Havok sensed the shift in attention and angled his charge just moments before contact, hoofs pounding along the very edge of the walkway.
The Rathyd directly before them managed a single backward step, swinging a two-handed overhead chop at Havok’s snout as he went.
Karsa took that blade on his own, even as he twisted and threw his right leg forward, his left back. Havok turned beneath him, surged in towards the centre of the walkway.
The V had collapsed, and every Rathyd warrior was on Karsa’s left.
Havok carried him diagonally across the walkway. Keening his delight, Karsa slashed and chopped repeatedly, his blade finding flesh and bone as often as weapon. Havok pitched around before reaching the opposite edge, and lashed out his hind legs. At least one connected, flinging a shattered body from the bridge.
The pack then arrived. Snarling bodies hurling onto the Rathyd warriors-most of whom had turned when engaging Karsa, and so presented exposed backs to the frenzied dogs. Shrieks filled the air.
Karsa spun Havok round. They plunged back into the savage press. Two Rathyd had managed to fight clear of the dogs, blood spraying from their blades as they backed up the walkway.
Bellowing a challenge, Karsa drove towards them.
And was shocked to see them both leap from the walkway.
‘Bloodless cowards! I witness! Your youths witness! These damned dogs witness!’
He saw them reappear, weapons gone, scrambling and stumbling across the bog.
Delum and Bairoth arrived, dismounting to add their swords to the maniacal frenzy of the surviving dogs as they tore unceasing at fallen Rathyd.
Karsa drew Havok to one side, eyes still on the fleeing warriors, who had been joined now by the four youths. ‘I witness! Urugal witnesses!’
Gnaw, black and grey hide barely visible beneath splashes of gore, panted up to stand beside Havok, his muscles twitching but no wounds showing. Karsa glanced back and saw that four more dogs remained, whilst a fifth had lost a foreleg and limped a red circle off to one side.
‘Delum, bind that one’s leg-we will sear it anon.’
‘What use a three-legged hunting dog, Warleader?’ Bairoth asked, breathing heavy.
‘Even a three-legged dog has ears and a nose, Bairoth Gild. One day, she will lie grey-nosed and fat before my hearth, this I swear. Now, is either of you wounded?’
‘Scratches.’ Bairoth shrugged, turning away.
‘I have lost a finger,’ Delum said as he drew out a leather strap and approached the wounded dog, ‘but not an important one.’
Karsa looked once more at the retreating Rathyd. They had almost reached a stand of black spruce. The warleader sent them a final sneer, then laid a hand on Havok’s brow. ‘My father spoke true, Havok. I have never ridden such a horse as you.’
An ear had cocked at his words. Karsa leaned forward and set his lips to the beast’s brow. ‘We become, you and I,’ he whispered, ‘legend. Legend, Havok.’ Straightening, he studied the sprawl of corpses on the walkway, and smiled. ‘It is time for trophies, my brothers. Bairoth, did your bear skull survive?’
‘I believe so, Warleader.’
‘Your deed was our victory, Bairoth Gild.’
The heavy man turned, studied Karsa through slitted eyes. ‘You ever surprise me, Karsa Orlong.’
‘As your strength does me, Bairoth Gild.’
The man hesitated, then nodded. ‘I am content to follow you, Warleader.’
You ever were, Bairoth Gild, and that is the difference between us.
CHAPTER TWO
There are hints, if one scans the ground with a clear and sharp eye, that this ancient Jaghut war, which for the Kron T’lan Imass was either their seventeenth or eighteenth, went terribly awry. The Adept who accompanied our expedition evinced no doubt whatsoever that a Jaghut remained alive within the Laederon glacier. Terribly wounded, yet possessing formidable sorcery still. Well beyond the ice river’s reach (a reach which has been diminishing over time), there are shattered remains of T’lan Imass, the bones strangely malformed, and on them the flavour of fierce and deadly Omtose Phellack lingering to this day.
Of the ensorcelled stone weapons of the Kron, only those that were broken in the conflict remained, leading one to assume that either looters have been this way, or the T’lan Imass survivors (assuming there were any) took them with them…
The Nathii Expedition of 1012
Kenemass Trybanos, Chronicler
‘I believe,’ Delum said as they led their horses down from the walkway, ‘that the last group of the hunt has turned back.’
‘The plague of cowardice ever spreads,’ Karsa growled. ‘They surmised at the very first,’ Bairoth rumbled, ‘that we were crossing their lands. That our first attack was not simply a raid. So, they will await our return, and will likely call upon the warriors of other villages.’