A xulgath screeched and lunged at her with outstretched claws. She sidestepped, cut at its spine as it blundered past, and it dropped.
Two more reptiles spread out to flank her. She shifted her front foot to make it look like she was retreating, then rushed them. Surprised, they faltered. She slashed left, then right, and they too fell.
She stepped over bodies as she maneuvered, and one of them fumbled at her leg. She sprang beyond its reach without looking to see if it was an injured xulgath trying to hinder her or a wounded ally seeking help. She had no time for either.
Finally, the surging back and forth of frenzied combatants opened a path to the war beast. And Eovath was busy swinging his axe one-handed at targets on the right side of the threehorn while Kagur was approaching on the left. Perfect.
She charged, longsword extended for a thrust that momentum ought to drive deep into the war beast's body. Xulgaths pivoted to chop and stab at her as she passed, but the quickest of them was still a shade too slow.
Eovath, however, was not. Just as the blade was about to reach its target, he somehow sensed the threat. He turned, leaned down, and blocked the attack with his shield. Kagur lurched to a halt just shy of slamming into the barrier herself.
The axe spun at her head, and she stepped back from the blow. Eovath, she thought, was using a weapon intended for two hands with only one. He was also striking across his body, and that was always awkward for a mounted warrior. Maybe she could kill the threehorn even with him fighting to protect it, or better yet, kill him!
She advanced, inviting an axe chop, then swayed back far enough to let it whiz by. She slashed at his hand, just missed, then cut at the threehorn. Jorn Blacklion's sword gashed scaly hide and the flesh beneath. But a rib blocked it from slicing as deep as she'd hoped.
Then the threehorn wheeled toward her, and its bulk was like a shifting mountain, impossible to resist. She scrambled to keep it from knocking her off her feet.
The frantic evasion landed her in the midst of a clash between two orcs and three xulgaths. She parried a spear thrust, cut her assailant's belly open, pivoted, and slashed a second reptile's throat. One orc seized and immobilized the remaining xulgath's knife hand while his comrade bashed its skull in.
All together, it only took a moment. But when Kagur whirled back around, she was right in front of the threehorn's bloody spikes and glaring eyes.
She and the orcs scattered. As she expected, the beast ignored her fellow warriors and stamped after her.
It advanced with a measured tread that allowed it to compensate when she dodged. Under other circumstances, she could still have outmaneuvered it as she had the spiketail her first night in Orv. But the rest of the battle hemmed her in, whereas the giant reptile could simply wade through anyone who failed to get out of the way without even slowing down.
The creature stepped and thrust its horns at her. She lunged between them and slashed it across a nostril. Maybe that part was tender, and the pain would balk it.
No. It flipped its head, and she leaped back to keep the beak horn from goring her. Eovath grinned down like they were playing a game together.
"Coward!" she shouted. "Come down on the ground and fight fair!"
He laughed. The war beast lumbered forward, and she retreated.
But she couldn't just back away forever. Soon she was bound to fetch up against a tree or some other obstacle. Or xulgaths would take her down from behind while she was focused on the threat in front of her.
She charged. A horn shifted to catch her, and she dodged past it.
The giant reptile lowered its head to rip with the curved horn. But before it even finished the preliminary motion, she leaped on top of the beak and scrambled onward toward the bony ruff and the rider behind it. At last, wide-eyed surprise wiped the smirk from Eovath's square blue face.
Kagur raised her sword to cut and reached for the base of one of the long horns to anchor herself. But then, even though she was no longer in front of it, Eovath's mount, completing the action it had begun, tossed its head and flung her into the air.
She slammed down on her back, and her head banged into a stone or something equally hard. Suddenly, everything seemed hazy and far away.
The threehorn lumbered around to face her. A part of her screamed that she had to get away from it, but when she tried to jump up, her limbs were numb and sluggish.
Chanting, eyes closed, Holg stepped between the threehorn and her. The swirling lines on his staff glowed, and as he swung it over his head, the end burst into crimson flame.
