Chapter 39: Ambush

Alcar looked up to see a huge wolf-like creature with a grinning armored goblin on its back. Alongside the rider were two further wolves – or rather wargs, Alcar rapidly realized – without riders. All three, and the goblin, were charging towards the wagon, their red-glowing eyes focused on Alcar and Kora.

Wargs were known to be cunning and deadly creatures. According to some, they were even able to communicate on a basic level. Travellers everywhere feared them. And when allied with goblins, Alcar knew, they were particularly dangerous.

“Fuck!” Kora had briefly placed down her sword, but she now dropped the food that she was holding and grabbed it up again. She then leaped up onto the back of the wagon, bearing it two handed, ready to face their attackers. Alcar grabbed hold of Brutus around the middle and then lugged the hound up onto the wagon too, then scrambled up after him. “Our food must have attracted them,” called out Kora. “We were idiots to stop to eat. And they’ve hit us at the worst possible moment.”

Alcar only grunted in response, and as he got to his feet on top of the wagon, he picked up his staff, ready to defend himself until the last. Which surely wouldn’t be far away.

The three wargs now slowed their attack and began to surround the wagon, one coming from the middle and the others beginning to circle on either side. Each warg was smaller than a pony but a lot larger than any dog that Alcar had ever seen. Brutus, so far, was staying at his side, snarling but fearful.

Realizing their desperate need for support, Alcar glanced towards the cliffs. He could make out Leppie and Olynka, who had both stopped behind a boulder on their way back, no doubt having seen the danger. There was no sign of Etienne at all. Alcar now realized that it was entirely possible that all of his friends had left their weapons on the wagon – if so, they would be unable to provide any help.

It was down to him and Kora to face the threat.

After their brief pause to surround the defenders, the goblin rider now lunged forward. Immediately, Kora found herself engaged in ferocious combat with it, dodging the snapping jaws of the warg while trying to fend off axe bows from the goblin, as the pair of attackers came alongside the wagon. The goblin slashed out with its hand axe again and again, but the young woman from the farm was holding her own so far, blocking the axe-blows, stepping back from the snarling and snapping warg, and then stepping forward to swing her sword in a series of aggressive ripostes.

Alcar turned to face one of the other wargs just as it lurched forward towards the back of the wagon, biting out at his leg. He managed to leap directly up to get out of the way, raising his staff above his head with the intention of bashing the creature in retaliation. But he had reckoned without his robes. The fangs of the great wolflike beast fastened on the hem of the fabric where Alcar’s lower leg had been a moment before, and then as it pulled back, it wrenched the young sorcerer off his feet in the process.

He slammed down onto his back, dropping his staff to one side, and began to be pulled off the edge of the wagon.

“Arghh!“

Brutus now moved forward, biting at the hood of his master’s robes, and tugging. For a moment both canines snarled and yanked, with Alcar caught in the middle of their tug of war. But the suddenly, unexpectedly, the warg let go and began to howl in distress. It turned and began to move away from the wagon, limping as it went.

As Alcar pulled himself up to a sitting position and grabbed up his staff again, Etienne vaulted onto the back of the wagon beside him, a dagger dripping blood clutched in the halfling’s hand. “That’s one of the bastards hamstrung,” growled Etienne, raising the weapon. “But look out!”

Alcar was standing up again now, and he whirled around just as Kora ducked another blow and then launched herself at the goblin. She grabbed the little beast around the neck and pulled him from his saddle, with the warg it had been riding looking momentarily caught in two minds. Alcar took the opportunity to strike down hard with the base of his staff, thumping the creature’s foul and ferocious muzzle onto the wooden edge of the wagon, and Etienne followed up with a dagger blow that pinned the monster’s snout to the wood. Kora, meanwhile, was struggling with the goblin down below.

Ahead, the third warg had brought down one of the pair of ponies, and as it advanced towards the second with blood dripping from its jaws, Olynka and Leppie raced forward. Alcar felt elated to see them, but he couldn’t help but notice that Olynka was unarmed, and Leppie had only a knife in her hand. Was this bravery, or recklessness?

Alcar leaped forward to the driver’s seat at the front of the wagon and raised his staff once again, this time landing a powerful crunching blow on the back of the attacking warg’s neck just as it was about to pounce towards Olynka. The creature came to a halt and then staggered sideways, apparently stunned. Just then, the remaining pony decided to bolt. This caused the wagon to jerk into motion, and flung Alcar backwards into the main body of the vehicle.

As he clambered to his feet once again, he saw the front corner of the wagon thump against the stunned warg, which then fell at Leppie’s feet. She thrust downwards with her knife into the creature’s throat, and it twitched on the ground at her feet, its threat neutralized.

“We need to stop, and fast!” cried Alcar, rising and clutching onto the side of the chaotically rocking wagon. “Etienne – can you get that pony under control?”

The wagon was creaking alarmingly and bouncing over the rough ground as it ran parallel to the cliff, with only himself, Brutus and Etienne aboard.

They were swiftly beginning to leave their friends behind, too. As Alcar glanced back, he saw Leppie begin to run after them, still with a knife in her hand, but then stop and move towards Kora, who was still struggling with the downed goblin.

And then, looking back, Alcar saw something that made his blood run cold. “More of them,” he called, pointing back towards the road.

And sure enough – while there were no more wargs in sight (the hamstrung one had now staggered off and collapsed) – several more goblins were approaching from the road, some with short swords and others with bows in their hands. The fiendish humanoids were surrounding Kora and Olynka as the wagon rapidly bounced away from the scene.