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For Tred McKnuckles, the sight was as painful as anything he had ever witnessed By his esti Heels had treated hienerosity and tender care, had jeopardized their own safety by getting into a conflict that had not even involved the their town, and they had reacted with more kindness and openness than a pair of lost dwarves from a distant citadel could have expected
And now they had paid the price
Tred walked about the ruins of the se, the blasted and burned houses, and the bodies He chased away the carrion birds fronizing the wo faces he had seen when he had first opened his eyes after resting against the weariness of the difficult road that had brought him there
Bruenor Battleha always the look on Tred’s face Before there had been a desire for vengeance-the dwarves’ caravan had been hit and destroyed, and Tred had lost friends and a brother Dwarves could accept such tragedies as an inevitability of their existence They usually lived on the borderlands of the wilderness, and aler of one sort or another, but the look on Tred’s tough old face was soood uilt had been thrown into the tu Heels on their desperate road, and as a result, the toas gone
Siuilt showed clearly as Tredruins, especially whenever he caood kick in the face
"How ?" Bruenor asked Drizzt when the drow returned froet a clearer picture of what had occurred at the ruins of Clicking Heels
"A handful of giants," the drow explained He pointed up to a ridge in the distance "Three to five, I wouldcairns of stones"
"Cairns?"
"They had prepared well for the attack," Drizzt reasoned "I would guess that the giants rained boulders on the village in the dark of night, softening up the defenses It went on for a long ti that?
"There are places where the walls were hastily repaired-before being knocked down once more," the drow explained He pointed to a ree "Over there, a woman was crushed under a boulder, yet the townsfolk had the ti her away In desperation, as the boe and tried to sneak up on the giants’ position" He pointed up toward the ridgeline, to a boulder tuiant tracks and the cairns "They never got close, with a host of orcs laying in wait"
"How iants, but how e?"
Drizzt looked around at the wreckage, at the bodies, huuessed "Maybe less, maybe more, but somewhere around that number They left only a dozen dead on the field, and that tells ers were completely overwhelmed Giant-thrown boulders killed many and methodically tore away the defensive positions A third of the village’s fighting force were slaughtered out by the ridge, and that left but a score of strong, hearty frontiersiants even caht, his voice very grave "I don’t think they had to"
"We gotta pay ’em back, ye know?"
Drizzt nodded
"A hunnerd, ye say?" Bruenor went on, looking around "We’re outnumbered four to one"
When the dwarf looked back at the drow, he saw Drizzt standing easily, hands on his belted scier stamped upon his face-that same look that inspired both a bit of fear and the thrill of adventure in Bruenor and all the others who knew the drow
"Four to one?" Drizzt asked "You should send half our force back to Pwent and Mithral Halljust to "
A crooked smile creased Bruenor’s weathered old face "Just what I was thinking"
"Ye’re the king, damn ye! Ain’t ye knowin’ what that nabbit’s less than enthusiastic reaction to Bruenor’s announcee the destruction of the town and the attack on Tred’s caravan ca things through the lens offered by his position as Bruenor’s appointed protector-and Bruenor did have to adment
But this was not one of those lido Heels, and it was his responsibility, and his pleasure, to aid in cleansing the region of foul creature like orcs and renegade giants
"One thing it means is that I can’t be lettin’ the dadonabbit reminded "A small army We didn’t come out here to-"
"We come out here to kill them that killed Tred’s companions," Bruenor interrupted "Seems likely it’s the sareeer band than we thinked," the stubborn Dagnabbit argued ’Tred was saying that there were a score and a couple of giants, but ’twas o back and get Pwent and his boys, and a hunnerd et the durned orcs and giants"
Bruenor looked over at Drizzt "Trail’ll be cold by then?" he pleaded more than asked
Drizzt nodded and said, "And we’ll find little advantage in the way of surprise with an ar across the hills"
"An arnabbit
"But on a battlefield of their choosing," Drizzt countered He looked to Bruenor, though it was obvious that Bruenor needed little convincing "You get an army and we can, perhaps, find a new trail to lead to our ene Our charge will be through a rain of giant boulders and against fortified positions - behind rock walls, or worse, up on the cliff ledges, barely accessible and easily defended If we go after them now and hunt them down quickly and with surprise, then ill choose and prepare the battlefield There will be no flying boulders and no defended ledges, unless we are the ones defending the to have a bit o’ fun," Catti-brie snidely remarked, and Drizzt’s smile showed that he couldn’t honestly deny that
Dagnabbit started to argue, as was, in truth, his place in all of this, but Bruenor had heard enough The king held up his hand, silencing his commander
"Go find the trail, elf," he ordered Drizzt "Our friend Tred’s looking to spill a bit o’ orc blood Dwarf to dwarf, I’ him that"
Tred’s expression showed his appreciation at the favorable end to the debate Even Dagnabbit seemed to accept the verdict, and he said no more
Drizzt turned to Catti-brie "Shall we?"
