Suddenly the tree yawed. Patch’s legs swung clear and he was now hanging by his hands some twenty feet above the ground. An arrow from Mace slashed into the side of one of the beasts, but it showed no sign that it felt any pain.
With a wrenching groan the oak gave way, tumbling Patch to the ground. He hit hard, rolled, and came to his feet running towards the nearest tree.
The beasts set after him . . .
Taking a deep breath, I concentrated hard. The spell of Light was not easy, though neither was it the most difficult. But what I wanted now was not just illumination. Forming the spell, I held it for several heartbeats, letting it swell until I could control it no longer. My hand flashed out.
The spell sped from me like a flash of lightning, bursting in the space between Patch and the pursuing monsters, blinding them and causing them to swerve away from their victim. For one brief second I was exultant. But I had forgotten the first beast, the one
which had been circling Jarek Mace. Unseen by me, it had cut across the small clearing and, just as Patch leapt for an overhanging branch, it caught him, the taloned arms dragging him back, the awful jaws closing on his waist. With one dreadful cry the bowman died, his corpse ripped into two.
The other creatures gathered round and began to feed. I could not watch, and I tried to close my ears to the sound of ripping flesh and snapping bone.
‘Fire! We need fire!’ shouted Jarek Mace. ‘Can you do it, Owen?’At the sound of his voice the five beasts moved away from their grisly feast and rushed at the oak in which he had taken refuge. Hurling their huge bodies against the trunk, they sought to dislodge him as they had the unfortunate Patch. But this tree was old, and firm, and it did not budge.
Two of the beasts then began to pound their hooves at the base of the tree, digging away at the roots, exposing them, then ripping at the soft wood with their fangs.
Tire, Owen!’ bellowed Mace.
I took a deep breath and tried to concentrate. To create a fire was a variation on the spell of Warming, but the power was condensed, focused on a very small point, usually a fragment of dry bark or shredded leaf.
I stared intently at the twisted hump on the back of the nearest monster, concentrating on the mass of black, matted fur- holding back the spell, allowing it to build, feeling the pressure grow within my mind. When I could hold it no longer I threw out my arm, pointing at the beast. Blue flame crackled out, lancing down to strike the hump. Smoke billowed from the fur and the monster reared up, screaming, the sound almost human.
I had expected a few small fingers of fire, but what followed astounded me.
Flames roared out, blazing with white light – more powerful than any beacon fire, brighter than daylight. The creature rolled to its back, but nothing could extinguish the blaze. In its panic and pain it ran into the other beasts and the flames spread to engulf three of them; then dried leaves on the ground ignited beneath the hooves of the fourth monster, whose legs caught fire, sheets of flame searing around its body.
An unholy glow filled the clearing, and the heat was so intense that Piercollo and I eased our way around the tree, putting the trunk between us and the scorching flames. Even so the heat was almost unbearable, the light so bright that both of us squeezed shut our eyes.
The blaze lit the sky for several minutes, the flames reaching thirty feet or more into the air. Then they died, swiftly dwindling. I climbed around to the front of the tree. There were no leaves now – the branches smouldering, the tips glowing red with hot ash.
Writhing on the forest floor was a score of blackened shapes. One looked like the burned carcass of a dog, another a horse, yet another a man. One by one they ceased all movement.