Out of the corner of her eye she spotted an ogre coming up at high speed behind Rhys. A second ogre had a death grip on his shield.
The elder warlord beat on the brute’s arm, trying to force it to let him go, but he’d never turn in time to block the incoming berserker.
Jen abandoned her wounded opponent and raced to cover Rhys’s back.
Her sword came up and the ogre’s club came down.
Steel met flesh at its wrist and the ogre’s club went flying, hand and all.
Her back cut took its head half off.
A wet crunch made her spin around in time to see Rhys yank his mace out of the second ogre’s skull. At that moment Damien flew into the clearing.
Jen tried to shout a warning as her wounded opponent, his injuries all closed up, raced toward her brother, club cocked and ready.
Chapter 34
Damien focused on Jen’s sword and quickly sensed the fragment of his soul force several miles distant. He frowned. Why weren’t they still moving? Damien gathered his power and blasted toward them, flying along only a few feet above the ground. He skimmed the fluffy snow, blowing waves of white to the left and right.
He reached the edge of a spruce grove and had to slow to weave his way through the trees. Unlike a warlord he couldn’t use his soul force to speed up his reactions.
A minute later he burst into a clearing and found the squad battling a bunch of masked ogres. Damien sensed at once that this lot had warlord-level soul force. Even if he couldn’t sense it the fact that nine ogres were giving Jen and her team a real fight would have told him everything he needed to know. The dragon must have sent a squad of berserkers to deal with them.
Damien barely had time enough to register the situation when a club appeared out of nowhere and came swinging at his head.
It bounced off his shield without hurting him, but the force of the blow sent him flying across the clearing toward a second berserker who had his club raised like a forester getting ready to chop down a tree. Quick as thought Damien sent a scythe of pure soul force spinning toward the berserker.
With the speed of a warlord the ogre dodged the worst of the attack, taking only a shallow gash along its ribs. At least the attack forced it to move aside and gave Damien a chance to get his uncontrolled flight righted.
He managed it not a moment too soon. The first ogre was sprinting across the clearing, its club cocked and ready.
Not this time.
Damien expanded and softened his shield. The club struck and sank into the energy web instead of bouncing off. Unlike last time Damien didn’t go flying, instead he stuck to the berserker’s club.
In the brute’s instant of confusion he blew a head-sized hole through its chest. His opponent crumpled to the snow.
Four other ogres lay dead or dying while another five battled Jen and her squad at speeds so fast Damien could just follow the battle. The only reason he knew how many fought was by counting the different soul forces. In a fight where he couldn’t even see where the combatants stood from one instant to the next he didn’t dare launch an attack, he’d be as likely to hit one of his comrades as an ogre.
A second later an ogre appeared out of the scrum, unmoving, its leg half severed below the knee. Before Damien could blast it, its head went flying off into the trees. He didn’t know which blur killed it. He guessed his sister given the smoothness of the cut.
Warlords and berserkers raced around the clearing at speeds he could hardly process. Damien stood, surrounded by his shield, and let the battle play out without him. An ogre went down, and another a second later. It looked like his side was winning.
The final berserker appeared directly in front of Damien, perhaps thinking him an easier target than the warlords, and brought its club down on his head. The blow drove him, shield and all, a foot into the snow. Damien narrowed his eyes and a dozen spears of soul force pierced the ogre’s body.
The rest of the squad stood, panting, surrounded by dead ogres. Edward’s arm hung at a funny angle, attesting to the fact that at least one ogre got a solid blow in. He walked over to a good-sized spruce and slammed his shoulder into it. The joint popped back into place and healing soul force rushed to repair the remaining damage.
Jen straightened and hurried over to Damien. “You okay?” Ogre blood dripped from her sword and spattered her face.
She made a gruesome sight, like a warrior goddess of legend, worshiped by primitive people with blood sacrifices.
“I’m fine, you?”
She bent down and cleaned her sword off with a handful of snow. “I’m good. Never fought berserkers before. They had some skill.”
Edward grunted, but made no other comment. It appeared he was the only one injured. “What about the trolls?” Talon asked.
“I shredded them. The dragon’s marching through the night. If we don’t hurry they’ll reach the pass ahead of us.”
Chapter 35
After an exhausting night of running the team finally left the Ice Queen’s territory behind just as dawn lightened the ever-present clouds. The only sign they’d crossed over into the kingdom was the sun finally breaking through the gloom. They saw no soldiers, not even the pickets assigned to the perimeter. The general must have called everyone to the central pass.
After the fight with the berserkers a reluctant Damien had tried to fly back ahead of the others to warn the general. He hated