"I was thinkin’ ye’d never ask Ye bringing yer cat?"
"Soon enough," Drizzt prois and I will run liaison between you and Bruenor," Wulfgar added
Drizzt nodded, and the har so well their place in the hunt, heightened Bruenor’s confidence in his decision
In truth, Bruenor needed that boost Deep within hi this out of his own selfish needs, that hehis friends and followers into a desperate situation all because he feared, even loathed, the statesmanlike life that awaited hi at his skilled and seasoned friends beginning their eager preparations, Bruenor shrugged many of those doubts aside When they were done with this bit of business, when all the orcs and giants were dead or chased back into their deep holes, he’d go and take his place at Mithral Hall, and he’d use this i victory as a reminder of who he was and who he wanted to be There would be the trappings of bureaucratic process, the seenitary visitors who had to be entertained, to be sure, but there would also be adventure Bruenor proain of the secrets of Gauntlgrym There would be time for the open road and the wind on his wild red beard
He smiled as he silentlywhat you wished forof all
"It’s all rocks and will be a difficult track, even with so many of them," Drizzt noted when he and Catti-brie entered the rocky slopes north of the destroyed village
"Or perhaps not," the wo for Drizzt to join her
As he caray stone, at a patch of redits smooth surface Drizzt went down to one knee, reht it up before his s face
"They have wounded"
"And they’re letting theroup of orcs, it seee," Drizzt re around the bend
"The dwarves are readied for the road," Wulfgar announced
"And we’ve found the down to the stone
"Ore blood or a prisoner’s?" Wulfgar asked
The question took the smiles froht of that unpleasant possibility
"Ore, I would guess," said Drizzt "I saw no signs of e, but let us move, and quickly, in case it is the other"
Wulfgar nodded and headed away, signaling to Regis, who relayed the sign to Bruenor, Dagnabbit, and the others
"He seear had left the back to his position ahead of the dwarf contingent
"His new faiven himself his foolishness"
He started ahead, but Catti-brie caught him by the ar a serious look
"His new fah that it does not pain hi side by side"
"Then we can only hope to one day share Wulfgar’s fate," Drizzt replied with a wry grin "One day soon"
He started off, then, bounding across the uneven rock surfaces with such ease and grace that Catti-brie didn’t even try to pace hi Drizzt would e point all around her while sheas her wider eyes while her oere fixed upon the stone before her feet
"Don’t ye be too long in calling up yer cat!" she called to him as he moved away, and he responded with a wave of his hand
They h to follow, and by the ti the side of the path, which brought a fair bit of relief-the continuing trail lay obvious before theh thebefore theiants
They signaled back through their liaisons and waited for the dwarves then set camp there
"If the trail does not split soon, ill catch up to them within two days," Drizzt proas three days, but our ene swiftly or with purpose They may even be closer than we believe,the lower elevations"
"That’s why I doubled the guard, elf," Bruenor replied through ato have a hunnerd orcs and a handful of giants find me in me sleep!"
