Domes of Fire by David Eddings

the stumps were about head high and had then lashed a third across them.

Then he had strung a rope across the ends of the horizontal sapling and

drawn it tight to form a huge bow. The bow was fully drawn, tied off to

another stump at the rear, and it was loaded with a ten-foot javelin.

Sparhawk and the others moved off to the sides of the narrow cut, and

Khalad released the bow by cutting ‘ the rope that held it drawn. The

javelin shot forward with a sharp whistling sound and buried itself deep

into a tree a good hundred yards down the canyon. ‘i’m going to like that

boy,’ Kalten smiled. ‘He’s almost as good at this sort of thing as his

father was.’

‘The family shows a lot of promise,’ Sparhawk agreed. ‘Let’s position our

archers so that they have a clear shot at that gap.’

‘Right,’ Kalten agreed. ‘What then?’ Then we wait.’

‘That’s the part I hate the most. Why don’t we grab something to eat? just

to pass the time, of course.’

‘Of course.’ The storm which had been building to the east all morning was

closer now, the clouds purplish-black and seething. There were flickers of

lightning deep inside the cloud bank, and the thunder rolled from horizon

to horizon, shaking the ground with every peal. They waited. The air was

dead calm and sultry and

the knights were sweating uncomfortably in their armour. ‘Can we think of

anything else?’ Tynian asked. ‘I’ve contrived a few rudimentary catapults,’

Bevier replied. ‘They’re hardly more than bent saplings, so they won’t

throw very big rocks, and their range is limited.’

‘I’ll take all the help I can get when it comes to fighting Trolls,’ Ulath

told him. ‘Every one of them we knock down before they get to us is one

less we’ll have to fight.’

‘Dear God!’!’ tynian exclaimed. ‘What?’ ~Kalten demanded with a certain

alarm. ‘I think I just saw one of them back at the edge of the forest. Are

they all that big?’

‘Nine feet or so tall?’ Ulath asked quite casually. ‘At least.’

‘That’s fairly standard for a Troll, and they weigh between thirty-five

and fifty stone.’

‘You’re not serious!’ ~Kalten said incredulously. ‘Wait just a bit and

you’ll be able to weigh one for yourself.’ Ulath looked around at them.

‘Trolls are hard to kill,’ he cautioned. ‘Their hides are very tough, and

their skull-bones are almost a half-inch thick. They can take a lot of

punishment when they’re excited. If we get in close, try to maim them. You

can’t really count on clean kills with Trolls, so every arm you chop off is

one less the Troll can grab you with.’

‘Will they have weapons of any kind?’ Kalten asked. ‘Clubs are about all.

They aren’t good with spears Their arms aren’t hooked on right for

jabbing.’

‘That’s something, anyway.’

‘Not very much,’ Tynian told him. They waited as the thunder moved

ponderously toward them. They saw several more Trolls at the edge of the

forest in the next ten minutes, and the bellowing roars of those scouts

were obviously summoning the rest of the pack. The only Troll Sparhawk had

ever seen before had been Ghwerig, and Ghwerig had been dwarfed and grossly

deformed. He quickly began to revise his assessment of the creatures. They

were, as Ulath had stated, about nine feet tall, and they were covered with

dark-brown, shaggY Fur. Their arms were very long, and their huge hands

hung below their knees. Their faces were brutish, with heavy brow-ridges,

muzzle-like mouths and protruding fangs. Their eyes were small, deep-set

and they burned with a dreadful hunger. They slouched along at the edge of

the forest, not really trying to conceal themselves, and Sparhawk clearly

saw that their long arms played a significant part in their locomotion,

sometimes serving as an additional leg and sometimes grasping trees to help

pull’ themselves along. Their movements were flowing, even graceful, and

bespoke an enormous agility. ‘Are we more or less ready?’ Ulath asked them.

I could stand to wait a little longer,’ Kalten replied. ‘How long?’ forty

or fifty Years sounds about right to me. What did you have in mind?’ I’ve

seen about fifteen different individuals,’ the big Thalesian noted.

