The Savage Caves dad-1 Page 16

  A face passed into the light from behind the falling hobgoblin-a long, oval face as small as a little girl’s, but with an executioner’s grim countenance. It was Lidda-she’d sneaked up behind the hobgoblin and stabbed it with her short sword before it could kill Naull. Regdar wanted to kiss the halfling thief, wanted to buy her a drink, wanted to do whatever she wanted him to do.

  A strangled, incoherent growl rose in volume and intensity, tearing its way out of Rezrex’s throat, and Regdar knew the spell was spent. The hobgoblin who had been holding Naull dropped her and turned on Lidda. It was still alive.

  The halfling backed into the darkness, then Regdar’s attention was drawn to the spiked chain that wrapped around his shield, slapping hard into his vambrace to bruise his left forearm.

  He pulled back on his shield, which bent a little at the edges under the chain, and the hobgoblin flicked its wrist again. The chain unwound fast, and though Regdar bent his neck painfully to avoid it, one of the spikes traced a line across his left cheek, drawing blood but missing his eye.

  Glnk, still charging, crashed into Rezrex, and the hobgoblin chief roared with rage. The goblin got a good hit into the hobgoblin’s midsection with his stone club, but Rezrex stepped back and pushed Glnk to the side with his left hand while his right hand brought the beautifully crafted mace down hard at Glnk’s head.

  Behind Rezrex were a group of goblins-Stonedeep goblins-who moved up, grunting and brandishing javelins, clubs, and other weapons Regdar couldn’t see. The cave was filled with a thousand echoed grunts as Tzrg ran up toward the advancing goblins, grunting at them.

  Regdar could only hope that Tzrg was convincing them to abandon Rezrex. If Tzrg didn’t take the Stonedeep Tribe back from the hobgoblin usurper, the enraged, fatherless Glnk would kill them all if it took the rest of his life-Rezrex or no Rezrex.

  Regdar, splashing through the cold water, advanced on the hobgoblin with the spiked chain, knowing he had to get in close or eventually the humanoid would manage to get the thing wrapped around his arm, his neck, his head-and disarm or kill him. He ducked low under a swing from the chain and tried to bat it with his shield when it came around again. He missed, and the hobgoblin twisted the chain, so it whipped up over Regdar’s head, only to come in lower the next pass. Regdar, knowing that’s what he would have done himself, was ready for that, though, and he got his shield low and batted the chain out and away, breaking its momentum enough to send it splashing into the water.

  If it wasn’t covered with sharp spikes, Regdar would have stepped on the chain as the hobgoblin drew it back in. Instead, he made use of the time to advance closer into the hobgoblin while glancing over at Naull, who was lying still but breathing on the rock floor near the edge of the pool. The bleeding hobgoblin had dropped its dagger when Lidda cut its arm, but it had drawn a shining, sweeping-bladed falchion. The hobgoblin looked strong, but it was dumb and slow. Lidda seemed to be avoiding its one inept hack after the other, but she was slowly being backed up against the wall, and Regdar knew that her short sword wouldn’t stand up to the hobgoblin’s much heavier blade.

  Tzrg was still grunting at his goblins, and Regdar could see the little humanoids’ eyes following the spiders that were all the while gathering around the released queen. This seemed to impress them, and they stopped their advance.

  Glnk was having a difficult time holding Rezrex off, but Regdar could see Jozan advancing to help him.

  Regdar heard the chain whipping through the air and realized that he had to kill this hobgoblin before he could help either Jozan or Lidda-and both of them needed his help and needed it badly.

  He didn’t realize he’d closed his eyes when he hacked down at the hobgoblin, but he had. It wasn’t so much finesse and skill now as it was just brute force-the single-minded will to cleave his opponent.

  The greatsword shuddered as it passed through skin, bone, lung, heart, bone, liver, bone, skin, and back out, leaving a twitching, bloody mess to splash dead into the cold water.

  When he opened his eyes, Regdar saw that Glnk had tripped or been forced down in front of the raging Rezrex. The huge mace was coming down fast, and Regdar knew there was no way he could get there in time to stop Glnk from being killed.

  A flash of yellow and brown appeared in front of him and in the time it took for Regdar to take a single water-slowed step, Tzrg smashed into Glnk, pushing the Cavemouth chief out of the way of the mace. When the weapon came down, it smashed into Tzrg’s calf. Regdar heard the loud snap of Tzrg’s leg breaking, then heard it over and over again as it echoed through the cave.

  The Stonedeep goblins gasped as one, and Tzrg opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. The goblin turned an even sicklier shade of yellow, and his eyes rolled into his skull.

  “Regdar!” Lidda called. “Jozan! A little help here!”

  Regdar saw that shed been backed into the wall, and he shifted his momentum to try to get to her. The water was slowing him down when he needed most to move quickly.

