by Troy Denning
Avner fit a stone into the pocket and whirled the cord over his head, then released the rock. The stone arced high into the air, sailing toward the wood, off to one side of the giants. As it passed over their heads, the youth was already placing his second stone in the sling.
The first missile dropped into the forest, bouncing off a tree trunk with a sharp crack. The heads of both giants swiveled toward the sound. Avner hurled his next stone, angling it slightly away from where the warriors were now looking. As the rock reached the top of its arc, he jumped back into the moldering grain.
Avner barely had himself covered before the two giants yelled for their companions. The youth retreated through the pile, amazed to discover that the odor no longer sickened him. Now that he was doing something, he felt better.
By the time Avner reached the other side of the heap, the frost giant leader and all his warriors were tromping off to investigate the pine stand. Avner crawled from his hiding place, then took a deep breath and sprinted for Shepherd’s Nightmare.
Gavorial waited a long time for an answer, and Tavis knew he would continue to wait. Stone giants were a people of infinite patience, given to careful deliberation and long pondering, so it would seem only natural to one that the scout would consider his response carefully. But Tavis had known the instant he heard the ultimatum what his answer would be. Now he was considering ways to reconcile his duty to the queen with his compulsion to save the shepherd youth’s life.
The boy himself was the first to break the lengthy silence. “Don’t surrender, Tavis.” The youth’s cracking voice was a fearful contrast to his brave words. “You’ve done right enough by my mother and my sisters. All I ask is that you kill that one while you can-just like he and his father killed my brothers and father!”
Strictly speaking, the relationship between the two giants did not parallel that of the youth to his father and brothers. Blood ties were not as important to stone giants as philosophical and spiritual heritage. Odion was more an apostle to Gavorial than a true son, but the boy’s thirst for vengeance did spark an idea in Tavis’s mind.
“Gavorial can still catch your family,” said the scout. “They won’t be safe until he and I come to an agreement.”
“Agreement?” scoffed the youth. “Did you not see what these monsters did to our farm? How can you think he’d honor his word?”
“Because he’s a stone giant.” Tavis locked gazes with Gavorial, searching in vain for some hint of the stone giant’s thoughts. “He won’t have it written in the Chronicles of Stone that he broke a pledge.”
“Just so,” agreed Gavorial. “And I pledge to release the boy and his family if you surrender without harming Odion.”
Tavis shook his head. “You know I can’t do that, Gavorial,” he said. “My duty-”
“It is no longer possible for you to fulfill your duty,” the stone giant interrupted. “Even if you elude me, you cannot keep your promise to Brianna. As we speak, fifteen of my cousins from the snow are ascending the canyon.”
“Frost giants?” Tavis gasped. He almost allowed the tip of his sword to stray from Odion’s ribs.
Gavorial nodded. “We have lured you into a trap,” the giant said. “Accept your fate with grace. At least you will save this boy and what remains of his family.”
The scout felt his legs go icy and weak, though not because he feared the frost giants. To set their trap, the giants had to have known he was coming-and that meant they had a spy in the castle. Tavis’s thoughts leaped immediately to Cuthbert, but he also realized there was another possibility: Arlien. The prince seemed honest enough and brave, and he had even been wounded by a giant, but the mere fact that he was a stranger made him suspect Perhaps Gavorial could be maneuvered into revealing which of the men had betrayed Brianna.
“I had not thought Cuthbert’s loyalties to the old king ran so deep,” Tavis said. “Or that Camden would be fool enough to try taking his kingdom back.”
“Camden already believes he has recaptured Hartsvale,” Gavorial replied. “The old king sits in his grotto from dawn to dusk, wearing a granite crown and sending invisible messengers to phantom earls. He has no part in this.”
“Then why is Cuthbert helping you?” Tavis demanded. “To save his castle?”
“I have no knowledge of the earl or his motives,” Gavorial said. “Odion and I were called to this place and so we came.”
“Called by whom?”
“You know by whom,” Gavorial answered. “I warned you what would happen.”
“The Twilight Spirit planned this?” Tavis gasped. “He’s here?”
