Ajax left a few more nasty surprises along the way to the mound.

He’d never made so many Workings before in his life, now having used all three Workings he was proficient with, and about half a dozen more he’d not quite mastered.

For years, he’d used essence as sparingly as he can get away with, used none at all unless necessary, but now seemed as good a time as any. Still, Ajax tried to save enough for a quick cantrip or two.

Luckily, the Workings all took without a hitch.

Upon reaching the cave, he dismounted and ventured in to scout the location. That done, he went back to the opening, hopped back onto the deerhound, and placed one last Working on the arch of the opening.

This one took less essence than the others, but the results should be devastating.

It came in two parts, the first, smaller part was meant to break apart a few rocks to fall onto the pack as they entered, and hopefully Croup and Not Croup as well. The second part would be triggered after Ajax and Mayhew run out, to collapse the whole arch and bury their pursuers in rubble, or at least trap them.

Just as he finished, he heard distant whines and growls echoing softly from upslope, barely audible above the whistling wind. The buck gave a start, head turning towards the sounds, ears twitching.

“Easy now,” Ajax said, “Let them see us go in.”

And then the wolves came within sight a few hundred yards away, visible as obvious black spots moving across the off white limestone, lime, pale silt, and clay. One walked with a slight limp and lagged ever so further behind by the minute. The rest appeared largely unscathed, more intact than Ajax would have liked.

Ajax searched the glen for the two black gnolls, who should be easy to see, but couldn’t find them anywhere.

Then he heard a shrill, sonorous whistle. Five quick notes, down and up and down.

A gnoll—either Croup or Not Croup, Ajax couldn’t tell—walked up along one side of the dry river.

Another whistle sounded in answer. Three longer notes, descending.

The other gnoll walked up along the other side.

They were walking above the riverbanks, where the ground ran smoother, and where Ajax had not thought to place Workings. It hadn’t even occurred to him to walk there.

Bastards.

One of the gnolls grinned viciously, sharp teeth on display and eyes wide open.

“It’s over, Lappikins,” Croup said, huffing amusedly. Ajax had no idea they could speak. “We seem to have the high ground.”

Carrion birds began cawing heavyhandedly. The wind howled ever louder, and so did the wolves.

“That’s our cue, Mayhew.” Ajax said, “Yip-yip!”

The deerhound snorted derisively, before Ajax tapped its flank with the mulberry branch. It began moving, but was reluctant to enter the cavern, with looked quite dark and cramped. Ajax had to force the way with the reigns.

With a signal from Croup, the wolves charged, snarling. Ajax whipped the buck into a gallop. Without bothering to look back, he set off the first part of the Working.

There was a loud blast, and several yelps and whimpers, then howling and barking.

The deerhound suddenly came to a halt and reared back, braying and shaking Ajax violently in the saddle.

“What now, you insufferable beast! What is it?!”

But the buck would go no further, as though there were something in its way, spooking it.

“Hraka.” Ajax looked around the poorly-lit corridor. Definitely not a good idea to get lost in here.

The corridor inclined downwards from the entrance. The pack really had the high ground, and they were rushing in teeth bared, still snarling and growling.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

There were elevated ledges on either side, but the whole corridor narrowed down into the single opening. So nothing there. No real avenues for evasion.

“Right, no choice then.” Ajax turned the deerhound around. It was more than happy to cooperate. Hopefully they can just rush past and out the exit.

Ajax drew his short saber, and held it in his right hand. With the last of his available essence, he formed a lance in his left, and then touched the deerhound’s panicking mind, placing a mental yoke, with only a slight fumble. Should’ve done that ages ago.

“Hyah!” As the buck charged forward, Ajax lowered the lance across the reigns, supported by the shortsaber, and extending forward to the right. He made the buck lower its head, antlers forward, to protect him as much as to gore anything standing in the way.

Seven wolves stood between Ajax and the exit.

And as Ajax neared them, he screamed.

One wolf pounced forward. It was caught by the antlers, crushed and thrown aside, dead, as the lance struck another wolf’s flank, and that wolf yelped. The lance’s haft strained.

Another wolf leapt straight for Ajax, and he struck it down, burying the saber’s end in its skull, and in doing so pulled himself slightly off balance. The short saber was stuck. Ajax tightened his grip, determined to hang on to it.

The lance snapped in twain, and unraveled, a flaw in its form undid the yoke on the deerhound’s mind as well.

