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Before Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, the other two hunters were engulfed in roiling, black waves of sorcery before they had taken two strides The , acidic stains that devoured their hides The beasts drove through without pause, to be th coats of black chain, both wielding hand-and-a-half swords that trailed streamers of smoke

’ ’Ware behind us!’ Harllo suddenly screamed

Gruntle spun

To see a sixth hunter darting through screa directly for Keruli Unlike the other K’Chain Che’Malle, this creature’s hide was covered in intricatedown its spine

Gruntle threw a shoulder against Keruli, sending thelow, he threw up both cutlasses in time to catch a horizontal slash from one of the hunter’s ly, the i like shocks up the captain’s arms Gruntle heard more than felt his left wrist snap, the broken ends of the bones grinding and twisting impossibly before suddenly senseless hands released the cutlasses -- wheeling, spinning away The hunter’s second blade should have cut hiainst Harllo’s two-handed sword Both weapons shattered Harllo lurched away, his chest and face spraying blood froe hail of iron shards

A taloned, three-toed foot struck Gruntle on an upward track Grunting, the captain was thrown into the air Pain exploded in his skull as he collided with the hunter’s jaw, snapping the creature’s head up with a bone-breaking, crunching sound

Stunned, the breath driven froround in a heap An enor armour to pierce flesh The three toes clenched around his chest, snapping bones, and he felt hied forward The scales of his ar away as he was pulled along through dust and gravel Twisted buckles and clasps dug into the earth Blind, li ever deeper He coughed and his mouth filled with frothy blood The world darkened

He felt the talons shudder, as if resonating from some massive blow Another followed, then another The claws spas Striking the ground, rolling, crashing up against the shattered spokes of a carriage wheel

He felt hi He forced his eyes open, desperate for one last look upon the world -- so sense of confused sadness Could it not have been sudden? Instant? Why this lingering, beone -- why not awareness itself? Why tortureof what I a, the sound one of dying, and Gruntle understood it at once Oh yes, screae -- scream at that web even as it closes about you Waves of sound out into the mortal world, one last time- The shrieks fell away, and now there was silence, save for the stuttering heart in Gruntle’s chest

He knew his eyes were open, yet he could see nothing Either Korbal Broach’s spell of light had failed, or the captain had found his own darkness

Stu away down a road Farther, fainter, fainter

BOOK TWO

HEARTHSTONE