Steel and Stone

hitting Kitiara. The ettin shook her one last time and dropped her unconscious body over one shoulder.

Then Res-Lacua halted and looked around him. 'Lady mage!' he hollered. He stormed across the clearing toward Kai-lid. Tanis saw her freeze. Her fingers moved frantically, fumbling with the pouches of spell components at her belt. 'Xanthar!' she shouted. 'My magic! I can't…' The giant owl dove toward the ettin, but Xanthar's wingtip caught against a branch, and he careened into the ground.

'Xanthar!' Lida screamed again. The owl lay there, unmoving.

Then the ettin was striding out of the clearing, with Kitiara draped over one shoulder and dragging Lida by one arm. Res-Lacua shoved past Tanis and Caven as though they were reeds. Just as the ettin reached the edge of the clearing, a new figure stepped in front of the monster.

Of all things, it was Wode.

Clearly terrified, the young squire brandished Kitiara's dropped sword. 'Halt!' Wode cried in a cracked, piping voice. Bravely he pointed the weapon at the ettin.

The ettin slowed only temporarily. As though Kitiara were no heavier than a sack of onions, the two-headed beast shifted her body and wedged it in the space between his heads. That freed one hand-a hand that held a spiked club.

Wode screamed Caven's name. The bearded man searched around desperately, spied a boulder, and, muscles bulging, hefted it above his head. He plunged across the clearing with Tanis close behind.

Wode screamed one more time; then the ettin's club connected. The youth crumpled to the ground, and the beast leaped over him and raced out of the clearing.

Chapter 13

The Chase

Caven knelt beside Wode, his squire and his nephew. Tanis stood uncertainly next to the grieving mercenary until the wild neighing of the half-elf's gelding drew his attention and brought him to the edge of the clearing. Dauntless was struggling vainly to rise. His eyes were glassy. The faithful horse grew quiet as the half-elf stroked his beautiful neck with a broad, gentle hand.

'I don't need telepathy to know what you're asking, old friend,' Tanis whispered. He drew his sword, uttered a silent prayer, and slit the horse's throat. Dauntless's life bubbled into the soil of Darken Wood. Tanis stayed with the horse until his breathing ceased.

Using Kitiara's sword to fashion a grave, Caven was making little headway in the hard ground.

'It will take you hours at that rate,' Tanis said quietly. 'We must hurry after Kitiara and Lida.'

'I'm going to bury him.' Caven's voice was toneless.

'We could pile stones over the lad. It's the usual way for those who die where burying is difficult. And it's faster.'

'He's my sister's child. I will bury him as she would have, back in Kern.'

'But Kitiara…'

Caven's voice rose in determination. 'Kitiara got herself into trouble; she can wait. I will bury Wode. You can help or not, as you choose. You owe me nothing, half-elf.'

Tanis knew he would need Caven Mackid in the hours and days ahead, so he put aside his sword and began to dig with his bare hands. There came a rustling behind them, and Tanis wheeled quickly, expecting another onslaught. Instead it was Xanthar, pulling himself weakly to his feet. 'Kai-lid,' he said faintly. 'We must find…'

'Who?' Tanis asked. The giant owl looked straight at him.

'Lida,' Xanthar corrected himself. 'We must go after Lida and Kitiara. To save them.'

Tanis gestured mutely to indicate Caven, who hadn't bothered to look up. The swordsman was working steadily, scraping at the ground with his blade and picking rocks out of the hollow with his fingers. He had wrapped Wode's body in his own scarlet cape.

The owl nodded. 'He will not leave him?' Tanis nodded his head. The owl hesitated. He looked toward the north. Then Xanthar gave a near-human approximation of a shrug. 'Caven Mackid is right,' Xanthar said. 'It is best, in Darken Wood, to leave no funeral rite unobserved. We would not want to encounter this Wode in the ranks of the undead.' The owl surveyed Caven a moment longer, then said briskly, 'Nevertheless, there's not a moment to lose, and you are making little headway, human.'

At this, Xanthar edged forward. 'Allow me,' the bird whispered. He opened his great, saw-edged beak and began to dig. Soon the depression grew into a shallow oblong trench.

Finally Xanthar drew back. 'It is deep enough,' he said. He spat and cleaned his beak of soil by running it through his wing feathers.

Caven started to object to the shallowness of the grave, then gave in. 'All right,' he said wearily.

They gently moved Wode's body into the hollow and covered it with twigs and leaves, dirt and rocks. 'Kernish observances are silent,' Caven said, and the half-elf and owl followed his lead as he stood beside the grave and bowed his head for several long minutes. When at last he looked up, his eyes were wet, but his face was resolute. He whistled for Maleficent. The horse stood uneasily as Caven and Tanis loaded Kitiara's pack and necessary belongings. After searching Wode's pack and finding nothing of consequence save a small amulet from his name- giving day, they hung the pack on a stick atop the teen's grave as a remembrance.

Then both men mounted Maleficent. 'I'm not accustomed to cozying with any but women, half-elf,' Caven complained. Tanis snorted and settled behind the Kernan on the stallion's broad back. With Xanthar circling overhead, they set off after Kitiara and Kai-lid.

The path seemed to head into mountainous terrain, but this time the ettin's footprints were nearly impossible to spot. Time and again the half-elf slid off Maleficent to search under plants and debris for the huge print. 'He's being more cagey now,' the half-elf mused.

Dawn seemed imminent, and Tanis realized he'd long since lost track of what time of day it was outside Darken Wood. The woods were lightening, losing some of their fearsome quality. One by one the eyes of the undead blinked and went put.

'This is your fault, half-elf,' Caven said almost bitterly. When the half-elf, mounted behind Caven, drew back in surprise, the swordsman continued, 'Your horse. Your useless gelding failed me.'

'Your stallion was poorly trained. It would not even let you mount it.'

'Yours was a coward.'

'Dauntless carried me safely through many dangers, Mackid. You caused his death yourself with that melodramatic stab at a rescue.'

'No great loss, losing a nag like that.' Caven was silent for a time.' Tanis was doing his best to keep his temper. 'Anyway, you were the one who brought Kitiara the news of the ettin, half-elf.'

'And you knew there might be a connection between the ettin and the Valdane and Janusz, but you didn't speak up!'

They continued in this vein, growing increasingly heated and acrimonious, until Xanthar dropped out of the sky and landed ahead of them on a branch overhanging the trail. Maleficent neighed and halted.

You two tire me.

'The same to you, owl!' Caven exploded, twisting to face the giant bird. 'Why don't you just lead us to Kitiara and the mage, and spare us your babble?'

'Surely you speak telepathically with the mage,' Tanis observed. 'That at least would save us hunting for that damned creature's prints.'

I have tried to mind-speak to her. She is too far distant. My ability has its limits.

'Then what good are you? You're as useless as the half-elf!' Caven kicked Maleficent into a trot.

Xanthar spoke offhandedly, but with the bright eyes that gauged the men's every emotion. Kitiara is with child, you know.

The two slammed to a halt.