The Doom of Kings: Legacy of Dhakaan - Book 1 (30 page)

Geth wore an expression of disappointment as Dagii led them away from the edge of the pit and under the thick canopy of the forest once more. Ekhaas moved close to him. “You wouldn’t be able to see down there,” she murmured. “And as stealthy as you can be sometimes, you’re not one of the
shaarat’khesh
. Let Chetiin do what he came to do.”

“I know,” Geth said. “But I should be doing something more than pointing the way.”

Ashi had her hand back on his shoulder, following his guidance. She gave a low laugh. “Don’t worry, Geth. I’m sure you’ll still have your chance.”

Back among the trees, Geth gave Ashi over to Midian’s care while he checked the straps and buckles of his great gauntlet. Dagii was crouched against the trunk of one of the valley’s shaggy old trees, his eyes darting around at the night. Ekhaas sheathed her sword and crouched beside him. “What do you think is down there?” she asked.

“I don’t know. My mind buckles at the possibilities. Undead. Some creature of Khyber. A dragon? All I can think of are the stories of
duur’kala.”
Dagii grimaced, exposing his teeth. “Your guess is likely better than mine. The histories of the Kech Volaar say nothing of this place?”

“The Kech Volaar see the greatest glory in the legacy of Dhakaan,” Ekhaas said with a shake of her head. “Tales of the time before the union of the Six Kings are almost as scarce and unreliable as tales of the Desperate Times. Maybe some mention of ancient stairs in the wilderness exists in the archives of Volaar Draal but if it does, I’ve never seen it, and it has never been linked to the legend of the Rod of Kings. The stairs would have been here in the time of Dabrak Riis, though.”

“Assuming they really are pre-Dhakaani.”

Ekhaas’s ears stood up. “You don’t think they are?”

Dagii’s eyes remained on the darkness of the forest. “I’m a soldier, not a
duur’kala
, Ekhaas. I can’t always accept that things are what they appear to be. The stairs may be carved in a pre-Dhakaani fashion, but isn’t it possible they were fashioned some time later?”

She turned to look at him. “You’ve been talking too much with Midian!” she said.

“Cho
, but Midian is even more enamored with the age of the steps than you are,” he said with a snort. “I’m looking at alternatives. Why should the steps be as old as you say?”

“You’ll be doubting the existence of the rod next.”

“I don’t doubt the existence of the rod. The existence of Aram proves part of your story, and Aram is pointing to
something.”
He tilted his head to the side and looked at her. “I won’t follow the past
like a slave following his master. Haruuc is lhesh because he saw beyond the way things have always—”

Ekhaas saw his gaze slip beyond her for an instant. She saw his eyes go wide—and in the next moment, Dagii had dropped his sword and lunged at her. His arms wrapped around her and his armored torso slammed into her body, knocking her backward and along the ground.

“Toh!”
he roared, and through the shower of dirt and leaf litter that accompanied their roll, Ekhaas saw the massive clawed hand that had dug into the ground where she’d been crouching.

She followed it up, past a bizarrely long arm to powerful shoulders and a hideous drooping face. Behind clumped hair, and dark eyes stared down with baleful hunger. The moment seemed to slow. The clawed hand lifted, scattering dirt as it rose, ready to strike again.

The moment of shock ended. Time resumed its frantic pace as the hand fell. Ekhaas and Dagii acted in unison this time, pushing away from each other. The claw came down between them, so close Ekhaas could smell a stink like wet and moldering canvas. “Troll!” shouted Dagii, rolling to his feet and grabbing for his sword.

It wasn’t the only one. Two more of the creatures burst out of the forest as if the trees were giving birth to them. Their thick hides were as knotted and warty as mossy bark, and they were tall, easily half again as tall as Ashi or Dagii. They wailed and howled, and the night that had been so silent was suddenly loud.