‘They’re coming out one by one to have a look, and that means that they’re

all more or less gathered just back under the trees. I thought I’d insult

them for a while. When a Troll gets angry, he doesn’t really think. Of

course Trolls don’t have very much to think with in the first place. I’d

like to provoke them into an ill-considered attack if possible. If I really

insult them, they’ll scream and howl and then come rushing out of those

woods foaming at the mouths. They’ll be easy targets for the bowmen at that

point, and if a few of them get through, we can charge them with our horses

and the lances. We should be able to kill quite a few of them before they

come to their senses. I’d really like to whittle down their numbers, and

enraged Trolls make easy targets.’

‘Do you think we might be able to kill enough of them to frighten the rest

away?’ Kalten asked. ‘I wouldn’t count on it, but anything’s possible, I

suppose. I’d have sworn that you couldn’t get a hundred Trolls to even walk

in the same direction at the same time, so the situation here’s completely

new to me. ‘

‘Let me talk with the others before we precipitate anything,’ Sparhawk

told him. He turned and walked back to where the knights and the Peloi

waited with their horses. Vanion stood with Stragen, Engessa and Kring.

‘We’re about ready to start,’ Sparhawk told them. ‘Did you plan to invite

the Trolls?’ Stragen asked him. ‘Or are we going to begin without them?’

‘Ulath’s going to see if he can provoke them into something rash,’ Sparhawk

replied. ‘The stakes should slow them down enough so that our archers can

work on them. We really want to thin them out a bit. If they manage to

break through, we’ll charge them with lances.’ He looked at Kring. ‘i’m not

trying to insult you, Domi, but could you hold back a bit? Ulath tells us

that Trolls take a lot of killing. It’s a dirty business, but somebody’s

going to have to come along after we charge and kill the wounded.’ Kring’s

face clearly registered his distaste. ‘We’ll do it, friend Sparhawk,’ he

agreed finally, ‘but only out of friendship. ‘

‘I appreciate that, Kring. As soon as Ulath enrages them enough to get

them moving, those of us at the barricade will come back and get on our

horses to join the charge. Oh, one thing – just because a Troll has a

broken-off lance sticking out of him doesn’t mean that he’s out of action.

Let’s stick a few more in each one then – just to be on the safe side. I’ll

go advise the ladies that we’re about to start, and then we’ll get on with

it.’

‘I’ll go with you,’ Vanion said, and the two of them walked back up the

canyon towards the cave-mouth. Berit and a small group of young knights

stood guard at the entrance to the cave. ‘Are they coming?’ the handsome

young man asked nervously. ‘We’ve seen a few scouts,’ Sparhawk replied.

‘We’re going to try to goad them into an attack. If we have to fight them,

I’d rather do it in the daylight.’

‘And before that storm hits,’ Vanion added. ‘I don’t think they’ll get

past us,’ Sparhawk told the youthful knight, ‘but stay alert. If things

start to look tight, pull back inside the cave.’ Berit nodded. Then Ehlana,

Talen and’ Sephrenia emerged from the cave. ‘Are they coming?’ Ehlana

asked, her voice slightly shrill. ‘Not yet,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘It’s just a

question of time, though. We’re going to try to goad them a bit. Ulath

thinks he might be able to enrage some of them enough so that they’ll

attack before the rest are ready. We’d rather not have to face them all at

once if we can avoid it.’ He looked at Sephrenia. ‘Are you up to a spell or

two, Sephrenia?’ That depends on the spell.’

‘Can you block the cave mouth so that the Trolls can’t get at you and the

others?’

‘Probably, and if not, I can always collapse it.’

‘I wouldn’t do that except as a last resort. Wait for Berit and his men to

get inside with you, though.’ Talen’s fine clothes were a bit mud-smeared.

‘Any luck?’ Sparhawk asked him. ‘I found a place where a bear spent last

winter,’ the boy shrugged. ‘It involved a bit of wriggling. There are a

couple of other passageways I want to look at.’

‘Pick the best one you can. If Sephrenia has to bring down the cave-mouth,

I’d like to have you all back where it’s safe.’ Talen nodded. ‘Be careful,