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Thewith their dwarven and barbarian allies, had fought their way from all sides of the wide field and now stood unified before the northern gate of Bryn Shander And while their ar stance, with all of the once-separate groups banded together toward the coone down the opposite road When the goblins had first charged into Icewind Pass, their colory of Akar Kessell But Kessell was gone and Cryshal-Tirith destroyed, and the cord that had held together the long-standing bitter eneun to unravel

The humans and dwarves looked upon thehope, for on all the outer fringes of the vast force dark shapes continued to break away and flee from the battlefield and back to the tundra

Still, the defenders of Ten-Toere surrounded on three sides with their backs to Bryn Shander’s wall At this point the oblins held their positions all around the northern fields of the city

Earlier in the battle, when the initial attacks had caught the invaders by surprise, the leaders of the engaged defending forces would have considered such a lull in the fighting disastrous, stealing their roup into h, the break caave the soldiers a desperately needed rest and let the goblins and orcs fully absorb the beating they had taken The field on this side of the city was littered with corpses, oblin than huhtened the iants or ogres re second saw more of their allies desert the cause

Cassius had ti spokesmen to his side for a brief council

A short distance away, Wulfgar and Revjak werewith Fender Mallot, the appointed leader of the dwarven forces in light of Bruenor’s disturbing absence

"Glad we are o’ yer return, ar," Fender said "Bruenor knew ye’d be back"

Wulfgar looked out over the field, searching for so "Have you any news of Bruenor at all?"

"Ye, yerself, were the last to see ’iri the field

"Let ar whispered

But Bruenor could not hear him

"Jensin," Cassius asked the spokesman from Caer-Dineval, "where are your womenfolk and children? Are they safe?"

"Safe in Easthaven," Jensin Brent replied "Joined, by now, by the people of Good Mead and Dougan’s Hole They are well-provisioned and watched If Kessell’s wretches er with ample time left for the could they survive on the water?" Cassius asked

Jensin Brent shrugged noncouess They shall always have a place to land, though, for the reoblins and orcs could not possibly encompass even half of the lake’s shoreline"

Cassius seemed satisfied He turned to Kemp

"Lonelywood," Keer that they’re better off than we are! They’ve enough boats in dock there to found a city in the ood," Cassius told them "It leaves yet another option open to us We could, perhaps, hold our ground here for a while, then retreat back within the walls of the city The goblins and orcs, even with their greater numbers, couldn’t hope to conquer us there!"

The idea seemed to appeal to Jensin Brent, but Keh," he said, "but what of the barbarians?"

"Their wo without them," Cassius replied

"I care not the least for their foul-s his voice so that Wulfgar and Revjak, holding their own council not far away, could hear his, the to open your door wide in invitation to thear started toward the spokesrily on Kemp "Stubborn ass!" he whispered harshly "Our only hope lies in unity!"

"Our only hope lies in attacking!" Kemp retorted "We have thee barbarian king stepped up before the two spokess, Cassius of Bryn Shander," he said politely "I aar, and leader of the tribes who have come to join in your noble cause"

"What could your kind possibly know of nobility?" Kenored him "I have overheard much of your discussion," he continued, unshaken "It is rateful advisor," he paused for control, "has proposed the only solution"

Cassius, still expecting Wulfgar to be enraged at Kear explained "The goblins are uncertain nohat gains they can hope to make They wonder why they ever followed the evil wizard to this place of dooain, they will prove a more for," Cassius replied "Yet it is e They will leave the fields before a week has passed"

"Perhaps," said Wulfgar "Yet even then your people shall pay dearly The goblins leaving of their own choice will not return to their caves empty-handed There are still several unprotected cities that they could strike at on their way out of Icewind Dale

"And, worse yet, they shall not leave with fear in their eyes Your retreat shall save the lives of some of your men, Cassius, but it will not prevent the future return of your eneree that we should attack?" Cassius asked

"Our enemies have coht down upon theoblins Let us coo" Cassius recognized the pain in Wulfgar’s eyes as he recalled the incident, "and send these foul beasts scurrying back to their mountain homes! Many years shall pass before they venture out to strike at your towns again"

Cassius looked upon the young barbarian with profound respect, and also deep curiosity He could hardly believe that these proud tundra warriors, who vividly rehter they had suffered at the hands of Ten-Towns, had co co Brutally Why, then, have you come?"

"That is a matter we shall discuss after we have co! Let us strike terror into the hearts of our enemies and break the, proud warriors!" he cooblins!" A rousing cheer went up throughout the barbarian ranks, and they lifted their voices proudly to their god of war

Cassius noted the i had on the closest monsters They backed away a step and clutched their weapons tightly

A smile crossed the spokesman’s face He still couldn’t understand the barbarians’ presence, but explanations would have to wait "Join our barbarian allies!" he shouted to his soldiers "Today is a day of victory!"

