Chapter 31 Chapter 26 Advance

The skies turned gray again, heralding the threat of a cold storm, but the friends bravely set out from their last resting place, full of hope and enthusiasm, ready to fight any obstacle that might come their way.They were together again, and for the first time since Wulfgar's unexpected return from the Abyss, they both felt at ease.This looks... good. When Wulfgar first returned to them—in an ice cave on the Iceshifted Sea, where they were battling the demon Errtu—sure, there was euphoria, but on many levels it was a A disturbing thing.The sudden readjustment to this new reality was a shock and a test.Wulfgar came to life, and all the grief that the four friends thought had settled suddenly poured out, and the stable emotions were cast aside.

The elation turns into many restless and much-needed adjustments as the friends try to get to know each other again.This led to tragedy, to Wulfgar's melancholy, to Wulfgar's rage, and to the subsequent disbandment of the Hall of Fame.Now, however, they're back together again. With firm strides they settled into a reassuring rhythm, Bruenor leading the hosts, wading the way with his muscular body, Regis following, watching the mountain, guiding the dwarves.Then there was Wulfgar, using his height to scan the road ahead and sides, the heavy pheasant on his shoulder. Catti-brie fell a little behind, behind the four of them, holding a bow in her hand, maintaining a state of vigilance, and paying attention to the position of the drow. The drow has been on both sides of them, at the beginning, on one side, Then it went to the other side.Drizzt hadn't called Guenhhvar out of the Astral Plane—in fact, he'd given Catti-brie the statue controlling the panther—because the longer they could wait, the giant leopard would be able to Get more rest.And the drow had a feeling he would need Guenhwyvar before this was all over.

Shortly after mid-afternoon, when the group had made great progress and the snow was still not falling, Catti-brie noticed a gesture from Drizzt, ahead and left. "Stop," she whispered to Wulfgar, who passed the order forward. Bruenor stopped, gasping for breath from the slog.He lifted the ax off his back and thrust the tip into the snow, leaning against the upright handle. "Drizzt is coming," Wulfgar said, looking easily over the snow bank and the snow on the road ahead. "Another path," the drow explained when they emerged above the snow bank. "Intersect with this one, leading to the west."

"We should go straight south from here," Regis warned. Drizzt shook his head. "Not a natural path," he explained. "Tracks?" Bruno asked, seemingly eager. "More ogres?" "Not the same," Drizzt said, gesturing for them all to follow him. They came to the second path, just a hundred yards ahead.It was an area where the snow had been driven down, across their current path, and along the sloping ground to the east.There, continuing through a deep, wind-eroded snowpack, the friends came across a lower area, filled with silt and a little steam still coming up.

"What the hell did it do?" Bruno asked. "Arctic Worm," Drizzt explained. Bruenor spat, Regis shuddered, and Catti-brie straightened up a little, suddenly alert.They all had some experience with this giant polar worm, a fearsome ice worm.Indeed, they had enough experience, enough to be sure that none of them wanted to fight such a worm. "I don't want to leave an enemy behind," the drow explained. "So you think we should go fight the damn thing?" Bruno asked skeptically. Drizzt shook his head. "We should at least find out where it is. Whether we should kill the creature depends on many things."

"Like how stupid we are," Regis muttered under his breath.Only Catti-brie, standing next to him, heard.She smiled at him, blinked, and the halfling just shrugged. Drizzt didn't wait for confirmation at all, and rushed forward to take a favorable position.He was already in the distance ahead, cautiously proceeding along the path dragged out by the weird and powerful polar worm. This is a monster that can heat the spine until it is hot. It can evaporate the snow, and it can also evaporate the flesh. Zhuo the Elf reminded himself.They found the gigantic monster just a few hundred yards down the road, in a shallow valley, devouring the last remnants of a goat it had caught in deep snow.The mighty monster's back glistens with the excitement of the kill and the meal.

