Free Strife In The Sky (Book 7) by Craig Halloran Page B

And they made too much of a racket in the woods.” He raised a finger up. “But I have good news.”
    “Really,” she said. “I can’t imagine what that might be.”
    “On my own I have discovered the nature of our threat, and I know just how to find them.”
    She raised a brow.
    “And?”
    “Dwarves.”
    “Hah!” She said. She poured a goblet of wine and picked at some food still on the table. “It must be those ones we encountered before. The ones that traveled with Nath Dragon or whatever it was. Hmmm, it seems they want to slow our army’s movements and take us out one by one.”
    “And they can’t hurt us when we stay together,” Finlin added. “Just let me scout. I can find and spring their snares.” He smiled. “Even better, I think we can catch them in the act. Snare them and take them.”
    “What do you propose?”
    “The dwarves can’t detect me as quick as I can find them,” Finlin said. “They live in rocks, and we’re bred in the woodland. No, I’ll find them, lead them on a chase, and where we wind up…” He punched his fist into his hand. “…the draykis will be waiting to pounce.”
    Faylan twitched her lips and scratched the side of her cheek.
    “I suppose it will work. How many do you need?”
    “I need them all,” he smiled, “and I will let not a single dwarf get away.”
    “So be it then,” she said with a wave, “but you’d better not fail me again.”
    ***
    Pilpin ran a stone over the blade of his axe. Most of the other dwarves were doing the same. For the past few days, they’d been harassing the scouts of the soldiers of Barnabus with pits, snares, and other traps, but they had yet failed to get their prey.
    “We’ll get them,” he said, thumping the edge of his blade. “We’ll get them both.”
    “Aye,” one said, followed by another.
    Pilpin nodded. So far, their efforts had been successful, but the satyrs had evaded all the tricks and traps. The little goat-man was faster than a jackrabbit in the forest, and he noticed anything out of the ordinary. He could sniff them out in the breeze. Must get that satyr and that satyr woman. Justice will be served the dwarven way, or it won’t be served at all. Every dwarf, one and all, would die if necessary, to bring to justice the enemies of their friends. 
    Horn Bucket rode up to them from deep in the woods. He sat tall in the saddle, looking like a bear with a wooden helmet on his head.
    “We have him,” Horn Bucket said. “Devliik wants us to make our move. All of us. It’s now.”
    The dwarves scrambled out of the dirt and climbed into their saddles with determined looks in their eyes. Pilpin followed Horn Bucket’s lead into a pass at the bottom of the hill. Horn Bucket signaled for them to spread out. Once they did, they came to a stop where two more dwarves on horses waited. One was Devliik.
    “He’s up there,” Horn Bucket said, pointing with his missing hand. Ahead was more forest and rocky terrain. He eyed the others and then Pilpin. “No path through the way we came except through us.” He winked at Pilpin. “This time, I think he’s wandered too far away.”
    Devliik raised his arm and dropped it down.
    The dwarves spurred their mounts forward at a trot. Two remained back with small crossbows ready. Pilpin could feel his blood charging through his veins. Peering ahead, he saw two small horns peaking around a large oak tree.
    “Don’t let him flank us again,” Devliik said.
    The satyr had evaded them before. Two at a time and sometimes three, they had gone after him on horseback, and they had come so close. But this time, all of them were ready. They maintained their trot. The satyr didn’t move. Pilpin could see his brown eyes shifting from side to side.
    Run for it, you little horned fiend! Run for it!
    They closed in. Thirty yards. Twenty yards.
    The satyr bolted up the back. The dwarves dug their heels into their mounts and charged after him.
    “East ten!” one dwarf