City of Fire

The Lair

Trebba and Ian disappeared into the cave mouth, and for a few short, agonizing moments, Naull, Early, and Regdar crouched in the darkness.

Ian soon appeared in the dim light outside the cave mouth. He stood nearly erect and waved. By their pre-arranged plan, Early started forward, moving quickly up to the cliff wall then along the edge to where the ranger stood. Naull waited until Early passed the orcs' septic hole and followed. Regdar came last.

Naull gave a sharp intake of breath as she arrived at the cave mouth. Trebba sat with her back against the rough stone wall, her hand clutched to her right shoulder. The thief was in obvious pain. Her breasts rose and fell with labored breathing.

"I'm all right. I'm all right," she chanted.

Beside her lay a bloody bolt and what looked like a few yards of string.

When Regdar arrived, Ian said, "Trebba found a tripwire strung across the entrance. It would've sounded some sort of alarm. She disabled it, but then that-" the half-elf pointed to the dart on the ground-"shot out of the ceiling. It would've gotten her right in the top of the skull, but she twisted out of the way."

"Not far enough," Trebba gasped. "But I'm all right. Help me up."

The rogue stood with Regdar's assistance. Early looked at the wound while Ian studied the arrow.

"Nasty," the big man said, "but it's clean. Good job." He inclined his head to Ian.

"I don't think the bolt was poisoned," Ian replied. "Or if it was, the poison lost its effect, sitting up there for so long."

"Thanks ever so much, guys," Trebba said with disdain.

She moved her pack's straps over to her uninjured shoulder.

"You all right?" Regdar asked. "You could wait here."

Trebba shook her head and answered, "No. If there's more traps in there, you're going to need someone to find them."

Early looked into the darkness and said, "I can't see more than my hand in front of my face."

In answer, Naull drew a few items out of her pouches.

"Better than torches," Regdar agreed.

A few murmured words later and an eye-sized stone in the wizard's hand lit up with a heatless flame like that of a torch. One smooth motion later, Naull had the stone affixed to a small, cheap ring. She opened and closed her hand over it a few times, illuminating the cave mouth and dimming it to near-darkness again in the process.

"Nice trick," Early said. "I seen light spells, o'course, but that ring's handy."

"Keeps my hands free but lets me cut off the light if we need to." Naull took the ring off and handed it to Trebba. "If you're going first, though, you'll need it."

The rogue nodded and took the ring. The party headed in; Trebba first, shielding the light as much as she could. Regdar and Ian followed, and lastly Naull and Early came side-by-side.

In truth, Naull expected the cave to simply open into one large cavern, but she realized quickly that that wasn't going to happen. The orcs were lucky in their choice of lairs. The cave turned into a tunnel that twisted and fell away to the right almost immediately. Trebba uncovered and disabled another alarm or trap-she didn't bother telling them which it was- and the party started moving a little more quickly.

The passage wound away and down for perhaps a hundred more feet. In the dim light, they could see the next turn, the next dive, and then nothing. The ranger reached out and grasped the rogue's belt, stopping her short.

"Shh… listen."

As one, the party held its breath. They heard noises that sounded like speech, coming from ahead of them.

Trebba moved forward alone, returning a few moments later.

"There's an intersection up there, and some light coming from around the right corner. To the left it's dark, but it goes up really steeply. I didn't see or hear anything, but I couldn't look around without moving into the open."

Regdar nodded.

"Trebba, Ian, you take point," he said. "I bet the orcs're around that way to the right and that's their living area, but there may be some up and to the left. Be careful." He turned to Early and Naull and continued, "Early, you go next, with me right behind. When we see around the corner, if it is the main orc lair, I'm gonna want you-" Regdar pointed to the big man there-"to get up front with me in a hurry. Trebba, you drop back with Naull and make sure nothing comes down on us from the left. If things look clear, you can start shooting into the main cavern, but keep those arrows out of our backs."

Naull smiled slightly at the fighter's joke but she knew he was in earnest.

