T Lain - The Sundered Arms

Devis felled one foe with a shot from his crossbow then darted past Tordek to stand between the village captives and the goblins that weren’t entangled by Vadania’s spell. Tordek grunted his approval. Initially he had feared that the bard might do little more than cheer the attack with a song or stand back and fling a few spells with his lute, but it was good to see that Devis did not quail at the prospect of toe-to-toe combat.

The goblins recovered quickly from their initial surprise at the ambush, and the survivors formed a rough wedge as they advanced on Tordek and Devis. The leader tumbled backward with the shaft of one of Lidda’s arrows protruding from his eye, but the remaining goblins charged the attackers that stood between them and their captives.

The half-elf’s slender blade dipped in and out of his foe’s guard, plucking splashes of blood from the goblin’s unarmored face and arms. Devis barely seemed to move, but wherever he leaned or turned, the goblin spears missed him by a coin’s width. A few that might have grazed the bard glanced aside, and for an instant the pale blue outline of his mage armor shimmered brightly.

Tordek fought much more directly. He caught the enemy blades on his shield and shoved them aside to form an opening for his axe. Wherever the heavy blade fell, it left ruined armor and gore in its wake. He split the skull of his first foe with an overhand thrust and shoved hard with his shield as a pair of goblins strove to pull it away and give their fellows an opening. Even in twos and threes, the goblins were too weak to withstand Tordek’s battle-hardened strength. He bellowed with blood-glee when a fallen goblin’s skull cracked under his boots, and he advanced into the fray.

After the initial clash, Devis stepped back and let Tordek lead. The dwarf welcomed the doubled odds, feinting an overhand chop but instead kicking his nearest enemy in the chest. As that one fell, Tordek redirected his balked swing, breaking another goblin’s boiled-leather helmet and smashing the skull within. As from a distance, he heard Lidda’s joyous shout, the thrup of her bow, Vadania’s sweet voice turned savage in chant, and Gulo’s terrifying roar. The din was but a murmur beneath the triumphant pounding of Tordek’s heartbeat. His blood surged hot and rhythmic through his warrior’s frame. He felt the beat of war-drums in his belly.

Before he could give himself up to the rapture of combat, the fight was over. All the war-heat drained from Tordek’s body as he gazed over the battleground.

Everything was gloom and shadow under the cloud-veiled sky, through which the sun was little more than a silver coin above the swamp. Although the trees were never so dense as to bar the way, the mist was so thick that they could see no farther than a few dozen yards in any direction.

Tordek trudged across the field, watching for pretenders among the fallen foes. Every second step was a gray puddle or a patch of the smelly mud that was already oozing into Tordek’s boots.

A quick tally told him they had slain fourteen goblins, but more might have lain trampled beneath the muck. Tordek had a small cut on the bridge of his nose. A goblin arrow hung from Vadania’s cloak, though it seemed to have missed her body. From her shield jutted a few more arrows, and the sight reminded Tordek to look down at his own. It bristled like an angry porcupine. The others appeared completely uninjured.

Tordek spied a movement in the grass to the east—a motion contrary to the breeze. Before he could call out a warning, Lidda sent an arrow toward the disturbance. The first shot evoked a frightened yelp, but the second stilled the movement.

“Gulo!” called Vadania, standing tall atop a clump of grassy earth. She pointed at the spot where the arrow fell, and the gigantic wolverine surged forward, a mountainous wave of flesh. When its jaws found the wounded goblin beneath the grass, even Tordek had to turn away from the creature’s quick, brutal demise.

“We are the best!” crowed Lidda, leaping with delight as she stood among the rescued villagers. They had anticipated at least a few casualties among the prisoners before they launched their attack on the goblin captors. Thanks to Vadania’s immobilizing spell and the swiftness with which they dispatched the goblins, every one of the men and boys taken from Croaker Norge now stood shaken but alive. They stared at their saviors with awe and gratitude but also with more than a little fear. They looked weary from the march of a night and most of a day, and their faces were blackened by the smoke of their razed village.

“Wait a moment,” said Tordek. “Did someone remember to keep one of the buggers alive?”

“Of course, my fearless friend,” said Devis with a flourish of one hand. Just when Tordek was beginning to think the bard might be more useful than annoying, the half-elf had to take on those courtly airs once more. Devis beckoned to a nearby stand of pussy willows. “Come on out, little fellow.”

Fearfully, a particularly small and ugly goblin emerged from the reeds. One of its arms—unnaturally short—was bound to its chest with dirty, blood-crusted bandages. Tordek noted with grim amusement that he had probably seen the goblin’s hand back in Croaker Norge.

“Let’s find out what he knows,” said Devis, beckoning his new “friend” closer. Tordek had seen the effect of charm spells before, and he knew the goblin would be no friendlier to him or the women. Only Devis would seem to be its ally and only so long as the spell endured. Still…

“Leave him to me,” said Tordek. He set his axe aside and pulled the goblin close by the collar of his studded leather armor. The creature’s teeth were yellow where they weren’t black, and its breath stank of decay.

Devis stepped close and put a hand on Tordek’s pauldron. “Maybe it would be easier if I were to—”

“Go help the others get the villagers sorted out,” snapped Tordek.

White flecks of spittle appeared on the goblin’s face. The captive flinched. This would not take long, he thought. Just to make sure, he smacked the crippled goblin sharply in the face.

“Tordek?” called Vadania.

He did not even turn to look at her. He had no time for qualms about the way he chose to interrogate this wretch. “Later,” he said to her. Turning back to the goblin, he demanded, “Where were you going?”

The captive did not immediately reply, and Tordek grasped the goblin by the crotch and throat. He lifted the smaller creature completely off the ground before hurling it back down with a bone-crunching impact. If not for the soft, black muck of the swamp, the blow might well have broken the goblin’s back. The creature gasped and whined, trying to climb back up to its feet, a difficult feat for a goblin with only one hand. Before it could stand, Tordek grabbed it by the face and lifted it up again, one-handed.

“I’ll ask only once more,” he warned. “Answer me, or be damned.” He gripped the goblin’s jerkin with his other hand and released its mouth.

“The dwarven delve!” yelped the goblin in the common tongue.

“This is important,” interrupted Vadania again.

Tordek snapped his head around to glare at the intruding druid. “What is it?”

“We’ve found some tracks,” she said.

“Good,” said Tordek. “We’ll follow them as soon as I’m finished inter—”

“Lizard tracks,” said Vadania. “Two-legged lizards, probably troglodytes. From the look of them, we are in their hunting grounds.”

“We’ll be gone long before they return.”

“The tracks are fresh,” she insisted.

“All right then,” said Tordek. “I’ll make this quick.”

“Lidda is sending the villagers back immediately,” added Vadania.