The newly awoken deerhound panicked, brayed so loud the wolves flinched, and kicked out with its hind legs. A wolf slammed against the cave wall, and fell limp.

Then the deerhound reared up, nearly dislodging its rider. A wolf chose that moment to pounce. Finally the short saber came loose, and Ajax raised it. He realized he’d brought it back too far, when the wolf slammed right into him.

Ajax caught hold of the reigns, but the buck, still unbalanced on its hind legs, toppled over onto both Ajax and the wolf.

Three bodies tumbled down the corridor’s incline.

There was a crunch and a yelp, a thump, and another crunch, and Ajax felt something plunge into his side, and then there was a snap.

Three bodies landed on the cave floor.

There goes my other kidney, Ajax thought.

He regained consciousness five seconds later, in time to feel the spark of life within the deerhound extinguish.

Great, just great. Hraka.

The wolves growled apprehensively, and started creeping down cautiously. Six more entered the cave, accompanied by Croup and Not Croup, both of whom now looked serious.

It was at this point that, unknown to Ajax and the others, Echo manifested at the far end of the corridor.

Ajax looked down at his side, and saw an antler embedded there, broken off at the stem. He looked at the dead deerhound. It was its right antler that broke off. Slowly, Ajax raised a paw on his own ones.

Then he laughed.

It was a laugh reminiscent of the gnolls from earlier. Then it grew into a full on hyena laugh. And then it took on a mirthless edge, and Ajax’s eyes bulged out slightly. At last, the laughter died down.

Hero materialized beside Echo, likewise unnoticed.

“Where did you get the spear?” she said.

“I made it,” Echo answered.

“With what wood? I saw no trees anywhere near here. Or was it from storage? That’s what the place before was, right?”

“I made it with my essence.”

“Oh. Show me how?”

Echo open her mouth to protest, she can show her later, but decided otherwise. She let her spear unravel, and reformed it.

Hero did the same, forming and unforming her own. “Oh, wow. So what can I do?”

“For now, we do nothing. Just watch.”

Meanwhile, Ajax pulled the antler out. Three prongs had pierced him, essence-rich blood flowing from three punctures. The wolves, smelling the blood, grew frenzied, but stayed put.

“I don’t know what you wounded me with,” Ajax called out to, “but it’s nasty. What is that, elephant bone? Whatever it is, it won’t help you now.”

He raised the antler towards his enemies, ready to speak a final malediction.

Then his arm flagged, and his being came undone at the edges.

Ah, I see. The antler fell on the floor. Instead of diffusing and flowing back to his homeland, Ajax felt his essence being sucked away by something. What in the dry shit of . . . Ajax noticed too late, and was subsumed, and vanished. The wolves and the two gnolls looked puzzled.

Hero now understood what Echo meant, when she said ‘a spark’. She felt it herself, when the rabbit thing with antlers disappeared. There was the slightest increase in the locus’ energies. This energy felt different, foreign in the midst of her own essence, even as it was slowly assimilated.

Echo spoke. “Don’t let them get to the crystal,” she told Hero.

A flash of light illuminated Echo, and duplicate images appeared in front of every wolf and gnoll. The images moved in unison, and when Echo struck out with her spear, so too did the others, and some sank into flesh. Then the light was gone.

Echo flew towards the intruders, spear out. They fled.

Two wolves fled in the wrong direction, and ran deeper into the cave.

Hero had figured out how to form two pieces of ribbed horn joined together into a recurve bow. She let loose arrows from up close, at half-draw. The wolves whined and were thrown back slightly as the arrows hit.

Meanwhile, Echo pulled her spear free of Not Croup, where it had pierced his back and out his chest. The rest escaped.

Echo looked back at Hero. Both let their weapons unravel. Around them, bodies began decomposing. Every spark of life extinguished within the cavern released energy, and the energy thrown into the maelstrom to be digested. And then they were gone.

Croup had barely gone twenty yards away from the mound when a javelin hit him square in the chest. He was dead before he hit the ground. Three wolves ran out after him, in various states of injury. Two had been ones who had been injured and healed by Croup before entering the cave.

Three javelins flew out. One landed between eyes, another found a throat, and the third, a heart. The thrown javelins broke into mist and drifted back to Celia.

“Ah crud,” she said. “The fur’s all ruined.”

She looked back towards the mound. The presence felt just the slightest bit stronger, now. Curiouser and curiouser.

Celia’s form dissipated, and she flew like the wind, out past the mountains.