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The sielder caht the blade in a free hand and flung it aside, oblivious to the lines of blood growing on his unarht ahead, the end of his club slarabbed up the club in both hands and chopped three ti the man to the floor
Then the furious dhipped a backhand cut that flung a goblin, trying to use the moment to climb atop the counter, several feet away Back and forth ca bones Back and forth with undeniable fury; no defenses withstood the roaring dwarfs assault
"Ooooooo!"
An ogre threw e the counter, leaped up bravely, stupidly
Pikel sain as it fell, squarely in the chest, sending it tu into the crowd With the enere, the outraged dwarf hopped sidelong
"Ooooooo!" A swordsainst the lip of the counter before his sword ever got close
"Hey, he’shim, continued to wail and to batter His next swipe snapped the h too far on his backhand, cupping Ivan and sending hi backward from the counter
Pikel was not even aware that he now stood alone All that he saas his dead snake, the serpent that had befriended hi no weariness in his furiously pu, wounds, tasting only sweet vengeance as he continued to beat back, to overwhelm, the suddenly hesitant mob
"We need h helped hih explained, indicating her e
Ivan reached up and yanked the arrow out of his face "Here’s another one for ye," the dwarf explained grimly He jerked suddenly, weirdly, then reached over his shoulder and produced yet another long bolt
Shayleigh’s eyes widened as she looked past the dwarf, looked to a table the eneet shots through the opening at the side of the counter She put up her bow i table, but forcing the eneet ye soard the scene Out ran the dwarf, full speed An archer popped his head up, taking a bead But he lost his nerve as the roaring dwarf drew near, and his shot flew harht ahead, ignored thehis way from the side He lowered his head and hit the heavy table full force, knocking it back over onto its legs and winding up atop it
The three stunned archers underneath looked up in surprise TTiey didn’t realize how vulnerable they had suddenly become with their barrier now above the one
Two sets of eyes looked back to Shayleigh; both oblin rush across, inadvertently intercepting the elf s next shot at the cost of its own life
Ivan cahted table, rolled in at theone of the re archers on the side of the head The other er out and readied before the dwarf could right hio of his weapon, scraainst the sides of the reer cut into the dwarfs shoulder, but with a growl, Ivan heaved straight upward, the ainst the bottom of the table The dwarf continued to press, planted his feet under hiainst the table and heaved up with all his strength Ivan ducked low as the table flew up a foot and then started to descend, but he kept his arh
"Bet that hurt," the dwarf muttered as the table slammed back down, and theaardly, his legs twisted beneath hihtly Ivan punched hiet him out of the way, then the dwarf scooped up his axe and the nearest quivers and charged out from under the table, back for the counter area A crossbow quarrel drove through his calf, and he pitched headlong, but he was up in a ainst waves of searing pain
Shayleigh had to spin about and put her third, and last, shot into the face of an ore that had slipped over the far side of the counter, around Pikel’s continuing frenzy When the elf maiden turned back Ivan’s way, she found herself faced off against another goblin Desperate, with no tih whipped her bow across, trying to drive the creature back
"Yous is dead," the goblin pro a large, double-bladed axe coh behind the creature’s head
Ivan stuoblin’s back as it fell "Here’re yer arrows!" he cried, tossing Shayleigh three nearly full quivers He had no ti wildly before hih, too, spun about, fitting an arrow as she turned and firing above the counter opposite Ivan, firing once, and then again as the press becaeneral on all three sides
"Dead snake!" Ivan cried repeatedly, prodding his frenzied brother on "Dead snake!"
"Ooooooo!" Pikel wailed, and another eneh knew that they would need more than Pikel’s frenzy to hold out, and iven to her Her ar to the side and out in front beside Pikel, every shot scoring a direct hit, every shot blasting an opening for yet another enemy to step in
"Bonaduce!" Danica called, and she headed for the wall, leaping up into the swirling fog She hit the stone hard, and fell back, dazed, into the roo betrayed and vulnerable Dorigen had gotten rid of Cadderly, and the dangerous woman still held that wand Danica turned another so back to her feetwizard
The passas Bonaduce," Danica accused
"Only those so designated by Aballister en explained calmly "He wanted to see Cadderly Apparently, you were not included"
Danica’s aren It sparked as it connected with a ical shield and bounced to the floor beside the woman, who promptly put her wand in line with Danica and held her free hand up, warning the monk to stay back
"Treachery," Danica breathed, and Dorigen was shaking her head in denial through every syllable of the word
"Do you believe that you will killto circle, her balance perfect, her legs ready to launch her aith every en replied sincerely
"One spell, Dorigen," Danica growled "Or a single try with your wand That is all you will get"
"I do not wish to try," the older woain, en dropped the wand to the desktop
Danica stood a bit straighter her perplexed look genuine
"I did not lie to you," Dorigen explained "Nor did I trick Cadderly into going soain, the indication was that Dorigen believed a larger fate to be guiding this encounter Danica was not so convinced as her counterpart She believed in the power of the individual, in the choice of the individual, and not in some predestined path
" Aballister will likely punish ainst Danica’s doubting expression "He hoped I would kill Cadderly, or at least exhaust Cadderly’s ical powers" She chuckled and looked away and Danica realized that she could spring atop that desk and throttle Dorigen before the wizard ever reacted But Danica did not move, held by the continued note of sincerity in the wizard’s voice
"Aballister thought the nant spirit, the evil personification of the Ghearufu, would end the threat to Castle Trinity," Dorigen went on
The ghost that you sent after us," Danica accused
"Not so," Dorigen replied calht Masks to Carradoon to kill Cadderly, but the return of the spirit was purely coincidence - purely a fortunate coincidence as far as Aballister was concerned
"He did not know that Cadderly could defeat that spirit," Dorigen continued, and again caht that his storm would surely destroy you all, and so it would have, except that Aballister did not know that you were far frolow by that point Fearful would he have been indeed, if he learned that Cadderly could defeat even old Fyren after he was finishedthe wyrm"
Danica nearly fell over backward, her almond-shaped eyes opened wide
"Yes, I watched that battle," Dorigen explained, "but I did not tell Aballister about it I wanted his surprise to be complete when Cadderly arrived so soon at Castle Trinity"
"Is this penitence?" Danica asked
Dorigen looked down at her desk and slowly shook her head, running her crooked fingers through her long black-and-sUver hair "More prag back to Danica "Aballister has made many mistakes I do not know that he will defeat Cadderty, or you and your other friends And even if in this day, how can we hope to conquer the region with our army shattered?"