  Glnk, still rolling from Tzrg’s life-saving shove, slid to a halt into the back of the hobgoblin’s legs, though, and a swipe of the falchion that might have beheaded Lidda went wide when the humanoid had to hop to keep its feet. Lidda took fast advantage of the opening and jabbed the hobgoblin. The thing was wearing pieces of thick hide interlaced with bone and scraps of metal, so her blade didn’t dig as deeply into the thing as Lidda obviously hoped it would, but the hobgoblin howled in pain in any case.

  Regdar came out of the pool between the stumbling hobgoblin and Rezrex, just as Rezrex roared at the still helplessly writhing Tzrg and started to bring the enchanted mace down on the goblin’s head.

  The big hobgoblin was just at the edge of the reach of Regdar’s greatsword, but that was enough. Regdar threw himself to the side, knowing he would fall at the hobgoblin’s feet, swinging his sword with him.

  The blade took Rezrex’s right hand off at the wrist, sending it-and the beautiful enchanted mace-whirling into the air trailing blood and slivers of bone.

  The roar that burst from the wounded hobgoblin was almost deafening and made Regdar’s ears ring only worse. He hit the ground so hard his own spiked rander sent his pauldron into his shoulder hard enough to break the skin.

  The Stonedeep goblins, apparently finally inspired, stopped their senseless face down of the Cavemouth goblins and poured like a yellow-skinned tide around the hobgoblin who was trying to kill Lidda.

  The hobgoblin whirled on the goblins, brandishing the falchion, and Regdar saw Lidda slip back into the deep black shadows. The goblins fell on the already wounded hobgoblin, and it went down in a mass of javelins, kicks, stone clubs, and tiny little fists.

  Regdar rolled away from Rezrex and almost tripped Jozan. On the way, Regdar saw Glnk toss the serrated dagger that had been being held to Naull’s throat. Tzrg caught it, his face still twisted with agony. Before Rezrex could gather his own wits, Tzrg drove the heavy blade into the hobgoblin’s gut. The look of surprise on Rezrex’s face was almost comical.

  Glnk jumped to his feet, and when Tzrg’s hand slipped off the dagger handle, leaving it protruding from the hobgoblin’s ample gut, Glnk took hold of it. There was an unpleasant ripping sound as Glnk dragged the blade up and in a long, curving arc, leaving a line of red that exploded outward, spilling Rezrex’s steaming guts to the cave floor.

  Epilogue

  Spending a night with a tribe of goblins was about the last thing Regdar thought he’d ever do, but after the day he’d had, a little quiet and a chance to close his eyes made the Stonedeep caves seem like the most luxurious inn in New Koratia.

  Naull wasn’t badly hurt, and once they got her some water and Lidda carefully cleaned the blood from her face, she hardly looked the worse for wear. In the dim torchlight, deep in the savage caves, it was hard to see the bruise.

  “I feel like I let you down yesterday,” she said, as a groveling female goblin slid a plate of fried cave beetles in front of her. Naull suppressed a gag an
d pushed the plate away. “All that, and I was lying there unconscious.”

  Regdar smiled, trying to ignore Jozan who was poking at the wounds on his leg.

  “You let no one down,” the fighter said, “and you’ll never have to prove your courage to me again. You followed me down that tunnel, into the thick of the goblins. Your spells have saved all our lives, and your mind… Well, I might be able to swing a sword better than you, but you’re smarter than me.”

  The young woman smiled and looked down. Regdar didn’t want to invade her privacy by looking to see if she was blushing. He knew she was.

  “Yeah,” Lidda said, swaggering up behind them holding a plate of fried beetles, “get a room you two.” She popped one of the horrid bugs into her mouth and crunched it, smiling. “These aren’t bad.”

  Jozan began a prayer to Pelor, and Regdar closed his eyes, shuddering under the warmth of the healing spell.

  “That looks good,” the priest said. “By Pelor’s grace, you should only need a second, and we’ll be ready to start the climb out of here. It should be almost midday above.”

  The priest looked up into the darkness, the ceiling invisible in the gloom.

  Tzrg was limping, his leg healed by Jozan, much to the amazement of the assembled goblins. It would be several weeks before the little humanoid would be fully healed, but the pain was gone, and Tzrg’s gratitude was obvious in the goblin’s simple expressions. Glnk was with him, and he was cradling Rezrex’s magnificent mace in his hands. The chief of the Cavemouth tribe held the weapon out to Jozan, and Tzrg grumbled some words to Lidda.

  “They want you to have the mace,” Lidda translated around another fried beetle.

  Jozan reached up and took the weapon in one hand.

  Glnk smiled and said something to Lidda.

  “He’s going home,” she said. “He’ll take us with him, to the bottom of the shaft.”

  “Ready for a climb?” Naull asked.

  Regdar looked at her, and she winked at him.

  “We left our horses in Fairbye,” Jozan said, still admiring the enchanted mace.

  “Lidda,” Regdar said, “Naull… is Fairbye on your way to wherever you’re going?”

  “They won’t hang you now,” Jozan said to the halfling. “Not without hanging me first.”

  Lidda sighed and pretended to wipe a tear from her cheek. “Friends?” she squeaked.

  “Friends,” her three friends replied.

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