James Wyatt - In the Claws of the Tiger

Sure enough, the vampire had the same distant expression that Dania wore. Did he hear the same voices? Seeing Janik look back, though, Krael caught himself and flashed a toothy grin at him. Janik shook his head and hurried to keep up with Dania.

Dania was nearly across the next room, which was more of a wide hallway than a chamber. A few quick steps brought Janik right up behind her as she reached the door at the far end and threw it open.

Despite her distraction, Dania’s reflexes were still razor sharp. She brought her shield up in a flash to block an arrow, and another glanced off an armor plate at her shoulder. Janik held his lantern up to light the room beyond, and nearly dropped it in surprise.

He could not see the archers. All he saw was the giant.

The huge creature-a hunched, misshapen thing-stood a few paces from the door. Its skin was mottled gray, with splotches of pink like the scars of recent burns and patches of thick hair growing in haphazard places. Its eyes were widely spaced and uneven, and its drooling mouth had only a few teeth. The great hump on its back nearly scraped the ceiling of the large room. If it could have stood erect, Janik figured it would have stood more than three times his own height. One massive hand was clenched around what had been a stone statue-legs were still visible where the giant gripped it, but the rest was chipped and worn into a featureless club.

A gallery circled the upper level of the room, and Janik guessed the archers were perched up there, taking cover behind the columns that lined its edge. Yes, he saw them, peering around the columns as they pulled back their bowstrings for another volley.

Ignoring the archers and the arrows that clattered around her, Dania charged forward to engage the giant. Inspired by her, Janik found it hard to be afraid, despite the size of the brute, and he advanced behind her. The giant swung its stone club in a wide arc as they approached. Dania jumped back and the club swept the air in front of her chest, while Janik hit the floor and rolled forward under the giant’s reach.

Janik came out of his roll facing the giant’s knee. The monster tried to hit him with its club, but Janik easily dodged the awkward swing. The giant kicked at him, missing him with its foot but managing to brush his head with its rock-hard kneecap. Janik spun away from the blow, ducking between the giant’s legs and slashing at its hamstring with the tip of his blade. He cut, but not very deep, and the creature wheeled to face him again, kicking clumsily at him as it turned.

That gave Dania the opportunity to close in past its wildly swinging club, and Sever charged up beside her. Their blades swung as one, biting deep into the giant’s legs. A blast of lightning from Mathas’s fingers engulfed the giant’s upper body, and Janik took advantage of its distraction to come in close and drive his sword up into its belly.

The giant howled as a gout of blood splashed down on Janik. The stone club clattered on the floor, and for an instant Janik thought he had dealt a mortal wound.

Then the giant’s arms closed around him, pulling him off the floor and squeezing him against the bloody wound in its gut. Janik’s arms were pinned to his sides, his sword hanging uselessly from his hand, and he struggled to breathe with the giant’s arms clenched around his ribs. He dropped his sword and started kicking, hoping to connect with a tender spot and startle the giant into letting him go. He heard Dania shouting, trying to capture the giant’s attention, and felt tremors rumbling the thing’s body as she and Sever continued hacking at it. The giant wheeled around to kick at them, but its grip did not weaken.

Janik’s lungs started to burn and he changed his tactics. Instead of kicking blindly, he tried to bring his legs up between his body and the giant’s, hoping to work himself free of its grasp. It almost worked. Feeling its grip slipping, the giant wrapped one meaty hand around Janik’s neck and shoulders. Janik’s head swam as the beast swung him like a club at Dania. His legs crashed into her chest, and she sprawled backward onto the floor.

Over the top of the giant’s fist, Janik saw Sever slash with lightning speed, taking advantage of the creature’s reach to cut its wrist. The adamantine sword bit deep and the behemoth released Janik with a howl of pain, sending him flying through the air. He slammed to the floor just behind Dania, dizzy and gasping for breath.

He lay helpless, the room spinning around him. Sever had the giant’s attention, his blade whirling, lines of blood trailing every time it connected with the giant’s flesh. Dania forced herself to her feet, and Mathas sent another arc of lightning to engulf the giant. Auftane stood right behind the warforged, touching various parts of Sever’s strange plated body and causing them to glow with a series of spells. His spells had a visible effect-Sever did not weaken or tire, and kept the giant almost entirely on the defensive. It had not managed to retrieve its stone club from the ground, a minor victory in itself.

Wait, Janik thought. Where’s Krael?

Even as the thought passed through his mind, a movement on the upper gallery caught his eye. Krael pushed the limp body of one of the zakya archers over the railing, then hopped up to perch on the railing himself. Krael was by no means a small man, and his plate armor dramatically increased his bulk. Janik was impressed by the grace of his movement and the apparent ease with which he balanced on the narrow railing.

Janik rolled slowly into a crouch, and saw Dania charge up beside Sever, her sword crackling with silver fire. Krael was watching the giant carefully, his huge flail in hand. As Janik stood, Krael jumped, flying through the air and landing on the giant’s hump shoulder. He swung his flail as he leaped, smashing hard into the side of the giant’s head.

Janik shook his head and quickly regretted it, putting a hand on the wall to steady himself as the room started spinning again. Dania’s sword struck true, erupting in flame, and the giant choked out a final roar as it fell to its knees.

A month ago, if Janik had tried to imagine fighting alongside Krael and his warforged assassin, he would have thought himself touched by Xoriat’s madness. But here they were, not only fighting a common foe, but working well together.

Krael balanced on the giant’s grotesque hump. He brought his flail around for another mighty blow that broke the creature’s neck with an audible snap.

Janik leaned against the wall and let himself sink down to the floor. This day had brought too many surprises already.

Janik felt much better after Auftane worked his magic with his wands. Or at least his body did-his mind was still reeling at the bizarre company he found himself in, and he sat against the wall as Auftane checked each of the others. With the battle over, Krael and Sever shifted into a more distant attitude, whispering together apart from the others. But Janik couldn’t shake the powerful impression he’d had of the six of them working as a team.

Dania reverted to her previous search for the mysterious voice. Janik frowned as she cocked her head, looking around at the upper galleries as if trying to find the source of the whispers that only she could hear. She bounced impatiently on the balls of her feet, heedless of the bruises she’d suffered in the fight and eager to chase the mysterious voices. Janik rubbed his forehead, thinking of her words just before they found the giant. Could she really be hearing the voices of Dhavibashta and whatever spirit held the rajah beneath the earth? Could she possibly distinguish one voice from the other?

And what about Krael? Janik thought he saw that distant look in Krael’s eyes again, though the vampire was clearly trying to hide it more than Dania was. That worried Janik, suggesting that Krael was listening to a voice he didn’t want Janik to know about. But Krael had no reason to collude with the rajah, did he? Not with the grudge he clearly bore against the rajah’s lieutenant, the Fleshrender inhabiting Maija’s body.