Into the fire

"Ry

Out on the floor of the basin, the vast Swarm of Foul Folk came on-Rucks and Hloks tramping forward, and Ghuls on Helsteeds riding, Trolls lumbering, Gargons stalking, a Dragon circling high above. Yet Modru did not let them race ahead but deliberately held them to their pace, for with his overpowering might, he knew certain victory was his. Even so, as a token of what was to come, he did loose his Vulgs to attack, for they would spread terror and poison among these fools who sought to oppose him.

Black and vicious, across the basin they sped, howling in savage glee. Yet down the slope came racing six silver shapes at the call of a seventh below.

Amid battle cries and shouts of rage and the clash of steel on steel, on the slope the two armies crashed together, swords and axes riving, spears piercing, maces smashing, morning stars and hammers crushing, tulwars and long, curved swords and scimitars and axes responding in kind, blades cleaving through flesh and bone and armor alike, with blunt-faced weapons crunching and pulping and breaking and pulverizing whatever it was they hammered.

"Ry

Ssss-thok! Tipperton's arrow took the foe in the throat, and he fell to his knees, clutching his neck, unable to breathe, his eyes wide and filled with death.

With Beau and Li

Ry

Tipperton slowed and held out his arm and she grabbed it and, struggling, gasping in pain, her left arm useless, still she managed to swing up behind. "Ride to where bows will be effective," she cried, and Tipperton galloped toward the nearest edge of the slope.

"Dinly!" Tip heard Li

Down the steep side of the ramp they fled, their mounts barely able to keep their feet, and then Nix's pony tumbled tail over saddle, throwing Nix free to crash down the stony slant, the pony behind cartwheeling-Crack!-breaking its neck but still tumbling, slamming atop Nix and sliding on past to come to the bottom below, as the others reached the flat to gallop toward the towering shield wall.

Dazed, Nix managed to stagger to his feet, yet one foot seemed twisted at an angle. Even so, he started down the remainder of the steep pitch toward the bottom, but scrambling down after came the Fists of Rakka, and in the lead one of the black-robed men paused and aimed his crossbow and let fly the bolt. It struck Nix full in the back, and he tumbled down dead, sliding through rubble and scree to fetch up beside his pony.

"Nix!" screamed Li

"Li

Farly shouted in rage and galloped back toward the slope. And even as Li

Beau slid his pony to a halt beside Li

Yet sobbing, Li

Tipperton and Ry

Pursued by twenty or more black-robed Fists of Rakka, toward the shield wall the Wee Folk galloped, passing by bubbling pools of steaming mud, the odor horrific. Past a long, glittering ridge of sharp crystal clusters they hammered, crystals sharp as the sharpest of blades. Past sulfu-rous vents they fled, yellow-brown smoke billowing out, and along a jagged fissure exhaling foul fumes from deep within its abyssal depths. But at last they came to the jumbled slope at the base of the shield wall, and dismounting and leading their ponies, up the rubble they went, with Fists of Rakka ru

"Look out, Farly!" But Li

Beau whirled his sling and loosed a bullet-Crack!-the man to scream and clutch at his head and fall backwards even as the others fled down and away.

Li

Tipperton glanced back at Ry

The remainder of the ponies had all been slain by the Fists of Rakka, the horselings unable to take adequate shelter behind fallen rock at the wall. And now Farly lay dead, and though Tipperton and Li

Again the Fists of Rakka came creeping upward, cautiously slipping from rock to rock, for the Warrows were more formidable than the black-robed men had ever imagined. Even so, to die in the service of Rakka won them eternal bliss, hence onward they came. Tipperton took careful aim just at the edge of a boulder, for that's where the one he targeted would appear.

Ssss… flew the arrow thock! to strike, the man to fall dead in the rubble and slide down a ways and stop.

The other Fists of Rakka again retreated.

Of a sudden, Ry

"What is it?" hissed Tipperton.

She turned and pressed her ear against the shield wall. "The stone, Tipperton, there is a sound."

"A sound?"

"Yes, like-"

Yaaaaahhh…! From below there came a collective yawl.

"Here they come again," said Beau, setting his sling atwirl.

Tipperton turned and peered past the boulder. Charging up the slope came the Fists of Rakka, ru

"Make every shot count!" yelled Tipperton. "Else we are doomed!"

But in the very moment he drew -from behind there came a splitting noise, as of cloven stone -and the Fists of Rakka cried out in fear and fled scrambling downward.