But Dagii’s warning had been enough. Geth met the attack of one troll with sword and gauntlet. Midian tumbled away from another, drawing it after him. Ashi, blind, put her back against a tree and sank into a defensive crouch, her head darting in the direction of every noise, trying to track the battle by sound. Dagii’s sword was back in his hand—he rose just in time to meet another blow from the first troll. Claws raked across metal, and if Dagii hadn’t been armored he probably would have been eviscerated. Ekhaas drew her sword and slashed at the troll, trying to drive it back. Confronted with two attackers, it paused for a moment, then pushed on with its attack. Dagii was ready for it this time, though, and slid under its wild swing.

The troll that Geth fought howled, and from the corner of her eye, Ekhaas saw it smash at the shifter with both hands. Geth leaped aside, and a look of concentration passed across his face as he called on his heritage and shifted.

His hair grew even thicker and more coarse, his skin tougher and hide-like. When he looked at the troll again, there was fury in his eye that would have given any other creature pause. The troll went after him once more, claws slashing for his belly. Geth twisted, letting the full force of the blow slide off him. The troll’s claws caught in his shirt and tore the fabric apart, but Ekhaas saw only shallow scratches on Geth’s skin as he answered the blow. Turning inside the troll’s reach, Geth swung Aram in an arc that cut halfway through the monster’s torso. He whipped the sword free and dark blood sprayed out after it—then stopped.

Like two pieces of clay pressed together, the edges of the terrible wound merged and sealed. The troll staggered for a moment, then threw itself right back at Geth.

F
ire or acid!” Dagii called. “You have to burn the flesh!” He risked a glance at Ekhaas as he blocked another blow from the troll facing them. “Do you know any fire magic?”

If her ears weren’t already back, they would have been. “No,” she said.
“Duur’kala
can’t manipulate fire.”

“Maabet!”
Dagii spun his sword in a deadly circle, but the troll just reached past the blur of metal. Dagii’s blade put a deep nick into one arm. It took the other hand off completely. The troll hissed and jerked back. Snatching up the severed hand, it pressed it to the bleeding stump. The rush of blood stopped immediately, and an instant later the troll was wiggling its taloned fingers once more. Dagii and Ekhaas backed away from it.

“Alchemist’s fire,” Midian gasped. The gnome was whirling around the third troll. Watching it swat at him was like watching a dog trying to bite at a flea. Midian’s pick, however, was having about as much effect as a flea’s bite. No sooner had he pulled it out of the troll’s flesh than the thin puncture wound was healed. It was clear he was only fighting to keep the troll busy and away from Ashi. “In my backpack. Give me some room and I can get it!”

“Open your lantern too!’ said Ashi.
“Rondbetch
, I need to see!”

The sound of her voice brought Midian’s troll around, and Ekhaas saw its dark eyes seek out the human woman standing alone. Her gut twisted. “Midian! Be ready!” she shouted, then she drew a breath and sang the music of the ages up from her belly.

Her will shaped the song, giving it form and power beyond the pure notes that poured from her throat. The spell was simple, the only thing she could think of quickly—a dizzying barrage of emotion and raw music. The troll stumbled and clutched at its head, howling at the confusing assault.

Midian moved, racing past the howling troll to his pack where it lay abandoned on the ground, shed for the sake of mobility. “Ashi! At your feet!” he called and bowled the everbright lantern to her. As Ashi dropped to her knees and groped for the lantern, he dug into the pack and pulled out a flask wrapped in woven straw.

“Hurry!” said Ekhaas. The troll was already shaking its head and looking around as the short-lived magic faded. This time, however, its eyes fixed on her. Dim intelligence flickered in them. It knew she had used magic against it, and it knew that made her a bigger threat than the others. She raised her sword as it howled again and reached for her.

Light that seemed as brilliant as the sun flooded the forest as Ashi snapped open the lantern. The sudden flare was dazzling, and for a moment even the trolls screeched and covered their eyes. With the weird fluting cry of a Bonetree hunter, Ashi threw herself onto the troll that had been about to strike Ekhaas. Her bright blade flashed, plunged deep between its shoulders, and ripped down its back, dragged through lumpy blue-green flesh by Ashi’s weight. She twisted, and the sword cut into its spine—the troll dropped like a rag doll.

