either side, barring them from walking side by side, so Bruni came next, followed by Kerrick holding the burning brand aloft.
Moreen, behind these three, could only clutch her sword and wish that she could see around her companions. She rubbed at the patch over her ruined eye, suddenly and acutely feeling the lack of adequate depth of field. There was nothing for it but to advance and to be ready.
Abruptly she heard Barq yodel a battle cry. She saw the thane’s axe raised high as he charged forward, the other companions racing to follow. The Highlander’s shout was almost instantaneously overwhelmed by a bestial roar emerging from the depths of the cavern.
The passage grew wider here, and Moreen darted to the side. She saw the monstrous form of the gate’s guardian rising, towering high over Barq One-Tooth, seeming to fill the entire passage with his massive girth. The Highlander was nothing if not courageous, and she was awed by the sight of his fearless charge. He slashed with his axe, but the giant’s massive club swung around and swatted the big warrior to the ground as if he were nothing more than a pesky child. Barq rolled to the left, tried to claw to his knees, then disappeared with a shout of alarm.
Bruni closed in next, while Kerrick lunged beside her, driving forward, stabbing both with his keen steel blade and the flaming torch. Light flared, illuminating tusks and eyes that glittered brightly-Moreen was certain she saw an expression almost of rhapsody there as the battle was joined. The massive gatekeeper swung his huge club again, and Bruni raised her own cudgel in an attempt to parry the heavy timber. Moreen groaned as she saw the blow bat her friend’s weapon aside. The giant’s heavy stick smashed into the big woman’s shoulder, slamming her into the cavern wall, where she slowly slumped to the floor.
The chiefwoman hesitated, looking for an opening, and men pushed past her. Two Highlanders charged in a frenzy. They closed on the monstrous creature with axes whirling, but the guardian of the gate let loose a gleeful howl and smashed them both to the side with a single blow. They rolled after Barq One-Tooth and in an instant they were gone, having utterly disappeared.
Only then did Moreen realize that a wide crevasse yawned to the left, a deep and shadowy gap that had swallowed Barq One-Tooth when the Highlander had rolled off the lip. In the flaring torchlight, as more fighters came forward, she saw his fingers, clinging to the lip of the precipitous drop, and she threw herself prone on the ground, grasping each of the thane’s hands in one of her own.
Kerrick, meanwhile, danced back from the gigantic defender’s next blow, though not before the elf’s blade scored a fierce stab into the creature’s massive thigh. This strike drew a roar loud enough to rumble in the bedrock underneath Moreen’s belly. She felt acutely exposed as she pulled on Barq’s hands-a single downward blow from that mighty club would almost certainly break her back or smash her skull.
Kerrick wouldn’t let that happen. The monster took a step forward, and the elf lunged in again, sword and torch dancing in a whirling pattern. Again the brute swung that club, and once more the elf ducked out of the way. The stout timber cracked into the cavern wall with a sound of splintering wood, sending a shower of wooden daggers across the floor. The end of the club bounced past Moreen and vanished over the lip of the crevasse. It was several seconds before she heard it banging against rocks far below-and even then it continued to fall, ricocheting violently into the subterranean depths.
More Highlanders came on in a furious charge. Arrows whooshed through the air, mostly clattering off hard stone, though several jutted from the stiff tunic of the huge warrior. Swords flashed silver in the shifting torchlight, and the beast bashed his club back and forth, driving a dozen warriors away. Only then did the creature seem to make a decision, throw back his head, and shout a guttural command.
“Hargh, me garkies!” he cried. “Come to fight now!”
Moreen saw a surge of ogres, ten or a dozen of them, come rushing into the fight, emerging from niches and gaps along the cavern wall. Many Highlanders fell in that first rush, smashed to the ground by clubs and spears wielded by these newcomers or pushed right back to the rim of the precipice by the momentum of the sudden charge. With roars and howls the fresh attackers swept into the melee, the fight now surging through the level floor space between the wall on one side and the lethal drop on the other. Two men fell, screaming, while other humans united to push a charging ogre off the edge. Another guardian came lumbering forward, but Mouse knelt and extended his spear as a trip bar. The ogre stumbled across the obstacle and fell howling into the chasm. Moreen kept her grim hold on the thane’s hands, praying that no ogre would see her in her helpless position.
