“I hope you have another idea now, brother,” growled the younger man. “All we did was seal them into a nice, cozy cave for the winter. They have all the food and drink in there that they need, aye, and firewood too, and what do we have out here? Nothing, that’s what! We’ve got only enough food for a week, while they feast in there! We’re sleeping in a cold wagon and they have warm fires and blankets and featherbeds! We haven’t even got a horse to pull us out of here, because you said we could take theirs instead, and told us to beat it to exhaustion to get here! You swore that we’d have them out of a ruin in no time. And what do we find? A fortress! And if that isn’t bad enough, you swore the bitch was without allies now that her protector was dead, and we find out there’s plenty of mages in that stone vault!” His features were contorted with anger. “Just as you were oh so confident you could steal the old one’s treasure all those years ago, and talked me into coming along. And then instead of sticking to that plan, you saw the girl and had to have her power too! And look where all that got you!”

“And this is why you are an idiot berserker, and not a mage, and never will be, kleine Dieter,” the man that Giselle had known as “Johann” sneered. “You get one idea in your head, and that’s all there is room for.”

“Well, it’s a damn good thing for you that the idea I got in my head years ago was to haul your broken carcass away from that bitch and her bitch mother, and take you to our mother!” Dieter shouted, standing up and clenching his fists, spittle flying from his lips. “And it’s a damn good thing for you that I still serve as your legs, you crippled eunuch!”

“Sit down, Dieter!” the old man thundered. “Or by all the dark gods I will make you his double!” With a curse, Dieter spat in his brother’s direction and sat back down, wearing a snarl.

“Obviously they were better prepared than we thought,” said “Johann,” as if Dieter’s outburst had never happened. “That’s no matter. I always have more than one plan. We have the power we got from sacrificing those filthy gypsies. That’s enough to build a frost giant. Or between us, Father and I can summon the Breath of the Ice Wurm. Or both.”

“Both,” said the old woman, her eyes bright with emotions that Giselle could not read. Hate? Greed? Both? “Better be safe. But we need to have that girl and whatever allies she’s got in there out alive, or we’ll never get their power.”