“Back!” Midian snapped, and Ashi stepped away. The gnome darted in, ducking and weaving as the troll tried to drag itself around and flail at him with its claws. The horrible wound in its back was already starting to close. Midian leaped over its useless legs, pulled open the flask, and dashed the contents up the length of the troll’s back.

The liquid in the flask was thick and yellowish. For an instant, Ekhaas could smell an acrid odor in the air, then hot blue flames erupted along the troll’s back. Healing flesh turned black, its rapid regrowth halted. The troll let out a scream of agony and twisted around, trying to beat at the flames, but the burning liquid only clung to its hands. Midian flung the flask at the creature’s head
and it shattered, the remaining liquid inside engulfing the troll’s scalp in a licking blue halo. The troll tried to push itself over, to smother the flames against the ground. Grimly, Ekhaas moved forward and hacked at one arm. Muscles severed, the arm folded and the troll fell back, mewling horribly as the alchemist’s fire ate into its body.

The other two trolls paused, staring as if they had never seen one of their own brought down before. The hesitation was their undoing. Dagii let out a roar and spun around in a tight circle, putting all of his weight behind his sword. The blade sheared through one hip of the troll he fought, and the monster crashed down. Before it could even wail, he brought his sword down again and through its neck. Its head rolled into the darkness beyond the lantern light. Geth punched his troll in the belly with his gauntleted fist. As it folded over, he dropped into a low spinning kick that swept its legs out from under it. The troll fell back with a grunt—and Chetiin dropped out of the shadows, landing on its chest and plunging his curved dagger into its ear. The troll spasmed, then lay still. Chetiin rolled off and gestured for Geth. The shifter raised his sword and chopped off the monster’s head.

“Maabet!”
cursed Dagii. “Midian! More fire!” Ekhaas spun. Dagii was staring at the neck of the troll he had killed. The bloody flesh was twisting up into a knob. The creature’s
head
was growing back.

Midian was pale. “There is no more fire! Sage’s shadow, the stuff isn’t water!”

“It wouldn’t matter,” Chetiin said. “There are more trolls at the bottom of the stairs. A whole nest—at least half a dozen. These three must have been guards.”

Dagii’s ears rose. “Trolls don’t post guards.”

“These do.” He twisted around, back toward the stairs, and Ekhaas heard what he had: the slap of running feet on stones.

Their combat had been far from silent. Chetiin’s stealthy scouting had been wasted. The rest of the nest was coming.

“Run,” said Dagii.

“Where?” Geth had Aram raised. In the lantern light, his wide shifter eyes flashed with a strange excitement Ekhaas had
never seen in him before. He looked like he was willing to go down fighting.

Inspiration struck Ekhaas. “The bugbears!” she said. “They had pitch ready as a weapon. They must know about the trolls.”

“They’re Marguul,” said Dagii.

“They’re more likely to help us than the trolls. Do we have another option?”

Dagii slammed his sword down through the bud of the troll’s regenerating head, severing the raw flesh once more. “No. Everyone go!”

They ran, and the night filled up with the thrashing sound of their flight. Ashi carried the lantern, the light like a beacon for the pursuing trolls, but there was no other option. Sound alone would have given them away, and Ashi needed light to see where she was going. The shadows were more of a problem than the light. Brilliant illumination and the colorless clarity of goblin nightvision flashed in Ekhaas’s eyes as the lantern swung. Trees and bushes blended together. She saw a half-fallen tree she thought she recognized from their trek into the valley, but she couldn’t be certain.

“We need direction before we run in a circle!” she said.

“Geth, take the lead,” Dagii ordered. “Go opposite to the way Aram points and keep us on a straight line.”

The shifter moved forward to run ahead of them. Howls and hoots rose from behind—the trolls from the nest must have encountered their stricken guards. There was a single crash like a tree being knocked over, then abruptly nothing more from their pursuers. A faint hope rose in Ekhaas that the trolls had seen what they were capable of and turned back, but she saw how ridiculous the idea was almost as soon as it passed into her head. The valley belonged to the trolls. They knew the territory. The guard trolls had been able to slip up on them easily. The other trolls would be stalking them with the silence and speed of wolves.