“We have toturn back, now!” Cyrus shouted.
He and Fibian tried to retreat. Two more arrows forced them to theground.
“Keep firing,”Fibian shouted.
Cyrus loadedanother bolt. The bald water klops raised up, tookaim and let loose. Cyrus hugged the ground, shielding his face behind hiscrossbow.
The arrow hitthe crossbow’s stalk, casting splinters into Cyrus’ eyes.
“We’re going todie if we don’t do something.”
The secondwater klops appeared, aimed, and fired. Fibian reached for the bolt. The arrow pierced his leftpalm.
“I will drawtheir fire. Go!” he shouted, his voice strained.
The two ghoulsrose to their feet, snarling like jackals. They took aim at the wounded froskman. Concentrating, Cyrus fired at the one with thewispy hair. The arrow missed by several feet. Both creatures chuckled as theyrefocused their sights.
Cyrus heardheavy footfalls coming from behind him. He closed his eyes, fighting back tears.Their chance of escape had vanished.
Ahead, theblack-haired klops fired. Fibianshielded his head. The bolt struck his false limb. The bald one hunched low,leveling his weapon. He took a deep breath.
“Say goodbyeto your wrong-eyed friend!” he shrieked.
He squintedhard and licked his split lips.
CRACK!
An explosion echoedthroughout the gully. The back of the bald one’s head ruptured. The corpse fellto its knees, then tipped over the edge. The second klopswatched, his flesh growing pale, as his comrade tumbled lifelessly down thegulch. He snarled and spat at the intruders. Then he turned tail and scrambledup the pass.
Cyrus lookedabout, frightened and confused.
“Behind you,”Edward shouted, scurrying across Fibian’s shoulder.
Cyrus turnedand found Tier bounding up the trail. She held the smoking wood and steel staffin her right hand. In her left, she aimed a crossbow. She fired the weapon upinto the trees. It was no use. The water klops hadvanished.
Cyrus loadedhis weapon and turned it on Tier. Fibian clutched thebolt protruding from his chest and fell to his knees.
“Fibian, are you all right?” Cyrus asked, breathing heavily.
“Of course,” Fibian wheezed, his voice thick and strained.
“The klops poison their bolts,” Tier said, her tone cold and remorseless,“Your friend is hard to kill, but no one survives klopspoison.”
“Cyrus, he’s goingall pale!” Edward pleaded.
Fibian fell to his side.
“There’s notime,” Tier said.
She drew aleather satchel from her hip and poured black powder down the hole of herstaff. Then she loaded the staff with a lead ball.
“Your friendis dead. If we do not stop that klops, the rest of usare dead as well.”
Tier poured alittle more powder into the weapon’s hammering mechanism, locked it, then halfengaged the brass lever.
Cyrus steppedforward, gritting his teeth. He trained his crossbow on Tier’s face. The yeti’schest and shoulders were torn and crusted with dried blood. Tier snarled.
“If killingyou all would bring back my mother, you would already be dead. That klops is going to warn the others. If that happens, allthose yeti back there, yeti that helped save your lives, they will all be ingrave danger. My mother warned you of this. I am going to rescue my people, andyou’re going to help. You owe us that much!”
She pushedCyrus’ crossbow aside and rushed up the pass.
Cyrus scrambledto Fibian’s side.
“What do I do?”
“You must go,”Fibian whispered.
Using hismechanical hand, he winced and broke the tip off the arrow piercing his lefthand. Then he pulled the shaft from his palm.
“I will live,but you must continue on, or that scout will surely warn the others.”
“Fibian, I can’t leave you,” Cyrus pleaded.
“I will catchup with you as soon as I can,” Fibian said, removingthe second shaft from his forearm, “but for now, I will only slow you down. Go.”
“Edward?”Cyrus asked.
Edward movedacross Fibian’s chest, inspecting the wound.
“I can’t leaveFibian like this,” he replied, his eyes wavering.
Cyrus staredat his best friend. What was happening? He nodded, as if he understood, a mixof emotions clouding his thoughts.
“Come, there’sno time,” Tier shouted back, approaching the cliff, “We have klops to hunt.”
Chapter 10
TRAP
RELUCTANTLY, CYRUS PULLED himself from Fibian’s and Edward’s sides and followed Tier up the narrowpass. Would it be the last time he saw his friends?
He crossed thedead klops lying at the foot of the cliff. Thecreature was larger than the one he had encountered on Rorroh’sship. The corpse must have outweighed Aghamore bythirty pounds. The tip of his nose had been bitten off long ago, along with twoof the four fingers on his right hand.
Cyrus staredat the hole in the creature’s forehead. The villain’s gaunt face snarled indeath as his gray flesh grew rigid and cold. Is that what Runa would have doneto Cyrus, had Fibian not interfered? He looked up atthe long, slender weapon in Tier’s grip.
“Hurry,” sheordered, mounting the cliff face.
She slung thestaff over her shoulder and began to climb.
“It’s arifle,” she said, over her shoulder, “like the ones the enemy use. It requirestheir black powder. We found pouches of it on their dead after the attack.”
The klops was dressed in a steel top with metal plates runninghorizontally around his shoulders and mid-section. Rust and scarring tarnishedits smooth finish.
“The armor isyeti made,” Tier growled, “I recognize the workmanship. My people are alive.Move!”
Cyrus left thecorpse and clambered up the stone handholds. Tier’s hulking form loomed overhead.
Was she goingto kill him? It was the reason she had been hunting them in the first place.How could she not? They had murdered her mother. It was self-defense, but didthat matter? Would Cyrus be so understanding had it been Edward or Fibian? She would have definitely shot them had it not beenfor the klops. She believed Fibianto be dead already. Cyrus would not accept that. Was she waiting until the klops was dead before she turned her rifle on Cyrus aswell?
They reachedthe clifftop. Cyrus noticed that the wound on Tier’s shoulder was bleeding.
“Wolvesattacked me as I tracked you in the night,” she said, scrubbing the lacerationswith snow.
“I broke theirnecks