“So it is best for you to surrender,” Gavorial replied, dodging the question. “You cannot stop us, and now you are too far from Brianna to use your golden arrow.”
“That may be true,” Tavis said. “But I am no stone giant. For me, the only graceful death is a fighting one.”
Gavorial’s gaze flicked from Tavis down to Odion, his black eyes betraying his sadness.
“Do not despair, Father,” said Odion. “I am ready.”
Gavorial nodded and began to close his fingers.
“Wait!” Tavis called. “Your son and the boy can do nothing, and we must fight no matter what becomes of them.” He lifted his sword from Odion’s back. “Let us spare their lives and resolve this ourselves.”
“That’ll be no good!” the shepherd youth objected. “As long as there’s one giant alive, my sisters are still in danger!”
“I’m sure Odion would pledge to leave them alone and return home,” Tavis said. “If that’s agreeable to Gavorial.”
The stone giant kneeled on the ground, answering with a swiftness uncharacteristic for his race. “It is.”
“But this is not necessary, my father!” Odion objected. “I have prepared myself.”
“I know, my son, but it is also not necessary that you die,” Gavorial said. He opened his hand and allowed the shepherd youth to step onto a bluff. “Tavis is right The battle has come to him and me. Make the pledge.”
Odion remained silent for several long moments, until the scout began to fear the giant would defy his father. Finally, however, Odion said, “I make the pledge. I shall return home as quickly as my wound allows, having nothing more to do with the war against Hartsvale.”
Tavis lifted his sword and saluted Gavorial. “Then it is done,” he said. “Now it is you and I, old friend.”
“I would that it were not so,” the giant answered, rising.
Tavis spun. He covered the length of Odion’s spine in three long strides and leaped onto the blood-soaked tundra. From behind him came a loud clatter as Gavorial tore handfuls of stone from the bluff. The scout rushed toward the next ridge at a full sprint, trying to cover as much distance as possible before the giant began hurling boulders.
Gavorial had a different strategy in mind. Tavis heard a loud sizzle behind him. His back exploded into stinging pain, and he felt himself being driven forward by a spray of gravel. He pitched into the tundra face first, tiny stones hopping across the meadow all around him.
Tavis rose to his knees. His back was raw and wet, with dozens of stone shards poking him like hot nails. The scout gritted his teeth and twisted around to see Gavorial looming above the bluff. Odion sat nearby, holding his injured knee and showing no interest in the fight. The shepherd youth stood on top of the ridge, watching the battle with terrified eyes.
Gavorial grabbed a boulder and stepped over the bluff.
Groaning in pain, Tavis pushed himself to his feet and resumed running. The scout counted three steps before feinting a dodge to his left. When he heard Gavorial grunt, he angled in the opposite direction. The giant’s boulder crashed down a good five paces away, then bounced once and came to rest.
Tavis sprinted straight to the next bluff, tossing his sword onto the summit when he arrived. He felt the ground trembling as Gavorial rushed across the meadow. The scout grabbed a handhold and began to pull, dragging himself up the rocky face in three m
oves. Behind him, the tundra hissed as Gavorial’s tremendous weight smashed it down.
Tavis peered across the top of the crag. His sword lay directly before him, the tip pointing at his nose and the hilt turned so that it lay two feet beyond his grasp. The scout felt a gust of hot breath brush across his back. Guessing what Gavorial would do next, he leaped to the left, reaching for a jagged spine of stone that angled out from the cliff.
Gavorial’s open hand slammed into the bluff behind the firbolg. Tavis grabbed the rock spear and swung his legs up hard. He spun over the spike, launching himself toward the bluff’s top.
Tavis’s feet touched down first, exactly as he had planned, but he had too much speed and tumbled over backward. Gavorial’s black eyes appeared in the sky above. The scout did a backward somersault, at the same time reaching for his sword. Gavorial closed his fingers, forming a fist as large as a cloud, and his hand started down. Tavis felt the hilt of his sword and grabbed, pointing the tip up.
The giant’s huge fist struck dead on. The pommel clanged against the rocky bluff, driving the blade deep into Gavorial’s hand and snapping the steel.
