burn their seige engines."
Stanick nodded, slowly. "Yes, of course. This first assault was just a feint. Their crack troops would not have been so easily panicked or outwitted. And their numbers will be considerably greater. We were to have held off the enemy for a few weeks at the most in any event. I will send the rider."
The single rider entered the narrow pass where the rock-gnomes had been ambushed earlier. He was about to look up at the sun to judge the time, when suddenly he felt as though he had been punched in the chest. He looked down to see an arrow protruding there. The agony was sudden and overwhelming! In panicked desperation, he clutched uselessly at the dart. He was having trouble catching his breath . . . feeling light-headed . . . giddy . . . from shock, from agonizing pain, from the blood that was gushing directly from his heart . . .
Without knowing how he got there, he found himself laying on his back on the ground, staring at the sun.
"Ha!" yelled the rock-gnome, who had been hiding behind a boulder. "Not so fast now, eh, horse-boy. Pawh!" The creature spat as it walked up to the mortally wounded soldier, and leisurely drew out its knife, feeling the edge with its thumb. As the soldier writhed on the ground, trying to defend himself, the gnome leaned its weight on his chest, flashed its knife before the soldier's terrified eyes, and liesurely cut his throat. Even then, the soldier tried thrashing about to dislodge his killer, but the gnome leaned close, clamped its mouth over the open wound, and began sucking greedily on the gouts of blood that pumped from the soldier's severed severed jugulars. When the soldier became to weak to struggle, the creature began to drag his body, helpless but still very much alive, to its hiding-place.