Seemingly startled, the threehorn hesitated. Then Eovath snarled a sibilant command and it started onward, evidently to spear Kagur and trample the old man at the same time.
But its foot was just leaving the ground when Holg shouted the final word of his prayer and brought the fiery rod down across its beak. The staff snapped into three pieces. The threehorn froze. Then it shuddered, groaned, and fell over sideways with an earthshaking thud.
Swaying, Holg regarded the huge, now motionless body for an instant. Then he too toppled.
His collapse jolted the fumbling slowness out of Kagur's limbs. She scrambled to the old man and asked, "Are you all right?"
Judging from the way he was shuddering and the blood pouring from his nose, he wasn't. But he gasped, "Fine! Get Eovath! You're the only one who can finish this!"
As she dashed around the threehorn's mound of a carcass, she thought Holg might be mistaken. Even a frost giant could be crushed or pinned if astride such a colossal mount when it fell.
And that would be all right. Ever since the night of his betrayal, she'd craved the most complete and personal vengeance she could take, meeting Eovath blade to blade in the fullness of his might and pride and outfighting him, humbling him, slashing his blue flesh over and over till she ended with his heart's blood staining their father's sword. But now, with her allies' lives in jeopardy, she simply wanted him dead, no matter how.
Unfortunately, when she rounded the threehorn's body, Eovath was on his feet and to all appearances unharmed. He grinned and called, "I'm impressed. Who was that old man?"
She advanced. He tossed away the tower shield, gripped his greataxe with both hands, and came to meet her. Perhaps sensing something of destiny or expressive of the will of spirits, gods, and demons in the moment, neither humans, orcs, nor even xulgaths moved to intervene.
Eovath feinted high and swung low, the true attack a stroke meant to reap the legs out from under Kagur. She retreated and slashed his forearm as the greataxe whizzed past, then, before he could ready it for a second blow, lunged to slash at his knee.
But he too defended by retreating. His long legs made it easy, and now the axe came hurtling down at her head. She wrenched herself out of the way and flicked her blade at the giant's wrist. The axe snapped sideways to parry, and steel clanged on steel. The jolt stung her fingers.
Eovath followed up with a chop at her face. She sprang back out of range, and he pursued, whirling the axe at her torso. She dropped under the blow, then exploded forward with her sword extended for another try at slicing his knee.
He pivoted out of the way, and from the corner of her eye, she glimpsed a flicker that told her the greataxe was in motion. She dodged, spun, and cut to the ribs. Her sword rang harmlessly against the black cuirass.
Eovath cut, and she pulled her sword arm back to keep him from lopping it off. They stepped back from one another and started to circle.
She initiated the next three exchanges, and he, the four after that, neither scoring. But by the end of the last one, Kagur was panting. Sweat stung her eyes, her pulse pounded in her neck, and her actions were a hair less precise than before. Meanwhile, except for the superficial cut on his arm, Eovath seemed as fresh as ever.
She supposed it only made sense that he was wearing her down. She was human and had been fighting since the initial skirmish below the village. He had a giant's might and endurance and had saved them for this duel.
&nbs
p; But she had to find a way to win! She knew his style and his favorite tricks. That ought to mean she could make him react as she wanted him to.
She shifted in and slashed upward at his fingers. He spun the greataxe in a way that both evaded her attack and caught her blade where the head of his weapon met the shaft. Without pausing, the axe began a second rotation intended to twist the sword hilt out of her grasp.
She cried out, grabbed her weapon with her off hand, and strained against the pressure. Such resistance could only delay the inevitable, and that not for long. Whether she used one arm or two, her strength was no match for his, and, knowing that, he grinned.
The greataxe tore the sword from her fingers. No doubt rejoicing, xulgaths hissed and screeched, while humans and orcs cried out in dismay.
Either way, the responses were premature. After a moment of pushing back, she'd intentionally loosened her grip, and the sudden lack of opposition tipped Eovath off balance. She sprang in close, pulled his knife from her belt, and drove it into his groin, where the black cuirass didn't cover.
