Troy Denning: The Giant Among Us

“Unfortunately for these kings, a marital dispute between their parents resulted in the creation of the Endless Ice Sea, which promptly began to swallow their lands. Needless to say, this upset the giant kings, so they decided to destroy the glacier. But their mother, Othea, heard about the plan and forbade her sons from carrying it out

“So Lanaxis, the first titan, and Julien and Arno, the first ettin, poisoned her. Unfortunately, they inadvertently poisoned most of their brothers as well.”

“Most?” Avner asked. Somewhere outside, a chorus of screams announced the destruction of a catapult crew.

“All except one, and he’s of no consequence to us,” Basil clarified. “What is of import is this: before Othea died, she sentenced Lanaxis and the ettin to live in the twilight of her shadow for as long as they wished to remain immortal-and so they have.”

“That’s where the Twilight Vale is,” Avner surmised.

Basil nodded. “But now, the ettin has sacrificed his immortality to kidnap Brianna.”

Avner frowned. “What about Tavis?” he demanded. “Doesn’t he know about the golden arrow-?”

“The ettin knows,” Basil interrupted. “That’s why he isolated us in this remote castle, where only a great scout stood any chance of summoning help. Then, once Tavis was out of the way, the ettin made his attempt.” The verbeeg smiled very proudly at this point. “I stopped him.”

“Good for you,” Avner said. At another time, he might have asked Basil to elaborate. “I still don’t see what that has to do with the ice diamonds.”

“You’ve never played Wyverns and Wyrms, have you, my boy?” Before Avner could answer, the runecaster continued, “You see, to win, you must guess the opponent’s plans. So a good player, knowing that the other player will try to figure out his plans, always plants false clues.”

“And that’s what Arlien did to us.”

“Exactly,” Basil said. “Lanaxis has had a very long time to learn the game of Wyverns and Wyrms — thousands and thousands of years. The ice diamonds were a decoy. The necklace seems to have a certain deadening effect on Brianna’s emotions, but the real magic is in the potion that Arlien’s been feeding her. We were lucky to find him out when we did.”

Avner nodded. “Fine,” he said. “But I still don’t get what they want with Brianna. Giving up your immortality is an awfully high price to pay for a woman-even a queen.”

“But not for someone who can bear a king that will restore your lost empire,” Basil said.

“The giants think Brianna can do that?” Avner gasped. He was still watching the inner gate.

Basil nodded. “And they may be right. You see, when Othea died, she was still carrying Annam’s last unborn son…”

Avner did not hear the rest of the explanation, for his attention had been captured by a pair of armored figures climbing through the mandoor of the inner gate. One of them was wearing a distinctive horned helm.

“We’re out of time,” the youth reported. “Arlien’s coming, and Cuthbert’s with him!”

As the youth spoke, an extremely long wooden arrow arced away from the keep, apparently fired from a window one floor below. The shaft hissed across the ward in the blink of an eye, then bounced off Arlien’s magical armor without causing any harm.

“Tavis is awake!” Avner yelled.

Basil rose to his knees and stuck his massive head into the window, nearly crushing the youth against the sill. Another wooden arrow hissed away from the keep, but the prince and everyone around him were already scrambling for cover. The shaft missed its target cleanly and lodged itself in the gate.

“But Brianna couldn’t possibly heal him until her mind is clear!” Basil objected. “He can’t be in any condition to fight!”

“As long as he can crawl, Tavis can fight,” Avner replied. “I just don’t know if he can win.”

A third arrow arced across the ward, this time glancing off one of Arlien’s pauldrons. The prince watched the shaft clatter to the cobblestones, then rushed through the entrance to the nearest gate tower and disappeared from sight. Through the tower, Prince Arlien would have access to the ramparts of the inner curtain and, eventually, to the keep itself.

Earl Cuthbert reacted more slowly, simply bracing himself against the wall of the gate tower and staring toward the keep as if he couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening. When no more arrows came arcing across the ward, he finally seemed to recover from his shock. He waved a dozen soldiers over and tried to follow Arlien into the gate tower, but the door did not open. The earl spun around, leading his small company across the ward toward the dungeon tower.

“Basil, there’s a secret tunnel in that tower.” Avner pointed toward the earl’s destination. “I think it leads to the keep. Arlien and Cuthbert will trap Tavis between them!”

Basil furrowed his brow. “We can’t know what Cuthbert intends, but I suppose we must assume the worst” The verbeeg pulled his massive head back into the chamber, then thrust the silver chalice into Avner’s hand. “Take this to Arlien’s room. Somewhere, you’ll find a vial or flagon filled with a magic potion. Pour that into this goblet and have Brianna drink it. Then tell her to await Tavis in the temple.”

“And what are you going to do?” Avner asked.

“Catch Tavis and send him to the temple, of course.”

Tavis rushed across the narrow drawbridge toward a small tower on the rear wall of the inner curtain. Each breath brought with it the sickening stench of battle: the coppery fetor of spilled blood, the acrid reek of flaming oil, the charred rankness of burning flesh. The scout seemed to stumble every third step, for he felt as though he were walking on someone else’s mangled feet. Although he was wearing Brianna’s ice diamonds around his neck, the cold stones merely replaced his agony with icy numbness. They did nothing to heal the firbolg.

Tavis worried that the necklace’s enchantment would leave him as befuddled as Brianna, but he suspected the spell worked its magic gradually so as not to be noticed. So far, he seemed to be right, for he hadn’t noticed any ill effects. Besides, the scout had little choice except to wear the jewelry. Without the relief of the frigid gems, his battered body simply would not function well enough for battle.

The scout reached the far end of the bridge and stepped into the fortified tower. He traveled down a short corridor lined by murder holes, then opened a heavy oaken door into the tower’s main room. In the center of the chamber stood two of Selwyn’s Winter Wolves, busily reloading their tripod-mounted crossbows.

A hill giant thrust his enormous fingers through one of the arrow loops that overlooked the castle’s rear bailey. The entire tower trembled as the brute hammered at the exterior wall. One of the Winter Wolves locked his bowstring into place, then slipped a long iron quarrel into his weapon’s firing groove. He dragged the heavy crossbow forward and fired through the arrow loop containing the giant’s hand. The brute bellowed, then the pounding stopped and the enormous fingers vanished from sight.

Tavis slipped his bow, taken from the keep armory, over his shoulder. He replaced it with a shield and battle axe that he borrowed from one of the Winter Wolves. Having watched his arrows bounce harmlessly off Arlien’s armor, the scout now realized the only way to stop the prince was in close-quarters combat.

Fortunately, that would be easy to arrange. The single avenue into the keep was across the drawbridge that Tavis had just crossed. The one path to the bridge was through this bridge tower, and the only route into the tower was along the top of the inner curtain. The scout intended to meet Arlien as far down the ramparts as possible, then fight him every step of the way.