Trebba started to move away, but Regdar grabbed her hand and said, "If Ian is right, we'll have a more or less even fight on our hands. I want to get into the cavern, if that's what it is, as quickly as possible. Most of us're more maneuverable than the orcs, but I don't want any surprises. Something drops down from that other passage, shout your head off. They'll know we're here if that happens anyway."

"All right."

As Trebba and Ian moved forward, Early watched but Regdar hesitated.

"What do you think, Naull?" he asked in a voice too quiet for anyone but the small woman to hear.

"It's a decent plan," she answered nervously. "I hope Ian is right about the orcs, though, or we could be headed for trouble."

Regdar shook his head. He doesn't want to do this, either, she thought suddenly. She almost asked him again to call the whole attack off, but the moment passed.

As the party approached, the sounds grew in volume. Foul orc speech and cursing came from the passage to the right, and they saw the firelight flicker on the uneven stone. Trebba skillfully slipped up around the corner and back again. In the dim light she nodded and held up five fingers.

Regdar and Early moved up. Early had his long sword and shield ready, but Regdar bent and strung his large bow.

With a glance up the passage to the left, the two fighters went around the corner. A shout of surprise from the orcs greeted them, and Regdar's bow twanged. The arrow took a heavyset orc in the chest. He spun around in place and fell, right near the fire.

"That's four to go!" Early shouted.

He started rushing forward and Regdar, dropping his bow, swept out his sword, and followed.

The melee that ensued was fast and brutal. Early and Regdar barreled into the remaining orcs at full speed. Though the brutes had their gear on and their weapons out, they weren't prepared for two large humans-one nearly seven feet tall and screaming like a madman and the other encased almost entirely in blackened plate armor and wielding a sword almost as long as he was tall-attacking them in their lair. They gave ground quickly. When Ian entered the fray, one orc threw down its weapon and turned to run.

With a yelp, the orc sprawled on its face, one of Ian's small axes buried in its back. In a flash Ian yanked a second axe from his belt and rushed forward to duel with a big orc. Its two-handed axe blows cleft nothing but air as the half-elf played with his prey. When the orc tossed a quick glance over its shoulder toward the exit, the tip of the half-elf's rapier thrust forward and pierced the orc through the neck.

Naull watched both the battle and the dark passage leading up. She thought about casting her last light spell up there, but Trebba had the ring out and she could see the hole in the "ceiling" that led to an upper area. Nothing stirred up there, so Naull turned back to the fight.

With three orcs down in only twice as many seconds, the fight was nearly over. Early and Regdar each fought to keep the last few humanoids at bay, but they didn't want them to escape, either. Beyond the fire they could see another passage-a large, dark cave mouth. If the two fled down there, who knew how long it would take to catch them. Better to finish the last of them off in the open, rather than hunt them through their warren.

The last of them? Naull thought.

She scanned the three-now four, as Early's foe was down, too-orc corpses in the room. She glanced up at the last just as Regdar drove his bastard sword into its guts.

No, that's not the leader, either, she concluded.

She'd seen the leader only briefly back at the ambush site, but none of these orcs were nearly as well armed and armored as he had been. She wouldn't forget that two-handed cleaver anytime soon.

"Regdar!" she called out to tell him, but then Trebba screamed.

By bad coincidence, both women were paying attention to the battle and not the hole at just the wrong time. As if they'd known of the watchers' distraction, two large orcs sprang down through the chute. One right after the other bore down on the wizard and the rogue. The first drove the point of a longspear into Trebba's stomach as she turned back to face them. The dark woman collapsed sideways with a gasp, blocking the passage for a precious second. Naull leaped back before she could suffer a similar fate.

The wizard found herself alone at the top of the passage facing two huge orcs. Up close, their yellow fangs looked huge and their breath stank of rotten meat. One croaked evilly as it twisted its spear in Trebba's stomach and she whimpered on the ground, rolling away. The other swept a cruelly familiar two-handed sword from its back sheath and stepped toward Naull.

