Troy Denning - The Sentinel

Hadarog finally stopped, his heavy jaw clenching in anger.

Arietta smiled. “You didn’t become a leader by being stupid, I see.” She let the tension off her bow, but kept the arrow pointed at the orc’s face. “If you let Shar have the Eye, she’ll use it to make a slave of Gruumsh.”

The shaman started to translate, but Hadarog silenced him with a snarl. He took another step forward, then asked, “What you want?”

“Not much,” Arietta said. “We give you the Eye, and you give us a five-minute head start.”

The shaman spoke to Hadarog in their own language. Arietta would have liked to know what they were saying, but her language magic only worked when she touched the subject-and the last thing she wanted to do right now was get close enough to an orc to touch him.

After a short conversation, the shaman said, “Hadarog says you would do better to let him kill you now. The Shadovar are waiting to ambush you, and you have no place to go.”

“Not yet.” Arietta kept her gaze fixed on Hadarog. “But once you have the Eye, that will change.”

Hadarog narrowed his red eyes. “Change how?”

“The Shadovar can’t allow you to return the Eye to Gruumsh.” Arietta needed to be both quick and direct in her explanation, as she would not have much time to make Hadarog doubt his allies. “Once Gruumsh has his eye back, he’ll retaliate against Luthic for stealing it-and then Grumbar will be forced to stay and defend her.”

Hadarog scowled and looked to his shaman. The pair held a brief, testy conversation that Arietta knew could come to only one conclusion. Whether they believed her or not, they would want to recover the Eye themselves and claim the credit for returning it to Gruumsh. The only thing they could be debating now was whether Arietta and her friends were trying to trick them.

Arietta glanced back at Malik, who groaned on cue and let his hands drop a few inches.

“If you do not hurry, my weary arms will make their own choice,” he warned. “The Eye is as heavy as a boulder. I cannot hold it another minute.”

Arietta nodded, then turned back to Hadarog. “Do we have a bargain?” she asked. “Or shall we fight and let Shar sort it out?”

She pulled her bowstring back, making it clear who would be the first to die if Hadarog chose to fight.

Hadarog glared at the tip of the arrow for so long Arietta began to fear he might fight. Then, finally, he met her gaze again.

“No fighting. Yet,” he said. “Leave the Eye, and we give you a head start. But you’re wrong. The Shadovar don’t care about the Eye. They only want you stopped.”

“We’ll see.” Arietta shot him a smirk, then called over her shoulder, “All right, Malik. Bring the Eye over.”

“At last!” Malik drew the Eye back toward his chest, then stepped to Arietta’s side and whispered, “What now?”

“Buy time,” Kleef said, also whispering. “Here come the shades.”

Resisting the impulse to look back at the tunnel, Arietta kept her attention fixed on Hadarog. “Back away fifty paces, then we’ll put the Eye on the bridge and leave.”

Hadarog shook his head. “Give the Eye and leave now. We will give you your five-minute lead.”

“I don’t think so,” Arietta said. She continued to hold the arrow on her bowstring. “As soon as we’re far enough away, you’ll just snatch the Eye and attack us anyway.”

“Glomred keeps good track of time.” Hadarog clapped his shaman-Glomred-on the shoulder, then attempted a smile that came out as more of a snarl. “Honest.”

Arietta scowled, pretending to think. “Let me ask my friends.”

She leaned toward Joelle, pretending to consult-then saw Glomred’s single eye go wide with alarm. The shaman turned to Hadarog, pointed past the companions toward the earthmote, and spoke rapidly in their own language. Arietta glanced back and saw the Shadovar rushing out of the tunnel, their tall prince leading the way. Yder’s steel-colored eyes went straight to Kleef.

“Fool!” the prince said. “You are going to lose the Eye either way. Bring it to us, and Shar will reward you all.”

Kleef’s shoulders sagged, and he spoke over his shoulder to his companions. “I don’t know if this is going to work,” he said. “I think he knows what-”

“It’s going to work,” Arietta said, realizing that Yder still had a hold on Kleef. “You mustn’t let him into your thoughts. You won’t .”

Arietta spoke the last two words in a tone of command, and Kleef’s shoulders immediately squared. He raised his sword and braced his feet.

“You want the Eye?” he asked. “Then come and get it.”

Yder’s eyes flashed silver. Then he raised a hand and sent five tentacles of shadowstuff writhing down the bridge.

A furious bellow erupted from Hadarog’s direction, and the bridge began to shudder and bounce as the orc horde resumed its charge. Arietta saw Kleef raise Watcher and step past the goat to meet Yder’s shadow tentacles, then she looked back at Hadarog.

The orc chieftan had drawn a huge two-handed sword and was no more than twenty paces away. But Glomred worried Arietta most. The shaman had drawn a dagger of sharpened bone and was jabbing it into his own thigh, at the same time gesturing in their direction and calling out to Gruumsh in his own language.

Arietta shifted her aim and loosed.

The arrow took Glomred square in the chest, piercing his chain mail hauberk and sending him staggering back. As he struggled to stay upright, the shaman managed to curl his fingers into the shape of a claw, and Arietta felt something icy and sharp rake down her ribcage.

Her left side erupted into deep throbbing pain, and her bow arm went weak. She staggered back, watching in horror as a trio of Joelle’s white darts burned through Hadarog’s ornate armor and failed to slow his charge.

Behind her, Malik asked, “Now?”

Arietta and Joelle answered together, “Yes!”

The Eye of Gruumsh’s dark hunger vanished as Malik slipped the orb back into its hiding place, and then Hadarog was in front of them, his huge sword sweeping across the bridge at neck height. Arietta felt Joelle’s hand on the back of her collar, pulling her down, and they landed on their backs side by side.

Arietta shifted her bow to her right hand and pushed it beneath the orc chieftan’s feet as he charged past. She managed to hook his far ankle. Then, as he tried to take his next step, she jerked the bow, pulling his front foot from beneath him.

Hadarog slammed down face-first, so hard the decking jumped.

A few paces beyond the orc chieftan, Kleef and the goat were making a stand against the Shadovar, Kleef’s sword flashing and whirling as he hacked limbs and blocked shadow magic. The goat danced through the shadow warriors’ legs, butting and bleating and somehow not getting himself killed. Malik was nowhere to be seen, of course, though Arietta could not imagine where he had found to hide.

Behind her, the roaring of the orc horde was approaching fast, and the bridge was shaking beneath their feet. She felt Joelle push her toward the orc chieftan.

“Take him!” Joelle said, jumping up. “I’ll slow the others.”

Arietta dropped her bow, then rose to a knee. She felt as though her entire side were peeling away from her ribs. She glanced down and saw nothing but blood and flaps of hanging skin, and her vision began to narrow.

She reached for her sword anyway, but by then Hadarog had rolled into a sitting position and was bringing his own blade around at chest height. Arietta went cold and weak inside and knew she was going to die-until she saw Malik pulling himself up over the edge of the bridge, a black dagger in his hand and his gaze fixed on the back of the orc’s head.