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Drizzt, still on his tenuous perch, didn’t have time to marvel at the efficient execution of Montolio’s well-laid plans Froiant was now on the -riders had settled enough to resuh

The ring of snarling worgs tightened Guenhwyvar could s breath The panther could not hope to charge through the thick ranks, nor could the cat get over theh to flee

Guenhwyvar found another route Hind paws ta body and the panther arrowed straight up into the air, twenty feet and ht thefront claws, hooked on, and pulled itself up Then the panther disappeared into the boughs, leaving the frustrated pack howling and growling

Guenhwyvar reappeared quickly though, out froround, and the pack took up the pursuit The panther had come to know this terrain quite well over the last feeeks and now Guenhwyvar had figured out exactly where to lead the wolves

They ran along a ridge, with a dark and brooding emptiness on their left flank Guenhwyvar marked well the boulders and the few scattered trees The panther couldn’t see the chasm’s opposite bank and had to trust fully in its me out into the night, touching down lightly across the ay and speeding off toward the grove The worgs would have a long ju way back around if theyand scratching at the ground One poised on the lip and meant to try the leap, but an arrow exploded into its side and destroyed its deters were not stupid creatures, and the sight of the arrow put the shower by Kellindil and his kin was more than they expected Dozens of arrohistled in, dropping the worgs where they stood Only a few escaped that barrage, and they proht

Drizzt called upon another ical trick to stop the torch-bearers Faerie fire, har fla down the wooden instrument to lick at the orcs’ hands Faerie fire did not burn - was not even war their hands, they were far from rational

One of the rass, and the worg turned yet another time and snarled in frustration

The other orc simply dropped its torch, which fell on top of its ’s thick coat, stinging its eyes and ears, and the beast went crazy It dropped into a headlong roll, bouncing right over the startled orc

The orc staggered back to its feet, dazed and bruised and holding its ar wasn’t interested in hearing any, however It sprang straight in and clamped its powerful jaws on the orc’s face

Drizzt didn’t see any of it The drow could only hope that his trick had worked, for as soon as he had cast the spell, he released his foothold on the crossbow and let the torn branch carry hi a target, rushed at the drow as he landed, but as soon as Drizzt’s hands were free of the branch, they held his scimitars The orcs came in, oblivious, and Drizzt slapped their weapons aside and cut theh more scattered resistance as he rim smile found his face when at last he felt the ranseur’s iants back in Maldobar that had slain the innocent family, and he took comfort that noould kill another of their evil kin

"Mangura bok woklok!" Drizzt cried, placing one foot on the root fulcrum and the other on the butt of the hidden weapon

Montolio s confidence in the proxi out a fewin at hi the thick trees as cover The ranger waited, baiting them in Then, just before they closed, Montolio dropped his bohipped out his sword and slashed the rope at his side, right below a huge knot The severed rope rolled up into the air, the knot catching on a fork in the lowest branch, and Montolio’s shield, empowered with one of Drizzt’s darkness spells, dropped down to hang at precisely the right height for the ranger’s waiting arm

Darkness held little influence over the blind ranger, but the few orcs that had come in at Montolio found the wildly - one cut down its own brother - while Montolio calmly sorted out the melee and went to methodical work In the matter of aand the fifth had taken flight

Far froer and his portable ball of darkness followed, searching for voices or sounds that would lead hiain came the cry that ura bok woklok!" Drizzt yelled again An orc tossed a spear at the drohich Drizzt promptly swatted aside The distant orc was now unar his position

"Mangura bok woklok!" Drizzt cried again "Co the wall in Montolio’s direction, heard the words The greatthe drow curiously

Drizzt didn’t ura bok woklok!"

With a howl and a staiant kicked a hole in the rock wall and strode toward Drizzt

"Mangura bok woklok" Drizzt said for good iant broke into a dead run, scattering terrified orcs before it and slarily It sputtered a thousand curses at Drizzt in those few seconds, words that the droould never decipher Three tiiant looh it would surely bury Drizzt where he cal strides from Drizzt, committed fully to its collision course, Drizzt dropped all of his weight onto his back foot The ranseur’s butt dropped into the hole Its tip angled up

Drizzt leaped back at the iant plowed into the ranseur The weapon’s tip and hooked barbs disappeared into the giant’s belly, drove upward through its diaphrags The metal shaft bowed and seemed as if it would break as its butt end was driven a foot and iant was stopped cold It dropped its club and rock, reached helplessly for the th to even close around it Huge eyes bulged in denial, in terror, and in absolute surprise The great mouth opened wide and contorted weirdly, but could not even find the wind to screaht the words before he uttered thehting, for the cry he nearly shouted was a praise to the goddess Mielikki Drizzt shook his head helplessly and smiled, stunned by the acute perceptions of his not-so-blind cohts in hteousness in his heart, Drizzt ran up the shaft and slashed at the giant’s throat with both weapons He continued on, stepping right on the giant’s shoulder and head and then leaping off toward a group of watching orcs, whooping as he went

The sight of the giant, their bully, quivering and gasping, had already unnerved the orcs, but when this ebony-skinned and wild-eyed drow ether Drizzt’s charge got hied on

Twenty feet to the drow’s left, a ball of blackness rolled out of the trees, leading a dozen frightened orcs before it The orcs knew that to fall within that ilobe was to fall within the blind hermit’s reach and to die

