"Tavis!" screamed Avner's voice. A small stone came whispering through the air and struck one ogre in the head. The blow did not kill the warrior, but it stunned him enough to prevent the brute from completing the pull of his bowstring. "What are you doing?"
Tavis started to slash at the other ogre, but even as the young thief spoke, a huge boulder arced down upon this brute's head. The stone struck with a crack, then thumped to the ground. The warrior's knees buckled, and he released his arrow into the air. The scout spun, using a backhand stroke to behead the ogre Avner's stone had stunned.
"When I said go on ahead, I didn't mean you should kill all the ogres yourself." Basil dropped a second boulder he had picked up, then walked over with Avner at his side.
"You could've gotten yourself killed," Avner complained.
"I thought J told you to stay at the cliff," Tavis said.
"Lucky for you I don't listen too well," the boy countered.
Realizing he could hardly argue with the statement, Tavis retrieved his bow and quiver, then turned toward the gulch. The sounds of fighting had grown faint and sporadic, suggesting that the battle was almost at an end. Fearing that he knew who was on the losing side, the scout rushed over to the gorge's rim.
The battle had come down to only five figures: Morten, Earl Dobbin, and three ogres. The firbolg was standing directly between two of their foes, swinging a huge, double-headed battle-axe first at one, then the other. The ogres had picked up a pair of fallen earls to use as shields, but were rapidly falling back under the bodyguard's withering attacks.
Earl Dobbin was not faring so well. He had collapsed to one knee and was swinging his pitifully small sword at the last ogre's legs, barely managing to duck the wild swings of his foe's large club. The other earls lay scattered among fallen ogres, either dead or unconscious from the bite of poisoned arrows.
Tavis dispatched the ogre attacking Earl Dobbin first, then quickly killed one of the brutes fighting Morten. The bodyguard finished the other himself, cleaving the warrior's heavy skull with a single, terrible blow of his battle-axe.
The ogre had hardly hit the ground before Morten was glaring up at his savior. "Tavis!" he thundered.
"Come down here!"
The scout shook his head. "Not yet," he said. "Not until you and I come to an agreement."
Morten snorted. "The only thing I'll agree to is splitting your head."
"Really?" Tavis replied. "I should think you'd be more interested in saving Brianna-I am."
This calmed the angry firbolg a little. "Tell me where she is," he demanded. "I'll make your death an easy one."
Earl Dobbin rose, his face red with fury. "You don't have the right to make such an agreement!" he said, grabbing the bodyguard's burly arm. "The king sent us to bring these thieves back to Hartsvale, not to rescue his daughter!"
Morten jerked his arm free. "Brianna was my responsibility. If I can save her by letting a few thieves die an easy death, then so be it." The firbolg continued to glare at Tavis. "Now tell me."
"Right now, the princess is somewhere on the Needle Peak glacier with about a thousand ogres," Tavis explained. As he spoke. Basil and Avner came up to stand at his side. "They're taking her to a place called the Twilight Vale."
Morten scowled. "Where's that?"
"The Twilight Vale lies somewhere in the shadow of the Great Glacier, far north of the Ice Spires," Basil explained. "But if you want to return Brianna to Hartsvale, I'd suggest you free her long before then."
Morten narrowed his eyes. "Why's that?"
"The Twilight Vale's sacred to the giants," Tavis explained. "We don't know why the ogres are taking Brianna there, but if they succeed it'll be impossible to get her back."
Morten considered this for a moment, then asked, "Where'd you learn all this?"
"We happened upon the guide who helped the ogres kidnap Brianna," Tavis explained. "Basil interrogated him."
The scout said nothing about the roles of Runolf and the king in the princess's abduction. As much as Morten wanted to save Brianna, Tavis did not think the bodyguard would defy Camden's wishes to do so.
Morten considered Tavis's information for a moment, then nodded in satisfaction. "Good enough. I'll make your death quick," he said. "Now, will you come down here peacefully, or do I have to hunt you down?"
"I'll let you take me back to Hartsvale or kill me on the spot,"Tavis offered, "but only after we rescue Brianna."
Basil quickly stepped forward. "Please understand that he's speaking only for himself," the verbeeg said. "Avner and I have no intention of letting you kill us at any time."
"Doesn't matter," Morten replied, shaking his head. "I couldn't accept Tavis's deal, even if it included you all."
The scout frowned. "Why not?"
The bodyguard snorted in derision, then waved his hand at the carnage in the gulch. "You let me lead eighteen good men into this, and now you expect me to place my faith in you?"
