Don Bassinghtwaite - The Binding Stone

On the other side of the barrier, Dandra was backing away from Hruucan, her spear held ready, her hand pointing at the dolgrim. Hruucan vaulted lightly to the top of the barricade and just stood there, tentacles writhing in the darkness. He seemed to stare at Dandra for a moment, then raised his harsh voice. Gibbered words, the same language he had used outside the Bull Hole to command the dolgrims, rippled off his tongue. Singe couldn't understand any of them, but Hruucan's command was obvious. All around the common, dolgrims began streaming toward them in immediate response, their chattering rising into shrill cries. Adolan's elemental swung around ponderously, roaring in confusion as the sudden movement of its tiny enemy.

An instant later, the weird fluting call of the Bonetree hunters rolled through the air as well. Singe choked on a curse as savage figures leaped out of the trees and across the common, battered and bloodied after their fight with Adolan's wolves but still very much alive!

"Hand of the Revered!" called the old hunter Geth had fought. "Command us!"

A hard pleasure seemed to spread across Hruucan's horrid visage. Pointing at Dandra, he shouted to the hunters, "She's here! Take her!"

One of the hunters, a muscular brute streaked with blood and armed with a heavy, wide-bladed axe, raced ahead of the others. His face was weirdly pinched and too small for his body, but his eyes were even smaller, dark pinpricks gleaming mad with bloodlust in the firelight. "Su Drumas!" he screamed as he charged. "Su Darasvhir!"

With enemies on all sides, Dandra spun around in confusion, her spear and her hand wavering.

Then Adolan was there, darting through a wash of firelight to put himself between the Bonetree hunter and the kalashtar. The hunter shouted again and swept his axe around in a deadly arc, but Adolan jumped back out of reach and thrust with his spear, forcing the hunter to break his charge or be impaled. The blood-streaked warrior threw himself to the side. Adolan followed, stabbing his spear down. The hunter was faster though, rolling aside and leaping back to his feet. His next swing was even heavier than his first. Adolan barely managed to check it with the shaft of his spear. The blow still sent him staggering back and left a deep notch in the spear's shaft.

"Ado!"

Geth's roar rolled across the battlefield of the common. Singe saw the shifter's sword and great-gauntlet flash as he tried to fight his way past a pack of dolgrims to the druid's side.

Atop the barricade, Hruucan's tentacles twitched in frustration. His eyeless face turned toward Dandra. He tensed, ready to leap at the kalashtar.

Singe's chest clenched. "Hey, wormface!" he bellowed. He jumped at Hruucan and grabbed the rough fabric of the loose pants the dolgaunt wore. Hruucan turned, kicking to try and shake him off, but Singe held on grimly. Spreading the fingers of his free hand, he pointed up at the dolgaunt's head and bony chest and let the words of a spell ripple from his lips.

Fire rushed from his fingers, washing over the foul creature. Some of the flame rebounded to pour down over Singe, but the magic of his ring protected him. Hruucan had no such protection. The dolgaunt let out a grating screech as his deformed flesh bubbled and charred. He tore himself from Singe's grasp and tumbled from the barricade, fleeing blind into the smoky darkness.

His flight struck confusion into the dolgrims. Their charge slowed, turning into a chaotic mass. Beyond Adolan and his big, black-eyed opponent, however, the rest of the Bonetree hunters were still closing rapidly. Singe scrambled up onto the barricade where Hruucan had stood only a moment before and spoke a word of magic. A tiny, intense tongue of flame sprang into the palm of his free hand.

Picking his target carefully, he drew back his arm and hurled it. The flame streaked through the air as far and fast as an arrow-though not quite fast enough. Singe caught a glimpse of the old hunter leaping back hastily with his eyes wide and heard him shout for others to do the same.

The tiny flame exploded with a roar, flashing in a sudden inferno so bright it forced the wizard to fling up an arm to protect his eyes. Even Dandra gasped at the blast.

So did Adolan.

The massive hunter-so caught up in his rage that he didn't seem to notice the fiery magic at all-swung his axe in a heavy, overhand blow that sheared through the druid's spear and into his chest.

Adolan fell to his knees. Dandra's gasp turned into a scream. Singe froze in shock. The hunter planted one foot on Adolan's chest and forced him backward as he wrenched at his weapon. The axe came free in a spray of blood. Adolan swayed but remained on his knees, his eyes watching the wide blade sweep up…

With a bellow of pure animal rage, Geth surged out of the night and leaped onto the hunter like a beast. His gauntleted hand seized the handle of the axe above the hunter's grip and wrenched it back so hard that Singe heard the man's thick wrists snap. In the same movement, he jammed his sword vertically into the hunter's belly and all the way up under his breast bone. Blood burst out of the warrior's mouth.

Geth's weight carried his body to the ground, but the shifter rolled free and groped for Adolan. "Ado! Ado!"

The druid was still on his knees, still staring up into the night. Blood trickled through his red-brown beard. At the shifter's desperate touch, though, his eyes seemed to clear. His mouth moved, shaping words that emerged as a froth of blood. His hand fumbled toward the collar of polished black stones around his neck-

— then fell away as his body shuddered. Somewhere in the sky above, Breek screamed. A moment later, Geth roared at the night.

A sound like an avalanche brought Singe's head up. Out on the common, the elemental that Adolan had summoned from the Bull Hole was falling apart in midstride, the earth and stones that had formed its body tumbling to the ground. The dolgrims it had been pursuing stopped and stared-then advanced cautiously to prod the heaped stone with their weapons. Singe swung around to stare past the scorched circle of his spell. A few human bodies lay within the blackened ring, but not nearly enough to account for all the Bonetree hunters. In the shadows beyond, he could make out figures emerging from the trees and picking themselves up from the ground.

"Moons!" he cursed. He leaped down from the barricade and dashed to Dandra. The kalashtar seemed frozen, watching Geth as he held Adolan's body, his forehead touching the druid's. Singe caught her arm. "They're regrouping!"

She started and whirled around, picking out exactly what he had. Their enemies were gathering themselves for a new attack. "Il-Yannah," she breathed. There was an edge of terror to her voice. "Will they never stop?"

"We need to find somewhere defensible," Singe told her. "Somewhere we can put our backs to a wall-"

"No," said Geth.

Singe spun back to the shifter. He was standing, Adolan's collar of stones around his neck. The druid lay at his feet. A line of dirt had been traced down his pain-twisted face. Geth's face was smudged with dirt as well. Beneath it, the shifter's features were hard with barely restrained emotion.

"We aren't staying here," he said. He bent and ripped his sword out of the Bonetree hunter's corpse. His eyes swept around the ruins of Bull Hollow. Singe followed his gaze and realized that there wasn't a living inhabitant of the hamlet left on the common. Dol Arrah, he prayed, let them be safe in the woods!

Geth strode toward him and Dandra. "You said before," the shifter asked Dandra, "that if you fled, the hunter and the dolgrims would follow you. Do you think they still will?"

Dandra nodded. "Yes. More than ever."

"Good. We're leading them away from here. All of us." He gestured with his armored hand toward still-closed doors of the stable. "Singe, get horses-battle measures."