and tore out his favored double-bladed axe instead.
On the path below, the smaller monsters went into a frenzy, pushing and shoving, diving to the dirt, and running in all directions. They had lost many companions in the last few weeks, and they knew what was to come.
The wizard, Tintagel, cried out the dispelling syllable; Danica and forty elves behind her reverted to their original forms, drew back their bowstrings, and charged with gleaming swords waving high.
The dazed giant wobbled, but stubbornly, stupidly, held its balance, and Ivan and Pikel, dangling nearly twenty feet above the forest path, went to work.
Ivan's axe took off an ear; Pikel's club splattered the monster's nose all over its cheek. Again and again they smacked at the beast. They knew they were vulnerable up there, knew that if the giant managed to get even a single hit in, it would probably knock one of them halfway back to the Edificant Library. But the brothers didn't think of that grim fact at the time; they were having too much fun.
Below the hanging dwarves came the sound of elven bows loosing hail after hail of arrows deep into goblin, ore, and orog flesh.
Creatures died by the score; others cried in agony and terror, and the merciless elves came on, swords in hand, hacking at the squirming forms of these vile invaders, the monsters that had so tainted the precious elven home.
Danica spotted one group of monsters slipping away through the trees to the side. She called to Tintagel and sped off in pursuit, taking up her crystal-bladed daggers, one with a golden pommel carved into the likeness of a tiger, the other, with a hilt of silver, carved into a dragon.
Pikel's club knocked the giant's head backward so brutally that the dwarves heard the sharp crack of the huge monster's neck bone. The giant somehow held its balance for just a moment longer, looking dazed and confused, and then quite dead. It rolled up on the balls of its huge feet and toppled forward like a chopped tree.
Ivan quickly surveyed the path ahead of the falling beast.
"Two!" the dwarf yelled, and the giant's body buried two unfortunate goblins as it landed.
"Ye owe me a gold piece!" Ivan roared, and Pikel nodded happily, more than willing to pay the bet.
"Ye ready for more?" Ivan cried.
"Oo oi!" Pikel replied with enthusiasm. Without a word of warning to his brother, Pikel grabbed a nearby branch and quickly pulled the loop around his waist, freeing his end of the rope.
Ivan did manage to open his eyes wide, but the inevitable curses aimed at his brother would have to wait as he took a more direct descent to the ground. To Pikel's credit, the plummeting Ivan did clobber a goblin beneath him.
The yellow-bearded dwarf hopped back to his feet, spitting dirt and curses. He casually dropped his heavy axe onto the back of the wounded goblin's head, ending its complaints, and looked back up to his brother, who was making a more conventional way down the tree.
Pikel shrugged and smiled meekly. "Oops," he offered, and Ivan silently mouthed the word at the same instant Pikel spoke it, fully expecting the all-too-common apology.
"When ye get down here . . ." Ivan began to threaten, but goblins suddenly closed in around the vulnerable dwarf. Ivan howled happily and forgot any anger harbored against Pikel. After all, how could he possibly stay mad at someone who had dropped him right in the middle of so much fun?
The fleeing band's lead goblin scrambled through the thick underbrush, desperate to leave the slaughter behind. The monster hooked one ankle on one of many crisscrossing roots in this overgrown region, and stubbornly pulled itself free. Then it got hooked again, and this time the grasp was not so easily broken.
The goblin squealed and pulled, then looked back to see, not a root, but a woman, smiling wickedly and holding fast to its ankle.
Danica twisted her arm in a sudden jerk and charged up and ahead from her low concealment, tripping the unfortunate creature. She was atop the thing in an instant, her free hand pushing away the frantic beast's futile slaps while her other hand, holding the golden-hilted dagger, came slashing in for a single, vicious strike.
Danica rarely needed more than one.
The young woman pulled herself up from the slain creature, openly facing its surprised comrades, who weaved in and out of the trees behind and to the sides. The band eyed her curiously and looked all about,