"The monster won't mess with us," Wulfgar pointed out. "They eat very little, and once they're full, they stop looking for prey." "Quite right," agreed Drizzt, leading them back to the road. At this moment, some fine snowflakes were drifting in the air, but Regis told them not to worry, because he noticed a distinctive mountain in the distance, marking the northern end of the Valley of the Sacred Valley. When the five reached the trail on the side of the mountain, the snow was still not heavy, just a light snow, and the valley of the sanctuary stretched south before them.Regis, as instructed, explained the general layout of the winding valley, pointed out the expected sentry positions on the left and right, and directed their eyes to the far south, where a larger hill could just be seen, the top covered in white.The halfling again carefully sketched the place for the others, explaining the ascending path on the far outskirts of the hill, past the sea-facing surface, and wrapping around to the east.That path, he explained, leads to at least one door embedded in the side of the hill.

Regis looked at Drizzt, nodded, and said, "There is another, more secret way inside." "You think it's best for us to separate?" Bruenor asked the halfling suspiciously.He also turned his head to point the question at Drizzt, for it was clear that Regis' hint had the drow lost in thought. Drizzt hesitated.Usually, comrades in the hall fight side by side together, often with overwhelming effect.But this was no ordinary attack for them.This time they were up against a solid fortress, a place that was undoubtedly solid and well-guarded.It might be of considerable help if he could use the internal passages to reach a vantage point in the rear.

"Let's work out our strategy step by step," the drow said finally. "First we have to deal with the sentries, if there are any." "When I flew with Robillard, there were several," Regis said. "There's at least a couple on either side of the valley. They don't look like they're in any hurry to leave." "Then we must go another way, avoiding them," Wulfgar interjected. "Because if we attack one side of the team, the opposite team will definitely warn the whole area before we can get close to them." "Unless Catti-brie can use her bow..." Regis began, when the woman shook her head, looking suspiciously at the wide distance between the towering valley walls.

"We cannot leave these potential enemies behind," the drow decided. "I'm going to the right, and the rest of you are going to the left." "Bah, what a fool's idea," Bruno snorted. "You may kill a pair of half-ogres, and the elves even a pair of pure ogres, but you won't be able to stop them calling their friends in time." "Then we have to disguise our attack so that the other side doesn't know the truth," Catti-brie said. When the others turned to her, they saw her with an extremely determined expression.She looked back to the north and west.

"Worms aren't hungry," she explained. "But that doesn't mean we can't make the damn thing angry." "Two-headed giant?" asked a half-ogre guard on the eastern edge of the valley. The half-ogre scratched its lice-ridden head and stared in surprise as the seven-foot creature approached.It has two heads, so it seems to belong to the family of two-headed giants, but one of the heads has blond hair and looks more human, and the other has a rough and wrinkled face and thick, dwarven hair. Red hair and beard. "Huh?" asked the second sentinel, walking up to his companion. "There will be no two-headed giants around," yelled a third from the warm area by the fire. "There's really one coming," argued the first. In fact, the two-headed monster was rapidly approaching, though it did not appear to be armed or advancing in any threatening manner.Regardless, the ogres raised their weapons and demanded that the strange creature stop. It stopped as ordered, just a few steps away, and glared at the sentries with an extremely smug smile. "What do you want?" asked a half-ogre. "Go over!" cried the red-headed head. After a while, the tall human - because it was really a human - threw the blanket aside, and the red-haired dwarf lifted it from his shoulders and turned to the left, and the half-ogres opened their mouths wide.The human also moved, rushing to the right.Behind the two people who were running fast, a train of steam rolled over and rushed towards their original position, and also towards the stunned half-ogre. The brutes screamed.The polar worm broke through the ice and snow cover, stood upright, and