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And most important of all, from Pony&039;s perspective, the human band had been warned, had seen the full extent of the ene instant

But so, too, was Pony&039;s position surrendered Fires flickered to life in the s-clipped trees going up like candles The giant,into a huge sack to produce another boulder

Pony thought to loose another lightning blast, but graphite was a particularly draining stone, and she knew that she would have to be more focused this tiiant&039;s arh, and could only pray that his throould be off the low of a dia-iant and its allies It lasted only a second or two, giving Pony a clearer picture of the eneiant for just an instant

All the tinetite, the lodestone The wonetic energy, seeking an attraction, any attraction She "saw" the powrie swords, the belt buckle of one dwarf The iht careat hands that held the boulder

The giant earing netite energy, blocked out all other ht the power of the stone to an explosive release and let it fly, many times the speed and power of one of Elbryan&039;s deadly bowshots

The giant disht the boulder over its head again, thinking to throw it in the direction of the unseen lightning caster But suddenly its right wrist exploded in searing pain and lost all strength, and the boulder fell fro hariant hardly felt the bruise on the shoulder, for its wrist and hand were thoroughly shattered, what little reainst the behe loose on flaps of skin; another finger was altogether gone, just gone

The giant staggered back a couple of long strides, blinded by surprise and agony

Another lightning bolt slaht over backward, dropping it, groaning, to the ground Hardly conscious, the behe coht

Pony eased Sy her way through the tangle She drew out her sword as she rode, and found no opposition when she caiant

She killed it quickly

Confident in Pony&039;s abilities and judghtbird didn&039;t stay around after he had ht Back in the darkness again, the ranger ht across thethrough sooblins holding cruel spears, both peering down at the fern bed, trying to find an open shot

Up caoblins dropped heavily fro to where the other had been standing, trying to figure out why it had juh the teround

Thewhat had dropped about the the distance Onehis approach, bon and ready "What?" he asked incredulously, and then added in a whisper as the ranger rushed by hier instructed "The dark is no obstacle; I will guide you"

"It is Nightbird," another man insisted

"Who?" asked another

"A friend," the first explained quickly, and the ser

Soon enough the ranger spotted yet another band of allies crouching in the dark, and led his group that way Suddenly his force enty strong, and he led theht-fighting in the dark forest, and the huge advantage the cat&039;s- eye afforded hier battle quickly deteriorated into pockets of screa frustration, with arrows launched blindly into the darkness, or opponents inadvertently stu into one another, often lashing out before they paused long enough to identify their allies Sorating voice of a powrie, followed by a trehtbird knew that another unfortunate enemy had stue to rush back and check on his love He had to trust in her, had to reht, and that, in addition to her expertise with a sword, she carried enough h

Another battle erupted far in the opposite direction, a group of goblins stu across the northern end of what remained of the human line This tie and agony, both hu drewuntil all the forest see this way and that The ranger set his band in a purely defensive posture, then moved out to walk a perimeter Any huroup soon rising to htbird circled about theht so his archers could take their sudden and deadly toll

When the iot his group ht foruide each other by touch

Torches flared to life in several places deeper in the forest, screams issued from the darkness in roup to engage But those with the ranger held their calanized for about theer spotted ene in the brush, but he held his forces in quiet check, not willing to reveal the withered away, leaving the forest night as quiet as it was dark A torch flared to life in the distance; Nightbird understood it to be powries, the cocky dwarves likely confident now that the battle had ended He moved to the nearest of his soldiers and bade the man to pass the word that the tiroup once er to powrie tactics, he fig-ured that those with the torch would for theht was still er encountered the tip of one of those spokes, a pair of goblins crouched beside a tight grouping of shtbird slipped around and ht to flash his diaoblins down, but decided against that tactic, preferring to make this one strike decisive He went in alone, inch by inch

His hand claoblin to his left; his sword drove through the lungs of the goblin to the right He let Terabbed the reht hand, sliding his left down enough to cup the in to cry out, the ranger drove both arht, then violently yanked theoblin hardly found the chance to squeal, and the only sound was the snapping of its neck bone - it er retrieved Te the ene as accurate a count as possible, he silently went back to his waiting force

"There are monsters about," he explained "A trio of powries within that torchlight"

"Then show theer warrior piped in, and his words were echoed er explained, "within the darkness and a pair of giants lurking behind the trees"

"What do we do?" one man asked, his tone very different now, er looked around at all his ht they were outmatched - that htbird, who had been fighting bands of monsters all the way froiants first," he coolly explained

Belster and Tomas watched and listened from a distant hilltop The innkeeper rubbed his hands repeatedly, nervously, trying to guess at whatdown there Should he retract his forces? Should he press the fight?

Could he? The plans seeical when they were made, so easily executed and, if need be, retracted But the truth of battle never worked out that way, particularly in the dark and confusing night

Beside hi an equally difficult dileh man, battle hardened, but for all his ha-tred of the e theaht be hap-pening He heard the occasional screams - more often a monster&039;s voice than a ht A couple of sur-prising flashes, brilliant and sudden, caught his and Belster&039;s atten-tion h, for they were not the fires of torches Belster recognized theic

The problem was, neither Belster nor Toic about Their little band possessed no gemstones, and wouldn&039;t have kno to use theiants had never been known to wield such ic

"We ed with frustration

"Jansen Bridges should return soon," Belster replied "We ic"

"We haven&039;t seen it in a long while," Toic expended or the wielder dead"

"But who?"