Barq One-Tooth, in the meantime, managed to fling one of his legs up and over the edge of the precipice. The Lady of Brackenrock reared back, tugging hard, slipping on a floor growing slick with blood. A heavy body-another ogre-thudded to the ground beside her, a spear jutting from its neck. She used the twitching corpse for leverage, wrestling with all of her strength to pull Barq to safety. With a grunt and a curse the big man rolled his body onto the floor.
The chiefwoman spun around and picked up the sword that she had dropped in her headlong dive to save the thane’s life. She looked up at the cave’s gigantic defender, who was snarling like an angry bear and looming over Kerrick, like a mountain towering over a village temple. This was indeed a mighty ogre, she concluded, as the torchlight reflected again from those two blunt, yellowed tusks. The creature’s belly swelled outward, bulging over a crude leather belt, and each foot was encased in a boot that seemed to be the size of a full-grown walrus.
Other defenders were smaller, but tough, smelly ogres. A knot of Highlanders pressed the attack, and one hulking ogre pitched one over the edge. Another ogre rushed in to help, and Moreen stabbed that one in the flank, drawing a howl of pain and sending the brute tumbling to the floor. A human killed him with a single chop of his axe, as the chiefwoman turned back to the giant, looking for a way to help Kerrick.
The elf flailed with the torch, fanning the flames with rapid, swirling swipes, but the ogre leader pressed forward, swatting at the fire as if it were an annoying fly. The wall rose up beside him. Kerrick was clearly running out of options. The creature was wielding only half of his original cudgel now, but with its bristling cap of splinters the broken timber looked even more menacing than the original.
Kerrick darted forward one more time, slashing with his sword, carving another slice into the ogre’s massive thigh, drawing another bellow. The elf skipped to the side, darting past the huge guardian, as the monster spun around. Heading farther into the cave, Kerrick turned to face the monster. His back to the rest of the battle, the ogre leader seemed completely focused on this lone attacker.
Bodies were strewn everywhere across the cavern, and men and ogres stumbled and tripped as they frantically maneuvered over the increasingly tangled floor. Barq was scrambling to his feet to charge forward when Moreen grasped his wrist. Scowling, he froze as he saw Bruni pushed against the nearby wall. All three exchanged a look.
The massive ogre leader lunged after Kerrick, smashing the floor with the splintered end of his cudgel, just missing the elf. Kerrick saw the other three watching him, caught a signal from Barq, and retreated another half dozen steps. Still pursuing, the monster lumbered forward, the crevasse yawning a half step away to his left.
The trio charged forward in unison, making no sound except their feet scuffling across the floor. At the same time the ogre made a vicious sidearm slash, a blow that Kerrick ducked. The momentum of the swing left the monster overbalanced, staggering to the left to recover his footing.
Bruni and Moreen hit him in the right side, at the same time as Barq grasped the fellow’s bearskin cape and jerked the hulking creature toward the left. The chiefwoman punched as hard as she could, using the hilt of her blade to knock the brute in the side. One huge foot slipped from the rim of the deep pit, and the ogre seemed to remain suspended in a weightless dance for a moment.
He recovered with amazing nimbleness, squatting to regain balance, then planting the outward boot firmly on the lip of the crevasse. With a mighty shrug he tossed Bruni and Moreen off. The chiefwoman flailed with her sword, scraping the bulging arm before she sprawled roughly along the cavern floor.
Spinning, the ogre punched Barq One-Tooth in the face. The Highlander’s head jerked backward, and he staggered away, uttering a long mournful groan. Finally he fell onto his back, right at the edge of the crevasse, and lay still. Blood gushed from his nose.
Moreen also lay on her back, clutching her sword. She saw the monster loom overhead. That bestial face looked down at her, and the ogre hesitated. Slowly, it closed one eye-she had the strange impression that it was examining her eyepatch, mimicking her injury by blocking the view from one of its own eyes. In that instant of respite, she rolled to her side and bounced to her feet, backing against the cave wall opposite the crevasse.
She stumbled over a dead ogre, saw a knot of men-four or five of them-grappling with another of the brutish defenders. The whole seething tangle perched precariously on the lip of the crevasse, and toppled like a writhing