The wizard fell backward, holding one hand up as if in futile defense, but the sound that escaped the small woman's hps wasn't a scream. The sword came down hard, but sheared off at the last second as it struck a magical, invisible shield. Naull tried to back-step and she tumbled backward into the larger room.

The orc with the spear wrenched it out of Trebba's body, then leaped past Naull and down toward the fighters. Regdar turned when Trebba screamed and cried out with rage, starting back up the passage. The orc stabbed at the more lightly-armored Early. Trebba's blood spattered the man's wooden shield as it turned the blow aside, but Early's riposte also flew wide. The orc spun in place and brought the back of the spear around like a club, striking the big man in the sword arm and causing him to cry out in pain and drop his weapon.

Just then, a roar erupted from the cave beyond the fire. Ian had said no orc leader would leave many of his followers in a cave alone with their captured loot, and he hadn't been wrong. Five orc warriors had stayed behind along with the spear-wielder and now the party saw why. The orc "leader" was merely a lieutenant.

The creature erupting from the cave mouth had to be the humanoids' true commander.

It had the jutting chin and fangs of an orc, but stood nearly half again as tall. Its bare, elongated arms hung down past its tree trunk thighs and below its perpetually bent knees. Gold and silver along with bone and hide ornamented its brown, stringy hair, and it wielded a huge club covered in spikes and wrapped with leather thongs.

"An ogre!" Ian cried out in dismay.

The ogre bellowed and started toward the ranger. Ian was farthest into the cavern, almost up to the fire after his duel with the orc, and it was obvious the creature wanted the closest target first.

Naull struggled to rise to her feat, to do anything to help, but she had to roll away as the sword-wielding orc lieutenant bounded toward her. Thankfully the orc didn't reach her. Regdar jumped between them and the two huge weapons rang against each other. The orc had the momentum, and Regdar's sword bounced back.

"Naull, if you've got any surprises hidden, now would be a good time!"

The wizard chose quickly. Not even bothering to stand up, she rose to her knees and pointed at the orc fighting Regdar. Two bright missiles, like those that had killed an orc at the ambush, streaked from her fingertips and struck the brutish lieutenant full in the chest. He lurched backward and roared, but didn't fall.

Regdar screamed in frustration and struck with his bastard sword. The orc tried to parry but the blow pushed the creature's own blade back across its chest and the edge of Regdar's weapon bit into the humanoid's bicep. Blood from a deep cut flowed down its arm.

The orc backstepped but ran up against the cavern's wall. It didn't try going up and to the left. Even without Trebba's body in the way, stepping up on the uneven ground might have brought catastrophe. It had no choice but to answer Regdar, blow for blow. The two dueled as Naull watched, feeling helpless. She looked around for anything that might save them.

Across the entrance, Early battled bravely against the spear-wielding orc, but he was obviously overmatched. He'd drawn his backup weapon, a dagger, but no matter how he tried he couldn't get close enough to use it. Every time he pushed inside the orc's reach, the spear turned and the orc walloped him with the wooden butt. It didn't cause him much pain, but it backed him up. Meanwhile, the pointed end of the weapon had jabbed Early twice, once in the thigh and once in the shoulder. The big man was tiring and there was nothing Naull could do.

All this seemed like a sideline, though, when the wizard looked down into the cavern. The ogre bellowed its fierce war cry and drove at Ian. With a cry of his own, the ranger leaped forward and somehow managed to get inside his foe's reach. Stabbing upward with his rapier, he pierced its thick hide. Before the ogre could bring a two-handed smash down on the ranger's head, the half-elf leaped away again.

What can I do? Naull thought wildly.

She saw her friends fighting losing battles and she tried to clear her head. It still rang from hitting the cave floor and she despaired. Even if she thought of some way to help, what did she have that might make a difference? If only she could get one of them free from an opponent long enough to help another-two on one could make the difference. She just needed to think.

"Everything else is pretty much defensive," she'd said to Regdar before they came on this cursed hunt. "Not everybody can walk around in their own private golem," she'd joked. Grimly, she recalled her words. Then her eyes widened and she looked around.

