it passed through Ashok’s incorporeal body and slid in the snow. Ashok felt his flesh thicken and take on weight. He bent and scooped up the troll’s ear.
“Come and get it,” he said, then turned and ran. “Help the others,” he yelled to Mareyn. “Find your good-luck partner.”
“You’re insane!” she called after him. He didn’t turn, but he heard the wild laughter in her voice.
Ashok ran through the remnants of the camp. He saw the fires among the stones. The guards and drovers waved torches and weapons at the trolls when they attacked out of the darkness. Bodies of the caravan guards lay strewn about the ruins. Ashok didn’t see the brothers or Ilvani, but he trusted Mareyn to find her.
He heard a horse scream and saw Thorm at the edge of the camp. He was trying to mount the nightmare. The illusion held-the beast still appeared to be a common saddle horse. The dwarf had no idea what he was trying to tame.
“Godsdamned beast … hold still!” he cried, but the horse kicked him aside, and Thorm fell. He clutched his gut and winced in pain.
“Leaving us?” Ashok said. The troll’s thundering footsteps echoed close behind him. “Or were you planning to ride into battle to save the caravan?”
“The caravan’s lost,” Thorm said. “Get out while you still can. We can go together-”
“Then you and your brigands will come back later to clean up what’s left,” Ashok said. The dwarf paled, and Ashok knew all he needed to about the dwarf’s loyalties. “The perfect plan. Here, hold this.”
He tossed the troll’s ear at the dwarf. Thorm caught it without looking, and his eyes widened when he saw the troll bearing down on them.
Ashok jumped on the nightmare’s back. The beast reared, forcing Ashok to grab his mane to keep his balance.
“Missed me, did you?” Ashok grunted. With his fists buried in the nightmare’s mane, he wheeled the stallion around to face the troll. “See that? Time to play.”
The troll swung its maul wildly and hit the dwarf in the chest. Thorm crumpled at the monster’s feet, but he still breathed. He tried to crawl out of the way, but the troll reared back for another strike.
“Time to play,” Ashok repeated in a whisper. He leaned forward across the stallion’s neck. His fingers found the enchanted necklace that bound the nightmare’s essence, the spurs buried securely in his flesh. Ashok curled his fingers around the binding and ripped it off.
A scream so loud that it shook the ruined structures echoed through the camp. The trolls and the warriors fighting them all stopped at once and went to their knees in a vast wave. Ashok felt scorching heat surround him, as intense as if he stood in the middle of a forge. Fire erupted from the nightmare’s mane, tail, and fetlocks. For a breath, Ashok thought the stallion intended to burn him alive as retribution for his confinement. But as quickly as they appeared, the fires where Ashok sat banked and cooled, burning with a low blue radiance.
With the troll in front of him distracted, Thorm was able to crawl for cover in the ruins. He gazed out at the nightmare in openmouthed horror. Ashok guided the stallion forward to face the troll. The nightmare needed no urging. Ashok let the end of his chain dangle just above the ground.
“Time to burn,” he said.
The troll swung its maul at the nightmare. The stallion lunged aside with a speed that had the troll overbalanced and its flank exposed. Turning, the nightmare slammed his burning body into the troll, almost crushing Ashok’s right leg. Ashok jumped up and stood on the nightmare’s back. He wrapped his chain around the troll’s neck