The dwarves had taken up the grim war chant of their ancient homeland The fisher of Ten inflections and phrases easily rolled frolory of their individual towns as the barbarians did of their tribes

The tempo increased, the voluoblins tre frenzy of their deadly enees of the rew thicker and thicker

And then, as one killing wave the hued down the hill

Drizzt had been able to scrah away from the southern face to escape the fury of the avalanche, but he still found hierous predicah mountain, but the top third was perpetually covered with deep snow and brutally exposed to the icy wind that gave this land its naotten wet in the melt caused by Crenshinibon, and now, as the h the snoas painful

He resolved to plod on,for the western face which offered the best protection against the wind Hisall of the energy that he could to keep the circulation flowing through his veins When he reached the lip of the mountain’s peak and started down, he had tothat any sudden jolts would deliver hiris were co to force his autoar’s fierce warriors were the first to crash into the goblin line, hacking anal pushing back the first rank of hty king, but in the crowded confusion of the fighting few could find their way out of his path One after another they fell to the ground

Fear had all but paralyzed the goblins, and their slight hesitation had spelled dooe barbarians

Yet the downfall of the army ultimately came from further back in the ranks The tribes who had not even been involved in the fighting began to ponder the wisdonized that they had gained enough of an advantage over their homeland rivals, weakened by heavy losses, to expand their territories back in the Spine of the World Shortly after the second outburst of fighting had begun, the dust cloud of staain rose above Icewind Pass as dozens of orc and goblin tribes headed hooblins who could not easily flee was devastating Even the oblin understood its people’s chance for victory against the stubborn defenders of Ten-Towns lay in the overwhel thudded repeatedly as Wulfgar, charging in alone, swept a path of devastation before him Even the e strength But his own people looked upon hilorious lead

Wulfgar waded in on a group of orcs Aegis-fang sla those behind it to the ground Wulfgar’s backsith the hammer produced the same results on his other flank In one burst,stunned

Those rehty huoblins, hoping to incite his people with the same fury as his barbarian counterpart But Glensather wasn’t an iar, and he didn’t wield a weapon as oblin he encountered, then spun back deftly and felled a second The spokes froar above other oblins, but he had not caused the chaos in their ranks that he needed to continue Instead of fleeing, as they did before Wulfgar, the reoblins pressed in behind hi when the cruel tip of a spear dove into his back and tore through, driving out the front of his chest

Witnessing the grueso over the spokesoblin down into its chest Glensather heard the haed to srass

The dwarves worked differently than their allies Once again forht, supportive foroblins si for the lives of their woht, and died, without fear

In less than an hour, every group of goblins had been smashed, and half an hour after that, the last of the monsters fell dead to the blood-stained field

Drizzt rode the white wave of falling snon the side of theto brace hi tip of a boulder in his path As he neared the base of the snowcap, he was thrown clear of the slide and sent bouncing through the gray rocks and boulders, as though the mountain’s proud, unconquerable peaks had spit hi dose of pure luck - saved him When he at last was able to stop his momentum and find a perch, he discovered that his numerous injuries were superficial; a scrape on his knee, a bloodied nose, and a sprained wrist being the worst of them In retrospect, Drizzt had to consider the sress down the mountain, and he wasn’t even certain that he could have otherwise escaped Kessell’s frosty fate without it

The battle in the south had begun again by this ti, Drizzt watched curiously as thousands of goblins passed by on the other side of the dwarven valley, running up Icewind Pass on the first legs of their long journey hoh he was faoblins

He didn’t give it too er his first concern His vision followed a narrow path, to the mound of broken black stonework that had been Cryshal-Tirith He finished his descent from Kelvin’s Cairn and headed down Breis or Guenhwyvar had escaped

Victory

It seemed a small comfort to Cassius, Kee on the scarred field They were the only three spokesle; seven others had been cut down

"We have won," Cassius declared grimly He watched helplessly as more soldiers fell dead, men who had suffered mortal wounds earlier in the battle but had refused to fall down and die until they had seen it through More than half of all the men of Ten-Towns lay dead, and many more would later die, for nearly half of those still alive had been grievously wounded Four towns had been burned to the ground and another one looted and torn apart by occupying goblins

They had paid a terrible price for their victory

The barbarians, too, had been deciht with the tenacity of their breeding and died accepting their fate as a glorious ending to their life’s tale

Only the dwarves, disciplined by h relatively unscathed Several had been slain, a few others wounded, but ain if only they could have found h, was that Bruenor was

"Go to your people," Cassius told his fellow spokes to council Kemp shall speak for all the people of the four towns of Maer Dualdon, Jensin Brent for the people of the other lakes"

"We have much to decide and little ti"

"We shall survive!" Kemp declared with his characteristic defiance But then he are of the sullen looks his peers had cast upon hih it will be a bitter struggle"

"So it shall be for my people," said another voice The three spokes out froe The barbarian was caked in dirt and spattered with the blood of his ene "I request an invitation to your council, Cassius There is much that our people can offer to each other in this harsh tirowled "If we need beasts of burden, we’ll buy oxen"