From the corner of his eye, Bradan saw the cannibals close in on Melcorka. Crouching low, she swung Defender in a complete circle, lopping off three legs and sending the survivors scurrying back in panic. Long-striding, she reached Bradan, killed another cannibal and took hold of the sleeve of his leine.
“Stay with me!” Melcorka yelled and looked up as the cannibals suddenly fled. She and Bradan were alone in the clearing except for the dead and the dying.
“I prefer taking my chances with the beasts of the forest to the cannibals,” Melcorka said.
“As do I.” Bradan was breathing heavily “I'll get my staff.”
The forest was silent as they left the glade, with no birds calling and only the biting insects bidding them a good evening. Now Melcorka knew what to look for, she saw other cannibal houses in the trees, and knew that predatory eyes were watching her. “There are more of these forest-people,” Melcorka said.
“We'll keep moving,” Bradan said. “However tired we are, we'll keep moving.”
Stumbling over fallen branches, hacking through a tangle of undergrowth, splashing in unseen streams and patches of bogland, they pushed on through the darkness until they came to another clearing, where Melcorka raised her hand to halt their progress.
A shift in the wind allowed the moonlight to slant between the upper branches, gleaming on something white.
“What's that?” Bradan asked. “Bones.” He answered his own question. “Human bones.”
Skilful hands had fastened thigh bones and ribs together to form a long passageway leading to the centre of the clearing.
“What devilry is this?” Melcorka asked.
Following the passage, they came to a pyramid of human skulls, adults and children piled neatly, with sightless eye-sockets and gaping jaws facing outward. Ten paces away were the blackened embers of a massive fire and the dark metal of three pots.
“Dear God in heaven,” Bradan said. “This must be where these devils roast their victims.”
“I can taste the evil,” Melcorka said. “Do you remember these settlements we passed before we came to the forest?”
“I remember,” Bradan said grimly, with his thumb firmly pressing the Celtic cross on top of his staff.
Melcorka unsheathed Defender and indicated the embers. “This is where the inhabitants ended up. The cannibals must have grabbed them and brought them here.”
“Aye,” Bradan said. “Let's keep moving. The further we get away from this hellish spot, the better I will like it. There is an evil on this land now, Melcorka.”
“Aye,” Melcorka took a firm grip on Defender, “and these cannibals have not gone, Bradan. They are all around us.”
The first spear hissed past to thud into the ground, followed by two more. The cannibals shouted at them from the upper branches around the clearing, gesticulating as they ran along the branches from tree to tree.
“They're like squirrels,” Bradan said.
“Dangerous squirrels.” Melcorka swung Defender to knock aside a well-aimed spear. She looked ahead. “The trees are closer together in front. That will slow us down and give the cannibals an advantage.”
Bradan dodged a volley of sticks. “If one of these missiles knocks you out, Mel, we are both dinner. I can't fight them alone.”
“We either push on or go back the way we came,” Melcorka said.
“Push on,” Bradan said. “Use Defender to clear a path.”
The hail of spears and sticks increased when Melcorka hacked her way into a thicker patch of forest, with the cannibals growing bolder by the yard. As biting insects clouded around them and the cannibals came ever closer, Melcorka and Bradan wondered if they had made the right decision.
“All right,” Bradan stopped to wipe the sweat from his forehead, coming away with a handful of black biting insects. “We can't go on like this. We must take the fight to them.”
“Well said, man of peace.” Melcorka deflected another crude spear. “They are very agile up their trees, and you are not.”
“I am very tired of hacking through plants while squirrels throw things at me.”
Melcorka's smile was very reassuring. “I like your plan, Bradan. Take that spear, guard my back and don't let any of these creatures get past you.”
Hoisting herself on to the lowest boughs of a tree, Melcorka helped Bradan up and moved towards the nearest cannibal. The man bared his teeth at her, jabbed with his spear and snarled, while trying to back away from Defender.
“Up you go!” Melcorka blocked the cannibal's escape, forcing him to climb higher up the tree until there was nothing above him except the starry sky.
“Not so tough now, are you?” Melcorka asked, balancing on a swaying branch as she stepped forward. “Come and fight me, then!” Instead of chasing the cannibal, Melcorka forced him further along the branch. When the cannibal perched on the edge, Melcorka hacked through the branch, sending him toppling to the ground. Balancing on adjacent trees, other cannibals set up a great yell, throwing more sticks and spears.
One spear embedded in the trunk of a tree near Bradan, so he pulled it out, turned it and threw it back, impaling a man in the leg. The cannibal screamed, grabbed the spear and tried to pluck it out.
About to jump on to the next tree, Melcorka paused as two of the cannibals leapt on to the injured man, cutting his throat as he tried to keep his balance. Others descended to the man who had fallen and stabbed him.
“What's happening?” Bradan asked.
“Food,” Melcorka said. “Like wolves turning on their own injured. That will keep them busy while we escape.”
Scurrying back down the tree, they headed away, chopping through the undergrowth. With only the plants and insects to contend with, the forest seemed almost friendly as they hacked their way northward. The long summer day gave them hours of daylight in which to make progress, but even when darkness eventually closed in, they moved on, determined to put as much distance as possible between them and the cannibals.
“Keep moving.” Drooping with exhaustion, itching from a hundred insect bites and stings, Bradan could only guess how Melcorka was faring.
“There.” Melcorka pointed ahead. “The forest is thinning.
