to trap him, though, which Eric realized only too late. With a rolling Sylvester had played him.

He vowed then and there to

at made his muscles stand rigid, the giant lifted the entire frozen
never let that happen again.
ad in one solid sheet—solid, that is, except for the two holes where Laughing at the bravado
had been burning in the water. Eric’s eyes widened in awe as the in Eric’s words, the giant
ep forward and slammed the inches-thick sheet of ice down across dragged him from the
gain as the ice shattered, crushing him beneath its freezing weight. chamber into the dark tunnel
o move, he lay still at last. Jared had beaten him. beyond. As the light from
the dwindling magnesium
flares dimmed and the giant’s
eyes and hair began to glow
brighter in response, Eric spat
up a mouthful of something
that looked an awful lot like
blood and passed out.
* * *
Much to his own surprise,
Eric woke several hours later
lying on his back in a small,
frigid chamber of gray stone.
The chamber was hewn from
the mountain, and it bore no
decorations or furniture. A
heavily barred window dominated
the wall behind Eric’s head, giving
him a view up through a long,
smooth tunnel that broke through
the mountain’s skin a considerable
distance away. Two fat black ravens
had squeezed through the bars and
were sitting on the window ledge,
looking at him.
“Hold your horses,” Eric croaked.
“I’m not dead yet.”
His throat hurt, his jaw throbbed,
and iron bands of pain squeezed his
ribs, but still he smiled. At least he
was alive. After a false start or two,
he managed to hoist himself up into
a sitting position. His joints protested
like rusty gate hinges and his head swam,
but the longer he remained upright, the
to celebrate his victory. He stomped over to Eric, kicking more his pain subsided. A thick wooden
the way. He rolled Eric onto his back with one frigid foot door with a barred window in it stood
ront of his jacket to look at him face to face. The giant’s before him, permitting yellow light from
cold, but it had an undertone of rotting meat that made an electric bulb outside. It flowed through
beaten foe, peeling blue lips back from hideous teeth. In the door’s window and from beneath its
xposed magnesium flares, however, Jared had a better look