at Lhors, blade raised to skewer him.
Vlandar grabbed Lhors and pulled him back against the wall. “Take them down! Quick!”
The mage was already working. He fell back next to Vlandar and said, “Quiet-it’s my last, though!”
Rowan fired an arrow at the dagger-wielder, but it skipped off his scalp, leaving only a slight gash. She swore and tried again. The second went into his shoulder, but not deeply enough. The brute snarled a curse, then yanked it loose and threw it aside. Blood ran down his face, but he ignored it.
Maera and Malowan dealt with the other brute, who managed a drunken swing at the paladin. His own momentum threw him off-balance, and Maera drove her spear into his ear. He yanked his head around, bellowing in pain, and the ranger was thrown hard against the wall. Malowan came up behind him and thrust his sword into the brutes eye, killing him instantly.
Khlened and Vlandar were trying to finish off the other giant. Vlandar got behind him finally and slashed at the exposed backs of the monster’s knees. The giant fell, screaming.
Lhors yelped as both doors to the feast hall were thrust open. Two of the young giants and a very aged one stood there-none armed orarmored, though they looked deadly enough to him. They could break me in half, he thought.
“Back, Lhors!” Vlandar yelled. “Ready your spears! Khlened,finish him! Rest of you, behind me and down the hall, now!”
But Rowan ignored him and ran to help her dazed sister to her feet. Khlened fell back, his sword ripped out of his hands, as the giant rolled away with the barbarians blade still planted firmly in his leg.
“Damn all!” the barbarian snarled. He scooped up the club andswung it two-handed, bringing it down on the drunks head. The giant collapsed.
“Leave the blade!” Vlandar ordered. “We’ve company, youfool!”
Khlened spun around just as the old male drew back, urgently tugging at the giant-youths.
“They’re afraid!” the barbarian laughed harshly.
But as he made another grab for his sword, someone beyond the feast hall roared out an order. Four heavily armed giants came charging across the chamber, clubs out. The floor shook with their advance. Lhors could hear another voice-female and very angry, shouting in Giantish at someone inside thechamber.
“Hells!” Nemis said flatly. “That’s Nosnra himself I put tosleep, and she’s waking him!”
“Back!” Vlandar ordered. “The south passage is narrow enoughthey’ll have to come at us one at a time. Move!”
Vlandar, Malowan and Khlened covered their backs as the company sprinted for the passageway. Maera turned just before leaving the room and launched a spear. It sailed into the foremost giant, impaling him just below the sternum. Roaring in pain and fury, the giant fell.
The paladin shook his head as he entered the hallway with his sword raised. “Too many, Vlandar,” he said.
Rowan edged past him to draw her bow. One of her arrows buried itself to the fletchings in a giant’s throat, and he fell, bleedingheavily. The younger giants looked down at him, at each other, then turned and ran.
“Nemis,” Vlandar ordered, “do what you can! We can’t fightthem all!”
Before any of the guards could attack, someone inside the chamber shouted an order and shoved his way into the hall. He was enormous, taller than his guards by a head, and hugely fat. His eyes were bleary, but if he was drunk he didn’t move like it. The brute ducked back into the chamber andshouted another order. One of the club- wielders came out, followed by two more. The fourth was apparently beating on the other door to get it open.
Rowan shot several arrows in quick order. One of the giants fell, a shaft through his mouth and another in his eye. Another two sidestepped him and came on, clubs upraised.
Nemis sent a crackling fireball at them. The lead giant could not evade in time and took it head-on. He began screaming and beating his clothes as the deadly flames engulfed him. His own comrades cut him down, probably not so much out of mercy as to get him out of the way. The other giants hesitated at such resistance and backed into the feast hall, brushing sparks from their clothing.
“Back!” Vlandar shouted and pointed his blade toward thekitchen.
Nemis turned and ran, stopping just inside to ready another spell. Agya and Lhors went next, followed by Rowan, who was still supporting Maera. The warriors came next, and Vlandar grabbed Nemis’ arm as the mage begananother spell.
“Save it!” he ordered. “There’s no time.”
“They’ll know which way we went!” Khlened shouted. He sworeas a flaming arrow zipped past him. The arrow quivered in the door frame as the giant moved out of sight, but Lhors could hear him in there, shouting orders. The female was screaming something, but he could make no sense of it.
“Move, all of you!” Vlandar ordered. “The whole Steading’llbe roused against us before much longer. Rowan, grab that torch on the hearth and light it!”
“Down?” Nemis asked as he backed away.
“No choice,” the warrior replied steadily, but Lhors didn’tthink he looked very happy about it.
Vlandar picked Maera up and ran with her. Rowan scooped up the torch, plunged it into the fire until it caught, then followed. Everyone else filed in behind her. Malowan brought up the rear, backing around the corner just as loud voices reached them and the bespelled door slammed back into the wall.
“That cost me a good blade,” Khlened mumbled as he leanedinto the pantry door to shut it.
“Better than your life,” Rowan snapped breathlessly.
“Silence, all of you!” Vlandar hissed. “Nemis, what can youdo with stone?”
“Enough, I think,” the mage said. He was peering down thestairs. “There is no one anywhere nearby down there, but if there is a way out,I cannot sense it from here.”
“We’ll find one,” Vlandar said grimly. “We’ve no choice now.Go! All of you! Down! We’ll follow.”
Maera, finally beginning to shake off her daze, edged past them. “My eyes are better in dark, and I don’t trust anyone but me or Rowan withour only light. I’ll go first.”
She went down a long, straight flight. Lhors went next, with the barbarian right behind him. Some distance down, the youth thought he saw light ahead beside Maera’s flickering torch, and when they reached the laststep, he could clearly see the ranger and the chamber beyond. Two torches were shoved in niches on the far wall-but it wasn’t far enough for Lhors. It lookedlike a short corridor, but it was closed off at both ends, and there were no doors or openings of any kind that he could see.
Maera turned in place, staring thoughtfully at the walls while her sister laid her ear against one. “It’s not a trap,” she assured Lhors.
“How can y’tell?” Khlened asked. He looked very pale in theruddy light.
Agya came up behind him, sling in one hand and a stone for it in the other, then set herself to watch the stairs, only relaxing when Malowan came down. Nemis came last, some moments behind Vlandar.
“It’s still quiet up there,” he said, “but I would move asfar from the stairs as you can.”
“Aye,” Khlened said. “The giants’ll know we’ve come here bynow. Won’t be much for ’em to take us, will it?”
“This is
“The giants will not come down those stairs immediately,”Nemis said, “not after the fight we just gave them. They will take time toregroup and better prepare themselves. But in a moment, those stairs will collapse. I set a device partway down that is dissolving the bonds between the stones.”
Khlened caught his breath sharply as the little chamber rumbled and shook. Shards of stone and a puff of dust sifted down from the chamber.
“I suggest we move away,” Nemis said with forced calm.
The party quickly shuffled into the rear of the chamber as fast as they could. They had gathered in a tight huddle when the entire staircase fell with an ear-shattering rumble. Everyone spent several moments coughing and sneezing away the dust and grit.