Blood spurted, painting her arm to the shoulder. The watchers roared. She stepped out of the way as Eovath tottered forward and fell to his knees.
He turned his head. He was still smiling, but a different smile, with something dazed and incredulous in it. "My own trick," he croaked.
Give or take, she thought. Keeping her eyes on him, she maneuvered to pick up her sword.
"It's still not enough," her brother said. "The xulgaths will heal me. Or Rovagug will."
No, she thought, he won't. And then she charged.
To her surprise, Eovath's shaking hands managed to raise the axe and interpose its curved edge between them. She twisted past it and cut at his neck.
More blood sprayed, and the giant fell forward onto his face. She stood over him and kept hacking.
When the head came off, she lifted it by its yellow hair and pivoted to show it to those nearby. Then she looked for a higher spot from which to display it to everyone.
The body of the threehorn would do. She scrambled up its tail onto its ribs and brandished both the severed head and her father's sword in the air. "Blacklion!" she roared, with all the breath she had left. "Blacklion! Blacklion! Blacklion!"
Xulgaths gaped up at her. Then they fled—first one, two, or three at a time, then the entire horde running back down the hillside.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The Farewell
The Skulltakers' cavern branched into multiple chambers on the inside. Holg had an alcove to himself, with a pallet made of moss, leaves, and hide, plus gourds full of water and red and yellow berries ready to hand.
The healers were doing their best to make him comfortable. But the wavering light of the torch in Kagur's hand revealed a face just as gray and sunken as when she'd looked in on him previously.
"How was the patrol?" he wheezed.
"We didn't find any stray xulgaths," she said, kneeling down beside him. "We did find a couple more of our wounded ..." She realized she didn't want to finish her thought.
So Holg finished it for her. "But the shamans don't expect them to live, either."
She scowled. "Don't talk like that. No one even hit you."
"No, not last night. But I'm old. I pushed and pushed, and then I drew down more power than I can handle anymore. It's fine, though. I accomplished what the spirits wanted, and you took your revenge. Was it what you expected?"
She thought about it. "I thought I'd burn with the hate I've carried all along, and it would feel good. But everything was too urgent and complicated. I don't know if I felt anything."
"What about now?"
She had to think about that, too. "I just feel tired. Like I'll always love my father and my tribe, but now I can let go of them, too. Even Eovath. I'll never understand how he could do what he did, but I don't need to hate him anymore."
"Believe it or not, that's better ...than gloating." Holg drew several shallow breaths. "I said before I have no regrets. But maybe I should have one."
"What?"
"You won't have my magic to help you ...return to the tundra. Still, perhaps you ...don't need it."
For a moment, she wondered what he meant. Then it came to her. "It would be stupid to go back when everyone I have left is here."
She'd tried not to care about Nesteruk, Rho, Vom, and the others, but somehow she'd come to do so anyway. So why not stay and let her new friends teach her to hunt the jungles? It could be a good life if she let it.
Then something else occurred to her. "You knew I'd decide that if you made me think about it."
He smiled his sly, smug smile. "I want to leave you in as good a shape as I can."
"You're the sick one, fool. I should take care of you. What can I do?"
"There is one thing ..."
"Tell me."
"In all the time we ...traveled together, you never smiled."
For some reason, that made tears spill from her eyes. But she managed the smile, too. Then, mindful that the torchlight might be blurring his sight, she took his hand and raised it to trace the bow of her lips.
"You have a good smile," he said.
Outside, drumming clattered.
"The victory celebration," Holg whispered. "Go."
"In a little while."
When the wheezing stopped, she closed his milky eyes. Then, as she'd told him she would, she went to join the living.
About the Author
Richard Lee Byers is the author of more than thirty novels, including the first book in R. A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen series and Blind God's Bluff, the first installment in his new urban fantasy series. In addition, he is also the co-creator of the critically acclaimed young adult series The Nightmare Club. His short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including the Pathfinder Tales story "Lord of Penance," available at paizo.com.