The stone giant bellowed in pain and jerked his hand away, spraying Tavis with hot blood. The scout tossed the useless hilt aside and rolled to his feet. He raced three steps across the bluff and leaped toward his bow. Gavorial sprang onto the bluff behind him, and a loud crash rumbled across the meadow.
Tavis landed and snatched Bear Driller on the run. He ducked behind a stone Odion had hurled at him earlier, then pulled a runearrow from his quiver and nocked it The firbolg raised his head and saw Gavorial leaping down from the ridge, a huge foot kicking at the boulder.
Tavis did not see the enormous heel strike, or even hear the crash. He simply found himself flying through the air in terrible pain, with Bear Driller sailing in one direction and the runearrow in the other. He landed in a limp heap and bounced across the tundra, tumbling head-over-heels an untold number of times.
When he finally came to rest, the scout did not wait for his head to stop spinning. He jumped up and lurched off in the direction he thought his runearrow had flown, knowing that any move would be safer than waiting for Gavorial to stomp on him. His chest ached where the giant’s kick had driven the boulder into him, and his breath came in ragged gasps. The runearrow lay less than five paces ahead. The fletching hung in tatters, but the shaft and head remained intact.
Tavis felt a jolt and thought his knees had buckled, then realized it was only Gavorial’s heavy steps shaking the ground. The scout stooped over to grab the runearrow and saw the shadow of a huge foot fall over it. He pulled his hand back, empty, and leaped away. The stone giant’s foot came down hard, sending a shudder through the entire meadow.
“Basil is wise!” Tavis yelled.
The scout felt the explosion in the pit of his stomach, a terrible impact that seemed to arise from somewhere deep inside his own being. He found himself hurling through the air amidst a crimson spray laden with smoking flesh and pulverized bone. He did not hear the boom until much later, after the Shockwave had slammed him to the ground fifty paces from where it had picked him up. The cool mountain breeze carried the sickening smell of charred meat to his nostrils.
A harsh, anguished moan filled Tavis’s ears. At first he thought he might be making the horrid sound, reacting to some injury he had not yet sensed. But the scout had at least a vague awareness of his body, and while he ached all over, he felt no stabbing pains or unexplained numbness. He rose to his knees and looked in Gavorial’s direction.
The stone giant was not making the noise, either. He lay propped on his elbows, watching the stumps of his legs pour blood into a smoking crater. His gray skin had turned white, and he held his jaw clenched against the pain, but his black eyes seemed more interested in the process of dying than fearful of it.
The moaning ended in a single cry of despair, and Tavis looked toward the bluff to see Odion’s grief-stricken face peering down at his mentor. “My father!”
Gavorial looked up, then motioned to Odion. “Come, my son. The time has come for us to say our farewells.”
Dragging his injured leg behind him, Odion clambered over the bluff and slipped down to sit at his father’s side. “You have not left me yet” The giant pulled off his tunic and began to rip it into tourniquet strips. “I can drag you back to Stonehome.”
Gavorial laid a hand on his son’s arm. “How can I continue to walk the warrior’s path without legs?” The stone giant began to shiver, and his voice grew weak. “Let me depart proudly the life I have chosen.”
Odion’s big shoulders fell into a slump. He slipped an arm around Gavorial’s neck and cradled his father’s head in the crook of his elbow. “It shall be written that you died with pride and grace, my father.”
Gavorial managed a weak smile. “Let it also be written that I was felled by the dauntless firbolg Tavis Burdun,” he said. “And that we both fought well, in causes as legitimate as they are ancient”
Odion nodded. “I shall inscribe the record myself.”
Tavis rose and started forward to say his own farewells, but before he had taken three steps, a deep groan slipped from Gavorial’s mouth. The giant’s black eyes went gray and vacant, and the purple shadow of death crept down his face.
Odion let Gavorial’s head slip from his lap, then stood and looked to the eastern horizon. “I shall see you in Twilight, my father.”
The stone giant turned and limped away, leaving Gavorial’s body behind as though it were no longer of consequence.
The shepherd boy clambered down the bluff and ran to Tavis, panting heavily from his long sprint. “You won!”
