“Now!” she screamed, her face contorted.

With a crack, three wooden contraptions fired from behind Dog, and three bolases tangled themselves around his legs. A look of horror passed over the Guardian’s face as he tried to move and found that he couldn’t.

Yelping, he lost his balance and crashed to the ground.

Chapter

Forty-Eight

A triumphant roar sounded from the goblins and Morgren’s voice rose above them. “The day will be ours! The Hunting Lodge will be ours!” The mage flung a spell at Dog and it sizzled against the Guardian’s side, leaving a blackened mark. Dog’s howl was heartrending.

“No!” Twelve cried. That wasn’t right; Dog wasn’t supposed to feel pain.

“Come on,” Five yelled over his shoulder at them. “We have to get those chains off him.”

The four huntlings raced toward the fallen Guardian, but the closer they got, the tighter the press of Hunters. The goblins had fully surrounded them and were inching closer, sensing their advantage. Twelve stared around in alarm—the Hunters were in disarray. Half of them were still trying to force their way to the armory while the other half were fighting their way toward Dog.

“The armory!” Hoarfrost’s voice boomed, seeing what was happening. “Hunters, stay with me!”

It was impossible, Twelve realized with horror. They would never make it. Under Victory’s direction, rows of heavily armed goblins had re-formed in front of the weapons store. There were too many of them. Morgren stood there too, green light pooled in his cupped hands, his face monstrous.

Twelve watched the mage, foreboding prickling through her. His lips never stopped moving and the magic in his hands was responding, feeding out of his fingers in shimmering threads. It arced up and over the heads of the embattled Hunters, weaving itself together until a shining net hung ominously over them. It writhed, crackling faintly and shedding a sinister light onto the fight below. The Hunters were now surrounded on all sides and menaced from above.

“STOP!” The mage’s triumphant voice was magnified to a hundred times its normal volume. “OR I WILL KILL EVERY ONE OF YOU.” His finger pointed at the shimmering net and his eyes gleamed fanatically.

An uncanny silence fell over the fighting groups, weapons stilled and breaths held. Everyone’s gaze turned upward. The few goblins caught in the crowd of Hunters desperately tried to force their way out from beneath the magic net, their faces terror-filled.

Hoarfrost’s sharp gaze took this in. “It ain’t just my Hunters you threaten with this abomination, you dundering dolt!” he called.

“You think I won’t sacrifice my own brethren in order to take this lodge?” Morgren sneered.

As if to make his point, one edge of the net dipped, brushing the arm of a goblin under it. He fell to the ground, screaming, the smell of burnt flesh filling the training ground.