Thanks to James Sutter, Erik Mona, and Andrew Zack for all their help and support. And thanks to Edgar Rice Burroughs. When I was a kid, I thought ERB was the greatest author who ever lived, and I doubt I'd be a writer without his influence. It was great fun to do a story that pays homage to his work.
Glossary
All Pathfinder Tales novels are set in the rich and vibrant world of the Pathfinder campaign setting. Below are explanations of several key terms used in this book. For more information on the world of Golarion and the strange monsters, people, and deities that make it their home, see The Inner Sea World Guide, or dive into the game and begin playing your own adventures with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook or the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box, all available at paizo.com. Fans of Kagur and Holg's subterranean adventures may particularly want to check out the Pathfinder campaign setting book Into the Darklands.
Absalom: Largest city in the Inner Sea region, far to the south of the Realm of the Mammoth Lords.
Blacklions: Small tribe of Kellids on the Ginji Mesa.
Cytillesh: Also called brain mold—a subterranean fungus with strange mind-affecting properties.
Darklands: Extensive series of subterranean caverns crisscrossing much of the Inner Sea region, known to be inhabited by monsters.
Deep Tolguth: One of the Vaults of Orv—a strangely tropical subterranean cavern populated by uncivilized humanoid tribes, demon-worshiping Xulgaths, and prehistoric beasts.
Demons: Evil denizens of the plane of the afterlife called the Abyss, who seek only to maim, ruin, and feed on mortal souls.
Demon Lord: A particularly powerful demon capable of granting magical powers to its followers. One of the rulers of the Abyss.
Desna: Good-natured goddess of dreams, stars, travelers, and luck.
Earthnavel: Legendary tiered pit in the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, leading down into the Darklands.
Following: Term for the collected tribes that follow a specific Mammoth Lord.
Frost Giant: Fifteen-foot-tall humanoids native to cold regions, with white or blue skin and a
famous propensity for battle.
Ghouls: Undead creatures that eat corpses and reproduce by infecting living creatures.
Giants: Race of exceptionally tall and brawny humanoids.
Ginji Mesa: Massive expanse of frigid tundra in the Realm of the Mammoth Lords.
Gorum: God of battle, strength, and weapons. Also known as Our Lord in Iron.
Gug: Bizarre, four-armed humanoid monster with a vertical mouth splitting its head.
Hold of Belkzen: A region populated primarily by savage orc tribes.
Inner Sea Region: The heart of the Pathfinder campaign setting, centered around the eponymous inland sea.
Kellid: Traditionally uncivilized and violent human ethnicity from the northern reaches of the Inner Sea region.
Lands of the Linnorm Kings: Northern kingdoms ruled by the Linnorm Kings, warriors who have managed to slay draconic linnorms single-handed. Sometimes called the Linnorm Kingdoms.
Lord in Iron: Gorum.
Mammoth Lord: The ruler of a following of Kellid tribes in the Realm of the Mammoth Lords.
Muster: Ceremonial meeting of the tribes making up a Mammoth Lord's following.
Mwangi Expanse: Massive jungle region at the southern end of the Inner Sea region.
Nar-Voth: Level of the Darklands closest to the surface.
Orcs: A bestial, warlike race of humanoids originally hailing from deep underground, who now roam the surface in barbaric bands. Universally hated by more civilized races.
Orv: Deepest level of the Darklands, characterized by enormous caverns called Vaults.
Realm of the Mammoth Lords: Cold and relatively uncivilized land at the far northern end of the Inner Sea region, inhabited by loosely confederated tribes of Kellids.
Redcap: Fey creatures that look like tiny, angry old men with bloodstained, pointed caps and metal boots.
Rough Beast: Rovagug
Rovagug: The Rough Beast; the evil god of wrath, disaster, and destruction. Imprisoned deep beneath the earth by the other deities.
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