The battle, joined

Previously: Following a band of odd adventurers into the wilderness, Esmiralda, a freelance historian down to her last few coins, stumbles upon a gut-churning discovery: humans are being sold to a pair of giants and sent to a horrible fate. Just as shocking, Mira discovers that an acquaintance—fellow Falcuhn Connell Malak—has knowledge of this evil and has willingly led her and her companions into the trap...

Thunder rumbled overhead and lightning split the sky. Above the cacophony of the coming storm, I heard Seymuhr's voice raised in his bizarre battle song. A mace in each hand, he approached the laughing giants.

The wounded man was already dead, his skull crushed by a gigantic hand. Gray slime leaked between the giant’s fingers from which his torso twitched like a dangling puppet. The monster tossed the ruined body aside and swiped a bloody fist at Seymuhr, who stopped short, dodged, then lunged at the towering form. Voice raised in song, he brought the two maces together on either side of the Hustyn's knee. I saw flesh rupture and heard a sickening crunch followed by an inhuman howl of pain. Wild eyed and enraged, the giant toppled as Seymurh leapt aside. The thing struggled momentarily, clutching at its ruined leg, before Seymuhr knocked it completely flat with two more terrible blows. He lifted his head and roared at the heavens, which began to spit rain. His maces dripped with gore.

The other giant swung wildly at the ground and growled with frustration. It took me a moment to realize Broo-Fang Tane had engaged it and had worked it into a state of frenzied fury. Where Seymuhr had been all brute strength and thunder, Tane was as lithe and graceful as a feather on the wind. He slipped out of the giant's grasp and dodged blows that would have knocked him senseless. Like a cat, he stayed beyond the Hustyn's reach—but only just beyond it.

The thing screeched again in rage and slammed its knotted club into the soft earth hard enough to lodge it there. Tane had leapt back in a somersault and landed deftly on his feet. The wind was churning the trees around us and throwing rain that smacked my skin like little stones. Seymuhr lowered his shoulder and jumped at the back of the giant's legs, buckling his knees and sending him tottering backward. It struggled to rise but he was on it in a heartbeat. He swung both maces as one and I heard the sound of bones shattering above the furious wind and rumbling sky.

"Go!" Merrick had appeared and with a wary glance over his shoulder, pointed in my direction. "Our work is done here! We must flee!"

Behind him I saw a mass of clouds darker even than the night around us. It flickered with energy and crashed with violence—some kind of freakish storm that had formed and shook the trees as if they were blades of grass. He ran toward me, and past. Seymurh was right behind him, jogging and breathing heavily. I saw Tane's sleek form ahead of us. Of Malak there was no sign.

I turned away from the dead giants and fled from the coming storm.