"Roger Lockless, likely," Tomas replied "Ever has he a trick to play"

Belster wasn&039;t so sure of that, though the notion that Roger had a bit of -ends of Roger

"Call thenals and send runners with the word The battle is ended"

"But Jansen - "

"We haven&039;t time to wait," Toed, and couldn&039;t rightly disagree, but before ei-ther he or To up the side of the hillock

"Nightbird!" he cried to the two "Nightbird, and Avelyn Desbris!"

Belster ran down to htbirdas he tried to catch his breath "It had to be hioblin, oh, and beautifully, too Sword left and right" He waved his ar the move as he spoke

"Who does he speak of?" Toer," Belster replied "And Avelyn?" he asked of Jansen "Did you speak with Avelyn?"

"It had to be hi powries, felling giants They have returned to us!"

"You assumatic Tomas put in, then to Belster he added, "Are we to hope that this- "

"Then still it would seem as if we have found some allies, pow-erful allies," Belster replied "But let us indeed light the torches Let us regroup and see how strong we have becoerly led the way fro that his old com-rades from Dundalis had indeed returned to help in the cause

Their expressions were erly, others hesitantly, and still others glancing doubtfully to their fellows

"The torchlight htbird quickly explained "The way is open to it if we are quiet enough and clever enough We must strike hard and sure, and be prepared for any attacks that come in about us"

"The hub?" one man echoed doubtfully

"The center of the powrie defensive ring," the ranger clarified "A s in the ht in the middle, then ill be sur-rounded," theup about hih at the center and kill the giants, the others, particularly the goblins, will not dare to coer countered with confidence

"The torches are naught but bait," the er and several others had to motion for hi in enehtbird conceded "But those enee of the ring If we move without further delay, the path is open all the way to the hub; our ene an attack"

The ain, but those near hi, hushed hiin

"Go in quiet and in a line three abreast," Nightbird explained "Then we shall forht circle about the hub, and kill it before any reinforceed doubtful glances

"I have been fighting powries for htbird explained

His tone, full of absolute confidence, bolstered those nearest him, and they in turn turned back to nod to the htbird far in the lead He went back to the spot where he had slain the two goblins, and was relieved to find their bodies as he had left them, and that no new tracks were about the area The enemy force was not numerous and the spokes of this defensive wheel were few, he reasoned, for when he searched both left and right, using the light of the powries&039; own torches as his guiding beacon, he saw no other ht in, then fanned theiants, he realized, for the be-heht against the back side of the oak tree, using its girth to shadow theer picked his course quietly Hefor all to be ready, and clutched the diaht in his fist Far out to the left of the powrie trio, he found a low, thick liht up so it would not rustle, then picked his careful path along the solid wood, iants

Nightbird concentrated on the stone, building its energy, but not yet releasing it

Building, building - all his hand was tingling frohtbird ran along the branch; the powries looked up at the sound

And then they, and the giants, looked away, blinded by the sudden burst of radiance, a brilliant white light, brighter than the day itself

Nightbird rushed above the stunned powries and bore down on the nearest giant, its head even with his own He kneouldn&039;t get rabbed up Te to a stop and transferring every ounce of his th into that one doard chop

The blade, trailing a line of white light hardly discernible in the brilliant diaiant&039;s fore-head, cleaving bone and tearing brains, and the beherasped at its head and tuiant rushed in, only to be ed direction, scaoblins cried out and scrambled all about the area; the archers had to shift their rain to nearer, closing targets

The rerabbed hard on the tree, thinking to tear it right froer, the miserable rat who had just in-flicted ain pain and outrage, and then went quiet, seeing the ranger looking back at it, down the arrow set on his strange-looking bow

Nightbird had Haing drawn all the way back With corded s locked about the branch and trunk, he had held the pose until the giant was in position, directly below hilanced up at hi into the iant&039;s outstretched arms flailed wildly, helplessly, and then it slu even as its brother continued to squir, was too busy cli he was vulnerable at this low position Then, froht and carefully picked his shots, taking out those couple of round level, for his coer called, and athe area black, save one fallen torch flickering in its death throes on the ground

Nightbird closed his eyes, then opened the the cat&039;s-eye take control once more The monsters were far froroups had banded together and were stub-bornly co in, mostly from the south He had to one, and the eneer force of thirty

"Take to the north," he called down, keeping his voice as low as possible "Stay together at all costs I will rejoin you as soon as I can"

As his soldiers slipped away through the brush, the ranger turned his attention back to the south, to thehe would find so and roundabout chase back to the south

But then he looked behind theforer cried to the huan to cli wildly up the tree, and not in fear of any powrie crossbow

Trusting in Syle, Pony urged the horse ahead She crossed by a pair of startled powries - who hooted and gave chase - and strengthened her serpentine shield

They were all about her, rushing in, crying in savage glee

And then, in the blink of a powrie eye, they were all burning, and so were the trees

Using the light to guide her way, Ponyto keep the protective fire shield in place She blinked in disbelief as she neared a huge oak on the very edge of the fires, for co frantically frouided Syer dropped to the ground right before her, i into a roll to smother a few errant flaht have warnedfroht is warht by hirabbed on - falling into the protective shield as soon as their fingers touched - scrambled up behind her, and away they trotted, confident that no monsters were anywhere near in pursuit

"You should be er scolded

"You should be wiser about where you hide," Pony countered

"There are options other than the geued

"Then teach mebi&039;nelle dasada," the woo at that, knowing all too well that with Pony, he would never get the last word