Shattered Shields - eARC Read Online Free Page A

she feared that no mere human could face two Toth at once.
    But the giant shook his head, wagged his great black beard. “My duty is to save you! ”
    Dval dodged beneath the smaller Toth’s swing, leapt back. No fighter of Mystarria could have evaded that blow in darkness, Avahn thought. None of her men could see so well in this infernal darkness.
    But Dval leapt away, and for a moment, he disappeared in the shadows.
    Suddenly his enemy gave a keening shriek and halfway collapsed to its left. The bigger Toth swung her flaming club overhead, and for an instant, Avahn saw the image of Dval, engaging the smaller monster.
    He’d stabbed it beneath the arm, plunged his spear into its chest. Now he danced backward and disappeared into the shadows again.
    The wounded Toth staggered a bit, fell back, and then swung its mighty axe. Dval was a white shadow in the starlight and moonlight, dancing away.
    But he went flying, and Avahn shrieked as she realized that the Toth’s ax had found its mark. With a sickening crunch, Dval flew back a dozen feet.
    The smaller Toth stopped and peered up toward the fortress, and for a moment it held its axe in both hands, then staggered forward and crashed to the earth.
    Only one Toth was left. The big slow one.
    “Get down!” Sir Bandolan grumbled, his voice issuing from his cavernous chest like rolling thunder. He shoved her to the ground.
    * * *
    Dval’s head spun. He felt as if he were caught in a tornado, his head spinning around. He clawed his way out of the darkness, and found himself on the ground.
    Blood smeared his chest.
    The Toth. The male had given him a mighty battle, and the end of the ax had nicked him, sent him flying.
    A sense of urgency filled him, and Dval leapt to his feet. “ Ya, kanah !” he shouted. To eternity!
    He leapt up, thinking that while he was unconscious, the female must have charged the fortress, but to his surprise, she stood not more than a dozen feet from him.
    She whirled and raised her flaming crystal staff overhead so that it whistled and hissed at the same time. The staff was at least fourteen feet long, and as thick as a large sapling.
    His chest hurt, and Dval was in terrible pain. He staggered forward and realized that his feet would not move. He felt shocked, wounded.
    He suddenly realized that he had dropped his spear, and he bore no weapon at all in his hand.
    His ears were pounding, blood drumming in tune with his heart, and he stared for one moment into the maw of the Toth as it gnashed its teeth, huge eyes peering at him without moving, much as a spider’s eyes will.
    His whole world was reflected in the Toth’s eyes. He could see himself there, blood streaming from his wound, his face pale as death. The monster’s fiery staff whirled toward him, and time seemed to stand still.
    The Toth lurched forward, a lance piercing through its abdomen, and a charger came out of the night, a warhorse with a leather helm painted white like a skull, and leather barding.
    The Toth fell on top of Dval, crushing him, so that for a moment he lay on the ground and struggled to breathe.
    * * *
    King Harrill rode out of the woods, only a few strides behind Sir Adelheim and Sir Pwyrthen, and watched the big Toth succumb to death, her armored body crashing to the ground with a sound like trees falling.
    To his dismay, Avahn came leaping down from the fortress in the starlight, as if eager to finish killing the Toth herself, and Sir Bandolan the giant was too slow to stop her.
    Avahn raced to the dying Toth and grabbed her giant staff, then struggled to use it as a lever.
    Only then did he see the fallen Woguld lying beneath the monster.
    The giant came trudging down, too. He grabbed the Toth, rolled her over, and pulled the boy out.
    The Woguld lay in the moonlight, struggling to breathe, and King Harrill drew near, wondering if the boy would survive.
    To his surprise, Dval climbed to his feet and staggered to the fallen Toth. Only then did he reach into the