The light of the angel sword flashed. Prim got to her feet and looked to the Chasmian. Burr had got close enough to have a go at its ankles. Any part of the creature above its shins was out of his reach. The warrior was able to close in and land a few strikes. Even that sword could do little more than cleave off shards of the adamant boulders that served the Chasmian as feet. Preoccupied as he was with avoiding kicks and stomps that the Chasmian aimed his way, Burr was blind to what came from above: a long downward sweep of the arm that caught him full along the side of his body and launched him into the air. Somewhere in midflight the sword fell from his nerveless hand and sank blade-first into the frozen earth, casting the plain into darkness. Burr tumbled and rolled for some distance when he came down again. Some of those movements recalled those of a living soul. But when he stopped, he stopped for good.

“Nothing could have survived that,” Corvus said. “Burr did his job! Now do yours and get after the others!”

The Chasmian had turned his head to look curiously toward Prim. She put her back to the bridge and began running. The giant took a step toward her, perhaps thinking to bar the way, but then Corvus was in its face, distracting it for long enough that Prim was able to dodge behind an abandoned ore wagon that was larger than some people’s houses. From there she identified another hiding place a short distance away, in the form of a mound of coal beside a forge, and from there another and another until she had put a good distance between herself and the Chasmian without ever having to spend too much time in the open.

She reached the shadow of the stone anvil. Risking a look behind her, she saw that the danger was past. The Chasmian had lost interest in her. It stood with its back to her now, facing north toward the bridge.

Curiosity now overtook her good sense. She trotted up a set of rude stair steps that led to the anvil’s flat top. There she had a look round. First she looked south, thinking only to glance at the rest of the party and make a note of where they were. Which she did; but then, gazing a little farther down the road, where it led deeper beneath the overhang, she spied something that demanded a longer look.