"Trolls!" exclaimed Celedhan. "How many?"

"I do not know," replied the soldier. "Galin, my companion, was taken by several of them. They seemed to be everywhere."

"The accursed stone calls to them," said Belloc. "It is as I feared. It was left here on purpose, knowing full well we could not but claim it, to our undoing." He pulled the thing out of his pocket and uncovered it, and it shone with a pale, sickly blue light. Many of those nearby were struck dumb and couldn't look away from it. Belloc quickly rewrapped the thing and stuffed it back into his pocket.

"We must fly ahead of those vermin," said Celedhan, "lest we be caught here, far from aid or retreat." They quickly gathered speed, thundering off down the road. But it was not long before the advance scouts came riding back towards them, crying, "We are cut off! They are coming! They are many!"

Wasting no time, Celedhan and Damond began shouting orders, dividing the company in half to meet the enemy on two fronts. Working feverishly, they erected barriers of dead wood and brush adjacent to two ridges a hundred feet apart that the road had cut through. In this way they hoped to prevent the enemy from outflanking them. Damond and Amrhost were sent to direct the archers from higher ground above the barriers.




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