The scout shook his head. “I prevailed,” he corrected. “Gavorial was not evil, and in killing him I also lost.”
The youth shrugged. “You survived. I’m glad of that”
Tavis nodded. “We can be thankful for that.” He looked down at the youth. “What is your name?”
“Eamon Drake at your service.” The youth bowed. “And you would be Tavis Burdun, am I right?”
“You are,” Tavis answered. He looked toward the ledge on Wyvern’s Eyrie, where the boy’s mother and sisters still stood, nervously eyeing the injured giant limping toward them. “Can you get back onto the ledge with your family?”
“They have a rope they can lower.”
“Good.” Tavis pulled one of his regular arrows from his quiver and handed it to the youth. The shaft was only an inch shy of being as tall as the boy. “Take this to Earl Wendel. He’ll recognize it by its length and know you speak in my name. Tell him the giants have trapped Queen Brianna in Cuthbert Castle.”
The boy’s eyes went wide.
“Earl Wendel is to send a rider to summon the Queen’s Guard from Castle Hartwick, and he is also to gather as many warriors from his own fief and those of his neighbors as he can,” Tavis said. “When the Queen’s Guard reaches Wendel Manor, you are to lead the entire army back over this pass. Do you understand?”
Eamon managed to close his gaping mouth, then nodded. “You can trust in me.”
Tavis clapped the boy’s shoulder. “I know I can.”
“Sir, if you don’t mind me asking, what are you going to do?” the youth inquired. “You’ve seen how narrow the canyon is. You’ll never get past all those frost giants.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” Tavis said. He pulled Basil’s runemask from his satchel and turned toward Gavorial’s corpse. “They won’t even try to stop me.”
7
Dangerous Ford
Sitting in the sun, with the smell of pine thick in the air and the sound of water gurgling off the gorge walls, Tavis could have fallen asleep. With a cool breeze wafting down the canyon and a pair of white-winged dippers sweeping low over the stream, it was the kind of day that called out to his firbolg blood, enticing him to rest and enjoy the most valuable of all the treasures the mountains had to offer: an afternoon of blissful, unsullied tranquility.
&nbs
p; But even if his duty had permitted such a thing, the scout felt sure the frost giants coming up the canyon would bring the respite to a premature end. From his hiding place behind a boulder he could see fifteen of them filing through the gorge below, their pale, bushy beards and milky skin visible even from a distance of several hundred paces. They were just beyond the crest of a silvery waterfall, preparing to cross the stream at a narrow ford. The first warrior was climbing down to the water alone, while his fellows waited on the trail more than a dozen paces above.
Tavis cursed the giants’ caution. The ford was perfect for an ambush, located in one the narrowest places in the canyon and flanked on both sides by high, sheer walls of granite. There was even a large beaver pond less than two hundred paces above the waterfall. If the giants had been foolish enough to cross the stream en masse, the scout could have fired a runearrow into the dam and unleashed a flood that would have washed them all down the gorge.
Tavis did not understand why the frost giants were being so careful today. In a race notorious for its bluster, such caution seemed out of place, almost as though they were expecting trouble. The scout hoped the brutes had not somehow learned of his triumph over Gavorial.
Tavis slid down from his hiding place and retreated up the trail to a small clearing. He sat down next to a pool of still water and took Basil’s runemask out of his satchel. It now resembled Gavorial’s death mask rather than a smiling human face. The open mouth had tightened into the indifferent grimace of a stone giant, silver lids had descended to cover the gaping eyes, and the magical runes in its surface had rearranged themselves into crow’s feet and worry lines.
Tavis set Bear Driller on the ground next to him, then took off his sword belt and placed the mask over his face. A biting chill seeped from the cold silver into his flesh. His skin went numb, though he felt the muscles below being tugged and stretched as the runecaster’s magic folded his visage into the deeply lined image of a stone giant. He did not feel as though he were growing to giant size, but he did sense a dull ache in the bones of his skull and face. His jaw dropped and lengthened into a drooping chin, while his nasal septum descended to form an arrow-shaped nose. A pair of deep, permanent furrows etched themselves into his brow, then his bronze hair began to fall out, and he saw it floating away on the breeze.