stood high above their heads. "That's not a two-headed giant, you fool!" shrieked the half-ogre by the fire.Influenced by the typical loyalty of its chaotic nature, it sprang to its feet and fled south, along the rim of the canyon, toward the caverns. Or rather it tried to, because after three steps away, an arrow trailing blue light hit its hip like a bolt of lightning, causing it to wobble.The slowed beast limped forward, screaming, and didn't even see the second attack.The red-haired dwarf rushed up, rammed his body against it, and hacked with his terrible, many-notched axe.Besides, the dwarf spun around and slammed his shield hard into the face of the falling brute, leaving the imprint of a bubbling beer mug on the half-ogre's cheek. Opposite, Regis climbed along the side of the valley, holding onto a handhold just below the rim, out of sight of the guards on this side.Regis was relieved to hear the commotion behind him.He and Drizzt left the other three and chose their way to the valley wall on the west side.Then Regis and the drow parted, and the drow took an inside path around the back of the post.Regis crawled along the valley wall with a plan in mind. It was clear to the halfling from the smirk Drizzt gave him when they parted that Drizzt didn't expect him to be of much use in the fight, and the drow believed he was just looking for a place to hide.But Regis had a very definite plan in mind, and he had almost reached the place to execute it: a large overhanging mass of snow and ice. He advanced beneath it, keeping close to the wall, and began to crack the overhanging ice with his little mace. He glanced across the valley to see the polar worm standing upright again, a half-ogre writhing around its mouth.The polar worm flipped its head back, letting go of the half-ogre, flipped over its horned head, and landed on the gigantic monster's gleaming, searing back, and Regis flinched, feeling sorry for the brute. .How the half-ogre writhed in agony! Farther off, Regis saw Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Catti-brie sprinting south, as far as possible from the Pole Worm and the three wounded—and soon to be dead—half-ogres. . Hearing the commotion above, the halfling paused.The guards on his side sensed the disaster on the opposite side. "Help!" Regis called a moment later, and then there was complete silence above him. "Help!" he yelled again. He heard movement, heard the ice crumble a little, and knew that stupid beast was coming out onto the overhang. "Hey, you little mouse!" came the roar a moment later, and the half-ogre poked its head downward.The monster was apparently lying flat on the ice hang, staring suspiciously at Regis and reaching out to him. "Crack...crack," Regis begged, smashing his mace upwards at the ice with all the strength he could muster.The rough guy clawed at him, nearly catching him, and he had to stop tapping and dodge. The half-ogre crawled down a little more.The ice creaked and groaned in protest. "I got you!" The ice broke and carried the half-ogre down the rim of the canyon, and the brute's statement became a wail of wonder and terror. "And now?" Regis asked the fast-moving beast. "Yes," came the unexpected reply from above, and Regis slowly raised his head to see a second sentry staring down at him, spear in hand, and Regis was well within reach of the spear within.Then the halfling thought about letting go, thinking about risking a tumble all the way down the side of the canyon, but the half-ogre suddenly stiffened, jumped forward, and tried to turn, only to get a slash across the face.It fell out, plummeting over the halfling, and Drizzt took its place, lying flat and reaching down toward Regis. The halfling grabbed the outstretched hand, and Drizzt pulled him up. "Five killed," Regis said, his excitement rising from the victorious fruits of his report. "See? I counted right. Four, maybe five—right where I told you they were supposed to be!" "Six," Drizzt corrected, directing the halfling's gaze back, where another brut lay dead in a widening pool of blood. "You missed one." Regis stared at it for a moment, opening and closing his mouth.He just shrugged. After observing the surrounding situation, the two quickly determined that neither of these two groups of enemies would cause them any trouble.On the opposite side, the three were dead, and the white worms were tearing at their bodies, while the two that fell off the edge bounced and tumbled and fell for a long, long distance.One of them lay motionless at the bottom of the