Noble Sacrifice by Unknown Page A

enveloped them, and Kal began to think they might have lost their quarry, but as the moon began to rise he caught sight of a stooped and fast-moving figure up ahead. From such a distance he couldn't make out any detail, but from the loping gait it could only be one thing.
    "Goblin." Kal pointed at their quarry as it fled toward a narrow ravine several hundred yards ahead. "If we're quick we can catch him before he loses us in the mountains."
    He spurred his steed once more, urging it up the scree toward the slim opening. Their horses slipped and stumbled up the slope, and by the time they reached the summit the diminutive figure had disappeared from view, but Kal was not about to be beaten. He leapt down from his mare, unsheathed his bow from the saddle, and moved forward.
    "Wait!" barked Tiberion, but Kal was in no mood to be ordered around by his stern companion. His target was close--he could smell it. The foul thing had most likely set villages aflame and slaughtered innocents, and Kal was determined he would not escape the justice of the Steel Falcons.
    "A Steel Falcon lives by his ideals--and dies by them."
    He ran into the ravine, twisting his body to slip through the narrow entrance. Once inside, the sheer wall of rock created a narrow passage, and he followed on the goblin's trail. Behind he could hear Tiberion dogging his path, sword ringing from its scabbard and armor eerily quiet as he moved with a grace that belied his bulk.
    Kal followed the twisting passage, surefooted on the treacherous rock. He nocked an arrow as he moved, his eyes straining through the darkness for any sign of the goblin.
    Suddenly, the passage opened out, and he ran into a wide gully, the cliff face reaching up to a lip twenty yards above. Several paths led away from the rock, and Kal cursed his ill luck, for there was little detritus on the ground that would give him a clue as to where his quarry had fled.
    Tiberion entered the clearing behind him, and as Kal turned he saw the Hellknight was clearly displeased.
    "Idiot!" snapped Tiberion. "Are you trying to get us killed?"
    "I'm trying to track our quarry. We have orders--"
    "Those orders are to observe and report, not to hunt down every solitary scout we come across."
    Kal squared up to the Hellknight, despite the latter's imposing frame. "And what? We're supposed to just let him run?"
    "Yes," Tiberion rumbled. "Because now you've most likely led us straight into a--"
    Tiberion didn't finish, but instead pushed Kal hard in the chest. The young scout fell back, fury rising at the Hellknight's assault, just as a black-shafted arrow streaked in front of his face and clattered against the rocky ground.
    Kal landed hard on his backside, instinctively bringing his bow up to aim at where the arrow had come from, but there was no sign of the archer.
    "Move!" yelled Tiberion, grabbing Kal by the epaulet of his jacket and hauling him to his feet.
    As they ran toward the nearest passage from the gully, a deluge of arrows began to fall, whipping past them and clanking against the rock face. One of the deadly shafts hit Tiberion's shoulder, but the pauldron of that fearsome armor turned its flight.
    They sprinted out of the gully, hearing the screeching curses of goblin attackers in their wake. It was dark now, difficult to see in the tight corridor of rock, and Kal concentrated on staying close to Tiberion, whose dark cloak gave him the appearance of a shadowy specter in the night.
    The passage twisted left and right, wending its way through the mountain until it let out mercifully into another gully. Tiberion ducked--and it was the only warning Kal got as they were suddenly ambushed by a mob of dark attackers.
    A wickedly hooked axe swept through where Tiberion's head had been a second before. The Hellknight spun on his heel, sweeping his greatsword around and hacking into his assailant's abdomen. Kal barely had time to register the howl of pain and the stream of flying gore before one of the