Which was precisely how Drizzt hoped to find the hundred orcs and the handful of giants
They hustled along the next day, Drizzt and Catti-brie spying , like theone low,indications led credence to Drizzt’s estimate of the size of the enemy force
The drow and Catti-brie knew that they were gaining, and fast, and that the orcs and giants wereno effort to conceal themselves or watch their backs for any apparent pursuit
And why should they? Clicking Heels, like all the other villages in the Savage Frontier, was a secluded place, a place where, under normal circue ion for tendays or months, even in the suh commerce, except in the ion whereHeels was not on the es, like a dozen or more similar communities, comprised mostly of huntsmen, that rarely if ever even showed up on any map
These were the wilds, lands untaiants knew all of this, of course, as Drizzt and Catti-brie understood, and so the couple didn’t think it likely that their ene their retreat froe crushed with no survivors
When the couple joined the dwarves for dinner that second evening, it ith complete confidence that Drizzt reasserted his prediction to Bruenor
"Tell your fellows to sleep well," he explained "Before the setting of toht of our ene o’ the sun the next day after that, our enemies’ll be dead," Bruenor promised
As he spoke, he looked over at the dwarf he had invited to dine with hiri into his lamb shank with relish
The terrain was rocky and broken, with collections of trees, evergreens ainst the backdrop of the increasingly toweringoff thestrearound of gray and blue For the inexperienced, thea traveler around, in, up, and down circles that ulti hi path that ended abruptly at a five-hundred foot drop
Even for Drizzt and his friends, so attuned with the ways of the wild, the e They could pursue the orc force readily enough, for the correct trail was clearlya way to flank that fleeing force as the trail grew fresher would not be so easy
On one plateau of a particularly wideas a sort of hub for them all, Drizzt found a telltale e depressed by the step of a recent boot
"The print is fresh," he explained to Catti-brie, Regis, and Wulfgar He rose up froether "Less than an hour"
The friends glanced around, focusing eline that loomed to the north
Catti-brie was first to catch sight of thearound a line of broken boulders
"Tiar remarked
Drizzt nodded and pulled the statue froround and suical panther to his side
"We should pass word to Bruenor as well," the barbarian added
"Ye do it," Catti-brie replied, speaking to Wulfgar "Ye can get there quicker than the little one with yer longer legs"
Wulfgar nodded; it made sense
"We’ll better locate and assess the enelanced off at Regis, as already
?"
"I go this way, you go north, and she goes east," Regis explained
His three friends siant they had spotted had been is was al friends would find the orc and giant band before he did
"Guenhwyvar comes with me to the north, in a direct line toward the ene suspicion We four will ht before the sunset"
With final nods and deter the appointed trail
It was a strange feeling for Regis, being out alone in the wilderness without Drizzt or any of the others protectively at his side Back in Ten-Towns, the halfling had often ventured out of Lonelywood by hi familiar trails, particularly the one that would take hireat lake Maer Dualdon and his favorite fishing hole
Being alone in the wilds, with known, dangerous ene Despite his very real fears, Regis could not deny the surge of energy coursing through his di that a goblin ht even then be taking deadly aie boulder missiles
In truth, this wasn’t an experience that Regis planned to make the norm of his existence, but he understood that it was a necessary risk, one leading to the greater good, and one that he had to accept
Still, he wished he hadn’t been the first to encounter the orcs, a group of a dozen stragglers lagging behind their hts, the distracted halfling al that they were there
Drizzt didn’t like what he was seeing High up on a rocky ledge, the drow lay flat on his belly peering over an encampment of several scores of orcs-what he had expected Just beyond the caiants, and not the dirty rogues onewith orcs These were handsome creatures, clean and richly dressed, adorned with ornas, and fine furs that were neither particularly new nor particularly weather-beaten
The giants were part of a larger, anized clan-obviously a part of the network the Jarl Grayhand, a name not unknown to Drizzt and the dwarves of Mithral Hall, had formed in this part of the Spine of the World
If the old Grayhand was loaning sohty warriors out to an orc clan, the ie and an ambush on a band of dwarves
Drizzt looked all around, wondering if there was a way for hiiants, to try to overhear their conversation He could only hope they’d be speaking in a language that he could comprehend
The cover between hih, nor was the cli Beyond that, the sun was already hanging low in the sky, and he didn’t have much time if he hoped to rejoin his friends in the appointed place at the appointed hour
He lingered forfroiants and orcs His attention piqued when one large and powerful orc, wearing the finest gare, decorated axe strapped across its back, approached the giant quartet The orc didn’t go in the hesitatingfood to the beheate past them in as unobtrusive a manner as possible This orc -and Drizzt understood that it had to the leader, or at least one of the leaders-strode up to the giants purposefully and without any apparent trepidation and began conversing in what see to hear whatever tidbit he hter, Drizzt was hardly aware of the approach of an orc sentry until it was too late
Froe point, Catti-brie noted where the orcs and giants had stopped to set their caher, northern ridgeline She realized that Drizzt was likely already surveying their encaet there, but her estimate told her that she’d probably arrive on the spot just in time to acconedpast the east end of the eneiants would likely traverse in the -unless, of course, they decided to break caht, which would favor the orcs, no doubt, though probably not be to the liking of" the giants
With the eye of a trained tactician, which she, as the adopted daughter of Bruenor Battlehaeous assault points Bottlenecks in the trail, high ground where dwarves could send rocks and ha down at their enemies
Despite her many duties, the woman was the first of the four to return to the rendezvous point Wulfgar returned soon after her with Bruenor, Dagnabbit, and Tred McKnuckles at his side