valley.The other, no doubt next to its shattered companion, was buried under a deep mound of snow and ice. "Our friends ran down the edge of the canyon," Regis explained, "but I don't know where they went." "They've got to get out of that canyon," Drizzt reasoned, looking unfazed.They discussed this possibility before leading the white worms away from their feeding areas.The drow pointed down the valley, where a considerable number of huge ogres and half-ogres were running up the valley.The guys hoped to dispose of the outposts without alerting the main base, but they knew from the start that this might be the case - which is why they used the white worm. "Come here," Drizzt ordered the halfling. "We'll catch up with our friends in time, or they'll catch up with us." He set off south, keeping as close to the edge of the gorge as safety allowed. Later, when they heard the ogre procession below, Drizzt turned back to the edge of the mountain, then went a little further down, over the edge, and picked his way down the less steep part. Regis gasped and trudged forward, but managed to keep up.Soon, the halfling and the drow stood on the floor of the canyon. The team was far to the north, and the hill where the main cave complex was located was to the south. The entrance to the cave was quite obvious. "Are you ready?" Drizzt asked Regis. The halfling swallowed hard, not too excited to set off alone with the dangerous Drizzt.He would far prefer to have Bruenor and Wulfgar standing firmly in front of him, with Catti-brie covering behind him with her deadly bow, but it was clear that Drizzt had no intention of letting this one go straight into the enemy's lair. Opportunity missed. "Go on," Regis heard himself say, though he could hardly believe the words as they came out of his mouth. All four leaders of Sheila Kree's gang came out of their houses together, at the shouts from below and from outside the caves of the hills. "Choguruga sent a team to investigate," Bellany told the others.The witch's room faces north, which is where the commotion is, and has a door leading out to the terrace. "You do the same thing," Sheila told her. "Get your divination tools ready and see what's coming our way." "I heard shouts about a white worm," answered the witch. Sheila shook her head, her flaming red hair flying wildly. "Too easy," she muttered as she rushed out of the house, running down the winding, sloping passage that led to Choguruga and Brugge's chambers, Jule Pepper close behind. However, Le'lorinel didn't move, just stood in the corridor, nodding knowingly. "Is that the drow?" Bellany asked. The elf smiled and retreated to his room, closing the door. Standing alone in the common area, Bellany just shook her head, took a deep breath, and wondered if it was Drizzt Do'Urden and the Hallmates that were heading towards them now.The witch hoped that the white worm had really caused the riot, no matter what it would cost to drive the monster away. She went back to her room and began to cast some divination spells, wanting to look outside, to see the troubled areas to the north, and to see Morik in passing, just to check where his allegiances were headed. Not long after, Le'lorinel slipped out again, walking in the direction Sheila and Jule had walked. Choguruga's room was in complete disarray, with two tall entourages of the female ogre running back and forth, strapping on armor and lifting heavy weapons.Choguruga stood calmly in front of an open cupboard at one side of the room, its shelves full of vials.Choguruga wiped them off one by one, put some in his pocket, and divided the rest into two piles. At the back of the room, Brugger remained in a hammock, the ogre with two legs dangling outside, one on each side.If the riots made Brugger feel a little anxious, the lazy monster didn't show it either. Le'lorinel walked towards him. "He will find you," the elf warned. "The drow came for the hammer, it was foreseen." "Drow?" asked the big ogre. "No damn drow. White worms." "Perhaps," replied Le'lorinel with a shrug, and his look made it clear to Brugge that the elf simply didn't believe all the commotion was caused by such a creature. "Drow?" asked the ogre, and Brugger seemed suddenly less convinced. "He'll find you." "Brueger will smash him!" the ogre yelled, standing up, or at least trying to, though the movement nearly sent him falling out of the rickety hammock. "Don't take Brugger's new hammer! Smash him!" "Smash who?" Choguruga called from across the room, and the female ogre frowned at the sight