Regdar… Regdar has the best chance of helping anyone, she thought. Boccob, may my magic be blessed! And, she added, Wee Jas, if I die doing this, bring me back to avenge my friends' deaths!

Naull cast two spells in quick succession. With one, her form grew blurry and indistinct. The other yielded no visible signs of effect, but she knew it had worked just the same.

Drawing her own tiny dagger, Naull leaped to Regdar's side and shouted, "Help the others! I can handle this one!"

Regdar spared her a glance of amazement and looked ready to argue. She physically shoved him-she knew she didn't have enough strength to move the man, but she tried all the same.

"Move! Before it's too late. I know what I'm doing!"

Taking her at her word, the fighter backed away. The orc lieutenant grimaced and said something in a guttural tongue she was glad she couldn't understand.

"Come on, then," Naull answered grimly, brandishing her dagger as if it was a weapon of power. "I haven't got all night. If I don't kill you before dawn, I'll never get my eight hours in."

Whether the orc understood her or not, it seemed outraged by her defiant gesture. Gripping its sword in both hands, it struck at the small wizard with a blow that surely would have cloven her from crown to crotch, if it had landed. But the blade sheared off as it approached Naull's blurred form and clanged against the stone at her feet. The combination of protective spells would be enough to hold the orc off, at least for a short time. Naull hoped it would be long enough.

Regdar, in the meantime, bounded into the cavern, taking a wild swing at Early's orc as he passed. The creature ducked the blow easily, but the sudden assault distracted the creature long enough for the farm boy-turned-adventurer to slam his shield against the creature's flat face. The orc staggered back and tripped, stumbling against the wall. Early slashed with all his considerable strength at the creature, severing its spear haft and burying his weapon deep in the orc's chest. Orc and man tumbled to the floor a moment later, one exhausted, the other dead.

"Early! Get out of here!" Regdar shouted as he moved toward the ogre. "Get Trebba! Help Naull! We can't fight this!"

Whether or not Regdar believed they could fight the ogre, Ian hadn't given up yet. Snarling, the ranger dived in and out of the ogre's reach, jabbing it with his rapier. The giant howled and bled from many tiny pinpricks, but its massive club came closer to Ian's head with every swipe.

"Over here!" Regdar called.

He stood close to the fire pit, his bastard sword gripped tightly in both hands.

Naull, who could see the fight with the ogre even as she parried and dodged the orc lieutenant's blows, wondered whether her partner had called out to Ian or the ogre. Regardless of his intent, the ogre turned and lurched toward him. Perhaps it saw a potentially easier target. Wrapped in heavy armor, the fighter couldn't possibly move as fast as the annoying half-elf.

For a moment, that put the ogre between the ranger and the fighter. As Regdar stepped back quickly to avoid the swinging club, Ian also jumped back, hurling his hand axe at the ogre's back.

The creature howled in pain and anger as the hand axe bit deep into its well-muscled back. Just as it started to turn, however, Regdar thrust his broad-bladed sword into the fire pit's ashes and flung them up into the ogre's face. Sparks and cinders blinded the creature and it dropped its club to paw at its eyes.

Naull almost cried in relief as she saw Ian scamper around the maddened ogre and that nearly proved her undoing. The orc swung its blade in a wide arc, striking the wizard a glancing blow on her side. If not for her shield and mage armor spells, the cleaver would have cut her in two. As it was, she felt herself smashed against the cave wall, pinned and helpless. The orc grinned evilly and leaned down to finish her off.

Then Trebba sat up.

Early had struggled to the thief's side and bound her wounds, but when the ogre screamed the man had started back down into the cavern, leaving her on her own. Trebba stood shakily and lurched forward. Naull, even as she felt fear and horror at the thought of dying at the orc lieutenant's hands, looked over the creature's shoulder and felt pity as she saw blood leaking down from the thief's lips. Then she saw the dagger in the woman's upraised hand.

