Brianna pulled her hand axe from her belt, at the same time glancing at Blizzard. The mare stood a few paces beyond the newcomer, her ears tipped forward and her flanks trembling with tension. The princess shifted her attention back to the ogre.
"How do you know my name?" she demanded.
The ogre smiled, revealing a mouth filled with ugly orange fangs. "Someone tell me," he replied. "Now put axe down and come here. We not supposed to hurt you."
Brianna heard a bough of aspen leaves rustle far above. Another ogre dropped to the ground behind her, filling the air with the rancid, sour-milk odor of his race, The princess gagged, then felt an oily hand seizing her wrist The brute slipped his other arm around her waist, and lifted her off the ground.
Revolted by the beast's vile touch, Brianna brought her foot up as hard as she could, smashing the hard bone of her heel into the ogre's soft loins. At the same time, the princess whipped her head back and bashed the back of her skull into her foe's nose. She heard the satisfying crunch of collapsing cartilage, then the brute roared in pain and dropped her.
Brianna turned, swinging her axe at the height of her own head. The blade took her attacker in the arm, slicing through tendon and bone to truncate the arm just above the elbow. Again, the ogre howled. He stumbled back, his purple eyes glazed with shock and his jaw hanging agape at the astonishing force of the princess's blow. Giving him no chance to recover, Brianna leveled her foot at his knee in a vicious roundhouse kick. The joint snapped like kindling, and the ogre toppled to the ground.
The princess spun around, expecting to find the other brute already upon her. Instead, he was watching her with a bemused grin on his lips.
"I hear you strong for woman." he said.
Brianna narrowed her eyes. "Who told you that?"
Instead of answering, the ogre raised his hands and rasped the deep-throated dirge of a shaman's spell.
Brianna whipped her axe at his head. The shaman, ducked, and the weapon buried itself in the bole of an aspen. The princess did not care. The attack had interrupted his spell, buying her the precious time she needed to escape.
Brianna whistled once, then called, "Blizzard, come!"
The big mare reared up and pushed forward. She brought her two front hooves down squarely on the ogre's shoulders, driving him to the ground. With an angry neigh, she bounded forward and presented her left flank to her mistress. Brianna grabbed the saddle horn and pulled herself up.
With unbelievable speed, the shaman leaped up and reached for Brianna. Pushing one foot into her stirrup, the princess raised the other and thrust it at the brute's chest. The blow landed with a solid thump, and the ogre tumbled backward.
Brianna planted her heels in her mount's flanks. As the mare sprang forward, two more ogres dropped out of the aspen trees a short distance ahead. They drew their bows back, leveling their black arrows at Blizzard's breast The princess jerked the reins hard, turning away as the strings throbbed. The dark shafts hissed away into the forest, then Brianna found herself sailing through the air as her mount leaped a toppled tree.
To her horror, she saw two more ogres rising from hiding places behind the fallen bole. Both brutes tossed their bows aside and leaped for her mount's front legs. Blizzard crashed into them with a tremendous thump, and for a moment Brianna thought the big mare would bowl the pair over.
Then she felt Blizzard's head drop. The mare's rear hooves clattered off the fallen tree with a hollow clacking, and from between the horse's ears, Brianna saw the ground rising fast. The princess released the reins and pulled her feet from the stirrups, then pitched over the mare's head into a patch of mossy ground. She tumbled head over heels, coming to a stop only when she slammed into a granite boulder.
Brianna tried to gather her feet and rise, but the struggle was too much. She had lost her wind, and her ribs were exploding with pain as she fought to regain her breath. Her head was swimming. Her body ached in a hundred places, though thankfully nowhere did she feel the sharp agony of a broken bone.
Still, Brianna was hardly in a good position, and she would need help to escape. She raised her hands toward her necklace, but stopped when ogre feet began to surround her. Several leathery hands grabbed her wrists and jerked her off the ground. Brianna found herself Suspended between two ogres, her arms drawn painfully taut and the white pupils of the angry shaman glaring into her eyes.
"You want we should hurt you?" The ogre slapped
Brianna across the face. Her head snapped to the side, and she felt a tooth fly from her month. "We do it good. All same to us."
The shaman hit her again, this time smashing his fist into her midsection. Brianna's stomach revolted at the abuse, and she vomited on the ground. A dozen paces, away, Blizzard whinnied in anger and struggled to her feet. Glaring at the ogre's back, the mare started forward.
