The Crystal Shard(The Icewind Dale Trilogy 1)(53)

The giant advanced on Drizzt. "Arg, hold yer ground, ye miserable rat!" it growled. "An' none o' yer sneaky tricks! We wants to see how ye does in a fair fight."

Just as the two came together, Guenhwyvar darted the remaining few feet and sank his fangs deep into the back of the verbeeg's ankle. Reflexively, the giant shot a glance at the rear attacker, but it recovered quickly and shot its eyes back to the elf...

...Just in time to see the scimitar entering its chest.

Drizzt answered the monster's puzzled expression with a question. "Where in the nine hells did you ever find the notion that I would fight fair?"

The verbeeg lurched away. The blade hadn't found its heart, but it knew that the wound would soon prove fatal if untended. Blood poured freely down the monster's leather tunic, and it labored visibly as it tried to breath. Drizzt alternated his attacks with Guenhwyvar, striking and ducking away from the lumbering counter while his partner rushed in on the monster's other side. They knew, and the giant did, too, that this fight would soon be over.

The giant fighting Wulfgar could no longer sustain a defensive posture with its heavy club. Wulfgar was beginning to tire as well, so he started to sing an old tundra war song, the Song of Tempos, its rousing notes inspiring him into one final barrage. He waited for the verbeeg's club to inch inevitably downward and then launched Aegis-fang once, twice, and then a third time. Wulfgar nearly collapsed in exhaustion after the third swing, but the giant lay crumpled on the floor. The barbarian leaned wearily on his weapon and watched his two friends nip and scratch their verbeeg to pieces.

"Well done!" Wulfgar laughed when the last giant fell.

Drizzt walked over to the barbarian, his left arm hanging limply at his side. His jacket and shirt were torn where the stone had struck, and the exposed skin of his shoulder was swollen and bruised.

Wulfgar eyed the wound with genuine concern, but Drizzt answered his unspoken question by raising the arm above him, though he grimaced in pain with the effort. "It'll be quick to mend," he assured Wulfgar. "Just a nasty bump, and I find that a small cost to weigh against the bodies of thirteen verbeeg!"

A low groan issued from the tunnel.

"Twelve as yet," Wulfgar corrected. "Apparently one is not quite done kicking." With a deep breath, Wulfgar lifted Aegis-fang and turned to finish the task.

"A moment, first," insisted Drizzt, a thought pressing on his mind. "When the giants charged you in the tunnel, you yelled something in your home tongue, I believe. What was it you said?"

Wulfgar laughed heartily. "An old Elk tribe battle cry," he explained. "Strength to my friends, and death to my foes!"

Drizzt eyed the barbarian suspiciously and wondered just how deep ran Wulfgar's ability to fabricate a lie on demand.

* * *

The injured verbeeg was still propped against the tunnel wall when the two companions and Guenhwyvar came upon it. The drow's dagger remained deeply buried in the giant's knee, its blade caught fast between two bones. The giant eyed the men with hate-filled yet strangely calm eyes as they approached.

"Ye'll pay fer all o' this," it spat at Drizzt. "Biggrin'll play with ye afore killin' ye, be sure o' that!"

"So it has a tongue," Drizzt said to Wulfgar. And then to the giant, "Biggrin?"

"Laird o' the cave," answered the giant. "Biggrin'll be a wantin' to meet ye."

"And we'll be wanting to meet Biggrin!" stormed Wulfgar. "We have a debt to repay; a little matter concerning two dwarves!" As soon as Wulfgar mentioned the dwarves, the giant spat again. Drizzt's scimitar flashed and poised an inch from the monster's throat.

"Kill me then an' have done," laughed the giant, genuinely uncaring. The monster's ease unnerved Drizzt. "I serve the master!" proclaimed the giant. "Glory is to die for Akar Kessell!"

Wulfgar and Drizzt looked at each other uneasily. They had never seen or heard of this kind of fanatical dedication in a verbeeg, and the sight disturbed them. The primary fault of the verbeeg which had always kept then from gaining dominance over the smaller races was their unwillingness to devote themselves wholeheartedly to any cause and their inability to follow one leader:

"Who is Akar Kessell?" demanded Wulfgar.

The giant laughed evilly. "If friends o' the towns ye be, ye'll know soon enough!"

"I thought you said that Biggrin was laird of this cave," said Drizzt.

"The cave," answered the giant. "And once a tribe. But Biggrin follows the master now."

"We've got trouble," Drizzt mumbled to Wulfgar. "Have you ever heard of a verbeeg chieftain giving up its dominance to another without a fight?"

"I fear for the dwarves," said Wulfgar.

Drizzt turned back to the giant and decided to change the subject so that he could extract some information more immediate to their situation. "What is at the end of this tunnel?"

"Nothin'," said the verbeeg, too quickly. "Er, just a place for us t' sleep, is all."

Loyal, but stupid, noted Drizzt. He turned to Wulfgar again. "We have to take out Biggrin and any others in the cave who might be able to get back to warn this Akar Kessell."

"What about this one?" asked Wulfgar. But the giant answered the question for Drizzt. Delusions of glory pushed it to seek death in the wizard's service. It tightened its muscles, ignoring the pain in its knee, and lunged at the companions.