The orc drew back for a final blow but grunted in surprise. Trebba's dagger caught it squarely between the shoulder blades. The creature dropped its cleaver, put both hands behind its back, and fell forward, brushing against Naull as it died.

Stumbling against the sudden weight, Naull twisted away and looked up to see Trebba collapse onto her knees. Blood flowed freely from her mouth, and in the light of the spell her dark skin had a grayish cast.

"Pick her up!" Naull commanded.

Early stooped without a word and hefted Trebba into his arms.

Naull looked back, and to her dismay saw that neither Regdar nor Ian had moved entirely away from the ogre. They were both on her side of the creature, and it was obviously still blind and roaring in pain. Somehow it had struck Regdar in the side and Naull could see the dent in his armor from twenty feet away. Ian was shouting and waving his arms-one hand a bloody mess- trying to distract the ogre as the fighter stumbled away.

Naull ran to Regdar and put his heavy arm across her shoulders. He didn't put much weight on her, which the wizard took as a good sign.

He's just got the wind knocked out of him, she thought as they stumbled up and out of the cavern.

Crack! The ogre had retrieved its club and the wood smashed against stone. Ian tossed one more taunt then tumbled away from the big monster. He sprinted across the cavern and toward the entrance.

"Let's get out of here!" he said as he put Regdar's other arm across his shoulders.

The half-elf bled from a shallow wound on his scalp but looked as if he could still run. They stepped over the body of the spear-wielding orc and ran as best they could toward the entrance. The ogre's cries of pain and rage followed them but didn't seem to grow any closer.

"Will it follow?" Naull asked as they neared the entrance to the caves.

The sky had cleared slightly and Naull could see the faint outline of the cave mouth ahead. She'd seen smears of blood-Early's or Trebba's-as they came, but there was no sign of either of them.

Regdar had a hard enough time running in his damaged armor and didn't answer.

Ian shrugged and said, "I don't know. Probably. I can't have blinded it permanently."

He looked down at the ranger, shrugged off everyone's assistance, and said, "I can walk. We must get moving. If we can make it to the road…"

The half-elf winced as they stumbled into the open air. As the three helped each other along, Naull felt two of her three protective spells fade. She looked back at the cave mouth but it was too dark inside to see anything. If the ogre caught them in the open, her mage armor wouldn't keep her from ending up as so much paste on the creature's bludgeon.

They passed the broken wagons the orcs had used for a barricade and Ian paused.

"Early and Trebba," he said. "They came this way, too." The ranger pointed at a small patch of blood and picked up a torn piece of cloth, probably from Early's tunic. "They shouldn't be too far ahead of us."

"At least Trebba's still alive," Naull said hopefully. "Did you see her stab that orc?"

Neither man answered. Naull looked back over her shoulder again. Nothing. She started to breathe a little easier.

The wizard breathed a lot easier a few minutes later. They'd picked their way around more debris-pieces from the broken wagons, empty casks, and discarded, rotting food-and finally reached the main road. This far into the woods, the "road" wasn't more than a well-beaten path, wide enough for two men to walk abreast. A few yards away, they saw Early crouching by Trebba. Naull looked at Regdar and Ian, and ran forward.

"Early! Is she…?"

The big man looked up, tears in his eyes, then back down at the woman he'd carried up from the caves. Trebba had a crude bandage wrapped around her midsection, bloodstained white against her dark skin. Naull looked at Trebba's face. Early had cleaned it somehow, but only after. The thief was dead.

"H-her wounds," Early stammered. "I couldn't do nothin'. She tol' me t'leave her, but I thought she was just being…"

"Heroic?"

It was Ian. He'd walked up behind Naull. His wide, elf eyes shimmered in the darkness, and his pale face reflected the starlight.

"She was," he said, placing a hand on Early's shoulder.

"We've got to keep moving," Regdar said. His face was grim, but Naull could see the grief behind the mask. "Ian, take point. Naull, Early, go side-by-side. I'll bring up the rear."

Ian nodded and started forward. He'd spent a few moments wrapping his burned hand in another bandage, but he moved with obvious pain. Early bent to pick up Trebba's body.