Two orcs and three worgs, all that rerouped and slipped quietly toward the grove’s eastern edge If they could get in behind the enemy, they believed the battle still could be won

The orc farthest to the north never even saw the rushing black fored on, confident that that one would never rise again

A as next in line Quicker to react than the orc, the worg spun and faced the panther, its teeth bared and jaws snapping

Guenhwyvar snarled, pulling up short right before it Great claws ca could notits jaws from side to side, always apaws After only five slaps, the as defeated One eye had closed forever, its tongue, half torn, lolled helplessly out one side of its er in line with its upper Only the presence of other targets saved the worg, for when it turned and fled the way it had co closer prey, did not follow

Drizzt and Montolio had flushedforce back out over the rock wall "Bad ed on desperation Hooter and his owl co down all of a sudden in orc faces, nipping with a talon or beak, then rushing off again into the sky Still another orc discovered one of the traps as it tried to flee It went doling and shrieking, its cries only heightening its companions’ terror

"No!" Roddy McGristle cried in disbelief "Ye’ve let two beat up yer whole force!"

Graul’s glare settled on the burly man

"We can turn ’eo back to the fight" The mountain man’s appraisal was not off the mark If Graul and Roddy hadrouped With most of their traps exhausted, Drizzt and Montolio would have been in a sore position indeed! But the orc king had seen another brewing problem to the north and had decided, despite Roddy’s protests, that the old man and the dark elf simply weren’t worth the effort

Most of the orcs in the field heard the newest danger before they saw it, for Bluster and his friends were a noisy lot The largest obstacle the bears found as they rolled through the orc ranks was picking out a single target in the mad rush They swatted orcs as they passed, then chased them into the copse and beyond, all the way back to their holes by the river It was high spring; the air was charged with energy and excitement, and how these playful bears loved to swat orcs!

The whole horde of rushing bodies swar When Tephanis awoke, he found that he was the only one alive on the blood-soaked field Growls and shouts wafted in fro band, and sounds of battle still sounded in the ranger’s grove Tephanis knew that his part in the battle, h it had been, was over Tre, more pain than he had ever known He looked down to his torn foot and to his horror realized that the only way out of the wicked trap was to co the end of his foot and all five of his toes in the process It was not a difficult job - the foot was hanging by a thin piece of skin - and Tephanis did not hesitate, fearing that the droould co stifled his scream and covered the wound with his torn shirt, then ambled - slowly - off into the trees

The orc crept along silently, glad for the covering noises of the fight between the panther and a worg All thoughts of killing the old man or the drow had flown from this orc now; it had seen its comrades chased away by a pack of bears Now the orc only wanted to find a way out, not an easy feat in the thick, low tangle of pine branches

It stepped on some dry leaves as it ca crackle The orc glanced to the left, then slowly brought its head back around to the right All of a sudden, it ju an attack from the rear But all was clear as far as it could tell and all, except for the distant panther growls and worg yelps, was quiet The orc let out a profound sigh of relief and sought the trail once again

It stopped suddenly on instinct and threw its head way back to look up A dark form crouched on a branch just above the orc’s head, and the silvery flash shot down before the orc could begin to react The curve of the sci around the orc’s chin and diving into its throat

The orc stood very still, arth of its larynx was torn apart The scimitar came out in a rush and the orc fell backward into death

Not so far away, another orc finally extracted itself fro net and quickly cut free its buddy The two of theht, crept in quietly

"In the dark," the first explained as they cah one thicket and found the landscape blotted out by an iether, the orcs raised their spears and threw, grunting savagely with the effort The spears disappeared into the dark globe, dead center, one banging into asofter

The orcs’ cries of victory were cut short by tangs of a bowstring One of the creatures lurched forward, dead before it hit the ground, but the other, stubbornly holding its footing,point of an arrowhead It lived long enough to see Montolio casually stride past and disappear into the darkness to retrieve his shield

Drizzt watched the old

"It is ended," the elven scout told the others when they caught up to hi the boulders just south of Mooshie’s Grove

"I a curiously back to the west and hearing the echoes of bear growls and orc screa beyond Graul was behind this attack and, feeling soht be

"The ranger and drow have won the grove," the scout explained

"Agreed," said Kellindil, "and so your part is ended Go back, all of you, to the campsite,"

"And will you join us?" one of the elves asked, though he had already guessed the answer

"If the fates decree it," Kellindil replied "For now, I have other business to attend"

The others did not question Kellindil further Rarely did he co Kellindil was an adventurer; the road was his ho orcs, then paralleling their movements just south of them

"Ye let just two of theriped when he and Graul had a moment to stop and catch their breath "Two of the of a heavy club Roddy partially blocked the blow, but its weight knocked him backward

"Ye’re to pay for that!" theBleeder from his belt A dozen of Graul’sthen and immediately understood the situation

"Yous has brought ruin to us!" Graul snapped at Roddy Then to his orcs, he shouted, "Kill hiroup and Roddy didn’t wait for the others to catch up He turned and sprinted off into the night, using every trick he knew to get ahead of the pursuing band

His efforts were quickly successful - the orcs really didn’t want any ht - and Roddy would have been wise to stop looking over his shoulder

He heard a rustle up ahead and turned just in ti sword squarely in the face The weight of the blow, multiplied by Roddy’s own round and into unconsciousness

"I a body