Elf Killers Read Free Page B

"and just one of us is going to be both faster and quieter. I want the three of you to sit down right here and not say one single word amongst you while I'm gone. If I don't make it back, stay here dead silent until broad daylight and head straight back to camp. Don't you dare go back up to the cave because no one will be alive. Got that?" And with that he vanished.
    He was back in surprisingly short order, struggling to catch his breath before whispering, "There are other caves all right, but there's not a brute in sight. It's all sows and kids. And that brute guarding Doona and Lilee seems to be alone and about to fall asleep. This isn't going to last. Somebody's undoubtedly going to come and eat directly. Silent is the word. Stand behind me until I've got him. Then go cut loose the kids. Remember that trolls can see into the shadows. Tell them to keep their mouths shut, hold hands and stay with us. Ready?"
    They were. In short order they took up positions just beyond the light of the fire. Oisin drew his bow, and with scarcely a hesitation, loosed his arrow. The troll toppled head first into the fire. At once, Olloo, Kieran and Mian rushed to the fire to cut free Doona and Lilee.
    "O cac!" whispered Oisin at the sight of a huge brute meandering out of the cave into the light. At once he let fly another arrow, quietly dropping the big fellow in his tracks. At once two sows appeared, one after the other. Oisin kept shooting, felling them, too. A half grown kid ran out with a whimper and knelt by one of the sows. Oisin quickly got him before he could make any more noise.
    "Faf-ny-oyd-fy-phn?" said another brute as he stepped out and saw the others.
    Oisin's last arrow went high and got the troll in the throat, sending him into a frenzy of staggering about, gurgling. Olloo rushed up behind and began stabbing with all his might. After seven stabs, the brute fell. Olloo came down on him with bug-eyed fury, plunging his dirk to its hilt in the brute's chest. By the time he'd managed to yank it out, all the Elves had been cut free.
    "Are you all right?" said Oisin, still in whispers.
    "I feel better at last," whispered Olloo with a look of wild-eyed triumph. 
    Doona and Lilee were still squatting by the spit, staring out with wide glassy eyes as if they were still tied. Olloo hurried to Doona's side. "Doona?" he whispered. She paid no attention, as if she had not heard her name at all. When he tried to take her hand, she yanked it away and appeared as if she were looking about for somewhere to escape to. Kieran knelt by Lilee and got the same sorts of responses from her.
    "We've got to go now," whispered Oisin.
    Olloo took Doona firmly by the hand and ushered her after the others. Kieran tried it with Lilee only to have her try to bolt away. He sprang up and grabbed her, steering her after Olloo and Doona. Feena, the littlest survivor, also had a haunted wide-eyed stare. She grabbed Kieran by the leg and wouldn't let go. Off they went, jogging into the timber holding hands, crashing into brush and snapping sticks, sounding for the world like some behemoth centipede, but dutifully managing not to utter a sound. 
    Oisin took them far away down the length of a hogback, his mind numbed from all he had been through, struggling to decide how far to go with them before stopping. " We're making so much racket, even the owls have gotten quiet, " he thought as he shifted his rattling quiver, " but we have to get away from the caves as fast as we can, so we don't dare slow down to be quiet, until we're far enough. " Soon he picked a spot where the hogback swept down to the side of a creek. Except for Doona, Lilee and Feena, everyone began talking at once.
    Oisin stood before them in the blackness with his finger to his lips. "Please, we're not really safe here," he said. "There are still a few of us unaccounted for..." He faltered as his eyes brimmed over.
    "They began with the little ones..." said a voice.
    "Yea," said another. "Feena only