"No, Early," Regdar said flatly. "Leave her."

Early turned and started to snarl, but Regdar didn't let him speak.

"She died to help get us out of there. If that ogre comes on us now, we're finished. You want her sacrifice to mean anything? Leave her."

The big man bristled, then he seemed to collapse in on himself and he nodded. Sword in hand, he turned away and followed Ian.

Naull started to say something to Regdar, but he met her eyes and frowned. His pain was obvious, but it only matched hers. This isn't the way to earn a wizard's tower, is it? she thought with more than a little irony.

She caught up to Early and they walked in silence.

They'd gone nearly a half-mile when Ian stopped. The ranger leaned against a tree and started the painful process of unwrapping a makeshift bandage from around his shoulder. He winced with every twist but kept silent until Regdar caught up.

"Is it following?" the fighter asked.

"How the-oui!-bloody hell should I know?" Ian grimaced as he spoke. He'd hastily wrapped more than a few wood splinters into his wound and the bandage was sodden and red. "Sorry," he finally continued. "I don't know, Regdar. You hear anything back there? Ogre's aren't known for being sneaky."

Shaking his head, Regdar looked back into the woods in the general direction of the orc caves. "No. I thought I did, but it must've been an animal. When I stopped, it-"

And then the woods erupted.

How something so large and so violent could come upon the group unawares, Naull couldn't understand. Later, she knew it had to be their fatigue and the creature's knowledge of the area. It came up out of the dell, not along the path but through some secret way, something either the orcs had found or perhaps even prepared in case they'd needed a fast and silent exit from their lair. It had somehow known, or smelled, or guessed, which way the battered party would go, and it roared out of the forest at them.

Early went down first, before he even had a chance to draw his sword. The ogre's club swept around after smashing the big man's shoulder and barely missed Naull as she dived forward onto the ground.

Ian fell next. The half-elf had picked up a stout branch during their retreat, but it snapped when he slashed it against the creature's tough hide. Whirling around, the ogre caught Ian with the horny knuckles of his off-hand and the half-elf flew six feet through the air to crumple against a tree, unconscious. The ogre stumbled over a tree root as it lurched toward the road.

The creature had picked on the softest targets first. As Naull desperately scrambled away on all fours, Regdar drew his bastard sword and screamed in anger at the giant.

"Take this, you mishapen bastard!" the fighter yelled.

The sword split two saplings but didn't slow as it whirled toward its target. Biting into the ogre's tree trunk thigh, it caused the creature to bellow once more in pain and rage. The ogre smashed down with its club, hammering at Regdar's dented armor. He went down on one knee. The ogre, feet planted firmly on the road, raised its weapon for a finishing strike.

The sound of hoofbeats echoed on the path. The ogre whirled toward the south but as the hoofbeats grew closer it saw nothing coming. Across the narrow road Naull lay, speaking a few arcane words and gesturing with components drawn hastily from her pouch.

It wasn't much of a distraction, but it was enough. Regdar caught the ogre's arm as the club came down, then he used the force of the creature's own back-swing to pull himself upright. He stumbled backward, toward the wizard. Screaming in anger, the ogre whirled and came at the pair. It swung its club two-handed, and Regdar readied himself to receive the blow.

Hoofbeats rang out again, this time from the north. The ogre started briefly, then looked down at the wizard and snarled. Naull grinned feebly, still holding the remnants of her spell components, and she pushed herself farther back into the brush. The club reached the apex of its swing, then came down in a killing arc.

From the ogre's chest, a spearpoint blossomed. It was followed immediately by an eruption of red-black blood. The ogre dropped its club in surprise and looked first at Regdar, then at Naull. It tried to twist around but the spear broke and the creature pitched forward just inches shy of Regdar's booted feet.

The two adventurers looked up in wonder. On a gray horse that seemed to shine slightly in the starlight they saw a knight clad in full plate. The knight cast away the broken haft of her spear and raised her mailed hand to her visor.