of Le'lorinel next to Brugg. "Not so easy, strong Brugg," explained the elf, deliberately not paying attention to the ugly Choguruga. "Come, my friend. I will show you how best to defeat the Dark Elves." Brugg looked from Le'lorinel to his frowning companion, then back to the dainty elf.The gigantic ogre let himself out of his hammock, shouldered Aegis-fang, and the look on his face told Le'lorinel that he was interested in learning about the drow as much as in angering Choguru add.The monster's massive body and muscles dwarfed the mighty weapon, making it look more like a carpenter's hammer. Le'lorinel took one last glance at Choguruga, confirmed that the irascible female ogre wasn't about to charge, and led Bruegel out of the room, up the ramp back to the north end of the upper floor, and pounded Bellany's door. "What's he doing up here?" asked the Witch when she answered the door a moment later. "Sheila wouldn't approve." "What have you learned?" Le'lorinel asked. A cloud passed over Bellany's face. "More than one white worm," she confirmed. "I saw a dwarf and a tall human approaching our position, running very fast." "Probably Bruno Warhammer and Wulfgar," Le'lorinel replied. "How about the drow?" Bellany shrugged and shook her head. "If they came, Drizzt Do'Urden came too," Le'lorinel insisted. "The battle outside is likely to be all over the place. Look closer!" Bellany frowned at the elf, but Le'lorinel didn't take his words back. "Drizzt Do'Urden may already be in the caverns," the elf added. This took the anger out of Bellany's face, and she walked back to her room, closing the door.A moment later, Le'lorinel heard her cast a spell, and he watched with a smile as the wood on Bellany's door seemed to expand a little, causing the door to snap tightly against the frame. Le'lory motioned for Brugge to follow, and walked to another door, he tried his best not to laugh, and he had never been so nervous before. Regis pressed his innocent face against the stone, not daring to catch his breath.He heard the yelling of two other brutes, accompanied by a more human growl, as they passed his and Drizzt's position and headed down the valley to check on their companions. Drizzt was hiding beside him, which reassured the halfling—until he was able to turn his face that way and saw that the drow was gone. Fear rose in Regis.He could hear the three cursed enemies right behind him. "Damn it, it's too cold, go after the shadow!" the human roared. "Big bug," said an ogre. "Would that be better?" the human asked sarcastically. "Never mind that ugly thing, it'll crawl away!" "The bug killed Bangko!" said another ogre angrily. The human wanted to respond—probably to overrule the importance of a dead ogre, Regis realized, but apparently he had thought of the best thing to do and just cursed under his breath. They walked straight past where the halfling was, and if they had gotten any closer, they would have brushed Regis' ass. It wasn't until their voices had quieted down considerably that the halfling breathed a little easier, but he remained standing in the shadows, against the wall. "Regis," came a whisper, and he looked up to see Drizzt on the ledge above him. "Follow up quickly. There is no obstacle to enter the cave." Gathering all his courage, the halfling climbed up, grabbing the drow's outstretched hand.The two skimmed along the narrow ridge, behind a wall of large stones at one corner of the large cave. Drizzt peered around, then slipped in, dragging Regis behind him. Soon after, the cave narrowed and became a tunnel, advancing horizontally and branching to two or three places.The air smelled of smoke, and torches lined the walls at uneven distances, their dancing flames illuminating the place with wildly expanding and contracting shadows. "This way," Regis said, slipping past the drow at a fork in the road, walking to the left.He tried to recall all that Robillard had told him about the place, for the mage had once made a thorough survey of the area, even finding his way up, slightly into the caverns. In some places the ground sloped downwards, in others it rose, although both men were generally descending.They passed through dark rooms without torchlight, others with stalagmites blocking the way, and stalactites glaring menacingly at them from above.The walls are lined with rocky platforms that undulate into miraculous formations or flattened patches of rock that appear to flow.Many smaller tunnels stretched out at every imaginable angle. Soon, Regis slowed down, and harsh voices began