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.The beast could be seennow, twenty or thirty meters from the shore, wading slowly in the shallowwater.It looked immense, perhaps two-and-a-half meters tall, its proportionsresembling those of an overgrown gorilla except that it was longer legged.Butits hide, wet and moonlit, looked like chain mail.It stopped for a moment where the waves washed onto the beach, turned brieflyto look over its shoulder at the moon, then scanned the dune as if it couldsee them.An overanxious bowman loosed an arrow, and a hail of others hissedafter it to fall from the beast's hide onto the sand.For just an instant itstood, shielding its face with a massive forearm.Then a line of shouting mencharged from the crest, brandishing pikes and swords.A hoarse hoot came from the beast, and something else.A great wave ofsomething.Men staggered, dropped their weapons, and war crieschanged to howls and shrieks of mindless terror.45Some ran, stumbling, rising, back up the dune or along the beach or into thesea.Others simply fell, wrapping their arms around their heads in catatonichelplessness.Nils felt the waves of terror as on the night before, terror that was not hisown but that shook him momentarily.The few arrows that had stuck in the beastdangled as if only the points had penetrated.He picked up a pike and chargedPage 17 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmldown the dune again, the only one now, bulging arms cocked, and at threemeters lunged with all his strength at the towering monster, his hands nearthe butt of the pike, and felt the head strike and break through.Hisfollow-through carried him rolling onto the sand, diagonally and almost intothe legs of the beast, the hilt of his scabbarded sword striking him painfullybelow the ribs.He rolled to his feet, stumbling as the beast rushed at him,bulky but quick, the pike shaft sticking out of its belly.There was only timeto grab the shaft before the beast was on him.The charge threw Nils backward, off his feet, sliding on his back across thesand, his grip like iron on the shaft, his arms and shoulders tensed with alltheir strength.Great clawed fingers clutched short of him, and the hootchanged to a roar of rage and pain as the beast dropped to its knees.When the pike had pierced its entrails it had been like fire bursting into it.But the collision, with the man grabbing the shaft, and the shock as he hadhit the ground, transmitted through two-and-a-half meters of strong ash, didterrible damage.Nils let go and rolled sideways to his feet, drawing his sword as the beastrose again.It wrenched the pike from its own guts, eyes raging, and46charged once more.The sword struck once, into the rib cage, and they crashedto the ground together.One great forearm pressed down on Nils's throat and he grabbed desperately atthe scaly neck, straining to keep its fangs from him.His last thought, fadingbut distinct, was that its blood smelled like anyother.6.Consciousness came gradually.First Nils was aware of his body, then ofvoices.After a bit he focused on the voices, and their Anglic began to takemeaning."So we have a psi who is also deadly," a female voice was saying."But whydoes it have to be a filthy, ignorant barbarian?"Nils opened his eyes.Raadgiver, in his blue velvet robe, sat beside the cot looking down at Nilsand smiling slightly.A young woman, taller than the counselor, stood at thewindow looking out, her black hair in a braid down her slender back."Signe, our patient is awake," Raadgiver said in Danish.He pulled on a velvetcord and somewhere a bell rang.Signe turned.She was not much more than agirl-perhaps no older than Nils-and handsome, but her startling blue eyesbespoke dislike."Nils Savage, this is my daughter and apprentice.I need not introduce you toher, for she has shared the job of watching over you since you were brought4748to the castle earlier this morning.I have been your other nurse."Nils sat up on the edge of the cot thoughtfully.He wore only his breeches;his other things lay on a nearby bench."I don't seem to be injured, onlyweak," he said."The troll must have died almost as soon as I lostconsciousness.""Troll!" said Signe, turning to her father without trying to hide her scorn ofsuch superstition."Do you believe it was a troll, Nils?"asked Raadgiver."Not in the sense of the fairy tales,"he answered."But it's useful to have a name to call it.It's not an animalfrom this part of the world;if it was, we'd know about it, and not by grandfathers' tales but by its deedsand attributes.Page 18 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Brave men who saw it and what it had done weren't terrified by the sight.They believed they could kill it.But when it howled, they were filled withterror, and their minds were like eyes that had looked at the sun.And itwasn't the howl that did it, really, at least not by itself.If Imade the same sound, no one would panic."Nils looked calmly up from his seat on the cot."And I could see through itseyes, and knew it was coming before it was seen or heard.""Why didn't you panic?" Raadgiver asked."You were the only one who didn't,you know.Did you feel no fear?""I felt the fear all right," Nils replied."But it wasn't my own.I think thatsomehow it was from the others as well as from the troll.It was like a wavewashing over me without wetting me
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