“And we have food!” Mrs. Thornbrew puffed a sweaty, frazzled hair out of her face and waved around a piece of dried meat. “Made it myself, I can vouch for the quality.”
“And sweets!” Mrs. Mallowmere appeared behind her, her curls decidedly less bouncy after an entire day locked inside a mausoleum full of dead ancestors and their statues.
The trolls sniffed the air, but still didn’t move.
Shouts erupted from beyond the trees.
More hissing, more poison gliding toward us.
That finally convinced them.
The leader grunted and bent down almost at the waist to pass through the doors.
The more trolls followed, the more the grumbles inside grew.
“Oh, sod off, Patrysha,” Mrs. Thornbrew snapped. “They were there fighting the Northerners while you were here gorging yourself on preserved winter berries. Don’t think I don’t see the sugar on your fingers!”
One by one, the trolls bent their bodies and slipped inside, Dax, Ryker, and I keeping guard behind them.
“Everyone else inside?” I asked, keeping my arrow cocked and my eyes alert. I knew I’d seen something in the mist.
“Everyone still alive,” Ryker said. “The windows are bolted. We have enough food and water hidden in the Memory Hall labyrinths to last us and the trolls an entire week. And plenty of places to hide. Just in case.”
In case us and every warrior would fall and the Northerners somehow breached the crypt.
“We can fight again once the poison clears and regain our force in the meantime,” Ryker went on. “They can’t have an endless supply of it and they can’t approach until it’s gone.”
“I can use my powers to dissipate the last of it once the time comes.” My thoughts echoed with his.
“Perfect. Then we’ll exit in a shield formation and–”
His words died as shadows emerged from the mist.
Walking through the poison as if they didn’t feel anything, even as the fog sizzled their dark robes.
My heart fell near my ankles.
Masks shone in the moonlight.
Dozens of those blasted masked figures marched toward us.
“What in Xamor’s name are those?” Dax breathed out.
“Something which should not exist,” I whispered.
The bow shook in my hands.
“Get them in!” Ryker shouted, terror reflecting between us. “Faster!”
He and Dax began to push the trolls toward the opening, not bothering with their grunts and snaps.
I drew my bow string and sent an arrow flying. It hit the first masked figure straight in the shoulder.
He turned to ash, just like his brethren had done back in the crater’s entrance.
Dozens more slunk from between the trees, as if the poison and darkness birthed more of them under our very eyes.
We thought we’d surprise the Northern Clans, but they had been ready to stun us.