to be heard ahead of them.The halfling turned to Drizzt, a look of horror on his face.He pointed sharply ahead, where the corridor wound to the left, then turned back to the right, gradually rising. Drizzt saw the signal, motioned Regis to wait a moment, then slid forward, into the shadows, moving so gracefully, swiftly, and quietly that Regis blinked many times, wondering if his friend Disappeared.As soon as his shock dissipated, however, the halfling remembered where he was, noticing the fact that he was alone now.He slipped quickly into the side shadows. A short while later, the drow returned, much to Regis' relief, a smile on his face showing that he had found the area he was looking for.Drizzt led him around a bend, up a short slope, and then up several half-natural, half-carved steps into a cavern that widened to the left, along a broken rock ledge, to about As high as the elf's chest. The voice was even closer now, just around the next corner ahead.Drizzt jumped up to the left, then turned back and reached out, pulling Regis up to him. "Lots of loose stone," the drow explained softly. "Be very careful." They moved slowly, across a wide area, getting as close to the wall as possible, until they came to an area free of rubble.Drizzt leaned against the wall there, reached into a small recess, and withdrew, rubbing his fingers together. Regis nodded knowingly.ash.It was a natural chimney, the one Robillard had described to his friends when he flew back to his friends, the one he had described to Drizzt later. The drow went in first, flexing expertly and gliding up the narrow hole.Just before Regis could consider the road ahead of him, before he could pause to muster courage, he heard voices moving along the passage behind him. He stepped inside, into absolute darkness, moving his hands, looking for a place to hold them, groping behind the drow to propel himself upward. For Drizzt, it was as if he had suddenly returned to the Underdark, to the hunter's realm, where his senses had to be perfect if he was to have any chance of surviving.Then he heard so many sounds: water dripping in the distance;He could feel the noise with his keen fingertips as he continued to climb, slowing only because he knew Regis might not be able to keep up.Drizzt, a creature of the Underdark, where natural tunnels are common and where even halflings' excellent night vision is utterly useless, can climb up this narrow tunnel and run with Regis. As quickly as across a starlit meadow. The drow marveled at the texture of the stone, feeling the life of the hill, once filled with rushing water.The smooth edges make for a comfortable climb, and the walls are bumpy enough that the smoothness doesn't detract too much from the climb. "Drizzt," he heard whispers below, knew that Regis was in trouble. The drow stepped back, finally extending its foot so that Regis could grab it. "I should have stayed with the others," he whispered when the halfling finally crossed the difficult stretch. "Nonsense," the drow replied. "Feel the life of the mountains around you. We'll find what works for our friends here, perhaps critically." "We don't yet know if the fight will get here." "Even if it doesn't get here, the enemy doesn't expect us to be here, their rear. Keep up." So they went on, rising higher and higher inside the mountain.Soon they heard the low voices of some large humanoids, which grew louder as they rose. A short, slightly downward tunnel branched off from this pipe, through which some hot air rose, and from there came the deep voice, loud and clear. Drizzt waited in the more open space for Regis to climb up to his level, then he moved along the sidewalk and came to an exit above a dying coal fire in the wide fireplace, Burning dimly. The exit of the fireplace was a little higher than the bottom of the sloping tunnel, so that Drizzt could look out into the great room, where three ogres, one of them a strange purple-skinned woman, were scurrying about, strapped on a leash, Check the weapon. Drizzt clearly noticed another, badly worn passage on one side of the room, sloping upwards.The drow returned to where Regis waited. "Go up," he whispered. He paused, pulled out his water bag, dampened the top of his shirt, and pulled it up over the bottom half of his face to keep out the smoke.Drizzt helped Regis do the same, and he set off. Just thirty feet up, the two came to what looked like a concentration point for pipes.The main pipeline continued upwards, but five branch roads branched out at different heights and angles, and