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Rojer knit his brows,in a suggestion to the stone dely insistent

In a moment, it came to a boil One of the stone de its face as the arht itself and struck back in kind as the first one pressed its attack They crashed to the ground, rolling back and forth as they pounded each other with great stone fists At last one lay still The other atte was shattered, and it fell back, un

"Is it dead?" Sament asked

Thamos shook his head "De that doesn’t kill the his crank bow and putting a bolt into the deh the other side of the deht they saw other de them," Pether noted His tone was flat, but Rojer could sense the hint of panic beneath

"Of course," Thamos said "And we’ll need to do even more if we mean to draw a full-sized rock demon to us"

"Are we hunters, or bait?" Rhinebeck de all our lives just to salve your injured pride"

"Rojer, drive the the lantern" In its light, he pointed to a rock de as athis demon for the last half hour It rose two miles back, where a ht," Lord Sa his own booted foot in the print andat the difference "It must be fifteen feet tall"

"Twenty, at least," Gared cut in, grinning He so loved to make the raood squirm He held a hand flat above his seven-foot fraht whine, the crank bow shaking so noticeably in his hands that those in his i it warily

The others weren’this crank bow so hard Rojer thought the woodthe first sincere prayer of his life Even the soldiers in their escort looked ready to soil their fine wooden arht

Lord Saiers wants Miln to ally with? If we send ht shoulder-to-shoulder with them, or cower at their backsides?"

It was an unexpected slap froht had a way of bringing out the truth in a man The words startled the elder brothers and men-at-arms back to the present

Thaently outlined in the clear light of the gibbous h on the steep slopes, naked of leaves in the late season

"Those trees are too sparse to have drawn any wood demons," Thamos said "Sament, take your Mountain Spears to the northern slope Brothers, you take the southern"

"And where will you be, brother?" Rhinebeck’s toneif they made it home Rojer feared Thae he had done, he showed no sign His blood was up, and every Hollower knehat that meant

"Behind those rocks," Thamos pointed, "until Rojer lures the demon into the pass He will take position at the far end, while we move in to the rear with a spear wall to prevent it fro the pass while you shoot"

"Don’t spare the quarrels," Gared noted "This is a twenty-foot rock, not some stone demon you can put doith a bolt or two Even if every shot’s perfect, your first volley’s just going to piss it off You’ll need to e pincushion"