hot air and some smoke rushed towards the two of them.And the tunnels of these branches were obviously carved by hand, in a style different from that of the ogre's hands, and were made by smaller hands. Drizzt gestured for Regis to follow slowly, and crawled along what he thought was the most direct tunnel to the north. The fire in this fireplace burned relatively brightly, and fortunately the wood wasn't very wet and not much smoke was coming up.Also, the steep angle of the chimney to this fireplace prevented Drizzt from looking out into the room. The drow took a moment to tuck his long hair back and dampen it, then he knelt down, took a deep breath, and crawled down the side of the pipe like a spider until he could His face stuck out from under the chimney, and the flames burned not far below him, sparks rising up to sting him. This room looked very different from the ogre's room below.It is filled with fine furniture and carpets, and has a luxurious bed.On the opposite side there was an open door leading to another room.Drizzt couldn't make out much there, but he did see a few tables covered with equipment that might only be seen in an alchemy workshop.And, through the second room, loomed another door, a little thicker, with daylight seeping in around it. Now his interest was raised, but it was inopportune, as he had to retreat from the intense heat. He returned to the conduit concentration point where Regis was, and described what he had seen. "We should go out and try to find the others," the halfling suggested, and Drizzt nodded in agreement, when they heard a loud voice echoing along another branch. "Brugg smashed him! Don't take Brugg's new hammer!" The drow set off, and Regis followed.They came down another steep pipe, by another hearth, this one barely burning.Drizzt turned backwards, sticking his head downward. There stood an ogre, a huge, ugly, angry monster that waved Aegis-fang with ease at the end of one arm.Behind it, stood a slender elven swordsman, speaking reassuringly to the ogre. The drow didn't wait for Regis, somersaulted off the stove, stood on the embers for a moment, then stepped boldly out into the room. The three friends ran at full speed along the ridge, and when they heard the noise of ogre reinforcements coming from the hill below, they turned away from the edge.The second line of monsters came out of the hill above the ridge and charged through the snow, and they had to deviate a little further from their straight path. "There's probably a lot more in there," Catti-brie pointed out. "That's all the more reason to go there!" Bruno roared. "Drizzt and Regis are likely close to that place, if not already in it," Wulfgar added. The woman holds a bow in her hand, signaling to move forward. "Are you going to recruit that leopard?" Bruno asked. Catti-brie glanced at her belt, where she had placed the statue of Guenhiffar. "As we approach," she replied.Bruenor just nodded, trusting her completely, and rushed to follow Wulfgar. Ahead, Wulfgar crouched suddenly as another ogre leaped off the hill and across a ditch to the slope of the ridge, where the brutish creature came at him, swinging a heavy club violently. Wulfgar dodged it easily, then kicked and chopped, cutting a deep gash across the brut's shoulder.The ogre turned at first, but then collapsed suddenly as Bruenor charged forward violently, driving the ax into its kneecap. It howled and fell. “了结它，女儿！”布鲁诺一边命令，一边跑过去，奔向小山。然而矮人滑动着停下来，被那条分开小山与斜坡的沟阻挡住了，这条沟对他来说太宽了，无法跳过去。 随后，布鲁诺不得不扑向一边，因为一块岩石从小山的侧坡上，就在他上方某处向他飞来。 沃夫加过来了，高喊着“坦帕斯！”，跃过沟壑。野蛮人撞在一些岩石上，但他很快在一条沿着斜坡蜿蜒而上的狭窄小径上稳住了自己。 “该把我先扔过去的，”布鲁诺一边抱怨，一边再次向边上一扑，另一块岩石落在他身边。 矮人确实找出了一条能将他带到那条蜿蜒小径上的道路，但他知道，到达那里时，自己将远远落在沃夫加后面。“女儿！我需要你！”他叫道。 他回过身看见那个倒下的食人魔又颤抖了一下，另一枝箭深深没入它的头颅。 凯蒂布莉儿冲上前，单膝跪下，向着那个隐藏着的投石手射出了一连串的箭。那个粗野的家伙再次冒出来，手中高举着石头，但当一枝箭嗖地飞过，它就缩了回去。 凯蒂布莉儿和布鲁诺听见战斗的吼声，沃夫加遇上了那个粗野的家伙。矮人跑开去，而凯蒂布莉儿把那个玛瑙雕像扔到地上召唤豹子，然后又让她的弓继续开工。因为沃夫加所在位置的上方高处有一道脊梁，那上面来了一个新的威胁，一群弓箭手正放着箭，而不再是扔石块。 “是他们吗？”盗贼莫里克一边问一边推向贝兰尼私人房间坚固的门。他抬头看看膨胀的木头，知道女巫用魔法封锁了它。“贝兰尼？” 作为回应，门仿佛排泻出一股气，缩回了正常大小，莫里克小心地走进去。 “贝兰尼？” “我相信你朋友和他的伙伴们已经来取回那战锤了，”莫里克正前方传来一个声音。他几乎从靴子里跳了出来，因为他看不到站在面前的女子。 “法师，”他嘀咕着镇定下来。“希拉·克里在哪儿？” no answer. “你只是耸了耸肩？”盗贼猜测说。 贝兰尼随即发出的咯咯笑声告诉他是的。 “那你怎么办？”莫里克问。“你就躲在这里，还是参与冲突？” “希拉命令我占卜骚动的来源，那我就这么做喽，”隐身的女巫回答。 莫里克脸上绽开一个笑容。他非常明白贝兰尼含糊的回答意味着什么。她要在决定自己的策略前等着看谁会胜出。这一刻，盗贼对女巫的敬意提升了不少。 “你能再施展一次这个法术吗？”他问。“为我？” 他还没问完这个问题，贝兰尼就开始施法了。不一会儿，莫里克也从视界中消失了。 “只是一个小法术，”贝兰尼解释说。“它不会持续很久。” “足够长了，可以让我找到一个黑窟窿躲进去，”莫里克回答，但他突然停下来，因为听到了外面山下远处的声音。 “他们正沿着小路杀过来，”女巫解释说。 片刻之后，贝兰尼听到另一间屋子里传来吱吱嘎嘎的声音，并看到光线增强了，因为莫里克走出了外面的门。女巫走到屋子的一侧，然后听到对面一声惊呼——从勒罗里内的房间里传来。